*insert_witty_title_here*

Well I bombed out the 2nd round of Kim Hills CT challenge.. to be honest I was quite surprised, after seeing all the layouts and knowing that only 3 werent going through, I thought I was in with a very good chance.. obviously I was wrong!! LOL This is my layout which I was (AM) incredibly proud of :

the small jewels are by Jeanelle Paige; papers by Shabby Princess; diamond fasteners, flower elements and ribbons by Kim Hill and the corner doodles by me.

And yes, i know I said I wasnt going to apply for any more CT's... but I just can't help it.. its like a sickness!! I have been creating my layouts at lightning speed lately and all of a sudden I have learnt how to manage my time and get to scrap for about 1.5 hours a night.. thats with cooking dinner, cleaning, exercising, showering and then still getting to bed at 10:00pm :) AND it doesnt help when all these great designers are having CT calls at the moment...... :)

wheres my wedding layout?? ah here it is:

I love this one too :) I used Lauren Griers "Intensity" kit for this (Available at elemental Scraps). The small heart jewels are by Melany Violet (freebie) and the jewels used to make LOVE are Jeanelle's :) Yep, told ya they were going to get a good work out!! LOL

Anyway one good thing about not making it to round three.... the challenge this week seems sooooo hard!! LOL AND i can get back to regular scrapping now ;)

Hope you all are having a good week! I am... I have a 4 day week this week! yay I have Friday off as we are getting a new hot water system installed. The plumbers will be there at 7:30am!! I take Travis to the station at about 6:30am so I have an hour to clean the house (The house looks like a bomb has hit it by the time the weekend rolls around!! LOL)
So im half way thru my week now :)

'Bout time!

Yeah I've been quite lazy with my blogging.. I haven't really been on the internet much at home, which is my excuse ;) LOL I have also been busy scrapping away, but I dont have much to show for that!! LOL I entered a competition to be a CT memeber for Kim Hill, and I LOVE the challenges she has set, but they are so challenging!! hahah.
For the first round we had 6 art pieces to pick from to inspire our layout. I loved Leonardo DaVinci's "La Scapigliata" and created this:

BG paper, dragonflies (recoloured) and frame (altered) by Kim Hill from the Bursts of Color kit; Grungey overlay by Faith True from the gRungE line; swirly stamp and hearts by Lauren Grier from the Punky Mom kit. Font used is Anke Calligraphic FC

yay that got me thru to the 2nd round, which is Kims pizza challenge! SO much fun.. she lists pizza toppings and we had to create our pizzas.. when we sent through our order, we got a list of supplies to use. Silly me picked a thin crust pizza which means I have to create a layout using at least 2 different patterend paper (NO SOLIDS!!!). I have had so much trouble cos I love my solid papers!! LOL Took me 2 nights to get 2 papers which matched with the pic and wasnt too overpowering.. now im having trouble incorporating my required elements and trying to make it not so cluttered! ARGH!! Each day I get closer!! LOL Its fun, and I really love how its looking without the solids, so I'm quite pleased that I learnt that I dont *need* to use solid papers on each layout :) So thats what I have been up to scrapping wise, and thats why my gallery has come to a grinding halt!! LOL

In other news I went on a wonderful scrap-shopping spree, bought some new kits and other bits, but have to share these:
How great are these!!! They are by Jeanelle Paige and they look soooooo good on layouts!! LOL You can get them here at Sweet digi creations for only $3.50 :)


And thats about all really.. work has been really really busy! We are starting our annual inspections of the boarding houses (old houses which are used as places of shared / cheap accomodation). Some of them are really good, and almost like a hotel / hostel style... others are just soooo dodgy, things falling apart, not maintained, no pest control, and generally no care.. Really makes you appreciate all you have in life and how tough some people are doing it. I go home to a nice house, have a full-time job, a loving husband and loving family, pleanty of food in the cupboards, heating... etc etc. These places are so cold, no heaters, broken windows letting in the freezing winter night air, cockroach infestations.. its quite sad to go through their rooms and see all their life's belongings take up just one corner of the room.. when I cant even fit all our stuff in a 3-bedroom house!!

hmm.. well it is mufti day at work today (last friday of every month) so im in jeans, sneakers and a nice, woolie jumper :) I have a few inspections lined up and i feel weird doing "official" duties like inspections etc in jeans and sneakers.. but I dont care too much! LOL Much more comfy this way ;)

I've got some weird sinus things going on with my nose.. hasn't really been normal in a couple of months.. all kinda blocked and clogged.. gets almost near better one week, then i wake up like this morning, and its all blocked and i have blood on the tissue when I blow my nose, and im sitting here at work and the inside of my nose is all itchy!! very annoying.. Maybe I should get it checked out.. im not sick or have a cold or flu or anything.. just a dodgy nose! LOL Anyone got any remedies for me???!!

Woohoo WE DID IT!!!!

We got Pearl Jam tickets!!!
The "presale" went on sale on Wednesday at 12:00. The three of us had trouble with the site being slow and timing up out etc.. we ended up getting section 58, row G or something like that:



While we were happy that we got the tix, we weren't all that happy with getting not-so-good seats and all the drama that came with it. They were only doing one date - Tuesday 7th November.

We decided that we will try to get better tickets today when they went on sale to the public. If succesful, we can offload them on ebay, buy-it-now style for the same price we bought them as (I HATE people who flog tickets for profit!!!)

Travis and I were on the ticketek site 10 minutes before they were due to go on sale, and i noticed that a new date had popped up... Wednesday the 8th... seeing as there was no presale on that date earlier in the week, we assumed that it would be a "clean slate" and we might get good tix...

well......

WE GOT SECTION A, ROW 1!!!!! LOL RIGHT at the front!!!!! yay im so excited!!! I can bring my camera and get good pics so we will be soooo close :)

And we are still going to the tueday concert too... save hassles of trying to sell them or finding people to offload them to :D Talk about being desperate!! LOL We will get a "teaser" by being further back, and then the REAL thing the night after!

HOW GOOD IS THAT!!!!

Time for a change...

Well i *finally* got so sick of those dots in the background!!! So I made a cute little banner, everything on there made by me ;) and I am getting a BG done.. well, another.. I have made a few but didnt like them on the blog!

Wonder how long it will be before i get sick of these new colours?? Probably not very!! hahahaha

Well.. thats it.. nothing much has been happening, nothing worth blogging about in any case. Just the same old boring stuff.. working, cooking, cleaning and scrapping :) Trying to exercise more (and spend less time on the computer!!!) and trying to drink more water cos I have been slack in the water drinking department lately.

hmm.. how about a layout?? I love this one!!! Kit used is Spring Beauty by Faith True. Available at Addicted to Digital :) Font is Stamp Act, font on the tag is Seriffic Grunge and the big swirl at the top is mine.



Welll thats it from me! Signing off.. Roger that.. Over :)

hahhahaha

ROTFL too funny!!! I got an email from SC wanting to publish a layout I sent off to the in JANUARY. The reason I find this sooo funny is that it is the layout I did of Travis and his rediculous faces!! LOL I have had to hide it form gelleries, but these are the 6 pics I used on the layout:


I did ring him and ask him before I replied to the email though ;) It is coming out in issue 34, in the "Cute and comical" section in the quick grabs gallery :) Im so excited!!! I have another one ear marked for publication in Scrapbooking memories magazine... I have been waiting 4 months, and they still havent locked in an issue for it.. I asked them a few weeks back and they said yeah they are still publishing it, just dont know *when*.

So I'm pretty chuffed! After 6 months of scrapping I am on 2 great CT's and I have two layouts getting published ;) and I dont even try for the published stuff.. I dont bother with their special galleries, I just them all the final encore or quick grabs cos im too lazy to sort them out! LOL

Anyway thats my little toot of my horn for tonight ;) I have been doing quite a few LO's too... lets see what we have....
A layout with Faith True's Calm water kit (Available at Elemental scraps.. check it out!) Glitter by Kim Christensen (blog gift) and the alpha by Heather Cooper.


AND we have "Forever" which again used Lauren Griers "Sandra" kit, also available at Elemental scraps :) Inked edge overlay is by Lauren Bavin, freebie from digital scrapbook place.


And finally, this was made using Faith Trues *new* ABOUT A BOY kit!


IN OTHER NEWS:

Pearl Jam are coming out to Oz in November!!! yahooO!!!! So we are going to go to that :) :) yay I cant wait!! We saw them in 2003 for the first time and definately will need to go back for a 2nd go ;)

well... so much for going to bed early and not being on the laptop... LOL

*YAWN*

So tired!! LOL its way past my bedtime :)

Anyway I just finished this and thought I better upload it somewhere. LOL not got the energy for posting it to the gallery though.


Kit used was "sandra" by Lauren Grier, available to get RIGHT HERE Its a great kit and I like this LO but its just not where i wanted this kit to go!! LOL
Might fiddle around with things a bit more when im actually awake enough to make descisions!! LOL

Such a busy weekend this week. may not have any scrapping time at all!! LOL Better make the most of it ;)

Enjoy your weekends.. hope you all have a great one!!

OMG TWICE in one day!

LOL Ok so this is me at work right at this moment: (Yes i took a self portrait at my desk.. I know im not normal! LOL)



This morning, I woke up with a bit of sniffles and a runny nose. I was eating a muffin for morning tea and suddenly a sneeze decided to explode out of me without waiting for me to swallow my chocolate muffin.. no dramas there though cos I only took a small bite and managed to catch the bits in my hand.

Now, its lunch time, and im starving. I have a boring bread roll which I just piled a tin of tuna onto. I took a HUUUGE bite cos im sooo hungry. what should I feel?? The onset of a sneeze. I thinking oh no, please go away, but nope.. out it comes, and my sneezes are always so loud and big.. cant control them like some people can... I try to cover it with my hand again but there is too much in my mouth and I end up looking around after the event and I have tuna all down the front of my chest, all over the neck of my jumper and ALL OVER my desk and keyboard, and of course all in my hand!!! ROTFL

Im still sitting here laughing like a hyena cos I am finding tuna flakes all over the place!!!!! ooooh too funny!!!!

Just a layout..

The one of the dogs on travs card.. didnt quite turn out how I imagined it (do they ever??? LOL Not for me!!!) but I still like it :)



Anyway everything here is from Lauren Griers kit called Sophistication, available at Elemental Scraps.. go check it out ;)

Work was so BUSY today.. just one thing after the other to check out.. complaints, inspections which were arrnaged for me while I was away.. you name it, I did it today! LOL The day went by nice and quick though.

OH and I *finally* got my lingerie!! I went to a lingerie party a few days before leaving and was able to pick it up today.

The products are nice but geeze I am annoyed at the sales lady!!! For starters: we get there, she hands around a very limited amount of things for us to look at and gives us 2 brochures with their entire range, and has most of the stuff set up in the bedroom with an array of sizes to try on. None of the catalogues have prices. She says the prices are "reasonable". Ok, so you go in, she measures you for size etc and says ok have a look around and tell me what you like. Being indesive like myself I pick up lots of things and try lots of things on going oh I like this, oh I like this.. oh this is good too! meanwhile, she is standing there ticking everything off, and tallys it all up and comes out with the most REDICULOUS price ever... Just because I like them, doesnt mean I will buy them.. sheesh!!! So i said look im not buying all of them, I only want two.. so i pick the 2 I like the most.. buy a matching pair of undies for one. total is $154.70!!!! well, I just said yeah whatever. Ends up my undies cost $35!!!!!! I never pay more than $10 for undies!! LOL So annoyance number 1: Not telling or advertising any prices.

Today I get advised to check what she has given me (all paid for on the party night). Reason being that some girls have got the *completely* wrong sizes. Both the size and the cup size being completely wrong. When they question the lady why she gave them the wrong size, she replied "Well, thats the bra you lked.. there was none left in your size" WHAT THE???!!! How desperate must she have been for a sale!!! LOL Fortuntely mine were the right size, and admittedly they are very comfy bras and very pretty too.. But i wont be going to another of those parties!! ordinarily I would never buy undies that expensive (im too practical and cheap LOL) But when you are at those parties, well you just do. The host got a decent amount of free stuff... most of which was in the wrong size anyway so its just stupid!! LOL

Ok enough ranting from me... This was meant to be a quick post of just my LO!!! hahahhaa

The NZ Chronicals :) ... LONG!!...

Back to normal viewing now :) Thanks for all your well wishes!! Im feeling much better now.

Before I get on to the holiday recap, it was Travs birthday on the 20th while we were in NZ. I decided to scrap him a card today (I had the day off) and have made a cake, boght some sparklers and got some pressies (we had a birthday diner on the actual day, and he is picking his pressie out cos he wants a watch so he isnt expecting anything).

Anyway I wanted a nice pic of me and the dogs together and it was a gorgeous day! This is how it came out:


Made with Lauren Griers Sophistication kit, and very soon will be turned into an actual layout cos I love it, and this kit looks wonderful with it!! The furry heart is by Kim Christensen, and the string by me.

Anyway, that ONE pic took forever to get!!! I had a chair turned into a tripod, some bikkies to bribe them with and set the camera up on auto... here are some that didnt make the cut.. this will be a 2 page LO cos I do love these pics together!! LOL


ahh the joys of hyperactive and unco-operative dogs!!!!! LOL

Anyway onto the New Zealand stuff!!!
So we flew into Auckland and worked our way around the North Island, then headed to the south island and worked our way to Christchurch where er flew out of. Lots of fun activities, dramas and adventure! LOL Will break it up into topics ;)

....ADVENTURES AND ACTIVITIES....
well, we went scuba diving in 3 locations.. poor knight islands in the North, the Lermentov (sp) wreck in the middle (Marlborough sounds to be precise) and Milford sound to the South. The wreck was a cruise liner and we got to explore and we saw the bar with the tables and chairs still bolted to the floor, the cinema, a lounge area etc. Was kinda eerie but sooooooo good!!

We also went Zorbing!! Zorbing is where you get chucked in a big plastic ball with lots of warm water and go rolling down a hill inside it!!! ROTFL It was A BLAST!!!!!

We went in together (Cheaper that way!! LOL) and both of us were yelling and screaming and carying on. At one stage I was pinning Travis down and he was choking on the water..no wonder he went quiet all of a sudden! HAHA but you just cant control where you go.. For $20 you get a CD with the pics the photographer takes of you as well as some generic pics and a generic video. Which, as a scrapper I thought was sooo worth the money cos the files are straight off the camera and very scrap worthy!! LOL

Moving on.. we went glacier trekking at Fox Glacier.. in the pouring rain! HAHA what a stupid pic of me!! I was so scared of slipping cos the ice was really slippery and its on a mountain so it would have been a nice tumble!! ROTFL. Had a great time though..the camera and the camera case were soaked by the time we got back.. but driving rain was NOT going to stop me getting scrapping pics! LOL Dont ya just love the plastic pants and the huuuge raincoat?? Compulsory clothes that we had to hire before we went out on the glacier!

NEXT.. (well, they arent in order...) we went to Rotorua and sat in some very expensive mud and sulpher baths that made us stink like giant farts for the next 24 hours. Before getting in the sulphuer ALL the jewellery had to come off... I spent ages getting my rings, earings and necklaces off.. sat in the sulpher and realised I had my belly button ring in still.. raced out to take it off, sat down for another 5 minutes and realised I left my 2 toe rings on!! LOL One went a bit funny and now looks all tarnished :( The rest of the stuff is ok.

hmm.. what else??? AH snow ball fights in Mt Ruapehu! hehehehe We had to go up 2 ski chair lift things.. I have NEVER been ski-ing before and I was soooo scared of the lift!! LOL I hung on for dear life!!!!
The other thing we did that was great fun was "blackwater rafting" in some glow worm caves (Waitomo caves). Basically its a pitch dark cave, and you slosh along in the freezing water and every now and then the water is too deep or too fast so you plonk your bum in your rubber donut thingy and float along looking at the glow worms :) Until you get to the water falls.. where you have to stand up with the floaty thing over you bum, turn away from the water fall and jump backwards over the edge and land on your bum in the donut!! LOL So much fun!!!

....MIS-HAPS....
hmm... we had 2 major ones... 1: A land slip on the way to Wanaka which delayed us for 5 hours!!!
No alternative routes and the nearest town was one hour behind us... Was annoying though cos we were planning on getting to Wanaka around 12:00 and going sight seeing as we were only staying there the one night and were driving again early the next morning. But it worked out.. we went to puzzling world (Travis's most anticipated adventure of the trip!) at 8:30am and no one else was there so we got to be stupid and take silly pics with no one around ;)

The other drama was floods!! We were meant to do a 3 hour drive on our last wednesday there, heading to Duneden and then the next day doing a biiig drive to Christchurch.. we got within 45 minutes of Duneden to find that the road was closed due to floods.. we had already taken our little rental car through lots of water over the road.. so we tried an alternative, but that was also closed... We ended up backtracking about 1.5 hours, heading inland and doing the long haul to christchurch a day earl. And by long haul i mean we were driving for 11 hours. Made the right choice though cos the road didnt open till after 7:00pm and some others that we needed didnt open at all.

....MISC PICS....

LOL LEFT: Look at Travis posing near the geyser!! This was the view from our hotel room and it just had to be done :)
RIGHT is a pretty pic I took while at Te Anau :) isnt that beeeutiful!!!

ah.. well.. its getting late, this is getting rediculously long and I need to get started on dinner!! LOL

I had intended on scrapping today but did nothing!! LOL Back to work tomorrow :(

Take care :)