Suddenly after the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks we've had a couple of quiet days - ah!
Zoe took the time to make some of her now famous choc-chip cookies and Rob promptly decided to devour them!
I've put my quiet time to good use too - scrapping of course. This first one was a blind scrap over at Scrapablity Sketches. The journalling is on the back:
"In our house these are the signs that Christmas is coming. Aunty Anne made the Advent Calendar eight years ago. It's had a bit of a rough time, in it's second or third year Lucy dog decided to eat the chocolates but she didn't stop to take them out of the pockets! She ate the whole bottom row, we managed to salvage four pockets but Anne had to make us a new number 18. Even though we said goodbye to Lucy five years ago I still only put the treats out on a daily basis :)
My scrappy friend Moi made the Noel frame and the reindeer and tree arrived over the years - our own little traditions in the making."
And these two are for the quote and sketch challenges at Challenge Heaven.
And as I have no plans until Wednesday I wonder how many more LOs I create?! :)
Wow I can't believe how busy December has been! Today is the kids' last day of school and we're all ready for the holidays - no more routine, no more early morning rush and no more packing of lunches - yay!
But before I relax completely I've got a couple of pics to share. First up is one of my amazing, clever daughter. About a week ago we got a phone call asking us to come to Speech Night because Zoë was getting an award - how cool! We didn't tell her though - just told her it would be good to go and along and support the school - blah blah. She got such a shock when we told her to go and find the seat with her name on it lol. BUT then we got a shock too - after Zoë got her award for Excellence in Mathematics - she was called back on the stage to get her award for achieving straights A's! In total five kids out of 250 Year Seven students got straight A's - I'm so proud of her. Here she is with her certificates.
Zoë is not a neat person, a fact not helped by her tendency to horde absolutely everything. Her room is in a constant state of disarray - it drives Rob and me mad and contrasts sharply with her obsessively neat brother. So, to encourage her to get her room fit for human habitation we made a deal with her. First she had to clean the room to a standard acceptable to us and then she had to keep it that way for a month. If she achieved that then we would buy her a laptop. Well there have been some rocky times but the month will be over tomorrow and the room is looking a-okay. But given her stellar performance at school we went out and picked up the laptop on Tuesday and set it up on her desk ready for when she got home from school. The squeals of delight echoed throughout the entire neighbourhood :) Here she is with her prized possession.
Wednesday night was the Year Six farewell. Angus was terribly excited to be going along to the disco (he can't wait to be in Year Six and rule the school next year). He took me shopping for a new shirt and spent ages cleaning his shoes, choosing his jewellery and making sure his hair was just right. Little Romeo that he is he even had a date (he promised there would be no kissing lol).
So with all that kid action there hasn't been much time for scrapping but I did do one LO for my sketchie duties with the CISters. The sketch design was perfect for the photos of Sparky's doggie birthday party.
TFSB :) Have a wonderful Christmas and a relaxing break whatever your plans are. Me, I'm home for Christmas with just Rob and the kids for the first time ever - the kids wanted to spend Christmas with Sparky - it should be fun, fun, fun!
Yesterday we put the tree up. We needed a new one and Zoe requested a fibre optic number. We had to search high and low to find one that would take decorations too. After all what's a tree without decorations?
So here it is in its night time glory :)
I decided to create a little Christmas collage. Here's what I came up with:Look at that naughty cat under the tree - we caught her removing baubles...and then we found her on the stairs trying to eat Santa. There are now wrapped presents under the tree - goodness knows what Xena will do to them!!
Today has been a long day Rob raced in the Canberra City Half Iron Man - 1.9km swim, 95km ride and a 21km run. Zoe and I went down to cheer him on. Unfortunately his knee started to play up halfway through the first lap of the run (silly thing has been good for 18mths) so that really slowed him down BUT he finished. It took him 7hrs and 10mins. I'm pleased for him but sad that he didn't make it in less than seven hours as that was his goal.
But you know what? At the end of the day I just don't get it. I really don't understand the determination that drives people to compete in such an event. So many hours spent training, so much pain - for what? I saw a woman who could barely walk carrying her six month old baby away to be breast fed - what makes her need to put her body and her baby through that? People limping, people crying, people being held up by others - is the world a better place now that they're run the race? I guess I need to ask them...
And now a scrapping share. I did this one for the first December sketch over at CIS. I'm not so sure about the colours or the angles now that I look at it again but I do love the photo :)
It's been a busy few days. On Friday Rob and I celebrated our 16th Wedding Anniversary - check out just how young we were on that day all those years ago!
Rob not only sent me flowers, he also dedicated the latest edition of song of the week to our youth - check it out here: http://robwoozle.blogspot.com/ it made me smile :)
Then Saturday started waaaay too early with a photo shoot at Old Parliment House to farewell the Pedals 2 Perth riders - I was the photographer as Rob was one of those being photographed. The Canberra Times published one of my photos, so that was pretty cool, even if they did leave off the credit - grrr!
Then Sunday saw me again getting up in the wee small hours to compete in my first triathlon - now don't get too excited it was a team event and I did the 400 metre swim. This is me and my team mates - the Triple Threats (racing for Team Telstra - I was the ring-in lol). For some reason the weather saw fit to change from hot to cold overnight on Saturday so it was freezing at the lake edge. That's me shivering in purple.
And here's the obligatory action shot as I came out of the water. Hmm, maybe a fake tan and some sit-ups are in order!!
And one last shot of Nerida - who was to blame for me being there in the first place - and I after we'd tagged our riders and spat out the lake water :) Nerida's team was called the The Pensioners and she may have 20 years on me but she still beat me out of the water (just).
And if all of that wasn't enough excitement for one weekend when I checked my email this morning I discovered I'd come second in the Scrapability Sketches comp - woohoo! Such a great site with lots of warm, friendly people. Here's the layout I did for round three.
And that (as they say in the classics) is that! TFSB - have a great week :)
Julie, my fabulous friend and amazing scrapper has bestowed me with an award - my very first - lol at the name :)
Now of course, as with anything, there are a few rules....
1. Answer these questions...you can only use ONE word!!! 2. Pass this along to 5 of your favourite bloggers!
3. Alert them that you have given them this award! 4. HAVE FUN!!!
1. Where is your mobile? bag 2. Your hair? messy 3. Your mother? Mary
4. Your father? Bob 5. Your fave food? brie 6. Your dream last night? spacey 7. Your fave drink? champagne
8. Your dream/goal? success 9. What room are you in? dining room 10. Your hobby? scrapbooking 11. Your fear? magpies 12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? holidays 13. Where you were last night? home 14. Something that you aren't? tight 15. Muffins? now? 16. Wish List Item? coffee table 17. Where did you grow up? Raven St 18. Last thing you did? washing 19. What are you wearing? jewellery 20. Your TV? off 21. Your Pets? furry 22. Friends? fun 23. Your Life? cruisey 24. Your Mood? fine 25. Missing Someone? no 26. Vehicle? scooter 27. Something your not wearing? shoes 28. Your fave store? scrap 29. Your fave colour? green 30. Last time you laughed? today 31. Last time you cried? hmm? 32. Your best friend? pass 33. One place that I go to over and over? Satis 34. One person who emails regularly? Rob 35. Fave place to eat? Pho Quok Now five people huh? Ok I'm choosing some lovely girls that visit me here but not Moi (cos she said she doesn't like awards) and not Krissy cos she's already got one of these :)
The first is from the very cool and funky Hilde over at Scoobie's Lil Blog. She'll be counting down the days to Christmas with a blog candy draw each day - how cool - a scrappy advent calendar :) You could win some of this gorgeous stash - go on - check it out!
The next is from that fabulous flower chick Krissy.
Why not add the link to your blog? - You'll go into the draw for a prize pack of your choice - how cool - you can never have too many flowers :)
Hmm - you still with me? Good, cos I have a couple of scrapping shares. I had a lovely day yesterday and whipped these up for a couple of the challenges over at Challenge Heaven.
I'm really please with how this one turned out. I used a Bo Bunny Christmas pp as the base (I love all of the 'plain patterned paper' in this range) and the rest is a mix of bits from the Kim Archer retreat - leftovers from a kit and my lucky dip. The colours were perfect with Zoe and the ironing board cover lol.
The second one is about the retreat itself - pics of me and all of the team - it was so cool to meet them IRL - I felt like a bit of a stalker knowing so much about them but never having met them - Mardi and I started it but all then all the girls said I could be their stalker friend (except Kim who told me not to be naughty lol) - in a nice way of course!! I'm also really pleased with how this LO turned out - I used another piece of Bo Bunny, which is kind of weird as I don't really have very much of their stuff, and some bits from a CIS kit. I'm not sure how clearly you can see it but on the right side I've used a fabric tag. The actual tag was made by the oh-so funky Mel Nunn and I decorated it as part of her make and take at the retreat. Cool huh?! I bought three more tags at the market stall and I'm looking forward to tarting them up :)
So, another looooong post - just making up for my blogging drought! Thanks for stopping by. I'm off to walk my hound before it gets too hot - enjoy your day chickies :)
Wow these days of my life have just been whizzing by! Can it really be three weeks since I posted here? So much has been happening but yet nothing at all so I think rather than trying to catch up all that lost time I'll just begin again from this moment.
Right a photo to share :) In the midst of the chaos that has been my life I attended the Kim Archer retreat - oh wow, it was awesome! I can't wait for next year. I haven't photographed any of the beautiful creations I made but I do have a couple of photos to share.
That's Kim and me - my version of the traditional sporting hero pic lol. This next one is of Moi, me and two fabulous girls we met - Delinda and Lisa - they were a hoot - so glad I met them :)
Much of my time has been eaten up by mother-sitting (her new knee is better than the old one but still wearing in...) but I've managed to do a couple of LOs.
This one uses the latest CIS sketch and features some gorgeous new Christmas products as well as a doily and some shimmerz (olive branch) and glimmer mist (coffee shop) - I love their names!
I entered a sketch competition over at Scrapability Sketches and the pace has been killing me! Here is my first LO. I took these pics of Angus and I when we went out for dinner - just the two of us. When I looked at them I couldn't believe how much he looks like me.
I won't post my second LO as I only have an extremely dodgy night time shot - maybe I'll take another pic sometime... probably not... so here is a LO I did for Moi's challenge over at SOUL - you couldn't use alphas (not even the teeny adornits).
And one last one before I go - this was for Karen's shaping up challenge at CIS - use zigzags. I used lots of them but you can't really see them in the pic - oh well you get the idea - Zoe rock climbing in NZ.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by - sorry to all of you who thought I had abandoned my blog ;) - life can be crazy sometimes!
PS My lovely friend Julie gave me a blog award - I haven't forgotten and will post it and my answers next time.
I've put my quiet time to good use too - scrapping of course. This first one was a blind scrap over at Scrapablity Sketches. The journalling is on the back:
