Wow - 4300 visitors!

As I type this, I have had 4300 visitors to my blog! That is amazing. My counter only counts unique daily hits, not every single hit, so I am stoked that so many people have wandered past my dreary little blog! I'm flattered.

I have updated my galleries finally. The main gallery is almost completely up to date and the 'published' gallery has most items in that have come out in the mags. There are a few more I will add to it, but can't yet.

Here is a little layout to share...

Thanks for visiting.

xx S.

Harry Potter - yes, I AM obsessed!

Quick post. If you like Harry Potter, check this out...

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

Can't wait!! (Thanks to Erica H for the link.)
xx S.

Layouts, as Promised!

Wow, three posts in one night! I'm just trying to catch up, I guess.

Alicia and I are still in the Scrap Survivor competition. Well, at the moment, anyway. Who knows what will happen during voting tomorrow. There are now only eight players left. It got down to six, but two voted-out players were voted back in. What a twist, huh? I've been increasingly getting more nervous and am sure, every week, that I will be next to go.

So here are my layouts this week. The challenge was to be inspired by an advert. The layout of the ad was fab, so it wasn't too hard. This is the chocolate mud cake John bought me for my birthday - YUMMO!! (Note the computer journaling. I haven't computer journalled for so long - it was SO hard! Give me hand-writing any day!! The layout gave me four printer jams!!!)

The immunity was to create a layout using the word "thankful" and at least two photos, three rub ons and one ribbon.

I don't think I shared last week's layouts yet, either....

The challenge was to use a sketch (blah for me), which had five photos (blah again), using the word (or derivitive of) "Survive". I am hopeless at sketches and multi photos, so was surprisingly happy with the outcome. (lol - I shouldn't post my short-fallings here in case Jess is lurking.... she might throw a REAL curly challenge for me - lol.)

Immunity was to scraplift a layout from the store's DT.

So, just to make it an uneven five layouts, I'm adding in the one I did today, just for the fun of it. I don't do many layouts anymore, that aren't for DT or comps, so I had fun with this.



Thanks for looking. Thanks also, to the lurkers of my blog. I am slowly finding out who some of you are (I was told about three more over the weekend) and I'm happy to have you here.



Have a great week.
xx S.

Australia Zoo

The next day, Wednesday, we went to Australia Zoo. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel, as I was pretty upset when Steve Irwin passed away. The Zoo have handled everything really well and have done the man a lot of justice and honour with the way they have continued to run things. I can't believe how much fun all the staff seemed to be having.

The zoo was so extremely clean and well taken care of and the animals were gorgeous. It was a joy to watch the kids discover all sorts of things.

Nicholas made himself very comfortable with a kangaroo at one stage. We were really lucky in the bird show, too, as the black cockatoo and mccaw landed just in front of us. Nick tried to pat their tail, but we pulled him back, just in case.

Again, all three children were really good, but so tired at the end of the day.

Here is a croc, as what would a story about Australia Zoo be without mentioning the crocs? This is Graham (the croc) and he is HUGE! I couldn't believe the bone-tingling CHOMP sound this big fella made when he chomped down on the food! Scary-bananas!!

So that is the most of what we did on our holidays. Of course there was a lot of swimming at the beach and pool, but I was so unwell that I barely took any photos. I know! Can't believe it, can you? John was astounded!! lol

I have some layouts to share next post.
xx S.

Underwater World & Yandina

On my birthday, while we were staying at Coolum, we went to Underwater World, Mooloolabah and the Ginger Factory, Yandina. I love the Ginger Factory and had never been to Underwater World, but wanted to since it opened.

The kids were great and we had so much fun sharing their awe of everything we saw and experienced. Nick was so cute at the Touch & Feel pool. The lady was passing along a floating box with some starfish and sea cucumbers in for the kids to touch. All Nick wanted to do was to tip them back into the bigger pool and be "fwee!!"

Underwater World has OTTERS! I was so excited, as I really love otters. They were sleeping, but I managed to get a couple of good photos as my kids disturbed their slumber.

Then off to Yandina, to visit the Ginger Factory, where we had lunch and went on the little train. Christopher and Nicholas (especially) loved the train. The engine pulling it was built in 1901 and smelt so old-train (if that makes sense). I love trains too, so enjoyed hearing about it all.
















...and what would a visit to the Ginger Factory on my birthday be without buying some YUMMY fudge and ginger & macadamia chocolate?? I haven't even eaten any yet! There were so many yummy flavours of fudge, mostly with lots of ginger or alcohol through them. I LOVE ginger, but am waiting until I feel 100% before eating any, just in case I get sick again and lose the love of it!! Tee hee. xx S.

A Child's Solution

I've been searching for months for the lid of my little two-cup teapot. It's one of those small glass pots with plastic lid that has the tea leaf diffuser in the middle. I love it and it has really been annoying me that I haven't been able to find the lid.

Nothing like a child to help with the solution. Yesterday Nick was looking at the pot and accidentally dropped it on the kitchen floor. It is fine glass, so it SMASHED into a thousand pieces!! At least I don't have to find the lid any more!!!





Oh, and guess what I found about two hours later????? rofl
xx S.

Home Again, Home Again (Jiggity-Jig)

It's nice to be home again, but boy.... I could have stayed at the beach for weeks! We went to Coolum Beach for a family holiday and my birthday. We stayed in a little resort that had everything we needed and was VERY close to everything.

I will post more about what we did when I have some pictures to show you.

The couple of weeks leading up to our holiday were a bit yuk, so the break was really needed. Most of my little family suffered a yukky tummy bug before we went away and I was sick for most of the holiday. No dinner out on my birthday! I was too sick to appreciate it!

Making the Anniversary book for my grandparents kept me pretty busy and stressed, but I was mostly upset by that awful blog that most of us have, by now, heard about. The blog has now gone and will hopefully not reappear AGAIN. Although I am 'no-one' in the scrapbooking world, I was hurt and offended by so many of the comments left there. I don't even know why I read them. I guess I was waiting for someone to come in and fix them all up.

I have met so many wonderful people from scrapbooking. My best friend is my greatest example!! I have also met so very many of the 'name' scrapbookers being slandered in that blog and I was thoroughly stunned that people can say so many untrue things about such wonderful ladies and act as though their thoughts are fact.

So many wonderful Scrap Artists (who are mainly 'no-ones' or 'little knowns') have considered giving up the art over the rot. Please don't. I love seeing all sorts of different work in the online galleries, blogs and magazines. Who cares what a minority think?

**Edited to add: I was also saddened to see that an Administrator of a well-read forum chose to vaguely speculate who the posters on 'that' blog were. This seemed to be aimed at people whom have nothing to do with the blog or bad-taste postings regarding online stores. What a shame for the innocent, now thought by some to be involved, all because of a vague speculation.**

As for me... I took a huge step away from scrapping over the past few weeks. I only completed obligation layouts and a couple of Scrap Survivor layouts. Do you want to know what I did for quiet entertainment while away on holidays (when we weren't at the beach or pool)?? I coloured in!!! Yep. I bought the kids some activity sets and myself some nice pencils and a kid's colouring in book and I coloured!!! Very theraputical - lol!!

I played a bit of Singstar too. What is a free few days without Singstar??

Congratulations if you are still reading this! Sorry for the long post/rant. I feel better now. I'll be back later with photos and stories of our holiday.
xx S.

MIA, Sorry!

I know I have been totally Missing In Action lately... sorry. I've been completely consumed with preparing a book for my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. I compiled it using Momento, who also print and bind the book.

What do you think? I hope my grandparents love it!

xx S.

Ants, Ants, Ants & Survivor

We MUST be in for some decent rain some time soon in Brisbane. We've always been water conscious, but it is now getting ridiculous. The reason I am convinced of coming rain is the ANTS! We don't often get ants in our house, but they are now making a decent track up from the garage, down the hall and going somewhere into Amelia's room. They are trying to hide from rain.

So let's hope the rains are steady and wetting, but not flooding. When it is heavy and fast, we get flooded into our little cul-de-sac.

On scrapping news, Alicia and I have survived another week in the Scrap Survivor game. There are now two teams of seven left. It is getting harder and more nerve-racking every time it comes to eliminations.

I am finally feeling a lot better and getting back on board with a lot of things. Thanks for everyone's messages, comments, emails, etc. I really appreciate the care and love.

xx S.

Basic Grey Gallery

Well, it took forever after my buying the papers to actually use them, but the two layouts I've just completed using BG's Romani Gypsy & LilyKate ranges have just been published in the Basic Grey Gallery!!

I've had a couple of others knocked back before, so am happy I've had TWO accepted at once!
xx S.

Still Surviving

I'm back to say HI!! Thanks for everyone's warm wishes. I seem to be much better now and almost back to normal, just feeling a bit tired.

Alicia and I are both still in the Survivor game and going well. We are past half way and the numbers are certainly dwindling. Alicia hasn't received any votes and I have only received one, which Leish thinks was a tacticle vote.

Here are the most recent layouts for the comp.....

Week 3 Challenge: Black and white everything, except one piece of ribbon and photo/s.


Week 4 Challenge: Mosaic

Immunity Challenge (I won immunity - yay!!!): Lots of journaling, pink something and about a female.

Week 5 Challenge: List of items.

Week 5's immunity challenge will be announced tomorrow. I haven't completed all the immunity challenges. I haven't had time for so many layouts in each week!

xx S.