School, Weekend, Paper Pesto, Thing, Junk & Kangaroos

Well, the girls went back to school yesterday and all was good except they both discovered that some of their teachers had changed....one in particular they were both looking forward to having was Mr Harris, but now they have Mr Harris' little brother Mr Harris, who apparently looks exactly like the older Mr Harris!

We are really looking forward to this weekend as we are off to Busselton for our annual Xmas in July jaunt. It's forecasted to be wet and windy but I'm quite looking forward to that too (I may come to regret that comment). The girls are pretty excited too as we haven't been anywhere this year since getting home from 3 weeks in Sydney on 5th Jan. This is quite unusual for us but Steve has been working non stop since and the opportunity just hasn't been there for us all to have a break. Sure Steve and I had our 2 day break in Albany recently but that didn't include the kids. So we are all hanging for a bit of space and change of scenery with "old" friends. I'm also looking forward to giving my camera a good working out so standby next week for some photos.


I have been scrapping, I promise, I have been working on some layouts for my submission to FK Elite Team. I have 2 so far that I am really very happy with. Hopefully next week I can work on some more.


Paper Pesto are releasing daily sneak peaks of the August kit on the blog, so go take a look, the kit looks very interesting including a wax seal! Today's reveal looks like my kinda stuff.


I have also been working on a larger project and trying to get it off the ground for sometime now but I find the goal posts keep shifting for me, or should I say I keep moving them! I think this may be indicative of the type of industry that scrapbooking is, it's forever changing and to make this "thing" work I need to focus, but how can you when there are so many new and yummy materials coming into the market place? Anyway, Steve and I had a discussion yesterday and the penny dropped regarding some things that I have been struggling with and I am sure I now have a very clear vision of what I need to achieve. Now I just need 20 more hours in the day!

Here is a sneak peak at one element of what I have in mind.


Now, you may remember sometime back (March to be exact) that I took part in the Artistic Journey Retreat and was lucky enough to do one of Michael de Meng's classes, well I think I have created a monster......Steve works out on site alot doing soil analysis so the types of properties he is working on are quite often future subdivisions, so he finds all sorts of interesting stuff like gear boxes from cars, barbed wire, shoes, tin etc. Well he came home with some amazing items the other day like these........

Now Steve is right into this, in fact when I did the class with Michael, well lets just say that I think he should have done the class not me! He has been itching to get in and put something together and again time is the major issue here, something we both need more of. I do hope he persues this soon because we are going to have to build another shed to fit it all in!




An image I wanted to share with you.....I took this the other afternoon. Across the road from where we live is a vacant 5 acre lot where mobs of kangaroos congregate to feed in the late afternoon sun (when there is sun that is). Quite often we watch the kangaroos "boxing" and commentate the action as if we were watching it on tv. Quite funny! Perhaps you have to be here to see the funny side. Anyway I wandered up there and managed to catch quite a few boxing photos but this one was the funniest.



Thanks for reading this far if you have......I probably won't post until next week now so take care and catch you then.

I've been tagged!

Thanks Tracey for tagging me, but I'm not sure there are 8 things I can tell you that are remotely interesting about myself.........but here goes:

Rules:
1- post these rules
2- each person tagged must post 8 random {hopefully interesting} facts about themselves.
3- tags should write a blog post of these facts.
4- at the end of the post 8 more bloggers are tagged and named.
5- go to their blogs and leave a comment telling them they are tagged.

1. I have been scrapping for about 3 years now and was selected as part of the 2006 Scrapworks DT and currently reside on the Paper Pesto Design Team.
2. I attended Methodist Ladies’ College, Claremont for my entire school life.
3. My first car accident was on my 2nd date with my husband, I hit a Solicitor and Barrister for the Supreme Court! Steve thought he would do the honourable thing and fill in the forms at the Police Station only to ask me….”What is your surname?” I’m sure the impressions of his fingernails are still in the dash of that car!
4. I used to be a Travel Consultant and have travelled to quite a few places, but still have a heap to see.
5. When I do the food shopping I have a typed up list in aisle order of the store and I have to go the same way every time or I miss something! Steve refuses to do it that way……just to annoy me!
6. I am a list person…….a list for everything or I forget.
7. When I was 18 my dear friend died of a brain tumour, I am still very good friends with his Mum and see her on a semi-regular basis.
8. I love chocolate of any kind except white chocolate.

OK If you haven't already been tagged consider yourself so!

The girls did some more baking today - 2 lots of cupcakes so we have cupcake overload.

I have decided that I need to use my camera heaps more so that I can learn what it does in different situations.....now all I need is the time! Can someone please lend me some time? I want to know where the school holidays have gone? I mean flippin heck it's nearly the end of July!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just take me back to May and I will be happy cause that's all it feels like.

Anyway that's it for today.....happy whatever you are doing!

Out of hiding!

Yes I know I haven’t posted for a while but things around here have been rather busy, yet they haven’t! Does that make sense? I have done very little scrapping and have been catching up on things around home like removing curtains and washing them, cleaning the whole house top to bottom, a little sleeping in, enjoying not having to drive very far, re-potting plants, working on the pool – is that enough?

We have wanted to re-pot some fantastic Ficcus? Plants we have on the verandah but haven’t been able to find pots large enough to take them, until we thought why not use some wine barrel halves (we live on the very edge of the Swan Valley so they were easy to find). Here’s the end result….one of them anyway………….

The bullnose has gone down around the pool now and grouting has been done, just need to finish sealing them and then finish off the paving! I have also planted some new plants which will hopefully climb and grown over the ugly grey pool fence that it currently there.

We have a tradition among some friends of ours that we celebrate Xmas in July….now this tradition started about 18 years ago, before we all had children, when we all used to go down to Margaret River Guesthouse and spend the weekend together, touring the wineries, playing some kind of sport, Christmas dinner on the Saturday night where we would have a Santa and Santa’s helper and there would be gifts for everyone. Oh yeah and we would all drink way too much and play silly games like hide and seek! Anyway I digress, this year we (12 adults and 14 children) are invading the Mandalay Beach Resort in Busselton where we have 6 beach cottages booked and plans are starting to take shape. There are no gifts this year cause I think we would need to take out a second mortgage on our homes to afford them! So I have taken upon myself to make up a mini album for each family including mine. Well these have been on the “to do” pile for a couple of weeks now and I have finally finished them this morning.

Pretty happy with them too! The plan is to provide each family a CD with all the photos I intend to take over the weekend ( I have included a CD pouch in the back of the album), and they can print off the ones they want and stick them in the album. Well that’s the plan anyway. Only problem is I can’t decide who gets what album, I like them all. Maybe I should lucky dip them!

Thanks for all the lovely comments about the cup cakes, they were a huge success and not too rich and sickly! Since then I have purchased a recipe book called 500 cupcakes – so some more baking is on the agenda.

Rightyho, now I'm off to do my "Fantabulous Felt Mini-Book" that I won from the lovely Kim Archer! I will post a piccie when it's done, but the way I'm going lately with my scrapping, don't hold your breath!

Enjoy the rest of the school holidays and take care!

There has been no scrapping here but there are these..........





Thanks to Shimelle I have made these yummy Chocolate Cup Cakes for a dinner party we are going to this afternoon. They are a little fiddly, but gosh are they worth it!!!!!!!! You can find the recipe at her blog.

Maybe there will be time to scrap tomorrow.

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my new hair do! Much appreciated. xxx

New do & July Paper Pesto Kit

OK here are some pictures of my new "do" by request from a good friend!

Certainly easier to look after in the mornings.

The July Paper Pesto Kit has been released and is available for sale. Go check it out and also the gallery which contains projects from Danielle, Ann and Kelly . There will also be a free class for all available in their classroom.

I have been working on some layouts for my For Keeps Elite Team application so I'm unable to show you. First time I have entered anything like this!

School holidays are here YAY, less driving......we have nothing planned and are looking forward to some sleep ins and lazy days.

Until next time take care.

Been away

I went on a very impromptu trip down to Albany for a few days with Steve to give him a hand doing some work. This was only possible because Renae is on work experience all week and staying with my niece Paula and Michelle was kind enough to have Gemma for me. This is the weather we encountered while we were there......bitterly cold and wet!

I had to buy myself a new scarf as soon as we got there as I couldn't see myself bagging soil samples and writing up geo results without one!

Putting the weather aside we had a great time and it was really special being able to spend a couple of days together and just really enjoy each other's company.

Apparently I look "healthier" according to some LOL, I have a new hairdo, gone darker and shorter and my girls don't recognise me. I will take a better shot in the week when I get the chance. Around here the Jury is still out on the verdict !!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy the rest of the week and take care. Hopefully I will be back with some projects by the end of the week.