Monday, 8 January 2007
I'm going to soapbox here about something
Dougie and I went for lunch today at the local sports club, just cos it's nearby, it's relatively inexpensive and they have pool tables that are never in use during the day, oh and the Guinness is still less than $4 a pint! We decided just before leaving to waste $5 in a pokie machine and that's usually all we spend because I can think of other things to do with money than throw it away and as far as I'm concerned I don't ever gamble more than I could bear to put a match to and burn which I think is what gambling equates to. So.......we are sitting at our machine happily pressing our button and the promo guy is walking around talking about their Monday afternoon grocery grab. I went to have a look cos basically I'm nosy as well as uninformed and on a big trestle table in the pokie hall ther was a huge spread of groceries, even right down to basics like dishwashing liquid and tins of baked beans!!! Apparently, and this strikes me as both moronic and a bit sad, the punters get a token for each time they have a win of a minimum amount on the machine. So you get one token if you win a $1 drop and two tokens if you win a drop of $5 etc. And then at a designated time of the promotion you get to walk over to the table "in an orderly manner folks, with no pushing or queue jumping and no passing groceries to those further back in the queue, and you can only claim three items to start with so nobody misses out" and basically exchange the tokens you gained by pissing away your money for food that you could have bloody well spent that money on to start with!!!!!! Am I the only one who sees the stupid irony in that?????? Now before I get flamed by an anonymous post, I do realise some people have available money for gambling. I wasn't thinking so much about them as those who are there and can't afford to be. So I left feeling a little depressed actually. And the worst part was that these poor folks, mostly elderly, were excited like they were getting something for nothing. I know there are lots of people who like the idea of getting something for nothing and can easily talk themselves into believing that but it just isn't true very often these days. They've spent their grocery money on gambling so they could win tokens to buy even less groceries that they could have bought with their grocery money. Yes, I know lots of people need a social activity, and yes, I realise that some of them are probably very lonely and have no other opportunities for going out, and yes I also know that clubs are entitled to run a business and make money but I still think the whole shebang sux (how grade 9 is that for ya???!) and even though people have the right to choose where they go and what they do, I felt like I was watching them all get conned. I'm sure some know exactly what they were doing but it felt like a cheap, crappy stunt to watch. Sorry for the downer people, but that's what impacted me the most today, seeing that pokie promo and the people crowding around that table like a charity food giveaway when they had really paid for it themselves and for some of them it will have cost them more than a few bucks for groceries. I don't know anyone with a gambling problem and I haven't had one myself, but the whole thing seemed absurd, sad, and a pretty crummy yardstick of our society. Please somebody tell me I'm overreacting cos I don't know anymore, maybe it's would have been anything today that set me off, I don't know but there's my rant about something I didn't like, can't change and am not personally involved in. I can't be the only one who has those kind of tanties can I? lol
Sunday, 7 January 2007
Oops almost forgot something exciting in amongst the mess!
I got my commissioning letters from SM on Friday!!!! Yipeeeeeeee!!! I have parted with about ten layouts in the last four months or so and they are the first commissioning letters I've received for the whole batch. I'm assuming it's the May issue which will be available in April?? I think that's right. It's Vol 8 No 10 anyway and I have two layouts in that issue - Miss You Mum and Priceless. Priceless I didn't love, did it as part of a cybercrop challenge and only submitted it out of habit. Shocked is not the word when SM accepted it. But there you go - finally got the paperwork in my hot little hands. It's one thing to have a mag accept an email submission, its one thing to package your baby up and send it away but it's a different thing when you finally get that letter in your hands which confirms that yes they actually do want your stuff and which issue you'll see it published in. I have to say a huge thank you to whoever runs life, the universe and the whole shebang because Cass and I have had a hugely successful last six months in terms of our scrapping - both being on DT for Cyberscraps and receiving lots of acceptances. It's not the only reason I scrap but it's nice to see that I'm not the only one who thinks it can be more than a "hobby" IYKWIM? Can't wait to start seeing the issues come out as I think we've both got layouts in SM over four sequential months so that's very cool. And given the amount I spend in terms of time and money on scrapping it would be illogical not to reinvest my publication fees back into my work wouldn't it????
Something in the air......
So I don't know if anyone else has noticed it or whether it has just been confined to a circle of friends and family around me but yesterday for me was a great day. I stayed at home with Lachie and HRH while Doug took James to his friend's party and had a look around the shops over at Indooroopilly. I got a sudden burst of energy from goodness only knows where and spent the day cleaning, decluttering and did a huge purge of James and HRH's room, donating toys that were still clean, usable and complete to charity and throwing everything else that was broken, not able to be fixed or that was missing pieces. I half filled a trailer with rubbish and I sat back by the time Doug got home at about 3.30 and felt really happy with myself for achieving so much. Cass is right - decluttering and purging really is cathartic and therapeutic, and the fact that our house is so small that I can't afford clutter helps too!
The plan for the rest of the day was a kind of a business meeting thing for dinner which suddenly was cancelled in odd circumstances and then my Dad rang to see how we were all going. My mother died when I was 19 and my father and I have never ever been close although I've tried to keep an eye on him as I imagine Mum would have wanted me to. So I ring once or twice a week to see how he's travelling and he dispenses the odd bit of helpful info such as where to find something I might want on sale or where to find cheap car parts if we need them. That kid of thing. We're not at all close but he has really improved over the years. We used to have huge, but very short arguments because he had an opinion about how I lived, the choices I made etc so I don't speak to him more than I have to because (sadly I suppose) I'd just rather not speak to him at all if that's how it's always going to end with him. I can't be bothered these days with the drama of someone telling me what to do after thirteen years of having no parental control or input since my mother died. So he apparently rings to see how we all are and things went downhill at a great rate of knots when I told him about a house I'd seen for rent near the school. It's also near Cass which would be lovely as our kids seem glued at the hip anyway and they could all walk to and from school together each morning. Yes it's a budgetary stretch and no I don't have the bond right now but it is perfect size, perfect location, all that stuff as the stress of living in a tiny 3brm house with no storage space for anything is starting to build a bit. I know we should be grateful that we have a place to live at all in this day and age but I basically want more for the kids than the tiny house we live in, in what isn't exactly the nicest area. Let's just say I have a couple of issues with what my kids see if we walk around our suburb and I don't want them to think it's normal for some people to live the way they do. Now that sounds snobby but where I live is depressing, with lots of domestics, hooning cars using our street as a race track, kids getting belted and being called four letter names by their mothers while they walk up the street. I don't want my kids to think it's normal. I want them to want more for themselves. I want more for myself. We moved here for financial reasons and now our financial situation is a bit better I don't want to stay here. It is a 20 minute drive each way to school for the kids and to let them walk each morning would mean not having to rely on family to pick them up each day as we only have the one car and Doug takes that to work as I work from home and don't really need a car during the day until when the kids need to come home.
Lordy lordy I digress!!!! Anyhoo the whole thing went a bit pear shaped when my dad decided that I was getting "too big for my boots" and wait for it - "oighty toighty". I'm nowhere near sure I spelled that right! Funny coming from he who lives in a big house in a good suburb etc etc. Oh, and I've "changed" as well. So basically I told him to ring me back when he was feeling normal again because he hasn't picked a fight with me like that in years and years. I don't know what happened in his day yesterday to put him so off kilter but I wish he'd kept it to himself.
So Doug and I stayed in, drank red wine, had thai red chicken curry and had a good laugh about the weird day while we repeatedly burnt about half a dozen attempts at making popcorn on the stove because I didn't have any of the microwave bag stuff. He always makes me feel better just being around him - his company is balm for the soul IYKWIM.
And he's also a complete legend because while he was at the shops yesterday he went to Cash Converters at Indro (loves his Cashies he does - likes to rummage through the electrical stuff because often they don't quite know the value of some things so there are bargains to be had). He picked me up an A3 printer!!!!!! Yay yay yay! I've been wanting one for ages because it would be nice to be able to put 12x12 cardstock through it to print journalling onto my pages instead of having to print out the journalling on cardstock cut down to fit my A4 printer then have to find a way to make the journalling work on the layout. I haven't installed it yet but it will be fun to play with. That's about the biggest goal I have today. I'm going to play with printers and hopefully get some layouts done and Dougie is going to declutter his computer parts and electronic jiggery pokery. Oh and I think I have to go to the supermarket to get a few lunchbox things as the littlies start back at kindy on Tuesday. James however will now be a "schoolie" as they call them so he will get to go on excursions and have a different program to before he went on holidays and used to be a preschool kid. Now apparently he's a big boy and is using holiday care, not day care! I'm surprised he knows the difference let alone cares! When Blayd and Lachie get back from their dad's place at the end of this coming week they get to go to holiday care as well as Doug goes back to work then too and they will enjoy the holiday program at the kindy far more than having to hang out with me while I work at home. And if I had wanted to spend the last two weeks of their holidays settling arguments, rationalising complaints and sorting out major meltdowns I would have become a police negotiator!
Hope your week is off to a flying start whatever you have going on, cya Lu
The plan for the rest of the day was a kind of a business meeting thing for dinner which suddenly was cancelled in odd circumstances and then my Dad rang to see how we were all going. My mother died when I was 19 and my father and I have never ever been close although I've tried to keep an eye on him as I imagine Mum would have wanted me to. So I ring once or twice a week to see how he's travelling and he dispenses the odd bit of helpful info such as where to find something I might want on sale or where to find cheap car parts if we need them. That kid of thing. We're not at all close but he has really improved over the years. We used to have huge, but very short arguments because he had an opinion about how I lived, the choices I made etc so I don't speak to him more than I have to because (sadly I suppose) I'd just rather not speak to him at all if that's how it's always going to end with him. I can't be bothered these days with the drama of someone telling me what to do after thirteen years of having no parental control or input since my mother died. So he apparently rings to see how we all are and things went downhill at a great rate of knots when I told him about a house I'd seen for rent near the school. It's also near Cass which would be lovely as our kids seem glued at the hip anyway and they could all walk to and from school together each morning. Yes it's a budgetary stretch and no I don't have the bond right now but it is perfect size, perfect location, all that stuff as the stress of living in a tiny 3brm house with no storage space for anything is starting to build a bit. I know we should be grateful that we have a place to live at all in this day and age but I basically want more for the kids than the tiny house we live in, in what isn't exactly the nicest area. Let's just say I have a couple of issues with what my kids see if we walk around our suburb and I don't want them to think it's normal for some people to live the way they do. Now that sounds snobby but where I live is depressing, with lots of domestics, hooning cars using our street as a race track, kids getting belted and being called four letter names by their mothers while they walk up the street. I don't want my kids to think it's normal. I want them to want more for themselves. I want more for myself. We moved here for financial reasons and now our financial situation is a bit better I don't want to stay here. It is a 20 minute drive each way to school for the kids and to let them walk each morning would mean not having to rely on family to pick them up each day as we only have the one car and Doug takes that to work as I work from home and don't really need a car during the day until when the kids need to come home.
Lordy lordy I digress!!!! Anyhoo the whole thing went a bit pear shaped when my dad decided that I was getting "too big for my boots" and wait for it - "oighty toighty". I'm nowhere near sure I spelled that right! Funny coming from he who lives in a big house in a good suburb etc etc. Oh, and I've "changed" as well. So basically I told him to ring me back when he was feeling normal again because he hasn't picked a fight with me like that in years and years. I don't know what happened in his day yesterday to put him so off kilter but I wish he'd kept it to himself.
So Doug and I stayed in, drank red wine, had thai red chicken curry and had a good laugh about the weird day while we repeatedly burnt about half a dozen attempts at making popcorn on the stove because I didn't have any of the microwave bag stuff. He always makes me feel better just being around him - his company is balm for the soul IYKWIM.
And he's also a complete legend because while he was at the shops yesterday he went to Cash Converters at Indro (loves his Cashies he does - likes to rummage through the electrical stuff because often they don't quite know the value of some things so there are bargains to be had). He picked me up an A3 printer!!!!!! Yay yay yay! I've been wanting one for ages because it would be nice to be able to put 12x12 cardstock through it to print journalling onto my pages instead of having to print out the journalling on cardstock cut down to fit my A4 printer then have to find a way to make the journalling work on the layout. I haven't installed it yet but it will be fun to play with. That's about the biggest goal I have today. I'm going to play with printers and hopefully get some layouts done and Dougie is going to declutter his computer parts and electronic jiggery pokery. Oh and I think I have to go to the supermarket to get a few lunchbox things as the littlies start back at kindy on Tuesday. James however will now be a "schoolie" as they call them so he will get to go on excursions and have a different program to before he went on holidays and used to be a preschool kid. Now apparently he's a big boy and is using holiday care, not day care! I'm surprised he knows the difference let alone cares! When Blayd and Lachie get back from their dad's place at the end of this coming week they get to go to holiday care as well as Doug goes back to work then too and they will enjoy the holiday program at the kindy far more than having to hang out with me while I work at home. And if I had wanted to spend the last two weeks of their holidays settling arguments, rationalising complaints and sorting out major meltdowns I would have become a police negotiator!
Hope your week is off to a flying start whatever you have going on, cya Lu
Friday, 5 January 2007
I'm an Indian giver!
But does it count if the intended recipient didn't know the gift was coming.....? I only ponder this question because I had decided to do a layout for James to give to his best friend Jacob tomorrow when he goes to the movies with him for his birthday. I've sat down tonight to do what was originally going to be a basic, "not too much effort but I know they'll like it anyway" type of layout but I really got into it, again because I wasn't scrapping with an ulterior motive (i.e. submissions or DT stuff), and the end result I think is great. Now I don't know if I want to give the layout away - at least not before I've had a chance to scan it and maybe submit it! lol I figure the best approach will be to show it to Jacob's mum tomorrow and see if she actually does like it and then I'll keep it for a week, scan it, submit it and then put it in one of those nice wide white timber 12x12 frames Cath's got in store at Cyberscraps atm and give it to her then. Maybe I can explain that I've submitted it for publication and I might need it back if one of the mags wants it - and I suppose her permission would be a good idea too!!! lol I wouldn't care if someone wanted to have a layout that included my kids published but hey, I'm a scrapper and totally get it but not everyone wants their kids faces "out there" for any stranger to look at. I actually had to get Jacob's mum's permission to have a photo of Jacob and James together. If I take pics of James at kindy now I have to apparently get written permission from other parents if I want to have any photos of him with his friends, or any child that ends up in the shot for that matter. I want to say that's ridiculous but it's a sad and true fact that some people don't want to scrap photos of little kids - they have other things in mind. So I guess I can deal with it because nobody wants to think some creepo has pics of their kids to look at.
But I digress (as is very, very usual!). So I'm really happy with the layout and thank goodness I asked for one set of kindy photos in black and white because I can't understand why the photographers use those retina searing coloured backgrounds that DO NOT COORDINATE WITH ANYTHING!!!!!!! Excuse the shouting but anyone with kindy photos will know exactly what I mean!! It's like trying to do a layout of a bowl of Smarties - where the hell do you begin trying to choose a colour?? Do you pick just one or try to have a main colour and a couple of highlight colours?? Do you try to cram all the colours in somewhere??? I tried it with Caeligh's colour pic and it was a bit of a disaster - see below- so methinks I'll be scanning and converting to BW or sepia or something and do my best to make it not look like a kindy photo. It's a bit like PixiPhotos these days - when I first had kids I used to religiously get these done at regular intervals but now I have a decent camera and have learned a thing or two about the kinds of pictures I like, I have not got the least bit of desire to have one done. Don't get me wrong, I know there are people who just love their Pixi photos of their kids and I like the ones I've got - but my style has changed and it's not what I'd use now and also, I'm the scroogy type who only ever gets the $5.95 big picture and never buys a package so most of them are too big for a layout anyhoo. But I used the pic of James and Jacob because in BW with no pattered freaky background it's actually a really nice, both children smiling, no food on face or clothes, no odd poses or small kids pulling funny faces, kind of picture. I'll put it up somewhere after I get it scanned.
But I digress (as is very, very usual!). So I'm really happy with the layout and thank goodness I asked for one set of kindy photos in black and white because I can't understand why the photographers use those retina searing coloured backgrounds that DO NOT COORDINATE WITH ANYTHING!!!!!!! Excuse the shouting but anyone with kindy photos will know exactly what I mean!! It's like trying to do a layout of a bowl of Smarties - where the hell do you begin trying to choose a colour?? Do you pick just one or try to have a main colour and a couple of highlight colours?? Do you try to cram all the colours in somewhere??? I tried it with Caeligh's colour pic and it was a bit of a disaster - see below- so methinks I'll be scanning and converting to BW or sepia or something and do my best to make it not look like a kindy photo. It's a bit like PixiPhotos these days - when I first had kids I used to religiously get these done at regular intervals but now I have a decent camera and have learned a thing or two about the kinds of pictures I like, I have not got the least bit of desire to have one done. Don't get me wrong, I know there are people who just love their Pixi photos of their kids and I like the ones I've got - but my style has changed and it's not what I'd use now and also, I'm the scroogy type who only ever gets the $5.95 big picture and never buys a package so most of them are too big for a layout anyhoo. But I used the pic of James and Jacob because in BW with no pattered freaky background it's actually a really nice, both children smiling, no food on face or clothes, no odd poses or small kids pulling funny faces, kind of picture. I'll put it up somewhere after I get it scanned.
Thursday, 4 January 2007
I'm so unco at this blogger thing!! lol
I'm trying to be clever and added a Slider to my blog to display layouts but I don't know how to make the slider a permanent page element rather than a post! That's what I get for trying to be a smart ass!!!! lol
Anyway I put up some of my favourite pages atm, some are due for publication and if I'm not supposed to show them on my own private blog I hope some kind soul tells me, some are just for the hell of it and one is for the Aussie Dares blog. I've ventured over there a lot lately and done a few challenges. It's nice to share webspace with some amazingly talented people and it's a continual hive of ideas and inspiration so if you ever feel like you don't know what to scrap, dive on over (link is listed over on the right hand side of the blog) and see what the gang are up to. It's bound to get your mojo into gear again!!!
I really want to do layouts but I have cj's to finish and also a layout for my son to give his friend for his birthday on Saturday. I also want to have a big glass of chilled rozay (cos blogger's post composer doesn't have one of those e's with a doover over the top to make it sound the way it's supposed to! lol so I'm going all phonetic on you!!!) but I know I won't want to do much of anything after that so I'll wait until I've done at least one cj and then indulge.
My holidays are almost over and it's been two long blurry weeks (not beer goggle blurry!!!) but each day has just blurred into the next without the usual landmarks of the week to space things out like Mondays' at Cass's place, Tuesday and Thursday night driving the kids to karate, that kind of thing. It's nice but at the same time I'm already looking forward to the routine again.
Big year coming with Jamie starting school and he was wondering if I should call him Jame-O cos he's a big school kid now and not a preschooler. I can't even imagine where he got that idea but he has a cousin who is older called Scott-O (by family and close friends anyway) so maybe that's it. He is going to the movies on Saturday with his best friend from preschool. Jacob's parents are going too but Jamie says he wants to go without us if that's okay. He says he knows he has to behave and that he can't have the popcorn from the movies (artificial colour makes poor Jamie go off like a frog in a sock for hours!!! lol) and can I make him some to take please? And would it be okay if I just drop him off at Jacob's house and come get him later? My littlest boy is leaving me at an amazing speed but I keep thinking I will have to run faster to catch up otherwise he's going to get away from me and I won't know this little person at all one day if he gets too far ahead (or I stumble too far behind!). So we will try to encourage and enjoy Mr Independence as much as possible - while I follow closely behind with one hand held out on each side of him just in case he falls (metaphorically speaking IYKWIM).
Anyway I put up some of my favourite pages atm, some are due for publication and if I'm not supposed to show them on my own private blog I hope some kind soul tells me, some are just for the hell of it and one is for the Aussie Dares blog. I've ventured over there a lot lately and done a few challenges. It's nice to share webspace with some amazingly talented people and it's a continual hive of ideas and inspiration so if you ever feel like you don't know what to scrap, dive on over (link is listed over on the right hand side of the blog) and see what the gang are up to. It's bound to get your mojo into gear again!!!
I really want to do layouts but I have cj's to finish and also a layout for my son to give his friend for his birthday on Saturday. I also want to have a big glass of chilled rozay (cos blogger's post composer doesn't have one of those e's with a doover over the top to make it sound the way it's supposed to! lol so I'm going all phonetic on you!!!) but I know I won't want to do much of anything after that so I'll wait until I've done at least one cj and then indulge.
My holidays are almost over and it's been two long blurry weeks (not beer goggle blurry!!!) but each day has just blurred into the next without the usual landmarks of the week to space things out like Mondays' at Cass's place, Tuesday and Thursday night driving the kids to karate, that kind of thing. It's nice but at the same time I'm already looking forward to the routine again.
Big year coming with Jamie starting school and he was wondering if I should call him Jame-O cos he's a big school kid now and not a preschooler. I can't even imagine where he got that idea but he has a cousin who is older called Scott-O (by family and close friends anyway) so maybe that's it. He is going to the movies on Saturday with his best friend from preschool. Jacob's parents are going too but Jamie says he wants to go without us if that's okay. He says he knows he has to behave and that he can't have the popcorn from the movies (artificial colour makes poor Jamie go off like a frog in a sock for hours!!! lol) and can I make him some to take please? And would it be okay if I just drop him off at Jacob's house and come get him later? My littlest boy is leaving me at an amazing speed but I keep thinking I will have to run faster to catch up otherwise he's going to get away from me and I won't know this little person at all one day if he gets too far ahead (or I stumble too far behind!). So we will try to encourage and enjoy Mr Independence as much as possible - while I follow closely behind with one hand held out on each side of him just in case he falls (metaphorically speaking IYKWIM).
Tuesday, 2 January 2007
Happy New Year!
I had a nice quiet New Year's myself. The boys were at Mark's and were only one week into a three week stay with him and I rang the day before New Year's Eve to ask how they were and to have a chat about what we'd been up to. We were planning on going to a bbq at a friend's place up at Bundamba, partly for New Year's and partly for Donna's birthday on 1 January. I ended up taking an old timber letter holder thingy that hangs on the wall and has hooks at the bottom for keys. I didn't give it to her cruddy of course!!! I painted it a nice sage green, sanded it back and used antique white paint and Making Memories foam stamps on it and she was very happy with it. As it turned out, the boys blew Mark off faster than a New York snowstorm when they found out what we were doing so we picked them up at lunchtime New Year's Eve and took them with us and they went back to Mark's yesterday for the rest of their visit. It's soo quiet with the bigger boys gone and the littlies don't have as many people to entertain them either. That always spells trouble. Like yesterday when HRH put our cordless phone into a large cup of soda water - yup, dead as a doornail and she was sorry enough but it doesn't fix the phone! I did however take a picture for a nice forensic legal type layout. The picture will have to be exhibit A I think.
Christmas was also really quiet, just how I wanted it. Lunch was simple and enjoyable and the kids were all really well behaved too. The MIL came and had lunch with us and after Doug and I had cleaned up she took the littlies to her place for a sleep over. The bigger boys went to their dad's for Christmas night dinner with his family so Doug and I had the whole house to ourselves!!! We had a nap in the afternoon with the air con on and then we had supper at about 7 o'clock Christmas night with chilled prawns and a couple of cold beers. It was just heavenly!
I've spent the last week doing lots of sleeping in, scrapping and not much of anything else except the usual end of year tidying up and decluttering. I have so little room in my house that anything not absolutely loved or needed is just wasting space and either it needs to be given away, donated to charity or dumped. It helps that Cass loves a dump run!!! Oh I have to tell you, the last week of my work when it was a mad house and I was getting so little sleep, Cass actually came over to deliver a mattress for us. Ours was quite decrepit and they had been gifted one from a friend that was moving overseas. It was almost new and theirs was in great condition too so Cass gave us their mattress. She not only came over and brought the mattress, she took the old one away, spent an hour on my front patio removing rubbish and clutter and took that to the dump too and she even left me with a packet of Tim Tams. You are the best on earth girl!!!! It's amazing how something like that, an hour of her day, made such a huge difference to my day. My front patio is tidy now, I can even sit out with a coffee if I want to and when my surroundings are less cluttered, my brain feels less cluttered IYKWIM. So huge thanks to her for her help. I'm sure she doesn't know how much it meant to me but I'm sure that's the way it is for most people. The smallest gesture on our part can literallly change the life of someone we help. We never know when that small gesture or favour comes at a time when someone else thought their life was bereft or not worth living, or just lacked love from anybody. It's the whole pay it forward theory so I will have a look around my life and see who needs a helping hand. I hope I can bring them happiness like Cass brought me that day.
I'm in the second week of holidays and it feels so strange not having to type every day. I'm trying to scrap and the other night I sat down and really scrapped for myself in the first time in ages. I try to "multi-task" my scrapping if I can - a layout for Cyberscraps done in a current page call theme if at all possible!!! But I sat and decided to do something totally for myself. It's not for a page call but I will definitely submit it anyway because it's the best layout I have done in the longest time - it has more of my heart in it than most things lately, maybe because I'm not juggling the whole world at the moment. No work. Two of the four kids are away. Doug is at home doing most of the housework (he's a keeper that one!!!). It's a nice feeling to scrap for the sake of doing something and it was an idea that had been floating around in my head for about six months so I'm glad I made myself sit and have a go because the results surprised me. I'll post it as soon as I get a chance to scan it.
I went to Dad's on NYE and picked up my old rollerskates!!!! ha ha giggle giggle They are a tight fit now and I'm a little rusty but as soon as I put them on I felt years drop away and now I can't wait to drag the kids to the skating rink. There aren't many around but I'm determined to have this outing!!! It's something I haven't done since I was about 14 so I'm a bit excited. I promise I'll post pics if I end up in plaster!!!
I'm off to do some much needed grocery shopping and then I'm going to come home, grab a cold Coke Zero (I refused to make a resolution but am determined to shift the kilograms I have regained in the last couple of months) and again delve into my stash and scrap. For me. And about anything that grabs my fancy. The big three can keep their submission themes for a while because I get the feeling my mojo starts to turn on me a bit when I'm scrapping for someone else all the time and not for me. Your best work always comes from within.
Have a wonderful New Year full of all the best stuff!
Kisses, Lu
Christmas was also really quiet, just how I wanted it. Lunch was simple and enjoyable and the kids were all really well behaved too. The MIL came and had lunch with us and after Doug and I had cleaned up she took the littlies to her place for a sleep over. The bigger boys went to their dad's for Christmas night dinner with his family so Doug and I had the whole house to ourselves!!! We had a nap in the afternoon with the air con on and then we had supper at about 7 o'clock Christmas night with chilled prawns and a couple of cold beers. It was just heavenly!
I've spent the last week doing lots of sleeping in, scrapping and not much of anything else except the usual end of year tidying up and decluttering. I have so little room in my house that anything not absolutely loved or needed is just wasting space and either it needs to be given away, donated to charity or dumped. It helps that Cass loves a dump run!!! Oh I have to tell you, the last week of my work when it was a mad house and I was getting so little sleep, Cass actually came over to deliver a mattress for us. Ours was quite decrepit and they had been gifted one from a friend that was moving overseas. It was almost new and theirs was in great condition too so Cass gave us their mattress. She not only came over and brought the mattress, she took the old one away, spent an hour on my front patio removing rubbish and clutter and took that to the dump too and she even left me with a packet of Tim Tams. You are the best on earth girl!!!! It's amazing how something like that, an hour of her day, made such a huge difference to my day. My front patio is tidy now, I can even sit out with a coffee if I want to and when my surroundings are less cluttered, my brain feels less cluttered IYKWIM. So huge thanks to her for her help. I'm sure she doesn't know how much it meant to me but I'm sure that's the way it is for most people. The smallest gesture on our part can literallly change the life of someone we help. We never know when that small gesture or favour comes at a time when someone else thought their life was bereft or not worth living, or just lacked love from anybody. It's the whole pay it forward theory so I will have a look around my life and see who needs a helping hand. I hope I can bring them happiness like Cass brought me that day.
I'm in the second week of holidays and it feels so strange not having to type every day. I'm trying to scrap and the other night I sat down and really scrapped for myself in the first time in ages. I try to "multi-task" my scrapping if I can - a layout for Cyberscraps done in a current page call theme if at all possible!!! But I sat and decided to do something totally for myself. It's not for a page call but I will definitely submit it anyway because it's the best layout I have done in the longest time - it has more of my heart in it than most things lately, maybe because I'm not juggling the whole world at the moment. No work. Two of the four kids are away. Doug is at home doing most of the housework (he's a keeper that one!!!). It's a nice feeling to scrap for the sake of doing something and it was an idea that had been floating around in my head for about six months so I'm glad I made myself sit and have a go because the results surprised me. I'll post it as soon as I get a chance to scan it.
I went to Dad's on NYE and picked up my old rollerskates!!!! ha ha giggle giggle They are a tight fit now and I'm a little rusty but as soon as I put them on I felt years drop away and now I can't wait to drag the kids to the skating rink. There aren't many around but I'm determined to have this outing!!! It's something I haven't done since I was about 14 so I'm a bit excited. I promise I'll post pics if I end up in plaster!!!
I'm off to do some much needed grocery shopping and then I'm going to come home, grab a cold Coke Zero (I refused to make a resolution but am determined to shift the kilograms I have regained in the last couple of months) and again delve into my stash and scrap. For me. And about anything that grabs my fancy. The big three can keep their submission themes for a while because I get the feeling my mojo starts to turn on me a bit when I'm scrapping for someone else all the time and not for me. Your best work always comes from within.
Have a wonderful New Year full of all the best stuff!
Kisses, Lu
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