One for my daughter

Meaghan was looking through my blog the other day, complaining quite loudly that all the lo's were of Matt and Henry. Well, when all you do is this -




every time I point the camera your way, what can I work with??? I am also banned from using any photos she has taken at school, or with friends.

And although she has banned me from using this photo (self portrait), I quite like it, so I am risking teen crankiness and I am daringly using it for the latest Sketchy Thursday sketch.


I got these digi supplies an age ago from Little dreamer Designs (twilight Garden), great for a teenager.

Have a great day xx

What a very long week..

but at least Matt's suit arrived yesterday!!! Only 24 hours too late, or I guess a week early as Alex's formal is next week (trying to be positive here..)

And he does look good in it, photos when he is dressed up properly.

Ok, it's time for some more Dollie goodness. At weeks end we have the sketch. I LOVE this sketch.

And here is my take on it.




Henry had two conflicting parties on Sunday, luckily one started an hour earlier than the other so we were able to spend some time at both. The first was a n at home party and apparently got a bit wild after we left. Their was a planned water fight that nobody bothered to tell the parents of the kids attending, so no opportunity to put them in swimmers for the deluge that occurred. Lots of wet party clothes though (glad we left to be honest.)

Then we went onto the second party which was at an indoor rock climbing place. Henry has no arm strength and not a lot of confidence so he didn't go very high up. But he enjoyed the walls that were small and had lots of padding underneath. Lots of fun, and the cake had black icing, what 7yo male can go past that???

So go check out the Dollies site and give it a go, the prizes are fab. Alas this is my second last Lo as guest designer there, I have loved being a Dollie. Stay tuned for my last one mid next week.

Have a great weekend and I hope my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Oh, today I am thankful that the Ashes is closer than I initially thought, love Mike Hussey. (sorry to my non Australian, non sporting friends..).

xx

the formal

t
After one of the most hectic days I've had (well, for this term at least) I managed to get Matt off to the ball - Hooray!!

'In his new suit??" you may ask,

well no.

It failed to arrive on time.

After many a phone call this morning, we determined that the suit would not be arriving as promised, so my nightmares and lack of sleep last night were fully justified.

In the car we hopped and did the rounds of op shops. After many failed attempts, it was decided to buy some pants. shirts and tie from Target (to double as supposed work clothes next year) and top the ensemble off with a dinner jacket purchased (at great expense - half price $15) from the Salvos.

We were quite pleased with the way it all turned out.

And Alex looked stunning. The photo's don't do her justice (very bright sunshine today). Her makeup was understated just highlighted her eyes and skin I would kill for. sigh.

They were dropped off at a friends house with camera in hand (I expect to get about - oh -2 photos if I'm lucky unless Matt hands the camera over to his friends...).

waiting for the 'come and get us now' phone call, maybe in an hour or so.

good times. xx

PS today I am obviously grateful to have a son who happily wears op shop clothes.

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

Attitude of Gratitude - the missing days...

Ok, the weekend got in the way, so I have three things in my life to be thankful for today!


First - I am SO VERY thankful Matt has finally finished his last exam. He had french on Friday and was probably the most nervous I have seen him as french is his weakest subject. In the overall scheme of the HSC, this is most likely the one whose marks don't count (they only count your top 10 units, and this has to include English and Matt has done 13 units so a bit of leeway).


He has been to two parties over the weekend and we are currently planning his 18th - finally - for this coming weekend, nothing too big - and we might finally get to meet his girlfriend...


Secondly - I am very pleased that we have raised my children to be polite and welcoming.

We went to some old friends house on Saturday night and took Meaghan and Henry along as they have two daughters, one 2 years older than Meaghan but who goes to her school and the other daughter who is Meghan's age although a different school.

And they completely blanked her!

I was so cross, I would have been horrified if Meaghan had shown anywhere near that amount of rudeness to guests in our house.

and lastly - I love my friends so very much. We were out for dinner last night (except Jo - hope you are better soon xx) and it was just a lovely night. We have reached such a comfortable, happy stage of our relationships with each other, the support is always there.




what I am not grateful for at the moment is our internet speed - it is so deadly slow, it is driving me bonkers - arrgh. it has taken 10 minutes for it to download each of these photos, and they are only tiny file sizes. It's like we have gone back to dial up. Stupid Transact.

have a great day - we are anxiously awaiting news of some close friend's eldest child (age 15) who has gone in for some very major surgery today. I hope that the results will be on my thankful list tomorrow. xx

Today I'm a Dolly!!

Well a guest Dolly anyway - and I am very excited about it!! Today is sketch day and here is my interpretation of the wonderful fun sketch.


I flipped it around and of course misted and splatted the background. I also made my own kite (very tricky!!!) I'm quite pleased with the end result.



So please come and play with us over at the Dollhouse - we'd love to have you!!

Today my gratitude will be completely gratutuous and superficial (and it has been a long time since the world cup) but I am enormously thankful to the makers of true blood who gave us this




and this

and has managed to cast very close to what I had imagined the characters to be (including Bill, who I found dull in the books and comtinues to be on screen.) I will admit to being completely addicted to the series and am curenty finishing off series 3 (don't ask how we got that...).

and then the long wait for series 4.

ok, I HAD to put in the bonus picture - enjoy..

sigh...


have a great day.


and don't forget to go check out the Dollies and the Southern Girls. xx

A new Southern Girls Challenge

And this challenge is all about transport. A bit tricky to start with but then when I thought about it, there were many possibilities. Parents and grandparent transport, my first car, road trips, even amusement park rides. I went with the holiday theme as that is my obsession at the moment (like you hadn't noticed - sorry...).

This is from our last trip to Vietnam/Cambodia. It's funny when we first left home and read all the advice from the travel Bureau (don't hop on bikes, don't get into cars without seat belts etc) and we were going to stick by those rules. Well that lasted until we were out of Malaysia (approx 2 days). We didn't have the choice for seat belts and overcrowded cars, that's all that was available. And the bikes, we didn't go very far but they were so much fun - I suspect that option may be used more this trip. It's worth it just to see Geoff balanced on the back of a tiny bike - very funny!

Anyway go check out the challenge and the wonderful prizes! I think the other girls work on this challenge is my favourite stuff (technical term..) so far.

Which leads me to my gratefulness (???) for today. I am so grateful Louise and Trace chose me to be part of the team at Southern Girls. I have met some wonderful girls and been exposed to some art that I would not have come across. And that is always a good thing.

Back tomorrow for my first LO for Design Dollies. I am Guest designer this month and am very excited to be part of the team. I love this site!!!

have a great day xx

Holiday planning

Today I am more than pleased for the wonderful internet that allows me to book a holiday to suit us and not need a travel agent to do it for us.

We are spending close to a week in a place called Luang Prabang in the North of Laos. I have just booked a couple of nights at this place , very rustic but rave reviews about the experience from people who have stayed there. And each bungalow has it's own bathroom, my only requirement, I DO NOT like sharing bathrooms with strangers!!

When we showed Henry the pictures and asked if he wanted to stay there he asked if they had mosquito nets, and got the thumbs up when we confirmed this. Doesn't take much to satisfy our littlest traveller!! (I'm not sure if we will show Meaghan yet or not, she likes a little more comfort...)

We will then spend the rest of the week (including Christmas) in the town itself. Getting excited now...


Oh and we have booked our flight back to Melbourne from Kuala Lumper (very cheap), so now we just have to get from Laos back to Malaysia, hopefully via Vietnam..

have a great day. xx

PS I'm thinking about my 7 unknowns for Jo and will post tomorrow.

A digi Lo

for no particular reason. These photo's were taken earlier in the year and I have had this digi lo half done for a while now, so it is now finished. hooray.

and today I am thankful for RAIN.

After 10 years of less than average rain (ie a Drought!!), this year we have had lots of yummy rain. And it has turned our front yard from a weed filled dust bowl to something closer to a park. We have put chairs on our front verandah (very small one really) and spend most of the weekend there, reading or ignoring housework...



It is very pleasant indeed, now we have to paint the wooden frame work (not sighted in these photos) from mission brown (oh too common in Canberra) to something else. Will let you know.

have a great day xx

Thank you

Wow, what a blog hop!!! It was wonderful to have all you lovely ladies drop by and to make breast health a nice big issue. yay!! Ok on to the draw for my little pile of blog candy - this is exciting

Anyway, I plugged in the numbers to random.org and it came up with number 44. and that means our winner is Nadia!! I just went and checked out her blog, Nadia's world - it has some very cute stuff on it. So I will send you an email soon Nadia for contact details, congrats.

Ok, next item on the agenda has been started by Tessa at her blog, Perfectly Precocious. She has just the loveliest stuff, and has some beautiful embellishments for sale at her etsy store. Time to be grateful for all we have in our lives is the theme of the month.

And a jolly good time to do it too. I think I need to be reminded daily that my life is wonderful, no doubt about it but occasionally I whinge and complain about stupid things. Esp as Christmas is getting closed and everything gets busier and busier.

So today it an easy one.

I am grateful for all those who visited me last week for the Breast Cancer awareness blog hop. I love this online community and the lives we can reach and be included in, if only for a minute of two.

Go check it out and maybe put some time aside to think about the good things in life.

And lastly a Lo. I have recently joined an online community at Deb's creations. A few of my friends from Southern Girls hang out there as well. Last month was a sketch challenge for the scrapbookers (card challenges are also big!!). Here was my little entry. I have been struggling with using a plain cardstock background (other than white or black!) lately so I went with some red this time. A bit of mist and paint to break it up and I think I quite like the end result..


Ok, off to finish a couple of DT Lo's. Hopefully inspiration will strike and something nice will be the end result....

have a great day, will be back tomorrow. xx