I've had a great weekend!

I have had a really nice relaxed enjoyable family weekend this weekend. Owen had Saturday and Sunday off. Jack has been going to bed earlier than normal so I've had a bit of time to myself to scrap, and scrap I did. Jack has also been coming into our bed by himself and then sleeping in in the morning with us which has just been brilliant.

So anyhoo, enough of my sleep in bragging, here's the scrapping I've done. All the LO's are DT stuff for Scrappy Days. The Growing Up page will be a class taught LO and the other two are to demonstrate some new product they've just gotten in, the glossy brown papers which sand up fabulously, hence all the sanding in the LO's.And this is my Mummy's Advent Calendar Tree. On Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast and a little bit of scrapping we went and checked out the Tender Centre (auction place) and of course put some tenders on some junk that we really don't need, then we went to Hungry Jack's for lunch and a bit of a play, went and voted, got some groceries and then headed up to the hospital to see my Grandma.

Mum and Grandma went out shopping the other day and my Grandma collapsed and was taken to hospital by ambulance. Her blood pressure was through the roof and after some tests and things over the last few days it has been decided that she will have to have a pacemaker inplanted. So now she just has to wait for the surgeon in Brisbane to have a timeslot available and she'll be flown down by arial ambulance for surgery. Hopefully that will happen early this week.

On Sunday, after another leisurely sleep in and a bit of a play in bed with Jack, we headed to Harvey Norman to have our free photo with Santa taken. The look on Jack's face when he clapped eyed on Santa was priceless. He happily accepted a lolly, happily sat next to Santa (big change from last year) and then acted all shy and wouldn't smile for the camera. So anyway, they got one shot that wasn't too bad. I actually set up the Santa set on Friday for work and am really pleased with how it looks.
After Santa we headed out to the Heritage Village for the last markets before Christmas. I picked up a couple of sheets of paper but that was about it. I'm so glad Owen was off because ever since Jack had his first and only camel ride months and months ago, every day we have heard about the wobbly camel and of course the camel's were at the markets so he got to have a ride.

They also have a collection of farm animals that the kids can feed. Those goats and sheep must think all their Christmas's have come at once with the amount of food they get in that one day. Jack had a great time feeding them all.They also have all sort of old farming equipment and memorabilia and things around. Here's Jack having a turn at pumping the water.On our way home we stopped at our friends, Kim & David's place for a late lunch and then Jack and I headed off home and Kim, Jared & Charlotte came over to join us on our normal Sunday afternoon walk. Mum's been visiting Grandma at the hospital after work so she couldn't make it today but Jared and Jack and Kim, Charlotte & I had a great time. We of course stopped at the park so the kids could have a turn on the play equipement.

Here's a photo of the boys having a little hug on the way there. This age is just soooooo cute.And Jack concentrating on the surfboard. Note the tongue. :P
And of course what would be a Sunday night blog from me without flora photos.I also picked up some lovely dead branches for my over table Christmas decoration.

Anyhoo, I'm off to scrap. I saved this photo of Jack till last cause it's so cute. Ciao!

A couple of LO's to show...

I have two LO's to post tonight. More Christmas photos. I've used both of these as my entries for the EB Scrappy Awards.

Alrighty, I'm going to go and watch House and then maybe try to do some scrapbooking since my little man is in bed early tonight but before I go I just wanted to say WOW about all the international dots on my visitors map. Hi out there everyone who drops by, I hope my blog dosn't bore you too much.

Ciao

I've just come home from

seeing Missy Higgins live!!

Wow, she has the most amazing voice. She sounds exactly like she does on CD and it was a great live performance. If you get a chance to see her live I'd definately recommend it.

Christmas Playdough and some scrappin'

We had playgroup at our house this morning and Tricia bought over some glitter playdough for the kids to play with so after everyone left Jack and I made up some Christmas playdough of our own. Thanks for the recipe Tricia, it was so easy. It was a no cook recipe, just using boiling water and the dough has a fantastic texture.

I used red & silver glitter because that's what I had and it looks so cool.

Jack putting on his rubber gloves.
Kneading the doughJack the hand model with the finished productsAnd here's a LO of gorgeous little Nicola.Now Erica, if you don't want to see which photo I'm using for my Christmas cards then don't scroll down...everyone else check out this LO































When I saw the new Basic Grey Figgy Pudding range online I was so excited but when I saw it IRL I was a little dissappointed but now that I've actually used it I don't mind it at all. As I said above this is the photo I'm using for my Christmas cards too.And a close up of the title. I cut up the little freebie "imagine" word that came with one of the magazines last month to make the angel, then inked it and kindy glitzed it.Ok, bye for now. I'm off to go shopping.

It's my hubby's birthday today!!

Yep, he's caught me up again. My husband, Owen, turned 34 today!! Yaaaay!! His requested cake was carrot with cream cheese frosting so after he headed off to work today Jack and I started baking the cake. We creamed the eggs and sugar, added the vanilla and started measuring the dry ingredients into the seive which is when I discoverd that we had no baking powder and no bi-carb soda and no car. BUGGER!! So I thought for a couple of minutes and decided to go next door and see our friendly neighbour to see if she would have them. She had bi-carb but no baking powder. Now our street only has a few houses and a couple of units and is mainly elderley and baking powder is not an ingredient that I'd expect many people to have in their home. I started off down the street, asked at one house which is a family with 4 kids but no, no baking powder, went to the next house and no baking powder there either. There was however a very helpful husband in the kitchen up to his elbows in suds who says, "It's okay, I'll duck out to the shops and grab you some". Now we wave to these people and we've lived in the same street here for 11 years now and I've spoken to them about 3 or 4 times in those 11 years and here he is offering to duck down to the 7 to 11 for me. Isn't that nice!! So the cake got made and who knows maybe now we'll have a better relationship with our neighbours all because of my desperate need for baking products.

The cake turned out really well. Here's O and Jack blowing out the candles.

And big smiles for the camera. Like father, like son.Jack has a new favourite DVD at the moment. Can you guess what it is...?"To infinity & beyond"

We must have watched Toy Story about 15 times in the last week. It's a good movie though, I get a couple of giggles from it but yes, Jack's latest "thing" is to stand on the arm of the lounge, call out "To infiddity and be - ong?" and then jump on the lounge. Very cute, gives me a heart attack though. The joy of boys I guess.

Speaking of incorrect words to things, Jack's been singing Jingle Bells lately,

"Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way,

Oh my bum..."

Right, I'm off to scrap

Ciao

Warning-This post contains alot of photos

Owen is on two days off at the moment so yesterday we went to the beach. He actually had to go and install a home theatre system for a customer but afterwards we went to the beach for a bit of a dig in the sand and a little splash in the water. It was WINDY!!

While Jack & I were waiting for Daddy to finish his install we went for a big drive around looking at all the gorgeous beachfront real estate that I can't afford but would love to own. We also had a look at the singing ship which is the huge abstract concrete structure with wind pipes that play music. It's been there for decades and we used to go there as kids.

Jack thought it was fantastic up there because it was sooooo windy. He was jumping in the wind and I was nearly having a heart attack being a panicy mother thinking he was going to go rolling over the edge.

I decided to go past my brothers place to see if anyone was home and my Mum was there. She's been staying down there the last week tidying up for them as Mum's do. So Jack and I had a look through the backyard a Jack played a bit of totem tennis with Mum.

Now let me tell you about my brother before I show you these photos. He has always had an affinity with the ocean. He loves fishing and spearfishing and diving and boating around. He's always sunburnt and has the most gorgeous white lines where his smile crinkles his eyes. He's laid back and funny and a great guy. His backyard area is his domain. He has a big shed with a couple of boats, a chicken coup, a big vege patch, his beloved dog is buried out there with a carved stump for a cross and he has this magical sea inspired BBQ area. Now our whole family on my Mum's side are collectors. We're bower birds, anything pretty we pick up and take back to our nests. It drives Owen crazy. Anyway you wait until you see what he's done with the things he's found.This is part of a little display on the top of the bar which also has fishing rods suspended, a glass window with bright window clings as part of the roof.I'm not sure where this skull was found but it's about 50cm long and we're not sure what type of animal it's from.This is a gate made from driftwood and upside down bottles of all different colours. It is STUNNING!!

These bottle used to belong to our Grandfather.Another collection of items grouped together next to the BBQ. I tell you if he ever decides on a change of career maybe he could be a merchandiser like me instead of a meatworker.These wind chimes just make the most gorgeous noise. They really do sound like ocean bouys. They are about 60cm long and are just these big rusty bits of metal suspended from the tree. The second photo is in the bar area and the rope is actually wrapped all around the downpipe.This is another one of the gates out of the area. How cool is the handle. The hinges are black metal with sort of a filagree style and there's a fish net above it with more bottle suspended in it.Carved on the tree Kevin 4 Karen. How sweet is that!!And Karen's artistic as well. She painted this frame and arranged all the postcards and things on it and it's in their lounge room. It look sooooo nice.By the time Daddy was finished his install it was 5 o'clock so we headed down to the beach for a play. Jack just loves digging holes. He got pretty wet and by the time we went back to the car his feet were a bit purple but he just loved it. I just love this photo.

Then today I headed out to the local TAFE for lunch with my Mum, Grandma & Aunt's. It's was just delicious today. If there's a TAFE in your area you should check it out. For $12 you get 3 courses and the main is a smorgasboard of about 6 wet dishes, 4-6 salads, veges, roasts & breads. There's normally about 4 or 5 options for entrees and deserts as well. Absolutely fantastic value. I couldn't eat dinner tonight though.

K, I'm off to watch So You Think You Can Dance. Go Neil!!

Woohooo I scrapped!!

And I really wanted to do more scrapbooking today too. I cleaned the house yesterday so I could have time today and what happens...I run out of adhesive. GRRRRRRRR!!!! Oh well, here's what I've done.
A Santa countdown thingy A LO of one of the photos I took the other day. I can't get over how grown up Jack looks in this photo you can almost see the man he'll one day be.
And this one was for the EB Friday Challenge. I've missed the last 2 weeks, mainly because I forgot last week and just didn't get time the week before. The challenge was to use one of three quotes and the LO had to be about family. I'm really happy with the way this LO turned out too.
Okay, I'm off to try to occupy a sooky child who wants to go for a walk NOW even though I've told him we'll go to the park with Daddy when he gets home from work.
Ciao

I'm published!!!!

It seems like it's taken forever to come around but LOOK...

I'm published. Woohoo. Very exciting!!

In scrappy news I made a card for baby Heidi. I have issues with cardmaking so it's a scraplift from here. It's a cute card design.

I did go and visit today but I forgot to take my camera. DOH!! but Greg emailed through some photos last night so here she is, beautiful little Heidi with her big sister Nicola.