Memories of the sun

It is bitterly cold here at the moment, minus temperatures most nights and that looks to continue for the next week as well. One of Henry's classmates was telling me he and his family are off to Fiji for the hols. I almost cried with envy (well not really but the thought of constant warmth that didn't rely on a heater, mmmm).

Anyway, those gloating (not really again..) northern hemisphere girls are constantly reminding me of warmer times. The Studio's latest challenge is to scrap what the summer hols mean to you. For Henry it is definitely burying himself in sand, boy do we get sand EVERYWHERE!! And I'm not just talking about the car...

It was nice to do a bright LO and I guess spring is only 8 weeks away (we may even have an election before then).

Have a good day and spare a thought for us, frost and hideous electricity bills. xx

PS I have one more picture in my series of a certain Portugese player (sighhh) so I will save that until they are out. It is good, that's all I'm saying.

Design Dollies sketch

Ah such an innocuous title for my somewhat newly obsessed blog. But more of that later..


Design Dollies has a new sketch out and it is, it has to be said, very cute. Now as it happens I have one child who also thinks he is very cute - it doesn't help that he is told this weekly by an older girl at his tennis lesson...

We had a day home together last week and as it was such a nice day, Henry got out his musical binoculars (who doesn't want a pair of those?) and went bird watching. OK i admit it, he was a bit special in his boots and socceroos scarf. A fun day.


And now for my newly found Portugeseness (see last post). The socceroos are officially out (very sad but somewhat overshadowed by getting our very own women Prime minister - yay) so I am officially in Portugal's camp.

The important question is (in two parts -
a) do they still hand out yellow cards for taking off your shirt after a goal (you can tell a man thought up that rule): and
b) am I hopelessly shallow to hope that Portugal score lots if this isn't the case? (indeed, surely it is worth a yellow card to bare this to the world...)

Ok I will be over this obsession soon....


maybe...

or not ...

finally

Geoff is back at work and I'm able to get some crafty stuff done.

But before all that, a revelation. I discovered (oh about 10 minutes into the Portugal/nth Korean world cup game...) that I am, or should be Portuguese!!! Who knew (although I may have to revert back to my Australian status temporarily tonight, at least until the socceroos are officially out).

My reasons are many but boils down to.....
Ahhhhh...

A minute or two is needed to appreciate the finer points of the world cup.


OK, on to more mundane matters. The Studio, which I am missing terribly (curse you Ning for charging fees!!!), has a new challenge blog up. One of the challenges is to do a Lo in your countries flag colours, not overly impressed with ours, but a good opportunity to go back 10 years to the Olympics in Sydney.

We took Matt along, Meaghan who was 4 at the time, unforgivably in her eyes still, left behind. We snagged accommodation nearby and after running the gauntlet of Chinese tourists who insisted on taking a photo of themselves with Matt. He was, it has to be said, quite amazed at this interest but gave his best smile each time.

We went to the hockey during the day (very hot) but at night we were in the main stadium and watched the athletics. An Aussie got silver in the long jump, Cathy Freeman ran as did Marion Jones. Louise savage won a gold in the wheelchair 800m, so we got to sing the national anthem. I could not talk the next day as we yelled and cheered so much. If you have the chance, go to an Olympics, wonderful.



Lastly a quick one for sketchy Thursday. It is my big brother's 50th birthday in a few weeks so thought I'd feature some of him over June/July. It was always a bit of a joke that the first photos of Mick are actually of his blanket and not him. Mum and dad look so proud of this big bundle of shawl.
Ok, off to trivia night tonight, wish us luck but I fear that one of our stars can't make it this year so we are there to eat and drink. But we will give it our best and fun shall be had. xx

Happy Birthday Louise

We finally got to go out for a birthday, we have only managed a lunch this year, just not the same. I love being with these girls, so much fun and we are at the point where we can just about discuss any topic with out hideous embarrassment (well, it's pretty hard to embarrass me at the best of times, so it might be up to the others to agree or disagree with that...).

Anyway it was Louise's turn this time. Present of the night would have to be the 'porn for women' book Jo got Louise, good looking men doing housework, how can you go wrong??

This Layout is for the lovely Design dollies with the tricky combination of purple, orange and white. I was desperate to get my hands dirty again and had big plans for paint, mist etc but as Geoff is still laid up in bed and conducting work over the phone (very hard to stay artistically inspired with the one sided conversation happening right next to you) as well as a distinct lack of anything purple it was off to digital Lo land again.



Squeezing in some Creativity Boot Camp as well. yesterday's word of the day was 'hush'. Thought about using peaceful pictures, children sleeping etc but decided to go the other way and show a photo of Henry at the fireworks. Sunglasses on (of course) and fingers stuck firmly in his ears, he loves the show but hates the noise.



And finally a word from last week, heavy metal. Struggled with this one, so departed from my journal and made a tag instead. How can you think of heavy metal and not come up with a black flower?

Quite happy with the way it turned out. I will be able to use it on a Lo later on I think.


Off to pick Henry up from school now, I can see blue sky when I look out the window I am facing but very grey and drizzly when I glance 90 degrees right. Hopefully it will hold off until after pick up.

xx

Happy Queen's birthday

What a bizarre holiday. Not her birthday (and like we actually care terribly much...), and NO fireworks anymore. Too sad. Equally sad is the Socceroos getting totally whipped by the Germans, very disheartening this early on in the tournament. Sigh, must find another backup team to follow on the offchance (ok high chance) that we don't make the next round, any suggestions will be taken into consideration (sorry Irini but I think the Greek Team looks as bad as ours...)

Friday night turned out to be one of the more memorable nights we have the fortune to experience. One of our friends had some how struck up an email friendship with Mick Thomas formally of Weddings, Parties, Anything (admitted last seen and enjoyed back in our uni days, but love their music still).

Our friend enquired as to when Mick would be next be playing in Canberra. Nothing planned came the reply but will be heading up to the opening of the snow season for a concert so why don't we drop on in on the Friday and perform in your backyard? Cool says our friend and so it became reality last Friday night. Due to frost inducing temperatures it was moved inside and a crowd of less than 40 had our own personal concert. How absolutely cool was that???

Mick and his friend Michael played for a couple of hours, told some tales and hung around for a chat (they didn't actually leave until 2:30am, we left about 1am). It was the best night we have had for an age (yes I think even topped the Abba revival concert from a couple of weeks ago, unbelievable I know!!!). Hoping for a return concert in the future...

Onto scrapping now. Henry and I went out for a quick geocache today and ended up down by the lake chucking pebbles in the water for the afternoon. No wind and just a couple of swans for company, wonderful way to end the long weekend. The sketch is from Sketchy Thursday and it seemed appropriate to use photoshop for this Lo. All elements are from Designer Digitals.





Ok, hopefully back to the Creativity bootcamp tomorrow, although Geoff has done his back again and I never get any crafty stuff done while he is around. I shall try however.

have a great day xx

Boot Camp part 2

Just a perfect day (even if my eyes still watered from the cold...)



We were asked to wander our neighbourhood and take photos of what grabbed our attention, didn't matter what just take a stack of photos. And yesterday being a perfect winters day in Canberra, off I went. I discovered what grabbed my attention - signs, trees, and patterns on services covers (ie gas, telstra etc). Very curious. I would have loved to have taken a heap down at our local shops but there were far too many people around and I was a bit too self conscience for that.
Enjoy bits of our suburb, I think I can feel a LO coming up...

Perfect day, I love how this tree just has the odd leaf hanging on.


The leaves of the pin oak hang on for dear life, it is like the tree is saying "I know it's damn cold out there and I AM NOT letting go of my blanket until I am good and ready", that would be me...


Great swings nearby, large enough for mum bottoms to fit on, like the effect of the shadows on the ground.

There has been spates of shoes thrown over power lines in the past few years, not sure why, like to think random artistry but afraid it is more like random bullying.

This is a letterbox from my childhood, still a few around.


A small sign of the promise of spring, still a few months off, but lovely buds waiting.

This always raises an eyebrow. I know they are growing a hedge but they put the gate in long before they planted anything, just a gate nothing else.

The pattern on a local bus stop shelter caught my eye.


Our word of the day was 'grow'. I thought Meaghan would be the perfect subject for this little experiment, her self belief and confidence has grown so much in the past year to the point where I occasionally have to remind her that she doesn't quite know everything. But I don't do this often at all because that belief fades with time and it is wonderful that she has that armour to see her (hopefully) through the next few years. so proud of her though. xx
My heavy metal tag is still in the construction stage, have struggled with that a bit.

Have a great day xxx

Quick Fix

What a wonderful day. Yesterday I was in a slightly bad mood, nothing seemed right, you know those sort of days. Anyway today I decided to spend at least part of it creatively.

And I actually succeeded. After having a go at the Creativity Bootcamp, go check out some of the wonderful work that is being submitted, a lovely way to while away an hour or so, I then managed to get two LO's done. Yay for yukky weather when there is no tennis and no hockey training.

And yay for leftovers.

Ok, first Lo is for SPCC, quite like this combination, so scrapped a photo of Meaghan and her cousin Emma, so cute. Not sure about the background but am pleased with the rest of it.



Secondly, my new favouritist challenge site, Design Dollies, and another colour challenge. This is Henry in his first year in his jolly jumper. He loved it for a while and then tolerated it because he wanted to be moving rather than just jumping up and down. Matt on the other hand would have spent his childhood in it. he was addicted and often jumped himself to sleep, so funny.





I hope you all have a great day, back to housework tomorrow. xx

Creativity Boot Camp

I came across this site just last week and thought it was just the thing to get me out of the routine I have found my self in. Madeline Bea has put together a two week class, full of prompts and some thought provoking ideas (and exceptionally generously, it costs absolutely nothing to join in). You pick your medium and off you go.

My medium is of course scrapbooking but with a slight, self imposed twist. I have decided to do a scrapping art journally thing, and use only what is available on my desk and immediate surrounds. I have a stack of photos that I have printed off but didn't use in my work. And I have a stack of paper, ribbons etc. i also decided not to spend to much time on each page - just get it down and see how I go, pretty rough but good fun.

Day 1

Prompt - Ivory

This word has so many meanings to me, not just a colour but the feeling of a bygone era, old china, old paper, soap, it's a word you can touch and smell. And on Day 1 I broke my own rule by using the printer, but it was printed onto paper I had nearby (sigh). It was also the colour of my wedding dress, which I made myself (things were a bit tight when we got married, just bought a new house, Matt was two already and it seemed a waste of money to me to spend thousands on a dress I would wear only once. ( it was also the last item of clothing I made for myself, but I digress). I still have no regrets, except possibly leaving it so late that Mum spent the night before hemming it....


Day 2 Picnic


Picnics equal sunshine, hats, flies and a good deal of running around. This came together quickly and isn't strictly a picnic photo it has that same feel about it for me and that's all that counts...

Day 3 multilayered



My favourite so far. I love have layer upon layer on my work so scrapbooking wise this wasn't so much of a challenge. What I liked most was using this photo of the tiger in The Saigon Zoo. It is a multilayered photo with the cage very much in prominence. And my feeling about the zoo were also very multilayered, guilt at the awful lifestyle these animals had but also a pleasure at being able to see these beautiful creatures up so close you could reach out and touch them (if you were deranged that is). Very pleased with the way this turned out.

Stay tuned for futher experiments..

Ok off to pick Henry up from school now, so very cold here today, am hoping that it rains so tennis is called off, does this make me a bad mother?Probably but it is so very bitter out there...

I love this

My new favourite site, go check it out, here THXTHXTHX. Makes you think about saying thank you to the less appreciated things in life, always good to look at things from another angle.


I will admit to Monday being my favoourite day at the moment after very hectic weekends, it is nice to sit back and take a big {quiet} breath....

xx

Messy Sketchy thursday

Although I intended to get nice and messy with this one, I ended up cheating somewhat and going digital. It still looks messy though - that counts doesn't it? I think I will use this sketch from sketchy Thursday again though.

June Butterfly Craft Visual Challenge

The latest Butterfly challenge is up - the last visual challenge for a while as Karen is taking a well deserved break for the summer over there (ah warmth, I remember you well...). he picture used for inspiration is a lovely floaty, summery feeling ad. Well that is more than my imagination is up for at the moment when I am feeling anything but summery and floaty (so not a winter person...). So i took the butterflies and the pinky bits as well as using a single image, my rapidly growing 13yo. I think if I did it again I would use smaller butterflies and quite a few more of them.

Any way go check out the challenge over here as well as the lovely work the other girls did.

Colour Combos Galore is back up and running after a couple of months break. They have a whole new, very spunky look to their challenges. This was for last weeks challenge, colours including, turquoise - icing - cookie dough - pink sprinkles(don't you just love those names??). The latest challenge has just gone up, along with their new design team, loving the new look.

I used an old photo of Matt and Meaghan messing around, must have been just about when Meaghan was 2 I think. So funny to think of them that small with no Henry in sight (and with Meaghan being the complete cow of a two year old, he certainly wasn't even a possibility then!).

Quite pleased with the way this turned out.


More exciting news for me - I have just been named as guest Designer (in November) for the very fun Design Dollies site, yay, yay, yay. Should be great fun, very much looking forward to that. They also have a new design Team, full of wonderfully talented people, love their work.


Have a great weekend - we're off to the fete at our local preschool (this weekend Jo...) after our various sporting commitments. Hopefully a quite weekend after the madness last weekend.


xxx

Wet Weekend

and you would think that would mean a nice couple of days snuggled up,, maybe get some crafty stuff done. But no...

Saturday started out so promisingly with a phone call saying Henry's soccer was off (yay). Meaghan's was still on, in the rain so I managed to get a park by the fence with the intention of staying warm and dry, until a phone call from Matt ("we don't know if we can get to the place we're supposed to be...") So back home and off to the other side of town, back to the soccer and having lost my parking spot had to stand in the rain to watch a close game between Meaghan's team and another team from her school (THE grudge match - although the half time speech 'you have to stop gossiping with the opposition...' is not a common pep talk). Unfortunately Meaghan's team lost, but meaghan probably had her best game so far, very proud of her.

Off to ABBA revisited that night with friends, haven't been out dancing for eons, so very, very much fun. The memories came flooding back and of course singing along at the top of my exceptionally untuneful voice was a high light, luckily everyone else was doing the same, so no one cared (at least that's what I tell myself in the hash reality of daylight...).

Back home before 11 to find out Geoff hadn't picked Matt up, so back in the car I go, sigh. And that was only Saturday.

Sunday equally busy (dropping Matt at hockey, shopping, picking niece up to spend afternoon with us, flattish tyre -luckily no change required.. etc). The highlight (??) being the suggestion from my husband (and stupidly agreed to by myself) that a ride around the lake (25km) would be fun and we could squeeze it in before the rain hit, HA.. We probably had about 10minutes out before light drizzle hit, not too bad so we kept going, HA, wetter and wetter we got, the rain was a lovey steadily getting heavy rain rain that seems so rare in Canberra, HA.

I have never been so wet in a non aquatic event before, the upside being, besides the exercise, I repeat HA, is that Geoff owes me big time now, hmmm, where's that credit card again...

Monday, after the normal school rush, plus dentist appointment for Henry saw me kick back and do not much at all, just one Lo as my Cocoa Daisy kit arrived (yay). Everything used on this Lo is from their May Kit with some of their add ons as well. How yummy is that??

I used a sketch from Twisted Sketches, with the twisted to include something New. This is about Mum when she was a new teacher, 50 kids in her class (and we complain if there's more than 20 in the kindy classes now..). Once she married dad, she no longer taught but quite a few of her pupils still live nearby, and still call her Miss Hawke (in fun mostly) and most are heading towards being grandparents themselves.



Enough rambling now, back to my token attempts at housework...

xx