Busy Busy Week

Well this week has been really busy and next week will be even busier. Missed the February Scrap of Faith online class as we were away that weekend - Mandi Haynes was the guest designer for this class and the instructions were so well set out through that I was able to complete it on the weekend whilst I was away at the coast with the girls. I actually bought the kit to do this LO - so different not something I would normally think about putting together but I really really like it.



One of the challenges I have set for myself this year is to scrap more about my faith or verses of scripture that have been an encouragement to me. I would like to do this at least monthly, so my first LO is about some verses in Psalm 1:1-3

The last LO is from the class I did with Ali Russell from Embellished last Wednesday night. A few of the girls from work have been getting together with Ali most Wednesday nights and doing classes with her. We always love what we create there. Mostly we enjoy going cause it is a good night out in good company and we manage to acheive some great work under Ali's watchful eye. Julie Heard also joined us last week and she will be doing the classes with Ali as well. How fortunate are we to have two top scrapbookers to do classes with. Althought this is not technically the best photo I love this photo that I used on this Layout. It would have to be one of my all time favourites. It is a photo of my wonderful husband and our eldest daughter doing the father/daughter walz at her wedding. They were just having so much fun - it really does capture the essence of both their personalities.









Unfortunately I am going to have to put my scrapbooking on the back burner for the next 10 days as next week is going to be very busy with the Regional Orientation evening for USQ here in Rocky. I have to contact just on 100 students in the next week and then chair the evening next Thursday. What with working full time and then coming home and trying to contact students, write speeches etc, there is not much time for anything else.

Hope to make up for it though the Saturday after when we all get together for our monthly crop again.

Also if there is anyone reading my blog who lives in the Newcastle region and love craft, check out the fundraiser being organised by Lauren and Mandy from Scrapneeds.
Lauren and Mandy really want to make a difference in the lives of those people who suffer from Muscular Dustrophy so go check out this site and see what they have planned.

Newcastle Muscular Dystrophy Fundraiser.

What better way to help out and fundraise than to combine it with Scrapbooking.

Last weekend was spent down at Cooee Bay on the Capricorn Coast with a group of girls from church. Very relaxing time - (I even managed to scrap my SofF Layout). On the way down, the oil light on my car came on so I rang Steve to find out what to do. He told me I had to lift the bonnet and put some oil in the engine. Well I tried popping the bonnett, but the lever wouldn't budge, so I had to phone Steve back and get him to come out and rescue us. Meanwhile we are stuck on the side of the road for 30-40 minutes, Chloe decided to go photograph all the signs in the vicinity to show where we had broken down. We all tried popping the bonnet but non of us were successful. Wouldn't you know it the moment Steve arrived he popped it straight away. Anyway it took him all of 10 minutes to get the car running again and off we go. Found out later that night when I rang home, that Steve had been trying to ring
us when we left, cause as he tried to start our other car, it wouldn't start. Apparently his battery had gone flat - but my phone was back in my handbag, the stereo was on full ball (we had teenagers in the car didn't we) and so the poor guy was stuck with the two boys. ( We are playing adopted grandparents for the week to our friends from PNG, two boys. They are wonderful and we are loving having them) Fortunately for him, someone stopped and gave them a helping hand and got them going again.

We arrived down at the coast a good hour after everyone else. We stayed in this old but comfortable house right on the beach front. Lots of lovely frangapani trees around. Beautiful spot, and spent the afternoon, chatting, scrapbooking, others did craft, puzzles and generally just relaxed. We did have a meeting later in the afternoon to plan our Ladies Retreat which is held in August of each year - so that is now underway. On Saturday evening we went into Yeppoon to a Chinese Restuarant for dinner.









Sunday was more of doing not much although we did have a devotional time together were we reflected on some of the things we had heard at our Woman's retreat last year and we were challenged to look at what changes we had made in our life as a result of this. One of the things that really stood out to me was the Challenge to Guard our hearts
"Out of the overflow of your heart the mouth speaks" Psalm 51:17

The challenge for me was keeping my heart pure - thinking of how I speak to others and address them, only repeating what is lovely, thinking of what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable excellent or praiseworthy. Keeping my heart grateful - learning to say thank you again and again - being generous. I need to practice all of these things in my day to day life and this was the challenge I received
You would think that after such a relaxing weekend, that I would be feeling on top of things. Well the last couple of days have been a real stuggle physically and emotionally. I have been feeling chronically tired, so bad yesterday that I actually took the day off work and had a four hour sleep in the middle of the day. This is so not like me. Hoping that I pick up shortly.

Well not much more news on the homefront. Way past my bedtime - need to go now as I have to be up by 5.45am to swim.

Just want to leave you with 5 things I am thankful for today.

1. That I can choose daily to dwell on whatsoever is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.

2. That I can choose to forgive those that have hurt or offended me.

3. For wonderful friends, both online and off

4. My wonderfully supportive husband and family

5. God's love and forgiveness.

Last Weeks Layouts.

How frustrating - have just typed up this post and lost the whole lot.

Well mostly I just want to update and upload the other Layouts I did last week. I am really enjoying my scrapbooking at the moment. The only thing that is standing in my way is time.

Since last week was Valentine's day thought I would do some layouts about my special man.

Katrina (Millie from SofF) had issued us this challenge a week or so ago. Now normally I am not a bit one for challenges mainly due to lack of time to getting anything done but thought I would take her up on this one as I have a huge stash that is sitting here and needs to be used.


I challenge you to use something that you have in your stash that you either bought and never used or havn't used for a long time. for me it's to use some of my stamps. I've hardly used them since chipboard came along because everything just looks so flat without chipboard (I just Love Chipboard) esp my foam stamps. one reason is it can be messy with paint etc but also I don't like the idea that I might stuff it up so every one name their challenge product and maybe do 3 LO's either using that product or using 3 different things you havn't used for ages.


So I thought I would use some of the huge stash that I have sitting here and decided to use some of my Patterned Paper that I had collected at least six-seven months ago, also use my foam stamps that are collecting dust in a plastic container in my lounge and use some stickers ( which I used on the "Blounde Jokes - CJ" that I did last week.





My first layout was done about my wonderful husband - just wanted him to know some of the things that make him special to me. Also have quite a bit of "Chatterbox" papers that I finally wanted to get around to using. Saw this title somewhere and thought it was pretty appropriate so thought I would use it.







This second Lay out was inspired and the design scraplifted from a Layout I saw in the current (February) edition of "Creating Keepsakes" Had fun using my favourite supplies, flowers, ribbon and sewing. The heart is roused ribbon sewn onto the cardstock., and the title is handstitched. Time consuming and fiddly LO but still am happy with it.

This third Layout was from an online class I did with "Embellished" last Thursday evening. Great class run by Ali Russell and Julie Heard. Definately want to do some more of their classes. Next time hopefully I will have a computer that works (my laptop was at the doctors - needed new keys) and it was a bit of a pain running from my desktop computer (in my office) to my scrapbooking which was set up on the dining room table.

Still I am very happy with the way my LO turned out, and it was fun chatting to all the girls.

Last weekend we spent in Emerald with Pete & Karen Bray and their gorgeous boys. Karen is a work colleague of mine from my Uni job. We both share a love of scrapbooking, as well as work and just a very similar outlook on life.

We had a great weekend. They live in this beautiful old Queenslander on 40 acres just outside of Emerald. They have had quite a bit of rain so the place looks awesome at the moment. It is so relaxing there. We had breakfast on the verandah overlooking their front yard and their dam. The boys and Chloe spent most of the weekend, ski-ing, tubing and wakeboarding out on Fairburn Dam. They had an awesome time even if they did get a bit sunburnt. Missed some of the most awesome photos, first I forgot to take my camera to the dam, so Chloe and Karen went home to get it, and then when they got back, I went to take a beaut photo of all the kids on this ski snake (amazing thing) and the batteries died. So frustrating. Definately has been decided that we need to go back out again just to get photos.

On Saturday night we got to catch up with my neice and her husband and thier three children. They came and had dinner with us at the Brays, Natalie is expecting baby number 4 in the next 10 weeks, so will have to head back to the Sunshine Coast in the next couple of weeks to await the birth. So pleased she was still out there so that we could catch up.

Anyway had better sign off as I am off to Ali's (class) with a few of the girls from work. It is our social night out.

I've been Tagged

I have been tagged by the very lovely and very talented Chris Miller.
Chris just want you to know that this is my first tag.

A=Available- Blissfully happy and happily married to my wonderful man for over 27 years.
B=Best Friend - a few spring to mind, Kathy, Barb, Jenni and Eleonore, plus I have some amazing scrapbooking friends now too.
C= Cake or pie - Probably Cake, especially Black Forest Gateaux
D= Drink of choice? Cafferine Free Diet Coke
E= Essential item you use everyday - Have to say my toothbrush too - computer would come pretty close as well.
F= Favorite color: Blue
G= gummie bears or worms- Worms especially the sour worms
H= Hometown - Rockhampton Central Queensland!
I= Indulgences - Expensive Perfume
J= January or February - Definately January because we celebrate our wedding anniversary, it is Steve's birthday and we are always on holidays.
K= Kids and Names - Peter, Sarah and Chloe and I also now have a son-in-law Colin.
L= Life is incomplete without... my Christian faith and Hugs and kisses!
M= Marriage date - 5th January, 1980.
N=Number of siblings- 2 younger sisters
O = Oranges or apples - Apples
P= Phobias or Fears - Something happening to Steve or my kids
Q= Favorite Quote - Remember there’s not such a thing as a small act of kindness...
Every act creates a ripple with no logical end... Scott Adams
R= Reason to smile - Blessed beyong measure - God's incredible love and creation around me and the the love of family.
S= Season - Spring, beautiful spring nights and the beauty of new growth
T= Tag 3 or 4 people - Jasmine, Anthea, Ali, and Sal
U= Unknown fact about me: I broke my arm at 3 on the day my mum bought home my new baby sister.
V= Vegetable you don’t like - Brussel Sprouts and Choco
W = Worst habit - I rock - especially when I am tired
.X= X-rays - Too many to remember.
Y= Your favorite food - Anything Seafood,
Z= Zodiac Sign - Sargartarius, although i don't beleive in them

I've also been on a bit of a scrapbooking frenzy this week making up for all the times I haven't scrapbooked in the last couple of months. I have done another 4 LO's since the weekend. One of them was the LO from Kim Archer's online Christmas Extraganza which I have finally only got around to doing now.

We are off to Emerald for the weekend to visit the Bray family and catch up with my neices, so will have to wait until early next week to upload them. Still need to take a photo of the one I did tonight and the one I finished off tonight.

I actually did a Valentine's Day LO this year and Steve loves it.

Well had better get to bed as I need to be up in less than 6 hours time if I want to get to the Gym before work. Have a great weekend everyone.

On a Scrapbooking Roll

I'm finally able to show some LO's that I have been busy doing this weekend. For the last few years, a group of us ladies in Rocky have got together monthly to scrap together. Yesterday was our first crop for 2007 and we were overwhelmed by the number of ladies that attended. We had 22 turn up and we had 8 of our regular attenders away. We have had to see the church about buying us some more tables to accomodate everyone. Anyway it was a great day and it was good to catch up with everyone again, and see some of the amazing work they have done since we last got together. Katrina (Millie) has done some amazing layouts on her children and the journalling is fantasic. Her grandchildren are going to love these albums - she has recorded every memory of her children including all the funny sayings that antics that they have got up too. Great reading for us and we are not even part of her family.

All the Rocky S of F girls were there (all three of us) but hopefully there will be a few more by the end of the year. Great to catch up with Ali again too. Haven't seen her since we got back from holidays.












Anyway I have managed to do four LO's in the last couple of days. Have three to show you plus the last CJ that I finished. The fourth LO I only completed tonight so will have to photograph it over the next couple of days and upload it later in the week. This CJ LO is for the last of the CJ's that I have had sitting here since before Christmas and it was on Friendship. I do know that there are two more winging their way to me in the post so I wanted to get these ones finished and sent on their way and get some of my scrapbooking done before I get inundated with a new batch of CJ's












This next LO was inspired by some of Tessa-Ann Watt's LO's. Love her simplistic style and love all the pen work. Was really happy with the way it turned out. Quite girlie and suited the photo well.


















This next LO was a scraplift - not sure who to give the credit too as I can't remember who orginally did it - but saw it on one of the overseas galleries and had saved it too my favourites.

I am really enjoying doing these simple LO's lately and I am finally learning to do a LO in a hour or two. How totally liberating it is.




















Wanted to do a LO about my girls relationship with their Dad. They have always been close . It is a very special relationship between a dad and his girls.


















Today has been a relatively relaxing day. We went to church this morning, and then this afternoon have had our friends from PNG over. Spent a good part of the afternoon playing "Phase 10" with the kids as well. It is so nice to have these guys home for 6 months. We are really appreciating our time with them, and we just love their kids.

It's getting late and I have a very early start in the morning so am going to call it quits for the night and hit the sack., but just before I go just want to share five things that I am thankful for today.

1. My Christian faith
2. My church family
3. Good friends
4. the gift of creativity
5. freedom of expression we have in this country

Scrapbooking Again.

Well life is almost back to normal - full week of work last week and I must say I was looking forward to the weekend and a nap.

We had lots of lovely rain in Rocky last Thursday and Friday and I had hoped that it would continue through the weekend but it didn't. Never the less I spent most of the weekend scrapbooking - trying to catch up on the CJ's that I have had sitting around the house since before Christmas.

Managed to do two and finish off a LO I started at Christmas time. Have one more CJ to do in the next day or so and then I will feel free to scrapbook the heaps of photos I have here from Christmas and our holidays. We have our first Scrapbooking crop day for the year this Saturday and I really want to scrapbook some of the photos I took over the holidays.

Not much news here. Thought I would post the couple of CJ's and the LO I have done. Not terribly exciting and I am afraid the photo didn't turn out too well as the light is not the best with these overcast days.

Hoping to have some more LO's to show you next week.

This Layout was for a CJ entitled "What makes me Laugh"

























This one we had to pick a colour combination but it couldn't be one that had already been chosen. This was a little hard as I was the last person before it gets sent home to its owner, so as you can imagine, all the good colour combinations had already been selected.


















This one is not particularly one of my favourites but I did manage to do it fairly quickly. Did a fair bit of hand sewing on this one.

Hopefully next week I will have a few more to share.