Well I have been tagged...

by two people, the lovely Annette and Beth so I thought I had better pull my finger out and get it done!! OK, this will be interesting.... 8 Things I look forward to (in no particular order!!): 1. Going to bed 2. Taking a long hot bath on a cold, wet afternoon 3. Checking out what's going on on-line 4. Checking out new scrapping product 5. Getting new camera equipment 6. Playing with new camera equipment 7. Taking photos 8. Editing photos 8 Things I did yesterday: 1. Went to the fruit and vegie markets 2. Read the newspaper 3. Read my new CK magazine 4. Put some washing on 5. Had a cuppa and chat with a girlfriend 6. Went out and bought pies for lunch 7. Made pizza for dinner 8. Scrapped!! 8 Thinks I wish I could do: 1. Go to Africa and photograph the wildlife 2. Nap whenever I want to 3. Go into space 4. Play an instument 5. Have enough money to do whatever I want, whenever I want 6. Use above money to help others 7. Look after big cat cubs 8. Have an unlimited supply of chocolate (preferably Cadbury, Lindt and a sprinkling of Reeses peanut butter cups) 8 Things/Shows I have watched lately: 1. Medium 2. Cold Case 3. Law and Order 4. Masterchef 5. New Tricks 6. Myth Busters 7. News 8. Merlin There, that is an interesting tid bit of my life! I am now supposed to tag another 8 people, but given that all the people I would likely have tagged have probably already been tagged I wont! Well, I will come back soon and try to bring some more photos and layouts!

New Pages and Holidays ahead....

Well I have a few new pages to share with you! These pages were done over the past few weeks in between photo shoots and photo editing! Life has certainly been hectic lately, but the school holidays are almost upon us (in fact one more school day left!) and we (fingers crossed) will be able to take it easy for a little while. That said I have a lot that I want to get done over the break and many people to catch up with and activities to attend....so may be my relaxing thoughts are a pie in the sky dream! Hopefully I will be getting to the World Press Photo display this weekend (just before it closes). This is a great thing to see as there are some amazing photos selected in this yearly collection. We also have plans for Queens park at Ipswich with Kindy friends, plenty of birthday parties to attend, a visit to Alma Park Zoo with family and that is just the first week. Don't mention the sleepovers that are being requested and the assignment work I want to do and the editing I need to finish this break! I am going to need a break to recover from the break! Anyway despite how it sounds I am looking forward to it! So enough gasbagging here are the pages.... Funnily enough all the photos from these pages were taken with a day of each other! Finally catching up on some older events. You may notice the use of two of my newest favourite punches on these pages.... the Apron Lace border punch from Fiskars and the EK Success Postage Stamp border punch. I just love my border punches! Oh, and I should mention that I used the Just Chilling Slice card for the Fete Day Performance page to cut the title and cute dragon fly. This is a great card, I really like the font and the other options are cool and will no doubt get more use as the kids grow! I have another page I am working on that uses another new Slice card (yes I know I have a Slice problem.... but I am seeking help!), the Wedding design card has one of my all time favourite fonts at the moment, so keep a look out for that page soon. I will be doing some classes at Scrapbook City in August and September too. Some quick page type classes, so keep a look out for details on those too. One last share, one of the photos I took at Ang's brothers wedding the other weekend. I really like the spontenaity of this shot. I used a preset in Lightroom (aged photo) to remove most of the colour and leave an almost sepia feel to it. Anyway these are part of the many photos I have to edit!! Anyhoo that about covers me for now, hopefully I will have lots of great pictures to share soon (after all I have been taking soooo many over the past few weeks....) and more pages too. Thanks for stopping by.

Playgroup Re-union

Well, the weekends are slowing down a little now which is nice. This weekend just gone saw our playgroup get together to celebrate 10 years! All our oldest children have been turning 10 over the past 7 or 8 months so we thought it was a really good excuse to try and get us all together to catch up. The funny part being the adults trying to work out which child was which! They have all grown so much that it is getting harder to recognise them after a long time of not seeing them. We, of course, had to have the obligatory group photo. So here are a few of the good ones!

All the kids. Ranging in age from 10 - 4.

Thought I would try this one in black and white too!

All the kids plus the parents. Although there were a few Dad's MIA......

And closing with a bang, the Mum's in good form!

Here are another few layouts I have done recently too.All but one of them were for the recent June show. It was great fun to play with the new My Minds Eye, My Little Yellow Bicycle and Doodlebug! This first one used the Kaiser Craft Marrakech papers and was done to show how the Slice can be used. I cut the title, frames, corners and journalling spot using the Slice. It is a great machine and I am having lots of fun using it! This was for the show and used a new range of papers we got in from ATD called Family Affair (I think!). I loved the rich colours in this range and the button accessories were so cute! Doodlebug, what more do I need to say! Very fun papers and accessories to play with. These were very popular at the show. This is the Zinnia range from My Little Yellow Bicycle. I had been hanging out for this one to come in! The colours and patterns are absolutely gorgeous! Last but by no means least, this is from the Breaking Free range from My Minds Eye. I think this ended up being one of my favourites. As usual a great range of papers and wonderful co-ordinating embellishments make it really quick to "throw" together a page! Well, thats it from me for now. I need to go and edit my 900 or so photos from the Kindy photo shoots just recently! I am sure that will keep me busy for a long while! Thanks for stopping by. Oh I have been tagged by the lovely Annette and I will get to this really soon.... I promise!

Fun Photos from April

I thought I would share some fun photos from a couple of months ago! April is my sister Susan's (aka Sooz) birthday and we had a low key afternoon tea near GOMA to celebrate. While there to get people interested in letting me photograph them I suggested they jump of the little garden wall and I snap them in action. Well I went from people not wanting to be photographed to having a line up for their turn! Here are a few in action shots to show you what we got up to. Keep in mind these are single shots from a series taken in quick succession showing the whole jumping process. I think the mid-air shots best represent the concentration that the subjects had while doing the jump!!! Funny stuff really!

Here are the three kids having their turn. Grandma's can jump too! The birthday girl.... Lucky last, my little brother. Showing off... as usual!!

Still going through heaps of photos so will try and get back with some more soon. Oh and also more layouts using the new product we had at the show.

Into June.....ARGHHHHH.....

I can't believe it is the middle of June already. This past couple of weeks has been a blur! Not only have I been battling the dreaded lurgy given to me so lovingly by my children (who didn't suffer nearly as bad nor as long as I have) but I have had so much going on as well. Typical really! So what has been going on.... I helped Ang photograph her brothers wedding on the weekend (Saturday to be precise) and the weather and day was lovley. Sunday and Monday I worked at the Scrapbooking and Papercrafts Convention (fun but exhausting). And yesterday I photographed the 3 Day Group at Liam's Kindy. That was exhausting too! But I am really pleased with some of the photos I captured! I had to laugh when I had the last three girls to do - Rochelle, Emma and Olivia - they came out and were done in minutes! Seasoned professionals the three of them! I will not be surprised to see these girls on magazine covers when they get older because they certainly knew how to "strike a pose"!! So that covers only a few days but it sums up life lately! Andrew has to go in for surgery on his knee in August so that will be exciting. Nothing too major but something that needs to be done. It means 2 weeks off his feet in recovery though, so that could be interesting. Erin mangaged to loose two teeth in one week. The really funny part is I didn't even know they were that wobbly! The first one to come out even surprised Erin! I think she said something along the lines of "my tooth just came out" after getting out of the bath and the look of shock said it all! The next one was loosened by some corn on the cob eating the night before and then was swallowed with rice crackers the next day at school! She that was pretty funny. There has been plenty of scrapping going on as well. Especially in the lead up to the weekends show. I will get those pages off my camera and load them next time. I have plenty of other projects to share though. I have really been enjoying my craft lately, I guess I have been doing it soley for my enjoyment with no pressure and it shows. Oh, I remember something else I need to share... I have a new camera!!! I know you (like everyone else) are probably asking if I really need another camera??!! Well obviously the answer is yes!!! I got myself a hot little Canon G10 point and shoot. I decided I didn't want to lug around all my equipment "just in case" to family and other casual events. So I got myself a really nice point and shoot! It is full of manual features and even records in raw so it is just what I was after. Now I have something that fits in my handbag! I will of course take the good gear to other events if requested!! OK, time to share.... As you can see I have been having fun with some older photos as well as current ones! I can't get over how quickly they grow, even a single year makes such a difference at the moment. Oh well, I guess that is why I take so many photos!! I need to be sure not to miss a thing! Just before I go, here are a few photos from the Scrapbook City Retreat back in April. This was from the "Masquerade" event. The ladies go to so much trouble with our fun dress up events. If you are interested in our retreats go to the link here, this is our retreat blog. We are having another one in October and also April next year, but they usually fill so fast so get in quick if you think you might like to come along!