A new look

Woo hoo! How cool does my blog look? Pretty fab right?

My gorgeous and creative friend Marcia offered to give my blog a makeover. And a makeover she delivered! I answered a brief questionnaire and voila my new look appeared - talk about clever (and oh so insightful and creative!).

I haven't been scrapping much of late - too much other stuff going on - *yawn* but I did make this card the other night when I really wanted to create something but just couldn't bring myself to pull all my supplies out.

As  you can see I'm still coming to grips with my new watermark (created by Marcia of course) I'm sure with further practise I'll get it right, but right now fading the background without making the words disappear is beyond me...

Race Update

Top 50's Amazing Race is continuing apace. Here's a little race rundown.

Detour 2 - Following your trip to Antarctica, you travel to a mystery foreign country and you don't know the language! Scrap a layout or a 3 card set with a foreign word in the title or subtitle to get you back in the race.

I chose to use a couple of photos from my Hong Kong trip and used Pang Uk as the title. When translated from Chinese it literally means shack house but is also used to describe these stilt houses which are found in the fishing village of Tai O.

As well as some old paper scraps and embellies from my stash, I used some handmade goodies from The Greatest View, D-lish Scraps and A Lil Somethin. 

After successfully negotiating the detour I headed to Canada for Stop 4. The criteria:  Include a Large photo (bigger than 4x6), Use Leaves on your LO and, Incorporate movement down the page.

My photo was a 6x8 that I cropped slightly, I added a Little Bit of fANTsy leaf and for the downward movement I used the paper strips, arrows and strips of washi as well as the texture paste spots. The orange flower is one of Lime Tree Creations latest releases.

Stop 5 took us to Europe and I landed in France.
The criteria:
1. Love themed layout to represent the city of love!2. At least one heart to represent the romantics at heart who flock to Paris3. At least one charm to aid of all the charming features of France

To meet the criteria I used the Macca's tagline for this LO of Zoe in her Macca's uniform, she loves her new job (or the cash it provides!), I added two Charm's Creations hearts and two flower charms from the race kit. I also added some other handmade products from Lovely Bugs Bits and Bobs, Rainbow Splendour, Lil Red Rocket and A Lil Somethin.

The white cardstock is embossed but it doesn't show up, so here's a close up :)

Next up is a roadblock but I'm yet to negotiate that.

Thanks for stopping by :)

A couple of October challenges

Last month I managed to blog about my Pumpkin Patch challenge entry but somehow forgot to link to their blog - epic fail! Let's see if I can get it all together this month...

So, here's the LO, I used a Purple Pumpkin button and a doily. The cork bird is from Apple Tree Lane Designs. I also used some really old paper from my stash, they're still some of my favourite designs and colours.

Zoe is becoming such a good driver. A couple of weeks ago she drove Angus and I over to Granma's house. Some highway cruising, followed by a series of tricky roundabouts, traffic lights and crazy old ladies doing u-turns in the turning lane. She aced it.

While we were visiting, Zoe snapped these photos of Mum and I while Mum was getting a couple of pointers about using her iPod (not that she really needs any, she's got it all going on ;-)). I created this LO for the Scrap the Girls recipe challenge - flowers, two different alphas, more than one photo and staples. I also added a super-cool polkadot bottle top from D-lish Scraps, a cute little Greatest View chervon bag and a Lil Somethin' pin. I really wish I could remember where I got the resin flowers - any ideas?

Zoe and I are off to Sydney tomorrow for her French trip information session, not long until she jets off! Whatever you're up to have fun :)

Under where?

When I was 14 my friend had a slumber party (yes back before we called them sleep-overs) and her parents arranged to hire a VCR from the chemist (no one owned these new-fangled devices as yet) and were given a list of videos to choose from. We were so excited! We poured over the list for days and eventually chose Blue Lagoon and Puberty Blues.

At the party we spent ages pressing the rewind, play, pause buttons to see if we could catch a glimpse of  Christopher's Atkins penis - we couldn't! Oh how we giggled! I have a feeling both movies were fairly unsuitable for an innocent group of girls but it was harmless fun (luckily my friend's parents had no idea what the movies were about). The other thing I remember from that day is being enchanted by the lacy knickers the girls in Puberty Blues wore. So much nicer that my plain cotton ones. I was determined to get myself a pair.

Five years later, while at Uni in Sydney I got a job in the lingerie department of Myers. Dream job and so began my lifetime obsession with beautiful underwear...

Years later I was reading a crime novel and the coroner was doing an autopsy. He began by listing all of the dead woman's clothing for the record. It included faded and mismatched beige bra and panties. As an underwear lover this statement horrified me. Not that I expect to meet a horrible end but if I do at least the police report won't be disparaging about my underwear! Even my everyday beige is part of a matching set!

Zoe and I went shopping last week. We were on a quest for sandals to match her formal dress, jeans  and you guessed it - underwear. The outing went like a dream, the first pair of sandals she tried were perfect, add to those a pair of half-price ballet flats. On to the jeans and the first two pairs were perfect and part of one of those save 25% deals. We were on a roll!

Now what you should know about my daughter is that in chest size takes after me - poor kid. We are not busty women. So, even though she's 16 and taller than most of the boys, the little tankini tops have served her well. But there comes a point when (even if it's only as a matter of status) you need a real bra. So off we went to Bras and Things for her to be fitted. We discussed that it might/would be embarrassing and she was cool with that.

Anyway, long story short, she was fitted and is now fit to be part of a police report ;-) Gosh you can get gorgeous underwear for teens and no, there is not a piece of lace to be seen, it's all funky patterned cotton. And she loves it. How do I know? Her friends came round to view the new purchases as soon as we got home!

Shopped out, we retired to a cafe for refreshments. And I took a photo to immortalise the day (of course) and scrapped it for Charm's colour challenge over at SFS - red, pink, yellow and white.

I used a Charm's heavenly heart and the fab yellow heart is from Apple Tree Lane Designs. It's funny because I was really happy with how this LO turned out but when I photographed and added it to the SFS gallery it suddenly seemed very flat and dull. Maybe I need to buy some more underwear to cheer myself up?