scrap 'n' chat

Nooooo............... it can't be April - that's not fair!

2008-04-14T20:54:00.011+10:00

I don't believe it's April already.

I don't believe I haven't uploaded anything since the 1st Jan.

I must be the worst blogger ever! Just working all the time and no time for play - how sad.

Let me think about what's happened this year. Emma's birthday in Jan, Stephen's too. Somehow we survived the summer holidays. Emma started senior school - such a grown up girl now. She's already been to camp, had the swimming carnival where she did butterfly and also house choral competition so it's been a great start to the year for her.

Went to crop for a cure this year to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital. Such a fun day - will definitely go again next year. The raffle prizes were amazing and the goody bag was stuffed full of things.

We went away to s-i-l's farm for Easter - always a good break. Caught up with some friends who moved up that way last year too. They live in Yackandandah - a gorgeous little town.

This photo was taken at Ricketts Point last weekend. Vicky and I had a good catch up while the girls played. It was a beautiful morning. The girls got soaked with all the splashing. Funny how "yes you can just paddle" results in getting wet from top to toe!

I took Melissa shopping for leggings and she ended up with this top too which she just loves - as you can see. She also had her hair cut and is very happy with that too. My little fashion queen!

I actually did some scrapping this weekend for the Alison Ellis cc and used their gorgeous new pp - from the flights of fancy range. Beautiful colours with butterflies and faeries and gold and silver foil embossing.

And finally - an up to date photo of me - don't laugh:-)

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T18:02:00.000+11:00

Well it's 2008 and I wonder what this year will bring. It's certainly a scorching hot start thank heavens we have a bit of a cool change coming through now.

This is a pic of Emma giving her graduation speech at school. All the grade 6's had to speak for 30 seconds to a minute about their time at school. They all did really well and it was lovely to see them all dressed up for the night.

Voila! a fireplace!! This will all be covered by a ceiling when it is finally finished but at least there is progress. Of course it is way too hot to even contemplate lighting a fire now.

These 2 layouts were done for the AED cc on saturday. Couldn't resist taking a pic of Melissa with her 2 front teeth missing:-)

Hope you had a great christmas and all the best for 2008.

Simone

December Chat

2007-12-02T21:23:00.000+11:00

A bit late but here is a photo from Melissa's birthday. The cake is a butterfly.

Melissa's new red shoes. Just Gorgeous.

The girls at their callisthenics presentation night. Emma received an award for most improved and the girls were presented with the medals their teams had won over the year.

Things have been moving on out the back. We had the concrete poured for the chimney footings and the stumps for the deck at the weekend. Stephen has put in a lot of the edging for the garden beds and has built our compost bins. He also managed to put the digger through the sewer pipe - on a sunday of course but all was fixed pretty quickly. Will have to take some photos of the progress.

Only 3 weeks left of school but it's going to be very busy. We have the information night for Emma's secondary school tomorrow and then Movie Night for the school on tuesday. The whole school production this year was a movie and each class filmed a segment. It is going to be shown in a real cinema with red carpet etc. Should be lots of fun.

Then because Emma is leaving primary school we have graduation night with speeches, dinner and disco for the kids.

Also coming up is carol night at the school and also at Dendy Park. The school choir is singing this year at the park so Emma will be up on stage. It's always a great night.

Still haven't done the christmas shopping either.....dad what do you want? :-)

Until next time,

Simone

Did I say dustbowl?

2007-11-04T21:34:00.000+11:00

Did I say dust bowl lol?!!!!!

This is our backyard this morning after the storm last night. The problem is that when it was dug out the bobcat man had to dig lower than the stormwater pipe so had to dig it up. Now the rain from the roof comes down the downpipe and straight on to the dirt. We told the girls we'd finally decided to put in a swimming pool but they weren't impressed. Funny that:-)

We have a collage artist in the family. Melissa disappeared into her bedroom to do a layout and finally emerged with this. I was quite impressed, I'm just not sure how to store it. Any ideas anyone?

It's so nice to have a long weekend. The girls don't have school tomorrow (curriculum day) and then of course it's Melbourne Cup public holiday so I'm not going to work until wednesday.

A friend is getting married tomorrow evening and it's within walking distance so I hope the weather holds out. Should be fun.

Have a great week!

Cybercrop

2007-11-03T14:17:00.000+11:00

Two layouts for Bonsscraps cyber crop.

The first was based on a sketch and the second had to use certain items. I'm trying to use up my stash as I have so many supplies it's a bit ridiculous, especially flowers and ribbons.

Now saying that....

I went to Scraptacular today as I needed some more white and black bazzil (still my faves for background cardstock) and also bought a 1 and a half inch circular punch. Have been putting off buying one for about 2 years but it is the perfect size for the Alison Ellis my cuts.

Also bought a mini HS butterfly mask and some beautiful Queen & Co felt, oh and a Hambly sheet of transparencies. I guess I didn't go too mad - no pp to add to my stash.

This is what our back yard looks like

except that we now have a concrete driveway up to the garage. It's great fun living in a dust bowl. Eventually we will have a covered deck - hopefully in time for christmas!

Hope you're having fun:-)

Card Making Frenzy

2007-10-28T13:39:00.000+11:00

I received the new pack of papers from Alison Ellis in the week along with some gorgeous chipboard shapes and superfine glitter. Melissa was home sick the day it arrived so we spent the day playing. The card on the left of the purple trio was made by Melissa - she couldn't wait to try out the glitter. Have a look to see all the gorgeous colours in the glitter range: http://www.alisonellisdesign.com.au/html/ccpreview.html

A few more cards made recently. The one on the top left uses a Stampin Up stamp from a lovely set of 12 called taggers dozen. See Fleur's blog for more details - I got them at one of her Stampin Up days.

The following cards were made for the Alison Ellis Cyber crop which was on last night. Lots of discussion about "inchies" which are tiny pieces of artwork 1 inch by 1 inch square. They are extremely addictive. The card on the left uses AED glitter Lime Sherbert and is a gorgeous dazzling green. The little square in the middle of the card is one of my inchies as are the squares that spell out the word "noel" on the card on the right. The last 2 cards use some of the new AED pp which is just divine with the gold and silver foil highlights. For the 'Joy card' I have also used Fancy Pants big board stars and MM philadelphia letters all painted with gold paint.

This layout was for one of the AED challenges - to write your Santa wish list. I have used AED pp, made some inchies:-) and also used Bo Bunny rub-ons.

Can't believe after about 4 months I am scrapping again and loving it. Completely went off the boil earlier this year.

How about the wind today? It's revolting, especially as we have just dirt as our back yard. It was cleared out about a month ago in preparation for landscaping so now we're living with a dust storm.

Have a great week!

Still Here!

2007-10-23T21:22:00.000+10:00

First of all I want to thank all of you lovely people who have left comments on my blog. So much was happening over winter that something had to give and that was my blog. Both girls had calisthenics comps on weekends plus Emma had netball matches and tournaments. I also started a new job and am working most days so by the time I get home and do dinner, chores etc I am too tired to even contemplate blogging.

We have also had the backyard cleared and a driveway put in to the garage at the back of the block so there has been a lot of sorting out to do.

However, the calisthenics comps have all finished, as have the netball tournaments so weekends are being reclaimed. The deck needs to be built but we're getting someone in to do that so we just need to concentrate on the landscaping.

We did manage to get away for a week to Moama which was lovely. Where we stayed was right on the Murray and had lovely bush land (see pic). We played tennis, went horseriding, and generally just relaxed.

Melissa turned 7 this month. I actually managed to make the party bags using a template that Vicky gave me. I used Alison Ellis Designs Garden Party range and they looked gorgeous filled with lollies. That's about the only scrapping I have done in the last few months apart from a couple of cards. I will be going to the AED cybercrop on sat 27th October though and hopefully will produce something. It's been so long I can't even remember what's in my stash any more. AED have some lovely new papers and have you seen their beautiful new glitters and chipboard? Have a look here: http://www.alisonellisdesign.com.au/

Hope you've all been scrapping madly to make up for me!

OMG I'm 40!!!!!!!!

2007-06-05T20:33:00.000+10:00

I can't believe it but I've turned 40. I really don't see how that snuck up on me and I really don't like it!!!!! I refused to have a party but had a lovely day and had dinner just with Stephen and the girls at a local restaurant which was superb. Had some lovely pressies too so thankyou to my wonderful friends and family who gave me such beautiful gifts:-)

After my last post, the pc went off to the menders (again) and was away for about 10 days. Got it back and IT IS STILL SLOW, can't stand it. Got out of the habit of visiting blogs and updating mine but will try to make a bit more of an effort now. No promises though:-)

Have done hardly any scrapping - just a couple of AED pages for their latest cc end of May. I really love their new range - all the swirls and I love how you can layer all the flowers. Beautiful. I'm staying away from other cc's and monthly challenges, can't seem to get my head around them at the moment and I'm really enjoying the lack of pressure of having to complete layouts for them.

OK I'm off to browse some blogs:-)

blaaaaah!

2007-04-26T11:43:00.000+10:00

That's how I have been feeling atm about scrapping. Totally lost interest for a while there but I have been tagged by Sam so let's see how I go:

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their seven things and post the rules as well. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog! OK, here goes...

1. I am a qualified accountant (UK qualifications) and have a Bachelor of business Accounting from Monash.
2. I have been in the final of an English tv quiz show, more by luck than skill.
3. I have been on an oil rig in the North Sea. I worked for Shell in London on a project team that was building a platform (just as an office girl) and was one of the lucky ones who got flown out to visit the platform once it was up and running.
4. My shoe size is 40
5. I hate Big Brother and refuse to watch it. IMHO it's a house full of morons.
6. I have flown in a helicopter over the Grand Canyon.
7. I want to travel around Australia in a camper van, hopefully before I am too old.

As everyone I know has already been tagged I am just going to leave it open for anyone who wants to have a go.

The computer is driving me mad. It has decided to go on a go sloooow and it has taken me half an hour just to type this stuff in so I am leaving it at that for today.

It's the Alison Ellis cyber crop on saturday and I am hoping to recover my mojo by then. Would love to see you there.

Fingers Crossed and Crazy Hair

2007-03-31T13:47:00.000+10:00

We have our fingers and toes crossed for tonight when we watch Top Gear on SBS. I entered a photo of Stephen's Triumph into a competition on their website a few weeks ago and it was chosen as 1 of 20 finalists. People have been voting for their favourite pic and the winner will be announced tonight. Very exciting!

It was crazy hair day yesterday at school with a gold coin donation for charity. I think I spent an hour and a half crimping hair the night before and this is the result. Pretty scary hey?

This is a layout for Bonsscraps cyber crop challenge 1. Criteria: yellow and orange fibres, spiral journalling and a list of 5 things.

The flowers are Alison Ellis pp and vellum - so girly I love them. I used the fancy pants big board flowers as templates.

Melissa has worn this Belle dress to death. She was 3 when she got it for christmas and wore it just about any occasion possible for the best part of 3 years. Good job it stretched to fit.

Short and sweet from me today. Have a wonderful weekend:-)

More Layouts

2007-03-27T21:05:00.000+10:00

I've been busy finishing layouts for the 123 cc and for Bons Big challenge.

Backyard Blitz and Play are both for 123 March cc. I've managed to do all 3 cc challenges and the monthly challenge so I'm happy with that.

This is my layout for round 5 of Bons big challenge. The criteria was green and white with creative flowers and a quote. I love Emma's hair in this photo. I remember her having a quiff for ages as the top bit grew before the rest of her hair.

This is my attempt at braiding Melissa's hair. Emma did the other side first but Melissa made so much fuss that I had to finish off this side. I'm not very good at braiding but this actually worked out pretty well. It even stayed in over night and she kept it like this for school. It looks very sweet.

Last week of school, then the holidays yeah. I really enjoy the holidays - no rushing to get ready in the mornings (unless I'm working) woohoo!

Rain!

2007-03-25T12:59:00.000+10:00

Wasn't it great to hear the rain friday night and yesterday. Let's hope we get many more days like that soon. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post so I'll try to remember what's been happening.

Yesterday was a catch-up with the girls, from left to right: Bon (from Bonsscraps), Fleur, Vicky and me. We went to Scrapbook Lady in Pakenham which is a fantastic shop. There were lots of things I hadn't seen before. Didn't buy much though, just stocked up on Bazzill and bought some Provocraft chipboard alphas, 1 sheet of pp and a few flowers. Very restrained. Then we went to Robert Gordon factory outlet which is where the photo was taken. I bought some beautiful pie dishes for $2 each - bargain!
Fleur gave me my prize for her card challenge on her blog. She was very generous - a chatterbox doodling genie, collections chipboard tiles and a bag of chipboard swirls and little words. Thanks Fleur:-)

This is my layout for Bonsscraps 4th round of her Big Challenge. The challenge was to use brown and blue, interesting photo corners (I stitched mine), and doodling aroung the journalling. Luckily it got me through to round 5.

The first layout above is for 123 march monthly challenge which was black and white, stitching and more than 3 photos. I painted the frame in black then spattered it and the alphas with white paint. Lots of fun! The flowers are made using MM foam stamps. they've been hidden in a drawer for a while so I thought it was time to get them out again.

The second layout is for one of the 123 cyber crop challenges. No cardstock, a quote and hearts.

I did this layout for Scrapbook Divas cc on friday. We had to use puzzle pieces and 2 pp's. The journalling says: "We are 4 pieces of the same puzzle, seperately we are unique, together we are family".

And lastly I just had to share this pic with you of a sunset in the week.

Have a great week:-)

It's the long weekend here.

2007-03-12T14:18:00.000+11:00

I haven't done much scrapping wise lately but Fleur had a challenge on her blog to email her a birthday card as her blog was one year old. This is the card I made. I got the idea from a party invitation that Emma received recently. I use some Fancy Pants pp, HS gerbera, K& Co jigsaw piece and even some old CM stickers! The tag just slips inside the card and you pull it out with the ribbon. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I caught Emma and Melissa by surprise when they were playing on the computer here!

I did this layout for round 3 of Bon's Big Challenge. The criteria were:

* pink, black and silver,

* quote from a song,

* 2 to 4 photos

* round (open to interpretation).

I stuggled a bit with this but I like the effect of all the pink circles. I've mostly used Alison Ellis pp here.

This is a quick card I made for the Alison Ellis cyber crop last night. Criteria was flowers, paint and ribbon. I used one of their invitations as the background of the card, stamped the sunflowers with stazon ink and painted them with twinkling H2O's. Unfortunately it looks a bit washed out in the photo.

Emma is madly packing for school camp. She leaves tomorrow and comes back on friday so she is very excited. Stephen is also packing as he is going down on tomorrow afternoon just for the one night. It's great how the parents get the opportunity to join in things like this, not that you'd catch me going - I enjoy the peace at home too much!

We went down to the Bright 'n' Sandy festival this morning but it was a bit disappointing. We watched a cooking demo with Alan Campion and his daughter Mia which was good then wandered around the stalls. I thought there would be taste-testing but there wasn't, only plates of food and glasses of wine for sale. There weren't many stalls either so we actually didn't stay for very long. At least we got out of the house today!

Thanks for reading and have a fun week!

So Proud again!

2007-02-27T20:37:00.000+11:00

Stephen entered his triumph into the triumph car show on sunday and came 1st in class. He has a lovely little trophy to display now! Do you like his T-shirt? He ordered it from the USA and chose the colour of the car since his actual car is painted Jasmine (not as bright yellow thankfully).

This pic is Emma showing off her house captain badge. She wears it with pride everyday although she pins it in the centre for some reason and not where everyone else would pin it.

This is a layout I did for round 2 of Bonsscraps Big Challenge. We had to use red and blue and use a quote.

I've use the Fancy Pants Biggest Board frame and heart, Heidi Swapp Gerbera, MM paints, Prima flowers, HS alphas, L'il Davis rub-ons, plus some ribbon and brads.

So Proud!

2007-02-22T21:47:00.000+11:00

We are so proud of Emma, she was elected house captain for her school team on tuesday. She had to write a speech and read it out in front of her house and then the kids had to write down their preference.

I'll post a photo later but I will be offline for a while. Our noisy pc is going to the pc doctors sat morning as it is still under warranty and there is definitely something not quite right about it.
In the meantime I'll try to get some scrapping done so I've got something to upload when I'm back.

This month a happy birthday to my friends in England:
Sarah
Sue
Jacqui
and my brother in law Mark.

Published At Last!

2007-02-17T10:27:00.000+11:00

At last! After sending off my layout back in August, it has finally been published! this is the page (p53) in SM vol 8 no. 8 and it is a full page too! It is also on p56 with details of what I used.
Also congratulations to:

Vicky for her poppet layout 'cool baby' p54 (incorrectly credited to someone else unfortunately),

Lindsay for her poppet layout 'city girl' on p54;

Charmane for her 2 poppet layouts on p55 'poppet me' and p57 'I wish I was a hippy' and her 'Life is a balancing act' on p65;

Fleur with her lo 'Grandpa' p96.

I hope I haven't missed any one:-)

Also more exciting news - my prize pack from the Chatterbox Make It Meaningful Competition run last year finally arrived and I love what they have sent me:
There's a memory building kit 'chateaux', a doodle genie, 8 more 12x12 papers, 2 sets of sticker packs, 2 sets of chipboard alphas and a gorgeous mini album kit 'guest room'. Love all the colours and the selection of different things so thanks to Brett and Luisa at Addicted To Craft for sending this out:-)

A few scrapping things I did last weekend for cc's at Crafting In style and Little Scrap Book Shop. Lots of fun.

The 'mum' card was based on a sketch . I have used sei pp, autumn leaves flourishes stamp (that goes on just about everything I do lately), mm gameboard alphas and some vellum.
This was for LSBS and was a technique challenge. PP is sassafras lass. All I need to do now is decide what photos to put in it.
This layout had to use the word 'adore' and at least 3 hearts. I used a frame from the wonderful fancy pants big chipboard pack - I love it. I used Matisse Ink to colour it then stamped it with my favourite flourishes (of course). The wore 'adore' and the arrow were also from that pack and I did the same with them. The pp is Alison Ellis, the gorgeous red from the impressions range.
Another sketch challenge but also had to use 3 different pp's. I used Delish Designs, Urban Lily, and scrapbook.com. Also a selection of chipboard letters which I covered in kindyglitz (an idea I stole from Vicky - thanks Vicky!), MM cheeky jigsaw shapes, a K and Co puzzle piece, vellum and eyelets. Oh and I wrote the wrong date at the bottom - it should be 2005! I did change it on my layout but haven't taken a new photo.

This has turned out to be a long post, thankyou if you got to the end!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Simone

Gorgeous card

2007-02-08T20:54:00.000+11:00

This is the beautiful card that Vicky gave me along with her 'friends' layout she did for the top50 cybercrop. She chose to do a layout about me. I am really honoured and love her words on the layout and in the card.

Thanks Vicky!

January 1-2-3 challenge

2007-02-08T13:03:00.000+11:00

I was lucky enough to win the fancy pants chipboard for the Jan 1-2-3 challenge for my layout -this is me now (shown in a post below). I received it yesterday. Thankyou so much to 1-2-3 and Sonia at Forever Always who posted my prize out so quickly.

I actually thought it was the 6x6 boards but they are 12x12 and look amazing. Now what to do with them? Don't you love that enormous crown?

This has arrived just in time to inspire me as my mojo has been lacking lately. There are some great comps on at the moment.

Chookscraps are having a fanastic comp called Right here right now which is all about scrapping our present lifestyle. I thought it was a fantastic idea and imagine looking back in 20 years time and going - OMG did we really do that/ use that etc!

Bon's Scraps is also having a challenge where you can win $75. It involves more than one layout and that's all she's saying atm - come on Bon tell us what we need to do!

Little Scrap Book Shop are also having a major comp involving 12 layouts using certain sponsored products and to be uploaded by 8th May. This is all about 2006 memories - another great idea. There are 14 prizes altogether with a fabulous major prize for the overall winner.

Come on girls let's go for it!

I've been published!

2007-02-07T21:23:00.000+11:00

This is the layout that is appearing in SM vol 8.no. 8 due out in the shops on the 16th. I don't subscribe so can't look at it until then - the wait is unbearable!!!

Congratulations to Vicky, Her niece Lindsay and Charmane (of 1-2-3) that also have poppet layouts in the same mag!

The colours aren't right in the scan. I have used the beautiful Sassafras pp and die-cuts which are blue and green (not yellow)!

Can you tell I'm excited?

Back to School

2007-02-02T19:46:00.000+11:00

Well, all is back to normal now that the girls are back to school. I was so worried that I would forget that wednesday was a school day that I forgot to wish DH Happy Birthday until he reminded me. To be fair I was still half asleep!

The girls seem to be settling in OK. Emma has already had an excursion (today), starts swimming with the school next week and has camp mid march so she's not doing it too tough! Both have new teachers so there will be a bit of adapting to do but hopefully they will have a good year.

I'm doing the SBT50 cyber crop tonight. The first challenge is to do a layout about a friend so I'm just waiting for inspiration to strike. I'm trying to think of a friend (only kidding). I have a lovely photo of Vicky so I will do something with that (you are my friend aren't you Vicky?)

hopefully I'll have at least one layout to upload over the weekend!

Happy Scrapping!

Triumph!

2007-01-29T20:46:00.000+11:00

This post is really for my dad - hi dad! Stephen bought this car (a Triumph TR250) 16 years ago (I think - could be 17?) and we shipped it out in a container from England when we came here in 1993. My dad didn't believe it would ever be on the road and I think we all had our doubts but finally here it is!
Stephen is entering it at the Concours D'Elegance at the annual Triumph car show on Sunday 25th Feb at Monash Uni at Clayton. It is open to the public from 9.30am, if you are interested and Stephen would be delighted to show the car off to you:-)

I had a lovely afternoon yesterday with Vicky and Fleur at Vicky's house. It was great to catch up and see what both of them had been up to.

Ducked into Southland today to buy Melissa some runners for school. She likes them so much she has been wearing them all day! Tomorrow, we will bring out the school bags and get uniforms ready etc and probably find that we are missing something! I think we are OK though.

Take care X

Cybercrop madness

2007-01-25T15:36:00.000+11:00

It was a weekend of cyber crops last weekend. It started with 1-2-3 on friday night with 3 challenges, then AED on the saturday night and finished with Bons Scraps on the Sunday night.

I actually managed to do all 3 challenges for 1-2-3 (see top) plus one (left) for AED, plus the January challenge for 1-2-3 as well.(This is me layout below). Didn't manage to complete any for Bon's Scraps though as this week has been busy and I think I am a bit scrapped out now.

We went to the aquarium on Monday as Stephen has the week off. I wanted to make sure we actually went out this week and didn't

spend the time just around the house. Haven't been to the aquarium for ages and it was lots of fun but crowded. After that we went for a walk along Brighton Beach then had a drink at the cafe there.

Melissa had a bowling birthday party to go to tuesday morning so we booked another lane and played while she was at the party. I won both games woohoo! I have to say that usually my bowling sucks and on my second bowl the ball ended up wedged between our lane and the next. This was even with the gutter guards up! Still I won yay! Not sure what that says about Stephen and Emma's bowling lol!

Wednesday was work for me and today Emma has had the orthodontist. He says she is going really well with her night brace and her teeth are moving nicely. We also picked up Emma's school books. Only a week until they are back to school - these hols have gone so fast.

Well that's me up to date.

Hope you're all having fun out there.

Take care X

Torquay 13th/14th January

2007-01-18T19:53:00.000+11:00

We had a great weekend at Torquay thanks to Vicky who let us stay in her caravan. It felt so good to get away, even just for 1 night. The change in routine does us good I think. Note the copy of Scrapbook Creations I am reading kindly left for me by Vicky!

Both mornings were overcast but the sun came out in the afternoon and Stephen and Emma managed a good 2 to 3 hours boogie boarding each day. Even Melissa managed to catch a couple of shallow waves! As for me, I was quite happy sitting on the beach looking after our stuff and helping Melissa build a sandcastle.

I logged on to Crafting in Style for their cybercrop on friday but I didn't really expect to be able to upload anything since we weren't going to be home. One of their challenges was to use a black background but with lots of colour on the page and something cut out of pp. I started off ok with the black Bazzil but got sidetracked with my glittery letters and decided I didn't want lots of colours on the page.

I painted the chipboard swirls then stamped on them with my new flourish stamps (see below) using Stazon ink. Flourish stamps also used around the edge of the page using silver ink.

Emma got inspired though and completed this layout in record time. She came up with the really cool idea of making a house and having us peeping out of the windows. Clever girl.

We went to the beach on tuesday along with some friends. It was lovely there and the water was perfect. We all spent more time in the water than out of it coz the sand was so hot it burnt our feet. I think it reached about 40 degrees that day.

Look what I made for dinner today! It was soooo delicious that there's nothing left! I also made banana cake. Thank heavens bananas are reasonably priced again I really missed them! It's not often I feel like baking but today was one of those days.

Hope you're all scrapping up a storm!

Artist Trading Cards

2007-01-12T17:50:00.000+11:00

I am in an ATC swap for Alison Ellis Design and have just finished mine. I am so happy with them - they are the first ones I have done.

The background pp is Alison Ellis Impressions - winter. The Victorian ladies come from a book of vignettes that I have, the letters for 'beauty' are Carolee's Creations and I have stamped a flourish on the bottom of each ATC using my new purchase today.

I popped into Scraptacular and bought the Autumn Leaves flourishes v2 set of clear stamps. They are gorgeous. I used Stazon ink as the AED pp and the vignettes are slightly glossy. I find that Stazon gives a nice sharp finish too.

To finish off the ATC's I used Prima flowers cut into quarters and used a different flourish stamp on the petals. Oh, and the edges of the cards are lightly inked with Charcoal versacube ink.

Let me know what you think!

Tagged by Vicky

2007-01-10T11:40:00.000+11:00

I've been tagged by Vicky so here are my answers to her questions:

1. NAME: Simone Young
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Not that I know of
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? every time something sad happens in a movie
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Yes
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Smoked Salmon (can I put that as meat?)
6. KIDS? Yep.
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? no.
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? More than I should. somehow it just slips out.
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes!
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Absolutely not
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Muslie with yoghurt.
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes.
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY? Yes to both
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?honeycomb
16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? do they smile?.
17. RED OR PINK? Red
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My nose.
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My family back in England
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? No thankyou
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? pink shorts and blue thongs
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? periwinkle blue
23. FAVOURITE SMELL? freshly mown grass
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? someone trying to sell me a holiday
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? oh gosh let me think about that (sorry vicky!) yes most definitely.
26. FAVOURITE DRINK? southern comfort and lemonade.
27. FAVOURITE SPORT TO WATCH? none, hate watching sport on telly.
28. HAIR COLOUR? Brown.
29. EYE COLOR? Blue.
30. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No, not any more
31. FAVOURITE FOOD? sushi, smoked salmon
32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy ending
33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Santa Clause 3
34. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? White
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVOURITE DESSERT? Apple Crumble
38. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Don't understand the question?
39. MOST LIKELY NOT TO RESPOND? See above
40. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Motorworld
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Biff the rhino
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV LAST NIGHT? Life Begins
4 3. FAVOURITE SOUNDS? beach sounds
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Both
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Here
46. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I can wiggle my little toes without moving the rest. Gee I'm talented!
47. WHEN WERE YOU BORN? 1967
48. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Maldon, UK
49. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE be happy and healthy

Happy Birthday Emma!

2007-01-10T11:37:00.000+11:00

Emma is eleven today WOOHOO!

She has a friend coming over later and we are going to the movies to see flushed away. Fish and Chips for dinner by request and a dvd for the girls later.

Happy birthday Emma!

Happy New Year and where did the last month go?

2007-01-10T11:27:00.000+11:00

Ok, it's a bit embarassing to get an email from your dad asking how he's supposed to know what's happening when I don't keep my blog up to date so here's a bit of what's happened in the last month:

Christmas of course and all that entails such as carols at the school, carols at the local park followed by fireworks which were fantastic as always.

Busy busy busy with preparations for christmas day. We borrowed my BIL's marquee to put out the back with the plan that we would set up a table under that but with the Melbourne weather the coldest and wettest it has been for a long time we actually ended up inside. I was a bit worried about fitting us all in but we managed with a couple of trestle tables, bench seats and assorted other seats.

Lunch was delicious with smoked salmon for entree followed by hot roast turkey, hot roast beef, hot roast potatoes, various salads and lots of wine. Desert was christmas pudding (and I only needed one in the end so am thinking about christmas in July for the other one), white chocolate and raspberry tarts and mixed berries, icecream, brandy custard and cream. No wonder we couldn't move afterwards.

Boxing day was a very very quiet day. In fact most of the rest of the week was pretty quiet.
Since then, I've taken the girls shopping to Southland to spend their christmas money, we've been to the pool for the day and generally just pottered around.

We had dinner at a friend who lives just up the road for New Year but got back home at about 11.30 and just watched the countdown on tv.

Have done absolutely no scrapping but am about ready to start again.

Hope you are all having a wonderful New Year so far with lots of completed projects to inspire me with!

Will try to get some photos posted later.

So Busy!

2006-12-09T20:35:00.000+11:00

I'm sure it's the same for everyone at this time of year but I seem to have so much to do before christmas. I started to write a list but after 2 A4 pages I decided it was getting too overwhelming so I would stop.

Some of the things are only little like buy christmas crackers (which I did on friday) but other things are huge like clear up the back garden (an all day job I reckon). Still got masses of shopping to do so I might go one evening and try to get a lot done then.

On the scrapping front I won the SBT50 monthly challenge for November. It was a great challenge - to do a layout for less than $10. Any embellishments from a pack had to have the cost of the whole pack included. This is the layout I did. It took me ages to cut out all the printed words! Embellishthis kindly donated the prize of a $35 voucher so I am really looking forward to spending that - maybe after christmas when things are quiet again.

I contacted Brett and Luisa from addictedtocraft to see what was happening with the $100 runners up voucher from the Chatterbox Make It Meaningful competition and also to see if I can post pics of my album on my blog. The prize is actually going to be a gift pack of goodies which was decided on when the chatterbox people came over in november. The shipment has been delayed and is due in a couple of weeks. I will share all the details when it arrives. I also need to scan my album soon as possible so that they can put some pics on their website. All very exciting.

This is a layout I did for Bonscraps cybercrop. We had to use only lime green, orange and yellow. The colours are very off in the photo as the green is much much brighter irl.

I've been inspired by Charmane's OTP heart canvas recently and have done a couple of layouts with a photo in a heart. The other one uses AED papers but I haven't taken a photo of it to upload yet.

Aren't the bushfires awful? What about all the smoke in the air today? For any of you in the bushfire zone I hope that the fires are contained soon and the firemen and women have my admiration for the difficult job they do.

16 more sleeps!

Make a Wish.....

2006-11-28T09:59:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-24T17:23:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-20T14:09:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-19T17:53:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-15T16:02:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-12T21:29:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-10T20:16:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-10T16:16:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-05T21:13:00.000+11:00

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!

2006-11-05T20:44:00.000+11:00

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

2006-11-03T22:35:00.000+11:00

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.

Halloween

2006-10-31T21:30:00.000+11:00

Well, the tooth fairy forgot to come last night didn't she! Luckily, she popped in while DD6 was having breakfast (phew) so she was really happy to get $2.00.
The school had a dress up day today with a gold coin donation to raise money for Diabetes Australia and there were some excellent costumes. My 2 went as 'evil' fairies just to be a bit different. Not a bad effort since I didn't know until the night before that they were supposed to dress up.

Forgot it was school swimming for dd6 as well so had to go home and get her swim stuff. Don't know where my brain is atm.

The local shops got into the spirit of things and quite a few of them were offering lollies and treats to kids who came in dressed up. There was a mass exodus from the school gates at 3.30 straight down the street to the shops. The kids had a great time even if it got a bit crowded!

We only had 2 trick or treaters come round this year which is a bit of a shame as we had a big bowl of chupa chups and other lollies waiting but I bet they won't go to waste......!

Guess what I didn't do? Take a photo of the girls dressed up. Had my camera with me too - doh!

Just when you think everything is going smoothly....

2006-10-30T12:54:00.000+11:00

Had to pick dd6 up from the school today. She'd managed to fall on her face, knock out a tooth (luckily it was already wobbly) and got a blood nose. When I went to get her, the poor thing was still shaking in shock and the front of her uniform was covered in blood.
She was most worried about her tooth though and the fact that she couldn't find it. Had to reassure her that the tooth fairy would find it anyway.

A scrapping weekend

2006-10-29T19:46:00.000+11:00

It's been a bit of a scrapping weekend this weekend. Joined in the zigzag cc friday night and got a lo finished. DD10 also completed a lo so she was happy. Finished a second lo on saturday too.

Then today I helped out at the AED make and take stall at Paperific. That's always loads of fun and very busy but everyone has such a good time there. There were a few make and takes this year but I didn't get a chance to participate in any.

I did get a chance to shop though and succumbed to a beautiful bright blue glittery alphabet by K&CO. I also stocked up on some white Bazzil and some chipboard flowers. That's all!

Charmaine from zigzag dt introduced herself which was great. Took me a minute to realise who she was as it is so different seeing people irl to just looking at a photo (and esp. as charm only has a photo of half her face on the forum lol!)

I set up the gallery!

2006-10-23T20:06:00.000+10:00

Managed to set up my gallery on the right hand side. I'm so pleased this is working. I still have to suss out how to get a photo of me uploaded but I'm getting there.

Paperific - Melbourne

2006-10-23T13:07:00.000+10:00

I will be helping out at the Alison Ellis Make and Take Table on Sunday at Paperific. It's lots of fun and I get to meet loads of people so come up and say hi if you are there!
I'm looking forward to seeing what the stalls have as I haven't had a look in the shops for a while. I'm hoping there might be a couple of bargains:-)

Slideshow

2006-10-22T21:47:00.000+10:00

Well, I worked out how to get a slideshow on here but it has come up as an individual post. Now I need to work out how to get it so that it stays permanently on the side of the screen. This is going to be an interesting journey through cyber space :-)

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

2006-10-22T21:41:00.000+10:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

First Day

2006-10-22T21:16:00.000+10:00

Well this is very exciting (for me at least!). I have joined my friends and now have my own blog.
I haven't yet worked out how to upload a photo of myself or my scrapping layouts but I am on my way.

Alison Ellis had their monthly cyber crop last night which was lots of fun as always and I managed to get a lo and a card done. The rest of the weekend has been spent painting woodwork in the house. One coat on saturday and another today. Still got heaps to do though.