Friday night crops rock!

We had a blast Friday night at our crop night. It's not what you'd call your usual crop night, everyone is relaxed, having fun and sometimes not even a lot of scrapping gets done! Not that I'm sure other crop nights aren't fun too but I think we've found something special at Cyberscraps with the ladies who come in. I've never had so much fun going to work before!!! Thanks to Julie, Kylie and Peta who are our favourite regulars and help make the night go off!

I got a couple of trip layouts done, the Freedom Machine (Gladys) and The Coathanger. The harbour bridge layout has quite a bit of crap on it - kitchen string, an orange plastic thing I found in Jamie's toybox (and no, it's not an essential piece of anything I was sure I checked first!), a flattened rusted tin lid I found in the carpark behind the shop Friday morning and some red leather offcut - but I like how it all looks like it should be there.

The one of Caeligh was just more of a product showcase for me so I didn't do as much as I would normally do but it's okay. It's nice to show that I can scrap in moderation when I have to!!! lol

How is Father's Day going for you all? The kids and I were up early this morning getting Daddy coffee and breakfast and sorting his presents. James did a great drawing for Doug which I'll haev to scan later and Caeligh found a chipboard star from one of my packs of Bella and got Daddy's new pen (came in a set with a watch, keyring and pocket knife) and wrote her scribble on it and then proudly declared that it said "Happy Fathers to my daddy" and that he should take it to work with him and read it if he ever got sad at work (do you think maybe Doug talks a lot about how he is sick of his job???? lol). I think the plan for the rest of the day was to go with Doug to the computer market - that's his thing, computers and given how involved in scrapping I am I can't really begrudge him can I? - and then we said he should go to High Octane for a couple of hours for some race practice. While he's away we'll probably draw some pictures for him or scrap a layout or something like that. Then we'll work out what's for dinner I guess. Not a lot of action here I'm afraid!!!

I start my typing work tomorrow but the chick who left was obviously totally over it when she handed in her resignation and so has left me with about 75 consultation letters not done and some of them are almost two weeks old!!! I like to operation on preferably 48-72 hour turnaround at the latest so now I'll also have to spend some time today catching up although I'm sure I'm not even going to get half of them done by the time I have to start at 8am tomorrow morning. Oh well, I charge by the hour so it will take as long as it takes. The whole typing thing is hard, it's a no brainer job for me, really easy and doesn't feel like hard work because I've been doing it for so long and the money is fantastic but on the other hand I love what I do at the shop and I'll miss it like crazy while I'm chained to my desk at home. It's hard to justify wanting to play at the shop and miss out on the money when it's not like we don't need the money or anything. There are definitely things we need the money for. Our car is getting to that stage where no matter how gentle we are with it, something is going to give and it will be expensive when it does. You know how it goes with older cars...... We also want to move closer to the school, like within a 1km radius of the school, so that Blayd can walk because often he is ready before everyone else and because Middle School starts before everyone else does he is very often late as we try to get everyone else ready and out of the house. If we lived close enough he could just head off when he was ready and not have to wait for the others. I'm sure it would make his day a lot easier if he was calm, relaxed and arrived in plenty of time each day. Of course to do that we need to move which requires renting somewhere privately (urgh!!!) plus saving up bond plus finding somewhere that doesn't cost a fortune. Most places are about $350-400 per week in the area we're looking at which is just astronomical given that we're not even buying, just renting. I don't envy people with a mortage - it must be so hard every week. So we know that moving will put us at a disadvantage by another couple of hundred bucks a week but there's nothing else for it. Blayd will be in Senior school in another couple of years and they start at 7.45am each day! I'd have to do two school drop offs in the morning to get all the kids there and that's going to end up costing us as much in petrol as it would to move closer to the school. It's one of those things that's always in the back of my mind but we've never really been in a financial position to do anything about it and now maybe we will be but it will involve me seriously considering how much work I'm prepared to take on each week. Hmmmm, another issue I think I'll have to hand over to God because it gives me a brain ache the more I try to sort it out!

Our very exciting Creative Imaginations shipment should have left on its journey from the States to our shop and fingers crossed it will turn up towards the end of this week. It's all new Marah Johnson including the much exciting Rock Star, Coffee House and Marquis, plus some other hot CI designers and if you loved the Caution! Girl and Caution! Boy ranges then be sure to look for the Drop Dead Red range - it looks like my style all the way and I can't wait to get hold of it! We're also still waiting on My Mind's Eye and some other stuff so we probably only have half of what we're expecting from CHA this year so far and I'll bet if you've been in the store or had a lookie online you thought we already had tons of stuff!!!! Nope that's not nearly all that we're expecting! Just don't ask me where we're going to put it in the store!!! lol I'm glad that will be an issue for Cath and Cass to sort out and I'll get to come in for crop night in a fortnight (14 Sept if you are interested, call us on 3274 5522 to book your seat) and just stand back and admire all the new goodies. It does mean however that my partner in crime, Cass, will get her mitts on everything before I do!!!!! At least I know she's the kind of bestie who will make sure she gets supplies for me too!!!

Okay going to go now and get ready to head out. Have a lovely Sunday and take care girls. Lotta love, Lu