Congratulations

I just wanted to say a huge congratulations to my scrapping buddy Elise McKay for becoming the newest member of Scrapboxx's Design Team. Head over to her blog and check out her amazing work, as well as being a great friend she is an awesome scrapper. I am soooo happy for you chickie.

Back online

Phew, I am finally back, I have missed my internet, just been popping in every now and then at work.

Nothing much doing here, we have moved but are still in a huge mess. Just in the process of buying some new furniture etc and getting some storage to go in the wardrobes. And the best bit, I now have a whole scrap corner in the office and it is a mess already. I scrapped today, can't share sorry, but I guess you will see it soon enough. Anyways, did I tell you how excited I am that I have my own scrap space!!!!!

Will be back tomorrow or Saturday to share my daughter's exciting news - CIAO!!!!!

Look what I found

I have been off blog hopping and look what I have come across -

Michelle has a new Etsy store and to celebrate is giving some of these away on her blog.

Go and have a looksee and leave a comment to be in the running to win some of these cute buttons, I have, good luck. Here is the link to her store - Lil' Red Rocket, those buttons would look so cute on a layout.

See you at the other end.

Well I am still packing. The move is all set for Thursday, really not looking forward to it at all, I really HATE moving. And to top it all off, no pool at the other end, until we get ourselves organised and put one in.

I just wanted to stop by and let you all know I will be offline for a while, hopefully back on the weekend, depends if Telstra play nice with the phone line.

See you soon.

Honey I'm home

Hey all, the retreat was fabulous, I did lots of scrapping, heaps of talking, far too much eating and far too little sleeping. As we are packing up the house and most of my scrap stuff is now with it, I finished off some LO's I did at the Scrapboxx retreat in March - here are the two from Mardi's class

These five LO's were from Sheree McGee's class from the retreat, how gorgeous are they? I didn't do the classes, but purchased the kit and here is the results.

This was the April Boxx of Scraps kit and I used the first Inspired Blueprints sketch (#35) for November to do this LO. Gee my hubby is a good looker, must remember to tell him.

And last but not least - this one was just for fun using some gorgeous papers from Crate Paper, My Minds Eye & Sass Lass. The chipboard clouds are from Scrapping Outback, the birdie pin is from My Little Bit of Whimsy and the plane is from an embellishment pack from Sass Lass

Thanks girls for the lovely weekend, I had a blast. A huge thankyou to Lesa and Tracey who organised the retreat for us, it was just a friends only retreat, no affiliation to any shop, they just did it out the goodness of their hearts. You are two very special ladies.

Tomorrow I'm off

Woohoo, heading off tomorrow afternoon to a local retreat. Even though it is only 10 minutes down the road, I am sleeping over for 2 nights and NO KIDS!!!! It is just a small retreat some of my scrapping buddies put together, I think there are about 20 of us going. No cooking, no kids fighting, just me time, scrapping, talking, laughing. I really can't wait. I soooooo need some relax time.

Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing to show on the scrap front at the moment. We are moving house in 2 weeks, so have been slowly packing up the house, and over the last few days have been packing up my scrap stuff. Huge job, I have sorted all my papers and embellies and given a heap to Megs and taken the rest into school. My retreat gear has been packed for weeks now, so hopefully will have some LO's to share when I get home. I am taking one of Sheree McGee's class packs from the Scrapboxx retreat I went to in March, I think it has about 6 LO's to do. Hopefully that will get the creative juices flowing.

So I guess I shall see you all when I get home.

Take the time

to play with your kids, to laugh with your kids, to cherish your kids. I stumbled across the website of the most amazing photographer a few years back, her work is sublime. But I also discovered her family's tragic story and from it learnt to give hugs more freely, to dance and be silly, to listen to my kids when they want to tell me a story and talk about their day, to love my life.

Here is a post that Sheye wrote that still brings tears to my eyes.

My Darling Super Princess, Forever Cherished.

This is a very hard post to write but I feel I owe it to the hundreds of people who have shown support to our family throughout the World over the last two weeks.
On Saturday the 3rd of February, on a very “normal”day in our normal, happy life, our World was shattered. In short, our beautiful daughter Ava got into our car which was, unusually, parked in full sun in the middle of the day. She had been with Grandad who lives next door (we have one wall around both properties) and said she was returning to my house but in fact went searching for something in the car. We always lock it. Just not that day. Once she got in she shut the door and was not able to find her way back out.
Our princess fought so bravely for two days in ICU but on Monday the 5th of February, she flew to Heaven.
Words can never express the pain in our heart or the void we feel. It makes no sense but we are so grateful to have had her for three years and we will continue to work very hard to provide our other three children a wonderful childhood filled with happy memories.
Ava, my amazing, sweet, clever Super Princess..I miss you with every ounce of my being. I love you to the moon and back.

Your will find Sheye's Blog here

Please save a copy of this postcard and send it on to all your friends, it may just save a life. Hopefully you can read it ok, if not you should be able to save it and read it later.

How gorgeous are these......

flowers??????

You can get them here. Ebony van der Starre is one of my fave scrappers at the moment and her mum is making these flowers. Oops, I have ordered a pack of each colour, but I just couldn't resist.

Goodness - a whole page!!!!!

Well, the latest issue of scrapbook creations is out (Issue 71) and look what was inside -





I knew I was having a layout published, but had no idea it was going to be a WHOLE PAGE! I did this page as a challenge at The Boxx retreat in Augusta, Western Australia in March this year. We had to use the packaging off some paper packs, a stationary tag and a Tim Holtz Grungeboard number. The photo was taken on the beach at Peregian, New Years Eve 2008 with Ash's best mate Brad. Ash was a bit embarassed when he saw the mag.

Here is the layout -

And finally, this was the first LO I had published in Scrapbooking Memories a few months back. Photo was taken on the same day as above, guess the scrap mags like my hubby - LOL!!!! I used scrummy October Afternoon papers and the journalling block was given to me by my gorgeous scrap buddy Tammy Templeton. She designs chipboard under her Pumpkin Pink label for Stuff to Scrap. Thanks Tam.

Thanks for stopping by, leave me a comment if you get the chance, I love to read them.

Dad's 70th Birthday

Hey dad, Happy 70th birthday. We made a trip up to the coast to celebrate my dad's 70th. My big bro, Len, his son Joel, the kids, my mum and dad and Ash and I all made a trip to the new Pacific Paradise Tavern. We had a fabulous lunch and a wonderful time. Here are just a few photos -

Mum and Dad with all the grandkids

And finally a shot of the kids and I, love this one.

Ash and I were so fortunate to be able to attend this years NRL Grand Final and we spent the weekend in Sydney staying at the Sheraton on the Park. Have to say the service was fantastic and the room beautiful. Unfortunately no Qld teams made it this year, but we figured we would cheer for the Storm, they have so many Queenslanders in their team anyways. So they came home with a win, and we had a fabulous time. Watching from a corporate box is just the best, we had our own waiter and had dinner and all drinks for the day. Hope we get asked again next year.

Another Layout Share

I scrapped today with my old scrapping buddy Cyn, she hasn't scrapped for so long, she had almost forgotten how. Anyway I did this LO for Ali's Weekly challenge over at the Boxx. We had to scrap a layout using a progression of photos. I also used the monthly sketch challenge from Scrapping Outback for my LO. These are some of my favourites of Blake, we took him to Movieworld for his third birthday. The journalling reads "How cute. We were waiting in line to go on a ride when Blake decided he wanted a big hug with Daffy - July 03". How gorgeous was my little boy, he used to be such a little softie. He is now nine, so it was great to do some old photos. Hmmmmmm I think I am loving yellow at the moment.

How cute is the little blue birdie pin. I found it over at My little bit of whimsy. She has the cutest things in her shop. Thanks to Kathleen Glossop for giving me the link to it.

Our holidays

We've had a very busy holiday so far. It started a bit early - Megan had FISAF National Titles for Hip Hop in Melbourne the first weekend, so we flew to Melbourne on Thursday. What a huge weekend, Megs danced on Friday night and qualified second for the finals on Sunday. Unfortunately they didn't dance as well and came in fifth, still a good result, but she was awfully disappointed that she didn't get a medal. We got to go to the Vic Markets, did a bit of shopping and spent heaps of time on the trams and at Albert Park. But we were very glad to come home on Sunday night.

Ash and Blake had already left on Saturday to go to Pottsville and set up camp for us, so first thing Monday morning we were in the car. We caught up with some ladies from school who were also down there, so the kids had a ball with heaps of other kids to play with. Here are some quick shots -

We drove up to Bribie the other day and caught up with Donna, Tam and Elise from the Boxx. The kids had a play in the park and we got fish and chips for lunch. Had lots of laughs with the girls, it was great to see you again.

And we have just done movies and caught up with friends the last two days. We saw Aliens in the Attic and G-Force, both movies were great (well for kids movies anyway). Only a few days left then Ash and I are off to Sydney for the Grand Final, such a shame no Qld teams are in it.

At last

I scrapped, it's been almost a month. I struggled a bit to get started but finally finished up with something I am happy with. I used the current Scrapboxx masterscrap theme - "when I was little", and used it to complete the gorgeous Miss Mardi's weekly challenge - scrap a page using red, pink and yellow. The photo is of me, taken out at the farm mum and dad had. I love that little outfit I have on, so cute. And my fave colour is still red too.

A catch up

Our house is a madhouse I swear. I just cannot seem to keep up these days.

September 5th - we were lucky enough to get to the Lions home final, it was awesome to see them play so well, unfortunately they couldn't carry it on the following week to beat the Doggies, but we are so proud of them anyway. They have done so well this season and can't wait to see what they can do next year - bring it on!!!!!!

Just a few shots from the night -

We love you Brownie!!!!!!

We had a great Father's day, didn't get to see my dad, but here is a photo of Ash with the kids, he so hates it when I get the camera out.

I'll be back tomorrow hopefully to try and catch up with the rest of the month, and I have absolutely no layouts to share, I am scrapped out after completing the mini-masters. I am hoping my mojo comes back very soon.

Cheers

Deb

First!!!!!!!!

Ever published LO, this months Scrapbooking Memories. In the Encore Gallery, me and hubby, and much excitement here. But apparently I live in Victoria - what the?????? No offence to anyone from Victoria, but it is much too cold for me down there. Must send Cassie a quick email to let her know so that they get it right for the next one.

One proud mumma

Earlier in the year the kids completed some of the ICAS testing, a non-compulsory Australia wide testing. They have done really well with Blake receiving two credits, one for computer skills, one for spelling, and Megan receiving a distinction (the top five percent) for spelling. I am so proud of them both. The maths results are still to come, but here is my little guy receiving his award on assembly.

Congratulations!!!!!

Busy, busy, busy

What a busy last month. Ash has been away a lot, fishing on mornington island and off on business trips. Probably lucky as I have had heaps of time to scrap.


Over the last month I have been madly getting together my entry for the Scrapping Outback Mini Masters. We had to prepare a Monochromatic layout including at least 2 photos, a double layout including at least 4 photos, a mini album and a layout using only goodies from the pack provided. Well the good news is I have scored a guest DT spot for a month out of the comp. A big congrats to Leanne Triggs who was the overall winner. Your entry was gorgeous and you are a well deserved winner.

One of my entries was picked up by Scrapbooking Memories, but here are the other three -




Thanks so much Rachelle, Sandra, Jules and Trudi for all your hard work. We finished the comp last night with a cybercrop which was a hoot. The forum ladies are all so much fun.


I'll be back tomorrow with an update on the kids.


I can't believe I survived my first real post.


Cheers
Deb

By george she's done it

Well I have finally bitten the bullet and started blogging. Do I think anyone will care, well probably not, but I thought it would be a great place to let my family and friends know what we have been up to.

So I shall be back soon, to do my first real post.