Yay got a layout done and confessions of a slacker mummy

I started this morning with a few sheets of the new BG Pheobe paper and ended up using the aqua green and the one with all the circles on it and yes, I have a blister on my thumb from cutting out - again!!!! I haven't scanned this one as it's drying but I'll put up a better copy when it's done but nice to get something done in my own time, during daylight hours, before dinner even!!!

Now a slacker mummy confession - I've just gone hunting for egg cups as that seems to be the dinner of choice tonight among the natives. A couple of nights per week I let them pick so tonight it was boiled eggs and toast soldiers. Well and good (and easy and quick!) I thought and went of to find the egg cups. They are one of those items in my kitchen that I don't use often and they have a habit of disappearing in between uses. I've found one plastic one, one ceramic one and that's it - four kids, two egg cups, you do the math...... SO SO SO I have been left with no choice but to call upon my slacker mummy experience and I've given the two older boys the only thing in the cupboard that will hold a boiled egg besides an egg cup - a shot glass. Now don't gasp in horror ! lol They aren't the ones with recipes on them, they don't proudly declare that they are from some profanity's bar, they don't have alcohol names on them. They are just plan heavy based glass shotties which they've never ever even seen used so I'm figuring they look just like measuring cups to me - well they measure booze don't they??? lol See how creative we mummies can be in a pinch? I'm going to go check on the eggs. No matter how hard I try, because I haven't got an egg timer, I either under-do them or they are so solid you could play squash with them. Maybe this time I'll get it right..........

Marah Johnson is coming!!!!

Be excited - be very excited!!! Cyberscraps' shipment of Marah Johnson products has left the sunny shores of the good ol' US of A and will be online within a week!

I'm inserting a disclaimer here to say that it all relies on planes, trains and automobiles and that nobody in Customs will think we're smuggling anything naughty other than delicious scrapping products to ensure we'll have the Marah Johnson in a week. Maybe I'm being a little optimstic but I'm excited!!!!! I do promise however that we will absolutely email the moment it is available........

I have wanted these products from the moment I first saw them. We've got the entire Love Struck collection as well as the Caution Boy and Caution girl ranges. They will also cater for the most grungy, funky teenage layouts as well. Let's not forget those gotta have swatch books and little pewter skull and crossbones brads with red gem eyes!!! Perfect if you've got a little pirate in the house! If you want to know exactly when they're available to purchase you can register at Cyberscraps for our newsletter and we'll be sending one out to our registered customers the very millisecond they are all loaded up onto the website and from the buzz around the net that I've seen so far you will need to be quick because I think they're going to sell fast!

Oh funny coincidence and maybe the secret to getting pubbed!

Well yesterday afternoon I took up Ali's challenge to list my ten favourite layouts and they were the ones I am most proud of for various reasons which I dutifully listed next to each.

One of those layouts was about my typical day with a B&W pic of me done on My Mind's Eye Magnolia papers. I had originally submitted it a few months ago after I'd done it but it wasn't picked up by anybody. Then yesterday as I was putting together my list of fave layouts I realised SM had a call for "A Day In The Life" so I subbed it again yesterday (thinking it would get knocked back again but you never ever know) and would you believe - Krys emailed me back just now to say it's been accepted!!!! lol Obviously the key to having something published is to decide to post the layout on your blog in the assumption it's never going to be needed again!

I am feeling for all you gals atm who have households full of gastro bug!!!! It just sounds like it's doing the rounds everywhere. My lot have all been sick for the past week (at different and sometimes overlapping times of course - for maximum parental inconvenience and worry!!!!)and last night I didn't feel so crash hot myself so took a Stemetil that I had in the bedside table drawer and went to bed. I feel okay today but I'm still not one hundred percent sure I've dodged the pukey bullet yet! So my sympathies ladies and I hope it's all over quickly!

I'm in awe of the fab Lisa Le-Ray. She sounds like she's done so much, been through so much and yet what an amazingly positive and fun person she strikes me as! Love your stuff Lisa!

Lusi I hope Brett had a cool birthday and that you spoiled him as much as he deserves!!! lol

I'm sitting here doing another layout with the BG Pheobe papers. If you've seen the range you will probably recognise the pink paper with all the multicoloured circles. Stupid me I've had the irresistable urge to cut them all out. Just ridiculous but I hope it turns out okay!!!

I'm really trying to keep on top of the workload this week so I can fit in more scrapping time. I have a tendency to let blogging and blog reading get in the way and I don't get as much done ealry in the week as I need to and therefore I'm left with a big crazy sleep depriving rush by Thursday/Friday so this week I said STOP!!!! I will pace myself, be more proactive during the day so I can scrap and watch the TV shows I want to at night (like tonight cos House and Medium are on - Hugh Laurie yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - yes I know he's old and that's sad but there's just somethin' about that man!!!).

Cass has just come over. She very incredibly kindly dropped James at home for me. He got into a "head clash" at school during playtime with another kid who banged his head on Jamie's cheek and he got the whole ice pack and sympathy bizzo but still wanted to come home. So the teacher rings me to collect him and I am assuming that it's because he's really upset and proper injured and Doug has left his mobile at home so I can't get in touch with him, the MIL is not home either and I don't have a car so I rang Supa-Cass and asked if she could give him a lift as she lives on a minute from the school. She dropped home a perfectly unscathed James who seems just ducky with nothing wrong at all!!! It turned out okay though because we had coffee and those Orange Delight biscuits and she hunted through my stash for a couple of finishing touches for her SM product challenge. You know how antsy it is when you can't find the very last thing that will complete the masterpiece? Well that's what she had going on but she knows what she's going to do now and let me tell you it looks completely fab so far and I can't wait to see the finished product. Everyone else will get to see whenever the product challenge gets published - I don't actually know how far away that is but I'll ask Cass if she knows.

Well back to work and typing and putting together bits of layouts in between typing!!

Cya, Lu :)

My Top Ten Layouts with thanks to Ali Stafford!

Okay I came across the Top Ten thingy on Lisa's blog which in turn she'd seen on Ali Stafford's blog and I thought I'd share mine. My layouts are ones that I really love, they're not the ones the magazines have accepted though which ticks me at times, but I'll fall back on the "as long as I love them it doesn't matter if nobody else does" theory!

A Crappy Day In The Life - it's a little older in terms of style than what I've done lately but I love it because it's real, real, REAL as in hit you over the head with a rubber bat REAL! It's part of my protest against the "perfect life brigade", mostly because I have a far from perfect one - life that is! It lists what goes on from the hours of 5am until whenever I fall into bed and details the painfully accurate, boring, ugly, time consuming and frustrating parts of my day so I love it because it is REAL. I also love it because only my bestest buddy and partner in crime Cass would pass comment on the wine bottle behind me in the picture!!!

Peek-A-Boo I Love You - maybe I love this one because I spent so many frickin hours hacking and slashing with a craft knife like a woman possessed. I love it because the idea seemed like a huge task (which it was) but I was able to achieve it so that's why I love it - it was a challenge.

What Do You Need? - okay love this one because it was only recently that I had a big swing in style to newer things and it's just so different even for me but good different you know? Not crummy different I don't think but certainly not my usual style but one I'm really getting used to so I love it because it's a part of a new phase in my scrapping style and I'm glad it's so different. I love it because it was a surprise - even to me!

Precious Sleep - having a serious paper chopping moment here! Love it for my loverly hubby in the pic of course but other than that I can' t really think why else I love it! Does it still count????

My Favourite Elf - what's not to love here?!?!? My cutie boy Lachlann and some delish Basic Grey xmas papers plus some otherwise dodgy little circle stickers from the local $2 shop! I just loved how it all came together and it was really easy. One of those layouts I look at and think "gee I really like it no matter how often I look at it"

Pure Innocence - one of those layouts that I looked at once I'd finished and just said "wow". I was really happy with the end result even though none of the mags picked it up. I still love it, the colour, the technique I tried, the photo, just how it all came together. I also love it because I have a giggle every time I see it - she's not pure innocence, oh no, my girl is pure mischief behind that sweet little face!

Missing You Mikayla - love it because it's a pic of my beautiful niece Mikayla wearing the flower wreath on her head that I made for her. She died when she was only two and we all miss her like crazy every day so it's the subject more than the layout that makes me love this one.

Red Nose Day - love it because I have had an aversion to screaming bright colours and this time I decided to dive right in, retina searing Basic Grey Colour Me Happy! I also love the pic I took of my son James before he left for kindy where they celebrated RND with a clown dress up each year.

Amazing Girl - I love this one because it's a whole huge journalling block (which I never usually do) about how my daughter is so very physically affectionate while my sons haven't been and how I've learned to love that closeness.

Beautiful Soul - love this one because it's a few firsts for me, the hand doodling and really letting go and doing whatever comes to mind.

Worrisome

Well in the interests of being "real" I'll share that I may be about to lose my job through no fault of my own it would seem. I work as a medical typist, subcontracted to someone else who is then subcontracted to a medical practice here in Brisbane. It would also seem that the medical practice have hired an in-house typist who was originally just meant to do the head doctor's work but has now begun doing all the other doctors' work as well, and because I get paid piece rate and not hourly, every letter the in-house typist does reduced my pay for the week and I can't do a thing about it except watch my expected pay for the week slowly diminish. Unfortunately there is no way to increase it as we only have limited clients.

I've offered my time to Cyberscraps on a goodwill basis as I want the shop to succeed and if at some point in the future we are doing well enough for us to draw a wage for hours we put in at the shop then well and good but right now that's an unrealistic expectation. So that's not an income option right now either.

I'm in one of those quandries where I really don't want to have to look for another job. I love what I do, I'm at home all day with time to get housework done, I'm there when my kids walk in the door each day and I'd like to think that I'm actually very good at my job. I guess it's one of those things life throws at us and you just have to have faith that it will work out in the end and that it will be what God has planned for you, regardless of whether you can see it now or not. I'll let you know how it all pans out.......

I'm hoping to be right on top of stuff this week (what work I will have to do) so that I can get some scrapping done. I've got all the new Phoebe and Scarlet's letter plus all the new Urban Lily and I'm just busting to sit down and go mad with all of it. The only problem with the Scarlet's letter paper is that it's so gorgeous that it's hard to cover it with "stuff" because the pattern itself is just beautiful. But how to leave it alone????

Looking forward to the Paper Arts Festival in Brisbane in a couple of weeks. It's always nice to look around - part reconaissance, part personal treasure hunt - and even though we're opening a shop I'm particularly interested in what other people have got. That's the beauty of being a scrapbooker - you can go to a dozen stores and usually you will always find something that nobody else has and that's the big thrill for me, finding that cool, funky "something" that I haven't seen before. I'll be looking to pick up lots more of the Rouge de Garance papers too as I don't like shopping online so hopefully someone will bring some. It also gives me a chance to look at the other paper arts like stamping etc and I don't do much of that but I know there would be a place for it in my scrapping. Partly it's not been something I've really looked at until now because stamping seems to be such an expensive craft whereas with scrapping you can pick up some new paper or cardstock and walk away happy even though you've only spent $5 whereas stamps seem to be very costly. Please tell me if I've been looking in the wrong places though!!! I'll confess I've never used embossing inks or powders either, another seemingly expensive area to venture into unless you're sure you are going to love the technique and use it all the time. I don't bat an eyelid at scrapping supplies because I know I'll use what I buy (well I'll use it eventually I'm sure!!! lol).

Loving the Asian inspired pages on Aussie Dares this week!!! Such a clever bunch of girls over there and I always come away feeling the urge to try something new. I love the "no limits" approach the girls have to just do whatever comes with their layouts and I've definitely noticed their collective influence on my style since finding them last year. So a big thank you to the Dares girls for helping me widen the horizons so to speak!

I'm off to get some more work done now before anybody else does it instead. Hope you have a fab week and get some scrapping done if you're so inclined.

Cya, Lu

Havin' a play with Basic Grey

Cass and I broke out the new BG today, Cass took on the Scarlet's Letter and I had some fun with the Phoebe papers. Sorry to anybody with sensitive eyes but I ended up using lots and lots of PINK!!!!!!

How to schedule scrap time

It's funny because I've worked so many hours typing this week and I was just about aching for Saturday night to roll 'round so I could sit and scrap - in peace - in quiet - alone!!!! At 6pm last night when I did my round of packing sleepover bags, packing safe snacks and goodbye kisses I was sure I was going to get some scrapping done. I haven't picked up my DT stuff yet so I didn't have the BG I wanted but nonetheless I was pretty sure I had more than enough to keep me occupied and inspired even without it. I stood in the lounge room for a minute and my eyes darted from the crumbs on the floor, to the rice on the table, the spill of Coke on the coffee table, the clean washing someone had left on an armchair, a very decorative arrangement of kiddies plastic cups and bowls left in a line in front of the television and the "rustic" (meaning old, crappy and full of gaps) timber floor with crevices full of oat bran (the really finely processed stuff and if I say "Caeligh" that will explain why it is spread throughout my entire house!). Suddenly what I wanted more tha anything was to clean up!!! What the hell is wrong with me? The mess would still be there tomorrow and I could scrap tonight but something in me just wouldn't let me leave it so I ended up spending an hour doing a tidy up and a vacuum (and I'm sure I can still see oat bran in the cracks in the floorboards even though I got down on my hands and knees in some places with the vacuum nozzle to get it all out! grrrrrrr!!!!). Then I was all hot and sweaty and I figured I'll just go have a shower which turned into the whole washing, conditioning hair, shaving legs, exfoliating etc because how often during the week do we girls get time to do the whole routine? Not often enough is all I can say!!!! So there was another half or or so gone on prettying and maintenance (not that you'd know it lol). I grabbed a glass of red, still thoroughly believing I'd get to my desk at some point, grabbed a jam-filled lamington (yep it could well be my latest food phase) and crashed on the couch. I spied the paper and thought I'd have a browse - as you do - just quickly. So by the time I read the paper, browsed the job section (no idea why but I always look every week), choked and moaned about the prices in the real estate section (the way things are going we can't afford to rent privately or buy - what on earth are families meant to do???? - oh that's right - thanks to Sue for the reminder about a shoebox in t'middle of the road!!!!), read the Q-weekend section and my horoscope. I never usually read my horoscope in the morning, only at the end of the day but it's freaky how often I can find something to relate it to most of the time (or is that just my gullible streak?). By now it was about 8.30pm and I got to watching something on CI about the american justice (or lack thereof) system and eventually realised it was 10pm and Blayd wasn't home yet. He has a karate tournament this morning and his dad will be here to pick him up at 7am to drive down to the Gold Coast for it.

So I came and sat down at my desk, surveyed the mess which would not allow me to have scrapped until I had tidied it up from the Dares layout I finished off Friday, had a look at my blog but couldn't bring myself to type anything and decided to head off to bed. I had been up since 2.30am Saturday morning gettting work finished and I figured I may as well give my poor screwed up sleeping routine a fighting chance. I figured I could sit up and eventually get some scrapping done but did I really want to be feeling like crap when the alarm went off at 6am this morning and I had to do the organised mummy show and get Blayd ready to go??? No I did not so off to bed I went and I had no problem with the alarm this morning. Doug on the other hand has been up and back to bed. I believe he and my middle son Lachie crawled in at about 2.30am this morning from their LAN and he mentioned something about going to the Rocklea fleamarket this morning but somehow I'm not thinkin' so!!!!! I'm awake now and I've caught up on sleep so I don't mind. I worked out this morning that the little ones are staying at Gran's all day today because Doug has to go do some jobs around the house for her so I'll have the house to myself again all afternoon as well and I can scrap then.

I got some amazing photos of the kids yesterday at cricket. We had a match over at Chapel Hill which is a lovely green leafy suburb in Brisbane's west. I mean great shots as in you could see it on the cover of SM with the right layout - do you know what I mean? Does anybody else take photos and know straight away if you've got a cracker there or not? I can usually see it on the LCD screen and know right away if it's going to be great. I am not a pure photographer in that I don't use the viewfinder for my shots because I can't really "see" how it's going to turn out so I hold the camera in front of me and shoot what I see on the screen. The little ones were being sooooooo lovey with the camera and were happy to pose which is fabulous when you're in the mood to take pics and who doesn't appreciate good pics when looking for a hit of scrapping inspiration. A great photo will get me to my special place every time!

I'm off to help Blayd sort his bag and make sure he doesn't forget anything for his tournament. He's an old hand at this now, having done the tournament circuit for a couple of years but this is his first tournament as a black belt and he'll be one of the few in his age group so he'll be up against mainly lower ranked belts. I hope he doesn't get cocky about it and think he wont' have to work as hard!

Have a beautiful Sunday and like me, try to fit in something you love amongst everything else!

Aussie Dares "My Legacy" challenge

Apologies to Sue the Too Cool for throwing this at her at the v.last minute which I have an awful habit of but it was a real last minute type of layout that I put together in snatches of five and ten minutes in between typing jobs and was still doodling on and mucking around with at 3.am this morning when I got up to start typing. This is the result of my little foray into texture paste - can't say I loved the stuff enough to play on a regular basis but I'm not ready to banish it to the bottom of my paint caddy again just yet........ :)

You know you're broke when......

....your nine year old who knows the tooth fairy isn't even real still knows that a couple of bucks usually still turn up under the pillow except for the fact that the "tooth fairy" hasn't got any change in the house!!! lol It's just crazy, normally change is a pain in the butt and I do my utmost to use it up, as I have this week, and now the "tooth fairy" hasn't been to the bank either today so officially the Tooth Fairy is bankrupt! Oh he's going to have some rollicking good tales of his childhood when he grows up....."we were so poor the tooth fairy declared bankruptcy!" and don't forget that luvly broad Yorkshire accent that goes with it! I have visions of the Monty Python skit where they sit around trying to out-do each other with stories of their poor impoverished childhoods! lol

Ballet was 99% okay today. HRH was sleeping when picked up from Gran's and went back to sleep in the car so she got about an hour and a half in total which is good solid time for her. We picked up all the boy creatures from school and went back to Cass's place to get cleaned up and dressed. She was very excited today and the only reason I could see was that I had put all of her ballet gear in one of my denim shoulderbags along with her hair ties, hair net, about a million bobby pins and her brush and her Disney princess drinkbottle. She was too impressed for words that she had her own ballet bag. The fact that it's an old bag I never use anymore and looks a little on the tatty side made me feel a bit bad that she got so excited so I've vowed to get her a brand new "girly" ballet bag for her birthday next week so she'll have something nicer to use. She went into class with her communication book (an exercise book covered in contact which gets a sticker put in it each week after class) and her drink bottle and her ballet (tat) bag and gave the book to her teacher and put her bag down just inside the door with her grotty baby doll sticking out and set her drink bottle on the bench as well. We were doing so well until I went to go outside and she decided she didn't want to be there by herself. That carry on went on for about five minutes while I tried the usual Mummy strategies of encouraging, then offering rewards, then offering outright bribes and eventually suggesting she'd miss out on her beautiful dancing if she didn't go and join in with everyone else. She was still reluctant so I put it down to the fact that I was just sitting there and every time she saw me she'd walk back over and want me to pick her up. By ten minutes into the class I took her by the hand, walked over to the teacher and asked if she would take Caeligh's hand while I left the room, which I did at speedy pace and I didn't even look back. Oh bad harsh mummy...... A minute later I peeked through the back window to see what she was up to and she was laughing and running around with her chiffon scarf with all the other little girls and she had a fabbo time! She was thrilled to see me at the end of class when I came back in and she showed me her new sticker in her book and I made sure I gave her a big hug and told her how proud of her I was for joining in and having fun. I'm glad she didn't crack it and enjoyed it even more today than her first lesson.

My little sister is off to the races tomorrow for a girlfriend's birthday. V. exciting. Can't say I've ever been to the races but it's one of those things I say that each year I'll get around to doing....I just have trouble swinging the whole cocktail dress and cutesy clutch purse look, made even more difficult because I don't actually OWN a dress - of any description - and I'm even pretty skirt-shy normally too. But who knows, with Cyberscraps having a shop maybe this year we can have a Melbourne Cup thing in the shop and I'll get my excuse to dress up and wear a ridiculously over-embellished hat. Have a good day Leish! Don't hit the champers too early!!!

It really is Freaky Friday!!!

Well in a strange omen of things to come for today my eldest son (almost 12 and very much in teenager mode already) has gotten up at 5.30am and is having a shower as we speak - without having to be woken, poked, prodded, nagged or harrangued!!!! This in itself is a small miracle!

The next strange omen is that both of my early birds (James and Caeligh) are still in bed. This is a major miracle as they are both usually ALWAYS up at sparrow fart each and every day.

I'm having a serious confusion issue here as this is probably what I would say would be the start of a perfect morning if you asked me to describe in my head what my "fantasy" perfect day would be. I coudn't say from experience as it's never happened before!!! lol

I'll keep you posted as to any other weird and wonderful things that happen!

Muesli and spending

I ended up going over to CyberScraps last night and bought the entire range of the BG Scarlett's Letter and Pheobe as well. I'm going to split the sets with Cass and luckily for us we're pretty good at compromise so we don't fight over who gets what and we're both happy. I loved the Happy Everything Urban Lily and the cute Urban Cuts and the May Ella but didn't love the Everyday Lily. Don't know quite why as they're not ghastly or anything, they just didn't take my fancy when I looked at the little pictures. See, I really need to hold them in my hands to get a feel for them first otherwise I end up passing up stuff I otherwise might like! So spending my pay before I get it.....AGAIN! The Stella Ruby and Perhaps are coming very soon and the Marah Johnson range is also not far away now so that's more drool over.

I'm having the most fab muesli for breakfast. I'm not a huge breakfast person, lack of time and all that stuff but I got this great stuff at Woolworths last week. It's called Be Natural Apple, Almond and something else but with hunks of dried apple, dried cranberries and pumpkin seets and sliced almonds. Very delish so it's a compliment coming from a non-breakfast type person. It was either the muesli or Weet-Bix and honestly I can't eat them without heaps of sugar which will eventually send me diabetic in the amounts I use!!!! So I figure if I can find something that doesn't need sugar and is still edible then good and I'll stick to that.

Huge work day today trying to catch up on everything before the weekend (never happens though) and not having a full day to do it in as I've got to finish up at about 2.00pm and pick Caeligh up from Gran's place, bring her home, give her a quick shower and get her ready for ballet, then go pick the boys up from school (the other parents must think I'm one of those crazy "breeders" when I herd them all into the car, my three boys and my two nephews as well!) and drop all the boys off at Cass's place and we'll take the girls to ballet. TODAY THERE WILL BE NO TANTRUMS!!!!!!

Oh so love Fridays. By lunchtime my brain has shifted down a gear and I can't do a thing to stop it, it doesn't matter how much work I still have and I start thinking about what I'm going to do tonight (probably the Thai and beer and movie thing). Tomorrow is cricket in some ridiculously far off place in the western suburbs and then tomorrow night is scrapping in blissful solitude as the little ones go for a sleepover at Gran's place and Doug takes the big boys with him to a LAN. Blayd won't get to stay all night like Lachlann does though as he has his first National All Styles tourname for karate on Sunday morning down the Gold Coast so it has to be a reasonable bed for him and an early start. Oh that reminds me to make sure his tourname dogi is clean too! I guess Sunday is going to be hanging around the house and cleaning up a bit. Next Sunday is Caeligh's 3rd birthday so I've got to figure out what we're going to do for that as well. Probably a few hours at Crazy Critters I expect. The big boys will be with their dad but they're too old for indoor play centres any way (not that they think so!).

Have a fab Friday peoples and a CHILLED weekend! No I haven't forgotten the word!

Brand Spankin' New and Ready For You!!!!

Oh that sounds seriously daggy!!!! lol But I just thought I'd share that Cyberscraps have just received some of the latest Basic Grey - Phoebe and Scarlett's Letter (Perhaps and Stella Ruby are not far behind) - and ALL of the new Urban Lily (Everyday Lily, Happy Everything and Mayella papers, Urban Cut cutouts, chipboard and rubons).

http://www.cyberscraps.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=products_new

Above is the lovely link that takes you straight to all the new delicious goodies. If you are mad keen (like me :) ) then you will appreciate the value of the Sets category which lets you do the "I've got no money problems at all and I'll just take one of everything!!!!" thing. It might fix a little bit of the money problem because choosing an entire set gives you an automatic 10% DISCOUNT on the set so you are saving even more on what's already a great price. The link for Sets is below.

http://www.cyberscraps.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=591

I'm off over there now because last week when we got some new stock in I was slack and figured I'd order it later and ended up missing out altogether! So I'm going to have me some new BG and some new UL and I'm going to lock myself in my room on Saturday night when everyone else is out with a couple of glasses of red, some fantastic photos and some lovely papery inspiration!

I did try to include some thumbnails of the papers but I'm a bit technologically challenged and Blogger wasn't about to make it any easier for me so I've given up and I'm just going to go look at Cyberscraps' pictures instead!

Oh I used texture paste today FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME! I'm a texture paste virgin (well i was before lunchtime anyway) and have never felt the need to use it at all before. I know there are gasps resounding through the scrapping community here - someone who has never used it! I was doing my layout for the "My Legacy" challenge for Aussie Dares (down to the wire as it's due in tomorrow - sorry Miss Sue!!!!) and the word "organic" kept going around my head. I couldn't find any embellishments that really worked for me and then "texture paste" popped into my head as well. I was sitting at my desk having a crisis of scrapping faith here people!!! I was having a minor freak out as the layout was dragging me kicking and screaming in a direction I'd never gone before.

Does anybody else thing that texture paste smells like (and I'm only guessing here) your grandmother's haemorrhoid cream?????? Yuk......wouldn't want to mistake it for anything else

I also had no idea how looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong it takes to dry either! I am so not known for my patience!!! I even gave up acrylic paint in favour of ink because I didn't like waiting for it to dry!

But today I have patience and I've waited like a good girl and I'm I think happy with the result. It's still sitting on my desk but I don't think it's completely finished as there is the little voice going "needs something else, needs something else" every time I look at it so I'm going to turn it over for now so I can get some more work done and I'll come back to it later.

Yeeha My Name Is Earl is on tonight!!! And then SVI and CI and there goes any time I had put aside to try to get some more typing done.......I missed CI last week but didn't care cos I think it was Chris Noth in that one and I'm sorry but for me it's Vincent D'Nofrio or it's nothing!!! Something weirdly sexy and magnetic about that man,apart from the ugh fact that he also reminds me of Vince Vaughan who I don't particularly like but I can put that out of my mind for an hour a week.

Have you got a weekly TV schedule, something you go by each day that gets pencilled in no matter what? I never used to as much but these days it's a bit different.

Monday = Supernatural

Tuesday = NCIS

Wednesday = House then Medium

Thursday = My Name Is Earl then SVU then CI (if I haven't nodded off on the couch by then!)

Friday = Take-away thai food and movie night at home

Weekends = can't be bothered with commercial TV......Foxtel gets a good workout on the weekends with lots of Stand Up Australia, flicking around on V, Music Max etc etc and CI channel because I have a morbid fascination with the murder cases. I also love watching Cops and Police 10/7 because no matter how crap I think my life is going - I'm not on that show yet!!!! lol

Apologies if the layout of this post is all over the place. That's what I get for trying to put pretty pictures of paper in there for you. Consider my wrist firmly slapped by Blogger!

Razor sharp

Honestly I've never met a (almost) 3 year old as sharp as my daughter! She doesn't miss a trick, doesn't fall for the usual parental ruses we try on her to get her to do what we want and just seems to have it all figured out!

This morning she came into my room and because I've been typing early today I was already set up at my desk with a cup of tea and a couple of those amazing new Woolworths Select Orange Delight biscuits (yes, my bad). She came in and asked if she could have one and I said no because she hadn't eaten breakfast first. Then Daddy said he hasn't had one of those yet either and Caeligh said "well you can't cos you not have your breakfast yet!". Daddy turned around and said he had eaten breakfast and she replied "well what did you have a eat your breakfast?" !!!!! (I'm typing it out the way she said it) I love how she asked, even though she knew Daddy hadn't had any breakfast yet!!!! Talk about cheeky!!! lol

It's pretty bad when you get interrogated by the 3 year old to make sure you really did have breakfast first before you get a biscuit!!!!

The dread lurgy revisited!!!! :(

Here's a photo of the victim in question, poor Mr James.......

Well Gran dropped the boys home today and was meant to take Jamie home with her because I work late on Wednesday afternoons but she brought him inside and he was white as a sheet!!! He started vomiting this afternoon when she went to pick him up from school and just spent the whole car ride home chuckin' in a bucket the teacher gave her. The poor little man looks like death. He doesn't seem too miserable in himself though because he spent five minutes informing me that he started to feel sick yesterday when I asked him to put his toys away, suggesting that maybe it was all that tidying up (all of three things!) that made him so very sick.

So he has assumed the position on the couch with the pillows and an iceblock (one of those Home Ice Cream Koolstix with no artificial colours or flavours). I don't know if it will stay down but I'm a big believer in whatever they will keep down is good for them so we'll see. I can't even give him Gastrolyte or Gatorade becuase all of them have artificial colours and the last thing he needs when he's not feeling well is for his brain to want to go hyper on him as well!

Now we will brace ourselves to see who will be the next to go down.....you know that awful waiting for hours and then days, watching for any tiny sign of unwellness in one of your kids that's going to throw your whole work/plans/scrapping right out the window? I know it sounds harsh but really, having anyone in the house is an inconvenience these days more than anything else. I feel so sorry for the little blighters when they are unwell and it's amazing how these bugs seem to strike at the most inappropriate times. My fingers are firmly crossed that I don't succumb as I don't have time to be sick!!! A full week of work this week and because I'm self-employed I can't actually afford to not work even if I'm sick and I have been known to crawl from the desk to the bathroom and back again to get stuff done even though I'd rather quietly die in a corner under a blanket. Yeah some say dedication, I say necessity and everyone who works for themselves will know exactly what I mean!!!!

Well I'm going to go throw something in the microwave to defrost for dinner and start cramming work in now - just in case!!!!

P.S. I can't tell you how glad I am that I spent 10 minutes scrubbing and disinfecting the loo today - now that someone has their face in it I'm REALLY glad it's "freaky clean" as the ad says!

Dirty Rotten Scraplifter!!!!!! (me that is.........)

I saw a layout in SM called Giggles and any of you who saw it will know straight away which one it was when you have a look at the layout below which I scraplifted. I needed to do something quickly with Urban Lily and used chipboard for the title instead of a big rub-on but I really love it all the same so much love goes to the original artist and if you know who it is then please drop me a comment to let me know so I can "properly" credit her as I can't find the magazine I saw it in originally. It's buried in the depths of my scrap corner somewhere!!!!!

Lusting after some one-on-one time

.....with my scrapping supplies!!!! I haven't done anything since my very rushed mini book last week for Valentine's Day and now that I have a shiny new paper trimmer among other little bits and bobs I've bought lately I really want to actually use them!!!!! It's once again the situation of wanting to, got plenty of mojo, just got no time!!!! Again a money issue as well as there's money there for the making and with four kids I can't justify not doing as much work so that I can scrap instead because let's face it - even if you get stuff pubbed, by the time you take out postage, what your supplies cost you and your mag subscription because nobody gives out contributor copies these days, I can't really say I'm making any financial gain by having my layouts published. It's purely for "soul recognition" as I call it. That part of me that is buried here under the me that is a mummy, the me that is a wifey, the me that is a typist, all those other things that layer on top of who I used to be, and still am (if anybody has a paint scraper we might just find me yet!!!) under all those other layers that have gradually been piled on since I became an adult. So I think the part of me that scraps and enjoys being published is my soul, my creative essence of who I am and it proves to me if nobody else that I still have an achievement that comes straight from who I am even if I were not those other things as well. I know the other layers add depth and texture to my scrapping and give me lots of inspiration but it's one thing I can claim for myself.

Ooohhh that was deeper than I wanted for a Tuesday morning!!!! Anyway.....CyberScraps is having a big whopping sale because the shop opens next month and please please please don't make me have to move everything from the stockroom to the shop or I'll have even less scrapping time!!!!

Seriously though there is up to 40% of the biggest range of stuff and not just older things or stuff we haven't sold yet but good stuff like the K&Co Frippery bracelets - they are 40% off!!!! How cool is that. There's lots of OTP stuff reduced too so if you have birthdays, or if you are a really organised early xmas shopper then get in now and start saving!!! Remember, as I always say "the bigger the discout the more stuff I can buy!!!!!". Yes - Doug wishes I wouldn't say that!

I've forgotten which issue of For Keeps my Easter layout is in. Probably because I haven't received my layout back yet or a commissioning letter. Cass thinks it's time I give them a ring and maybe she's right. I would hate for it to have gone AWOL and have no idea it's missing cos I really really love that layout. I can't remember whether the FK due out either this week or next week is the one they'll put Easter stuff in or if they'll wait until the issue after. Hell I don't even know WHEN Easter is this year!!!!!

Okay I'm going to get back to the typing - the boring typing, not this fun chatty faffing about typing - and I hope you all have a crackin' good day!

The dreaded lurgy

Monday is the day Cass and I get together at her place and we scrap. It's our guaranteed "I will get something done today even if I don't even look at my scrapping supplies for the rest of the week" day and we both cherish it dearly. Our girls play to gether and we take pics and muck around, watch Days of our Lives and talk talk talk all day. Our kids all walk home from school together and they have a play for a while, Cass and I have a last cup of sanity and I pack up and go home. It's our fun day once a week that keeps us going through the other six days of crap and boredom.

Unfortunately Cass rang this morning sounding like the grim reaper herself. She's been up all night hurling her guts up and is still going. She will be getting to the doctor for the bum jab as soon as she can but if you have a moment can you leave something nice on her blog so she knows we're thinking of her? Honestly even if you don't know her that well I'm sure you can appreciate the nightmare of a house full of 4 kids, husband had to go to work and nobody else to help her. The totally imaginable horror that could strike any of us down at any time because lordy knows gastro seems to be lurking around every frickin corner these days!!!! In the ultimate act of selflessness Cass has asked me not to come over, not even to help her out, as she doesn't want to spread it if she can help it but we spent half of yesterday together so if I knew for sure I was going to catch it anyway I'd go over and watch the kids so she could go to the doctor. Unfortunately my eldest has a karate tournament this weekend and I'm loathe to risk sharing it with everyone else in case he misses out because it affects points for the whole year of the tournament circuit.

I am thinking of you babe!!!!! And before you go calling karma on yourself, this is NOT what you get for leaving your kids at home with your husband for a few hours while you go out and enjoy yourself!!!! Don't even bother telling me you hadn't thought that - I know how you tick woman!!!!

So today's schedule is mainly housework because just two days of having kids and menfolk at home does more to destroy my house than a small natural disaster, or even a big one for that matter! Oh and I guess I had better get out the amazingly good White King heavy duty toilet cleaner I bought last week. That stuff is amazing and I swear I didn't know my toilet could get so clean, not with four boy creatures in the house anyway!!! As Flylady says "nothing says 'I love you' to your family as much as a clean toilet, especially when stomach flu hits your house and you have your face in it!". I think BEFORE the toilet cleaning I'll go do some backing for lunchbox stuff. Honestly we'd have so much more money if the kids would stop eating!!! lol Not practical but very fiscally rewarding.......I'm trying to stretch out the stupidly expensive individual baggies of overpriced snacks by fluffing out the lunches with home made muffins, cakes and shortbread. It does work out cheaper if you've got the time and because we need to know exactly what goes into all those kinds of things it's just less hassle to make stuff myself. My chocolate muffins have actual cocoa, not five different artificial colours to make them brown. Next time you're shopping, if you're game, have a look at the numbers on the back of the stuff you buy your kids. I usually launch into soapbox mode here about junk in food and while it's positive to see that people are now educating parents about fat, salt and sugar in foods, the healthy food message completely ignores the vast numbers of addiditives that are required to make up a shortfall in fat, sugar and salt so kids will still want to eat it. Food manufacturers in our country use some of the worse known additives for causing behavioural reactions in kids, many that are completely banned in the UK and Europe because of those kind of effects. Our Food Administration here is of the opinion that if it makes your kids act wacko but doesn't give them cancer then it's okay to use it. I'll step off the box again now and just say that if you are interested in the food additives issue then there is a link on my sidebar to "Are You Feeding Your Kids Healthy Junk?" which links to a website called www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info and gives some major eye opening info about food and childrens' health and behaviour issues. I can't recommend it enough as it's done wonders for our kids but at the same time I can say I'm not a raving food Nazi, new age chicken spanker with a fetish for love and mung beans. I know that even for some kids diet is not the anwer, as is the case with my second eldest who is not affected by food additives at all and we've tested the theory many times. He has ADHD and nothing but his medication will control that. But by the same token I do believe that there are lots of unnecessary chemicals and additives in food and that at some point we will see the side effects of that in a whole generation of kids so I figure if I can feed them a healthy diet without those things then all the better for them.

Oh I'm glad Ngaire keeps things light and fun because my posts sometimes always go south and I'm sure people stop reading because it's all a bit boring most days. Keep up the good work Ngaire - someone has to provide the entertainment!!!

CYBERSCRAPS IS OPENING A SHOP!!!!!!!! ( a real walk in the door and touch everything shop!!!)

Cyberscraps Scrapbooking Store is opening in mid-March!!!!!

Cyberscraps online has been open since mid-last year and it's been so much fun so far. Cath has handled the hard yards of site management and store owner and Cass and I have had the most amazing time as the Design Team. We've loved every minute of it and now we're even more excited to be a part of an actual store! We have the most lovely, fun group of gals in the forum and gallery and we hope to extend our circle of friends if you live in the Brisbane area (or a little further out if you're really keen!!!!) Below is the link to our newsletter announcing our shop details. We'll be opening in a cute little strip type shopping centre in Salisbury, southside of Brisbane, where there is also a great bakery, a tiny but rarely busy Post Office (which is such a gift), an excellent fresh fruit and veg shop and a very handy convenience shop with all kinds of bits and bobs. It's opposite the Salisbury Bowls Club and there's plenty of on-street parking.

An actual opening date is a fraction fuzzy right now and depends on lots of factors and setting up but we're aiming for mid-March and I'll post when we have a definite date. We can't wait to get started creating a wonderful welcoming shop with helpful staff (Cath, Cass and me!!!) and a great range of supplies. Classes are on the cards once we get settled and we're hoping to create the kind of funky atmosphere where you can come and be inspired, have a looksee, have a natter or a chat, have a coffee, have a break, have a few minutes of peace if that's what you need. We'll still have our great prices and a constantly expanding range with all the faves and big names, plenty of room for prams and a kids prison... ahem I mean kids corner to keep the little ones amused while you have a look about. We'll be looking at exciting ideas like guest teachers and crop nights and classes designed for those who need to get lots done in a little time and entire project type classes where you will walk out with a completed item like an accordion book or off the page item to give as a gift, use as a decor item or keep for your very own.

http://www.cyberscraps.com.au/NewslettersEmails/Newsletter18Feb07/Newsletter180207.htm

I'm especially excited as I know myself I'm a touchy-feely type of scrapper. I like to see papers in my hands and hold embellishments. I want to fall in love with something on the spot so I have to buy it immediately. With online shopping I have never really felt the love because a tiny thumbnail picture does not speak a thousand words to me and I end up seeking out the product at a shop because I can't get a feel for its size, shape, dimension etc from the computer screen. I'm also incredibly impatient and don't like to wait for things to be shipped to me either. I want something and I want it in a bag in my hand RIGHT NOW!!! Sometimes that's when I go home and get my best scrapping done, with a new and inspiring product in my hands.

It's also a very scary move with lots of money, hopes, dreams and expectations going into it. But we'll all be doing our very best to give people the kind of scrapping store they want and we'll be learning along the way. If you live locally and you have any ideas as to what you'd like to see in a new scrapbooking store then please please leave a comment so we know what people are looking for. We're all customers too but the possibilities are endless and we want to be sure we get it right for every one who walks in the door, whether a beginner whose never touched a photo tab before right through to the seasoned veterans who know all there is to know about scrapping and papercrafts.

Thank you so much for taking the time to have a read through another of my marathon posts but I hope you'll agree it was worth it to get the news out finally!!!! Our online store will still remain just as it is as we have so many wonderful 'net customers and friends but an actual gathering place to do what we scrappers do best is just wonderful and I'm looking forward to hopefully meeting so many of you that I've met through the various forums and blogs.

As the old saying goes "here's to new beginnings!" :)

ttyl Lu

Money spent and hair not red enough

Well a Saturday morning at the salon was actually really fun. I was pampered and attended to for two hours and got my colour and foils for an excruiciatingly cheap price because I let the apprentice do it. Poor thing was so nervous and she kept asking where I wantd the foils, how big, what exact colour and I said "Honey just go ahead and have some fun with it. I don't really mind what you do because it's nothing worse than I've done to myself". She seemed happily, if somewhat disbelievingly, relieved. I later found out that it was the first whole head colour and foils she had done and she did a great job. So great in fact that I'm going to go back in a week or two and get another lot of foils put through for a bit more interest. It wasn't as red as I'd like but because my natural colour is so dark brown, the other hairdressers said it would be waaaaay to damaging to my hair to try to bleach it all down to blonde which is what I'd need to get the colour I really want. So I settled for bright, but not as bright or as red as I really want. The foils look good too. I even let her straighten it for me. I've never done that before because my hair has a natural wave/kink to it which means I would have to straighten it every single day if I wanted it to stay like that so I've just never bothered. I like the fact that my hair has that supposedly sexy "just tumbled out of bed" look - sometimes it's even permission not to even do anything with my hair when I get up, and it still looks like I styled it that way. Hair for lazy people!!!!!! I love that! But I have to say that I really REALLY liked it straight - it makes it at least a whole inch longer and when you are growing it back it all matters!!! It felt gorgeous and was something that regrettably I could get used to but I think I'll save it for special occasions as I honestly couldn't be buggered doing that every day. Who has that kind of time???? My theory on hair is that if it takes me more than a minute to do then it's taking too long!

Today I went to Photo Continental for their Super Sunday sale. Oh freaky scary place!!!! It was jam packed with scary middle aged ladies and unfortunate women who knew nothing else but sticker embellishments and Sizzix. Cass and I stood amongst it all, clutching things like a sheet of Basic Grey rub-ons (I got the black symbols), a pack of Delish Biscuitboard alpha letters (oh so beautiful stuff and their monos are gorgeous too - yes I'll be sure to mention to an already snowed under Cath that we just NEEEEEEEED that too!), some Heidi Swapp alpha rub-ons (because my alphabet fetish is turning into a problem I will need to seek help for soon) and a new ProvoCraft Paper Trimmer (though why they thought they needed to cross promote by printing a Cricut symbol on it I just don't know, I'd never buy one anyway as I've got my sights locked in on a Robocutter - so much more versatile and will cut anything basically you have on your computer including all your cool fonts and stuff you can create in graphics programs but I seriously digress.....). Cass and I stood and looked at the frenzy going on around the punch displays and had to avert our eyes from the punch art demonstration. They had a guy demonstrating the Pritt Power Gel which I've never used. Yes it's my dirty little secret - I only use phototabs and Dimensional Magic for adhesives on my layouts......I know there may be other ways but this has worked so beautifully for me the whole time and I haven't felt the need for something new but I'll explain in another post this afternoon why I need to learn more about what other scrappers might use. Anyhoo the guy demonstrating the Pritt Power Gel, honest to crikey ladies you think they would have chosen somebody who is actually a paper crafter, paste eater, life artist, scrapbooker, bloody whatever, somebody who actually knows what the stuff is used for. He didn't know what sequins were!!!!! The horror of it all. We asked if it would glue solid metal embellishments and hardware type stuff and he said oh yeah look at this, this is metal and held up a sequin shaped like a maple leaf and poor Cass has just given up in exasperation!

We looked at all the layouts on the walls within inking and tearing and about a gazillion brads and wanted to climb on top of the counters and scream "there is so much more than this!!!!"

But alas we did not make a scene. I did however find these extremely cool band-aids!!! I wasn't even thinking remotely of my children and how they'd like them - was thinking about how they would so go with the Marah Johnson Caution Boy and Caution Girl papers were getting in at Cyberscraps!!!! That's sad.........and probably not even acid free either.........

Sharing a v.cool water bottle I found at the Super IGA yesterday for 99c. I HATE to drink water like nothing on this earth and the only thing that helps is having a pretty bottle to drink it from. A cup or glass does not work - it has to be a bottle and that way I know how much I've had as well.

It only holds 500ml but still very nice and makes drinking water more enjoyable if that's possible.

I've got to work AGAIN tonight but hey car rego this week and a karate tournament to pay for so no rest for the wicked at my place! I do have that huge announcement and very shortly I'll post so you know what's going on.

Keep your eyes peeled!!!!

An Oscar for the little girl in the pink tutu

Well I had to work this afternoon and Daddy had to take Caeligh to ballet class. Let me just say that girl knows who's wrapped around her finger in this house!!!! When she got there, the moment Daddy took her out of the car, she began. She didn't want to dance, didn't want to go to ballet, didn't want Daddy to go, didn't want to get down, didn't want James to wait outside for her, didn't want to talk to the teacher, didn't want to stand with the other girls, didn't want to hold Lily's hand, didn't want her princess drink bottle, didn't want to sit on the floor, didn't want to let go of Daddy and DID NOT WANT TO BE A BALLERINA!!!!!!!!!

Herein lies the differences between Doug and I in terms of parenting style. So the small child chucks a wobble at a social activity that last week she absolutely loved. Mummy's plan? Put her on the floor and leave the room. Yes, Doug, she really will get over it if she sees that nobody is interested and nobody's filling in an Oscar nomination form for her!!!!! She will quickly become distracted by said social activity and completely forget that anybody else is even there! She will get over it, she will have a good time and she will want to go back next week.

Daddy's plan? Let her cling to his leg, give her lots and lots of loving attention because she's thrown a fit, stay in the room with her while he waits (pointlessly) for her to calm down because she won't while she knows he's watching and then give up and put her in the car and bring her home. She never wants to go to ballet again.

Does anybody else have clashing parenting styles with their partner? Is just because she knows how to work the angles with Daddy and knows he will cave long before I will (that's if I cave at all?)? Does Daddy realise that he has just taught her a powerful life lesson - chuck a big enough wobble and you don't have to do anything you don't feel like doing!!!!!! Oh well, that's fine. I'll be the one to take her next week and tonight at bathtime, dinner time, teeth brushing time and let's not forget the biggie - bedtime - when she throws a hissy fit because she doesn't want to do any of those things I'll be sure to let Daddy deal with her, pillar of parental strength that he is!!! lol

Can you help if you have a minute?

My best mate Cass, as some of you know, has a phot entered into the Look Up and Smile competition which is run by the Australia Day council. The pic you see is a shot she took of her daughter at the beach which she has entered. If you like the pic could you scoot on over to www.lookupandsmile.com.au and have a look through the most viewed? It should be on the first page of the gallery. There is a voting button there if you like the shot. Today is the last day for voting and the winner will be announced next week and I'd love to drum up some more support for her if we can. The first prize is a holiday package and if anyone needs a holiday lordy knows its my best pal Cass! Thanks for helping out if you've got the time or the inclination!

Isn't Miss Lil just the cutest in her little Baywatch costume!!!

Little rewards and the search for the perfect red

Well thus far for me it's been THE week from hell. I've essentially been trying to cram two actual weeks worth of work into the waking and sleeping hours of only one week and I'm slowly getting there. I've decided I need to reward myself for flogging my butt so hard this week so I've made an appointment at a hair salon nearby to get a professional colour and some foils done. Now I haven't sat in a hairdresser's chair for a colour in I can't remember how long. Because I'm flightly I like to change my hair colour alot and I can't afford to truck off to the salon every time my fickle brain has a whim so I do it all pretty much myself - the colour, foils, all that stuff. Never cuts, no no no, not that brave or stupid but because I shaved all my hair off last year I'm growing it out anyway so have only had one trim in a whole year and it's actually growing out into a style I really love so I consider myself lucky. I know how hard it is to get a style you love and be able to afford or have time to maintain it.

I, like Ngaire, am on the quest for the perfect screaming bright fire truck red which will actually stay that way for more than a week and I'll be sure to pass on any good results I have with the salon tomorrow. I'm thinking as bright red as I can get it (which means bleaching first - GULP!!!) and then either blue and purple foils or white blond and black foils. Still undecided about that yet - like I said, I'm finnicky and will probably do something spur of the moment when I get there. Yes I know, easily excited........lack of impulse control.....all that stuff!

I'm actually very excited!! I so rarely do anything like that because with four kids there's always another (supposedly) more important use for the money but this week I have really really earned it so I figure I'm going to get it done while I can. It's definitely motivation for me to finish off all of my work today and this evening so I can go to the salon tomorrow with the knowledge that there is no work sitting waiting for me. It kind of puts a bummer on the weekend of I know I'm not actually finished and it will still be sitting waiting for me on Tuesday morning.

Mmmmmmmmm Kinder Happy Hippo.....they are these beautiful scrummy little wafers shaped like hippos with that hazelnut cream inside and little pavlova crumbs on the outside stuck to some white chocolate. Sooooooo bad and v. addictive!!!

The Marah Johnson is coming, the Marah Johnson is coming, the Marah Johnson is coming just as fast as Cyberscraps can organise it! Can't wait for that stuff!!!!

I dropped by Lisa Le-Ray's blog yesterday. She's got a sexy Scottish beast like I do!!! We're lucky girls I tell ya!

Doug wants to go see Ghostrider tomorrow night (in gold class no less - spending it already while I'm still trying to earn it! lol). I'm sorry but I don't love Nicholas Cage no matter what I see him in even though he's a great actor and this looks a bit daggy. It's apaprently a remake of an old comic and Doug, being "old" technically at 45, remembers the comic and has been raving about it ever since he heard it was being made. Some guy on a motorcycle who dies but makes a deal with the devil to carry out vengence or something for him so he gets to be normal during the day and at night he rides around covered in flames and riding a flaming chopper motorcycle. Can you hear the excitement in my post????? No??? Still no???? that's right - that's becuase there isn't any!!!! But what to do? Doug has been Super Dad all this week doing lots of cleaning, cooking and kid wrangling while I've been working all the extra hours so in a way he's worked for the money as much as I have and who am I to deny a kid at heart his comic book movie? Then off to the Pig and Whistle downstairs at Indooroopilly for a big cold pint of Guiness. Blind robbery prices in that place but I haven't had one in so long it will be worth it. The only problem is I don't think they have a pool table and I do love a couple of games of pool with a drinkee. Oh well, can't have everything!

What have you all been up to this week? I can't be the only one buried in work and domesticity now can I? Trust me, if you don't comment because you think I wouldn't care, think again - it's always nice and v.flattering to know that somebody you know (or someone you don't) read your blog and thought you weren't a complete crackpot or nutbag!!! I promise if you can reassure me that chaos is normal then I will do the same for you!

Thanks for having a looksee and I will try to get around on the weekend and see what everyone else has been doing. I want to scrap with a vengence on Sunday and I know I'll find lots of inspiration on my travels with you lot to visit!

ttyl Lu

Mini book pics and cool kids tshirts

That's the cover, first double page and second double page. I was so good I even did the reverse side as well!!! I'll put the rest on a slider thingy later.

Have a look at these cool tshirts I bought for James and Caeligh when we were at the DFO a couple of weeks ago. Cotton On Kids had them for just $5 each which in my book is a real bargin and cheap enough for kindy shirts for when it gets cooler because nothing my little ones wear stays good very long anyway!

I thought they were really cute!!! I don't know how this post will look as putting up pics seems to give my blog a bit of a headache and I end up with strange extra lines and spaces between stuff but whaddya do?

Back to typing!!!!

One very URGH morning but got the mini book done

Well today was one of those awful crappy mornings where no child seems able to shower, dress or feed themselves unaided, not even the high school one! They have written routines on their walls for this very reason but apparently today nobody can read either.......by my standards even it was a really bad morning with lots of yelling and stress made worse by James and Caeligh who went to their gran's after school yesterday and I can't even fathom what kind of junk she fed them as they've both been screaming/angry/crying continually ever since, all yesterday afternoon and evening and sleep didn't even fix things and they got up and continued today. Caeligh also tipped out all of the fish's food on the floor and emptied out a bottle of liquid paper on herself, in her hair and on my bed. James had a choking, gagging, screeching tantrum about a slice of bread and all the kids just told us whatever they thought we wanted to hear so we'd get off their backs meaning things were left behind, stuff wasn't ready and other miscellaneous items were forgotten. My eldest would apparently like to live with his father now (not in a million years but we won't go there).

But I did get my minibook finished yesterday. It was a race down to the wire as I didn't start it until about 2.30 yesterday afternoon and put the finishing touches on as Doug was walking in the door. Thank goodness he loved it. He bought me a box of chocolates when we went grocery shopping Tuesday night for us to share and yesterday he brought me home a special Valentine's Day Nudie Juice which I love but they're usually really expensive so I'll have that while I'm working today. It has rasperries, cranberries and something else. The juice is a lovely deep pink and there is a little Nudie cupid on the bottle. Very cute. We didn't buy each other anything really because for the first year ever we've both gotten to that point where we don't need to. I felt like the amount of work I put into the book was worth more from my point of view than anything I could have bought him (apart from a new computer monitor maybe!). Neither of us felt like we'd missed out or weren't appreciated on Valentine's Day. It's one celebration where I know the commercialism has far surpassed the original sentiment of the day. I took a heap of photos but I'm having some tech issues so I'll post them up later in the day.

Valentine's Day mini book

I've just had this ridiculous idea to do Dougie a mini-book for Valentine's Day tomorrow. Well it wouldn't be quite so ridiculous if I hadn't just decided to start it now, when I have no real time to do it and am supposed to be keeping up with my normal work and doing the extra stuff as well!!! Why oh why do these things come to me at the very last minute???? I have no idea why it happens to be honest. I guess it's one of those things where I figure I'll think about it closer to the time and then the rest of life gets in the way and all of a sudden it's there right at my doorstep and I haven't got any time left to do anything!

I've never given Dougie anything I've scrapped before - I guess I always thought he wouldn't want something I'd made myself and would prefer something bought from a store but now I'm wondering to myself why wouldn't he want something I had made him????? Sure I might get him something from the shops to go with it but I've just had one of those huge lightbulb moments where I've realised that maybe he would even like something I had made. Honestly I don't know why I've never given it a go before. I do lots of making things for other people for special occasions but I've just never done it for Doug. Gosh I can be thick sometimes! lol

If you have any great ideas or suggestions for a minibook for Valentine's Day please drop me a comment to let me know! I've got to work until lunchtime but I'll try to gather wool and ideas until then. I'd love to hear if you've done something similar or know of any cool ideas!

What is it about the rain?

We've had little storms on and off since yesterday lunchtime and I'm telling you it does something to people and machinery!!!

I stupidly left the car headlights on when I got home from picking up the boys yesterday afternoon and they were only on for a couple of hours until Doug came home and told me but it was apparently enough to flatten the battery completely. It SHOUDN'T have been enough to flatten it but it did (turns out this morning Doug hasn't even checked the water level in it for months so that's why......grrrrrrrrrrrr). So this morning it is still flat as a tack. It's so depressing to hear nothing but the dry click of the solenoid and then realisation that today isn't going to be off to a good start. I've been up since 4am doing this extra work (and still am only a third of the way through it), Caeligh has been in fine form chucking tantrums and throwing bowls of Weet-Bix around, the stove is making a delightful chemical smell after it had a small blue flame explosion last night so must get someone in today to look at that and both older boys who do know how to dress and feed themselves have aparently forgotten this morning. Doug thinks recharging the car battery will be a five minute job with his electric charger but I've got visions of him toasting himself by running an electrical device from the house to the car in the rain! So at the moment I can't go out and get some Coke Zero which is a small emergency as I won't even be able to walk to the shop until after lunch now because I have to be here for work.

And I believe my scrapping mojo has taken a (hopefully) brief vacation as I don't even want to look at my stuff. I think it's because deep down I know I have way too much work this week and OMG maybe I have suddenly developed a work ethic or something.........nah, as Doug would say THINK OF THE MONEY!!!! And all good scrappers know that money mean new stuff and new stuff means inspiration and inspiration means my mojo will come back. Ah I get it now - it's all a means to an end!

The call of nature is giving out the wrong address

Oh I just had to share.....I couldn't not share.........

Doug and I were sitting in the loungeroom watching Supernatural tonight, right at the end of the episode and we hear James get up, grizzling a bit. We called him to come out to us and then the next thing we hear is water spilling. Cue for both of us to leap off the couch at warp speed to burst into the hallway and see poor James, half asleep, pants around his ankles, peeing in the hallway on the timber floor in front of the linen cupboard!!! ROTFPMSL!!!!!!

Poor Doug scared him a bit by asking him quite loudly what he was doing and he burst into tears and just kept saying he was sorry. Oh I felt so bad for the poor little man!!!! He was unfortunately committed to the procedure and just stood there crying and weeing until he was done and then tried to pull up his pants which were now of course wet as well!!!! Doug has no idea what to do at this point and ushers Jamie into the bathroom to go to the toilet and I stood in the hallway crying with laughter and pointing out that really it was a bit late for the toilet now!!! OMH I have not laughed so hard in ages!!!!

So I've grabbed the poor bugger some dry undies and pj shorts and put them on him and gotten him back into bed. I feel so sorry for him, half awake, dazed and confused and probably for all intents and purposes he was quite sure he was peeing where he was supposed to. Lucky for him he will get up tomorrow with no memory of the evening's mishap. I on the other hand am going to have the whole thing etched in my memory (oops sorry now you probably will too!) and I tell ya, it's one worth saving up for his 21st!!!!

Talk about a temptin' subscription deal!!!!

I had a second phone call from SM this afternoon. Originally I got a call on Friday from the velvety voiced Clarence with an American accent, asking me if I would like to renew my subscription as I've only got a couple of issues left. OMG he sounded like Tone Loc!!!! I had visions of a tall muscular handsome black man with the sexiest voice!!! Talk about a subscription deal - what are SM trying to do to us poor wives and mothers????? And let's not even mention that the subscription deals were great too!!! lol Honestly it was the equivalent of having a Chippendale's stripper come 'round to sell you house cladding!!! lol It pained me to have to tell the (presumably) gorgeous Clarence that I would have to wait until next month to pay for a new subscription and he offered to call back again. He also said to ring and ask for him if I wanted to organise it sooner. By this time I've gotten a wee case of the warm flushes and I'm feeling a little girlish!!!

Oh SM you are cruel indeed to use a weapon like Clarence!!!! Don't you know that we love the mag anyway - I honestly was going to renew as soon as I had the money. You didn't need to hire men like him to ring us but I have to say that it did give me a little thrill for the day for reasons I'm not even sure of!!! lol What a sad, pathetic house wifey I've become......... :)

Lazy bums of the world unite!!!

I've had one of those days so far where I don't actually feel like doing much of anything. It's Monday so my only weekday that I don't work and usually I spend it at Cass's place and we scrap and force our children into cruel and sadistic photo shoots where we exploit their utter cuteness by dressing them up. No, what actually happens is that we sit and scrap and usually the girls dress themselves up and Lily's little brother as well and demand to have their photo taken!!! But because Miss Lil was sick yesterday and last night we had things up in the air and were going to give today a miss. Caeligh was vomity this morning so off to Gran's she went and I was prepared to do the extra work I've got on for this week and maybe a bit of scrapping. So after dropping the kids at school I swung past Cass's place for a coffee and a hello. I ended up coming home to see if I could make a start on the work but for technological reasons I couldn't start it until this afternoon. So what to do?

I've had this flu now for a week and a half and it's really hanging on. I hate it when it just doesn't get up and leave as quickly as it came. So I've been feeling about 60% for the past few days and the early starts at the end of last week caught up with me as I didn't stop much over the weekend either. After some consideration I did the only sensible thing there was - I was alone in the house, couldn't work, refused to do housework, wasn't quite in the zone to scrap - so I went back to bed!!! I know it sounds awful, almost as if even though I can catch a few hours in the middle of the day that somehow I shouldn't iykwim? I don't even know why I felt bad about it. I don't like being under the weather when Doug gets home because then he has to shoulder the load of the whole evening circus with the kids and that's not fair because he's been at work all day too. So I thought if I could just have a couple of hours it might be the recharge I need as I'll have to work long hours for a few nights/mornings this week too. I almost feel bad even telling you. I know how tired you all are too!!!! Even if you don't feel run down, an hour's sleep in the middle of the day sometimes just leaves you feeling energised when you didn't even think you needed it. I kind of feel guilty, it would be like one of my friends telling me, as I sat in the middle of the mess and chaos of my house with screaming kids and me still in my pj's at 4pm, that she had spent the day at a beauty spa and just felt "wonderful darling!". Trust me I'd feel a teensy bit resentful, not because she got to do it but because I didn't!!! So next time you suddenly have a couple of hours fall in your lap during the day (Yep I totally know how rare that is!!!!) use it to your body and mind's fullest advantage and have a catnap. Evening arsenic hour may be so much easier to deal with after a bit of extra sleep - mine hasn't started yet but I'll let you know if it is easier!!!

Boys' choice weekend

Oh so nice to finally have a reason to sit down!!! lol Busy weekend so far for one where we didn't actually have much on.

Cricket yesterday.....we played at Yeronga High School, a mere 4km from the city centre but the location geographically meant that even though we were right smack bang in the middle of inner suburbia, the oval was freakishly quiet and even the train running right next to it barely made a whisper. Lovely quiet morning - if Blayd was an only child! As it was Cass and I had Blayd and Scott on the field and Kris, Lachie, Jamie, Caeligh, Lily and Ronin to deal with. One was happy to read a book and the others all just went crackers. Maybe it was too quiet for them. We finally accepted defeat and left Doug to watch the boys play the last couple of hours and Cass and I dragged the rest kicking and screaming into the car to go back to her place where at least we knew where they were and what they'd be getting up to. Pit stop on the way home however to pick up the latest SC!

Off to the hairdressers for Blayd and Lachie and Doug and I even got Caeligh's hair trimmed. I know I didn't want her to know that scissors were for cutting hair but she's figured that out herself the hard way and maybe she will get that only qualified people with scissors should do it. And yes, it was only the most miniscule lenght off the ends at the back! I'm just lucky she sat still the whole time. It must have been a relaxing day for Lachie who looked a little flat as we got out at the shops and I asked if he was tired which he quickly denied and then equally as quickly fell asleep in the chair at the hairdressers for half an hour!!!!

Last night the boys went to a mate's place to play computers. It's like a military operation here on lan days (lan means Local Area Network if you're not big into computers and it means that a group of grown men all take their computers to a mate's place, link them up and play shoot 'em ups like kids, eat pizza and drink copious amounts of full strength Coke for about eight hours). For lanning to occur Doug and Lachie both have to pack up their computer boxes, the monitors, their gaming keyboards, cables, connectors, steering wheels and pedals, headphones and about a million other bits of jiggery pokery into big storage tubs and load up the van. It probably takes about an hour to get everything ready. I don't even think twice about it these days because I know it's buying me some quiet later!

I was going to scrap but my little sister came over for a visit so we sat on the couch, had pizza and talked for hours. It was lots of fun and we don't get to do it very often so I don't mind giving up a bit of scrapping time.

Then up again this morning to go to the Motor Show at the convention centre. Poor Lachlann was bitterly disappointed when we got there and he saw what actually goes on. He had in his mind a vision of cars doing burnouts in the exhibition halls and lots of Top Gear action at high speed in expensive cars!!! lol I had to laugh. I told him they don't even turn any of the cars on! He was not quite as enthused now as he had been when we left home. And then he got lost repeatedly as he became enamoured with the various sports cars as we walked around so part of the time was spent finding him. I found a lovely car for myself (the purple one below, totally impractical and not affordable) and then found myself getting turned on by the new Toyota Tarago with the all leather interior, woodgrain dash (a bit tacky I thought) and the rear seats which extent into recliners and the electronic sliding doors on both sides. You know you've really lost your quality of life when you can get excited about whitegoods and people movers..... The boys got lots of free posters and enviro-bags so all in all had fun except that they were really thirsty when I refused to pay $4 for a bottle of coke - I had the money but I refused on principle!!!!! Even the vending machines in the lobby outside wanted that much - robbery!

This afternoon I get to - wait for it - it's a really big surprise - WORK!!!!! I'm like lots of self-employed people I guess - I sometimes resent that how well off we are for the week financially depends on how much of my personal time I have to give up on top of the hours I normally work during the week. Doug used to say (with very little sympathy in his voice I might add!) "I'm sorry you have to work more hours but think of the money". These days he doesn't say it anymore because he knows it irks me like nothing else on earth!!!! Now he just stands there next to my desk rubbing his finger and thumb together to remind me why I work!!!

I can't complain though, scrapping at Cass's place tomorrow YAY!!!! I really wanted to have a go at Emily Falconbridge's cards but I'm scared that if I start I won't be able to keep up and I hate falling behind and being slack with stuff like that. I'm also scared I won't be able convert what I can do in 12 x 12 down into such a small space. Yeah I know - think of it as a challenge!!! We'll see......BUT LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!!!

These are Lusi's stamps. WOOHOO FOR YOU BABE!!!!! They are now available for sale after much anticipation and faffing around and we are all so thrilled for ya girl! Lusi's blog is linked on the side bar if you want to have a good look and get ordering information.

Off to hit the keys now and throw on the roast veges for my chicken kebab wrap thingies!