HEADLESS CHICKEN SYNDROME!!!!!!

I am indeed now struck down by the dreaded Headless Chicken Syndrome!!! This is a crippling and debilitating condition which leaves the scrapper unable to adequately focus on anything other than Masters projects which have become all consuming in terms of time, money, physical and mental strength. I'm suffering typical side effects such as Crankybumitis, starvation, anxiety, extreme thirst and chocolate withdrawals. I've developed obsessive compulsive behaviours such as repeatedly looking at the clock to see how many hours are left until I can make the last Express Post pick up tomorrow afternoon. My multi-tasking skills are being seriously challenged as I attempt to do my job while my brain takes small leaves of absence about every ten seconds to think about what I can do to finish off my mini album which is still ONLY HALF FRICKIN DONE!!!!!!

Soooooooo who wants to pull an all nighter with me???? lol Unfortunately, as today is the last full day I have to complete it, I will be up until the wee small hours methinks, frazzled and coffee overloaded, with photo tabs stuck to my jammies, face smeared in ink and Pritt with what looks like the remains of a tornado in a scrap shop strewn all around me.........

If you're around this afternoon or tonight do PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take a minute to say hello as I'm going to let my blog keep me company, warmly glowing from my computer screen with hopefully some love and reassurance that it's okay, it's totally worth going competely nucking futs over!!!! I may not be able to respond immediatley to people's comments given that my fingers will be worn down to bloodied stumps from hours of scrapping but I promise I'll regularly check to see if anyone has stopped in!!!

It's such a shame that what I really need right now - like a valium and a strong bourbon and Coke and a nap - won't actually help me achieve anything..............

Does anyone have any good tips on how to be completely focused and artistically brilliant whilst being distracted, frazzled, time pressured, panicky and stressed? Anyone? Gee it's quiet in here.......... :)

July Get Real Challenge

I just thought I'd quickly mention the July Get Real Challenge over at Cyberscraps. If you know me then you know I like to scrap the bad right along with the good and I also like to challenge other scrappers to find the not-so-perfect in their lives and add it to their albums. It also incorporates lots of stuff about ourselves so if you don't to many layouts about you (and if you have kids this is so so important and they will cherish these layouts later) then you should give these challenges a go.

This month I challenge you all to scrap your quirks!!!! Now it can be just one thing or if you are super-mega-quirky then I challenge you to scrap them all!!! If that's the case think lists, think dot points, think little journalling blocks, thing about journalling around your photo, think of using ledger paper or graph paper even.

You don't even have to include a pic of yourself if you don't want to but if it's a quirk you can capture on film then we'd love to see it - provided it's not going to offend anyone!!! If you have quirk for flipping the bird at people when you're stressed then we probably suggest you use a picture of a canary instead!!! lol

There is an album in the gallery on Cyberscraps to upload your quirky layout (or more than one layout if you're feeling particularly keen) into and this month I'm going to choose a winner from all the layouts posted in the July Get Real Challenge album to receive a mystery prize!

So get scrapping all you quirky thangs out there!!!

Cold enough for ya!!!

Oh I hate being cold!!!! That's probably what I dislike most about staying at home and working, my room is about 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house and the rest of the house is 5 degrees colder than outside. So I'm set this morning with my hot coffee, my heater and my newly purchased and absolutely "dont know how I lived without them before"essential uggies!!


I'm happy to say I've finished my storage solution for the Masters comp. I'd like to look at it and think "wow" but I'm actually more concerned that people will look at it and wonder how the hell I could have made something brand new look so old and crap!!!! lol Either way, still satisfied that it's just bloody done. I don't have time for anything else at this point and second thoughts just have to get left behind as I still have to finish the mini album and the last little part of the double. Now that I figure I have nothing left to lose, it's very liberating and I'm getting through the stuff fairly quickly. Today though there will have to be eight hours of solid typing and then I'll get to look at the mini album tonight and hopefully finish it. Luckily Cath from the shop gave me a pile of new Petaloo stuff that came in that will be just perfect so I'll have to dig through my bags and get them all out. I like to spread piles of embellies out in front of me until I find what I want to use, kind of like a scrappy smorgasboard!!!! lol

Before I get started with work I'll do some quick hellos to people I owe them to - a big helllooooooo to Jilly - I totally appreciate your support and all your help. I promise I'll email you today with some pics so you can see what I ended up doing. Lusi, lovely to hear from you babe and I'm sorry I haven't called yet. Hopefully by the end of the week life will have calmed down but I did pick up something cute for you on the weekend and I'll have to remember to put it in the post with the brads I need to send you.

Oh, congratulations to people who have kids going back to school today - I know that sounds awful but I've had one of those weeks last week and none of the kids managed to survive even an hour without trying to commit murder or at least assault!! It doesn't matter what kind of entertainment I provide, the end result is still the same so at least at school I know they'll all be separated and out of each other's reach.

Lachlann went to the hospital for an assessment by the Child and Youth Mental Health Clinic yesterday. I wanted him to be thoroughly checked because his ADHD meds don't seem to be as effective as they used to be and he's becoming increasingly short-tempered and irritable. It turns out that the very lovely doctor who saw him, after listening to his history, thought he may actually have a sleep disorder which he's probably had since he was little and which is causing identical symptoms to ADHD. She wants to have a monitor put on him for a week to watch his sleep patterns over a week to see what's going on. She did however say we shouldn't worry too much, the med he's on for ADHD is exactly what's used to treat the type of sleep disorder she thinks he has. Apparently if he's constantly tired and exhausted he will be cranky, have trouble concentrating, feel fatigued all the time, be bad tempered and have trouble in general coping with life. All his ADHD med is doing is waking him up enough to function each day. She even warmed that it can turn into narcolepsy as he gets older!!! I'm very grateful that we've gotten a doctor who is willing to do something other than write out a prescription, as a more wholistic approach was what we were looking for, someone who would consider all sorts of possibilities and treatments instead of just a pill. So thank God for directing us to her and hopefully things will improve for Lachlann from here - like any mum, I hate to watch him struggle and seem so unhappy.

Okay well it's time for me to get started today and I'll just get out my handcuffs and chain myself to my keyboard. Hey at least I can still check my email and go chatting on the Cyberscraps forum. It's all still technically typing!!!!

Have a fab Tuesday and a safe back to school for those have kids going back today. Take care and rug up girls, Love Lu

Hambly RAK Winner!!!!

Hi girls, firstly a big thank you to everyone who has come and visited my blog this week, those who stopped by for the RAK and those of you who stop by pretty regularly anyway. I can't tell you how much it means to hear from people - even a kind word here or there is lovely and I've been doing the same this week, making a real effort to blog surf and comment wherever I've been. I'm always on the look out for new blogs to visit so if I haven 't been by yours, drop me an email and let me know the addy. I love to blog surf!!!

The winner of the Hambly rub-ons is MAZ!!!!!! Yay for you babe!!!! I've left my camera at Cass's place this afternoon after a party so I can't take a pic of the winner's name on a bit of paper but MAZ is indeed the winner so if you know her please let her know.

MAZ if you want to shoot over to Cyberscraps and have a look at the rub-ons, choose two you like and then have a look at the Kaiser bling and choose four of those colours too, then email me your choices and your addy I can have those lovelies to you ASAP!

Again, thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts with me this week. It's nice to know there are so many people around who are happy to take a moment to have a read of what I'm up to and I'm really touched that so many of you do come by to look, even if you don't comment, the counter keeps going up so I know you've been to visit.

I have a week of full time typing work at home this week - I'm already missing the shop and a whole week away will be awful for me - but I hope some of you will still swing by to say Hi cos I'll be here at my desk all on my lonesome for the whole week! I'll be typing my heart out while dreaming of layouts!! lol

Thanks agian to everyone who came by and congrats to Maz who wins the RAK this week. Now that our Basic Grey Infuse has arrived at Cyberscraps safe and sound I'll be doing another RAK this week for some of that wonderful stuff so stay tuned.

Much love, Lu

Basic Grey Infuse - yummmmmmmmmm!

The first one up the top is a bit of a screw up - I had intended to get the writing upside down but it's upside down, the wrong way around even then and just buggered basically!!!! I am totally navigationally challenged, so that is what happens when I try to be a smart arse on a layout - it gets all messed up!!!! Good thing I decided not to try and be clever on my Masters!!! lol

The bottom one has a bit of a string thing going - don't even know why but I'm loving bits of ordinary brown string on layouts right now. I even did hidden journalling - unheard of for me!!!

We've just gotten in the new Infuse range and the papers are only $1.20 a sheet - bargain!

I'll be back later to draw the RAK winner for this week. Enjoy your Sunday!

Masters mania!!!!

Just quickly before I start to open the floodgates, this is a better look at the layout I submitted to Scrapbooking Memories to go with my Real Stories, Real People article in this month's issue. I still love it just as much as when I did it, maybe more!


Okay, I've got the double about 4/5 done and it's turned into a complete monstrosity of a thing!!!! Barely recognisable as a double layout anymore I'm afraid....... I've completed the single layout except for a couple of alpha stickers that have to go on (I bought one set, didn't realise I'd use them for my Masters stuff and when I did I quickly noticed that I wouldn't have enough but I liked them enough to go and buy more today to finish it) and while I'm not completely thrilled with it, I am completely over it so que sera sera as the song goes!!!! lol It's far too late in the proceedings now to be worrying that I don't love the layout - Cass really loves it so that's good enough of an opinion for me!!



The mini album idea I had was a little too far removed from an actual mini album and Cass and I got to thinking that maybe I'd end up ruling myself out of contention because my idea was SOOO far away from what a mainstream mini album would look like. Of course, that is typically me, go bigger, better, crazier but I'd hate to shoot myself in the foot so to speak so I toned it donw somewhat, keeping with the original framework and colours I had wanted but just restyling what I'm doing. That will hopefully be finished tomorrow at the shop provided we're not too busy. Not that I'm discouraging any of you fab girls who'd like to come by and visit - I just will have to leave you in the very capable hands of Cass while I slave over my stuff!



The whole storage solution thing gave me no inspiration AT ALL!!!! Boring, boring, boring........ I do KNOW I could just embellish a pre-made/purchased storage item but where's the ingenuity or imagination in that? This is Masters for goodness sake, I'd certainly like to think I can come up with something better than a set of plastic drawers from Crazy Clarks. I do have an idea that I've come up with but again, it's bigger and messier and more time consuming that I think I'm able to do. There are days I wish I was as dyslexic as Cass and I had done all this a month ago rather than trying to cram the whole process into a week and a half! SO while I have this idea, I think I'm biting off more than I can chew so mayhap things will get toned down over the weekend so I can have some hope of completing everything and posting by Thursday so it will all be in on time.



Apparently SM haven't even opened any of the Masters entries they've already received......they are all sitting in a room, piling up and they won't get opened until after the closing date. If they're being honest then they must be busting with excitement - it's kind of like trying not to peek at your Christmas pressies isn't it? I've heard that they shortlist 100 entries and the more I think about that the more confused I get. I mean, 100 sounds like A LOT of entries and then again, given how many of us love this art, it is a drop in the ocean of the number of people who've entered. I'm not worried about whether I'd be chosen as one of the Masters or not - how on earth do I phrase this stuff without sounding like I think I'm so good that I'll totally get chosen????? - but I think I'd probably prefer Honourable Mentions instead. I mean, I don't even know if I'd be able to do the stuff that the Masters are expected to do throughout the year. I barely have any time to do the stuff I do now for the shop and commission stuff and do I love it all enough to do as much as would be needed? I don't know if can answer that one. Maybe if I can just have the title but not have to do any follow up work? lol that would suit me much better!!!! I think the whole Masters thing is best left to the talented girls who have the time on their hands to really commit to it. So why am I doing it at all you ask? I think it's a personal challenge thing, can I do it in time? Can I create something "spectacular" enough? Can I be good enough to be shortlisted? Good enough to get an HM? I guess it's just to see what I could accomplish if I try, that's about it really!!!! lol And the funny thing is, I've turned to techniques and products that I normally wouldn't even bother with, or that I don't even actually like but which work for the projects I'm doing!!! Masters does something weird to your scrap psyche - little voices that start saying "Yesssssssss, use the eyeletssssssssss!!!", and "Oh no, you don't need to pen outline those aphas - leave them au naturel!!!". It's an unexplainable phenomena but if anyone else has had the same thing happen to them I'd love to hear about it!!!! I despise eyelets, I could never, ever get them to set right and I just can't be bothered with them 100% of the time but what do you think I've gone nuts with for my double and for my mini album???? FREAKIN' EYELETS!!!!!! Somebody please just shoot me now and be done with it...........



Oh hey by the way, tomorrow night is crop night at the shop if you want to come play with us!!! It's a fun girls' night with tunes, pizza, hot milo and everyone wears their slippers and uggies!!!! In fact, the uggies have almost become pre-requsite attire if you want to come crop with us! Hell I even had a blanket last time cos I was cold! I can't scrap when I'm cold and that's just not an option when I'm sitting in the shop watching everyone else get stuck into their layouts. We get started at 6pm and are open all through until midnight and you even get a 10% on any shopping you do in the store while you are attending the crop night - how good is that? It means more goodies for you and a fun night out with Cass and I for entertainment - oh maybe I shouldn't say that!!! Not everyone thinks us two cracking jokes, poking fun at each other and cackling like a pair of crazy women is entertainment!!! lol BUT Cass has just recoloured her hair a fantastic shade of magenta and THAT my lady friends is VERY entertaining!!!



Well I'm off to bed now cos it will be a late one tomorrow night. Because the crop is on I won't be closing the store at all so we're going to be open from 9.30am tomorrow morning until midnight tomorrow night so if you're desperate for supplies or for some playtime be sure to come by the store and have a nice cup of something warm with us!



Thanks to everyone who has commented so far this week. It's nice to see familiar faces and new ones too!!! I've even updated my blog links list on the sidebar to reflect some of you very lovely people who come and visit me so if you're looking for somewhere to blog surf, check out the talent!



Have a great weekend if I don't get back to blog before then. Cass and I are off on a secret mission on Saturday but for once I totally cannot blab. I will leave that for Cass when and if she decides to share with the blogsphere.

By the way, if the ramblings about Masters sounds like a broken record, it quite probably is! I tend to let my mind just go for it's own wander and I could have voiced my thoughts on the whole Masters thing before and not remembered. Apologies if you've heard this all before!

Gratitude this week for:

(1) School hols being almost over - love my kids but don't love having to shove them from pillar to post on the hols, trying to organise babysitting etc

(2) Doug for cooking me the most delicious dinner last night cos I was late getting home from the shop

(3) The week of typing work next week - I hate that money is such a needed thing

(4) Easier acceptance of who I am and what I want to do, and for my ever increasing levels of "I don't give a flying rat's ass what people think of me" attitude

(5) No more smashed lightbulbs this week - but the weekend is two whole days at home for Caeligh to do her worst so who knows.........

(6) The old patchwork quilt I bought at a flea market for $5 which is now what keeps me warm on the couch most evenings while watching the telly

(7) Having enough money to buy Cass's son Kris a medical book for his birthday because any kid who wants to learn as badly as he does deserves the tools so that he can

(8) For online friends - even if I don't blogsurf, chat or ring regularly I know that's okay and that we'll just pick up where we left off next time we catch up - I'm so grateful for total acceptance from you wonderful mates I've met through scrapping - I'd love to have a big party one day and invite all of you to have us all in one place together - what a bash that would be!!!!

Thanks for tuning in, love Lu

200 Posts so we need a RAK!!!!!

Morning gals!!!! It's my 200th post, I can't believe I've found that much to say (everyone who actually knows me now laughs out loud, nearly chokes and says "Never doubted she'd find that much to say!!!! lol). Thank you to everyone who stops by to have a look-see at what I'm up to - apologies that sometimes it's not all that terribly exciting and at other times it's a bit of a place to vent for me.

So firstly, and just quickly, I'll share this layout...... one I did for the Scrapbook Creations colour comp not long ago. The original one I wanted to do I had - can you believe it? - misplaced it!!!! I swear I had it in a plastic envelop thingy in one of my scrap totes and then at the shop when it came time for Cass and I to post our entries - NADA!!!! Could not find it at all - grrrrr!!! So I had to do this one in about two hours on the day it had to be sent!!!! I've only now given it to Cass to scan for me (thanks babe!) so now I can share.

And because we've reached a bit of a milestone with 200 posts it's definitely time for another RAK! I was waiting on our new Basic Grey Infuse range but when we got new Hambly rub-ons in yesterday I got a bit carried away about those!!! Oh I don't even know how to describe them but OMG!!!! They come in black and white and we've got them at Cyberscraps at a fantastic price. I am assuming they'll go on the website today and be available in store today as well. I'll take a photo at Cass's place today and add it later for you. So the RAK to celebrate 200 posts is two packs of the new Hambly rub-ons and a few packs of the new Kaiser bling we've also got in the shop. They're pretty cool too, lots of unusual colours and the glue NEVER comes off the back of the bling - it always sticks. Gotta love that!!!!

So if you'd like to win some Hambly love and some bling love thrown in then please leave a comment on this or any post you like this week and on Sunday afternoon I'll draw out a winner and send your lovelies straight to you!!!!

Look forward to hearing from you all. Have a great week and good luck for the RAK

Much blingy love, Lu