Pffft.... Ant Farm, Schmant Farm!!

After another busy week, I'm back for a quick blog.

I can tell you know that next time I spend ages setting up an ant farm, I am going to keep it secret and up high. I don't know what killed the ants.... there were SO many factors to choose from!! The four year old who kept feeding them... same four year old who kept adding water... the two year old who kept shaking the box... the five year old who kept trying to save them (vigorously).... who knows? Point is, they are dead.... and less than a week after moving them to their new home. I wonder if there is an Anty Heaven?

In good news, the guitar is going well. I have given myself three short lessons this week and can already play a few little songs, including Happy Birthday, which I worked out from ear. Thank goodness I can read music, too, though. It would be really hard learning it all from scratch. The kids love the guitar and bring it to me to play (badly - lol).

I plan to scrap tonight. I haven't scrapped for a week and am missing it. I am worried my Mojo will be gone. Luckily I am starting with a sketch for Scrapbook City - that makes it easier!

Big HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY to my MIL, too!! We are having a party for her tomorrow. She is one of the coolest 70 year olds I know. It should be a fun afternoon.

Have a great weekend.
xx S.

Two Goals Down

The weekend has gone so fast and it was fantastic!

Friday night's Cyber Crop at Scrapbook City went really well, I think. I am looking forward to browsing the entries in the gallery tomorrow. I didn't get any scrapping done, but had a great night.

Tenants moved out of an investment property of ours on Saturday. We went to the house in the afternoon and checked it with the outgoing tenants, then met a prospective new tenant! The outgoing tenants had been checking people out for us to move in!! How sweet is that? Their lease had expired, so they were under no obligation to do so. The new tenant seems lovely and I just have to do the appropriate checks on him tomorrow.

Afterwards, we went over the house and made a list of all the things we want to fix, then took the kids to a nearby 'river beach'.

Today, we spent most of the day at the house working as a family. I am exhausted, have paint in my hair and haven't unpacked the car, but it was so much fun! We managed to cross out more than 20 jobs from our to-do list!

The highlights of MY day were doing two of my Life Goals. The first was to buy a gorgeous little guitar (sorry about the dodgy pic). I had one years ago, which was yuk and I got rid of it. I have always wanted a really nice one.... and now I do! The other is a little different.... I made an Ant Farm!! We've been watching them tonight and they are so interesting! Pretty simple "Life Goals", but I've done so much that I realise I don't want to miss out on the simple things!

Have a great week!
xx S.

Another Weekend?

Phew, I'm only just getting over LAST weekend and another one is here already!! Tonight is the Scrapbook City Cyber Crop, starting at 6.30pm - hosted by ME! It should be fun.

So, last weekend? Well, I flew to Sydney to surprise my gorgeous cousin, Allyson. Allyson and her (now) fiance, Paul, became engaged last Wednesday night and the housewarming Allyson had been organising (for last weekend) was actually a bit of an engagement announcement/party! So Paul and I have been, very quietly, chatting to each other for a number of weeks now. I love being in on surprises and, being so hard to surprise myself, I really wanted to surprise Allyson (who is almost as hard to surprise as I am.... or so I had thought).

Paul and his gorgeous boy, Fabian, picked me up from the airport after telling Ally that they were going to have a game of footy in the park. (Which park? ....oh, you know.... that one over..... there... *pointing aimlessly*)

When we arrived back at the townhouse complex, they dropped me at the gate and I waited until I could hear they had gone in the house. I then rang Allyson on her mobile and started chatting pointlessly... I asked her what time guests were due to arrive, then knocked on the door. (Okay, and rung the bell a few times, because I was sure she had heard the door knock through the phone.)

When Ally opened the door, she was SOOO funny!!! She looked at me, looked at her phone, looked at me, then back to her phone again..... she was sort of pointing to both as if to say, "How did you get out of the phone and end up there.... ??" Then we had the biggest HUG and I thought she was crying... no... just still had that really BIG surprised look on her face!! THEN she had to sit down, so sort of crumpled onto her haunches!! It really was so funny!! GOTCHA ALS!!!!! I think it took about half an hour to calm us both down. She kept going through all the funny things that had happened over the past two weeks and putting it all together!

Needless to say, the weekend was wonderful!! The housewarming/engagement party was fun. I had other family there, who I was so happy to catch up with and I managed to drink a rather large amount of Sangria without getting too tipsy.... but enough to get alcohol poisoning over night!!! lol - only me, huh?

Sunday was spent out and about taking photos in a little family photo shoot. The photos are fantastic, but I don't have permission to share any here. Maybe down the track I'll get around to asking them if I can share.

I have planned a relatively quiet weekend this weekend. We have family in town next week and I have heaps of scrapping deadlines I am trying to meet, so I guess I will be busy.... in a quiet way!

Have a great weekend, whatever you are doing!!
xx S.

Layouts, as Promised!

I am loving all my DT work at the moment. I can't share the Scrapapple stuff yet, but here are my latest Scrapbook City layouts.

These papers and embellishments are SO different for me! I was surprised that the layout came to me the second I saw the papers in my DT kit! Perfect for these photos of Christopher for my Birthday Album. Chris doesn't like his birthday and cries every year when we sing Happy Birthday.... actually, he has now graduated to running away shrieking and in tears!! This pic was last year's effort. :(

I am really happy with this layout. It was made using Scrapbook City's September Inspiration Kit, which sold out in days!

A Fancy Pants layout from a sketch by Scrapbook City DT member Nicole Rayner. I find sketches very challenging, but had so much fun with this one. I've been playing with Deluxe Design's Plain Jane chipboard and you might notice the Making Memories Cheeky Flat Clips are making it onto nearly all of my layouts of late.

The journaling talks about how I am always trying to get that "perfect" picture, where all three children are looking at the camera and smiling.... I am coming to realise that these muck-about pictures really are the perfect ones - they show so much personality and fun!

This is my favourite layout at the moment. I have just bought all the new chipboard by Fancy Pants - OMGosh!!! They have the MOST gorgeous 12x12 chipboard sheets!!! All the floral paper here is actually covered chipboard! The ribbon is Fancy Pants, too. Papers are Cosmo Cricket - just beautiful! and the mini book on the layout is from CC too.

Well, thanks for looking. I'll be able to post more layouts in a week or so. Have a great weekend!
xx S.

I'm Back!!

So much for blogging every day! Well, I'm here now and have a few posts to catch up on.

Things are great with my family and I. The kids are finally all better and full of energy. Poor little Nick is in the wars, though.

*Last Friday he split his little face open near his eye - had to be rushed to the doctor. He didn't need stitches, but will probably scar. He had a big black eye for days, too.

*Saturday, he cut a chunk out of his finger. I don't know what happened as he didn't cry. He just showed me his finger with dried blood all over it!

*Tuesday night Nick burned his arm, right on top of his birthmark, on a pan that had been turned off but hadn't cooled.

*THEN... yesterday he fell down the stairs!!! He has the biggest bump on his head and I hovered over him for hours making sure he was okay!!


He was certainly well enough to pose with Christopher last Saturday morning. I love this pic of my two boys. I especially like that you can't see just how black his eye went! Mind you, it turned blacker on the Sunday. It goes to show that no matter how much you are with them or how much constant attention you give children, they are still able to get into mischief within seconds!!!

Anyway, life goes on... I finally finished my project for Ngaire's NBCF raffle drawn mid-July. Margie isn't a scrapbooker, so I decided to make her a canvas rather than a layout...

I delivered this to Margie and her family last weekend and, oh my goodness, they are the nicest family! Very happy and welcoming. Their house is brighter than this canvas!! Each wall a different, bright colour - such a happy feeling in their home. Best wishes to you and your family, Margie! You are all so brave and wonderful!

I'll share some layouts in my next blog post. In the meantime, check out Scrapbook City's forum and gallery to see some amazing talent and lots of fun.

xx S.

A HUGE Thank You

Thank you so much to all the people who have sent layouts for Alicia's album! Alicia absolutely LOVES it!! I have been told that there are other layouts on the way still, which is great. Alicia and I will be posting lots of stuff to each other over the next couple of years, so I can keep sending any layouts I didn't get to put into the album.

As promised, here is a slide of the wonderful layouts received. There are a couple missing, but I hope to get pics of them soon, so I can add them here. (Please note: A few of the layouts were completed by Mia (5) and Chris (4).)



xx S.

State Election

Tomorrow we go to the polls in Queensland. I hope and pray that people vote for the right person to lead our beautiful state. I am not going to go into my political beliefs, but I will say that if Queensland votes in Homer J. Beattie (again) I'm going to cry (again)!!!!! It is definitely time for a change, as it was at our last election.

I wouldn't even buy a used car off that man, why do we want him running our state?
xx S.

I'm Having So Much Trouble....

....keeping up with blogs at the moment. I've barely even sat at my computer over the past week.

All three of my children have the flu - high temps, aches, barking cough, etc... poor little munchkins. The boys are on the mend, but Mia is still fighting it. She's off school for the week to try to help her get better.

I'll blog more soon (I hope). Just leaving you with a quick layout about John. It's so nice being married and waking up every morning feeling more in love with John than before I went to sleep the night before. Soppy, I know, but I am very, very lucky!!


Thanks for dropping by my blog. Oh, and a special HI to Jen in Ireland. I have three or four different Jen's who comment on my blog. I am not sure if any of them are from you. Glad to hear you are well and busy with exciting things!! ;)
xx S.