sketchy thursday

our main computer has died so am resorting to Geoff's laptop - none of my settings or passwords for so many sites are on this one. very frustrating. No mouse either which i have to say is slowing me down somewhat...

Yes, I have finally gotten around to watching twilight. I enjoyed the movie more than the books, which I don't think were particularly well written. Some aspects of the movie were disappointing, ie the special effects looked half hearted and a couple of the characters weren't well cast but i guess that what happens. managed to have morning tea with Jo, who is a Twimum, and we will go see new moon together soon.

On the plus side I have read Mao's last dancer, loved it so much, can't wait to see that movie. Am also reading Eat, pray love and also enjoying that as well. I have heard the criticism that the author is annoyingly selfish but i think if I had no children, was getting over a marriage breakup and was being paid to travel, then so be it, off you go. she writes so well, very enjoyable.

And lastly this is the latest sketch from sketchy Thursday. Henry managed his first outdoor swim of the season when we were down visiting Poppy. The temp was heading towards 40, although the pool water temp was considerably less. I hung around the steps with my feet in, while Henry bounded from side to side.

it's a girl

Congratulations to me , I'm an auntie again!!

I suppose some credit can go to Trace (esp Trace, pushing our 9lb10 of baby can't be easy!!), Rob and Emma. A new baby girl - Holly Jade - was born just before lunch today. yay.

a story to read

This was a pictureless challenge for the weekend. The trip was a diasaster from beginning to end - these are just some of the highlights - much more went on (none of it good) but a trip to remember and laugh about (we actually got to the laughing within weeks -probably coinciding with retrieving our stuff from Jindabyne - aaahh, the resilience of youth).

Am just about to hop on my bike and attempt to get tickets to see Twilight - not New Moon. I suspect I am the only female over the age of 12 who has yet to see the movie and they are showing it at the cinemas just before New Moon is released, so I am off with Jo to see it.

I am feeling quite pleased with myself this morning. I have decided that if I see something that really annoys me, then I will do something about it. Our local government website, where you pay rates etc was badly designed and very difficult to get to the actual paying part without much swearing and ending up at the truck drivers licencing aite (I don't know why but that is where I always ended up...).
So I wrote a very rude email to which I recieved a very terse reply (probably deservedly). I apologised for my first email and more calmly pointed out the poor design features of their site. Today I recieved an email from the poor man I had harangued, with a list of changes that had been made, and now I can get where I want to go with only one or two clicks and no swearing. Maybe I should get that truck drivers licence after all - if only I could find it...


And Trace went into hospital at 10pm last night and still no news yet (10am here now). I hope it is all going well but she had a very long labour first time so I hope they don't let her go to far this time. My longest labour was 9 hours so I can't begin to imagine a long labour. I will let you know as soon as I hear x
have a good day

I'm back and just about all scrapped out

Turns out my father had a mild heart attack last Sunday so Henry and I had a quick trip down south. Dad was in Wangaratta hospital and then taken to Melbourne for tests. He had a blockage so they put in a stent (all with a local anaesthetic) and he was home again on Saturday. It was, to put it mildly, stinking hot, but they have a pool so Henry made use of that.

It made me realise the advantage of living in a small country town. The phone calls and visits, both to Mum at home and dad in hospital (55kms away)all helped make dad feel better. when none of Dad's family could pick him up from Melbourne, one of his friends drove down, picked him up and brought him home, where they were greeted with a casserole to take home by his wife. All good.

the only down side was that my new nephew/niece was due (in the same hospital) last weekend and they still haven't put in an appearance. Poor Trace must be getting very sick of it by now. Inducement on Wednesday if nothing happens in the meantime.

Back home and The Studio has had a huge weekend of scrapping with challenges every two hours over 48hours. To participate and be eligible for some of the wonderful prizes you had to donate to The Water charity, which brings access to clean water in underdeveloped nations. So far have scrapped 10 pages and maybe able to get two more in before the deadline. These are some of my fav's so far.
Monica McNeills 6 word journalling

The wonderful (and probably now exhausted) organiser, Amanda's vintage challenge

Lovely Laura's favourite place challenge

stacey Julians freehand heart challenge

Sketchy Thursday Sketch plus water theme challenge.

quick post

Hi everyone, just to let you know I will be out of town for a couple of days. Dad has had some health issues and Henry and I are making a quick trip to see him.

Hopefully
a) will be back for twilight fair and charity weekend for the Studio (see here - was hoping to blog about this more this week maybe friday) and
b) my new niece/nephew (due yesterday) is born very very soon as Trace is going to deliver in the same hospital where dad is.

have a good week xx

matt the actor part 2

Here he is in full regalia as Bishop Ridcully and with The Patrician. He loved the hat...

sketchy thursday

I like this sketch a lot.

The castle is a playground in the middle of the main park in town. Lots of rocks, looks dangerous but the kids love it. They closed it down a couple of years ago and we thought it was going the way of all older playgrounds that were deemed unsafe but they added padding to the groung and a few more saftey rails and it is practically the smae. Henry thinks it is wonderful, lots of tunnels that led in different direction and a nice Henry sized hidey hole. Wonderful place...