Anxiously waiting...

Well, I know that I didn't make it as a Master for Scrapbooking Memories this year...never mind...I was really pleased to be shortlisted in my first attempt and hopefully I will get an Honorable Mention (or maybe two or three!!!). Now the wait for the Masters mag begins, that is about a month away now. Lucky there is so much happening that I won't be dwelling on it too much!

Now I am just waiting to see if one (or maybe more??!!) of my photos in the Canon Photo5 competition has made it to the top 10. That news comes out tomorrow when the public voting can commence! I would so love to have made top 10 for one of my photos! I guess the waiting will soon be over!

I purchased a fantastic new scanner yesterday and I am so thrilled with it! This model does film negatives and the resolution is fantastic. I plan on digitising all our negatives and slides so I have handy access to these for printing and scrapping! Talking of scrapping, I have some great travel photos from the lovely Lauren to scrap for her. She has passed out photos from her recent travels to anyone who said yes to help her get her album done. What a great idea. The challenge for me will be doing a 8.5 x 11 sized layout!! Keep a look out and I will put them up once they have been finished!

Niamh had some exciting news this week, she has been offered a place to learn the cello next year at school. She is so excited about this as she really wanted to do violin last year but didn't make it in. Andrew's comment however was "Why did she have to go and pick one of the most expensive instruments to buy??" !!! Oh well, a year to save for one since the school supplies one for the first year.

Here are a couple of things that I have done recently:




Well that's it for now, thanks for stopping by!

What a Crazy Few Weeks!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have managed to get on here and update. And how much has happened in that time??? Well we had the Craft show at the end of October, quickly followed by moving the store to a bigger location, the announcement of our lovely Nikala as one of the For Keeps new Elite Team and to wrap it up the grand opening of the store and the Award's Night...phew...no wonder I am exhausted!!!

It has all been good fun though if exhausting at times. And the pace won't slow down now as we hit the downhill run to end of the school year and of course Christmas!

We also have my birthday, Andrew's birthday, Andrews' mum's birthday, my girlfriends little boy's birthday and her husband's and the arrival of her new little one........

Oh talking of new little ones my brother is going to be a dad!!! He and his wife Jenny are expecting! They are due in early May, and we are all so excited.

The girls had their first official Karate grading yesterday and both our now the proud owners of yellow belts with visions of becoming black belts one day!

I have been busy with some photography comps too. I have an entry in the Lord Mayors photographic challenge. This will be announced at the end of the month and the gallery open with the ones they chose for display in December. So I will keep you posted there. And the Canon Photo5 competition. This is cool, those who registered (limited to 2500) were all sent a little box with 5 items (including the box) to be photographed in an interesting and creative way. This comp closes for entries this week, and then next week the judges will put up the final 10 in each category for public voting. I really would love to have one in the final 10 of one of the categories...guess we will see soon enough there!

Also waiting for the Scrapbooking Memories Masters to be announced. The mag for this comes out late December, but they haven't notified the winners yet...so fingers crossed... I will be happy with an honorable mention for something though!!

All in all I have alot of waiting to do! Anyway, so here are the For Keeps layouts that they didn't keep (all but one, and as per usual not the one I thought they might have kept??!!)





Well thats all for now. I will be sure to keep you updated on all the comps I am waiting for!!

The pressure is on....

To update my blog that is! There is a little friendly encouragement happening with the girls at Scrapbook City to keep our blogs up-to-date! So here it is! An update!! Yay! Well, life is certainly getting busier as we approach the end of the year. Just last week we had Erin in at hospital for a steroid injection into her knee. Luckily she has responded really well. The swelling has gone down amazingly and her knee looks almost the same as the good one. But it is hard to send your little girl off into theatre. They were really good and allowed me in until she went to sleep. She amazed us all with how brave she was through the whole process. Hopefully this will keep the arthritis in check for a while now. Niamh is ready to grade to yellow belt with her Karate and you can't wipe the grin from her face! She is doing well and seems to be committed. She has even said she would like to have her black belt by 10 (she is eight and a half now!). She was absolutely horrified when I suggested it might be better if she was 12 or 13 before she got that far!!! Life has been busy with things for the shop too. Lots of Christmas preparations going on. Things to make, classes to prepare and all that! Good clean fun! Well, there seems to be a problem with uploading images at the moment so I will have to come back and finish that off later. Oh, one last piece of exciting news... My little Liam is toilet training! (OK not that exciting, but for those who know what changing nappies all the time is like, you will understand!!).

Layouts for Paper Crafts Festival

Well, I have finally photographed my layouts from the paper crafts festival! So here they are!




I am so glad we are nearing the end of the school holidays. I am ready for life to go back to routine and give me a few hours a day of quiet! But, I have to say they have flown by pretty quickly. I don't like our chances for slowing things down before Christmas!

Talking of Christmas, my side of the family have chosen not to spend money on gifts (except for the kids) and spend some time together instead and we are now booked in for a long weekend together at Bribie Island in December! I am looking forward to this! It is so nice to not have to think about gifts for more people.

Anyhoo, time to go now. I need my breakfast, how else will I survive my very loud children! Catch you soon.

Paper Crafts Festival

Well, worked yesterday at the paper crafts festival, came home pretty exhausted. It was busier than we were expecting which was good. The day just flew past. I power scrapped the night before with new paper lines to have examples, so this didn't help with the exhaustion! I didn't even have time to photograph them before I took them in, so you will have to wait to see them. At the moment I am busy with Christmas projects for the shop. That is certainly keeping me busy! But there are some gorgeous new Christmas lines out already! Anyway, I have a mini book to finish off for my niece who has just turned one, so that will keep me busy for today! Her party is tomorrow, so time is of the essence! Chow for now!

New Blog links

Hidiho, just dropping in to welcome my newest blog links! Over at Scrapbook City some of the girls decided we should get out and blog more and support each others blogs. I thought it a great idea so have joined in the fun. I now have links for Jen U, Terri, Tish, Wendy, Trudi (my adoptive daughter ;) ) and Tam. Make sure if you visit you go over and say Hi to them too!

Busy Week

Well, I am half way through a busy week. The best thing about this week is the release of issue 59 of FK. I have two layouts in there this month! Very exciting, these are the layouts:




Great news when I came home yesterday, FK has decided to pick up another layout of mine for their back to school gallery!

Well, as for other news, I will be working at the Paper Craft Festival on Friday. This should be a bit of fun, and a good way to get out of the house for a little break. I am lucky the in-laws are able to come and take care of the little ferrals while I am there!

As for today, the lovely Aunty Jenny is coming to take the girls out for the day, so I am going shopping with my good friend Deb. We are heading over to Photocontinental. I have promised not to spend too much on photographic equipment!! Although I am starting to price flashes and light meters and reflectors......OK I promise to behave!

Which reminds me, I need to load in some photos from the Fete Part II last Friday night. Great fun had by all. Catch you soon.

Latest Work

I thought I had better get some of my recent pages up, since I haven't put any up for ages....

This one was for Scrapbook City and uses some of the new Cosmo Cricket papers.

This used new Scenic Route papers and was also for the shop.

This was inspired by the latest Scrapbook Creations - Colour Challenge of magenta & mango.

For the shop, new Cloud 9 papers. I really love this one.

This was for a newsletter feature on using buttons creatively. Quite like how this one turned out.

What a few weeks....

Well, it has been a busy and stressful few weeks. August/September is traditionally busy for us with birthday's every which way you turn, and fathers day and the school fete. This year we had to add a sad moment with the death of my grandma. She was just 83 and so full of life that it took us all by surprise when she had a heart attack. My grandma collected giraffes and there were 15 giraffes in her collection, one went to each of her 15 grandchildren. I was lucky enough to take home a big concrete one, the one we gave her as a family for a birthday (or maybe mothers day), so there is extra sentiment in that. To show what an amazing woman she was, she had also organised the crotcheted face washers that she gives to each great-grandchild each Christmas already for this years Christmas bag.

My little boy, Liam is now a big three year old. Although he is heavily in denial, and often answers - "um maybe one" when asked how old he is! Very cute.

I managed to get my For Keeps awards for excellence entry off in time. Now, along with the Scrapbooking Memories competition I will be waiting for news on this one!

We have some busy times coming up at the shop too as we start thinking about Christmas classes and projects. I also started my series of Photo Know How classes. So far so good there.

Now, I need to include some pictures, especially for my sister in law Sue!

Here is the Story Bridge, complete with climbers taken from a CityCat during the June/July holidays.

Here is one of the images from the Lunar eclipse. Turned out alright, despite the light cloud that seemed to be around.

Here is the moon coming out from the eclipse.

And here we have the reluctant birthday boy! Look at that face!!

News

Well, I thought I had better share my news!! I got "the" phone call from Scrapbooking Memories magazine to say I had made it to the next round of their masters competition! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. Now I have to send off all my projects and wait....wait....wait...and hope I get another call later down the track. Anyway I am very pleased to have made it this far and anything else is simply a bonus. I will be sure to keep you posted.

Well what happened to July??

July is gone already. Wow. Time is sure flying past and we are fast approaching the downward run to Christmas and New Year celebrations. Anyway, lets not get too far ahead of ourselves!

As promised I have finally sorted out some photos from Currumbin, and there are a few good ones, even if I do say so myself! This first one is one of my favourites, mainly because it was a hard one to shoot! That is my arm holding the feeding tray and armful of birds! Trying to get a heavy camera in a position to take a photo at the same time was tricky I can tell you!


Lat weekend was the Scrapbook City retreat weekend. It was a very successful even by all accounts! I was lucky enough to teach a class on the Sunday to a very laid back group of lovely ladies (quite a few of whom I know through the message board). I also gave a quickie photography class. It was great to hear the Ohhh moments happening as some of the tips I gave them fell into place! Here is the group photo that I took just before everyone left on Sunday.



As far as the photography goes I have been busily working on assignment photos this week. Some of them with interesting results. One of the requirements was for a close up shot of a vegetable. Have a look at the result! Whoever would have thought a piece of broccoli could be so interesting??!!


Also I needed to do a landscape. So I took myself off to the pedestrian bridge crossing the river next to the William Jolly and got a reasonable picture of the river.


Andrew wants me to mention my funny story from while I was out on location shooting assignment photos. I had myself sort of hidden in a bus shelter taking photos of cars to demonstrate shutter speed and motion effects. Well, the cars that saw me there with my camera appeared to be worried I was a speed camera person and started slowing down! Maybe I need to get out there more often!!!

Anyway, there is July up to date. I will try and get on a bit more often during August!

Tagged Again!

I have been very slack lately! Life getting in the way again I guess! And what did you think I found when I came back...the lovely Sara had "tagged" me!!! See what happens if you don't pay enough attention! So here are the rules: 1-post these rules 2-each person tagged must post 8 random (... hopefully interesting) facts about themselves 3-tags should write a blogpost of these facts 4- at the end of the post 8 more bloggers are tagged and named 5-go to their blog and leave a comment telling them they're tagged So here goes: 1. I travelled all the way to Sydney to see Guns'N'Roses perform back in about 1993 (I think!) 2. I used to be a reasonable athlete in High School. I played hockey and vigoro and also was in the school athletic team in grade 10. 3. I have had a thing for Orlando Bloom ever since I saw him in the LOTR movies! 4.I have a pretty good memory for (usually) unimportant facts/details! 5.I love technology, especially when it comes to digital imaging! 6.I have been glued to the TV watching Heroes! A great series! 7. I love to read murder mystery novels especially psychological thrillers! (now I need time..) 8. I have subscriptions to 9 magazines! (7 scrapbooking ones and 2 photography ones...) Phew....I hope they are interesting enough tid bits about me!! Chances are the people I know with blogs have already been tagged so I will fully own up to breaking the cycle! Now, as for other news...I am officially studying photography now! Yay! So hopefully in about 12 months time I will have my diploma! I have recently had two acceptances for publication from For Keeps magazine. They are due out in about 3 months (issue 59). I have decided to enter the Scrapbooking Memories Masters competition! This is due in be July 13th....hopefully not a bad omen!! I am just about finished all my projects and I am quite pleased with them too! The For Keeps Elite Team comp is also running and due in end of August...so I just have to get scrapping for this one too! No wonder I never have any time!! Scrapbook City has its retreat in July (27 - 29) so this should be great fun! I am tag-teaming with Michelle to teach an OTP item which will be pretty cool. Well, that about does it! Catch you later! Oh...I will be back soon to put up some photos from our day trip to Currumbin Bird Sanctuary!

This Busy Life

Life is so busy at the moment. Something going on most of the time...no wonder I am exhausted! Anyway here is a summary of the last couple of weeks....

The Labour day long weekend coincided with the Stitches and Craft show at the convention centre. A bit of a disappointing show as far as scrapbooking went, but fun to work at! Which I did with the lovely Tam on the Sunday. It was plenty busy too. The time flew past, a bit of a baptism of fire for Tam I think! But she handled it all beautifully!

We received our "packs" as guest design team members for The Crafters Workshop. I have to say they were challenging papers. Not the sort of thing I would have normally chosen to use, but I am happy with the results. You can see them here.

This weekend just passed had us celebrating Mothers Day. The girls went out for a High Tea and it was great! I have already created a page from the day.




Other than major plumbing issues...everything has being pottering along as usual.

Thanks for stopping by!

I've been tagged!

Yes, I have been tagged by the lovely Michelle! So about the "tagging" process, I now need to list 7 interesting facts/habbits about myself and then name 7 people to "tag". That will be the hardest part I think! Oh well, here goes nothing...... 1. I was going to be an astronaut when I left school. I even got myself a Physics degree and halfway to a Space and Mechanical engineering degree....but then I fell in love and the rest is history! 2. Apparently I am a very bad sick...that is I am a bit of a whinger when I am sick! I don't like being sick and I certainly let everyone know about it! 3. It took me a while to build up enough confidence to learn to drive. I was in a few car accidents in my time and this put me off for quite a while.... 4. I am going to start a photography course this year, very soon with any luck. Because this is my other great passion. 5. After finishing all my science study, and after I got married, I went and studied maths, and even used it as a data analyst with Suncorp. I know what you are thinking..this girl is a nerd! 6. I always knew that I wanted to have children, and now I have three! Sometimes I wonder if I had known then what I know now if I would have done things differently! 7. I have had two photos selected and displayed in the Museum of Brisbane for the last two Lord Mayors Photography competitions. Now to pick some others Alicia and Nikala. I would delve some more but the tagging is well and truly taking over!!!

Well, see what happens when the Scrapbook City site is back up and running again??!! I have not posted on here for almost a month! Wow, a month flies by really quickly.

The kids are getting ready to go back to school (tomorrow) after Easter holidays. Andrew has started his new job (last week), and soon it will be me and Liam by ourselves for most of the week. What an adjustment that will be! I certainly got used to Andrew being home most of the time!

I have had plenty of DT things going on for Scrapbook City, and I have enjoyed being back in the swing of scrapping again. Seemed that I was too busy with other things for the shop for a while there to do anything else! Here are some of my LO's:



This one is from Alicia's April sketch challenge. I just love the photos of Liam! The paper is just gorgeous too. It is from the We R Memory Keepers new precious metal range. I think this will be in store this week.

The City is Back

Just a quick note to let you know we are all very excited because the Scrapbook City site is slowly returning to normal! The message board is back up and running and the gallery is on its way too! Yay!

Quick One

Just a quick note tonight, I really need to get into bed! Spent most of today at the Paper Crafts Festival working on the Scrapbook City stand with Sara. We did have a fun time! But, I am sure that Kerri said it would be pretty quiet! I guess lucky for them it was a bit busier than that! The time flew past! I was very tempted to buy more things on my way out...but I resisted! Knowing I could go back to the shop and pick up some of the goregous new things there! I did shop on Saturday with friends Deb and Jo and spent enough! I am feeling inspired to create too (just read Sara's blog!), but it will have to wait til tomorrow, sleep is more important right now. The girls took along the houses we had decorated (mine is pictured below) and it was really cool how much interest there was in them! I feel almost famous now! Anyway, off to bed the screen is starting to get blury! Thanks for dropping by!

Need to Vent

I am starting to think that all the idiots were out and about today....especially those in cars....Well I suppose I had better explain....It started this morning, I was backing out of a carpark after dropping in to a local ATM, and someone behind in another carpark just started to reverse out without looking behind at all! If they had they would have seen that I was HALF WAY OUT! Lucky I was looking otherwise we would have hit....This idiot continued all the way out without looking behind at all. The passenger, his wife I am guessing saw me but looked blankly at me when I started yelling that he didn't look at all behind him and that I was already halfway out when he started to reverse...AGHHHHHHH.....Then I had to follow behind him and his erratic driving til the next set of lights....I guess at least his other bad driving put my mind my at rest knowing he probably does this sort of thing to everyone...... small consolation though. I have never been angry enough to want to get out and abuse someone until today.....Lucky for them I am in control of myself and I didn't (probably lucky for me too, last thing I want is a police record for road rage or something). I feel somewhat better for venting here. But there were more idiots out there after that, everywhere...one of those days I guess. On a better note, Andrew comes home from Sydney tomorrow and he doesn't have to go back! YAY!!!!! I am so relieved that he doesn't have to go away again.

This is another recent DT layout. I have used some of the great new Scenic Route papers.

This is one of my more recent projects for Scrapbook City. It is a cute little paper mache house that I have covered in the new Basic Grey Pheobe papers.

Well, this is Niamh, on her birthday! Now she is 8! They grow up all too quickly!

This is Liam doing his "cheese" for the camera! He is really funny, when he is sick of photos being taken he tells me "no more see Liam" !!! Such a cutie!

Just love this one of Erin. It was taken on her birthday. I just had to convert it to B&W and give it a grungy border!

Thought I had better use the blog!

It has been just over two months since I set up this blog and I thought I had better start using it! Especially since people from the scrapping community have links to it! Can't let people down! Well, it has been a pretty hectic two months. Especially where work is concerned (Scrapbook City). There have been no end of "issues" with the web site. Just when you think things are starting to improve something else jumps in and messes it all up again. I guess the important thing is not to dwell and look on the positive side. It will all be up and running again (soon I hope) and then we can work on the plan of making it one of the best sites around! I have to admit I am really missing my online community. I enjoy catching up with these people and seeing the amazing work they have to offer. On the home front....Andrew has spent the last 5 weeks in Sydney (home on the weekends) and it is wearing pretty thin on us all, especially Andrew. He has this week and next and then he finishes with that company, has a break and then onto a new job! Thank goodness! Life has been pretty stressful in this current job. We have been trying to win the lotto so he could just quit, but like that was ever really going to happen! The kids have settled really well into the school routine. Niamh is now grade 3 and Erin has just started grade 1. Liam is settling into the daycare routine also, he is only there 2 days a week which is enough for him, and me! I am off to the Paper Crafts festival on Saturday! Yay! A day of drooling over all the cool new stuff! Then on the Sunday I will be working at Scrapbook City's stand. Hopefully I will get to meet some of the many lady's from the shop while I am there too! I have been getting into my photography a bit more lately. Really trying to understand all the features of my new camera, and work out the best settings for things! I got a great few shots of Liam the other day. Will post them in here to show you. Well that is a brief summary of the last two months! Now I will make a date to update regularly! See Ya!

I have a Blog!!!

Well, I have decided to join just about everyone else I know and get myself a blog! It is partly to help me understand how to set one up! As I need to set one up for Scrapbook City. No rest for the wicked hey? It may take a little while for me to get my head around it all...but bear with me...I will get it looking all pretty and nice soon!