Cooling down ...

(Layout credits - Grunge photo edge from DesignerDigitals. Font: Teletype.)
One of the (expensive) decisions we made a few years ago when we bought this house was to add a pool. There was an empty block of land next door to us at the time, and it was very easy for the pool people to take part of the fence down, drive in, dig a hole, make a pool and fill it with water, and put the fence back up! Not quite that easy of course, but you get the picture.
Weekends are often spent in the pool … it’s great exercise for the kids and dad, and I get peace and quiet for an hour or so. I wandered down yesterday, late afternoon, and I got the photos of Michael above and below. Love the light on the water, tree and pool, and the DesignerDigitals frame made it so quick and easy to scrap.
Love the splashing water in this … I used the sports mode on my camera, and kept shooting till I thought I might have something good, lol! The glory of digital … run up to computer, download images, check to see if I have anything good, scrap in PS CS, post! SUCH a quick process, and waaaaaay ahead of waiting a week or two to get film processed!
More next time …

Telling little fibs ...

(Layout credits - Kit: Garden Nouveau from DesignerDigitals. Stitching: Messy Cream Stitches from DesignerDigitals. Fonts: Teletype and Bookman Old Style.)
After all that ‘stress and pressure and hard work’ stuff yesterday, I am doing the ‘soft and pretty’ thing today … more in my comfort zone, he, he! Anyone that knows me well knows I cannot garden to save myself, but I do love flowers and photograph them whenever I can. And the fibs … well, I did say that I had finished doing Tashy layouts for a while, but this one popped into existence this afternoon, so I am sharing.

(Layout credits - Paper: Cultural Divide from ScrapArtist. Fonts: Impact, Century Gothic.)

Layouts are like that sometimes … they just create themselves into being … and sometimes it is better just to walk away from the computer, and decide you weren’t really going to scrap anyway, lol!
It helps if the distractions are in bed and the DH is studying, but hey, I guess they can’t sleep and study ALL the day away, so I scrap despite the world wars breaking out around me. I am fortunate that I am at the stage when they pretty much can all amuse themselves …
More next time …

Moody blues and reds ...

I've been stuggling with design stuff today ... part of being on a design team, I have discovered, is that sometimes you get homework!!! I thought I'd left that behind years ago, lol! And of course, it is always waaaaaay outside my comfort zone.
Today's little project was the layout above. We were given a website as an inspiration piece, and then had to run from there putting our own interpretation on it. 'Miss Personality +' was the final result though I travelled a somewhat torturous and twisted path to get there. I think I am happy with the end result.
Also played around with some of DS's photos I took yesterday. Here is another layout from that 30 second photo shoot. I said, 'Look down and don't smile!' and this is the photo I got! He looks so sad ... but rest assured he wasn't, and seconds later he was happily back on his computer tormenting Croc 2's enemies!

Hope you are all having a great weekend! More next time ...

The boy's turn ...

(Layout credits - Font: Century Gothic.)
Okay, okay ... I admit it, I have beautiful children! Gotta give most of the credit to DH though, with his beautiful blue eyes. Both the kids have inherited those eyes, lol! Enough of the girly girly stuff ... now for some masculine hard-hitting layouts! Over the weekend I am going to try and pin the hubby down for some photos ... he is hard to catch with the camera, but I need to show him off as well. The boy was quite happy to sit for 30 seconds this morning, and I got a couple of good shots of him, so will scrap those.
Not much exciting to report today ... I have just looked in my folder where I keep my unprinted 8x8 layouts, and there are 36 layouts patiently waiting to be printed off and put into 8x8 albums! Hmmmm ... wonder what I will be doing this weekend? Seriously, I think they are breeding like rabbits in that folder when I am not looking ... the first one in the queue is dated Sept 20, so I've created a few layouts over the weeks. The downside of printing at home is the serious drain on the printer's ink cartridges, but the up side is looking at them in the albums, which is much more accessible and user friendly than leaving them on the computer. I'm off to unpack the groceries ...

More next time ...

Stand tall ...

(Layout credits – Font: Century Gothic.)
I’ve had a bad day at work today, so here’s something to soothe both my soul and yours, lol! I love simple stuff like this, doesn’t take too long to create, is simple and fresh, and there’s lots of white space to rest the eyes.
I do love a good quote. I have a great little program that is free and simple to use that helps me store and keep track of the large number of quotes I have at my disposal. It is called AZZ Cardfile, and I thoroughly recommend it. Quote collecting is a little like font collecting ... a girl can never have too many.
When inspiration is slow in coming, sometimes I will retire to the lounge with a pencil, notebook, and a pile of mags, and look for quotes, then transfer them into AZZ Cardfile later. This is the sort of thing you can do when you are 'watching' TV and need something to occupy yourself during the ads. So ... are you all inspired to work on your collection of quotes? Ready, set go ...
More next time ...

A spot of scraplifting ...

(Layout credits - Scraplift - Nevache at ScrapArtist. Kit - Hey Diddle, Gardens Treasure from ScrapArtist. Messy Cream Stitches from ScrapArtist. Fonts: CAC Shishoni Brush, Century Gothic.)

Scraplifting … hmmm … to scraplift or not to scraplift, that is the question, lol! Personally, I love it when someone scraplifts me and leaves credit. It says to me that someone is attracted to my design enough to copy some or all of it, and I’m fine with that! So … time to ‘fess up! The above design is TOTALLY scraplifted from Nevache, at ScrapArtist. I do hope she doesn’t mind …
Just about finished scrapping my photos of Tashy … did I hear a sigh of relief in the background??? I need to get out and take some new photos, but there is always something else that is more important that needs to be dealt with.
Had a busy Wednesday today … I don’t love Wednesdays much, as we have to be at school before 8.00 for Strings Ensemble practise, then at the end of the day we have a late music lesson for Tashy, and we aren’t home till nearly six. It makes for a long day.
The girl is doing three music exams in the next thee weeks, so lots of frantic practise is happening at the moment. She is doing 3rd grade practical in piano and violin, and a 2nd grade theory exam as well. She has inherited her musical ability from my father, as her mother hasn’t got that much raw talent in that department, lol! On that musical note, I will finish …
More next time …

Bloomin' beautiful ...

A slice of pink to start your evening or day, whatever it may be! I discovered another pretty kit called Bloom over the weekend, created by an Australian designer whose layouts I noticed in the SBB gallery. I was excited to find out that she was the designer of the kit that was showcased in her work, and I tracked her down. I had known her as a paper scrapper first, and was amused to find she had ‘gone over to the dark side’ … and those are her words. I could only find two kits created by Tracy Ann, but I sure hope more are on the way. This is the kit … … and further down is the layout I created starring my favourite (and most co-operative!) model!
(Layout credits - Kit: Bloom by Tracey Ann. Messy Stitching from DesignerDigitals. Font: Teletype.)

If you are interested in buying this kit, it is for sale at Karen’s Scrappin Kupboard. It is interesting to see paper scrappers taking the leap, and then realizing it is the only way to go, lol! I had a few momentary pangs leaving my paper scrapping behind, but the benefits faaaaaaaar outweigh the loss!
I did something fun but highly illegal today … I joined in a CT chat while I was at work. It was so much fun getting to know the girls that live on the other side of the world in another time zone. For most of them it was early Monday evening and for me it was almost lunchtime Tuesday. I had a little break from teaching, so logged on, started chatting, and in walked my principal! Isn’t that always the way? I’m sure he could work out what I was doing, but he was gracious enough to ignore what I was up to. Oh well, it’s not something that happens very often, but it was an important event to be part of. And it was FUN!
More next time …

Artistic discipline ...

(Layout credits - Kit: The Good Life from ScrapArtist. Stitching from ScrapArtist. Font: Century Gothic.)

Every now and then you come across a kit you love … and this is another of my favourites, called ‘Good Life’ from ScrapArtist. I love the colours in it, and the pretty stripes and florals. I’ve put a preview of the kit below so you can see what you are missing, if you haven’t snaffled it, lol!
Did you notice that nasty word in my title for this blog? Discipline … hard to say, hard to do. I find I am a lazy individual deep down, and need to have some sort of framework to work to, or I never do much at all. With my photography, I joined PBase this year, and signed up for PAD, a Photo a Day. This ensures that I use my camera on a relatively regular basis, and try new stuff. With my scrapping, since starting this blog, I have tried to do at least one new layout a day, which is stressful in a way, but makes me scrap, instead of surfing and looking at everyone else’s creativity!
I am a CTM for two websites, ScrapArtist and DesignerDigitals, and try to scrap turn about, then scrap a layout for myself, using whatever kit has taken my fancy at the moment. It’s working at the moment, even though sometimes I am wondering where the next creative thought is going to come from.
So … here’s a challenge … set yourself a little mission, complete it, and enjoy yourself in the process … To finish off, here’s another photo of my gorgeous baby, from the weekend wander with the mozzies and lizards and ants down by the lake. More next time ...

Lots of pretties ...

So how lucky am I? Not only do I have a beautiful daughter, but she will patiently pose for me for hours! And this in turn produces lots of fresh fodder for scrapping … she is patient despite the ants (of which she is terrified!), goannas, mosquitoes and all sorts of other feral life rustling behind her in the bushes. The background is this photo is so pretty, lots of new spring leaves sparkling in the sunshine. She was standing in shade in a pergola, over the lake. Of course my other child is handsome too, but he has much more interesting things to do than to stand still for his mother, lol!
Yesterday was pretty productive, layout-wise, as I complete four new layouts in the one afternoon and evening. One of these is the layout below, using some pretty papers from DesignerDigitals called ‘Tall Tales’. (Layout credits - Kit - Tale Tales, Messy Cream Stitches from DesignerDigitals. Font: Pharmacy, Arial.)

I have decided that I am pretty much a predictable digiscrapper, but it is so hard to stretch the wings sometimes when you are happy with what you are doing. OK, I’m boring … but I’m happy being boring!

Our party/afternoon tea was fun but tiring! I dusted, vacuumed, polished, put away, cleaned all morning … then bought some yummies from my local shopping centre! I had visions of cooking as well, but cooking and I don’t get on too well together, and it was all just too much effort in the end. My friend M cooked in her usual competent way, and we have left-overs for morning tea at work tomorrow!
All the sparkling pretties were beautiful, the food was yummy, the conversation scintillating, but I forgot to take photos! Oh dear … I did get three Christmas presents for Tashy and two nieces, and a nice ear-rings/necklace set for me, so that was a bonus! Rambling on a bit today … I’m tired I think, and there is a huge basket of ironing waiting for me, patiently calling my name …
More next time …

Bloom where you are planted ...

Isn’t this a beautiful kit? I see lots of potential in it. It is called Bloom by Kellie Shults, and I love the blues and pinks, and the pretty little flowers in it. I took this photo of Tashy today, and knew immediately that it would work with this kit. Very simple layout, but when I added some extra bits and pieces to it, they detracted from the photo and papers, so I left it the way it was.
(Layout credits – Kit called Bloom by Kellie Shults. Font: Book Antiqua.)
We took our family shoot (four adults) outside this afternoon, to near the little lake in our estate. Tashy and I wandered down early, and ‘test drove’ some possible locations for shooting. Part way through our experimenting, she sat on a rock, and right next to her was a 2 ft goanna, a big lizard. I tossed her shoes over next to him to ‘encourage’ him to leave, but he ignored us, and finally Tash poked him gently with a palm frond to get him to move on. Goannas have a bad habit of running up you, perhaps thinking you are a tree!!! Lots of ants and mosquitoes … but I think we managed to get a good photo or two of the family group. I only had 15 minutes to work with, so it was a bit of a rushed job.
More next time ...

Bits and pieces day ...

Bits of my day were good … other bits not so much fun (read ‘dentist’ there!). I enjoyed my semi- regular Friday morning coffee with a friend. We planned a jewellery party/afternoon tea affair at my house on Sunday afternoon. I am sending the boys off to see a movie, and we are having a girly afternoon of pretty things to look at (and buy) and yummy things to eat. Might even have a picture or two to share from the excitement. I do love costume jewellery!

I am not a real social bunny … having a child on the autistic spectrum tends to discourage a lot of going out and socializing, but now that DS is a teenager, life is a lot easier in that regard. Though I do tend to stress over the details, and would much rather admire and appreciate from a distance someone else doing all the work, lol!

I have a ‘little’ photo shoot to do for a friend on Saturday afternoon, a group shot of four adults! I haven’t worked with that many adults in one photo before, so it will stretch me. It is raining today, but supposed to be fine tomorrow, so hopefully we will be able to do it outside. Kids can be hard to work with, but adults can be more so, I have discovered, especially lots of them at one time!

(Layout credits - Font: Gothic Century)

More next time ...

Happy birthday, darlin' ...

It’s my baby’s eleventh birthday, DH keeps calling her ‘eleven-teen’, but I think she has been well on her way to being a teenager for years now, lol! She is growing up very quickly into a talented, beautiful, clever young lady … I guess my job is to keep her that way. Not an easy job these days.
Still not well. Staggering to work and staggering home again … it’s a funny sort of flu, but hopefully over the weekend I will have time to rest a bit and recover. And hopefully I will be a little more creative too … no inspiration at the moment.
More next time …

Switching hats ...

I’m walking in the door, taking off my teacher’s hat, putting on my parent’s hat firmly onto my head, then marching out the door back to school. Tonight Michael and I are going to a meeting about Year Nine options for next year. Year Nine already??? Where did the year go?
We already have picked out the subjects the boy will do, but he wants to go, so I pick up Tash from basketball practice, rush home and finish getting dinner which I am supposed to be doing now!!! Then get a load of uniforms on to wash, tear off to school with Michael, then somewhere tonight iron. If my ironing pile was to fall on someone, they could disappear for ever, it is that high! Sigh! I’d much rather play on the ‘puter …
Today’s photographic number below is a collage from the month of September, from my collection of PBase images. I take a photo a day and post them on PBase, and this is September’s offerings! Fun thing to do, but sometimes I think I have waaaaaay too many irons in my fire, but hey, you only come this way once …
More next time ...

Touching base ...

Just quickly touching base tonight … I think I have a bit of Michael’s bug, as I haven’t been feeling too good the last couple of days … sore throat, miserable, crabby! Ran up a quick layout this afternoon, and found one of my holiday photos to entertain you. The daffodil photo was taken in one of the botanical gardens we visited in NZ last year. Layout credits - Font: Century Gothic. Brush from ScrapArtist. Layout inspiration: 'Make a Wish', by Renata Watts, Scrapbooking Memories, Vol. 7, No. 2.)
More tomorrow, when I am more cheerful!

Bee happy ...

It's raining today, steady, gentle, so much appreciated. We haven't had good rain for months and months, so it is such a novelty to lie in bed and listen to the pitter patter of raindrops outside. I am scrapping some spring colour today … look at all these busy little bees!

The poppies were literally bending over under the weight of the frantic little pollen gatherers. It would have helped if I could have yelled, Freeze!’ while I was photographing them though. Very hard to get a good shot when EVERYONE was moving in the viewfinder.
Just in case I haven’t mentioned it, I really LOVE my Canon 300D, but I fear I love PS CS even more. The number of times I have worked with images and made them into much nicer photos I cannot begin to count. One day I would like to upgrade to possibly the Canon 20D, but for now I looooove this camera. It has the battery pack underneath the camera, which allows me to shoot well and truly more than a day’s worth of photos before the batteries go flat. The other great thing about it is that it is so much easier to hold with the pack underneath.

I was worried about the weight of the camera when I first go it, but it is almost an extension of my arm now, and it goes almost everywhere with me when I am looking for photographic fodder! Of course it doesn’t fit into my handbag along with the kitchen sink, wallet, diary, phone, sunnies, keys, flashdisk x 2, pens and pencils, drugs (the headache sort!), lipstick … but then if I am taking photos, I want them to be good quality, so the SLR gets lugged along.
More next time …

Everything is salvageable ...

Everything is salvageable … in the digital world! I love this close-up of Tashy taken a couple of years ago, but it is too much out of focus to do anything with. Or so I thought … I added Dave Jaseck’s Midnight Gold, and VP’s Radiant, put these filtered photos on separate layers over my original photo, lowered the opacity of these filtered layers, sharpened them, then put Michelle Coleman’s white overlay over the top ... several times, rotated and flipped. I rubbed out the overlay where I didn’t want it, like in the middle of her face, and then threw the whole lot on a white background, added some journaling, and hey presto, almost good enough to put up on the wall. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE digital scrapping???
More next time …

Retail therapy ...

Isn’t this a beautiful moody ocean shot? It was taken at a port right down the bottom of the south island of New Zealand one afternoon, on our holiday last year. We were up on a hill with an unobstructed view of the sea, and the mist was rolling in.
Retail therapy today … I love working permanent part-time. I work as a teacher librarian four days a week, and have Friday off. The best part about that is that I have a partner-in-crime. My best friend also has Friday off, so we start the day at Gloria Jeans’ for a coffee, then often hit the shops. Today I had to replenish my summer working wardrobe, so was hunting down cool, comfortable stuff to wear … a couple of skirts and some shirts. Not designer wear, but easy to wear, easy to care for and hopefully easy on the eye, lol! Came home half-way through the day and created the layout below … in all of five minutes. Sometimes the inspiration is running, and sometimes I spend hours on a layout, then dump it in the PS CS rubbish bin!
Incidentally, I saw another layout similiar in style to this one somewhere in the last few days, and I can't find it to give credit to the original designer ... so if you know who it is, let me know and I will credit them properly! :)(Layout credits - Kit: Counting Adventure from DesignerDigitals. Font: Century Gothic. Messy Cream Stitches from DesignerDigitals.)
More next time …

Backtracking a little ...

Over the next few days, I thought I would share with you some photos from a recent family holiday … last year we were fortunate enough to spend three weeks in New Zealand. Two weeks of skiing on the South Island … traded off against one week of wandering through the North Island. Three of my family skies, one of my family takes photos … I’ll let you work it out!
It was spring as we toured, and lots of fresh green growth covered the trees … so pretty! And spring lambs! DH kept saying, ‘Mmmm, spring lamb and mint sauce!’ … much to the distress of his daughter. I just ignored him, lol! The only problem with spring lambs is that they don’t stand still in an orderly fashion to have their photos taken, which was very frustrating for the photographer!
I'll have to hunt up a cute lamb or two ...but for now we'll stick to leaves. These ones co-operated and were very still for the photo!

More next time ...

DH wins, I lose ...

For some reason, I thought Michael would bounce back after a day at home, ready to hit school running this morning. However, one look at him today, and I knew he was going to be at home again. ‘Pick me, pick me’, I offered with obviously too much enthusiasm … DH said, ‘You’ve had one day at home, and obviously had too good a time, so it’s off to work for you, and I will keep the boy company.’ So it was off to school for the girls, and the boys got to lounge around all day, eating copious amounts of food, playing on the PS2 and watching DVDs! Was dinner ready for us when we got home late after a music lesson? Blank looks all around … dinner? We’re not hungry, they chorus …
Tashy and I went to the shops straight after school … I love the age she is at. We enjoy so many girly things together at the moment … afternoon tea, bookstore shopping, wandering through jewellery shops, clothes shops, just chatting. It is really nice to get away with her, on her own. I guess it won’t last for ever … she will be eleven next week, almost a teenager. Just think of that … my baby will be eleven!More next time …

Unexpected bonus ...

(Layout credits - Font: Century Gothic.)
Poor Michael had a temperature and horrible cough today, so I got to stay home today ... shame, that! :) I kept him cool and hydrated, and that was about it for the nursing, then I played on the computer. Found this old photo of him, taken pre-digital days, scanned it, threw on a filter or two, and ended up with a simple layout. Don't you love technology?
The challenge this week at ScrapArtist was to scraplift Nancie ... I see lots of layouts popping up now in the gallery. I spent most of this afternoon playing around with this layout and I'm still not happy, but that's it for that layout ... time to move on to the next.
(Layout credits - Font: Arial, Arial Narrow, Trebuchet MS. Papers from August Garden, stitching from Mary Jane kit.)
I think I promised in yesterday's blog to post Miss Elizabeth again today, so here she is.

(Layout credits - Fonts: Apple Garamond Light, Century Gothic.)

More next time ...

You are my I love you!

(Layout credits - Total scraplift of layout by Jennifer Duarte, CK Aug 2005, pg. 70. Fonts: Century Gothic, Fixed Futurist-Width.)
Isn’t this a gorgeous poem … I feel as if it should be stamped in the middle of my forehead, just to remind me of how special my kids are. This is totally (and I mean totally!) scraplifted from a layout by Jennifer Duarte, in CK August 2005, pg. 70. I had just finished another layout using this ‘kissy’ photo (might share that one tomorrow!) and was leafing through the mag when I came across the layout. Just perfect, thought I, and ran up this layout this morning, when I was supposed to be making beds, lunches, and chasing children and self out the door to school and work. Well, sometimes a girl just has to scrap! And now for another mother … here is goosey mum, watching me over her shoulder, as she hurried her babies out of danger …
More next time ...

Ladybird, ladybird ...

Found this little beauty on a bush in our front garden ... don't look too closely at the greenery, because it is probably a weed! Photography is perhaps my forte, not certainly not gardening, lol! It is very windy here today, and the bushes were swaying a-plenty, and it was a very teeny weeny ladybird, so not a crash-hot photo, but I kinda like it.
I walked over our estate this afternoon hoping to find something pretty to photograph, but we are in the midst of a serious drought, and most gardens are bare of flowers. Our little estate lake was looking very sad, full of weed, cross geese and ducks, and lots of mosquitoes.
I found some beautiful blue lotus flowers, but they were sensibly sitting in the middle of the lake, waaaaay out of range of my lens.
Thanks to Z for her help with my banner ... I managed to work out how to put it in the banner of my blog, but still have to play in the html to get rid of the grey lines. I did work out how to change the colour of my titles from orange to grey ... still a work in progress!
(Layout credits - Fonts: Century Gothic, Arial, Futurist Fixed-width.Papers: Saybrook from DesignerDigitals, Messy Cream Stitching from DesignerDigitals.)

More next time ...

A lazy Saturday ...

(Layout credits: Fonts: Century Gothic, Futurist Fixed-width, Aboris Folium. Overlay by Michelle Coleman at ScrapArtist.)
... lots of scrapping, relaxing, occasionally stopping to referee World War 3 and separate the warring parties ... some lunch, afternoon tea, music, snoozing DH, chocolate biscuits cooling on the bench ...
... take-away for dinner, maybe a dvd tonight ... life is good!
(Layout credits - Fonts: Arial, Century Gothic. Paper from Mocha Bliss by Hunibuni.)
More next time ...

A great day ...

I've had a wonderful day today ... I was hijacked by a friend and taken to a Gold Class movie, where you get to put your feet up and be served with a nice drink and nibblies during the movie ... very decadent! We saw 'Must Love Dogs' which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was nice to see something light with humour and a happy ending. We shopped, we coffeed, we bought bling, and a pretty top, then relaxed on my lounge with a cold drink while our kids cooled off in the pool. No housework done, no vacuuming or ironing or tidying up, but do you know what? All the housework will still be there tomorrow, and today I made a great memory! Thanks, M!
(Layout credits - Fonts: Century Gothic, Bodoni Classic Ornaments.Kit: GirlPower from ScrapArtist, white overlay from ScrapArtist.)
More next time ...