Hellooooo - is anybody out there?

I have to say that since I am no longer immersed in the world of scrapbooking, I've found it very hard to blog as I figure nobody is really interested in the daily goings on of my house, my job or that kind of stuff so I haven't updated. The only scrapping I have done in virtually the last year *sigh* was entries for the local Mt Gravatt Show up here in Brisbane. I was thrilled with my haul, two firsts, two seconds, a third and a couple of honorable mentions. I even won two shop vouchers that I haven't even used yet - how's that for falling of the face of the scrapping world??? But all the same, it reinforced that I hadn't forgotten how to scrap which is at least something.

The typing business has pretty much become all consuming, very early days, the occasional late night and more weekends than I would like to admit. A newfound love of online shopping has also filled a bit of the void of scrapbooking, but not buying scrapbooking things. Cass and I made a pledge that we would not buy a single scrapbooking item until the beginning of January as we both have far more crap than we could ever use and the point of the hobby is not to buy, admire, imagine what could be done with the product and then shoving it in a drawer at home, never to see daylight again.

I have however made good use of eBay for buying new clothes for the kids. They all outgrow their things so fast that it can be hard to keep up and by the time they outgrow them, they really aren't in any shape for hand-me-downs either. Blayd is now six feet tall!!! I swear he has shot up a whole foot this year alone, and with his mop of curly hair and great "def" (muscle definition from hours and hours of karate), he's turning into one good looking young man. Lachlann is still waiting for his chance to catch up and being 12 now, I think it will be over the Christmas holidays that he starts to sprout. James and Caeligh are both quite slight and a bit small for their age but they too are still managing to outgrow things at a rapid rate. I've also bought Doug lots of techy type things, a watch that is a remote control for the TV, sunglasses with a built in MP3 player and the like. He loves toys even at his age. As for myself, I have always loved jewellery and I don't even care if it's not real. Junk is fine with me! I wear mainly silver except for my wedding band and engagement ring so I've been stocking up on silver (plated I'm sure) bangles, big bling rings, turquoise earrings and that kind of stuff. Better still is that I love the chase of finding what I want at the cheapest possible price!

So the update is super quick but I wanted to share a recipe as I'm going to magically morph into some kind of kitchen goddess over the next four weeks. We have a housefull for Christmas this year, the biggest Christmas I have had to cater for, and I'm trawling the foodie mags trying to find great recipes and things I want to try. I thought I would share one that sounds particularly good and probably not so good for the waistline!

Recipe for Frangelico Cherry Cheesecake

1/3 cup Frangelico (and some for the cook!)
3/4 cup caster sugar
400g fresh pitted cherries
1 x 360g Sara Lee French Cream cheesecake, thawed

1. Place the Frangelico and sugar in a small saucepan over low head and stir until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2-3 minutes or until the syrup thickens slightly.

2. Add the cherries to the syrup. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until cherries soften slightly. Set aside for 30 minutes to cool. Transfer to a bowl and place in the fridge for 30 mins to chill.

3. Place cheesecake on a serving platter. Top with the cherries and pour over some of the syrup.

This sounds divine - courtesy of Australian Good Taste magazine December 2009 issue.

I figure you could replace both the liqueur and the cherries for whatever kind you fancy. Strawberries and Cointreau would be nice too I think.

So that's my update for now. I will try to post some of my layouts for the Mt Gravatt Show when I get a chance. I'm hoping that when the kids finish school, I will have more time to maybe break out a few supplies and see if I feel the urge to create anything. I can't tell you how much I miss it.

Have a great week and I'll try to be back soon, if anyone is still reading!!! lol

Love Lu xx