Yay productive Friday!!!

I had a great day in the shop yesterday, getting a few layouts done which is always great as it's just about the only place I scrap any more!!! lol At home it's always typing work or housework or some other thing that has to be done and scrapping seems to come a sad last to everything else so luckily at the shop (most of the time anyway) scrapping is my number one priority. The above layout is one I did just for fun, no particular reason except that I bought some Buzz & Bloom chipboard at the Paper Arts Festival yesterday and liked the punched out middle bits so much that I used them. I also took a leaf out of fab Lusi's book and bought a thingy of correction tape so that's the white stripes you see on the page. It's a bit hit and miss with those unfortunately but y'all know I'm not big on perfection so I didn't mind! lol The paper is by Luxe and they have some really great bold patterns and colours. It reminds me a bit of Cheeky Miss from last month's SM and I didn't even realise the colour similarities until I was finished. I think if a colour combo works for me I do tend to go back and use it again without realising.

This layout was using our new Dream Street papers. Not sure if I like all of them but definitely liked these ones! The buttons are ScrapWare brand, as is the scroll thing on the side, and the mesh is actually real plasterer's mesh from Bunnings! Gotta love non-scrapbooking crap!!! The photo is the predictable result of asking my darling Dougie to smile for me so I could get a couple of pictures of him!!! He was warned I would use whatever he gave me to worth with so there it is!

The last layout I got done was for Aussie Dares - scrap your irrational fears. Now fear of the dentist is actually very common I've heard and for me it came from years of treatment at the school dental hospital where the focus was on getting the work done rather than pain minimisation or easing a child's fear. Because I've genetically got "brittle" teeth with cruddy enamel I frequently get cavities no matter how careful I am with dental hygiene so a visit to the dentist for me has always involved fillings, needles and drills. I can imagine some of you reading this are squirming already - I don't even like to think about sitting in the dentist's chair, let alone go there voluntarily!!! So as a result of my morbid terror of the dentist I avoid going at all costs and I have to be in serious "not even the painkillers are working any more" type of pain before I'll go and by then the problem is way more serious than if I had just had it looked at early on. That's the irrational part, I'm so scared that I make it even more traumatic for myself by delaying treatment so the problems get worse, resulting in more extensive, painful, costly treatments which make me not want to go!!! Vicious cycle.......... Also irrational is that I've had four kids, all straightforward births, one with no pain relief, one that went on for 27 exhausting hours, so you'd think an hour at the dentist would be a cinch but you get something amazing and wonderful at the end of a birth, the only thing you get at the end of a dentist appointment is an expensive bill!!! lol

I'm working this morning (can you tell from my amount of blogging that I'm working really hard?!?!?!) and then when that's finished I'm off to Mt Coot-tha for a picnic lunch with Doug and the two little ones and some friends. Like Yogi says, I'm going to need to go find my pic-a-nic basket somewhere around here and do some packing methinks. I've got the camera primed and I'm sure that Caeligh will enjoy a day of shattering the tranquility of the botanical gardens along with some other children whom I know will be equally as adept at tranquility shattering as her. If you had planned on going today for a family reunion, a romantic little picnic for two or to enjoy the gardens in solitude - WATCH OUT FOR US!!!!! You'll hear us coming no doubt!!! I've got the camera primed and ready so I'll be sure to take some photos. I can hear the sounds of shock at the prospect of a gatering of scrapbookers contemplating taking a few pics at a gathering. OK I'll admit it, I'll probably take dozens and dozens of pictures!!! You can't ever have too many, you know it's true!!!! lol

Tonight we're going to a get together at a friend's place. They are painting their recently purchased house so we said we'd come and give them a hand if they need any but I think it's more a BBQ and a couple of tasty drinks more than anything else which is fine by me! The little ones are going to Gran's for a sleep over and I don't think we've even got anything on the cards for tomorrow as yet. Doug and I might go to the Rocklea flea market without children in tow for once which is always nice. Apart from that there's a whole lot of house cleaning that needs to get done as the kitchen is still mostly in boxes and baskets on the floor and everything now needs to find a new place and a new home. I hate sorting but also hate the clutter of having stuff sitting around on benchtops and on the floor. I love to see clean, empty benchtops although the new kitchen benches had only been in for an hour on Thursday when one of my kids (nobody will own up!) left breadcrumbs and a huge splodge of strawberry jam on one of the new benchtops and put their jam covered knife and plate in the new double bowl sink - WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS STILL TAPED TO THE INSIDE OF THE SINK BOWL!!!! lol I had to laugh - they at least put the stuff in the sink - even if the sink hadn't even been used yet!!! Oh while I remember - another entry for the slacker parent diary here - a reflection on the amount of time Doug or I probably swear and don't even realise it. Caeligh was in the kitchen yesterday after I had left for work and Doug was pottering around organising the new pantry. She is very independent and won't ask for help with anything - she just likes to help herself as she's quite high functioning and capable for a three year old. Normally she'd just make herself her Weet-Bix or get herself a sandwich but because everything is out of place or out of reach now she stood looking inside the new pantry and obviously couldn't find what she was looking for because she just shook her head and said "Shit! Where's all the food gone????". Part of me is shocked because she's so heard the word from us and part of me thinks it's hilarious that she uses the word IN APPROPRIATE CONTEXT!!!! pmsl!!!! Needless to say Doug quickly helped her find what she wanted and explained that nice girls don't say "shit", nice girls say "oh pickles". We had to remind her of that a lot when she went through her F-bomb phase (also used in appropriate context like when she couldn't pull her shoes on properly!!!).

I'm off to get some work done so here's to a quiet, relaxing weekend if that's what you want and you have my commiserations if you won't be getting it. I've got a Kathy Reich book sitting on my bedside table and I doubt I'll be opening that much this weekend either. Can't even remember the last time I read a book - certainly hasn't been this year so far I don't think!

Have a great weekend and thanks for popping in. Love, Lu