Welcome to Inking Pink Blog Hop

This is my first blog Hop, so be gentle..

Welcome to our Inking Pink Awareness Hop! I hope you enjoyed Jess' blog. Our paper crafting community spans the globe and brings all of us together under a common roof. We are grandmothers, granddaughters, mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, best friends, wives, cyber-friends and design team teammates.I am sure we have all been touched by breast cancer, either personally or knowing a close friend or relative who has been diagnosed. Please, please regularly self examine and also get your Dr to check your breasts at your next appointment.

This is an enormous hop, which just shows what a great community of crafters we belong to. I love that we have access to talented people world wide - how lucky are we?? This is the perfect excuse to kick back and discover new blogs (you can always say it's for a good cause if anyone should enquire about how you spent your day..)

Our hop starts at Patricia's blog (she has done an amazing job putting all this together) so if you started some where else please start there you don't want to miss what we have for you.

Ok, this month why not put together a Lo or a card that has pink on it somewhere, just to remind yourselves that it is Breast cancer awareness month?

To help you with that I have some very pink and yummy blog hop candy that I am giving away (to anyone, anywhere!!). All nice and pink with some chipboard, stamps and a few other bits and pieces thrown in. Just leave a comment and you will be in the running for my little pile of goodies.

I am not a pink person but I have done a Lo with pink (well some pink..) for my daughters 14th birthday. So grown up now -sigh.

(using the latest Design Dollies sketch, more news about them soon!!)

Thanks for dropping by. Off to Kellies blog now, she has some very cool stuff to look at over there, have fun

In case you get lost along the way here is a list of hops (25!!).

Patricia

Betty

Bonnie

Carisa

Catherine

Chelsea

Danielle

Emma

Gini

Jamie

Jennifer

Jess

Karen (yay me)

Kellie

Liz

Lorie

Marlene

Meredith

Nicole

Shelley

Stephanne

Susan

Trudy

Kim

So, off you go - lots of yummy sites to explore, much bounty to be had in the form of blog candy, leave love wherever you go and SELF EXAMINE!!

PS will be drawing a winner on November 1st so check back in. xx

Some blog candy for our blog hop

Just a sneaky peek of some of the blog candy I will have up for grabs on our blog hop which begins tomorrowish (time diffences, must check that out..) - yay. Lots of pink in honour of the occasion. So make sure you drop on by and I will give you a list of the lovelies on the hop, lots more candy out there to be had. Take a peek on Patricia's blog for a few more piccy's of the great stash to be had and a lovely cause to be aware of.

But for the moment, a little Lo for sketchy Thursdays. Henry had his first official morning of cricket on the weekend. He took it seriously, paying very close attention to every ball and loved having a bat and a bowl. On a very selfish note, I am looking forward to this season for the very simple reason that Geoff loves cricket and is more than willing to help out. This means I get a sleep in (of sorts) on Saturday and can wander down whenever I like. Gotta love that!


Of course he had a pie for lunch and dripped tomato sauce all down the front of his brand new white shirt, sigh...

Ok see you at some stage tomorrow (actually I think it will be Wednesday here) , can't wait. xx

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that Southern girls has their next challenge up. This fortnight we hit the glitter!! how cool is that?? Lots of wonderful entries already and still another week to get your entry in. Go check it out!! xx

This is one for Irini

and I owe her an email (sorry my friend..). Any way, Irini has recently started a new challenge blog, for both Greek scrappers and, luckily for us, international crafters. yay!!

The first challenge was autumnal (always 6 months out here!), using classic autumn colours and to incorporate a leaf in somewhere. I used one of the photo's I took of Henry while we were visiting floriade (our local spring/bulb show). He has picked up a bad habit, from his big sister, of scowling when I want a photo of him. This has occurred at an earlier age than the other two. Is it their direct influence, or because I am a scrapper and take too many photo's now?? i think I shall just blame the siblings...



So go check out Irini's site, it has a great prize this month, and the second challenge is up as well.

I have been busy this evening as well as Geoff has been working late. So I did a couple more of the sketch challenges from pencil lines, so much work has gone into their 4th birthday challenges.

I was going to apologise to my little bro for these photo's but I wouldn't really mean it...

This one is using sketch #43, and is, well obviously digital, mostly elements from 9th and bloom again.

And lastly sketch #108, this is Meaghan many years ago (I think this was just after her horrible cow stage..) She loved this dolly but unfortunately we lost her when we were shopping one day. replacements were never the same. I can see a resemblance to her cousin Emma (who is about this age now) in this photo, both very cute.


Henry starts cricket tomorrow - should be interesting. Matt (only three exams left in the next 2 weeks!!) and Meaghan will probably spend the day at the Girls grammar fete and I will be gardening (and possibly bike riding) should be an ok weekend.

Holiday planning has come to a bit of a stop - not good when we only have 7 weeks to book, and over the Christmas break. We have made it to Laos, and still need to book flights back through Vietnam and back to Malaysia and then home (not to mention accommodation...).

Hmm, must get on...

blaghhhh

not feeling well today, but at least the weather is on the improve. spent
half the night worrying whether Matt was sick as well - not good with his exams on.
Of course he was Ok, I however needed a nap this morning.

Anyway, in lieu of going out for a ride or much needed follow up gardening, I actually did some scrapping. Not entirely pleased with the result, I'm not sure I'm in the right mind set at the moment.

I've been wanting to do a page about our cat for a while. So i am pleased this is My favourite things has come up with favourite pet this week. Our wally was 10 this year, which is the grandest age any of our pets have achieved. And he is one of the nicest. Lots of purring, although he is getting very demanding in his old age, so he gets a lot of time outside...



Next is for pencil lines, I haven't dropped by their site for a while now. stacks of sketches up at the moment and stacks of cool prizes to celebrate their 4th birthday. Scrap rat (yummy, yummy) has sponsored one of the sketches so that made it irresistible.




It's a bit green...

I'm off to bed now, hopefully better tomorrow. xx

this was how we spent our weekend

filling this up. Our yard is a jungle and I suspect we could have filled it again..



Am fairly worn out today.

Matt is currently sitting his second HSC exam. first one went Ok, although not for those of us waiting in the car park We were told it finished at 11:30, and so I rushed off from a very lovely morning tea with Jo to be there on time...

an hour later Matt and the others strolled (well ran as it was bucketing down rain) out. turns out the exam did finish at 11:30 but it takes an awfully long time to collect three separate papers from 150 boys (and yes, Matt was nearly last again, curse marrying a 'W").

Anyway, because he was still studying, he was no use in the garden and Meaghan quickly ran away to ice skating and the movies , so we were left on our own. Well, Henry was helpful in that he occasionally distracted us with some soccer practice..

No crafting done at all in the past week, I am feeling weak...

But I will be involved in a blog hop for a truly worthwhile cause.

The blog hop is starting at the lovely Patricia's blog here. She has done a great job organising lots of other girls, it will be a big one.

I (and quite a few of the others) will be giving away some blog candy, stay tuned for more details. Should be fun and it is always fun to visit other very talented ladies sites.

Have a great day, am hoping my latest Cocoa daisy kit will arrive today, yum.

back at school

and I finally get a little bit of quiet time - yay. Even Matt has gone back to do a couple of classes before his big exams start on Friday..

So a little quiet time equals some scrapbooking. I am avoiding scrap shopping on the net as the Aussie dollar is nearly at parity with the US and I am afraid things could get messy (as in completely out of control, I must, must have that, type of messy!!) if I begin to look, so I will hold off that temptation for a few days (maybe...).

So scrapping I have done. Firstly for These are a Few of My Favourite things. (hope Brookie is feeling better Julie x)

This week it is to scrap your favourite fictional character. Where to start? First I decided to rule out TV and Film characters (although there is some cross over with my actual fav's) and concentrate on my literary fictional favs. My first memories are of Berenstein Bears books (I actually won this book for my reading skills in Kindy, how clever was I? Don't answer that Rob...). And my current fav is the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Love them (and also love the adaptation of the True Blood spin off, different but still addictive). It's funny in both I really couldn't take to Bill but loved the character of Eric.

And then my dilemma was, what about all the characters I have loved in between? So I started listing them, and even after I finished I realised I have missed many, many loves (namely Miss Elizabeth Bennett for a start...).

But I am fairly pleased with the end result.It doesn't mention my obsession with both scary Virginia Andrews in my teen years or Stephen King until he started straying into Misery etc. But I can't really say any characters from these series stayed in my heads as a fav. (and the scary clown from It, while memorable, gave me too many nightmares to be counted!!)


I love the font used for the heading. It is from 9th and Bloom, called Gimme space but the designer has left so I'm not sure if you can buy it anymore.


And of course I needed to do the latest from sketchy Thursday (just for you Julie I put them on the same day so you only have to comment once... )My Lo featuring Henry and his photos was chosen as a fav there last week - yay, always exciting to see your work chosen.



This Lo is long overdue. I have had the photo's printed out for a while but hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them yet.

These are my completely bestest, best friends in the whole world (is that enough sucking up to them yet??). Anyway it has been a hectic year for all of us so our birthday get togethers haven't been a s regular as usual. So this was a triple birthday treat. Unfortunately the restaurant wasn't that good but the company was great so all OK.

Hopefully we can all get together soon as we had two birthdays over the holidays but we have to wait for the very excited Jodie to get back from her trip to Paris (how jealous am I? She will have a ball and deserves it xx). so something to look forward to.

Time to get Henry from school now, hope he had a good first day (last term was a hard one for him). Just paid for Meaghan's tennis lessons for the term, and yes that seems to have brought the rain on.

have a great day xx

PS don't forget about the Southern Girls challenge, we've had some great entries already.

It's Friday

and I have managed to get two lo's done tonight. This is unusual for me as I really don't scrap at night but I had some new stuff from Studio Calico and the days have been too busy (clearing the garden out to fill up a skip arriving tomorrow).

This one is for Design Dollies, both for their sketch and colours (this week: brown, ivory, red and blue). I love the little cosmo cricket bunny.


And the trip back in time is a scraplift (of the wonderful Tessa's Lo) for the Paper Variety. I used her painted background - still not comfortable with paint - mist yes, paint ,no..

This is our Henry when he was two - wasn't his hair wild? Just like a little Einstein.

He had his party at Questacon, he just loved it. So much in fact that when we walking back to the car (car park on one side, reasonably busy road on the other), I was looking into my bag for my keys, when I looked up, Henry had gone. EEEP. I panicked. When I had first checked the road, then the car park, Iran inside, yelling out for Henry. A very nice man said a little blonde boy had just made his way back inside. He was going back in to see the dinosaurs again - phew. I haven't lost him since then..

Ok, more holiday research time, still after advice from anyone who has visited Laos...


have a great weekend. xx

Southern Girls challenge #3

This week the Southern girls challenge is to use four (or more) layers of patterned paper. This is right up my alley as I love patterned paper.

I also used the paper to make some little spirally flowers. These are so easy to make and look very effective.

The photo is from Matt's last week, where they had an international day, a good excuse to dress up. Many of the boys decided that laid back American (ie what they wear everyday) counted but quite a few went to an enormous amount of effort. A few of Matt's friends hired Spanish Matador outfits and spent the day walking around the school serenading the teacher's - very cool.

Any way back to the challenge, the prizes this week are a voucher to spend at Scrap Box NZ for the Aussie/kiwi girls and for the international girls, 4 digi stamps from Meljen Designs who have some very cute images available.

We are also looking for a Guest designer for the 5th challenge (early Nov) , so just enter this challenge and leave a message in the comments section that you're interested, we are a lovely bunch of girls to play with!!

Have a great day, off to do some housework now (aargh), very tricky when I have a whole brand new pile of goodies from Studio Calico that arrived on my doorstep yesterday..

Maybe as a reward.

PS If anyone has been to Laos recently, would love to hear about your experiences, looks like we are off there for our next hols. xx

Floriade

Finally soem scrappy time on the computer. Between the kids on hols and planning our Christmas trip (a headache at this early planning stage but that is a story for another time), I haven't had much of a turn.

Anyway...

This year we did Floriade in three sessions, separately of course (we couldn't have the teenagers hanging out with Mum and little brother!!). Meaghan went to a night session with friends, Henry and I went last week and Matt went today- with a GIRL!!

Anyway, we had also just recently replaced our point and shoot camera with a new lighter version and the kids are fighting over it. i handed it over to Henry for his first official shoot and these are some of the images he came up with. It added another dimension to the day and he can't wait to take some more shots.

This Lo is for sketchy Thursday. Another great sketch.

Stay tuned on Wednesday as my lovely Southern Girls Challenge Team lets loose another challenge. there were some great entries for the last challenge and can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Have a great Tuesday. xx