Holidays Here

Well it's school holidays here and I will be popping in and out over the next two weeks.

Here's a couple I thought I would share of baby R whilst we were crawling all over the Foyer of the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre this morning....he is just the most gorgeous little baby.



Back soon as I can!

20 Years and counting!

On 2nd December my gorgeous husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage......in Bali!

After a very hectic week and an end of year dance concert to contend with (which is always a stressful time not matter how much we try not to make it stressful) Steve and I departed Perth on 22nd Nov for 12 glorious days in Bali.




We were delayed out of Perth by about 1 1/2 hours (always the way when you are anxious to be somewhere else!), but when we finally arrived at the Ulin Villas we were met with something like heaven.


It was everything and more than we expected - our very own Villa complete with pool, kitchen, breakfast prepared daily by our own chef, lounge dining and outdoor bathroom. Magic! You can see more here if you are interested - we really can't recommend the accommodation enough.

We swam....



We went sightseeing....



We ate and drank....



We re-connected and re-discovered why we married each other all those years ago...no pictures of this sorry!!!!

We celebrated...

On our last night we decided to have a BBQ meal prepared in the Villa and when I came home from dashing out to get some last minute shopping done I was greeted by this image and it truly took my breath away. They are Frangipanni flowers strategically placed around the grass area of the Villa - just stunning - we also had some woven decorations hung from the ceiling of the dining area too. Our feast was prepared and then we were left alone to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary and just relax. The day was perfect!

Our 12 days away were amazing, we felt like we had had a holiday. Our girls missed us terribly and we missed them very much too.

It was straight back to work for me as last night - I had a wedding to photograph - so I'll be back with some sneek peaks sometime next week of Kelly & Sam.

I have had so much time to think about so much whilst I was away that I now have a list of things I would like to achieve in the coming year, some of which are already underway and include a new blog and website so stay tuned for those.

My girls have their awards night on Monday night and we have had confirmation that they will both be receiving awards - what a great way to finish off a very successful year for us all.

Plenty to share

My gorgeous husband bought me these today !
- he knows I love daffodils and it has become a little tradition that he buys me a bunch around September......it's also a signal that spring is not hat far away - thank goodness - I'm over winter! The sunshine just makes you feel so much better than dreary rain and grey skies. I think this winter has also been colder than the last few years and for some reason I cannot seem to get warm at the moment. I'm constantly carrying around one of those wheat heat packs. But my daffodils are certainly "warming" up my studio today.

Some happy mail! From my last post these stunning fabrics
arrived in the mail yesterday from "Of Paper and Thread".
They are earmarked for 2 special projects that I would like for my kitchen. So more to come on these....visit Danielle Smeets here and here.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I have been struggling with my creativity lately so I decided to enrol in this online workshop with Cathy Zielski titled "Me the abridged version" - for two reasons really - firstly to try and get my "mojo" back and secondly because during my "thinking" time the other day I realised the obvious "I don't really scrap about me". Not only that - I'm usually the one behind the camera and I'd like to leave just a little something for my kids to remind them of, well, ME! I know this is something that alot of us "scrappers", "artists", "authors" (call yourself what you will), don't do and consciously make an effort to include ourselves in a few pages every now and then. I'm not one to really talk about myself and when I do it's in a private journal that only I read. My family knows it exists and it certainly doesn't include any photos of me, so this is something I'm really going to try and tackle with a little trepidation and also excitement, creative excitement. Wish me luck!

On the same note of creativity - I threw all pre-conceived ideas out the window about what I wanted to do with a re-cycled canvas that has been floating around my studio for the last couple of weeks. Thank you to Lis and Gayle for their support too on my "Lost" post :-) It's still a work in progress that I hope to finish off very soon - very technique based and a little bit eclectic, it was like I was trying to purge my mind of everything that was blocking it by throwing it down on the canvas - ha! sounds like therapy! Not sure if it's what I had in mind at the beginning of the journey but hey it's something and it has made me feel a little better. At the end of the day isn't that what "ART" is supposed to do?
Another special thing to look forward to, Steve and I will have been married for 20 years this year and we have decided to treat ourselves to a holiday to here later in the year. Just him and me! The two of us for 12 days and 11 nights - I cannot explain how much I'm looking forward to this holiday! Our very own 1 bedroom villa with our own pool, treatment gazebo, chef if we want it, aaaaahhhhhhh (insert very big humungous sigh).

Enjoy Friday and the weekend and hopefully I will be back very soon.

I've been here

I have spent the last few days visiting my Brother and his Wife in Roebourne (about 1500kms north of Perth on the central Pilbara coast). It was great just to chill and catch up. They both work so hard at their jobs with long hours and little time for rest and relaxation. The day before my arrival it rained alot, something like 200mm in just over a day. So yesterday before my flight home in the evening, we went for a drive out to Harding Dam and on to see the river flowing. Here are some images from the drive.

This is only part of the Harding Dam - just stunning scenery from half way up a hill like the one you can see in this next photo.

This is where the end of the road was for us - the river being a little too deep to cross but great to cool off in.

Another part of the river on the way back.

and the flight home!

Thanks for putting up with me P&S I had a lovely stay!

Who goes camping.....

in 42 degree heat? We do!

Last Thursday we left for Port Dennison camping. After nearly expiring putting up 4 tents and a gazebo thingy in stinking hot weather, we decided that actually sitting under the gazebo in our bathers while spraying the roof (and each of us in turn) every now and then was the only way to stay cool.

Then it was off to the beach.

Our weekend was spent with good food and friends (The Howards) swimming, boating, jetskiing and generally on or in the water.

Home on Sunday and to loads and loads of washing and unpacking.

Back to reality! The school holidays are nearly over and books, uniforms, shoes etc are all set to go. I think the girls are ready to go back now too. Routine is something I often whinge about but at this time of the year I wish it back into our lives.

I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment so when I have some more details I will be back to share them with you.

Stay safe and happy!

Back from Holidays

We have just spent the last 5 days in Ledge Point on the coast and about and hours drive from home. We were extremely lucky to have 3 holiday units available to us and had some friends join us for the weekend which was lots of fun. We had a fabulous time and soaked up lots of sun and sand. We even managed to bog the 4WD we had use off up to it's axles - I won't tell you how much it cost to get pulled out....no photos of it sorry. Luckily we were right on the beach when it happened and we were able to swim and stay cool while waiting for help.

Here is a collage of photos from our holiday - I managed to snap 657 photos all together. Thanks to Ilka for the site to create these mosaics - much easier than fluffing around in photoshop.

I need to edit all the photos and decide if I'm going to do a mini album to record the holiday.

We have really missed Renae during our time away....some things are not the same without all the family there to share them together. I think she is missing us too, but I keep telling her to enjoy the time in Melbourne while she can because she will be home soon enough.

Are you wondering why I took a photo of the clock? The batteries had run out so the clock stayed on 3.40 the whole time, so whenever someone asked what the time was the response was always 3.40....who needs a clock when they are on holidays anyway!!!!

I'm trying to get myself organised for the year and as you all know I am a list maker so I have found this site they have heaps of to-do lists and planner pages to download and print off. There is also a great article about making the time to Scrap which is something I am finding difficult to do. Time management is the key for me! So I have selected my ring file which I want to call "My Daily" and hope to get a start on this sometime tomorrow.....after dropping off my car for new tyres and doing the food shopping!

Something else I hope to do over the next week or so is to start creating electronic folders that I can store my photos in that I have yet to print and scrap. You know like the pretty boxes that people have to store all their printed photos in - all with neat dividers with the event and date on them. Well I don't print off my photos until I need them so I need to start filing them electronically ready to print. I forget about so many and then it takes me ages to wade through all of them to find that one I wanted to scrap when I saw it! Yes Time Management is the key here, hopefully if I get more organised then I will save time in the long run.....well that's the theory! I'd love to hear how you store your photos electronically ready to print and scrap!

I'm still trying to decide on what will be my "Ali word" for the coming year...maybe I will use the list to focus on maybe one word a month and hopefully make some improvements across many areas of my life.....as the saying goes "One day at a time".

So I'm all refreshed and re-energised about www.sharonmanning.com.au and have some exciting features to add over the coming weeks....so stay tuned!

I hope you are staying cool this week - it's a hot one here in Perth!