I have never laughed so hard!!

Last night we went and saw Little Britain live. it was HILARIOUS. I absolutely LOVE the TV show, and in the lead up to the live show, I was trying not to expect too much.. just in case it didnt live up to my expectations.
I spent the entire hour and a half laughing so hard. I had tears running down my face and cramps in my stomach! Very very funny stuff :)

Anyway we went out to Spanish for dinner before the show. People who know me, know that im not a big sea food fan. Normal fish fillets I can handle, as well as calamari rings and the odd prawn if peeled and cooked in garlic LOL
well, i decided to be adventurous and we got a chicken and seafood paella to share. It had big shells and little shells.... {which i discovered were Mussels and pipis}, and prawns, calamari rings and bits of fish. I was a bit scared of the shelled stuff.. fortunately the pipis are so small that I just hid them in the rice and ate them without knowing LOL The mussles took a lot of effort for me to try one, but when I did I couldnt stop! I really liked them.

Anyway we decided we are going to Germany to experience Oktoberfest this year! I cant wait!!! Travis has been doing his German lessons in preparation and we may head over to France, possibly Switzerland, maybe stop by Belgium as well... we will play it by ear :) Very exciting though!!!

So since we decided that, I have been busy scrapping our Italy photos!!! I took about 800 of them.. And I have done.. a total of 5 layouts! LOL

Well here are my most recent ones:

{credits}

{credits}

{credits}

So there's not many layouts done, but I think its all coming along nicely :)

hmm... what else? oh I have had a few more layouts picked up for publication. Which is good :) I didnt sub for ages cos i am too lazy to do it regularly LOL Then the ones I sent off a few months back started appearing in the mags and that was enough to get me to sub again :) So I picked a handful of my faves and SM have picked up a couple so thats good news! One of course had to be of Travis acting like a goose! But if he cant be normal in photos he just has to deal with the mags publishing him making stupid faces ;)

Okey dokey im heading off now :) Better get some work done!

Catch ya later alligator!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my neice, Madeline!!!!! She turns 9 today :) I forgot that school went back so its too late to ring now :) Typical.
Anyway just want to wish Mads a very happy birthday...I hope the giant knot came out of your hair easy last week!!! hahhahaa

{layout credits can be found here}

Monday Randomness

Well, it was the Australia Day long weekend and we had such a busy but fun weekend :)
First, on Friday (Australia Day) we went out with some friends for a BBQ and an afternoon of lawn bowls up at their local bowling club. It was so much fun! We had an entire green to ourselves where we just ran amok drinking and soaking up some sun (with sunscreen on, of course!)

Then on Saturday we headed out to Mosman where we had arranged to go on a boat dive. So we jumped on the boat around 10:00am, took us 10 minutes to go out to the North Head. Got geared up, jumped in the perfectly calm waters and went for about 50 minutes. Towards the end of the dive we noticed a bit of surge and it was a bit rough as we stopped at 5m for 3minutes to do our safety stop. When we surfaced OMG the water was so choppy with huuuge swells! LOL we jumped back into the boat, and it seriously took us 40 minutes to get back. we had to go sooo slow cos we were in a tiny speed boat with 6 full sets of scuba gear and one very choppy ocean :) It was so much fun!!! I loved it!

Anyway then on Sunday we did some housework, I did my aerobics, Travis went for a cycle, then we headed to Travis's sisters house for a late lunch and then came home :) So it was a jam-packed weekend, but at the same time it was relaxing and fun :)

A few changes to my CT blinkies on the left happened late last week. I said godbye to Faith and Michelle and hello to Kellie Martin and Summer Simmons :) I applied for Summers team last time and didnt make it.. so it was a case of 2nd time lucky!!

Anyway here are some layouts.. one using Kellies new Sea Breeze mini kit, and one using Summers Southern Drawl paper pack :)


Credits here



Credits here

Funny how taking half an hour extra with my layouts has changed how I scrap. Pre-EHD days I used to just use what was in the kit cos I was too lazy to go through all my DVD's to find stuff...just slap it al together and think yeah it's good enough. NOW with everything easily accessible, all my kit previews printed and sitting next to me, I can see what I have and I find it so much easier. And I dont stop until I am 100% happy... because I have too many printed layouts that I just HATE cos I didnt take that extra time to make it better :) So Im loving my layouts now :)

Anyway I moved office on Thursday (LOL last week must have been a week for changes!) because the girl who left before Christmas had a better office than me.. its bigger, quieter, out of the way and it has TWO WINDOWS! my old office was smack bang in the middle of main walkway, had the printer at the door and the kitchen opposite it, and no windows. So there was always noise and people walking past. I love this new one :) I can check my forums and not be disturbed! hahhaha

oooh we have a dairy Farm right near us at home, and on Thursday night I was driving past to pick Travis up from the station and I noticed about 10 cars stopped by the side of the road, and all these people milling around.. so I slowed down to have a stickey beak and there was a cow about to give birth! As I was driving back with Travis, I slowed down again, just in time to see the little calf pop out and drop to the ground :) I have never ever seen that happen in the 2 years we have been there.. certainly never seen everyone mill around the fence.

Anyway then on saturday we were coming back from diving, and there were people there AGAIN and another cow has just had a baby!! We didnt see this one come out though, by the time we got there the baby was curled up on the hay and the mother was cleaning it :)

So they must have moved all the pregnant cows because there were a few more in that paddock that looked very very fat!!

Busted Custard!!

We have an old doona covering the lounge cos the dogs like sitting up there watching TV with us. Anyway its old, and we dont care about it. They worked out early on that they can open the buttons and pull a nice, white fluffy blanket out from inside. Well, theres about 3/4 of it left LOL The rest has been eaten.

Anyway they usually do this when I leave them for 10 minutes to get travis from the station. by the time they hear us getting home they abandon the scene.

Today it was really hot.
I went outside to pick up their poos and to put the bins outside cos it was bin night.
I came back inside and went to the lounge.. and snuck up on this:


hehhee I dont care about the doona inside either.. I won it at bingo about 8 years ago! LOL Once its completely gone its gone, they can just have the cover.

Oh well, at least they provide me with an endless suplly of cute pics to scrap!! LOL Just like these ones of Onslow:


Click right here to see the proper list of credits. I used a template by Deb Fisher. You may wanna click on her name (linked above) to pop by her blog and scroll down a bit :P

Anyway not much else has been happening... went scuba diving yesterday. Both today and yesterday have been hovering around the 40 degree C mark.. soooo hot!!! well, we dont really feel it cos of the air conditioning inside ;) But I remember when we first moved in, there was no a/c and the small split system stopped working after one week. oooh that was so bad! I was spraying myself with water bottles all day and having cold showers every hour. yuck!

Oh well... I think thats about it... going to sit on the lounge and watch the rest of the cricket with a glass of wine and some crackers! LOL

Henna Head

I first heard about using Henna to colour hair about 4 years ago and was doing it every 6 or 8 weeks for about 2 years running. My hair had nice shiny red highlights and was so soft and silky :)

I got lazy because it is an all-day production and pretty messy so I stopped.
Until yesterday when I just sick of my fuzzy hair!

Anyway its pretty fun and really good for your hair. Dont try it on light hair or grey hair though... unless you want it to turn bright orange!! It works best on dark hair. Oh and you cant use it on hair which has been coloured cos it apparently has some pretty weird reactions!

The thing I love is that you can add so much stuff to it to get different colours.
Yesterday I used red Henna powder, added a very VERY generous amount of Paprika (makes it go redder), I infused a teabag with the water before adding it (I think thats for a golden highlight?) and a dash of olive oil for a conditioning treatment. I slapped it on my freshly shampooed (but NOT conditioned) hair. Wrapped my head in plastic and washed it out 6 hours later. This stuff can be left on for 24 hours if you want.
This is the result:


this one went a bit orange!
I got the best dark red colour when I added red wine to the mix, but I cant stand the thought of "wasting" a good glass of red!! LOL

Anyway what else have I been up to?

We had a quiet new year as we just landed in the country on the 30th. Stayed home and wated the crackers on TV LOL
Then it was my birthday on the 2nd, which was spent at the 5th ashes test in Sydney. For someone who isnt all that interested in cricket, the day went by sooo fast! I actually enjoyed it :) Except I could hear the ball get hit, but never saw WHERE it went, so I would look to the left, and someone was catching it over to the right LOL I think I missed all 4 wickets on the day!

Got some great bday presents. Travis got me 2 External hard Drives, so I have spent the past 2 days copying all my backed up kits on DVD to the EHD, extracting, sorting, renaming, organising previews.. but its going to make looking for things so much easier!

I was at the shops at 7:00 doing my grocery shopping today, went to the butcher and remembered to take the bag with me this time! LOL Last time I had the trolley at the butcher, I paid for all my meat (4 weeks worth of lamb, pork, veal and sausages!) andtook off. Got home, unpacked the groceries, realised there was no meat so I had to ring up the butcher to see if it was still there!! hahaha They had put it in the fridge for me :)

Anyway I cleaned up the house, packed away the Christmas decorations and rearraged all the stuff on the cupboards, cleaned the house and now im going to scrap :)

Here are a few recent layouts I have done since coming back...
Credits for each can be found HERE



And this is my first layout for the Amazing Digiscrapping Race



OMG I am in the computer room, the dogs are asleep in the dining area, about 6m away from me. In amongst the snoring, I hear a loud fart and chuckle to myself cos that always makes me laugh... Before I had these two, I had never heard dogs make farting noises.
Anyway about a minute later it has wafted into the computer room and is seriously making me gag. UGH its PUTRID... gotta go get the air freshener... bye bye!!!

We're Back!

Its so nice to be home!! no matter how long or short I spend away from home, its always so nice to get back :) We were in Rome for 2 weeks, and it was great! I met some uncles and aunties for the first time, enjoyed the cold winter Christmas atmosphere and ate so much food and drank too much espresso coffee! LOL But we saw all the sites we set out to see, plus a whole lot more :)

We took about 800 photos in 2 weeks. Lots of self portraits so I dont have to photoshop us to look like we were sitting together this time!


First three days we spent by ourselves. Stayed in a nice hostel and with the help of our Roma map we set out and explored the city each day.


Saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican, Sisteen Chappel, Roman Forum / Pallatine Hill, Spanish steps and all that in those first 3 days.


I have so many photos of paintings from the museum leading into the Sisteen chappel.. its just ridiculous! I got so excited in there and just went beserk. They were all so beautiful though :)


We would leave the hostel after breakfast around 8:00 and generally not get back there until well after 12:00am. So we had the most solid sleeps!! My poor feet were so so so sore though, and my lower back also started having issues... but walking the streets was so much fun. Especially at night as the city was decorated so beautifully with christmas lights.


We hung out at the Spanish Steps all night on the weekend before Christmas as they had all music and Spanish dancers and the street was closed to traffic.


Speaking of traffic, we had fun crossing the streets :) The first day we were there, we arrived at a pedestrian crossing (I use the term losely!) and watched what the "locals" do... well, they just wait until there was a gap in the traffic and then go for it. Even when you are on the crossing you have to be careful as cars just do not stop... scooters and motorbikes just go hooning around you, and cars as well. So funny!

But even still I just loved the streets.. the side streets with little traffic, cobblestone streets, beautiful buildings and deliciously smelling shops!


Anyway we soon met up with my Aunty, uncle and cousin. My cousin was out here a few monthsback, but my aunty and uncle I had never met before. We stayed with them for about 10 days and spent Christmas day with them.

We went on an expedition to Pompei.. that was an adventure and a half! A 2 hour train trip to Naples, which we bought at the travel agent the day before. The agent booked us for the 23rd and we asked (and went on) the 22nd... Only realised when a lady had the exact same seats as us! LOL But the train had already left the station so she was allocated naother seat and we still got to go, Phew! We also missed our train from Naples to pompei and had to wait another hour. But then once in Pompei, we spent ages walking around. I never realised it was so big! I was under the impression it was just one street! But its huuuge. all kinds of things to see in there.


I was amazed at the frescos which were still so vivid and clear after almost 2,000 years. The body casts had me feeling a bit weird though.


We spent so long looking around that we almost got locked in. Literally. We were smack bang in the middle of the whole village, and we came across a guard. "What are you doing here, we are closed". uh-oh! We said we were getting out at a certain entrance cos we had to catch a train back, so he said ok, but run because the gates are about to be locked. So we sprinted!! My cousin was all scared of spending a night with "Roman ghosts" and was in a bit of a panick. Travis and I found it hilarious, especially when we got to dead end, had to climb a fence and then had a 1.5 meter drop off a wall. LOL We made it out in time though.

Stupid comment of the day went to me, when I asked Travis why dont they DNA test them to identify them. (I saw a bone of a toe poking out). Travis told me it was a stupid question and I still needed explaining. Eventually he said "And what will they compare the DNA TO.. I doubt they had records 2,000 years ago" hahaha Point taken!

We went to a football match, Lazio and Inter. It was fun but soooooo cold and the seats were filthy!


We also went on a day trip to Tivoli. Went into this old, huge mansion which had a billion awesome fountains in the surrounding gardens.. I wont ever need to see another fountain again!


Travis as usual had to be a pest and ruin my shots...


I ate way too much food over there. We went to a restaurant on Christmas day which had a set menu... it was our breakfast, lunch AND dinner for the day! we had cold meat platter each, followed by cheeses. next was some minestrone soup and bread. Then out came a bowl of ravioli. Then canelloni. Then fettucine. By this time I was getting full, and thought 3 bowls of pasta would be the end of the meal. NOPE! out came a huge plate consisting of one giant T-bone steak, a piece of veal and one lamb shank. Then we had Tiramisu. Then Panettone, coffee and grappa for those who wanted it. Talk about stuffed! The lunch spanned a few hours and there was a nice gap in between plates so I did actually manage to eat it all.

Whenever we were out we grabbed a gelato, much to my cousins astonishment. "Its WINTER! you must have bionic stomaches, its too cold for ice cream". LOL


So yeah we had lots of adventures, I have a whole diary filled with funny stories and a 2 gig memory card which was almost filled up :) Keep an eye out for some of the stupid photos and funny adventures to be scrapped soon!!

Thanks for reading, or just looking at the pics :)

Im still alive!

LOL What a busy busy couple of months this has been!!!!

Novemeber was a blur cos I was madly trying to get 6 calendars done.. each calendar had to have one page scrapped for each month.. making it a total of 72 pages. In typical ME fashion I left them all till the last minute... BUT i got them done, got them bound at office works and every one seemed impressed :) The office works ladies were asking where I got my stuff from... couldnt be bothered explaining so I said oh you get them on the internet. She goes "Where, what shop"? LOL I said oh everywhere.. just look for digital scrapbooking stuff. i had to wait nearly 45 minutes in my lunch break and I hadnt had lunch.. didnt wish to get into that right then and there! LOL

We had our Christmas family do on Sunday as Trav and I are going on holidays tomorrow woo hoo!! Got some lovely pressies off my family and I cooked up a treat of lasagne (with home made noodles of course!) and potato bake.. Travis did stuffed capsicums and everyone was stuffed full by the end LOL

I have been on a creative streak this past weekend! wanna see?




Now im way too lazy to type out credits, so if ya wanna know who designed what, go to My Gallery @ DST to check it out.
hehehe i love the snow one :) I really enjoy those graphic, minimalist kind of layouts but I never actually DO them cos when I gt a kit I get so excited and have to try and squish everything on the page. So im trying to cut back and have uncluttered pages. Lets see how long this little fad will last!!!

Owie my head hurts. Last night, Onslow and belle were fighting over my lap as I was sitting on the floor in the lounge room. Anyway, as usual Onslow won just cos he's bigger and fatter and barges poor skinny Belle out of the way. but he wasnt content with owning my lap, he put his hands on my shoulders and pushes me to the floor so he can lay on my chest.. which is all well and good, but I had the TV cabinet behind me, and as I was pushed, I whacked my temple on the CORNER of the cupboard!!! Right in that soft, tender spot on the side of my head. Must be bruised cos if I try and yawn, my mouth cant open all the way cos my temple bit stretches and gets quite sore LOL

Oh we went to the Berner Buddies Picnic day in november!!! Took the dogs to Centennial Park and they got to run around with about 30 other berners.. gate crash everyones picnics and tried to steal their sandwiches haha. But seeing as everyone has Berners who all seem to be the same, no one cared. We had a few ring-ins come and sit in our laps and try and steal our food too LOL We will definitely try and go to more of these.

Anyway Im off work now until the 2nd week of January! woo hoo for that! Im so excited for our trip :) I get sad and miss the dogs though.. Poor things being left behind. Although they have both my parents and travis's parents come and play with them and stay with them overnight... I still feel sorry for them!
When we came back from NZ all their obedience was out the window!! We left mum and dad with very well behaved dogs who listened.. and came back to out of control beasts who refused to even sit!! LOL Took them about a day to know the pushovers were gone!!

Oh well I will be back in January!!! Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas.. I hope we get some snow (I doubt it.. its not a very cold winter in Rome this year by what the weather channel tells us! LOL) and take care!!! Dont get too full on Christmas day! LOL

byeeeeeeee :D

Just call me Bond

hhahahhaha
On Friday night I was home playing with my Wacom enjoying the peace cos Travis was staying back after work having a few drinks.
He rang at 10:00pm saying he was on the train which gets in at 11:00pm. No worries.

I basically had my PJs on and went out the door barefoot... lights left on, dogs inside with free reign over the whole house... you know.. typical things when you only go out for 5 minutes.

So, Im waiting at the station.
Train pulls in.
People get off.
Travis ISNT one of them!
I ring his mobile... no answer.

Great! I was so cranky! He had fallen asleep and his phone was on silent!

As much as I wanted to go home and let him find his own way back, I couldnt because its just so quiet once you start getting further up! No trains coming back down, no taxis, no buses.....

After 3 stops up the mountain I found it amusing. I pictured myself as a James Bond type character chasing after a train... by the fourth stop the train was ahead of me... I was approaching the 5th stop and my mobile rang:

uh... Hi Lis..... um.... Im at Warrimoo station... I fell asleep..... Are you nearby?!

ROTFL

Do ya like?

ahh a fresh new banner :)

Today has been a pretty good day! I knocked over a few presents in my lunch break... 4 people for Christmas and my sisters birthday present coming up at the end of November.

Then I came back to work late, hot and starving, and when I got to my desk...

MY WACOM TABLET WAS THERE!

woo hoo :) So i forgot about my hunger, ripped all the packaging and bubbled wrap off it and then just stared and started drooling :D
Then I bundled it in the cupboard with all my shopping boxes and went about my afternoon.

THEN I got home and OMG I nearly died of shock... I *finally* receieved a commissioning letter for a layout which SM accepted waaaaaaay back in January this year!!!! LOL I had well and truely given up hope that would ever see the light of day, but now it will be in vol 8 issue 9 of SM! woo hoo :)

Anyway I got home, did my aerobics, and Travis rang to ask permission to stay back at work to have a few drinks. Of course! It gives me the night all by myself to play with my tablet LOL. He just rang and asked if he can stay another hour and get the 11:00 train home. As if he needs to ask?! Im happy :) Booted the dogs outside after a big session of pats and kisses and I have the house aaaallllll to myself :)

ahhhh perfect!

So busy!!!

wow I have actually had a life that DOESNT involve being on the computer!
Well, partly.

Last Tuesday we went to see PEARL JAM at the Acer Arena in Sydney. I was sooooooo excited. On tuesday night we had fairly ordinary seats.. all the way at the back up the top and the band was just a moving dot LOL BUT they played an awesome set of songs.. all my favourites one after the other. I dont go to concerts thinking oooh they HAVE to play such and such or I will be disappointed, but there was one I was dying to hear live that they didnt play in 2003 when we saw them. and I was so happy that they played it, on BOTH nights too!!

Anyway on Wednesday night, we were back there and we had FRONT ROW seats!!! I felt sooooo special when we got these special wrist bands :) It was all seated so they made sure that the people in the front row had the front row, and people in the 2nd row didnt jump over the chairs. There were a few people trying to, cos every 10 minutes a big security guard would charge behind us pushing them back into row 2 :P

Anyway I got some fantastic shots!!! I created this from my favourite snaps and its proudly displayed in the lounge room :)


Pretty cool!!!!

hmm what else??
Oh yeah we also went and saw U2 on Friday night :) I must admit I wasnt all that excited about this concert... I think becuase I like Pearl Jam better and was soooooo excited to them, and then even more excited with the front row-ness of the 2nd concert.. that it almost felt like U2 would be a let-down. Strange, I know ;) And of course it WASNT a let down! It was another awesome concert... fantastic lighting effects, a ginormous big screen and they played a great mix of songs.
Got pics of that too, but not on the computer yet :)

I got my overtime in my pay this week and I have more than enough for a wacom graphic tablet!! woo hoo. So i just ordered it and can NOT wait for it to arrive :) I went with the Graphire4, a 6x8 size :) I was going to spend the money when we go overseas, but the overtime was unexpected so I thought well, why not buy something unexpected to match?! I have wanted a tablet since I started scrapping almost one year ago so its high time I treated myself!!

I was originally going to save up my cheques from my published layouts, but as soon as i get them, I think well... its only $20 and go and buy $20 worth of scrap products! I think I have spent my next 3 cheques that I havent even received yet :P

Anyway I also got a couple of layouts done over the weekend :)
But blogger is being stubborn and wont let me upload.. which is a shame cos one of them is just hilarious!!! :P I scrapped myself acting like an idiot... again. hahahha

Oh well... will try again tomorrow!

byeeeeeeeee

Contest anyone???

Michelle Bradley has an awesome contest!!! All you need to do, is create a layout with her brand new (and oh so cute!) Christmas Cheer kit (also sold just by itself) and you can win all her kits for an ENTIRE YEAR!!!! .

AND There is ANOTHER contest she has going... a recipe one :) Use the Christmas Cheer kit to make a recipie card and the winner gets a gorgeous altered tin to house all the yummy recipes in, and all of Shelbys kits that she makes in 2007!!! AND everyone who enters gets a ZIP file with ALL the recipes anyway, so everyone wins!!!
Head over to the Shelby Design Shoppe Message Board for a more in depth description and to sign up.

HURRY!

In other news.. well there is no other news really... I have been roped into doing overtime for the entire week and I am exhausted. Getting in to work at 7:45am and not leaving until 7:00pm is rediculous. BUT paid overtime doesnt get offered much around here so I am making the most of it. If I work enough overtime I am going to treat myself with a wacom tablet! or maybe some new clothes... or some belly and nose jewellery.... or use it for spending mney in Rome.... so many options!! hahha

ok well ive got 20 more minutes here (ugh HURRY UP!) and then I get to go home.. Although I have energy now.. I found some left over Tiramisu from morning tea and gobbled down a huge slice! HA! so im functioning on that sugar / coffee hit ATM :)
Jamies Kitchen is on tonight! Its the only TV show on Free to air tele that I actually make time to watch. Apart from Berts Family Feud in the afternoons... he cracks me up!!

Ok goodnight everyone!!! :)

Time just flies...

well, it was our 2nd wedding anniversary yesterday... time has just FLOWN by.

AND to really drive that home, my neice Kayla turned 11 on Friday!!! I went shopping for her birthday present and realised I was no longer looking in the kids section for stuff to buy her! I was only 14 when she was born.. i remember sitting in my year 9 science class the next day telling everyone about my new niece just like it was yesterday!!! I was pretty proud cos I was one of the first to have a neice or nephew ;)

ANYWAY so yeah it was our wedding anniversary yesterday. We spent the weekend in Sydney, stayed in some apartments not far from Town Hall.
On Friday we went to see the Merrick and Rosso live show - The unprofessionals. That was funny :) We went to a Spanish place for tapas afterwards, then a bar for a few drinks.

Saturday we were up bright and early, had breakfast at a cafe then went shopping!!We had to buy warm clothes seeing as I only packed Summer clothes and the weather decided to turn wintery again... also bought some odds and ends to take to Rome when we go in December... saw Talledago nights which was hilarious. Then we went to a German restaurant for dinner and ended up leaving there thinking I was about to pop!! seriously I was full from the entree.. it was main meal size!! and the main was double size.. I ordered chick schnitzel (with cheese and leg ham on top! yum) and got TWO big portions that took up the whole plate. I squeezed one in, but the 2nd was left pretty much untouched. It was sooooo delicious though!!!

On Sunday we met up with a friend at a cafe for a alte breakfast and then we headed home :)
Back to washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning and vacuuming! I was actually glad to get back to work because I was exhausted! LOL well, maybe not *glad* to be back at work...

ANyway I scrapped! Finally got to use Lauren and Amy's Harvest Trail kit from the Sweet Shoppe
Onlsow just *loves* barrelling through the crunchy leaves!! LOL


There is a Bernese Mountain Dog picnic day coming up shortly in Sydney. Im so looking fwd to going.. Belle and Onslow havent seen any of their "own kind" since we took them home. They see lots of their friends Lotte the Old English Sheepdog, and Jack the rottweiller, as well as a few passing strangers in the dog park at windsor LOL. Should be a fun day :)

well take care everyone.. hope you have a great week!

Get well soon...

My poor little bonsai :(
Click here for the story if you havent seen my layout yet... cant upload pics today!

He (the bonsai) obviously didnt like being removed from his big pot where he has been for 2 years into his proper bonsai pot.

I love bonsais but the fun is in the shaping of them in my opinion. SO i bought a tiny, twig of a plant, put it in a big pot with lots of growing room and got to work on shaping the little fella. It was looking great until about 12 months ago when the dogs decided to eat a few of the branches and give it their own touch :) Now it kinda looks a bit bare as it has three branches sticking out instead of 7.... Anyway it had been 2 years in the big pot and had gotten nice and big (well, as big as i wanted!) but the poor thing has been on a downhill spiral for the last 2 weeks... I finally noticed some new shoots on Saturday.... lets see if they last or if they will go black and dry like the rest of the leaves and flowers!

anyway... had a good weekend.. was so HOT on saturday!!! We took the dogs walking at 8:00am and already I was in shorts and a singlet and sweating.. and these are dogs just amble along slowly! Anyway bought them inside with the air conditioning while we started cleaning the house.. did some aerobics and then got ready to go out. We were going to a friends house for dinner, and staying the night so we didnt have to worry about counting drinks. Didnt have a late one because we were all so tired!!!!

Came home on Sunday, watered the garden, did the grocery shopping, did some kickboxing, the last of the housework / washing and then it was time for dinner! so I didnt get much time to scrap, and have to make up for it this week. I have lots of new goodies to play with, but am also working on a "project" which I need to finish.. so no scrapping until this project is done!!

This weekend is going to be a write off as well....

On friday we are going to see Merrick and Rosso in the city (comedians, also on Sydney's Nova radio station in the morning) and then going to a Spanish place to get some Tapas afterward. yummoo!!!! Never had it before but am looking fwd to it! We will be staying in town (in Sydney) for 2 nights as it is also our anniversary weekend... 2 years already!! Time has gone fast, but at the same time, the whole wedding business and the honeymoon seems like it was ages ago!

and on another note... I have been waiting for commissioning letters from Scrapbooking memories (FOUR of them!!!) for MONTHS and FINALLY I got 2 :) and another 3 layouts accepted during the week as well!!! Im on a roll!
So keep a look out for me in vol 8 issue 8 of SM.. I have 2 in there :) Both of Alyssa!!!

Not long till our "concert week"!!! In three weeks we will be seeing Pearl Jam 2 nights in a row (long story as to why we are going both nights! LOL - we have front row seats on night 2 though!) I think that is the Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Friday we are seeing U2!!! so three big concerts in one week... Im saving my accumulation of RDO's (rostered day off) for when we go to Italy later in the year, so I can save up my annual leave (for NEXT year when we are planning a biiig European trip) sO i cant really take that week off like I want to.... might just had the day of the 2nd pearl jam concert off.... try to recover and get some sleep up my sleeve! LOL
So yay im very excited!!!!!!!!

ok well I guess I better finish off this marathon post!!! LOL Thanks for reading if you managed it!!!

where was i?

Long time no blog!!! cant say I have really missed it to be honest!! Its just one more thing to remember to do!
So whats some news???
Oh my first ever published layout! here it is:


hahahhaa Poor Travis :)

hmm.... what else.... How about some layouts? Running low on the news front today :)



Phew! and thats not even all of them :) Anyway becuase im so lazy, you will need to Click here for my gallery to see the credits for each layout ;)

hehehe Isnt that last one of Alyssa cute?? It was on the long weekend, Grand final night (october 1st) at my sister, Lindas, place. Anyway whenever we go there, Lin always picks up my camera and starts taking pics of everything! so i get home and find photos of actual photos, photos of people being idiots, blurry, unidentifiable photos, close ups of a bourbon and coke inside a glass.. and a few of these cute shots :) hehehe It was such a great night! we were outside till midnoght toasting marshmallows on the fire, putting everything that burned on the fire (mums slipper not included... they didnt actually burn, just singed the wool and melted the rubber).... setting a very bad example for the kids who thought it was the best thing ever!!

We went to the beach again on Sunday, and we left home at 11:00.. perfect beach weather out our way with clear blue skies, hot temps and not a breath of wind. One hour later when we actually GET to the beach, the sun was gooooone, the wind had picked up and i was laying on my towel getting whipped by sand and shivering. Turns out a big Southerly buster arrived just when we did!!!! Typical! It takes us an hour to get to the beach, we were there for only about 20 minutes and then got back in the car and headed back for the hour long drive back home :) Pretty funny though cos last time we went to the beach (2 weeks ago) it the same story... giant gusts of wind :) Oh well, at least we can laugh about it. Its a nice drive on a Sunday anyway and on the positive, I didnt end up with salt and sand encrusted hair!!

Im hungry

hahahha
I have been tagged.. twice! LOL Im only doing the tag once though!

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. Evanescence - call me when you're sober
2. Live - Mystery
3. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - The entire Stadium Arcadium album (ok so thats like 28 songs! LOL)
4. Beyonce - Dejavu - great for getting me ready in the mornings! LOL
5. Guns n Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine
6. Live - The River
7. Pearl Jam - Thumbin' my way

And my 7 peeople... well im going to be lazy and say "ANYONE THAT WANTS TO!" LOL

The magazine with my very first published layout is OUT! wooo hooo! gotta scan it and post it, seeing as it is of Travis being a goose :)
Speaking of Goose, check this out:


Most of the stuff is from Crisp Cotton Hideaway - Suzy Nunes (www.sweetshoppedesigns.com), except for: flowers - Shannon Lee Alpha - Dani Mogstad Paint - Lauren Grier.

I have been on a "me" layout kick lately.. not sure why, mayeb the kits I have been working with just are so "me" that I need to use them on myself! LOL
Anyway these are 2 of my faourites:

Everything is from the gorgeous new 2 scoops by Suzy Nunes and Robin carlton - Wings of change - www.sweetshoppedesigns.com


papers, flowers, beads, notepaper - Faer Oak's Briar sunset (pickleberry pop)
bling, stitched flower, fuzzy edged flower - Faer Oak Sherbert Shennanigans (pickleberry pop) chipboard alpha - DebF (pickleberry pop) Kraft snippet - lauren Grier (sweet shoppe - word snippets) Lace - Suzy nunes Crisp Cotton hideaway (sweetshoppe) butterfly - suzy nunes & Robin carlton wings of change (sweet shoppe)

I did end up going swimming on the weekend! the water was FREEZING but the waves were huge!! I got dunked once cos I didnt think I was going to swim so put mascara and make up on (silly!!!) so I didnt want to dive through the wave and have my makeup run, but the wave decided to break right over the top of me! ROTFL It was a great day! The winds were soo strong though. our LOCKED gate was blown open when we got home!!! SOOOO thankful that we decided to leave the dogs inside with the air conditioning on! Who knows what would have happened to them! Peoples wooden fences were blown over, and panels of colourbond fencing had even been blown out! crazy stuff.

We also got our weeds sprayed on saturday. Unfortunatley about 80% of our lawn was weeds so now it looks all dead!!! But with all these water restrictions now its so hard to get a lawn going and keep it going. we can only water on sundays and wednesdays and then only with a hose. Sprinklers havent been allowed to be used in years. Not that it matters in the back seeing as the dogs like to dig and we dont care cos the lawn is didgy... but it would be nice to have a lush, gren front lawn! LOL

My new addition!

hehehhe I love it!!!
The kit used to make this layout is Lauren Griers new "1 raspberry chocolate torte to go" from sweet shoppe... so delicious!

yay tomorrow we are going to the beach :) perfect weather.. probably wont be swimming seeing as I find teh water frezing even in the middle of summer LOL but I will definately get my feet wet ;)
off to do some more scrapping while my creativity is flowing!!

a few things...

1:
Im a picklehead :)

2: I got my nose pierced :) I took a pic but it was pretty dodgy!! hahaha my nose was all red and yuck so I will take another tomorrow. Its a pretty diamond.. and it KILLED to get it done. My navel was virtually painless and i was expecting this to be the same... nope! LOL Probably because I wasnt expecting anything that it hurt so much :)

3: We are going to Italy for christmas!!!! we just decided last week and booked our tickets today. will be staying with my aunty who I have never met :) How cool!! We may get a white christmas :)

somewhat better :)

Although I ended my week with conjunctivitis! I still have my cough and sinus issues but that seems like nothing compared to how I was feeling this time last week! LOL

I got to do some scrappin' and I had a lovely weekend.. so much rain about, it was beautiful!
We went to Janolin Caves with mum, dad, my cousin from italy and linda and scott and the girls. After lots of too-ing and fro-ing about will we go, wont we go we decided to rug up and go! I had been looking fwd to going because the last time I went I was about 8 or something. But it was a great day. Had a tour of one of the caves, Scott was a goose as usual... we were going through a semi-lit part in single file, and it was a small tunnely thing and we had to bend down... Scott makes a loud fart noise and I was in hysterics.. I could hear Travis snorting in the background and Scott of course laughing at his own joke :) hahaha You cant take us anywhere!
I was so toasty :) I was determined not to get cold so on my legs I had my stripey socks which come up past my knees and a 2nd pair of socks and jeans.
On my top half I had a thermal top thingo, a long sleeved top, a singlet top, a jumper, a parker and then while eating lunch a 2nd big waterproof jacket! Along with my scarf and beanie LOL Anyone would think i was going to the snow :)

Thats about it really.. saturday I couldnt do much cos of my conjunctivitis.. my eye was swollen and bright red and watery! LOL I looked terrible :) Thankfully its all gone now!

Anyway thats about it really.. nothing to really write home about. I tried watching Australian idol on sunday but I just couldnt get into it.... I've been all into Rock Star - Supernova.. probably cos I really enjoy the rock music over all the other crap that they sing on idol! LOL and I hate how it takes FORVER between songs and they talk too much. I wont be watching it again this year.

Anyway I finally got rid of this horrible headache was able to scrap.. and my creativity was back and these 4 just got pumped out in no time at all!! LOL And I love them all :)

oh my exciting scrapping news!! Im on Suzy Nunes CT!!! yippeeeee for me :)
And this is my first layout done with her stuff. Kit ued is Gypsy Rose, available at The Sweet Shoppe: (as usual you can click to make the layout bigger ;)


Lauren teamed up with Robin Carlton again and produced another sweeeeet 2 scoops kit. They make the best team and this kit is beautiful! This is also available at The Sweet Shoppe: The Notepaper alpha is by Shannon Lee.



And finally, the new Cinnamon Swirls kit by Faith True :) I love this one :) SO much so that I actually made two pages with it! LOL Notepaper alpha by Shannon Lee (again).



And thats all folks!!!