I'M HOME!!!!

Whew...what a fabulous weekend!!

Well I'll start from the top. After a very antsy start to the day on Friday and a short fog delay before leaving I headed off on my first ever solo flight. I was very brave as long as you didn't look at my white fingertips clutching my novel on take off and landing.

So I arrived in Melbourne and made my way through the cold cutting wind and through the 'tiger cage' (aka. the arrivals area at the Tiger Airways terminal) and I was looking around, and looking around...not that I knew what Tracey looked like anyway. I walked across the road to the pick up area and I spotted two ladies and two kids who looked like they might have been waiting for someone, so after trying to flash my scrap tote I finally just walked up and asked if they were waiting for someone they'd never met before and...BINGO!!...it was Tracey. We headed back to her place to drop off her gorgeous kids and pick up her inspiring scrap supplies and headed off to check out her local scrap shop before heading to the retreat. From there it kind of became a bit of a surreal blur. I know the first person I saw was Jo and then Sonia but from then on it's sort of a bit fuzzy. We went into the area where eveyone was milling about and met everyone. I was presented with my id badge (which were gorgeous) and my sash, lol. I was sashed Miss Berserker. Rach had made these gorgeous sashes for us girls who had travelled to get to the retreat which had our distance travelled on it. After a few minutes in there we were ushered to the dining room for a welcoming dinner. The Scraptac girls had made gorgeous placecards with everyone's photo on it. The meal was delish, especially the creme brulee, yum yum. After dinner we took our stuff down to the crop room and started scrapping and chatting. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!! I was sitting in between Dee and Amanda and opposite Felicity and Mel. I was hoping that some of their talent would float my way. It was great seeing everyone's work in real life.

Here are a couple of photos of inside the crop room. Man, there were alot of supplies in that room!! So lots and lots of scrapping, laughing, chatting went on mixed in with some great meals and a few hours of sleep. Amanda and Meredith were like scrapping machines!! Up until 4.30 and 5.30AM scrapping and then back at the table a couple of hours later.The Christmas in July dinner was a blast. The Scraptacular girls outfits were fabulous as Santa and Mrs Claus, Santa's Sack and Santa's Ho Ho Ho's and Sonia looked great in her outfit too.I made this fascinator and matching matching jewellery for my costume.And here's what I accomplished...

This was from Kim's class. Such a cute LO. Rach's class LO's...And Kim O's mini album class...And these are my LO's from the weekend. I want a new sewing machine now. The one they had there was just fantastic. So many different stitches. It was interesting to see the different ways people do their LO's too and different techniques they use.

Here's the group shot of all us EB girls...

Tracey, Rach, Me, Ruey, Michelle, Melanie, Angela, Kim, Susan, Jo, Felicity, Amanda, Dee, Sonia, Cat, Moya and Clair.Thanks girls for being so nice and friendly. It was fantastic to meet you all. It's so hard to know what else to write.

Thank you to Tracey for being so lovely and picking me up from the airport and dropping me off. I really appreciate it. I loved listening to you and Amanda talk about books. I used to love reading and I basically stopped when I had Jack but you've inspired me to start reading again and I'm going to buy that Cross Stitch book you were talking about. Your kids were just adorable, I loved listening to their banter in the car. Thanks again for running me around.

Rach, you are so funny. You and the girls at Scraptacular put so much effort into this weekend and it was just fantastic. Your classes were great and I really enjoyed the way you taught. You are one talented woman.

Ruey, my roomie. I can't believe how late you stayed at the table! Your work is so fabulous, I just love it. Thank you so much for my little RAK, that was very sweet of you. I hope my snoring didn't disturb your sleep too much.

Melanie, OMG, the time you put into your LO's is incredible, it's no wonder your work is so amazing. I really enjoyed chatting with you, you are sooooooo sweet.

Angela, you cracked me up. You weren't dissimilar to what I imagined but I really didn't think you would be so chatty. You are so vibrant and funny. I bet your DH is going to love those boob shots.

Kim, It was so nice to meet you and take one of your classes. I really miss seeing your work lately and it was great to see something of your in the flesh. I hope your back is feeling better.

Susan, love the piggy tails. It was great to get to meet you especially since I had scrapped your boys photos before. Loved your stories about the boys and the phone escapades just before you got that phone call, it was like mothers intuition.

Jo, you are just such a sweetie. I loved seeing all your boy pages in real life, so much inspiration for a mother of a boy. I can't wait to see that new scrap room all set up in your gorgeous new house. As I said you are so sweet and beautiful.

Felicity, another very funny chickie. Your work blew me away. While I love your normal bright style, those LO's you did were phenomenal. You were so friendly and vivacious.

Amanda, as I'm sure you already know since I scraplift you so often, I just love love love your work. It was so great to see the way you organise your LO's. You put so much love and emotion into your work and it is such a reflection of your personality. I loved meeting Meredith as well, she is a great scrapper and so friendly. I just love her personal style as well (without sounding wierd and stalkerish)

Dee, I probably felt most comfortable with you. You are so genuine. I loved hearing your story about how you and Lee met, very sweet. Thank you, thank you for chatting to me all weekend, I felt abit like I clung to you so I hope you don't mind. And your work is mind blowing. I can't believe how quickly and stunningly you scrap and with no plan?!? Anyhoo, I think you are one cool woman.

Sonia, awwwwwwwww Sonia...you are such a genuine, lovely, open, friendly person. I loved meeting you and seeing the soul you put into your work. You made me feel so comfortable and welcome and I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Cat, you are so funny!!! You have a real light in your eyes, like a funny little glint of humour in the world. The banter between you and Moya was so amusing and your work is just gorgeous. You have such a great flair.

Moya, probably one of the funniest people I've met in a long time. I really loved your wicked sense of humour. Thanks for looking up that title on your iphone. My husband was really impressed when I told him you did that (he has phone envy issues).

Clair, I hope I didn't seem stanoffish to you. When I first met you I felt a little intimidated by your talent and I hope that didn't come accross in a bad way. You are a scrapping speed demon and your talent is astonishing. Love you work, love your photography and loved all your stories about your kids.

Sunday night I stayed with my cousing Julie and her hubby Steve and their little boy Lachlan, he's such a gorgeous kid. It was great to talk to Julie, we had a really great chat. Thank you to Steve and Julie for getting up soooooooo bloody early in the morning and thanks to Steve for driving me all that way to the airport.

Although I had a great weekend I really missed my gorgeous guys. I was so happy to see them again. Here's what they got up to while I was away...
Ate cream buns...Went for a walk with Grandma Joy...tickle tickleAnd put some new shelves in my kitchen cupboards. YAY!!My poor little boy however, has conjuntivitis. He is not a happy camper, poor little mite and he's a bit snotty too to top it off.Well that's it for tonight. Catch you later.

Cheers.

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This time tommorrow night I'll be scrapbooking with a gorgeous bunch of girls that I have been friends with, via the scrapbooking threads at Essential Baby, for about 3 years at the Scraptacular Retreat in the Dandenongs. I havn't met any of these girls IRL before so it's ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so very exciting!!!!!!!!!!!! It's also my first flight without Owen and the first time I've been apart from Jack so it's a real weekend of firsts.

I leave here tomorrow at 10.30 and am getting picked up from the airport by Tracey and we're going to check out her local scrap shop, Scrappy Hollow before heading off to The Country Place.
After a meet and greet dinner there is the first class being taught by on of the 2007 Scrapbooking Memories Masters, Kim Nutley. On Saturday, Rachael Scholz, one of the For Keeps DT girls and a 2006 Master is teaching. She is even teaching at the International Scrapbooking Convention in South Africa later this year. And then on Sunday we're doing a mini album class with Kim Ogden, who is one of the 2008 Elite Team members for For Keeps. The rest of the time will be spent scrapping, chatting and drinking no doubt.

How fantastic is all that going to be!?!?!?!

I am a little bit nervy but I just know it's going to be a blast and I'm going to get to meet sooooo many fabulous EB girls so be prepared to see about 500 photos next week.

Ok, I have to stop talking about it, I feel like I could jump out of my skin.

Here is my entry for Challenge 2 for Embellished Idol so please go and vote for me. : )
The gorgeous little sweetie in the photo is my friends, Kim and David's little girl, Charlotte. How gorgeous are her eyes?
Righteo, I'm outta here.
I'll be back in a few days.
Ciao.

What do you think of the new blog look?

How silly does my little man look? This is apparently what you wear when you go boating. Not that we have any plans to go on a boat but apparently Jack wants to. So he packed up his little backpack full of toys and of course you need your sunnies and beanie...then he fell asleep in front of the TV.

Well, not much has been happening in our neck of the woods this week. Just the normal work/home run of the mill stuff. But today Jack and I went to the Heritage Village Markets. Here's Jack having a ride on the pony. He had a big sooky tanty 5 seconds before this photo though because he wanted to ride the big horse!! Crazy kid!! He's flat out staying on this sized horse let alone a big one.
Then he had a turn on the jumping castle/slide and yes he is wearing odd socks. Bad Mummy couldn't be bothered finding the pairs and I figured no one would know. Ooppsie!!
Jack then had a face paint. Of course he chose to be a tiger, he always wants to be a tiger.
So I got some bargain scrapbooking stuff. There was some half price Elsie stuff and a couple of other scrappy things I couldn't resist. There was the freshest veges at one of the stalls. I bought an eggplant which we don't even eat so if anyone has any great eggplant recipes let me know. I've been doing a little bit of beading lately (a special project for a scrappy Christmas in July dinner) and I bought a couple of beads today as well.

My Mumma came over this afternoon and bought with her these gorgeous little chocolates. There is a new shop in town that's just opened so I'll have to go and check it out. The chilli one is for Owen and apparently they're hot. After coffee and a catch up we went for our regular walk. Here's Grandma and Jack crossing the creek. And Jack sitting on a fence in front of a gorgeous tree.
And the beautiful lavender. I just love the look of lavender, it seems so peaceful.
And lastly a little butterfly cake.
Jack told me this afternoon that he wanted a cake and I thought cake sounded good so we made some cakes. They're cute hey.

Hmmm...I think I might go have a cuppa and a cake!! Ciao

Embellished Idol has begun!!

Hiya folks!!
Well Embellished Idol 2008 has officially started. I entered 2 years ago and decided to give it a go again this year. I'm looking forward to getting out of my scrap rut and trying some different ideas. The first challenge was a sketch challenge using at least 10 photos and here is my take on it...For bonus points you had to make a young boy's birthday card and here's mine... Cards aren't something I normally do but I thought for 2 bonus points I may as well hey!?
Havn't really been up to much else.
We got our new dining chairs last week.I'm really really happy with them. They're very comfy!! and I think they look so hot!! I keep telling everyone I feel like such a grown up now having matching furniture in the lounge/dining. It all looks really nice.
Jack and I have been doing a bit of gardening in the afternoons lately. Just a general tidy up and Jack has been planting seeds off one of our neighbours plants that hangs over the fence. He's been having a great time. We're planning on having a bit of a garden re-organise when we can afford it (which will probably be in about 2015). The boys having a snuggle on the lounge with Kitti-Mae.And some photos from our walk with Grandma this week.

I got a note from my beautiful friend Tricia to say here little boy Ollie has pneumonia. Poor little guy. I'm going to drop around some DVD's for him sometime today. I hope you feel better soon Ol.

That's about it. Dont' forgot to head over to Embellished at the end of the week and vote for me!!

Cheers

oh and all the girls going to the Scraptacular Retreat...only 9 days to go!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!

and to the girls that arn't going...I'm gonna miss you girls.

Our weekend...

Well Saturday we really didn't do much at all. Jack and I just hung around the house watching movies because I wasn't feeling very well.
I've started working the weekend days that Owen is off. I know, I know, we don't get to see each other very much as it is but I think it's nice that Owen has some alone time with Jack and the extra money is handy. As I was late home from work on Sunday Owen went on the Sunday walk with Grandma Joy and I have him trained so well, he took the camera with him. LOL. They didn't get very far though, just down to the creek for Jack's newest favourite pastime...rock throwing. Mum tells me Owen had a go as well.
And here's Jack showing off the popping seed pods that we find down at the creek. When you squeeze them they make a popping sound...the wonders of nature.On Sunday night we went and saw the Watoto African Children's Choir. It was a free concert and it was just fantastic. There were a few of us, Owen, Jack and I and my Mum and Grandma, my Aunt's Jenny & Marie and Owen's Dad. It was intermingled with a bit of religion which is not really my thing but the kid's singing and their stories are just so touching. Watoto is a non-profit organisation that builds communities to house the orphans of the Aids epidemic and the war in Uganda. If anyone is looking for a special gift for someone you should check out their shop or you could sponsor a child/mother. : )This morning we all had a sleep in and then Jack and I went for a play with our friends which was really nice. We got home just after midday and woke Daddy up!! He was up late last night watching Dr Who and junk like that. I left Jack at home with Owen and was going to go and grab a Captain Nemos sub(yummo!!) but I decided to check out Vinnies first. Well, an hour and a half later!! I got some great bargains today. I got a button front Target shirt for myself and a pair long pants and a long sleeved shirt for Jack and then I also got for $1 each a 000 striped bonds suit, 2 pairs of Bright Bots training pants, the cutest little knitted hat, a tiny pair of Fred Bare girls shorts and these...
Fred Bare long pants with little wings on the bottom of the leg (they've got a couple of little marks on them though)And this cute little Seed dressNow don't jump to any conclusions here people. I'm NOT pregnant. They were just bargains and I can't miss a bargain can I. Hopefully they'll get some use sometime but nope, unfortunately not pregnant.
Actually speaking of the whole pregnancy, or lack there of, thing, Jack has decided lately that he wants a sister. All his friends have sisters so I guess he thinks he's missing out on something. He's mentioned it a few times and the other day I was listening to him talking to one of his toys and telling it that "Ollie has a sister, Jared has a sister, Lauren has a sister, Nicola has a sister, but we don't have a sister" and then today he threw a wobbly as we were leaving Tricia's house because he wanted a sister. Add a whole nother pressure to the TTC merry-go-round let me tell you. However the other day when we were at a dress shop and Jack wouldn't share the toys with another little boy that was there I told him he needed to share and his reply was, "No! I don't have to! He's not my sister!".
So after the little spending spree at Vinnies I was on my way to Nemo's when I heard on the radio that Spotlight had 20% off everything today so I went and grabbed some thickers and a couple of other things. That took another hour and by then I thought that Nemo's would probably be nearly closed so I may as well go and spend my voucher at the scrap shop and then Owen rang to say my Mum was at our place so I headed home for coffee and a chat with Mum. Jack wanted to take his camera (not a real one) down to the creek so we went for our Sunday walk today since I missed out on it yesterday. Jack was so funny. He stopped at the neighbours fence a couple of doors down and took a few sequential shots of the passionfruit vine (just like Mummy).
After we threw our usual 50 or so rocks in the creek we crossed over to the other side. Someone has been making little rock or log "bridges" over the creek. Jack started walking across the rocks and lost his balance a bit, as he bent down to recover there was a 25cm turtle right beside him (see arrow). It's a shame I wasn't taking sequential shots then. He nearly pooped himself!! Poor little bugger. As he was going to sleep tonight he was telling me how the turtle had scared him a bit and how he had scared the turtle too.We found this cute little frog on the same tree in the same area as the beetles. I presume they are eating them, there was another one in the area as well. Well that's it. Not very exciting hey but I thought I'd better find something to put on my blog.

Scrapping up a storm!!

Well avoiding my housework at least. LOL. I'm having one of those weeks, you know how it is. I have a mountain of clean washing that needs to be sorted/folder/hung and I mean a MOUNTAIN!! I just don't feel like it...so instead I've been hiding in my scrap room.

Firstly here's the LO that Jack did yesterday whilst keeping me company in my hideaway...Obviously I cut out the flowers and I helped in the paper selection but he did everything else himself. Check out his button grouping, talented kid hey.

And now for my layouts...

And here's Jack doing his popeye impression...

A photo of my murray which is flowering up a storm!! I just love the fragrance of this plant and the shrub always looks healthy because of the glossy dark green leaves, good hedging plant if anyone's looking for something like that.Our palm tree is seeding at the moment and I thought it looked nice with the green seeds on the creamy stems.
Don't have your volume up too loud for this one but here is Jack's rendition of Busy Buses. Hopefully his singing will improve with age but the dance and dramatic arm waving impressed me.

I havn't been up to much lately. We went and ordered our bridesmaid dresses on Saturday and then found our jewellery as well which was good. On Monday Jack and I went over to Kim and David's for a play with the kids which was great. I really miss our Mum's and Bub's group get togethers. I was so lucky to meet such a nice group of women and I know that we'll be friends for many years to come.

That's about it I'm afraid, pretty boring stuff really!!

Ciao