So here she is ... all ready for school! Mind you it does not start until February and if I am not careful the uniform may be worn out by then! Bwahaha! She was SOOOOOO excited when we went to "size her up" on Friday before the discount day in a couple of weeks. I arrived at the place and was told I was not allowed to size her up if I were not going to buy/lay-by on this very day! So weird! Not sure how they would enforce that one. But they were really nice and came back and said I could get my 10% discount today and take the items without me even asking. Guess it is one less person to serve on the crazy discount day! Needless to say Katie was thrilled! She looks so grown up! And I still maintain it is more expensive to attire girls than boys! The school dress alone cost A$50! Hugh is still wearing his same uniform for three years now, somehow I am not sure I will have the same luck with Katie.



Update on the vegie patch! We are harvesting! Very exciting and guess it's broccoli on the menu every night for the next week!

Saturday morning "Boot Camp" has returned now that the weather is improving. The 8:30am Saturday morning is a killer but the kids have a blast! Even Katie is getting into it this time around.

This weekend is our first real summer weather - over 30C both days. My hayfever is killing me though, feel like I have a gravel trap under my eyes and rub them furiously! Better to stay indoors. Though we did venture to Wilson Botanical Gardens and the kids went off and played while Den and I had some reading time.

Now to some more scrapping news. Remember credits can be found by clicking on the page. Leiko has new templates and a new kit out. I had fun with this page below. Just needed to do a "message" page for me.

A couple more pages for my CheeryO downloads. I was happy to document this page for Hugh and I. No we have not changed our names to George and Baa!! It is a book series by Virginia Miller that Hugh and I have read together for years (I eventually bought him his own copy on his third birthday) and we say this to each other every night.

Nina was asking for some kit ideas and I suggested one about reading! Well she completed it and I am just amazed - by the kit and by the incredible pages everyone is doing. I know I will be using this one for many a page to come. I just love it and cannot thank Nina enough for completing it.

Have a super week everyone!

We have had some lovely relaxing days of late. Today is Melbourne Cup - a famous horse race that rightly or wrongly provides us with a day off - who am I to argue? Last weekend Den and I celebrated our anniversary - 12 years! My how time has flown! We had a wonderful weekend of ...
and a yummy dinner out at a new Indian restaurant. The kids were very tolerant of the spicy food. Hugh wants to go back, not for the food but because the waitress put the serviette in his lap! He felt like royalty! Of course the Princess took it all in her stride.

Now let's see .... Den surprised me with my first ever ipod! I thought I was getting one for Christmas so Santa came a bit early! This is waaaay cool! Having loads of fun with the video camera and vidcasts!



And of course you ask what did I get Den ... hmmm ... beer and chips! LOL! Yes! His favourite Japanese beer! Does that count for something? No ... I guess not. Ipod ... beer!

So I have loaded some songs for my girl on my ipod. This is such a cool album, so many great classics. And I can tell you how proud I am that Katie can name the movie it is from within the first two bars of the song! Mama Musical here says, "that's my girl"!

Now ... let me get you in on a great bargain. Ange has this super "grab a bag" for Two Little Pixels birthday this month. But it's only available the next couple of days.

And have a look at what you get in this bag! (click on all images for credits) The coolest templates! Papers! Word art! Great for birthdays/surprises. Absolute bargain!

At the Rocking Girls blog there is some more free word art up for grabs for the lastest Spotlight. Use it and complete a page to go in the draw to win a GC to Nina's store.

The latest issue of ScrapStreet Magazine is out. With another fun FREE kit to play with.

Last week was a HUGE week for Sue Cummings Spotlight (I am still in recovery). Here are the final two pages I completed.

Over at Oscraps this week there is LOADS of fun things going on leading up to DSD day this coming Saturday. Now this I thought I really must tell you about. You really have to see all the FREE goodies you can collect on the blog hop from some major players! Be sure to check it out.

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone.

Great excitement yesterday in this house! A tooth fell out - a legit one! LOL! Hugh lost his first tooth at this same age so it was not a surprise. And besides, Katie has had two front loose teeth for almost two years now that I have been nurturing. They are the result of on more than one occasion landing teeth first on mishaps! She was so excited to finally "be like Hugh"! And as the first lost tooth is a novel occasion, the tooth fairy delivered a gorgeous little stuffed puppy dog! Gold coin donations from now on!


Natasha has a fabulous new kit out "wind of change". The sad news is she will no longer be selling at Oscraps and has become exlusive to Shabby Pickle Designs. But each time I receive her kits and see what her CT does with them, I am filled with inspiration to "scrap outside the box". I am always really grateful for that. A link to Natasha's new store is in my sidebar. And remember for credits on any page you see here, please click on the image.




Over at Oscraps I completed the "Ostash" challenge using all of Kitty Designs. I love her stuff so much. It was a challenge to do a week in review and as this is Katie's last year at home I decided to document our regular weekly activities.

Ange has a fabulous new kit out "serenite" at digital-crea.fr! The elements totally inspired the journaling for this page.

Ange and Dumpty have also put together this FREE word art pack. So be sure to drop by Ange's blog (links in my sidebar) to collect your own set.

Now the big news this week is Sue Cummings is in the Designer Spotlight over at Oscraps. Always an action packed week, be sure to drop in. Here is the mini kit you can grab for FREE!

This kit is so versatile and the word art lends itself to so many occasions I am scrapping up a storm. Here is what I have come up with so far and I am not finished yet ;)

Be sure to check out Sue's blog to check out all the details and grab some awesome freebies like the two quick pages I used on a couple of the above pages. She is one of the most generous people you are likely to come across and if you subscribe to her newsletter you will receive regular freebies even after the Spotlight is over.

Well the week for me is at an end and we have a wonderful celebration this weekend so hopefully there will be more photos to share next time around.

Last Friday evening Den and his workmakes went Go-kart riding - needless to say he had a blast! Boys toys just get bigger ;) Poor Hugh was turning green with envy just watching. Most shots were taken through a wire fence so I thought some where not bad given that.

He can't hide the delight on his face!

Getting Katie to comb her hair most days is really difficult! I walked in on this on the weekend which made me giggle!

Now for scrap news this week - please click on all pages for credits.

Excitingly I am in the Spotlight with my fellow Cheery-O, Chris this week! The clever concept of people having to combine pages to do a scraplift. Here is my page ;) I love it when I can dress my girl in Mystique's amazing elements - LOL - sometimes it's the only way to get clothes on her!! And then there is the whole brushing hair saga! Girls!

The page below is for the web inspiration challenge at Oscraps using the fantastic new "outside the lines" collab with Amanda and Ashalee.

Leiko has some fabulous new papers out "ReVolution" with bonus word art available at Oscraps.

Here is a page I have had on files for months! Finally got to posting it ;)

Isn't if funny sometimes when you start a page and try as you may you simply cannot add anything to it! Does not get much more minimalistic than this but once I blended it with Ange's paper I could do no more to it.

Have a super remainder of the week and weekend everyone.

My shadow and I are having a blast. You think she would be sick of me as we are together 24/7, but she loves me and wants to be with me every moment of the day (and sometimes night!) So I am not fighting it any more and making the most of each cuddle and moment until she goes to school beginning of next year. Here below you can see she even came with me in search of my PCF photo for this week and was tickled when I gave her a real camera to work with!


Today was Wednesday and cooking day! Lamington cup cakes! Katie is becoming quite the little chef!


Now for the scrapping news this week and remember to please click on the page for credits! This week Kathryn Wilson is in the Spotlight at Oscraps with a fabulous mini kit for FREE and her stunning grunge brushes give away! The theme? Trash your LO!

A second page using the stunning Oscraps collab "Otono" - love it!

Amanda and Shaui have a fabulous collab "small talk"! Fun! They are also giving away this free template below - check it all out at the Oscraps!

This page details the fun banter between Katie and myself I want to remember. We play a game where we had to name what Princess (Disney or Barbie) we would be for that day. I always chose Geneieve from 12 Dancing Princesses and now we say that together! Silly ..... but cute!

Another page with Dawn's super kit! The whole reason I wanted to use this kit is because it reminds me of Katie's love of this BBC show "In the Night Garden". She loves this show and loves that we made this page together with her on my lap.

Ange has some wonderful new products out! Here are a couple of pages:

This page below was fun to do. Adopting the name of Katey of Handmaid Designs kit it was a little message to myself (journaling reads) "I want to feel less in over my head and learn to go with the flow more".

Finally my dear sweet Scandanavian friend Annika is in the Rocking Girls Spotlight for Nina's CT this week. The fun challenge is to take a photo that needed serious editing and work with it. The original and LO in a forum at Oscraps. LOVE seeing before and after shots. By participating you are in the running to with a GC for one of Nina's kits!

That's it for now! Enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

Last month I was fortunate enough to be guest on two VERY different CTs. It was an absolute delight to work with Ange and all the french girls and I am delighted to say Ange has asked me to stay on - I feel very honoured - thank you Ange you are all so sweet. Time to work on our "frenglish" girls! Here are some pages I made with some of Ange's kits. (there is now a link to Ange's blog in my sidebar where you can go to see her latest release and the many freebies she always offers!)

This page below was made using a WONDERFUL free kit available at Ange's blog and the latest release from Sue Cummings:

Brygida of Mystique Designs (LOVE her stuff) is celebrating her birthday and offering 50% off storewide for the 7/8 October! Go and grab yourself a bargain and play with some fantastic goodies like I have below.

The latest Oscraps Designer Collab kit is out and it is awesome! Here is my first page using "Otono"!

The October issues of ScrapStreet Magazine is out and this month the freebie is by my good friend Jorinde! Just lovely and straight away made me think of Shakespeare! Here is my ode to him!

Nina will soon be releasing another collab "simply.BOOO". We don't celebrate Halloween downunder so this is the best I could come up with. Still, love the orange and black together.

Finally the lovely Katey of Handmaid Designs sent me a couple of kits to work with ... "simply seashore" went so well with Leah's wonderful "gentle waters" - it was great to scrap another couple of photos from last weekend.

Maria set a fun topic of "stairs" for this week's photo challenge. I thought I might be struggling until I spied this shot down at the beach on Sunday.


This week's style spotlight at Oscraps is "grids". This came along at a most convenient time given the school holidays have just finished. Here is a summary of what we got up to.


I just love Kitty's Designs at Oscraps. So fanciful! I had fun playing with this kit Princess Dreams.

Dawn of "createwings designs" has a new kit out! Would we like to play with it? Silly question! This kit is called "In the Night" and Dawn has it on special this week with 20% off. The word art on the LOs below is FREE so be sure to go grab yours from Oscraps. The kit also comes with two free (one layered) quick pages! Love that!

Finally a bit of fun! The page below is for the October "Got It" challenge at Oscraps! There were a list of questions that you had to answer - in some shape or form - on your page! I enjoyed this one!

Thanks for looking and please remember to click on the page to read all credits.

Happy Birthday Den!

Today is Den's birthday - won't tell you how old he is ..... oh okay! 49!!! Eeekkkk! We sort of promised ourselves that if the weather was kind we might head off to our favourite beach location down at Phillip Island.

The weather was kind. (Helen has a BIG smile on her face!)

Below is where we hung out all afternoon - eating, drinking, playing, reading, listening to Den's ipod.

Let's see, there was frisbee, football and general fooling around.

We went totally self sufficient today. The kettle was for a cuppa (peppermint tea which was very nice) but when the saucepan of water was taking too long to boil, Den smartly opted to boil the frankfurts/hot dogs in the kettle - up here for thinking ;)

So here is my little brood at the end of another great island day. Happy birthday babe, your little family loves you very much!

Some pages to share and please remember to click on the page for credits - TFL! This first page is for the Oscraps "quote me" challenge that happens each month.


Leiko has some new stamps out - always so graphically artistic.


Ange has a fabulous new kit out at Digital-Crea!

Still having fun with Natasha's kit. I scraplifted this page, love the rich colours.

This week the wonderful Sue Falstaff is in the member spotlight at Oscraps. Lift one of her pages for the chance to win a gift certificate to the store. Here is my lift.

It's time for another of Nina's Rocking Girls to be in the Spotlight - the fabulously talented Timounette (aka Sandrine). To learn more about Sandrine and pick up her wonderful 2 page layered template FOR FREE, be sure to drop by the ROCKING GIRLS BLOG. You have until the end of this week to play along and be in with a chance to win a GC! The poem is the "Spring Prayer" by Robert Frost 1915.

School holidays week one

Week one of our two week school holiday break is drawing to a close. As usual I had planned a multitude of activities for the children. I am a bit exhausted, Den says I spoil them, however, I like to think of educating them and exposing them to as much as possible. Monday Hugh came to work with me; Tuesday we all got the 'all clear' on our dental check up. Wednesday we went to library and the children made trains and we went to our local shops where they had these activities:


Here are the children diligently making wands:


Thursday was super busy. We started off at Bunnings (hardware store) where they always have the best activities for free. The kids just love their crafts:

This is the pile of books Hugh borrowed from the library on Wednesday LOL! Have to admit it makes me happy though. This week he discovered the Beast Quest books - for any of you out there with boys these are very cool books and an awesome website HERE. He gets to join a clan and was thrilled when I bought him his own book at the shops this week.

Friday we went swimming - Katie has been counting the sleeps until we went to the "froggie pool" - it has a frog slide and there is also a wave pool. Almost three hours of swimming certainly tired them out.

The highlight of Hugh's week would most certainly be helping Chef Anton. When I saw cooking demonstrations at the shopping centre I knew Hugh would be interested - certainly inherits that trait from his father. As fate would have it he got selected as the helper to make "silly soup" (basically a fruit smoothie - very yummy). He scored a free apron and excitedly wore it when making us all "silly soup" for dinner. Here is a quick video I took of him.

Now for a few days rest before I face next week. Have a great weekend everyone!