Don't get a shock, but I'm blogging again!!!

I know... it's a little strange, two days in a row that I have blogged??? I think I must be coming down with something!! LOL

I've made a couple of LO's today, one for the Font Challenge and the other for the Journaling challenge, both held at Digiridoo Scraps. The challenges are a great idea to kick start an idea for a LO. I haven't felt much mojo the past few months, but these two LO's I did today have really made me feel good!

The first one is for Sarah's November Font Challenge. The font is Gim by Typo5. All supplies for the LO are from Lina's (LDrag Designs) gorgeous Butterfly's Whisper kit, available here.

This LO is for Katie's November Journaling Challenge. I have used the lovely Tendency kit by Pixel Pisces Designs, available here. The photo action is Lomo by Coffee Shop.

I have to share the CoffeeShop link with you! If you're a Photoshop Elements user like myself, you'll know how hard it is to get good, free actions! Well, this site is like Christmas for us!!! The actions Rita has made available are just amazing!! So have a look and enjoy!

Such a bad, bad, blogger :(

Mmmmmm, just came to post about the August Cyber Crop at Digiridoo Scraps and see that the last post I made was for the July Cybercrop!  

Lots has been happening - school holidays, sick kids, sick me, working on the garden, getting organised to become a Stampin' Up demonstrator.........

I'm going to be swapping my blog to a website in the next month or so, it's all getting exciting!

Back after the weekend with my digi LO's (not too many as my mojo up and left again :( ) and my latest hybrid and off the page projects!

Hope everyone is well in Digiland :)

Free Photo Editing Class...

Yes, that's right! Jessica Sprague is running a free Photo Editing class! Registration opens on the 22nd of July and having done many of Jessica's classes, I can highly recommend them.  Here is some info, and check out Jessica's website for all the details.

On to other news.  Last night, we had family portraits done - first since 2006!  I pick them up on the 24th, I can't wait! 

It has been a cold, miserable week in Melbourne, but nice to see some rain.  The windchill factor on the other hand was not so nice - so bitter and makes your eyes water.  So the scarves, beanies and gloves are out, and I have to allow an extra 10 minutes for the school pick up and drop off to bundle everyone up! But check out this awesome sunrise yesterday...

And some BIG NEWS coming from Color with Caryn....stay tuned!!!!!!!

I'll be back later with some LOs :)

Beautiful Ben

Ben is seriously a nice boy. He is so kind, giving up his toys for others (sometimes reluctantly, especially if it's a Ben 10 thing LOL), sharing his lollies, giving hugs and kisses spontaneously, and loves to spread good news to everyone else, so they get to share in the joy. He's funny, clever, and has the most contagious laugh, it always makes me smile to hear it. That's not to say he doesn't have his moments, but on the whole, he's pretty awesome! I got this photo of him at his cousin's birthday in Geelong at the start of April, and it has captured his kind beautiful face perfectly, so of course I scrapped it!

The kit I have used is a brand new release called "It's a Boy Thing" by Color with Caryn. Check out Caryn's blog here, and this link will take you to her store at Enchanted Studio Scraps.

Here's my beautiful Ben...

Christopher, my other angel, is being extremely "challenging" at the moment! I could call it something else but I try not to swear LOL. Last night he threw the biggest wobbly ever, which resulted in him going to bed at 6.15pm, with him then crying for the next hour - things like "Nobody likes me", "I need to get out of here", "Mummy, I need you" and my personal favourite "My heart is breaking" (where he got that from I'd love to know LOL). I'm not sure what is going on with him, is it a almost 6 thing? A prep thing? Just a general it's time to see what I can get away with? All I can do is be consistant, patient (heaven help me, it's not my best virtue LOL) and loving, so he knows that even when I'm cross I still love him, but I won't put up with behaviour that is not OK. I'm hoping it passes pretty quickly...

Random photos

Here are a few photos (unedited!) from over the holidays...
Love this one, came into the lounge from the kitchen to see this, ran and got the camera to catch it before they moved:

Easter egg hunt:

At the zoo:

Now to get scrapping LOL

It's getting closer.....

The site is progressing in leaps and bounds, many exciting things happening and it's great to be part of it all!
School holidays are over and things are getting back to normal. I love my husband so much, but when he's home on holidays all routine goes out the window!! So getting on top of everything again this week.
I'm off to swimming lessons with Ben and Rachel this morning, I'll be back later to post a few random pics from over the holidays. We didn't go away but had a few outings and some great time at home all lying on beanbags watching DVDs. Best cuddles happen then, especially from Rachel, she's a little smoocher :-). Catch you soon!

Cheeky face...

I'd been hanging the washing out earlier in the week, and when I came in I found Rachel playing with the playdough table. Now technically, she's not meant to play with it unless I'm here because she still has a tendency to eat the playdough. So I caught her in the act:

When she heard the click of the camera, she turned around with the cheekiest look on her face! I can see a LO coming called "Who, me?"

Seriously, how cute is she?! Now that's the look she gives her brothers and Daddy, melting their hearts in an instant and all is forgiven! She has the boys in this house all sorted out... funny, doesn't work as well on me, but I must admit I have to harden my heart a little not to let it work LOL!!!

MIA, but trying to join the human race again...

Hello readers, if any of you are left! I've been missing in action for a month now (wow, has it been that long?). I miscarried our baby at 10 weeks and 2 days, requiring a curette, and then got an infection which I am still fighting now. It's been a devasting time in every way and I'm trying to join the human race again while letting myself grieve.
I haven't made much in the way of hybrid projects, done any LO's either digital or paper, haven't blogged or been reading my favourite blogs. I've been doing the daily routine, which has been good as I have to get out of bed and feed the kids, do the school/kinder runs, the washing, cooking etc. But I haven't been with it and I've been trying to pretend I'm OK when I'm not. I've been seeing a psychologist since late last year who has been helping me overcome depression, and when I saw him last week (the first session since all this happened) he made me realise that's it OK to not be OK and that this will take some time to deal with. So if I'm having a crappy day, I can admit it now without putting on my smiley face and pretending that everything is fine.
I had also applied for Uni this year to do a Bachelor of Teaching off campus through Deakin. I rang the course co-ordinator last year and told her what I had in the way of previous education and she said I was a good candidate for the course. However, I didn't get an offer and when I rang the Uni I found out that they don't actually offer a psychology stream there (which was one of my majors). Had I known this, I would have applied to other courses instead of putting all my eggs in one basket. So that's on hold for now while I research some more as to what I can do next year. When I didn't get in, I was disappointed, but as I was pregnant I thought maybe it was the universe's way of telling me to not put too much on my plate.
And my home away from home, my beloved Snap and Scrap, which gave me such joy last year when I was diagnosed with depression is closing at the end of this month. It's just not working out and Gillian (God bless her cotton socks for the amazing job she has done keeping it afloat for as long as it has) just can't put any more into it and has had to make the hard decision to close the site down.
So now all my plans and paths for this year are gone - no baby, no uni, no hybrid CT, so I'm feeling lost and uncertain. Which if I wasn't such a control freak and perfectionist to boot would probably be easier to deal with.
So I'm taking a day at a time and doing what I can and trusting that there is a lesson to be learnt in all this. Thank you for your patience and thank you to all my friends and family who have supported my family and I through this, even when I didn't talk to or see anyone for a week. I am grateful for the love.

Lots to catch up on!

Oh my goodness, I don't know where the time is going at the moment! It seems there are not enough hours in the day! I'm looking forward to school going back so we can get back into routine; at the moment everything is all over the place!

ADSR 4 has been fabulous - I was really stretched by challenge 4 but got there in the end and I'm actually really happy how it turned out. We had to do an artsy/altered LO, not my usual style at all. But this is what I came up with and all credits can be found at our ADSR blog The Aussie Gumnuts.

Snap and Scrap is back up and running - Gillian has been working round the clock to get everything right again! So glad to have the site back, I really did miss it! Such a lovely community of people and Gillian is a superwoman for all she's done. On ya Gillian!!! I have made a Star Album for a hybrid project this month using the Jan collab kit Oh Baby. Here is a sneak peak and you can view the tutorial on how to make it here.

One of my favourite designers is a lovely lady named Sara of Sweet Blossom Designs. I've applied to be on her creative team, so fingers crossed! Applications close on the 26th.

It's late now and I know had other things to tell you, but they'll have to wait! Catch you soon :-)

Hello, I'm back!

Wow, 6 days into the New Year already! Wishing everyone a fabulous 2009 and may all your paths lead to happiness :-)
Lot's happening since my last post - New Year's Eve was pretty quiet, we stayed home and had a couple of drinks and watched the fireworks on TV. There was plenty of fireworks in Melton too, but it seems no one could wait until midnight, because they were going off left, right and centre from about 10pm lol!
Christopher has been at Mathoura for a holiday with his Grandma and Pa (Labe's mum and stepdad). They went fishing and swimming and generally had a great time. He was away for three nights and wanted a cake and a sign to welcome him home! He didn't get one though. He and Ben missed each other, but within a nansecond of seeing each other they were back to normal - funny little kids!
We went to Bendigo yesterday to pick him up as that was the halfway point. I wish I'd thought to bring the camera - saw the most amazing church on the main road. Just beautiful, I'II have to ask Bree what it's called.
Also, this week is the start of the AMAZING DIGI SCRAPPING RACE SEASON 4!!!
The first challenge has been posted, see it at Hummie's World.
The challenge was to 'tear' a photo. I've never done that before digitally, so I was inspired to do two LOs. The first is the one I'm entering, made with Brianna Cox's Pretty Grungy kit, with the butterfly trail from Flutter By Me. The lyrics are from Guns and Roses - ah, the 80's, I miss them!!!

This one is made with Bree's Flutter By Me kit. And the torn templates in both LO's are from Hummie - check out the website for some great video tutorials on how to use them.

Can't wait to see what Sharon comes up with!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and if you have to travel anywhere this holiday season, please stay safe!
Christmas was FABULOUS!!! Ben woke up at about 6.15am, so we woke everyone else up to see if Santa had been. First we checked the reindeer food - the water was all gone and so was most of the food. Then we checked the milk and cookies- all gone except for a few crumbs. And then we checked the tree and there were lots of presents!!! The boys went into a present frenzy - Ben's favorite present was a Starwars Lightsabre, while Christopher's was Fourarms from Ben10. Rachel's favorite was a vacuum cleaner - I know that sounds like a sexist toy - but she is obsessed when I vacuum, she walks along behind me pushing the hose to 'help' me! And she loves her little one - it lights up and spins glitter! Wish mine did that LOL!!!!
Laban and my favourite toy is the Wii - it is fantastic! I'm already a MarioKart champion, Laban is the resident tennis champ and Christopher bowls like you wouldn't believe! Ben just likes playing and Rachel is not at all fussed yet. The WiiFit is awesome too - I have sore muscles from 30 mins of different excercises! It graphs your progress and time spent training unlocks more excercises. Very clever technology!!!
We stayed home all day - Laban's mum and sister came out in the morning, my mum came for lunch and it was relaxed and peaceful and the kids got to play with their toys all day. It was fantastic!
Yesterday, we did pretty much the same - stayed home and relaxed and played with the Wii. Today we're off to Ballarat to see Laban's dad. Meant to be a warm one, so we'll go early to beat the heat.
On another note - the December Cybercrop has had to be postponed until next week due to technical difficulties at the site. If you've been over there, you'll see that the site look OK, but everything is locked out while the information is swapped to a new server. As we're not sure how long it will take, the easiest thig is to postpone until next weekend. So sorry about the disappointment, but stay tuned for next week! Bye for now :-)

Ah, Christmas Eve.....

The excitement in our house has reached fever pitch! We made shortbread yesterday for Santa and have the reindeer food ready to put out tonight. Ben is seriously wriggling with excitement and he has the whole rest of the day to get through yet LOL!!!
A couple of things to note - ***SNAP AND SCRAP IS DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE*** - not sure for how long but I'II keep you posted.
And then:

Due to the holidays, we're running Crop Bingo and the Progressive Blog Challenge, and as an extra bonus, it'll be running until New Years Eve to give you some extra time! So check back here on Friday the 26th for my part of the Progressive Blog Challenge!
I'm not sure that I'll be back here again today or tomorrow, so in case I'm not - Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. May there be many magical moments and lots of love and laughter shared with family and friends! Take care and be safe xoxoxo

The silly season has struck!

Wow, what a busy few days it's been! On Saturday we had a picnic at Brimbank Park with my husband's family. His mother, her four kids and her six grandkids, plus the partners - quite a crowd! Here's a photo of the group (I'm not in it, I was taking the photo!)
Saturday night we had a few of our neighbours over for christmas drinks. I left them to it at about 10.30pm and went to bed! From what Laban can remember, they had a good night LOL!
On Sunday morning, we went to Geelong to Louise's parents place for morning tea. Louise is my best friend, a one in a million person who I'm lucky to have in my life. Her parents are the most amazing people; 6 kids of their own, another they have adopted and numerous foster children! Lou's eldest sister was there with her hubby - their second baby is due at the end of feb. Their first child was there but slept through our entire visit!
On Sunday night, we had our dear friends The Stones over for tea and a drive around to look at the Christmas lights once it got dark. The lights weren't as good as in previous years, but we found some nice houses to look at.
The kids are so excited - only 3 sleeps till Santa comes! Tomorrow we are going to make some shortbread for the grandparents and Santa. Nighty night for now :-)

6 sleeps till christmas!!!

What I love most about Christmas these days is the excitement of my kids! It's so contagious and wonderful and really makes christmas magical again. Christopher and Ben had a funny conversation the other day about Santa; we saw Santa at the shops and Ben was all excited when Christopher says "That's not the real Santa". I was about to intervene when Christopher says with all the arrogance of a 5 year old "That's not the real Santa because the real Santa came to my kinder and now he's getting ready to bring us presents. He's too busy to be at the shops as well." So real Santa has time to visit Christopher at kinder, but no one else! Love it!
My other exciting news is that Sharon and I registered today to join the AMAZING DIGI SCRAPPING RACE season 4! Our team name is "The Aussie Gumnuts" and you can see our blog here (it's a work in progress, so be kind!) If you don't know about ADSR4 - check out the ADSR4 forum at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking. I'm so excited to be part of it! It starts on the 4th of January and you have until the 26th of December to register. Sounds like a blast!

I made a blinkie!

I googled 'how to make a blinkie using Photoshop Elements 6.0' and found this easy tutorial on ScrapWhat.
So I had a play around and came up with the following. This is for my hubby, who now has a forum for his World of Warcraft Guild called We Are Furions. I made a header for it a couple of weeks ago, and matched the blinkie with it.

Then I made one for my blog using the beautiful Enchanted Forest by Vicki of A Work in Progress and the Add On by Sara of Sweet Blossom Designs.

I'm pretty please with how it turned out. My next challenge is to try my hand at making my own blogwear!

I'm married to the new Assistant Principal at The Grange P-12 College!

Woo Hoo! After about 20 applications and 10 interviews, Laban got an Assisitant Principal position at The Grange P-12 College in Tarneit (near Hoppers Crossing). He had the interview on Monday and came home thinking he wasn't what they wanted and as school finishes on Friday, it is unlikely any more jobs would come up this year. When they called Tuesday, he thought he'd get another knock back, so when they offered him the position, he nearly dropped the phone! We're so proud of you honey!
It makes me think that things do happen for a reason - the school is about 25 mins away from here; if we'd moved it would have been about 40 mins. So perhaps we were meant to stay in Melton!
This morning I've tried to get some pictures of the kids in Santa hats - notice I say tried? This is what I've got so far LOL.


I'll keep trying...

The end of an era and a new beginning...

Ahhhhhh, it's been a busy few days. On Sunday, Mum looked after the kids while Laban and I went and finished our Christmas shopping. We came home and I wrapped it all, so apart from a few little bits and pieces to pick up through the week, we're all prepared! Monday was the last swimming lesson for the year for Ben and for a while for Christopher. I haven't enrolled him to continue next year, we'll see how school and little athletics goes before taking it up again. At 5, he doesn't need too much on his schedule! Ben is enrolled and Rachel is on the waiting list, both for 10.30am on Tuesdays next year.
Monday was also the last playgroup for Christopher - sad in a way as most of the members of our playgroup were our original mother's group when our babies were pretty new! 5 years down the track, most have had at least one more and Narelle is the only one to have a third like me. There's not many coming back next year, so it's sad that we'll inevitably lose touch with some as life moves on. There's a few I know I'II be able to keep in touch with, and a few coming back next year.
But all these endings make way for a new beginning - SCHOOL!!
We've also decided to take our house off the market. There are 8 houses in our court, 3 of which are now for sale! Ours has been up for about 2 months, several inspections in that time, but no offers. The house on the corner was bought by a couple about 18 months ago who gutted it and renovated it all and are now selling to move onto their next project. The other house was bought about 10 months ago by a lady who moved down from Queensland. Her daughter has just been diagnosed with cancer and she needs to sell to get back up there to support her. So it's not a good look to see our lovely court with all these houses for sale and as we're not in a rush to sell, we've decided to take it off the market and stay her for a couple more years. I feel really good about it, it would have been nice to get back to Sunbury, but at the same time, we love our house and we can now plan things for next year as we know where we'll be. And so much less stress not having to keep it tidy all the time with 3 kids!
To finish off my HUGE post today, here is a LO I did of Rachel looking too cute in her fairy wings she got from the Kris Kringle at Playgroup yeasterday. I've used the Enchanted Forest kit by Vicki of A Work in Progress and the add on by Sara of Sweet Blossom Designs. I've also used the tri-frame template by Jaydid Designs.

So today, I'm catching up with some washing and I'm going to pull out the beanbags and watch a couple of DVDs with the kids. Kung Fu Panda, here we come! Have a great day :-)

Twilight - no spoilers I promise!

All I can say is OMG - go see it - AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I LOVED it and am hoping to get the kids looked after so I can see it again on thursday with Yvonne and Gabbie! It was pretty close to the book, but obviously they can't put the whole book in the movie, so they did a good job I thought. And Edward - SWOON!!!!!!!!!!! Just as perfect as in the book, and when he looks at Bella, I so wish I was her LOL!!! Made me melt *sigh*. So in summary, all good, loved it and hope to see it again soon!

Thank you Kevin Rudd!

Just a quick post before I go to bed. I'm typing this on the laptop in the lounge room while Laban is playing WoW in the study thanks to our new wireless router! Also got a new portable hard drive - 1 terabyte of memory to back everything up after our last one was unstable and we thought we'd lost everything (lucky a techie mate was able to get most of it back). Just doing our bit to help the economy - thanks again Mr Rudd!

Freebies!

Check out these awesome freebies by Kristie, one of the Sugarplum Girls. She is new to designing and has released three, that's right, three digi kits for FREE! Check out her blog here.

Back later with some more exciting news...