A challenge blog layout and a just for fun

Okay well it's been more of the same here, lots of work, not enough time to scrap but last night I stayed over at Cass's place and got a couple of things done which is better than nothing in my book.  The above layout was just playing around really.  The paper is from a dirt cheap $3 paper pack from K-Mart of all places (thanks to Kylie and Peta for the heads up!) and I've used the glittery pink thickers I've had for ages plus some beautiful ribbony/fibre stuff I bought from Viv Bonder's etsy shop which I've loved and used loads of since I got it.  It came all bundled up in a lovely thicke skein and I was almost sad to unwind it all and use it!!! lol  

The ICK layout is for Category Stories and while I did later pat the snake in the picture, it still doesn't reduce the ICK factor for me!!!  

I'm also 3/4 the way through a layout for the Inspired by Amelie challenge site.  I saw the title on a bumper sticker somewhere and you'll get it when you see it.  Hopefully I can finish it over the next couple of days but I have work to do today sadly.

We're thinking of moving...*sigh*.....hate the very thought of moving but our house just is no longer big enough and Caeligh and James at 4 and 7 respectively are still sharing a room.  Considering she starts school next year I think it's time for her to have her own room now that she is a"big" girl, just ask her!!!  We've done the big toss up between buying and renting somewhere else and I just don't know what will be right for us.  Douglas is terrified of the commitment of a huge mortgage which is understandable and it would suck up the newfound income we now have which we're not spending on anything particularly important at the moment.  It's getting spent on wants rather than needs, although mind you a new couch is a need I guess, especially if the existing one breaks!!! lol  On the other hand, the drama of the private rental market makes me cringe, the inspections, the now very regular rent rises, the uncertainty of having the house sold out from under you and having to move again.  That all makes me loathe to rent privately again.  We rent a housing commission place right now which, when we first got it, we really needed as I wasn't working but now that I am working I know there are people who need it more than us and if we can afford to rent privately then we should do so and let someone else doing it tougher have this place.  Admittedly even though we don't get subsidised rent - we pay market rent here - it's still considerably cheaper than private rental and I think we've been a bit spoiled by that and not used to shelling out hundreds and hundreds each week for a house.  We did consider buying the house we're living in, staying for a while and then selling it later and using any profit as another deposit on a next house but now that the renovations are finished the house is worth more in the open market and the housing commission no longer offers a discounted house price to its' renters.  The house is market valued like any other house and that's what you pay.  I cannot imagine coughing up $300,000 to live in Inala, sorry that's just my personal opinion.  So the whole "what should we do, what should we do" thing is going on here and while financially we're okay right now, nobody knows what the future holds.  I don't want to place my family in a position were we suddenly cannot pay the rent or cannot pay the mortgage but we can't really stay where we are either.  Hmmmmm.........

Anyway, that's my little thought vent for the day.  It doesn't clarify anything in my mind to put it down for the blogworld to read but I guess I'm just thinking out loud if you like.  I'm sure it will all figure itself out in the end but God, I sure wouldn't mind a hint or two about what we're meant to be doing!!!  I know He knows but how about letting me know!!! lol  Yes, all in good time I can hear some of you saying....lol.

I've got netball this afternoon with Cass and her sisters and a couple of other people.  Sadly I don't actually play netball, I just kind of run around my bit of the court trying not to knock people over or get knocked over myself!!! lol  I never played netball in highschool so I had to learn the rules very fast and so far I've worked out that if I just do what comes naturally when I play wing defence - be clumsy and get in people's way - then that seems to work okay.  I am going to the chemist to get sports tape today though; I've rolled my left ankle the first game and last week, second game, I rolled the right one so I've come to the conclusion that I have weak, girly ankles and need to strap them before I really do some damage to myself.  I've also worked out that netball is vicious!!!!  And the guys are worse than the girls - we're playing in mixed teams.  How on earth do I goal defend against a 6'5" man????  I believe groin shots are not permitted so we lost that game....lol  I asked Cass if she thought we'd maybe get a crap team to play against today and she smiled at me and said "Dear, we ARE the crap team" lol

I'm off to type so enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week.  Shout out to all the mums who will be enduring student free day tomorrow - thinking of you and wishing you strength, tolerance and coffee.

Lu xx

What's for dinner?

Caeligh:  "What's for dinner tonight Mum?"

Me:  "Roast chicken"

Caeligh:  "Well I'm sure not gonna eat that!", pokes a face at me.

Me:  "Why not?"

Caeligh:  "Cos if something is gross you're not sposed ta eat it!!!" yells at me. 

Quite obviously I need an interpreter....lol

All quiet on the Western front except for......

....I'VE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE A WICKED PRINCESS!!!!!  I've never applied for a kit DT before but there's always a first time for everything and I've sworn of retail design teams forever so I was looking for something else to try.  I stumbled across Wicked Princess kits by accident while having a blog hop and really liked the kits.  I've always been wary of buying kits because I was worried that even though you see a picture of what's in them, somehow it's not the same in real life and I'll end up with things that aren't quite the colour I thought they were or something.  I guess I've always liked the safety of having my money in my hand and going to the LSS to buy exactly what I want so I know I'll use all of it.  I saw Karen and Tam's call for a design team not long ago and figured why not?  I looked at their kits and the pictures were very good and I liked just about everything in them so I thought I'd take te leap.  I'm hoping they'll learn to love my creative yet slightly inappropriate side!!! lol  So I'm very excitedly waiting for my first kit so that I can go totally crazy with it and the add ons are awesome too so I'm very keen for my AP courier to turn up hopefully this coming week.  I'll let you know how I go and post some layouts when they're done.  Also very importantly, because October is breast cancer month, Wicked Princess are donating $5 from every kit purchased in October and  up to 15th November to this fabulous cause.  What better reason could there be to grab a great kit plus support a cause all close to our boobs...ahem, I mean hearts!

I haven't been scrapping much lately, I'm still trying and failing to get that work/life balance right.  I did however take on a wonderful new client which means I'll be able to cut down my transcription company work a bit and maybe have a full day of once a week now.  The lack of scrapping time hasn't cut into my ability to buy scrapping products though! lol  I'm still going hammer and tongs at that because I figure I'll get to scrap one day soon!  I've raided Spotlight lately and been looking for interesting habby stuff and ribbon and trim, plus they've got a great selection of feathers, flowers, etc for making fascinators (you know, feather dusters ladies at the races wear on their heads that isn't quite a hair accessory and not quite a hat?).  There's so much stuff that's scrapbable that isn't in the scrapbooking section.  Quick question, does anyone else dislike the fact that Spotlight have their scrapbooking papers organised by colour instead of by brand or range?  I find it really annoying because I know what I'm looking for.  I don't know if the colour system is easier for seasoned scrappers or beginners but I don't like it and end up not buying any of it.  They also have a great range of Kaiser products which is good to see.  Oh wow speaking of which, keep an eye out at your LSS for the new ranges coming out this month; Distracted, Dancing Jewel and Rustic Charm.  They are awesome!  There's also some fantastic new rhinestone releases and chipboard - yep, I said CHIPBOARD ALPHABETS!!!  These days Kaisercraft have all the bases covered and the prices are always great.  I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some of that too.  The Distracted range is my favourite so far.  I've also been to a couple of LSSs around the place and picked up new Basic Grey and I've been feeding my Thickers habit as well.  So the sad bit is that while I have lots of nice stuff to use I feel like I have no time to use it all.  I'm hoping to shift my scrapping into the loungeroom soon (hasn't happened yet) and that way I'll be more inclined to do stuff while I can watch TV or hang out with the kids etc.  Right now I spend so many hours in front of the computer that I don't feel like staying at the same desk for more hours to get scrapping done.  We did have a crop night last week at Cass's place with some friends over - hi Peta and Kylie!!!! - and we had a great night catching up and I did get a layout done - see above.  It was for Aussie Scrapjack and I'm really happy with it although it is way OTT.  The huge purple flower is from Spotlight and the big chipboard circle is from Magistical Memories.  The photo was of my catch up with my aunty Anne and my grandparents when Cass and I were in Townsville on our way to Hughenden back in August.  We only had a couple of hours so I took heaps of photos.  It means so much to see myself in pictures with people whom I look like, so I can say I can see a family resemblence.  Being adopted, I missed that growing up and was always envious of my friends for having family whom they looked like.  So I was so glad to see them all as Granddad is not well right now and I was very lucky to have gotten the chance to see him.

THe kids are all good, glad to be back at school as it's the last term and they just want for it to be over.  They're all looking forward to Christmas already and let's face it, the shops are not making it easy as they are putting stuff out already!!!  We're still tossing up colour options for the tree this year.  We wanted to get a black one with lights wired into it but I haven't seen Target's tree display yet (as, kindly of them, they haven't put theirs up yet).  I change colour schemes every year but don't worry, I don't waste last year's stuff, some years I mix and match what I have from previous years or Cass and I have a very successful decoration exchange programme going on so we always have colours to choose from! lol  

I'm off to get some typing done (the paying kind, not the playing kind) so have a good weekend and I'll try to be more regular with my posting although I'm not sure anyone reads here anymore! lol  Chat soon, Lu xx

Eight very long years today since you've been gone baby girl.  I love my flickering lamp and the smell of strawberry lip gloss but we'd all much rather have you here with us.

Too long have you been gone from our arms but never will you be gone from our hearts.

Missing you always Miki Moo, love Aunty Lu xx

Inspiration from White With 1

I did this layout at Cass's place on Saturday night for the White With 1 challenge.  It was all about dads this month so I've used a photo I love of Doug holding James when he was a day old.  While James was my third child he was Doug's first and I love the look of pride in his eyes as he holds his tiny son in his arms.  I'm not very good at following rules so I didn't do a good job of making white the dominant colour because I found some great brown paper with white grid pattern on it and really wanted to use it.  My bad...lol

Loving throwing myself back into the excitement of doing challenge blogs again, and even thinking about scraping up Everyday Garbage off the floor and seeing if we can't give it a bit of a refresher.  I'll let you know how that goes, but for now I'm loving being a participant and creating for the fun of it.

Happy Father's Day

...to all the dads out there, those who have children, those who want to have children, those who have lost children.  It's a special day and I hope you have all been made to feel so special and valued today.

Father's Day in our house is always a bit bittersweet.  My two eldest sons go to their Dad for the day, while our younger two (whom Doug and I have together) spend the day with us.  It's hard because my older two came home in very different moods; my eldest (he's the autistic spectrum one) came home happy that he had seen his Dad, played a bit of catch with him and watched TV at Grandma's place, while my second eldest came home bitter, angry, resentful and tearful.  He felt he didn't get to do anything special with his dad and that his dad didn't want to do anything special with him.  Doug and I spent the rest of the evening trying to make it up to him with lots of attention and letting them watch a movie until late which is typically not allowed on a "school night" where they have to get up for school the next day.  It's also hard for Doug, who does his best 24/7 for my older two boys to direct them, teach them, help them learn about how the world works.  My eldest is eternally ungrateful (as most teenage boys are for just about everything) and still idolises his father no matter how many screw ups he makes.  My second son, Lachie, was the one who felt it most today and came home so sad.  It's hard because no matter how hard Doug tries,  he is not a substitute for their own dad's attention which Lachie felt he did not have today, and Doug felt like no matter what he did for Lachie when he came home, it wasn't enough to eclipse the bad feelings he had of spending the afternoon with his own dad.  It's a bit hard all round really but what can you do?  Not a lot... you make the most of what you have and you give them all you have to give them, and then you just hope they will somehow understand that you are trying your best in what are sometimes not the best circumstances.  

I rang my dad tonight and got his messagebank.  I don't have a great relationship with my dad.  I used to though, once when I was little.  He had a very bad motorcycle accident when I was only 5 years old - he used to be a motorcyle parking cop - yeah, he was the guy who would write you a ticket if you parked too long in the wrong spot.  His motorcycle got clipped by a car and he was thrown off.  Even with his helmet he still sustained a head injury that led to severe personality change in him and sadly for all of us - me, my mum and him - he was never the same and became an angry, paranoid, abusive man.  I prefer not to think about what I've lost and I just try to maintan a friendly relationship with him.  I ring every now and then to check that he is okay.  He rings occasionally to tell me of his troubles with his Filippino girlfriend who he has finally gotten rid of but not before she put him in debt for the first time in his life and almost cost him his house which he built with his own hands.  It's hard because he wants a sympathetic ear but I cannot forget his treatment of me as a child and teenager.  It's hard because now that I have a medical background after working in that field for so long as a typist I do understand that his behaviour/attitude/personality is not his fault.  It's hard because my mum is gone and there is no go-between for us, no line of communication, so we have to rely on our own very faulty selves to connect.  It's hard because he is the only link I have to the large Italian extended family which I grew up in and now have very little to do with, just because everyone seems to be fighting with or not speaking to someone else for whatever reason.  It's hard because without him I would just consider myself an orphan - stupid really, I'm 34 for goodness sake - but no matter how large my family, without him I don't have any other links to them.  Time and distance have estranged many of my numerous cousins, aunts and uncles.  It's hard because he doesn't know my children's names;  he knows my oldest son, because he was in a "good place" when Blayd was born, he had a nice Filippino girlfriend who took such good care of him, just like my mother would have, and he was happy then.  He doesn't remember Lachlann, referring to him as "the other boy", and James is the "the younger fella" whereas my daughter is "the little girl".  Sadly for them they won't have a grandfather, not at least what a "normal" grandfather is thought to be.  He keeps to himself, does not like contact.  He would rather sit alone without comfort or aid than have family around to help and take care of him.  That is who he is, and always has been;  a fiercely independent man, despite good sense and the best wishes of others.  Anyway, I left him a message, told him how busy my week had been, what Doug was doing at work, that the kids were all fine and sent their love.  I said I hoped he was okay and if he needed me to just call.  I told him I loved him and that I'd ring him later in the week to check on him.  The sad part is that he is old enough to have died in the house and nobody else would know....and he wouldn't have cared about it being that way.  So I will have to ring tomorrow now because he would normally be home at 7.30 on a Sunday night but he didn't answer the phone.  I don't know if he went to bed early because he was tired or unwell - he is getting old after all, late seventies now my dad is, and likes to insinuate that he has multiple medical problems but won't elaborate on them to his only next of kin - or if by some chance a friend came over and took him out for the evening.  Either way I will now have that worry in the back of my mind that somethinghas happened to him so I will have to call again tomorrow to basically make sure he isn't dead.  I know how callous that sounds but he has been alone - by choice- for so long and has so little contact with me, his only child, and his entire extended family, that really nobody would notice, not even the neighbours.  This is, however, a regular occurrance.  He won't answer the phone and if Doug stops by on the way home from work he might be out and then I have to go by myself and walk all around the house, looking in all the windows and then asking the neighbours when was the last time they saw him, just to make sure.  It's a sad situation because I know that any attempts at an emotional connnection with him will be met with rejection and indifference, and yet I worry about him because he is my last link with the adoptive family I grew up in.  I was raised an only child but had dozens of cousins, lots of aunts and uncles.  I feel like when my dad finally passes it will sever a connection with that family tree, even though I love each and every one of those people and have done all my life, regardless of whatever inter-family strife, trouble or arguements they had between them.  So here's to hoping he is okay for one more time and that when I ring him tomorrow he will pick up the phone and I'll say, "It's me, Cinda, just checking how you're doing," and he'll say, "I'm alright.  What's wrong?" like he always says....

Some inspiration from The Art Is Found

This layout was done for The Art Is Found blog - I promised I was going back to challenge blogs to find my true mojo again and this is my first one.  I've been snowed under with work all week but had to stop in at Cass's place today and she was on her way home so she said "Do a layout!!!!" and suggested the music sheets inspiratin for this challenge.  So I threw this together in about half an hour and I'm happy enough with it.  It's a start anyway, let's call it that.  I can see a light up ahead......lol

Busy week this week with lots of work, Lachie's 11th birthday today (and his best friend is sleeping over), Caeligh's prep enrolment interview this morning (which went surprisingly well, no screaming, climbing walls or throwing anything at all), running around delivering typing work to clients and getting caught in a rainstorm this afternoon while picking up the kids.  Yep, got absolutely soaked and haven't even had time to change yet - I've dried out somewhat in a couple of hours!!! lol  

The weekend is a blur of work, some scrapping (hopefully) and going to the fleamarket to buy new plants for the garden.  I've really gotten into the gardening thing since I've managed to keep EVERYTHING I have bought within the last three weeks alive!!! Truly a miracle!!! lol

I have my eye on a couple of other challenge blogs - the new White with 1 looks okay and I'm dead keen on Category Stories as I can choose from all their previous challenges from the past year and there are some fab ones in amongst them.  

I'm off to organise pizza for the ravenous hordes in my loungeroom playing Wii.  Have a great weekend y'all!!!!  Love, Lu