Make a Wish.....

Well, the dried fruit has been soaking in Brandy since saturday and today is the day I am making the christmas pudding. It's steaming away merrily on the stove atm and it looks pretty good! Only trouble is I reckon I am going to have to make a second one lol! It definitely won't be enough for the 20ish people we're expecting on christmas day. That's OK though still plenty of time.

Bonsscraps cyber crop was on Sunday night. Gee she had some difficult challenges - certainly made me think. I have only attempted one of the challenges with a colour scheme of limegreen, orange and yellow. Don't really have time to do the rest. It's a great idea to start it on a sunday night as the friday/saturday night calendar is full of other cc's.

Melissa stayed at Vicky's on friday night which she loved and then saturday after voting, I gave the kitchen window it's second coat. Still need to sand and go over a couple of places where the paint's run a bit (oops). Sunday was more painting. I undercoated the doors on the toilet, Emma's bedroom, and the laundry. Also gave Melissa's BIR an undercoat. Then spent the afternoon in the front tidying the garden. Mad? yeah!!! The builder came in on Sunday too and put up the rest of the tiles in the kitchen and did the grouting. It's looking pretty good. Only needs one more visit for him to finish his bits and pieces.

Have a great day everyone - thanks for reading my blog and please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you:-)

Scrapping up a storm

Got my scrapping mojo back but I'm not allowed to upload my lo's until the end of the month as they have been done for comps on Scrapbookingtop50.
However, I will post the links here until I can upload next month.

This is a layout for their $10 or less challenge: Clowning around. That was a real challenge. If we used 1 thing from a packet of things we had to count the cost of the whole packet so it was quite tricky.

This layout was for the design sketch lo: Melissa Butterfly. I had played with the HS mask and Twinkling H2O's months ago but never did anything with it. It was perfect for this lo of Melissa.

We went out last night - twice in 2 weeks, that's got to be some sort of miracle! It was the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce christmas dinner at the Rialto room at Crown Casino. It was a lovely evening and Trevor Marmalade was there. At first I thought - oh god! someone from the footy show but he was very funny and seemed really nice. His real name is Jason Van de Velde which comes from his Dutch father.
Yummy food again, way too much to eat including some delicious Lizzy's Chocolates. They're based at 172 Koornang Rd Carnegie which is just up the road from where we used to live. They are just delicious!

Not sure if I'll have time to scrap this weekend as it's another (groan) big painting weekend. Try to knock most of it on the head.

Phew it's hot today

It's a scorcher out there today but luckily it doesn't heat up too quickly inside. Just had a letter from goodtaste mag saying I have won a sunbeam sandwich maker so that's put a smile on my face. I might as well own up now and say that my second hobby is entering competitions - love it!

This is the layout I did with the photo from the get together on saturday. I have used AED my impressions pp, AED monograms, both of which are relatively new to the shops, Heidi Swapp Gerbera which I have painted with twinkling H2O's to give it a bit of sparkle and Cherry Arte chipboard directions, also painted with H2o's.

Scrappers' get together Sat 18th November

What a fantastic get together this month. We met at the coffee shop next to Scraptacular in Mentone although some of us arrived early to have a bit of a shop first!

This is a photo of some of people who came. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of everyone there - next time!
I had a bit of a shop - nothing too drastic. I bought 3 sheets of gorgeous Kaleidescope paper, Cherry Arte chipboard directions, Deluxe designs raw paisley chipboard and a sheet of Real Life xmas cardstock stickers. See - not too bad! Maybe I'll put some photos up tomorrow.

Friday night was chookscraps cybercrop. The challenges challenged me a bit too much. didn't help that I had a headache so I ended up not doing anything that night. However, I did get inspired by the sketch challenge and did a layout in record time for that. I've made it the second half of a double lo. The first page is the Omeo page I did for Crafting in Style's cc.

I've uses white Bazzil, urban lily pp and We R Memory Keepers alphas.

Alison Ellis had their cc on saturday night. Some very interesting challenges from Maynard. There are some wonderful xmas decorations hanging in their gallery now. Very inspiring.

This is the layout I did for their 'summer lovin'' challenge. I've use AED inspirations range and very merry cosmic blue pp. The 'B' is a Bumblebee craft stencil covered with the inspirations pp, then opalled with pipe dreamink's clear (franklin) opals. The rest of the title uses the AED mycut alphas. I just love those green and blues.

Today, we have replaced our old tiny desk that the computer sat on with a proper computer desk. It seems enormous in comparison but wow it makes a difference. Love it! Stephen has been painting today. I gave the kitchen window its first coat of gloss and spent most of the rest of the day sorting through boxes and tidying up. Fun stuff!

Australian Automotive Dealers Awards

Well, that's a mouthful!
Stephen was invited to the awards night by his contact at Sureplan and I got to go along too. Can't say I get very excited at the prospect of sitting through awards to people that I don't know but this was at the Hyatt in Collins Street and was black tie so it was nice to get all dressed up for once.
I have to say the food was superb and I do love my food. Top marks to the hyatt for the menu (which I meant to grab but forgot) but from memory:

entree: thai chicken breast with glass noodles. What a superb combination of flavours.

main: either kingfish with noodles and bok choy or steak, mushrooms and potato gallette with a jus of (something I can't quite remember). Stephen and I ate half, then swapped plates so we got to try both dishes. Yum.

Desert: white chocolate and lime tart with a raspberry sorbet and lemon grass sauce. This was divine and oh so naughty:-) I have to say that the sauce tasted more of raspberry than lemon grass but boy was it good.

Drinks were plentiful too, plus coffee and tea with chocolates.

Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows played after dinner and they were fantastic, but a bit loud for me.

We left at about 10.30, basically as soon as we could get away with it - party animals NOT! If it had been at a weekend (or if we were 10 years younger!) we probably would have stayed but knowing that work beckoned the next day well....

Just a reminder its the Alison Ellis Design cyber crop on saturday night. There are already hints for the challenges up in the forum and ShabbyShane will be broadcasting on the night so it's going to be a fun night!

Busy Weekend

Well, it 's been a busy weekend (again)! It started with the cyber crop for Crafting in Style and I managed to do one layout friday night and I have just quickly completed a second layout tonight.

It's not such a good photo on the right because I took it tonight. I really need to take it in daylight so I might try to replace it tomorrow if I get a chance. It was fun to be challenged again and to try something a little bit different.

I was at the Alison Ellis trade event at Rydges Hotel, Richmond today. It was a lot of fun with Pipe Dreamink there too. We had 4 make and take tables with one of those being the opals table. Luckily one of the sessions wasn't fully booked so I was able to have a go with the opals and then make a layout with them. Lots of fun. It was lovely to see some familiar faces again (Carolyn and Leanne) and to meet one of the new AED reps (Steph).

Xmas Hanging Decoration

The latest challenge from Alison Ellis Design was to create an ornament celebrating family. I used their new christmas stars paper - I love the way the gold stars really seem to jump off the paper and I also popped a mycut frame behind each photo. I have 'opalled' http://www.pipedreamink.com the edges of each square coaster and the edges of the my cut frames to give them a bit of depth.

I just need to find somewhere to hang it now!

Book Review - A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

I've just finished reading this book and thought I'd share my thoughts on it with you.

This book is a bit odd but so funny. It centres around a recent retiree - George - who discovers a rash on his leg and thinks he has cancer (hence the title, a spot of bother). He doesn't believe the doctor when he says it is just eczema and his vivid imagination takes hold.
Throw in his family: a wife, who is having an affair; a daughter who has a son from a previous marriage and is about to get married a second time to someone entirely unsuitable; and a gay son and George's worries increase entirely out of proportion.
As George heads for a nervous breakdown, the story investigates the lives of the whole family as seen through their eyes.

Very funny, highly entertaining and highly recommended.

Chatterbox make it meaningful competition 2006

I'd like to offer my congratulations to Paula Smith of New Zealand for winning this comp.

I had a phone call from Louisa at Addicted to Craft a couple of weeks ago saying I was one of the 10 finalists and I was absolutely blown away by that news. I can only imagine how Paula feels!

It's such a thrill to have your hard work recognised - and I can honestly say I put a huge effort into the album that I made and it was a minor miracle that I managed to finish it. Let's just say there were a fair few late nights involved! I am so glad that I made the effort and am really proud of the finished result. Stephen loves it - it was a gift to him for our 15th wedding anniversary this year. I might share a few pages with you some time (just not sure if I am allowed to just yet).

It's the weekend!

WOW - had an amazingly productive day yesterday. As well as cleaning the bathroom and toilet, sweeping the floors, hanging out a load of washing, sanding and painting window frames and cooking dinner I managed to get 3 layouts completed for the Scrapbookingtop50 cybercrop which was on friday night.

One of the challenges was to do a simple layout a la Cathy Zielske so this is my take on that. I used the photo I took of Emma with her project for science night.

Another challenge was to do a double layout with 3 or more photos and a curve. I used the lovely Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas and Sassafras Lass diecuts.

The other challenge was to use flowers and glitter. What a great opportunity to use my new K & Co Twinkle Type letters and Making Memories jigsaw flowers.

I am so happy with these layouts!

Stephen and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine today while Vicky looked after Emma and Melissa. It was fun - I love Toni Collette's films. I love the catch phrase - everyone, pretend to be normal! It was also really nice to get a couple of hours to ourselves and no kids.

Grade 5/6 Science Night

The grade 5/6's had to prepare a project to display for the school and parents on wednesday night. I was really impressed with how much effort the kids had put into their projects.

Emma and a friend did a project on boomerangs (as an Australian invention) and DH photocopied about 70 sheets of boomerangs for people to colour in if they wanted. I was very proud of the way she worked with the friend and how much thought and detail went into it all.

I'm writing this but taking part in the SBT50 cybercrop at the same time. I'm half way through the first challenge but am a bit stuck for inspiration so thought I might leave it until the morning. That reminds me I need to put a link in for SBT50 too.