I've been OUTED!!!! lol

I guess I can let the cat out of the bag (a little bit anyway) and announce that I'm the DT leader for a new Aussie based chipboard manufacturer! YAY!!! This is something that has been in the works for a little while now and there's still work to be done but the biggest excitement for me is that I'll be designing my own line of products - things like MDF and acrylic albums and chipboard shapes etc. The chance to design my own products is something I never thought I'd have and I'm very grateful to Alana for giving me such a HUGE opportunity! Because things are still in the works I'm not going to be mentioning names just yet but keep an eye on the blog because it's coming very soon now.

I've been getting some layouts done which is always nice. My fave is the last one "Secret Smile". And yep, I realised I spelled pajamas wrong in Jamie's layout. That cool one (and the one of Caeligh called Adore) was done using the Prima Paintables papers - CyberScraps has them for a tiny $1.22!!!!! I forgot how relaxing it can be to just sit and colour in pretty pictures.

Well I had a scrapbooking DISASTER this morning. Our air conditioner in our room leaked and my scrap trolley with papers, cardstock and some layouts in a ziploc bag where right underneath. I was gutted to find that 10 layouts (all sealed in ziploc bags mind you) had somehow gotten wet and were now ruined. I could have cried! So I had to move my trolley away from the air conditioner and started taking things out to see if there were any more casualities. Then I started to tidy up a bit and before I knew it I had taken apart my whole room, boxes of scrap supplies, rearranged all the furniture and had a serious purge of rubbish, old stuff I didn't need (watch out kindy!) and stuff that just didn't need to be in the bedroom. I'm now totally knackered!!! lol But in a good way, you know, how you feel after you've done a hard day of work that you wanted to do. So I'm guessing I'll have an early bed tonight!

Doug got his video camera today. It was a freebie when he rented his TV. He's all excited...child. I think I'm too tired to be excited for him but I'll have a play with it tomorrow when he goes to work! lol The kids are all excited too - Jamie is a total show pony so all the footage he has shot so far is Jamie's big fat grinning head in front of the camera and nobody else has had much of a look in so far! lol He also fancies himself a film-maker as well as junior photographer but Doug isn't (quite reasonably too) prepared to hand over the video camera to the 7 year old just yet. Maybe under very close supervision on the weekend when there are two adults present and watching like a hawk!

The typing is starting to pick up after I did a mass email to some transcription companies a couple of weeks ago. I've cut my hours down at CyberScraps to accommodate working from home again as the cost of living is just going up and up and up, and sadly we can't afford to survive without me working as well so there was nothing else for it. I'm really very lucky that I have a specialised job and that I think I'm very good at what I do. Other people have thought so too luckily and so I have a few new jobs on the go. I haven't approached specialists yet to see if I can recruit some of my own personal clients as well as the money is better working directly for the doctors but right now I need any kind of income so that can all come later after I let things even out and I can see just how much work I will have regularly and how much extra I can handle on top of that. I did think I'd have more time to scrap but so far it hasn't eventuated!!! All I've done so far is clean the house! I guess when I'm gone all day I'm tired and don't notice the mess so much cos we're trying to get dinner organised, kids bathed, in bed etc, but being here all day I have no choice but to notice the mess and it is really bugging me!!!! lol I'm not good at being tidy and it's very hard for me to get back into the routine of doing my quick tidy up each day that makes the house look mostly presentable but I will get used to it again because I like being able to sit down in a clean loungeroom and don't feel like I can relax unless I've done that tidy up. I don't know whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. Right now I'm exhausted from moving furniture but I can almost hear the kitchen calling me!!!! lol

What else is going on? Oh yep the Papter Arts Festival is on at the Brisbane EKKA grounds this weekend and Cass and I are going to do our level best to find a couple of hours to go. It's the best place to stock up on things like inks and pens. I have a serious aqualip pen obsession and not many shops stock them that I can find so I'm hoping the stamping shops have it covered and I'll be able to indulge the pen fetish!!! lol And Cass and I are both definites for Outback Scrap at Hughenden in North Queensland in August this year. It will be so cool for me as I haven't been to north Queensland ever, only as far as Hervey Bay and that's it. And even better, it looks like we'll be going by plane which is one of my big goals for this year cos I've never been on a plane before - yep I know, I seriously need to get out more!!! lol There's some magazine work in the pipeline, articles, projects for features, etc but I'm still in the process of trying to sort it all out because being at home for the last week has really brought home to me just how much I have to do and I'm going to have to sit and start writing things on a calendar so I don't get confused. Far out I wish I wasn't so scatterbrained sometimes!!!!

Well now I'm going to mosey off to bed after I get the kids settled. Early night definitely required. Hopefully I will have typing to do tomorrow so that's always good for the budget. Thanks for stopping by for a read. Love, Lu