Happy mojo, race cars, rag curls and freaking cold

Okay so in order of the title (and sometimes that's a bit tiresome the old title thingy!) I am currently doing a commission album for someone. A lovely lady came in and asked if I would do an album for her mother's 50th birthday and handed me a stack of photographs. I had to get her to write names on the back of everything and now I'm about 3/4 of the way through, having done a few layouts here and there every day this week. Cass and I were at the shop tonight, getting in some more scrap time and after I'd done my pre-determined number of commission layouts I decided to relax and do something of my own before we left. There was a piece of My Mind's Eye Magnolia paper (really funky candy striped) which had been calling me every time I walked past it in the shop this week. I tried to ignore it cos I'm not really into stripes but it was the last piece of that one left and it just would not stop bugging me so tonight I picked it up and used it. I can't even show you that one yet as I've brought it home for Dougie to have a look at and I'll get Cass to scan it for me when I see her next. It's a clean layout for me, resisted the urge to go completely OTT with it as it's a black and white photo of Caeligh and Lachie together and part of me wanted to go all out but I thought I'd try restraining myself and see what happened! Really happy that I showed myself that I can STOP at some point when doing a layout!!! lol So I left the shop at 11pm tonight one happy - if not bloody cold - camper!

Tomorrow Doug and I are going out to Queensland Raceway to see the V8's racing. It's apparently out past Amberley which is the equivalent of the Artic Circle so I'm glad I bought a new jumper today. Maybe I can wear it under my hoodie and a blanket and a doona and a sleeping bag......... I've been told I migh need earplugs but in my book that defeats the purpose of going to something like that. We went to Indy last year and I refused the earplugs then too. Those kind of events are meant to be real sensory overload - sight of all the cars speeding past, the smell of octane fuel and the roaring sounds of engines. Because it's not something I do every weekend I am trying to "embrace the experience" so to speak!!! Good thing blogging doesn't require good hearing.........

I sat on the couch last night and Caeligh put her little head on my lap and went to sleep and while I was playing with her hair I suddenly remembered how my mother used to let me put my head on her lap and she would use strips of old bed sheeting to put my hair in rag curls. I have no idea why the memory came to me but the urge to go rip up an old sheet was so overwhelming that I got the boys to grab me one from the linen cupboard that was close to rag anyway and proceeded to do Caeligh's hair. I couldn't get all of the back because she was sleeping but when she got up this morning she was absolutely stoked with her head full of raggy strips!!! I tried to explain that if she would only let me take those out then her hair would be pretty and curly but she liked it all knotted up instead - took me an hour to convince her to let me take them out. I did eventually get them all out and if her hair had been wet when I'd done it it would have taken really really well. As it was she ended up with soft curls that kind of puffed up a bit so we had to get her a stretchy headband to keep the semi-afro out of her face! She was very pleased with herself but because everyone was rushing out the door this morning I didn't get a chance for a pic :( Maybe next time.....

I've just come home from the shop at 11pm tonight and holy cow is it cold!!! Not just cool or even plain ordinary cold but SUPER-MEGA-FREAKIN' COLD!!!! I bought Caeligh this cool striped peruvian winter hat this morning, the kind with the braids hanging off the ear warmer parts, but I was so cold I ended up wearing it!!! Very Heidi indeed!!! We listened to Triple M doing their Cold 30 countdown tonight from 1985 and man was there some rocking music happening!!!! Mega songs like Take On Me, Summer of 69, Working Class Man (which I can't ever now disassociate with the national anthem since Adam Hills did that Comedy Festival routine - google his name and Advance Australia Fair if you want to find it and I promise you will never be able to erase it from your memory again, or sing the national anthem without wishing it was Jimmy Barnes!!!!), Walking On Sunshine, all that stuff. We walked a few shops down to the takeaway and had REAL hamburgers with the lot and they were cheap as too! We scrapped, we laughed, danced around the shop and drank hot Milo sucked through Tim Tams and basically had a fun night. If we'd had a couple of mattresses it wqould have been just like a sleep over!!! lol No I don't think Cass and I will ever grow up either.........

OOOOH OOOH OOOOH!!!!!! SUPER COOL SHOP NEWS - we're getting a Klic & Kut!!!!! Now I haven't used one before nor have I used a Cricut or a Robocutter but apparently this thing is the Rolls Royce of cutting machines and will cut out any font you can have on your computer plus things like scrollwork and embellishment stuff as well. It cuts from paper, cardstock and - wait for it - chipboard sheets!!!! It will be available at the shop for customers to use when they come in for crop days on Fridays and for the crops every second Friday night so if you've always wanted to have a play with one of these babies - and you live within a scrapably justifiable distance - then keep an eye on the bloggie here and I'll let you know when it arrives. We're hoping Monday so that we can get in lots of playtime and know the ins and outs of it by our next crop on Friday next week. I won't kiss goodbye my craft knife just yet (that'd be ouchy anyway) but I'm hoping to seriously cut down on the amount of cuts and blisters I sustain from trying to hand cut detailed titles for my layouts. How cool to press a button and have a little machine do it all for me!!! I am getting all hot and bothered just imagining the possibilities.....lol

I had my All About Eve layout picked up by SM today which is great cos I thought it would be too detailed, too grungy, too "me" basically but like they say all the time, you never know what the mags want! It's the closest layout to my usual style that I've ever had accepted so you'll get a look at the "real me"!!!! (run away now........) I still get excited about every single acceptance so in my mind that tells me that I'm still enjoying the submitting process and not sick of it yet or allowing it to "take over" my scrapping, and that I'm not getting totally up myself by thinking that I DESERVE to have my work accepted. I worry about that, you know - I'd like to think I'm pretty down to earth and I don't carry on with bull s&*t and I do read the occasional (very occasional mind you and totally no finger pointing going on here) blog or forum where people just foam with condescending praise for others that's just a precursor to being able to talk about themselves. For you guys who know me, if you ever EVER hear me starting to become even slightly up oneself, can you please firmly tell me to stop being on myself?????? Excellent!!!!

I'm off now to get ready for bed in the flannie jammies and maybe put an extra blanket on the babies. I'm super paranoid about heaters so we don't use them except for either right next to my desk if I have to work, or in the loungeroom of an evening sometimes and so it's extra layers all the way at our place.

I know I keep saying it but do whatevert you have to in order to keep warm. It may even mean sharing body heat!!!!! Lucky for me Doug is like a furnace but even he's starting to feel the cold. It's the mark of a truly cold winter when the man from Scotland says he's cold!!!! lol

Rug up you gorgeous girls and have a great weekend. I'll post some piccies of the races when I get back tomorrow. Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every one of you who has stopped by this week and to those who were able to leave a comment I'll be sure to draw the RAK on Sunday. I get the warm fuzzies when people do say hi and I'm really trying to return the favour lately and share the comment love around! Love and warm uggies, Lu