Formally panicking

Ok, Matt's formal is tomorrow night and the suit hasn't arrived yet... deep breaths, it'll be alright, won't it??? Please tell it'll be alright, please...

He and his friends are hiring some sort of mercedes mini bus to drive them around for a hour(??) before the event. I have negotiated picking up his girlfriend to drop them both at a friends house, photos at Alex's house (I hope - assuming THE SUIT ARRIVES!!!) and then pick them up again at the end of the night. I have been banned from going to the function to take photos of them arriving (it's at Old Parliament House, perfect photo backdrops, sigh). I will try to get him to take our point and shoot camera, fingers crossed.


Anyway onto more important matters, I have managed to get a couple of LO's done. The first is for the Cocoa Daisy crop, using numbers as a design feature this time. I have finally managed to scrap some of Matt's party. As you can see the theme was 'silly hats" and all the kids put in an effort. My fav's were the pirate (he had the whole outfit) and one, not shown here due to catastrophic collapse, made from Lego, superb.

That's Matt and his girlfriend in the bottom right photo.

And I have managed to get this weeks Sketchy Thursday's sketch completed, I feel like I haven't finished one of theirs for weeks and weeks. Lots of Crate Paper (yummy) used for this LO.

Henry has his little green Milo Cricket outfit, so cute when you get half a field full of these and the other half with the younger kids in flouro yellow. Henry loves it all, and Geoff is enjoying having a child who likes a sport he does.

Forgot my gratefulness yesterday, so today I am grateful for

a) Matt's friends, who are just a lovely pack of kids, who don't complain that parties they go to are alcohol free and who give each other hugs at the end of the night.

b) I am grateful to Geoff for letting me indulge my hobbies without complaining too much, except when he wants to lay down in bed and must share the space with my craft supplies...

c) Meaghan's soccer team mates who win and lose gracefully, no matter what the opposition (or opposing parents!) say or do. All of the girls and their wonderful coach are very encouraging towards each other, which enables girls to pl;ay sport no matter what level of ability they are at. And for teenage girls, this is such a big step towards a positive body image and self confidence. Love that.


Have a great day and I WILL have positive news of the suit tomorrow...

xx

Happy Monday

And I feel as though I've done a days running around already...
Matt was supposed to have done a bar course this week but last week there weren't enough kids to start the class. "Ok" the staff said "we'll let you know" - which apparently translates as it will be on if we don't contact you. So after a number of phone calls this morning we were told 5 minutes before the class started that it was on..

Much rushing about, quick ironing only to discover that a) Matt's white shirt had some red stains on the sleeve (but he had hung it up in the cupboard again..), and b) his black pants actually had the bum ripped out them. So off he went in his stained white shirt and navy school pants (dark enough). Thinking we would be last ones there we rushed in only to find only one other boy had turned up - so I'm guessing every one else got as much information as us. So the boys went off for a wander (ie a coffee) and the organiser went to make a few belated phone calls.

Best guess is that they will do responsible serving of alcohol certificate today but no practical work. Have to go back next year for that...

And then there is the whole formal suit issue - OK entirely my fault we have left it this late. It only occurred to us last week that hiring a formal suit twice (once for his formal and once for his girlfriend's formal - paired girls/boys schools - why couldn't they combine formals???) would cost more than buying. So we went and had him fitted and sourced a "fall back suit" ie fitted well but not the look he was after and have found a very cheap ex- rental suit to buy place on the net. So on the phone to them to see if they can ship overnight from Melbourne to Canberra, still waiting for them to call back.

And then off to the Vietnam Embassy to pick up our passports and Visas - yay.


I am desperate to get some me time today and do some scrapping - managed this on the weekend, for the Cocoa daisy crop - one of the challenges was to take your style and clean it up - very simple lines - no misting or inking!! Very hard for me but I am really pleased with the outcome. I found this butterfly in our garden last week - it is one of the biggest one's I have seen here, we usually only the the smaller varieties but all the lovely rain must have encouraged species to expand their territories.

Ok off to washing now, have a great day xx

A new Dollie colour scheme

My guest designer role at Design Dollies is continuing, I am loving being a Dollie!!). This week the Dollies colour challenge consists of grass green, baby pink and white.

And I do struggle with pink...

However this combination is very fresh, I love green with pink so it was all OK.

This is my very first pony, that I got for Christmas when I was about 9 or 10 I think. After years of begging and being a completely spoilt child I wore my parents (well, Dad anyway, he was always a sucker for a good beg, although it took us years to work that out...). Unfortunately it wasn't a match made in heaven and I didn't really learn to ride until many years later (and then only if the horse goes fairly slowly). Although we were all quietly pleased when she bit one of our more revolting cousins (he grew up Ok though).

So I am grateful to my parents for all sorts of things, (esp only having one daughter, thus being the easiest to spoil, yay me - just for you Rob )

I don't like to use digi Lo's for Dt's most of the time but this week Geoff has done his back again. How does this affect my scrapping you may ask?? Well, he is laid up in bed (aka my scrapping extension table), and I find it hard to scrap with just my table space (this gives you an idea of how I do all things crafty, spread all supplies as far as possible...). I am not a neat person, sigh.

And much as I am willing to bury Geoff in scrapping supplies, he (some may say inconsiderately..), spreads all his work stuff around him so he can work from home, I mean really, where are the priorities here???

Anyway he is mostly better now so I get a few hours a day to make my own mess, hooray!!

I must now put on my crown and do some housework, have a great day xx

Today I am grateful for..

My prodigous drawing talent. I know you all jealous but seriously some of us have it and well others fall away...

Oh, by the way this is a self portrait (part of a challenge for the cocoa daisy crop) just in case you hadn't picked that up. And I'm in my posh dress. Obviously.


Henry said it looked like me (see -TALENT!!) except for the crown, but he rarely sees me doing the housework, which is when the crown comes out...

xx

Saturday - the party

Only 3 and a bit months late...

Today is a premature gratefulness - mixed with a good bit of wishing....

I am thankful Matt has good friends who help him to celebrate his end of year/18th birthday party ( and I am now old enough to hope it will be a quiet affair..)

Although In all honesty, we have invited friends with a couple of kids to sit at a separate table and I suspect (knowing our friends AND Matt's friends), that ours will be the far noisier table!!


And over this weekend, Cocoa daisy has their fall crop on - I love their challenges and will attempt a few over the next week. I managed to finish one of their quickies, a name tag created with only things found on your desk - not a problem as my desk is under mounds of supplies.

I did find an envelope Jo had given me for my birthday a little while ago - complete with an evil clown on the back flap - perfect!!

Off to organise the masses now.

xxx

More Dollie goodness

Today we are after some very chilly entries. Anything that represents cold for you. As it is heading quickly towards summer here, maybe a Lo about the first swim of the season - my kids always end up blue and chattery.

And make sure to include glittery elements somewhere - glitter and cold go hand in hand I think!

I went for the more traditional snow photo of Henry's first skiing attempt. And he is upright...

Anyway go check out the challenge here. I think the trifecta might be achievable this week as the colour challenge is very blue and white oriented.

Today I am grateful my kids like to sleep in the mornings. I heard the kids next door up very, very early this morning, while Henry was snuggled next to me fast asleep (nightmare during the night caused a migration to our bed..)

This can make it hard to get them to school on time but for me the alternative would be a very grumpy Mum in the morning!! I am so not a morning person..

Anyway go check out the Dollies challenges this week and don't forget my lovely Southern Girls challenge as well.

Oh and I jsut found out I won the October sketch Lo challenge over at Deb's Creation's!! It was for The Gap Lo. yay always so happy to win - makes me grin all day.

And Speaking of Deb, she has just released a brand new line of rubber stamps, The Emerald Faeries Collection, they are so very cute. More for card makers I suspect but I did see the Ebony Stamp used beautifully on a Lo about mushroom picking.

Ok, have a great day - off for some shoe shopping with Matt - his most hated of pastimes!!

My Favourite sport

That's me on the far right, in the aqua top - wasn't I skinny then??


Ok, slight confession - I love watching sport on tele (or real live life as well I guess. Footy, cricket, ski jumping, formula 1, anything really. But playing is a whole other matter.

But back in my hey day, ie when I was young, weighed a bit less I loved to play soccer. At Uni we had an indoor soccer team, sponsored by one of the many, many local pubs - hence The Imperial Kegs. We played on a Friday night at different times, so occasionally we had to interrupt a social event to go off and play soccer. The results were variable to say the least.

I was pleased when Julie and her team at My favourite things came up with My favourite sport this week, a perfect excuse to relive the old times.

But we had enormous fun, and two of the girls became my bridesmaids and another lives in the same suburb as us.

And this leads me to my very wonderful gratitude today - one of the girls in the photo has a son who has just undergone major, major surgery. A fortnight ago they were told to expect the worse, but luckily further scans revealed a much better prognosis, he had the surgery yesterday and has come out of well and with the best possible result. They expect him to be home in a week. Such a relief.

So I am thankful H is better than we all hoped.

back with a new dolly Lo soon, have a great day. xx