Purple Is My Colour!

The Damned

2012-01-26T22:00:00.000+10:00

Well, a few things have happened since last I posted on my blog....
Firstly... the Johnny Cash "Man In Black" show with Tex Perkins and Rachel Tidd was so wonderful! Had a great time... didn't blub at all, ha! Just yelled and cheered and made a general nuisance of myself, lol. I asked my sister if I embarrassed her and she said "just a little bit" ..... should have screamed louder I guess.... :)
Then I turned 41.... got a coffee machine and coffee bean grinder, yummo.... I make coffees at work and I am in love with doing so.... so I needed to buy one for me to make at home.... amazing to believe that I went 18 months without drinking tea or coffee.... oh well, a girl needs some vices....
here I am in my purple Hard Ons t-shirt with my birthday loot (I had only recently got the t-shirt in the mail too, thanks Ray!)

Had our first Christmas with out cat Joey...

and my sister and I went to see The Damned.... whoo hoo! the Damned were the first band I ever went to see when I first moved away from home, from Hervey Bay to Brisbane when I was 16 years old...what an eye opener that was....I was very young and the crowd was pretty rough, I would have been trampled to death a few times if it wasn't for some guy picking me up off the ground.... but I was elated with that magical mosh pit music night and pleased with all my bruises.... what an experience, lol.... this time round it wasn't at all rough.... tho it was great to see all the old punks.... all grown up, old men, hee hee.... (that's ok, I'm an old woman too ;) )

My sister and I at The Damned and my sister and Captain Sensible after the show. He was such a lovely guy. Really open and happy to talk to the fans, very sweet and funny. We had such a great night.

I'm Going To Jackson

2011-09-03T23:19:00.002+10:00

Well, actually I am going to Bowen Hills to the Twelfth Night Theatre to see "The Man In Black: The Johnny Cash Story" Starring Tex Perkins and the Tennessee Four with Rachael Tidd!! Whoo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can not imagine how excited I am about this! When I was 18, we had this little thing called Expo 88 virtually in our backyard and my sister and I bought a 3 day pass especially to see Johnny Cash but he pulled out at the last moment. I was devastated, still am....
Then I missed this same stage show with Tex Perkins two years ago.... dumb, dumb, dumb me..... but thankfully I got my tickets this time round and I am so excited! I'm taking my sister, as the husband, naturally, doesn't like Johnny Cash or Tex Perkins... oh well, his lost. I actually blubbed when I bought the tickets and read out the blurb on the flyer! I am a little worried that I might blub all the way through the show, that's how emotional I am about this event! Will definitely have to take tissues!

Onto other news....
For some time now I've wanted to make myself some inspirational gym shirts. I am tired of seeing the same old shirts when I go to the gym. Lorna Jane or Nike shirts that say boring things like "Just Do It" or "Never Give Up". I want a shirt that says something meaningful to me. When it comes to the gym, the only thing that gets me through a half hour on the treadmill at 9.5 kms/hr or half an hour on the cross trainer is my music. I mainly listen to the Ramones and the Hard Ons.... naturally... and I have another folder of mixed gems that inspire me to move my butt as fast as I can. I finally finished the first shirt.... the front says "There's A Ramones song....." which is my catch phrase.... and on the back it says "Let's Go" a good song to exercise to. I've started the next t-shirt... It just has "Ramones" on the front and on the back says... "Go Mental" and the third shirt I've bought but not all the letters yet, probably get them on Monday when I go back into the city for work... it will have the title of a Hard Ons song .... "1st Element is Sweat" ... so yeah for me for doing a bit of sewing at last....

Speaking of my gym activities... Loving it still... I am sure that some of the people there think I am a bit of a weirdo tho, lol.... I really go to town on the cross trainer, it feels almost as good as dancing and I bang my head in time to my music. I try not to mouth the words to the songs, coz you know it's a slippery slope to actually singing out loud and out of key when you have head phones in. A few weeks ago, when I was still getting used to running on the treadmill .... I only started running when I got my new purple runners at the start of August...

whilst I was pumping my arms, I accidentally pulled the head phones out of my MP3 player and it fell onto the floor. I only had 2 minutes to go and I didn't want to stop to pick up my MP3 player, so I just let it play for everyone to hear, lol... not that many people would have been able to hear it for all the other noise at the gym. The 2 songs that were playing during that time was the end of "You've Got Good Taste" by the Cramps and the start of "Cherry Bomb" by the Runaways, lol.... anyway...

apparently I am the devil incarnate... or so my scales tell me.... well... that was over a week ago... I am now 65 kilos, yippee! So everything is going good in that department. I think it's the new running kick.... when you run on the treadmill, all your fat wobbles, and I believe if you shake the fat up, it dissolves, lol! So I'll be shaking it a bit more, hee hee!

Went to an Indian restaurant with my sister last week, we had a good time, she just loves her Indian.....

A nice little restaurant in West End. Very nice. Next time we will try the Indian restaurant in South Bank.

Oh, and the husband and I went out with our German friends to the German Club in Woolloongabba a couple of weeks ago. Drank too much... HAD to try schnapps and jagermeister and about 3 different German beers... one mainly because it came with a purple lable... oh dear! That's my new avatar too by the way...

wish I'd remembered to keep the bottle, bugger! but we all had fun, it was a good night. We might be going to Oktoberfest, but I might just stick to 1 or 2 beers, not that I even like beer... but when in "Germany".....

Anyway... better get to bed, I am keeping the husband awake....

I was playing a Johnny Cash CD today and he called me his little cowgirl.... he has no idea!

When I was a teenager I loved lots of alternative country... Wall of Voodoo, Beasts Of Bourbon, The Johnnys, The Gun Club, Violent Femmes..... I used to wear suede vests and my Fathers bullet belt, lol.....

Sooooo looking forward to this Thursday night when we see The Man In Black!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good night!

Good bye 30 Kilos

2011-07-08T20:43:00.002+10:00

This time last year, I was 99 kilos, today I am 69 kilos! whoo hoo! :) It's taken me a year to lose 30 kilos but it's worth it... hoping to lose another 10 within the next 4 months, that's my goal, cross fingers! and the irony is that I ate Tim Tams and hot chocolate today... but oh well.... all work outs and no chockie makes Chryssie a dull girl, lol... :)

and this is my new Cadbury Hot Chocolate maker that I bought in the city and brought home on my bike on Tuesday

Got it marked down for $20, couldn't go past it, being purple and all, lol

Xmen First Class..... there's a Ramones song...

2011-06-18T22:57:00.001+10:00

Husband and I went to see The new Xmen First Class movie in Gold Class on Friday. The majority of it is set in the 60's and there is a scene where they are at a party and there is the Freddy Cannon (I presume the original) version of Palisades Park playing in the background, and I am sitting there going, hmmm, I know this song.... Oh, it's a song the Ramones covered, whoo hoo!!! Best moment in the whole movie, lol.....
that's all I've got at the moment..... off to bed so I can get to the gym on time for my work out at 10.15....
cold and tired and bleah :(

Work and Play.

2011-06-04T21:00:00.000+10:00

Well...
this week has been interesting. I went to a Sarina Russo interview and walked out with a job interview. I haven't worked since I was 6 months pregnant with my 16 and a half year old eldest child, so I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, but I got the job then and there! I work 3 days a week, Monday to Wednesday from 11 to 3. It's not much but it's a start and something to write on my resume at the very least. The people I work for are very nice and I am getting used to it, so yeah for me! :) How I am going to fit my full time job of going to the gym and losing weight and my other full time job of being a Mum of 4 children in with this part time job, I'll never know, but I will try. I am going to try and go to the gym after work on Monday.... see how it goes, hopefully I won't be over doing it. I didn't go to the gym after work last week as I thought it was too much to expect of myself, especially as the first day my back was killing me by the end of my day. It was so good to get back to the gym on Thursday, especially as I hadn't been for a week as my Mum had been down and staying with me for 4 days previous to getting the job.
Play.... my sister took me to see her favourite band, Amy Meredith last night. As I have made her come with me to see the Hard Ons, how could I say no. They are good tho, I did enjoy it, even tho the audience were all young enough to be my children, tho as my sis says, music is ageless. Here we are, rocking it with the youngsters, lol...

She says she wants to take me to see Short Stack next, geeeezzzzuzzzzz! lol Give me my Hard On boys any day.... at least the crowd majority are older persons... ah well, who cares... we can be too old when we're dead!

May Already

2011-05-15T18:30:00.002+10:00

Well, Easter and Mothers Day are over....
here is our cat Joey, getting into the Easter spirit, lol... Amethyst made the ears for him

And here is Amethyst and hubby with the Mothers Day dessert they made for me, Amethyst really wanted to make me something and so Rob agreed to help her, it was very yummy! She enjoyed cooking with Dad so much that she is insisting on doing some more cooking with Rob today. She gets this cooking thing from her Father's side of the family... I hate cooking, tho I will do some special cooking for special occasions. For Easter I made an onion and cheese flan, egg salad, creamy potato bake etc so that we could have an Easter feast, instead of the kids just ODing on chocolate. We still have Easter eggs in the fridge, all of us are a little bit over chocolate at the moment...still!

What more could this Mum want on Mothers Day? My 4 bubs, home made cards, home made potpourri, home made dessert, fancy chockies and pizza! Yeah! :)
What else have I been up to? Riding into the city weekly, even twice a week sometimes. I love it so much. Friday gone, I rode into the city to have our monthly lunch date with my sister and cousin. This was the first time I had done that. Normally I get the bus coz I love to dress up all girlie like when I go into the city, but of course I can't wear those sort of clothes on the bike, so I wore my Hard Ons tshirt like I usually do on the bike and took my other clothes and make up in my back pack. So I didn't feel too guilty for eating Indian food and then coffee and a slice of cheesecake, lol... Here is a photo of the bike track along the Brisbane River.... it is the most glorious sight after riding down Sylvan Road, it is such a relief to get there. I do so love my ride into the city!!!!

I also got some more Ramones CDs.... 'Acid Eaters' and 'Mondo Bizarro' and ordered 'Brain Drain' and 'Adios Amigos' and the DVD 'It's Alive' thinking that then I will have them all, but realised that I still need 'Halfway to Sanity' and "Weird Tales of The Ramones"... so I am loving all the 'new to me' Ramones songs... god I love'em! As usual I made the girls laugh in the city on Friday with my constant .... "there is a Ramones song..." there always seems to be a relevant Ramones song or line from a song for any given situation and it is my catch phrase... need to get a tshirt that says.... "There is a Ramones song dot dot dot" lol... Also got the May edition of Mojo magazine as it has the Ramones on the front cover. Last month on the 15th was the 10th year anniversary of Joey's death and it would have been his 60th birthday this Thursday, the 19th of May. It goes without saying, I'll be listening to Joey all day Thursday. As everyday is Ramones day for me.

Husband and I will be going to see 'Water For Elephants' in Gold Class on Monday. It's a big girlie movie and I am expecting to bawl my head off. I've been in the mood for a good soppy love story, so hopefully this won't disappoint. Looks good. Anyway, gotta go feed the family...

School Holidays

2011-04-15T22:29:00.001+10:00

Today was the first day of the Easter holidays, yippee! Took the girls to see "Rio" with our neighbours.

I have promised to finish reading the last book of Harry Potter to them these holidays before the movie comes out. But other than that, we have nothing planned for the holidays, just taking it easy and I at least will be trying not to eat too much chocolate. I have been riding my bike and going to the gym. On my way into the city this week my bloody back tyre decided to blow out! I'd reached Milton, down on the river side bike path, beautiful, exhilarating and I decided to go to the nearest petrol station and pump up my tyres.... and the back wheel gave up the ghost. Had to walk home... two and a quarter hours later..... grrrrrrr. Anyway, the husband and I went into the city the next day (by bus) and picked up a new tube for my bikey wikey... so I am happy again. We went to lunch at the Treasury casino for lunch. Last time that will be happening. They've put the price up $10.... no members discount anymore. Looks like we will have to find a new place to lunch.
Anyway... onto other things... books..... Here are the 4 books I have read recently....

Ramones An American Band by Jim Bessmen

On The Road With the Ramones

I Slept With Joey Ramone by Mickey Leigh with Legs McNeil

and as my copy of Dee Dee's book STILL hasn't come in yet, I read Dawn French's book...

The Ramones books were wonderful, especially the ones by Monte and Mickey, very personal accounts. And after being Ramones-afied it was a tough call to choose another book to read, but Dawn's book was wonderful too. I almost wet myself reading about when her Mother took her to see 'The Exorcist', pure bliss, Mother's....aren't embarrassing ones the best! I've got one of those too.... I do hope I can live up to this... lol! And as usual, I was inspired by her swearing.... it was cocking this and cocking that after I read Dawn' book.... lol... and loved her use of the term 'Lady garden'.... Funny lady....

God knows what I am going to read after these fine books. Just hope my Dee Dee Ramone book comes in soon. I blinking well ordered it before Christmas... what are they doing... typing the ruddy thing out again????

Hmm, what else have I been up to?? Well, I got my Ramones albums from Rocking Horse records... Leave Home, Pleasant Dreams, Animal Boy plus my Joey Ramone solo album and one of Dee Dee's solo albums... . so lots of new songs to listen to. I really love going to the gym and listening to the Ramones on my MP3 player and going to town on the cross trainer. Yeah, the gym is going great, loving it. Losing some weight. It's slow but it's going.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great Easter. Looking forward to Good Friday, for the hot cross buns, not so much the chocolate on Sunday....*sigh* ... can't wait for it to be over really... and all that temptation to be gone....

Wedding and Hard Ons Friday

2011-03-16T22:44:00.003+10:00

Last Friday was a very long but wonderful day. First, my cousin and his beautiful wife got married. I had such a great time at the reception with all the family. Well, Rob was at work and the kids were at school, so it was just me and my extended family. I had a Cointreau and lemonade and then a Gin and lemonade and then when we went into the reception room there was a big bottle of bubbly on the table, for everyone at the table to toast all the speeches but I was basically the only one able to drink, or who wanted to drink. Besides my Mum having about 2 glasses, I drank the rest, hee hee! :) I was a bit loud and having lots of fun. Lots of people gravitated to our table as we were the loudest and laughing a lot. At the end of the day, my cousin Phil said that the champagne on the table was non alcoholic and he didn't know what my problem was, lol... it was very funny, guess you had to be there. Then I went home and my sister went home and picked up my nephew and they came over to my place and sis and I went off to see the Hard Ons. It's the last Brisbane gig with drummer Pete, he is leaving for family reasons. Hopefully the guys will find a new drummer soon. The night was great, I bought a Hard Ons t-shirt from them and a Nunchukka Superfly CD as well. The guys were in good spirits and they played brilliantly, such a powerful band.

Scrapbooking wise, I have only done 2 layouts in quite awhile, one about my sister's and my last night out to see the Hard Ons back in Halloween (didn't get a photo of us this time around) and a layout of the lyrics from the Ramones song 'I Remember You'...

Off To The Monsters Ball

I am still cycling and rode into the city again this week and ride to the gym everyday. I think my fitness levels are getting better. My Mum is coming for a visit tomorrow for a few days, so I will be giving the gym and riding a bit of a break until she goes home on Sunday. Goodnight :)

Cycle Girl

2011-03-09T19:33:00.001+10:00

On Thursday last week I had to go into the city. I popped into Hype shoe store and looked at the purple Vans longingly, then thought, what the heck, they are the shoes I originally wanted. They had none in stock (they had them the week before) so they had to send away for them and I had to pay for them then and there.... Thing is, I knew money would be tight this week and I didn't know if I would be able to get into the city before the Hard Ons played to pick them up... I really want to wear them to the gig. So Hype rang me on Monday to say the shoes had come in... I didn't have a cent to get to the city by bus so I thought, "To hell with it, I'm riding my bike!" Along the Brisbane river is a bike track. Years ago I had a friends who lived not too far from the bike track/walkway and we used to walk into the city all the time. I watch people ride along there now and I have always wanted to ride along there too but had no idea how to get down to the bikeway from here. I now know a bike path near here that will take me to Indooroopilly, so on Tuesday, I Googled how to get to the city from Indooroopilly. Big mistake. It was all through the back streets of the suburbs, very hilly and winding roads. I won't ride on the road, so I rode on the footpath. Over sloping footpaths and slippery drive ways and it rained. It was horrible. I had to constantly look at my directions and inevitably, I got lost. I can't read a map to save my life and I can't even listen to directions and stick to them. Totally useless. In hindsight, I think I wasn't actually lost but up ahead there was a big chain across the road with a big sign "Road Closed". Maybe due to the recent floods...There was another road but I thought it was a road into this golf club and instead of investigating and going closer, I panicked and asked a bus driver who had pulled up if he knew where Indooroopilly Road was. I had assumed I had veered off it. I don't know where the hell I was, I think I was in Long Pocket. I think I may have been close to the Brisbane river but I think I may have been heading away from the city. Anyway, the driver offered to take me to Indooroopilly Road but I just ended back where I had came from. So I was all sulky and decided to just turn back and go home. I made another wrong turn but eventually got home. I felt like such a failure. I felt that I am too fat and out of condition to attempt something so ambitious, so I lay on my bed and blubbed like a big girlie sook. Then I thought, "F**k it, I NEED those Vans and I am going to ride into the city if it kills me!" So I Googled up bike tracks from my suburb into the city and thank heavens, there is a bike track all the way around the motorway into the city from here! I was still nervous, as I had ridden for three hours the day before and had gotten no where need the bike track along the river. But it was great! The bike track is barricaded off from the motorway and it is just bushlands along the other side most of the way to Toowong, so it is a really nice ride. Big wide flat bike path. Some inclines but I didn't have to get off and on my bike like I did going through the hilly suburbs. And as I didn't have to worry about people backing out of their drive ways, I could listen to my music, which always makes exercise that more bearable and enjoyable. Once the bike path along the motorway ended, I just had to follow one road down to the river, so it was impossible to get lost, thankfully. I tell you, the sight of the Brisbane river was the most glorious sight I had seen, I was so relieved to finally get there, I thought "Whoo Hoo, I'm living the dream!" lol, can you tell I was excited!! :) It is a 12.3 km ride into the city along that bike track apparently and it only took me just over an hour to do it. I walked my bike into the mall and picked up my Vans and I was so exhilarated with my achievement. The ride home was a bit harder but I think in time, I will get used to it. I loved it so much, I have decided to do it once a week. Tho' I think I will wear three sanitary pads next time!!... Ouch! My fanny is so sore .... and not in a good way, lol! I don't know how men ride bicycles, they must be giving themselves testicular cancer if they do it all the time, ouchies! My butt is sore too, I've got enough padding there, can't understand why it hurts so much, lol. But I am happy, I have my Vans, I might have to get some purple laces coz I look a bit like I was washed ashore Gilligans' Island. I wore them to pick the girls up from school today, to wear them in a bit before Friday night and the buggers have given me blisters, *sigh* but I will hopefully fix them with a shoe stretcher before then. Anyway, have to go make tea for the family. Can't wait till Friday, first my cousin's wedding and then the Hard Ons, yippee!! Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, my bicycle is purple! :)

iRetro At Pig and Whistle

2011-02-27T21:43:00.005+10:00

On Wednesday my sister came over. We watched "Rock and Roll High School " and the Ramones documentary "End Of The Century" Thursday I had to go to Toowong for an interview at Sarina Russo... gotta get a job... then we went to Sizzler and then I grabbed a bottle of bubblie and some Fanta. After I made the family dinner, Debbranne and I drank the sparkling wine, mixed with a bit of vodka that I had in the house with the Fanta, it was nice! We got ready to go out and went to iRetro at the Pig and Whistle. The pub was pretty empty but we had fun anyway, asked the DJ to play the Ramones for us, he said he couldn't play "marginal" music, but he played "I Wanna Be Sedated" anyway, yeah! Most of the music was top 10 chart music but he threw in a few songs we asked for. They have a big screen TV and they play the music videos, it was fun!

I have already made next month's desktop calendar using the photo of my sister and I from the night and photos of albums/bands that was played that we liked. They didn't play Prince, Eurogliders or Men At Work, lol... tho he did play Whitesnake, Split Endz and Dire Straights... tho they are the times I decided to go to the toilet, lol! Then we walked home. It is a walk that I do ALL the time but my sister hasn't and it was nice to walk together and talk in the fresh cool night air after midnight. Nice side of town, so no troubles there... Went into the city on Friday for lunch with our cousin at Black Jacks. I also tried to buy the tickets for the up coming Hard Ons gig, but can't seem to find where to buy the tickets...it is only 12 days away... I might have to go into the city again this week sometime... oh yeah... Thursday I am going in.... hopefully I can pick up the tickets then. I went into the city with the express idea of buying those purple Vans, but my sister talked me out of them and talked me into buying these sparkly mauve converse shoes instead... did I do the wrong thing? I worry that I am trying to look 12.... It's bad enough I want some Britney Spears perfume, but will I be looking like a Britney Spears fan wearing these shoes??? lol, hope not!

My sister went home on Saturday and I got a purple cat scratch pole for our kitten Joey.

Anyway, so this week will be back to normal and I will be back at the gym everyday. I have lost another 2 kilos, so I am very happy! Goodnight! :)

S***ty Things and Things To Look Forward To

2011-02-22T00:10:00.007+10:00

OK.... lets get the shitty things out of the way...
Husband and I had an argument.... nothing new there.... same old same old...
but then he posted on Facebook that I want a divorce. Fine... he wants his friends and family to know, good, whatever... but he has nieces and nephews and younger cousins...(of mine also)... children ....on his facebook that really didn't need to know that crap.... what do you do.... I'm tired.....

Don't Talk About Us by the Someloves

Things to look forward to.....
This week.... My sister is coming over on Wednesday for 3 days.... Wednesday we are going to go shopping at Indro... Thursday I have to go to a Sarina Russo appointment and then Thursday night we will go to the Pig and Whistle in Indro.... it is supposed to be "Retro Night" We are getting our hopes up a bit too much I suspect, thinking it is alternative retro night.... it will probably turn out to be just 80's top 40 shit music retro night, knowing our luck... but we are going to go and have a look see anyway. Please pray for us that it isn't all Eurogliders and Prince and Men At Work......
I really did try for all of 2 seconds to like Prince's "Purple Rain" but it is too horrible for words.... (I did get into Deep Purple a little bit tho, lol, yeah for 'Space Truckin'!!!!) Anyway... we will go for a few drinks and hope for the best.... Then on Friday we will finally go into the city to Black Jacks at the Treasury for lunch. We have been trying to go for the last 2 weeks, but something has always turned up to postpone it. Last week, cousin Barb's son was home sick from school. Hoping some of my Ramones CDs that I ordered have come in by then. I picked up "I Slept With Joey Ramone" book by his brother Mickey Leigh and I ordered this little cutie from the UK...
They sent it very quickly, which is always very appreciated, I was very excited about it.... it is sadly tho... a bit on the cerise side :( But don't worry, I'll still be wearing it... (just don't tell Smiggle I'm condoning cerise all of a sudden, lol) I'll probably wear this to the Retro night on Thursday... The other really exciting thing/s are.... March 11 my cousin is getting married and we are looking forward to the wedding. It will be a morning/afternoon affair and after that, my sister and I are off to see The Hard Ons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are doing a tour of Japan at the moment, then will tour Oz in March/April, then they are touring the UK and Europe in June/July! They are playing a different venue in Brisbane, so I have to figure out where that is, hopefully I can pick up the tickets when I go into the city on Friday, whoo hoo! It is nice to have fun things to look forward to, it makes the day to day shit more bearable... Good night :)

Life Sux Sometimes

2011-02-19T23:30:00.000+10:00

Well.... really, it does doesn't it?

Valentine's Day

2011-02-13T23:19:00.000+10:00

Hubby had 2 days off last week, to do stuff with his new bike and he got me an early Valentine's present.... a kitten.... Since my beautiful black and white cat, Asreal died, I have missed having a cat in our lives but wasn't ready to get a new one. Plus the kids keep me plenty busy, of course. I really wanted a Himalayan cat or a Rag Doll cat... I liked the cream fur with the brown nose and ears.... I don't want a pure bred, but just a kitty with that colouring.... anyway... the kitty he got me is a grey and white long haired male kitten and I had a bit of a hissy fit, tho I kept it inside.... I wanted to wait until our last and lonely guinea pig passed on and I really didn't want a cat in this house as we live on a busy road and I did sort of want to choose my own cat, but I had to tell the husband that the cat was lovely and he was wonderful otherwise it would be moody town around here, so I went for a walk to calm down... I got home and sulkily said... "I was expecting an Ipod or a gym membership, not a cat" So the next day when I got home from my walk to my local shopping center, on the table was the paper work for a year membership at a gym that is at my local shopping center! Yippee! We don't usually give Valentine's presents, I was just feeling a bit miffed that he had put us in debt for his bit of spoiling and I felt I deserved to be spoilt a bit too and now I do feel really spoilt! He had been going to customise his bike but decided that he liked it just fine the way it is, so he spent that money on the gym membership instead, yeah for me! :) And btw... I do love our new kitty... I am a cat person and it didn't take me long to fall in love with him... Many years ago, when my sister and I were living together, a friend of mine, who was a Ramones fan, had a little grey and white kitten that she named 'Joey'... but she couldn't look after him, so she gave him to me. My sister, being my elder sister and being a bit bossy and having no nonsense about her (love you sis!!!) she decided that I wasn't able to look after him either, so she took him to a cat shelter. Apparently he got a good home, but I still missed the opportunity of being a cat's Mum and was pretty glum about it and I have never forgotten little Joey that was given to me by my friend, Candy. Well, as soon as I got home and saw the kitten in Rob's arms and he said, "Now you have to give your cat a name" I immediately thought "Joey" would be the perfect name for this little mite too.... so yes, he is sort of named after Joey Ramone and sort of named after the cat that was mine for a day.


Joey

Friday was a sad day for our family, as it was my Uncle's funeral. Julie had a nice photo of Uncle Don on the casket and a photo of my Uncle and Aunts and my Mum when they were kids. It is a special photo to all of us Grandkids and when I saw it, I just couldn't help crying.

Uncle Don is the eldest one, then Uncle Kevin, my Mum is the eldest girl and then Aunty Barb and baby Aunty Pam, they are in North Quay in the city on the way by ferry to Lone Pine. This would have to be about 1949. I must get around to scrapping this photo. My eldest Uncle, Uncle Keith, who died 13 years ago is not in the photo, no one remembers why, tho he may have been working by that time as boys started work fairly young back then and he would have been about 15 by the look of Uncle Don's age in this photo.
This week I will be busy going to the gym and getting familiar to all that and on Friday I will be going out to lunch with my sister and cousin at Black Jacks in the city.
Tomorrow, for Valentine's day, I will have mini chocolate love heart cakes, love heart shortbread biscuits, chocolates and for tea we are having love heart shaped pasta. Wishing everyone lots of love for tomorrow, Happy Valentine's Day!!! :)

Stuff

2011-02-05T22:18:00.002+10:00

Today my husband went down the Gold Coast and bought himself a motorbike..... He's happy, he's wanted one for forever. He had one before we met but had to sell it and has pined for one ever since... so I am happy for him, tho it would have been nice to know about it but hey.... he can have his midlife crisis anyway he wants it, lol. It is blue and sort of matches our blue Kia Carnival car. I said.... 'well, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas and Happy Valentines Day' .... me, I'm getting perfume (for Valentines Day)..... being a purple freak, I will only fork out money on perfume that is in a purple bottle.... and the nicest one that I have found so far is 'Britney Spears Midnight Fantasy'... it smells like lollies. There is a Versace fragrance called 'Versus' that I quickly smelt that I thought was nice but I would have to check it out again to be sure. The Britney one I have wanted to get for awhile.
Anyway... in light of the new bike... apparently the car is mine now..... which would be wonderful if I could even drive... so now I have to get driving lessons...
Last week I went into the city and ordered some Ramones albums....'Leave Home', 'Pleasant Dreams' and 'Animal Boy' and also Joey's solo album 'Don't Worry About Me' and Dee Dee's solo album 'Greatest and Latest' I couldn't order everything that day, so I just stuck to those 5 for now. The Joey album 'Christmas Spirit in My House' is no longer available... bugger :( and I think I need to get Dee Dee's 'Zonked' album next, as well as six other Ramones albums I still haven't got .... I did get 'Loco Live' and a book about the Ramones from Rocking Horse .... which I am reading now, I have finally finished 'Little Dorritt'. 'Poison Heart' the book still hasn't come in yet and I also ordered in 'I Slept With Joey Ramone' written by his brother Mickey Leigh. Also... I am getting some purple Vans shoes!!!! OK, yes... I am plenty spoilt....
I am going into Black Jacks at the Treasury Casino for lunch with my sister and cousin on Friday. It is always a fun day out with the girls... looking forward to it. And the local pool is back in business on Monday, so I can go swimming again! With all my walking in this heat, I have lost another 2 kilos, so that's great... hopefully I will loose some more again with the swimming.
On a very sad note, my Uncle died tonight. He has been unwell for many years but he has just kept on going. He has been in terrible pain for so very long but everyone says he kept going for my cousin Julie, his daughter. Her Mum died about 6 years ago and it has been very hard on both of them. Rest in peace Uncle Don, love you. Good night.

Back To School

2011-01-22T22:39:00.013+10:00

Well, the 4 kids are back to school in 2 days!! Yippee!! :)

Two weeks ago, I decided to change the girls primary school. I have been wanting to change their school for a few years now but I hate change and it takes me forever to make a move. I hated to move the girls away from their friends but I know that really, the change is for the best. No more school bus, I will be able to walk them to school, plus the new school is public and starts at 9am instead of 8.30... so hopefully that will mean that mornings aren't so frantic. Plus, academically, this new school is supposed to be better than the one they are currently at. I bought their new uniforms this morning and then this afternoon I went to get their books. Got all the stationary but sadly, none but 2 of their text books are available anywhere.... The new principle did say not to worry if I was unable to get all their books straight away.... so I am trying to not freak out and hyperventilate about it.....Got all the boys stuff for high school on Thursday, so that is not a problem.
The only other thing of interest to mention, is the fact that my sister is a single woman again and she is living it up to the full. I already blogged about our night out seeing The Hard Ons in October for Halloween.... that was to cheer her up, as she was devastated that her idiot husband had left her and the kids. But now she is loving the freedom and she was excited to tell me that she saw that "Flares" nightclub is "happening" the night before Australia Day.... apparently it is an occurring event.... which is very interesting to me.... My sister would love to go, but sadly, I am too strapped for cash with all the money draining things that has been happening for us lately... Ailani's 7th birthday, Christmas, New Years, Kale's 16th birthday, back to school costs for 4 kids....plus we are having an Australia Day BBQ with Kale's girlfriend's family.... so I can't go to Flares..... maybe the next time it comes around... I might be able to convince the husband that I am only doing it for my sister's benefit..... which I am.... but Flares used to be one of my favourite nightclub venues.... tho back in those days, it was truly "Flares" ... they played 70s disco, cool disco like "Knock On Wood" by Amii Stewart, 'Turn The Beat Around' by Vicki Sue Robinson, 'Rusputin' by Boney M, 'Feels Like I'm In Love' by Kelly Marie and the like... I would always dress accordingly... in a purple jump suit or purple flares. The Flares of today plays alternative music from the 80s.... the kind of stuff I danced to when I was a teen. So basically... my music is now considered 'retro' which is funny... coz when we thought of retro music, we thought of The Doors, The Loved Ones, Shocking Blue, The Easy Beats, The Monkees and the like...
getting back to my sister, she used to wear a Doors t shirt all the time, until some ****er stole it and everything else off our clothes line way back in the day when we used to live together after we moved from Hervey Bay to Brisbane...

Turning 16 in the 2011 Floods

2011-01-18T00:56:00.005+10:00

Our eldest child turned 16 last week....
Eventful enough... I think he will always remember it.... Our city of Brisbane and alot of other areas in Queensland had some horrific flooding. The footage on the TV, when we actually had power was devastating.
Thankfully we were not inundated with flood waters, we weren't far from them, but luckily, safe and dry but we had no electricity. Kale's best friend was unable to come because he was cut off by flood waters but Kale's girlfriend was able to get here OK. And because Mum leaves everything to the last minute...we were without a present to give him on his big day! I had planned to go to the shops the day or 2 before to get his present but all the shops were shut because of the Brisbane river flooding in the extreme! I told him that his girlfriend was going to be his best present and he said that that was always going to be the case anyway.... awww! Young love, so sweet! So it was a bit of a laid back birthday for him. Leading up to his birthday, I couldn't help but think of my own 16th birthday.... I had been telling everyone that I had had a memorable birthday and that I wanted to make sure Kale had a good, memorable birthday and I was fussing about the party plans and he got frustrated with me because everything I suggested seemed lame or for dinosaurs like me and not what he wanted, so in the end I gave in and let him have his laid back birthday.... he just wanted his best friend and his girlfriend here.... well, unfortunately Danny was unable to come but Kale got his girl and he was happy. I went and dug out my dusty diary from 1986 and flicked through it looking for my youthful recollections of my 16th birthday party and ended up disappointed..... I had thought that for my 16th birthday I'd had a Punk Party.... I had remembered my cousin coming up to Hervey Bay from Brisbane and all my school friends and Sister 'pogo' and 'slam dancing' to the Dead Kennedys, The Damned, Sex Pistols and the like. We had ripped stockings and tartan mini skirts with lots of safety pins and I had the most awful haircut imaginable. My cousin Phil had an old army disposal jacket on, such great memories.... but my diary told me a slightly different version..... it wasn't my 16th birthday party after all.... it was in the same year but it was actually my Sister's 21st birthday party! I read the whole silly diary and there wasn't even a record of what I did for my 16th birthday! So that made me feel slightly better that I didn't give my son a huge 16th birthday party.... blah! lol...
We have had rain, rain and more rain for weeks and weeks on end (hence the flood) but the last 2 days of the peak of the flood, it was fine, beautiful weather. The day after Kale's birthday, the flood waters had started to recede and some shops that had been unaffected were able to open again, so I was able to walk to my local shopping centre and get him an iPod touch as a belated birthday present. It was a complete surprise, he had no idea what I'd planned on getting him, so I said before he opened it .... "If you don't like it, fake it" obviously he was SO happy... I said... "are you faking it?" and he said "No!" biggest grin on his face. It's nice when you can make them happy .... and lets face it.... teenagers are hard to please sometimes...
Turns out that for my 15th birthday party, I'd had a 1960s party and all my friends wore dresses with full skirts, gloves, shoes and pointy bras that we'd bought from op shops (thrift stores).... so maybe that's why I didn't have a 16th birthday... because I'd had a big party the year before.... we'd listened to Roy Orbison, Elvis, the Beatles, Herman's Hermits, The Easy Beats etc and 'twisted' and 'jived' the night away.... what a transformation in less than a year, lol!!
Anyway... here is the layout I made about the mixed Christmas CD I burnt on Christmas Day...

Mixed Christmas CD

The highlight of the CD were the first 2 songs on the list, especially the Ramones, of course.... they actually have a few songs that mention Christmas one way or other... in 'Danny Says' ......
Hangin' out in L.A. and there's nowhere to go
It ain't Christmas if there ain't no snow
Listening to Sheena on the radio
Oh-ho oh-ho
and in 'We're a Happy Family' (I love hearing Joey imitating 'the father' or whatever, saying.... "where are my safety pins, what did you do with my safety pins, what is this" so funny! :) )
We ain't got no friends
Our troubles never end
No Christmas cards to send
Daddy likes men
In 'I Wanted Everything' ...
I heard about the Easter bunny
Presents under a Christimas tree
It was dreaming and fantasy
There was no Mom or Daddy
I wanted everything
and in 'My My Kind of A Girl' they sing...
I think we'd look pretty good together
Walking through a winter wonderland
And this time I think it's forever
I hope your parents understand
Well, a 'winter wonderland' certainly isn't Christmas for us here in Australia, but still, it is a universal image of Christmas time.
and in Planet Earth 1988 they sing...
Guerrilla armies rule the street
No more christmas or trick or treat
Is this what the future will bring
I pray for peace more than anything
If there are any other songs I have missed... please let me know...
oh... and just tonight... looking at youtube, I see Joey had a solo EP album called 'Christmas Spirit...In My House'...... bugger, I need that..... good thing I am going into the city the first Friday the kids go back to school.... I'll be popping into Rocking Horse Records again.... if they have it... thinking I might have to order some of these things... *sigh*
Anyway... I need to get to bed... my eldest daughter has a friend over for a sleep over... they are not ready for bed, but it is almost 1am... but I can't stay up... too old, lol....
Goodnight. :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T03:19:00.004+10:00

It's New Year's Eve and instead of grooving to good music, my husband is forcing me to watch a 'Planet of the Apes' marathon. Bugger.... so I am sitting here, in the dark, on the other side of the room with headphones secretly placed on my head listening to music...
Benefit of the Doubt by Crystal Set and .... to go with my New Year's Eve drink of choice....
Bad Gin by Blue Ruin .... just some nice 80s tunes..... :) ...also... Stranded by The Saints
When You're Down by The Headstones I Don't Mind by The Hitmen and Slave Girl by The Lime Spiders and then I have to veer over to For Always by The Stems..... awwww! and awww again... At First Sight by The Stems and I have to peek at the Ramones... You Don't Come Close and tonight, I can't stop singing this... Locket Love and of course... my favourite that always makes me smile... Where Did She Come From by the Hard Ons. Every now and then I get up to do a bit of work in the kitchen, making curried egg salad, garlic cucumber salad, coleslaw... and I put my new purple MP3 player in my ears and listen to some more music. Not a bad New Year's Eve after all. I remember many moons ago when there was a Planet of the Apes marathon on TV, my friend Wolfgang had a party and before the other guests arrived and before the movie started he challenged me that I couldn't drink 3 of these 'shots' of alcohol.... God knows what was in them and never one to back down from a challenge, I downed them all and promptly passed out. When the Planet of the Apes movies came on he desperately tried to wake me up but there was no waking me.... I always thought I'd missed out on a fun night... but now come to think of it, I missed out on nothing, lol. Tonight, our eldest son was off with his girlfriend, so it was just the 3 kids, Rob and I lighting sparklers and letting off poppers, covered with glow in the dark bangles. Ailani was happy to hold the sparklers this year. Got some nice photos, will post them when I get them onto the computer. The eldest son got home about 1.30, we were all up still, so I got some photos with him,

Hoping 2011 is a fantastic year for all... I am optimistic that it will be a good one for me.

Christmas was good... extremely wet... but good, it was not the huge effort it usually is. I had Mum here helping, plus she insisted buying cooked chooks and she brought down 2 cooked legs of pork, so there was only the baked vegetables to cook, even tho we had more people than normal, it was quite a restful Christmas. I made a special mixed Christmas CD for the day... I am doing a layout about it... the song that I listened to the most on the big day was... 'Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)' by the Ramones! Such a fabulous song! We seemed to have endless rain around that time, tho it is lovely fine weather at the moment, hope it holds out. Anyway, I have to get to bed, it is 3.18am and I need some sleep.

Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Coming

2010-12-16T13:03:00.001+10:00

Want to hear something disgusting?
Christmas day will be here in 10 days!
Lordy dordy.... haven't even finished decorating the house.... have to get it done today...
The tree is up and decorated, the table is decorated but I have a ton of decorations and I need/want to get it done. It is terribly humid today, as there are thunder storms about.
Most of the Christmas shopping is done, just have to buy my parents, Sister, niece and nephew their gifts. Probably do that Friday, or start at least. I've bought 2 king single mattresses for the boys and will get them a bunk bed in the new year but I needed the extra mattresses before Christmas as I will have Mum and Dad, my Sister and her 2 children sleeping here Christmas night, so it will be a full house then. The mattresses are supposed to come on Monday... hope so, I am freaking out a bit....
On Sunday we all went to Wet and Wild for Rob's work Christmas party, it was a great day, as always, although it wasn't quite as fun for me. Normally the eldest son and I run off and go on all the scary rides together but this year we invited his girlfriend. I begged my other son to go on the rides with me but he doesn't like those kind of rides, so I could only go on the ones that you can go on alone.... but still, it was a great day. So I guess there will be some layouts done with those photos. Here is the only layout I've done for awhile...

credits: Gabba Gabba Hey Shoes

Geez I love those Ramones! I went into Rocking Horse records 2 weeks ago and got 5 albums... Ramones, Rocket To Russia, Road To Ruin, End of The Century, Subterranean Jungle plus I got the documentary 'End of The Century'... I might have to order in the other albums, I need them all... Still waiting for the Best of Hard Ons that I ordered from my local record store, the only place I can get it, tho I did recently get 'Yesterday and Today' from Ray from the Hard Ons, they had a few of the CDs turn up and they were selling them through their forums, so I was thrilled to get that very rare (now) CD.... hoping 'Yummy' will 'turn up'...

oh... I also ordered Dee Dee Ramone's book 'Poison Heart', can't wait for that to get here... I need to hurry up and finish reading 'Little Dorritt' so I can start 'Poison Heart' when it gets here straight away!

Anyway, I better get and do this decorating....listening to "I'm Affected" by the Ramones..... love that song!

I Feel Down

2010-11-16T18:10:00.005+10:00

"I feel down, I don't feel happy.
I feel down, I feel crappy"
lyrics from an early Hard Ons song... what else, lol!
Well, actually, I have been obsessing over another band as well lately...
THE RAMONES!
Can't get enough of them! Obviously, I have always loved them but I didn't know all their albums, so I am catching up.... *sigh* always late to the party, I know.....
My sister had their album 'Animal Boy' back in the day and I knew all the famous songs.... but now I am needing all their work. I have Ramones Mania and Anthology but I need MORE, I need to have each actual album.....
hello Rocking Horse Records... I'll be paying you another visit soon!
But just in case you are thinking I am fickle.... I still have all my favourite songs by the Hard Ons on my MP3 player, so whenever I go walking (which is a lot lately) I am listening to my Aussie boys.... I listen to the Ramones at home and the Hard Ons out on the street.
I have been going swimming three days a week and it has been brilliant. It is a half hour power walk to the pool, then I swim for an hour and then walk home. I have already lost a kilo and I am staying positive. Don't know how I will keep this up with the kids going on 7 weeks Christmas vacation tho, gawd blimey!
Today I went on a school excursion with my youngest DD and then afterwards, I walked into the nearest dentist and asked them to rip one of my teeth out.
This tooth has been a problem for years and I have just kept putting it off, thinking that I could manage it and that I couldn't afford to go to a dentist, but I am sick of the decaying, stinky thing, so I got it ripped out.....
SO happy I did. I decided that while I had a bit of money in my purse and before I had to spend it on bills, food or the husband's stinky cigarettes that I would do this necessary thing for myself. Bit of a metaphor of my life at the moment really.... can't afford to do that either... but it has to be done, eventually....
Gawd, I need to get a job!! I am joining a job agency on Friday... wish me luck!
The only layout I have done recently is of the husband and I out at a local Mexican restaurant. I've wanted to go to Montezuma's forever but the husband is not a fan of Mexican food. (he hates everything I love it seems) I was hoping the food would be wonderful, to change his mind, but it wasn't the best, sadly. But we had a good time anyway... thanks to the wonderful margarita's, lol! (I drank his margarita as well, because he didn't like that either *sigh*) I always sing this song by Andy Prieboy: Montezuma Was A Man Of Faith when we drive past the restaurant and while we were there, I couldn't stop singing this song by Wall Of Voodoo: Elvis Bought Dora A Cadillac. It made for a very atmospheric night, for me at least! :)

Credits: Montezuma's

The other thing that annoyed me recently, I was walking to the local shopping center, that is a bit further away than the local pool, to pay some bills and my $10 MP3 player started playing up.... I have been wanting to get a purple ipod, so I can have more music to listen to while I am exercising, the little simple MP3 player has been fine but it would be nice to have an ipod.... the husband and eldest son have one after all... my sister says I should get an ipod touch because she loves hers, but they don't come in purple... she says you can get a purple case for it.... but it's the principle of the matter... lol.... I need purple metal shiny things....lol!

anyway... I am walking along listening to '1st Element is Sweat' and the MP3 player is cutting in and out and the volume is only in one ear and going down and you just CAN'T listen to that song anyway but LOUD.... I am almost having a fit because walking long distances without music is torture... then I realise it is not the crappy $10 MP3 that is playing up.... it was the crappy $20 purple... sorry... cerise Smiggle headphones I was using.... Not happy Smiggle! I had only bought them about 3 weeks ago... purely because they were purple and retractable.... well, as I say.... Cerise.... cerise is a try hard version of purple... it really is more pink than purple... cerise is acceptable to me if it is mixed with real purple things... so when I say something is cerise, it is almost a derogatory remark... like 'try hard' or 'wanna be' .. lol... yeah, I know I am a loony for purple... anyway... did I keep my reciept so I could take the crappy headphones back to Smiggle and get my money back...? no, of course not... so I am boycotting Smiggle... initially I was thrilled with their 'purple' stationary... but really... it's just cerise...

Happy Purple Camera Day!

2010-11-03T20:54:00.004+10:00

Today I went over to Virginia to pick up my purple camera! Yippee!
Couldn't take any photos while I was over there with my sister because it has it's own battery that needs charging. Oh well... my sister met me over there and she drove us to Sandgate and we spent the rest of the day op. shopping. I got a heap of purple things... 2 skirts, beads, a belt, a folder, material and 3 purple Bonds singlets.... so it was a very good purple day for me! We only have one op. shop in Indooroopilly, so it was fun to go to so many op. shops (thrift stores) and wonderful to spend the day with just my sister. When I got home, I charged my camera's battery and read the manual. So far I have taken 3 photos of Amethyst and one of Ailani. I will experiment a bit more later. I really aught to get to bed soon. It was a good day. :)

Hard Ons for Halloween!

2010-11-02T18:12:00.010+10:00

Well, Halloween is over now. It was a big week end. On the Saturday we went over to my sister's place and picked her and my niece and nephew up and brought them home to our place. I made a Halloween party for the kids.... way too many lollies but I think they enjoyed it. My sister, Debbranne and I shared a bottle of wine and got ready to go to see the Hard Ons at the Halloween Monster Bash in the Valley. I wanted to leave at about 8pm but didn't leave until after 9.30pm. We had a nice time listening to the Hard Ons while we got ready to go out and putting on our make up together like we did back in the day, such a lot of fun! Sadly, neither Debbranne nor I could get the rotten vampire teeth to stay in our heads this time round :( .... I want to get proper vampire teeth made by a dentist! oh well.... We got to the Step Inn about 10.30pm. Everyone was dressed up as zombies! Everyone in the streets, everyone in the nightclub.... It must be the decade of the zombie. There was so much going on at the gig, we didn't know where to start. We saw the boys from the Hard Ons but as far as I could see, they didn't have a merchandise stand this time round. Which is sad... last time I went to see them, the husband wouldn't let me go anywhere near them, plus he ate and drank all the money I had brought to possibly buy something and this time round I bought heaps of money to buy stuff and couldn't. Not that I could wear a black Hard Ons tshirt..... if there were purple tshirts I'd wear one tho, lol! Anyway... the gig was good, it was brilliant to be able to share that with my sister. They played quite a lot of different songs from the last gig. 'Missing You M issing Me' 'I Think About You Every Day' 'Stop Crying' and 'Aunty' from the new album. I had been singing that song all day, so it was great to hear it live! Anyway... here are a few photos from the night...The photos are so much better than the ones I got from the last gig. The Step Inn had a stage, so they were up higher and we were pretty much right down the front. I was hoping to have my new purple Canon camera but it still hadn't come in, sadly. I did get a phone call today tho and it has finally arrived, so I am going to pick it up tomorrow. My sister will be meeting me over there where I am picking the camera up and we will spend the day together. I printed up some of the photos from Halloween for her, me, my Mum and cousin.... here is a photo of me and my sis at the club....
and a photo of me and the kids (with my son's girlfriend) on Halloween. I have last year's teeth in, thankfully I kept them and they stay in my mouth, lol...The kids had fun.... hubby took the kids trick or treating, I stayed at home, (listening to my kind of Halloween music) so I could give out treat bags to trick or treaters that came to our door... last year I missed out on giving out treat bags because we went trick or treating... hubby was working night shift the last 2 Halloween's so it was fun to have him here for this year's celebration. Yeah. too many lollies.... I only want to do Halloween one night next year, instead of 2 nights in a row like this year! I made my bat cookies, but didn't get a photo of them... dumb, dumb, dumb! But they were good. I didn't get around to making the spider web cup cakes... too much work. I started making a bat handbag but didn't get that finished in time....bummer... oh well.... maybe I'll finish it for next year.
Here is my sis, niece, nephew and my kids at the Halloween eve table....Hope everyone had a great Halloween! :)

Turning 40 and Happy Halloween soon!!

2010-10-23T21:24:00.012+10:00

I turned 40 two weeks ago. A little bit suckie... My Mum said she bawled her eyes out when she turned 30 and had a nervous break down when she turned 40.... I always said I would probably bawl my eyes out when I turned 40 and have the break down at 50...
well, I was too busy to lie in bed crying about being 40. I went to my local shopping centre like I always do once a week and I bought myself some other little bits and pieces... I have ordered my purple Canon camera for my birthday.... but I am still waiting for it to come in .... hopefully Tuesday. When hubby came home from work he brought me 2 bunches of flowers, my wedding bouquet flowers (irises) and some stargazer lilies and a big box of Ferrero Rocher, SO yum! Then Rob and I went out to dinner in the city and had such a nice time. Rob ordered a bottle of wine and I was really naughty and I bought 2 tiny bottles of Kahlua that I brought from home and snuck it into my coke. Later Rob insisted he buy himself a bourbon and coke and got me a strawberry daiquari. Our waitress looked like "Pet" from "Little Dorritt" (which I am still reading btw) and I asked her to take this photo of us on my 40th birthday... it was a really wonderful night... and maybe turning 40 isn't so bad after all. :)I really can't wait for my purple Canon camera to come soon... as I will be needing it to take some photos of a fun event coming up this Saturday coming...guess who's coming back to Brisbane...????
The Hard Ons!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, who'd of thought that they would be back so soon!
and oh yes.... I'm going!!! I am taking my sister this time and not poor old hubby, lol!
I've already bought the tickets to the Halloween Monsters Ball at the Step Inn. I'm taking my sister as she is going through a hard time right now and this will be the perfect thing to cheer her up, plus Rob would hate every minute of it anyway. The last time I went to the Hard Ons with Rob it was a bit of an ordeal for him. I would have loved to take my sister but I was a bit scared of going into the Valley at night and as hubby puts it, he is a good body guard.... but the Valley isn't the Valley it once was in the 80's. There are so many night clubs and there are so many people walking around. Not dark and deserted like the Valley of yesteryear. Plus there is the night link buses and security standing at the bus stops. It will be a really different night tho, as it is a Halloween themed night. What to wear was a big question. I wasn't going to dress up, but really, where's the fun in that? So I decided to go with a purple dress with a ruched bust and a darker purple 3 quarter sleeved bolero. I have only lost about 3 kilos in the last 3 months, which kinda sux, but I am still positive about the weight loss and I know I will continue to lose weight, if but slowly. I bought myself a pair of "Bridget Jones knickers" They are life changing, lol! I don't know if I look any better in them but I feel fantastic in them, which is probably all that matters. I've never owned any before, they are really ugly granny pants, but I am an old married woman, the husband doesn't care what my knickers look like... as long as I take them off at the end of the day, lol... so what the hey? I also bought my sister and I some vampire teeth. I do hope my sister has better luck with these ones. Last year I bought her some and there was no way she could get the buggers to stay in her mouth. Here is a photo of us last year...
I do so love Halloween and this year is looking to be a blast!
Scrapping wise I have only done about 2 layouts... for the LilyPad "Scrap Your Heart Out" competition...

the first week...Past Present Future @ the Lilypad

The 2nd week...Small, Medium, Large @ the Lilypad

I am still working on the final week's layout...
Amethyst is off on her first school camp for 3 days on Monday. She is so excited, hopefully they have good weather. So it will be a busy week. I need to make my bat cookies and spookie spider cupcakes...these are the ones I made last year... I am really looking forward to making the bat cookies. Hope they turn out nice. I will post a photo of them after Halloween.
Anyway, I have to get to bed... I hope everyone has a nice and frightful Halloween. :)

Girlie Weekend

2010-08-24T21:23:00.008+10:00

My sister came all the way from the other side of town to see Eclipse with me at my local haunt. She is such a doll, I know it was a frantic morning getting over here by 10 am in time to see the movie.... It was fun and we loved it. Again I heard the Florence and the Machine song 'I'm So Heavy in Your Arms' in the credits of the movie and I so need to get this, love this song.....

So scrapbooking wise, I have 2 layouts that are about 2 great songs...Credits: Where Did She Come From Credits: I'm So Heavy In Your Arms

My sister and I had a lovely time. Walked around the shops until 3.30 in the afternoon, we were exhausted by the time we got home, so we had some Midori and watched a Russell Brand DVD I bought. Then hubby went and bought pizza for tea and we watched a vampire movie. Then we watched 'Enid' a movie about Enid Blyton with the wonderful Helena Bonham Carter.
She went home the next afternoon, which was entirely too early, but she has a family of her own and needed to get back to them but we had a great time. Tho next time I will buy something else a bit stronger... Midori is just lolly water, lol!
Happily, on the Friday I was able to pick up the 2 Hard Ons CDs I had ordered and my package from England came with the Hard Ons CD and DVD: 'Hard Ons Versus Europe 2007' from their record company Boss Tuneage. So on the Saturday I watched the video with my sister, lots of fun!
Today, while I was trotting around the internet, I found this cool song 'You Don't Like Rock and Roll' by Hunx and His Punx. It is a scream, cool and so true. Like I said on my sisters video blog, if you don't like The Ramones, then I don't wanna know ya! LOL! (that is really a joke... after all, my husband doesn't like them, lol!)
Here are the lyrics to the song, I may have one or 2 wrong, but I just had to write them down, so fun!
You Don't Like Rock and Roll

It's not that I think you're bad looking,
You don't like rock and roll
It's not that I don't like your cooking
You don't like rock and roll
I think you've got a nice body
You don't like rock and roll
All my friends think you're a hottie
But you don't like rock and roll
What the heck is wrong with you,
I think you've sniffed too much glue
You don't like rock and roll And I don't like you.
I kinda think you must be retarded
You don't like rock and roll
I don't want to leave you broken hearted
But you don't like rock and roll
The music you like won't get my ears buzzing
You don't like rock and roll
I think your parents must have been cousins
You don't like rock and roll
What the hell is wrong with you
I think you've sniffed too much glue
You don't like rock and roll And I don't like you.
You like Morrissey and like U2
What the f*** is wrong with you
Are you deaf or just plain dumb
You don't like Joey you don't like John
You don't like the Ramones
So you gotta leave home
It hurts me boy to say goodbye
But you don't like rock and roll
You know I hate to see you cry
You don't like rock and roll
The music you like totally spoils it
You don't like rock and roll
I wanna shove your head into the toilet
You don't like rock and roll
What the hell is wrong with you
I think you've sniffed too much glue
You don't like rock and roll and I don't like you.

Sunday Afternoon

2010-08-15T17:53:00.005+10:00

The end of the week end, *sigh*
The kids had 2 days off during the week for the annual Exhibition fair.
We didn't go but it was nice to have the time off getting up early for school.I ordered a Hard Ons CD and DVD from their record company in England, so I am looking forward to them arriving plus I have 2 other CDs on order at the local record store.
Recently I also had 2 fun orders arrive from England...
Australia isn't really into Halloween that much, so bat obsessed me has been unable to find these here, so was forced to finally look elsewhere for these gorgeous bat themed objects....A scrapbooking bat paper punch and a bat cookie cutter, which is the cutest thing, I can't wait to make bat cookies with this! :)I also got my new purple Nokia phone on Saturday, so happy! I have to work out how to use the thing now!
I still haven't done many layouts recently. I have felt completely uninspired, however, I have started a layout with the lyrics of 'Where Did She Come From' by the Hard Ons... I just need to find a suitable mermaid to put on it... as there is a girl in the video clip dressed as a mermaid and I want to have this old double exposed photo of me as a teenager... coz I have been wondering lately were did 'she' go... lol... I really need to get the latest version of ACDeeSee, I am totally lost without it.... makes scrapping completely crap without it. I was hoping to use the freeware 'Windows Live Photo Gallery' but for the life of me, I can't work out how to use it... I can only see jpgs in there, which is useless for a digital scrapbooker.... I need to be able tag pngs with it.... so if anyone know where I can go to read decent tutorials for it, please link me up!
I am looking forward to this week end coming, my sister is coming over on Friday to see 'Eclipse' with me and staying for a girlie week end. I am getting some Midori and we are going to giggle and watch girlie movies together and have lots of fun. Hubby will have to supervise the kids, coz I am going to be off duty! Bring on Friday!!!

Hard Ons Gig!

2010-08-10T22:45:00.004+10:00

The Friday before we went to see the Hard Ons I went into the city to get the tickets and bought 4 Hard Ons CDs, one being their recent album. So I listened to these over and over all day Friday and Saturday before we went.Here we are just before we left to get the bus into the Valley and before it went all pear shaped for poor Rob, lol. Rob decided to get irrationally jealous, I'm talking off the planet jealous! Oh dear... He believes that my eyes lit up when I saw the band.... umm... they are my all time favourite band at the moment.... I may have smiled... I was happy after all.... I don't think I was giving them puppy dog eyes... surely?? Never mind, I really enjoyed the night and they played brilliantly. I knew most of the songs... What Would Stiv Bators Do, Sunny, Two Laps in Serbia (I love that song and it is SO good live!) There Goes One of the Creeps That Hassled My Girlfriend, Don't Fear The Reeperbahn (mind you these are in no particular order and I can't remember all of them) Raining, I Don't Want to See You Cry, quite a few songs off the new album and a few oldies were sung too.... I was really thrilled they played 'Where Did She Come From' as one of their encores ... and they came back onstage 3 times (much to hubby's dismay, lol) It was a great night and I am so glad I insisted Rob take me. The only disappointment was that the stage wasn't raised a little, so I could see them better. Hard On fans all seem to be 6 foot or taller... here are a few if the meagre photos I managed to snap.... hubby, who is 6 foot, totally refused to take any photos for me, lol!It may have taken me 4 days to placate the husband afterwards but it was worth it, lol! :)
The following Saturday night we went to see Ecdlipse. That was fun too, probably not so much for poor old Rob, lol. Yes, I'm a spoilt brat... well, it's about time I say.... I must have done something right, because he is now insistent that I upgrade my phone... can't afford the lovely purple blackberry but this purple Nokia will make me just as happy..I should be getting it next Thursday, yeah! :)

Can't Wait For The Weekend!

2010-07-28T20:46:00.002+10:00

As I said in my previous post, I am overdosing on Hard Ons music. I've decided I do like Blackie's singing and I am damned that I am going to miss seeing them again, so I am biting the bullet and dragging my husband to see them this Saturday in the Valley! Yippee!!
I feel so miserable that I didn't really get into them back in the day. As I said before, I had heard alot of the earlier stuff from a friend but for whatever reason, I didn't investigate them for myself. I think it might have been because it was thought of that the Hard Ons were a 'boys band' and not for little girlies. Yeah, how suckie is it that I went along with that ridiculous notion. I am so cross with myself and sad that I missed seeing them play live when Keish was the singer. I think what also makes me enjoy them so much now is that for the past 18 years I have been bombarded with my husband's heavy metal. I wasn't able to listen to my music, and for the first 11 years of us being together I didn't listen to a bar of my music. Not because I didn't want to and not only because Rob wouldn't let me play my music when he was around but because I was so busy raising 4 babies and absent mindedly getting into the head space that everyone else came before me that I just put my interests aside and did what seemed to be the only way to go. I don't regret putting everything of me aside to be the best Mother I could be, my children are my life, nothing is more important than their happiness and security, but I now realise that my happiness is important too. I was unable to listen to my music as the needle of the record player went missing in the moves from Brisbane to Melbourne/Melbourne back to Brisbane and the stereo that I bought before I met Rob stopped working. I did get Rob to buy me a Sony CD walkman, but I barely used it as the songs would jump and skip when I walked the babies in the pram. Rob had a good stereo in his garage but I couldn't sit in there with a baby on my lap, it was smoky and dangerous for the children, so I just went without. Almost a year after our youngest child was born in 2003 we got our first computer and my sister sent me a CD of music that we used to listen to when we were young, as Rob bought good speakers for the computer and I could finally listen to my music when he was at work. I started collecting CDs of the records I used to have. I still had a little baby to think of and was still not used to putting music on, but slowly I started enjoying my music again and it felt like I was slowly waking up from a very deep sleep. Well... years of listening to Rob's heavy metal, Kiss, Accept, Black Sabbath and the like, I have got used to heavy guitars, maybe that is why it was so easy for me to fall in love with the Hard Ons, lol! On Friday I am going into the city and hopefully I can get a number of their EPs and albums as I am burning up all my downloads watching YouTube, lol! So I am sticking it to the man and dragging him kicking and screaming to a Hard Ons concert! LOL, what a way to introduce him to my kind of music!! Although, really it isn't the first time. When we were first going out, Nick Cave came to Brisbane at the Livid Festival back in 1992. It was also the last time I drank alcohol as well! I was really nervous about running into an old flame at the festival while I was with Rob that I totally over did the alcohol intake and made myself completely sick. Rob was so lovely, patting my back while I threw my guts up. Charming, I know. I remember dancing down the front to Def FX and then falling asleep in one of the porta-loos. By this stage, Rob had had enough of the music that he didn't understand and enough of trying to smash the portable toilet door open to get me out, so when I finally did emerge from the toilet, he insisted that we go home. So I missed out on seeing Nick Cave sing as he was last to play that night. I had seen Nick play live a few years before but still, it was a disappointment to miss what I paid for, although it was totally my own fault. It was the first time and the last time that Rob saw me drink. Until more recently, but now days I can't drink more than 2 glasses. As a teen I now realise that I had a binge drinking problem. So many things happened that I just can't remember. I should have some wonderful memories of my time as a young girl but alot of them are obliterated by alcohol consumption. I suppose I could adapt that old saying "If you can remember the 60's, you weren't there." Well, it's true of my youth too. My sister and I often talk for hours on the phone, helping each other remember all those fun times we had. Yes, I truly am having a mid-life crisis, lol! I am turning 40 in October after all! I'm allowed to!

16 Year Anniversary

2010-07-21T18:24:00.006+10:00

On Friday, DH and I have been married for 16 years!
I remember years ago, before we were married, we'd gone into the city to go to a 50s 3D SciFi movie marathon and as we walked through the mall to get to South Bank, I stopped to listen to a girl busker singing 'Another Piece of My Heart' by Janis Joplin. I stopped because I love that song and she was doing a great job of it and as I looked at her, I realised she was a girl I had known in primary school in my home town. We were thrilled to see each other and I introduced her to my future husband and she asked how long we'd been going out. I said 6 months and back then, it seemed a long time.... Well, 16 years is a long time. There has been ups and downs but there is still much love and that means the world to me. We will be going to see 'Eclipse' together. Poor Rob, I think he will be relieved when all these movies are done, lol! Speaking of which, after I finished reading 'The Complete Goodies', I read the recent Sookie Stackhouse novel 'Dead In The Family' and then I read the Twilight/Eclipse novella 'The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner' I am presently reading some short stories, which are virtually Mills and Boons with a vampire in them... ho hum, well, it keeps me busy, lol. The next book that I am intending to read is 'Little Dorritt' by Charles Dickens. The BBC production of it was recently on the ABC and my god, I loved it!! I have read quite a bit of Charles Dickens but not this one, so I shall remedy that as soon as possible, wonderful story. The lead actor 'Matthew Macfadyen' played 'Mr Darcy' in the Hollywood production of 'Pride and Prejudice' . I own the DVD of it, so I had to watch it. Bawled my head off the entire way through. *sigh*
I recently had to swap my mobile phone sim card with my DHs old mobile phone. Six and a half years ago, Rob and I got matching LG mobile phones. He upgraded his in September last year but I said I couldn't be bothered, mine still works. Plus we got our eldest son a mobile phone and put him on our plan, so we really couldn't afford to upgrade my phone as well. Anyway, my phone decided to drop dead a few weeks ago and as Rob's old phone was still working, he just switched my sim card over. Which meant that I lost all my phone numbers and my ringtones as I had only saved them to my handset and not my sim card. I had bought a Violent Femmes song 'Blister In The Sun' ringtone when I originally got my mobile phone. They had a retro category to choose from, but now they don't have that category, so I can't even buy that ringtone again, or anything that I would vaguely liked. So I got a bee in my bonnet about making my own ringtone. I found a place online where you can make one, although I haven't worked out how to get the volume as loud as I'd like, even with my handset turned up as loud as it goes. It's not as loud as the 'Blister In The Sun' ringtone, so I need to keep playing with it. The song that I used for my new ringtone is 'Don't Go Now' by RatCat. I decided that it was my all time favourite song. Although, this week I am on a 'Hard Ons' kick and can't stop listening to this song... 'Where Did She Come From' I just can't get enough of this song, I adore it! And I have been listening to the few things I have of theirs... 'Girl In The Sweater' and some other older songs and especially 'Wait Around' . I am going into the city for lunch with my cousin Barb soon, so I will be popping into 'Rocking Horse Records' and buying anything pre 1993 by The Hard Ons that I can get my grubby hands on. Sorry, I am not a fan of Blackie's voice and style of singing. I love Keish's voice. If that makes me a big girl, so be it. I don't like the thrashy stuff. Crikey, I hope they have 'Yummy' in store, it's one of my favourite albums. So if I can figure out the ringtone thing, I might put 'Where Did She Come From' on my phone, might have to rotate it with 'Don't Go Now'. If I could afford it, this is the phone I would love to get... a purple Blackberry. Yummy! But the next thing I do want to buy is a purple Cannon Power Shot.... Yum! I'm tired of crappy photos, so I am looking forward to getting a decent camera and this camera does it for me, yeah, tax time! :)

I haven't been scrapping too much lately. But here is one that I did of my son on a fair ground ride, we both went on it. We are the only ones in our family (so far) that like the fast rides, lol. It was at the Union Picnic that we went to back in May. Mostly by Flergs. Credits: You Spin Me Right Round
That's it for now, I have to read some more of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' to my kids ... gotta get it read before the movie comes out. I've read each and every one of the books to the kids. The eldest son is over it and doesn't come to listen anymore and the other son has to have his arm twisted, but it has been a nice tradition over the years to sit together and read it.
Goodnight.

June CT layouts

2010-06-17T20:06:00.003+10:00

Well, I have been busy doing some layouts for Scrapartist. I am really enjoying my time there, the other ladies are so welcoming and the designers are so artistic and creative, it is a joy to work with their designs!

This is the first layout I made, using Wish Bliss Studio's 'Kelly Bea' and Paula Kesselring Designs 'Scrap On The Beach - Papers'
Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST

I have been waiting for ages to scrap that photo and these kits seemed to be the perfect fit for it.

This is my second page, using this cool wooden alpha by Paula Kesselring: 'Wood P rint er Blocks'and Pixel Works: 'Remembrance Day Elements' I do so love Pixel Works word definition clip-tionary bits! Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST
This one was done for the CT Scrap For Fun Challenge. Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST I used too many kits to include previews of them all but I just had to share this preview of SherrieJD's Kitschy Kitchen, it is to die for! The wooden kitchen utensils in the kit are red and yellow but I recoloured them to make them purple. I truly do have purple kitchen utensils and I do actually have a purple potato masher almost exactly like that!
The theme was "Then and Now" and I chose a photo of me when I turned 19. The quality of the photo is poor but it is one that I love. I am holding my cat, although it is hard to see him. I think I must be going through a mid life crisis because I am reminiscing about my youth more and more these days! I never thought I'd marry or have children and even tho I was lonely I was happy enough with just my cat for company. Then love came along and swept me off my feet, made me a wife and a Mother and I have been so busy being those things that I had forgotten who I was before it all started. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, I adored being pregnant and having little babies. I breastfed for virtually 12 years straight and I loved nurturing my children, they are my whole life, but it is nice to remember myself and get back to being who I am as an individual. From carrying 4 babies, my thyroid issues and the ups and downs of married life, I've put on over 40 kilos. For a long time now it hasn't bothered me much. Being pregnant 4 times, I'm sort of used to the big tummy, plus my husband, God love him, has never complained about my weight. He still finds me sexy and that's all that matters, right? But other people don't see me that way, not that I've ever cared about what others think of me. I have the oppposite to anorexia I think, lol, I don't feel thin but I have always felt 'normal' and it's taken me a long time to come to the realisation that I am terribly overweight and I need to do something about it. So I have been very good the last 5 weeks and have lost about 5 kilos, so I am happy about that. I am determined to keep it up this time. In the past I would be good for a month or 2 and when I hadn't lost 40 kilos in that amount of time I would just give up because it was taking too long and seemed too hard and I would get despondent and go back to overeating. This time I know that it will take a long time and I am OK with that. But I am determined to be me and get back to who I once was. The size I was. I don't even look like 'me' anymore and I want that to change so much. One of the best things I can say is to drink plenty of water. I drink at least 2 litres a day. And if I am feeling 'hungry' I have a glass of skim milk as a snack. Calcium is something I can definitely use these days. I gave up coffee a year ago and I haven't looked back although I might have one every 2 or 3 months. I have tea once in awhile but not too often. I am hoping I stay focused and keep believing in myself. I know it will make me a happier more energetic person.

Here is another layout I have done.
Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST

It is made with Christine Honsinger {Fiddlette}'s kit: 'Kitschy Kutie' I know I had some of those beads, bows and plastic bits as a kid.
Now, I haven't spoken about what I am reading for awhile and that is because I have been reading the same book for months on end. It is a wonderful book but it is not a novel and the format of the writing, while entertaining, it is hard to wrap my brain around at times. So it's taking me an age to get through it. I am reading 'The Complete Goodies' by Robert Ross. It is a very informative book, reviewing and reporting every television appearance, every public appearance, every TV show, every radio show and every book, comic or vynal and CD publication and recording that each of the Goodies have ever done in their lives. As well as any other key actors that they have been involved with. As much as I am enjoying learning all this information, it is not written in chronological order of appearances, rather it is written in alphabetical order. So all of Bill Oddie's birding shows and books have come before all the Goodies stuff in the book, even tho that all happened some time after the Goodies finished. I know it makes me very dull complaining about that but there you have it. I am enjoying it however as I am a huge Goodies fan and they really shaped who I am today. Many of the quotes, jokes and quips that are classic Goodies are in my regular vocabulary and there is nothing that makes my day more than the image of Bill Oddie's quick jerk of the head and saying... 'Wayhehey!" Awhile before my old computer died I had started a layout on why I had become a vegetarian and I credited Morrisey of The Smiths as being my eye opener with their song 'Meat Is Murder' but really if I go back in my childhood, I really must say The Goodies really lay the foundation of my vegetarianism. The image of Bill eating the rabbit host of the chat show in the 'Animals' episode shocked my 7 year old senses to the core. And after reading the detailed reviews of each Goodies episode in this book I am reading, it brought back all the different images of critter consuming and animal abuse that is in the show. Tho as a 7 year old I found it confusing as to what was a joke and what was point pushing, but that is what they were doing, I guess. Anyway, they are brilliant and my kids adore them too, we watch the 2 DVDs I have every now and then.... I do wish their entire 9 seasons were on DVD. Here in Australia they were repeated and repeated on the ABC and I have almost every episode backed up on my brain but it would be nice to be able actually see them again.
Last week end, hubby and I went into the city and saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the doomed Regent Theatre. It was the last week end that it would be playing movies before it gets knocked down to make boring office blocks. It is such a beautiful cinema, the subject of my 'A Gothic Daydream' layout. Terribly sad to see it go. Anyway, as you can imagine, my very macho husband thought going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show was the worst idea I'd had in my life, but truly there was nothing else we could stomach seeing. I'd rather slit my wrists than see 'Sex In The City 2' or 'The Back Up Plan' as would he, so I made an executive decision to just go and watch my all time favourite movie 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' Of course I had to bribe my husband into going.... I lured him with rum, lol... we snuck rum and cokes into the theatre. And being the sweetheart that he is, Rob eventually just said, 'Well, as long as you have a good time, then I'm happy' And did I ever! It is the first time I have seen it on the big screen. Can you imagine, Frak'n'furtur larger than life!! What IS it about a man in a corset???!!! I had a wonderful time, although I really wanted to sing out loud along with it, tho everyone else in the cinema was really well behaved and as it was a send off for the Regent Theatre, I thought I'd better be respectful, well, that and the fact that I knew hubby couldn't take me singing AS WELL as them, lol! I giggled all the way home. Hubby said it was because I'd had too much rum but I didn't care, it was a wonderful night out. A too rare occurrence. So it was extra special.
Have to get to bed. Goodnight.

Guest CT Spot For June!

2010-06-02T14:16:00.016+10:00

Yeah! I was one of the lucky winners of the guest CT layout challenge at the Scrap Artist Birthday celebrations in May. This is my winning layout. Credits at Scrapartist

and here is my avatar and CT avatar photo... can you tell that I am just SO excited to be guest CTing for Scrapartist??!! I have loved Scrapartist for YEARS! It is such a thrill to be working with all the fabulous designers there and all the other creative goddesses. I can't wait to soak up the inspiration while I am over there!!!!

This past week end the whole family finally went to see 'Alice In Wonderland 3D' It was wonderful and we all really enjoyed it. It was a rare treat to be able to go to the movies as a family. So for this month's desktop, I went all 'Alice in Wonderland'...Normally I will make a square layout version of my monthly desktops but I was too excited to post this online so it didn't happen, it does look so much better closer up and it is such a cheerful reminder of our nice day out. Credits Here.
Another fun layout I made in May was a 2 page layout of my sister and I at the movies at a very beautiful cinema in the city...

Credits for 'A Gothic Daydream' page1 page2

Can't wait to blog again with my first Scrap Artist CT layout! :)

Happy Mothers Day!

2010-05-08T10:22:00.019+10:00

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mums out there for tomorrow. :) I just got a call from DH saying that he can take me out for lunch the day after Mothers Day while the kids are at school for a late Mothers Day celebration and that he will cook dinner for me on Mothers Day, so that's something exciting to look forward to! Yippee! His work shift is changing and this will be the last Monday that he has off, so our last opportunity to be able to go out together without the kids, so it will be a nice "last day alone" OK...heaps happening....somehow I totally missed April...We went up to my parents farm for 10 days of the Easter holidays. DH drove us up there and we spent Good Friday to Easter Monday together before he had to go back home for work and then he came back the following week end to pick us up and take us home. Again I taught Mum more things on the computer, so I think she will be fine from now on. Easter was a busy, wonderful day. It was also DHs birthday, so I cooked his favourite pumpkin strudels. My Father is currently growing pumpkins so there were pumpkins galore. I also cooked an onion cheese flan and a zucchini slice, curried egg salad and we had other salads. Mum made her famous chocolate truffles and I made DHs favourite black forest chocolate cake. We had all this for Easter lunch and as we made so much of it we had the left overs for dinner. And of course there were chocolate Easter eggs a plenty!April Credits

I haven't actually scrapped the Easter lunch table as yet, so this variation of my April desktop will have to do for now. I haven't had a lot of scrapping time lately and Mum came for a visit for the last week of April for 2nd DSs 13th birthday. Yep, I showed her a few more things on the computer. It is always busy when Mum comes for a visit, as she can only spend a small amount of time with each family member in Brisbane, so I have to make sure I get everything done that I wanted to do when she is here before she moves on to the next family member. On the Thursday that she was here, I took her to see the movie "Beneath Hill 60" A wonderful Australian movie about WW1. My maternal Grandmother's cousin died in that area around that time of the war and his 3 other brothers were also over there in the war, his elder brother died back here in Australia from wounds sustained in the war, so it was a personal reminder of what our soldiers had to deal with at that terrible time. Arthur, the one that died in action, is the middle one in the photo with his 2 other brothers, his older brother who died at home from wounds is not in the photo. The photo on the left is the actor Gyton Grantly from the movie Beneath Hill 60.
Mum enjoyed it very much, for many reasons...it was a true story, it was an amazing visual of what her 2nd cousins endured during the war, it was an Australian story and by no way the least... it had her favourite actor Gyton Grantly in it. She adores him! Of course I enjoyed the movie very much too and also like Gyton. As an 18 year old I worked in a fruit and vegie store in the suburb where he lived, so I probably served his Mum and him as an 8 year old if they came into the store where I worked, lol!
The other thing to happen recently is DigiShopTalk's Sc rapper Choice Awards are here again. This year I decided to submit a few layouts.
Best Overall Layout:
Best Title Work:Best Use of Template:
Best All About Me Layout:
Best Inanimate Subject Layout:Most Humorous Layout:Well, that's it for me for today. Have to go and hang out the 3rd load of washing because I don't want to have to do anything but laze about in my pjs tomorrow for Mothers Day. :)
Happy Mothers Day!

Marching On.

2010-03-10T09:07:00.016+10:00

Well, it is now March and we are starting with a rainy autumn. We have had flooding in areas around our city and in the north-west parts of our state. Actually, there has been storms and rain in almost all of the states in Australia except Western Australia. Thankfully the rain stopped in time for our 2nd child to go on school camp and for me to go up North to spend the week end with my parents....child free! My Mother bought a new computer and I needed to help her get used to Windows 7, transfer all her photos and data from her old computer and download a few security programs, etc. She panics if things aren't where they supposed to be and as Windows 7 is slightly different to her ancient computer that was using Windows XP, it was too overwhelming for her. So I got on a train and went up to her farm to help her write out new instructions of how to get around on her new computer. She says she is still a little nervous of it but she is loving it. Her old computer was given to her by some lovely friends, Terry and Robyn and for the past 3 years it has been her passion. She is a blinkie and email freak and all the family delight in her colourful animated emails. Humongous animated birthday emails are a favourite of hers. She likes to include voice clips and music in her emails as well. But it was time to say goodbye to her old computer as it was starting to be extremely glitchy and a never ending source of problems and frustration. It was a wonderful way for her to be introduced to the wonderful world of computers and without her dear friends gifting her this old computer she would never have even considered buying a computer. Now she doesn't know herself, her new computer is modern, fast and best of all, reliable. My sister did a wonderful job of teaching Mum how to use her old computer and I have helped a lot too. Mum never dreamed that she would know how to do the things she has learned and we are all proud of her computer achievements. We have always been a phone call away when she has needed help with some strange problem or other, like folders, photos and programs that 'just piss off' and task bars that wind up on the side of the screen. It can be extremely difficult to explain what she needs to do to overcome a problem over the phone or impossible to understand what she means when she says things like 'The thing down the bottom has just pissed off and I don't know how to get it back'
Some of my favourite computer sayings of Mum's are: (In Outlook Express, to embed a photo)...'going to the mountains' and (checking how much free space she has on her hard drive)...'checking on my pink' LOL! Well both those things are completely different in Windows 7, so the train trip up to her place was a necessity. When our whole family goes up to Mum and Dad's farm, Mum always buys a ton of treats and goodies for the kids, as any doting Grandparent does and as a joke I said to Mum...'I hope you are going to buy me some treats' and she took it quite seriously and I have returned home almost a dress size larger! (and the dreaded chocolate overdose season is almost upon us too!)
Anyway, here is a photo of my Mum and her new computer. Notice the colour of Mum's choice in desktop and t-shirt, hmmm, wonder where my love of purple came from...lol!Mum insisted that she pay for my train tickets to and from her place and a little extra besides. So my DH and I were able to go to the movies the Monday before I left and also the Monday that I got back. Thank you Mum....! I really enjoyed going to Mum's place and helping her with her new computer, I missed Rob and the kids and it was strange but lovely to wake up in the morning and not have to do anything for anyone other than myself, no fights to break up or set up sources of entertainment to placate bored or grumpy children. It was indeed a refreshing break. The 2 movies Rob and I went to see were 'The Wolfman' on the Monday before I went away and on the Monday I came home we saw Avatar 3D. Both movies were wonderful. 'The Wolfman had me screaming at those certain 'jump out of your seat' moments and there were plenty of those kind of moments in this film. There were probably about 20 other people in the cinema with us and I am a screamer, always have been always will be, can't help it....I get a fright and I scream. What a joy it was for poor hubby (sarcasm) to delight in the fact that I was the only person in the cinema screaming at all the scary parts, lol. He said he could tell lots of people were jumping out of their seats, but I was the only screamer...lol. It was a really good movie tho, a well written werewolf movie. Sir Anthony Hopkins was at his finest and Benicio Del Toro played a brilliant role too! I know I am all about vampires, but a well done werewolf movie can be good too. I've seen few werewolf movies that have done it for me. As a teen we loved 'American Werewolf in London', (hmm, Rik Mayall was in this...might have to track this down on DVD) and 'The Howling' but our all time favourite werewolf movie was 'The Company of Wolves' ... I think I had better pop into JB hi-fi and see if I can pick this up too! ...DH has never seen it but I have seen it about 40 times at least. Many quirky quotes from this movie have remained in my vocabulary. Naturally I have seen and own 'Underworld' but the idea of vampires and werewolves fighting each other seems a little off to me. Similar to the tacky t-shirt art from the '90s that had legendary Australian predators, crocodiles and great white sharks fighting, or screen and music idols Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley painted 'together'. Just a bit tacky for my liking. My DH enjoyed Underworld more than I did. Anyway, here is a photo of DH and I at the movies, ready to see The Wolfman...and yes, I will probably do a layout for both the above photos. As well as this photo...of my purple gum boots that I adore and have been wearing a lot lately on account of the weather.

An elderly man even asked me where I got my purple gum boots, as he needed some new gumboots for gardening! Lol.... (nowhere fancy, just Kmart) hee hee :)

And speaking of layouts... I had a layout of mine win an awesome prize! DST Gold Member kit challenge using Kari Hentzelt's kit 'Fabulousity' I could hardly believe my luck, Kari's prize for me was ...her entire shop!! Yes, I got to download everything she has in her store at Scrapbook Bytes! Amazing prize....and this is what I have done with some of her beautiful products...Credits to my desktop layout Here and link to the layout that won me this awesome prize: Here

Another layout I am very proud of is this one, that got a nice comment on it from one of the kit's designers, Kate Hadfield, thanks Kate! :) (at my Lilypad gallery)

Credits at DST here.

This is our 2nd eldest child at his end of year play in Late November. I am missing him at the moment, as he went away on school camp the morning that I came home from my Mum's place. So I haven't seen him since Friday morning. That makes it 5 days I haven't seen him. The longest I have ever been away from one of my children. But he comes home this afternoon, so I am looking forward to giving him a big bear hug when he gets off the bus! Yippee!
I am happy I have been able to post at least once a month to my blog here... Hoping to keep that up. See you in April! :)

End of Summer.

2010-02-27T10:35:00.002+10:00

It is almost March, it's been raining so things are nice and cool at the moment, not humid and steamy as it was before we got the showers, so it almost feels like we are heading towards Autumn. That could change however, the past couple of years we have had some horrid heat waves in the early days of March, but I hope not, tired of sweating. I am a Summer girl and I don't mind the heat at all but when the humidity goes up, like it can here in tropical Queensland, it gets sticky.

Since my last post, the kids have started their new year of school. I have plenty of photos but I haven't scrapped them yet, even tho my 2nd eldest child has now started High School. I love him being in High School now. The 2 boys are in High School together and the 2 girls are in Primary. Makes it easier somehow, lol.We celebrated Australia Day the day before they went back to school. Credits here.And then there was Valentine's Day. Hubby and I managed to go out to the movies on the day.

And of course I scrapped it all.This is my desktop for this month. Here is a layout sized version at my gallery.

Kasia Designs 'Love Oclock' Credits Here.

Credits Here: layout about the treats I made for Valentine's Day.And us on our way out to the movies for Valentine's Day. Credits Here.

Fruits of Summer

2010-01-18T18:49:00.007+10:00

We are almost at the end of the school holidays. We have been up at my parents farm for a few days.
Mum has a Brazilian fruit tree called a Jaboticaba that are in season and full of fruit. They are so delicious and there is nothing nicer than being able to go out and pick fresh fruit. She also has a mulberry tree full of mulberries, so yummy!
We had a nice time on the farm. The kids helped collect the eggs from the chicken coup. We even went swimming at the local public pool.

And back at home we have a mango tree. Last year we didn't even get a flower on it, much less a mango. This year, however, we have been inundated with mangos. Again, so yummy and wonderful to be able to go out the back door and pick fresh fruit.Credits Here

Sadly my mango mornings are over now. My cousin says I need to go to Mangos Anonymous. lol.

As I am so bereft of picking mangos every morning, I finally planted a vegetable patch. Thankfully we have had some lovely showers to water my garden and a few little plants have emerged, but I am a lousy gardener, plus I have cheeky possums to contend with, so not too sure of how successful my crops will be, but at least I got the seeds in the ground. Cross fingers and wish me luck, I need it!

New Years Day

2010-01-02T02:31:00.008+10:00

Happy New Year to all!

We had a lovely day, had a nice New Year's Day lunch and as we let the kids stay up past midnight, they were all gracious enough to sleep in way past their usual crack of dawn rising time.
Well, Christmas and New Year's are over for another year...The eldest's 15th birthday is coming up soon and then there is the 'back to school' business to attend to.
Here are a few layouts I've done since my last blog post.
credits here: Christmas Countdown Calendar
This is the Christmas card I made this year. My Uncle calls us Rob and the Robette's. I think it is because our children look so much like my husband Rob....? I think it's cute anyway.
Credits: bg paper is by Laurie Ann from 'Quirky Guitar Hero' overlayed over another paper by Catherine Designs 'Esprit de Noel' the glitter alpha is by Diane Rigdon, Santa, lollies, candy cane and paper that the present is made from and red mat also by Laurie Ann 'Christmas Crinkles' element pack and 'Putting On The Ritz' paper pack. The holly is by Alana Designs from 'One Magic Night' frame is by Flergs from 'Into the Twilight', the scroll border on the mat is a Dover image and the poinsettia cluster is by MDesigns.Credits Here: Red T-shirts. This was done for a DST diamond membership challenge. Cool prize hey? So I had to enter it, plus I adore Syrin's stitches too (can you notice ;) ) Credits here: Little Santas. My boys with some funny lollipops.And here is a layout I just uploaded tonight. Credits here: Making Christmas Cookies.
Now I am off to bed. We are hoping to go swimming tomorrow, with a little luck it won't be raining.
Hope everyone had a Happy Christmas and a safe, healthy New Year to come.

New Moon On Monday!

2009-11-22T11:37:00.012+10:00

DH and I are off to see New Moon tomorrow! After dropping the kids at school, we will be going to see the much awaited Twilight sequel in the Gold Class section of our local cinemas! I am so excited and have been singing Duran Duran's 'New Moon on Monday' all week! I put the video for Duran Duran's 'New Moon on Monday' over on the right, why there is 4 links to the video is Bloggers guess...I'm not that great at working my own blog...so try and pretend that there is only one preview of the video that you can see, thanks, lol...

It's been a long week, my husband was on night shift and our 2nd eldest son had his end of year 7 school play. On Wednesday he had a dress rehearsal, at night, which is hard for me, as I don't drive and we are a 40 minute walk away from the school. Luckily one of the teachers who is a friend of ours, angelically offered to pick him up and bring him home for me when he was finished. So that was wonderful. On the Thursday he had his first performance. We had to walk 20 minutes to the nearest bus stop... and then almost missed the bus home, as the play went a bit overtime but thankfully we managed to get it. For his second performance, DH, Rob took the night off work so we could all go and see him.
He was wonderful, he played 2 roles and he really gave them his all, we were so proud of him!
Now that the hectic school week is over I can breath easy and am really looking forward to going to see New Moon tomorrow. It will be our second time going to Gold Class and we have already decided what we are going to order for lunch, yum! I'm getting the garlic prawns and mushroom balls and Rob is getting the seafood platter.
As I have been itching to see New Moon, I decided to play with Flergs 'Into The Twilight' kit.
I bought it a couple of weeks ago and have not got around to use it...so this is what I made with it...Here are my 2 little girls on Halloween. I bought them and my niece matching t-shirts that said 'I'm With The Vampires' and my girls had bat wings and bat ears too (as did I, lol) I thought that Flergs kit was perfect for this photo of them in our front yard.
I've also done another layout for Rachel Young with her new alpha Messy Machine Alphabet
Credits Here.
What am I reading at the moment? After I finished reading 'A Touch of Dead', the short stories of Sookie Stackhouse, I started reading 'Sharon Osbourne Extreme My Autobiography'I am really loving it, loving Sharon...I get a laugh from her humour and her way of looking at things, I like her attitude. I go to my local large shopping centre once a week as my day out and I will buy something to eat and sit down in the food court or wherever and read whatever book I am reading. I must look like a weirdo, because I would be laughing out loud at some of the things Sharon wrote however, of all the things that Ozzy did to her when he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, I didn't really bat an eyelid at, coz you kind of expect it, but the time that he tried to strangle her, I just bawled my head off. The despair she felt about the whole situation really touched me, it was very sad. I love the honest open way she has shared everything, she hasn't been shy about saying anything. Of course I watched 'The Osbournes' when it was on TV. We had Foxtel when it started and I would watch it with Rob, who is an Ozzy fan, owns every album he ever made. I knew Black Sabbath only because Marc Almond did a cover of Paranoid, but once you watch 'The Osbournes' you can't help but love Ozzy. My 65 year old Aunty loves Ozzy! Now I am needing to see the episodes again, so I will be going to look for them when I go to the shops next week...in the mean time, I will be youtubing interviews with them.
The next book I will be reading is 'Burning Bright' by Tracy Chevalier.
Well, that's it for another post, hope all you Twilighters out there have either seen and enjoyed the movie, or are going to see it soon. Have a nice week :)

New Computer!

2009-11-11T09:18:00.031+10:00

Well, I got a new computer at long last, yippee! It's my very first laptop, and I love it so much!
The other computer is still getting fixed, and it will be the kids 2nd computer. Right now I am sitting in my recliner chair typing this. I never thought I'd ever get a laptop, so this is just so special to me!
I have yet to do the arduous task of putting all my scrapbooking stuff from the old computer and yet to put ACDsee on and tag everything again. I have only transferred all of the stuff I downloaded onto the kids old computer as yet.
So, what's happened in the last 4 or 5 months since my old computer died? Well, the printer decided to drop dead too, tho I still need to check it out because it just may have clashed with the kids old computer that we hooked it up to...so lately I have been getting things printed at our local print store. I have a CD case calender and I normally just do the coming month's page a few days before the start of the month. The computer died before I got the chance to print one out for August. I'd never put anything on a USB flash drive and taken it to a printers, but as September approached I was getting tired of the July calender looking at me, so I made a layout for September using the kids computer hooked up to the printer, then the printer died so I made a calender layout for October and November and put them on a flash drive of my son's and took them to the print shop. It was such a relief to have that availability...so when Halloween loomed, I decided to get all my Halloween stuff printed at my local print shop too.
Here is my November CD calender layout...using Flergs: Sistafriend Bundle The date was made by Karah Fredericks 'Need A Bead' at The-Lily Pad. I know it's a bit confusing...a November calender with September written across it, but I had made the October calender layout the same day and it was photos of the kids and me taken the same day (25 Sept 09) and I loved how it looked so much, that when I chose that photo of the kids from the same day for November, I didn't have the heart to take it off, coz it looked too good to move, lol!
Our Eldest DD had her 9th birthday in September...Credits here
Our younger DD went to her first disco...Credits here
Then in October, I turned 39. My gorgeous cousin Barb sent me a beautiful bunch of flowers! I've never had flowers sent to me before! In the afternoon, after I'd got home from school with the kids, there was a knock at the door....there's never a knock at my door, I thought it was probably someone trying to sell me an new phone plan or something of that nature but it was a man with a big boxed bouquet of flowers! I can't describe how surprised and thrilled I was! And if that was not naughty enough, the rascal girlie had put $50 in the card! She is such a lovely, wonderful cousin. I used the money to book tickets for hubby and I to see New Moon in Gold Class on the 23rd of November...I can't wait!! Thank you so much Barb, you spoilt me so much and I do so appreciate it!
Then Halloween came along. I made choker necklaces for myself, Sister, niece and my 2 girls and also earrings for all of us (except my youngest DD as her ears aren't pierced yet)
here they are, I thought they came out quiet cute. Better than the necklaces I made and my first earrings I've ever made. Mine are the purple ones, naturally. We had a couple of firsts for Halloween, my Sister, niece and nephew came over to our place for Halloween and I took them and my kids trick or treating for the first time. They got some wonderful treats and plenty of them...we were even given a humongous block of Toblerone chocolate for us all to share, which was really delicious!Credits here
and this layout was made with a gorgeous kit I won before Halloween call 'Boo' by Laurie Ann, along with the word art. So in addition to this layout, I made my Halloween treat bag toppers with it... Thank You Laurie Ann! :)

And now it's November and my long awaited Guest CT November stint has arrived, yippee! :) I am guest CT for Rachel Young Designs.
Here are my first 2 layouts for the month....
Credits here.Credits here. The alpha on this last layout is Rachel's latest release. Paint Like You Mean it.

No Computer AGAIN!

2009-08-02T09:05:00.017+10:00

Well, I post this from my sons' computer. Our main computer died....again. Geez I'm sick of it. We've had nothing but trouble with it from day one. I so want to get a mac! I also want my own computer, tired of sharing it with hubby. Thankfully I had done a back up burn about 3 days before the crash, so I don't think I lost anything major. I had bought Flerg's 'July Grab Bag' with those wonderful liquid metal bugs and flowers, but I just went and re-downloaded them as it was less than a week ago that I'd bought it. The only thing I lost was maybe 3 layouts that I'd started but not finished yet. Only one of those will be a pain to recreate. I'd started a layout about why I became a vegetarian. I had the lyrics to The Smiths song 'Meat is Murder' and a whole stack of journaling about how I came to know about that song and how it made me rethink eating meat. I really hadn't done anything other than that, I had one background paper and the title done, but I hadn't gone further than that as the journaling had taken up so much room there wasn't much room left for embellishments. I had started it as a font challenge for Shabby Pickle using 'Joe wrote a Love Song' font but of course, I couldn't get it finished in time, coz of the computer crash. Tho it was just time getting away from me that I didn't finish (but started and therefore lost) the June font challenge using 'Merkurius' font. Bloody computer crash!
It is Inspiration Lane's 1st Birthday Celebrations this week. They are celebrating for 2 whole weeks and there are plenty of party favors and specials to be had. They are doing a free daily downloads and some birthday themed specials too. And lots of challenges and inspiration with some great rewards.
I have been with Digital Couture and Joyful Hearts Designs and their joint design team: 'Creative Confusion' for a long time now and they are such sweet, fun girls to work for and I have been a site CT with Inspiration Lane since the doors opened a year ago. It has been a wonderful and inspiring creative journey and I really do believe that being on their CT has helped me grow artistically. I have now stepped down as Creative Team Member however, as time seemed to be limited for me at the moment and I never seem to find the time to get everything done. I do have a layout that I will be doing for 'Inspired By Dominic Designs' once my computer is working again, luckily the kit I downloaded from her is one of the ones I burnt before the crash.
We do need to start saving for a new computer tho. Apparently there is a new system coming out in November 'Vienna' I think it's called, so we will wait for that to be released so we can avoid Vista, the reviews for that aren't exactly positive.
Mum is coming to visit on Friday for about 5 days, looking forward to that. I've been cleaning and organizing Amethyst's filthy room so it will be clean for Mum's arrival. I had to rip it apart to find a school library book that had been missing for some time. Thankfully I found it. I pulled everything out of her cupboard and have started repacking it into large plastic (purple) boxes, so nothing is on the floor. Hopefully it will stay tidy for at least a month!
On our anniversary I managed to get 'True Blood' DVD the first season at Kmart. I was SO happy! We are watching it an episode at a time and not everyday. I want it to last awhile, savor it! And boy, am I loving it! I have 2 of the short stories on hold at the library...I've read 'Dracula Night' and am waiting for 'Unusual Suspects' to come into my library, but the others I will have to wait until they are released as one book, I 'think' that is happening in November. Charlaine Harris is releasing something in November anyway! The book I am reading now is about 'Iggy Pop' by Paul Trynka called 'Open Up and Bleed' (my book has a different photo on the front) I am really loving it! The author has really done his research and it really feels like I am right there in the studios or the audience with Iggy. I just love him. I have always loved a certain amount of Iggy's songs...'Lust for Life', 'I'm Bored', 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', 'Real Wild Child' (the theme song to music show 'Rage' that I always watched) and 'Candy' (with B52's singer Kate Peirson) but that was all knew of him musically and I just adored him as Uncle Belvedere in the movie 'Cry Baby'. One of my all time favourite movies! I love the quote from the movie.... "But I taught you how to dress, didn't I, Cry-Baby?" and this one...
[to Cry Baby] Woo-Wee, you caught me in my birthday suit, butt-naked!

I recently bought 'Cry Baby' DVD and when I saw the book about Iggy Pop, I just had to buy it.
This is one of my favourite photos of Iggy Pop from the book 'Open Up and Bleed' Such a great book! Apparently there was talk about a movie being made about Iggy Pop, with Elijah Woods playing Iggy. I guess his big blue eyes are fairly close. I hope it does get done. Iggy's life has been pretty amazing, I'd love to see it! Next time I go into the city I'll be going into Rocking Horse Records to check out and see if they have some Iggy Pop albums, I'd love to listen to the songs I am reading about. Thanks to youtube, I've seen him perform some songs, interviews and videos.. it makes reading the book so much more exciting!

S'Whine Flu and Holidays

2009-06-17T19:51:00.010+10:00

I had a son home from school before the holidays started due to swine flu being confirmed in his school! My DH took him to the doctors, but the doctor said there was no use even testing him. A friend of his has just come out of quarantine after having the virus. Thankfully all the kids are well now, I was panicking a bit when they were all sick with a normal flu.
Anyway..onto other things..
I have had my first layout 'published' in an online magazine...It was in the June edition of
The Daily Scrapper. Mine is the second layout on that page. I am so pleased my layout was chosen and I do love that layout using Vera Lim's kit 'It's My Day' at Shabby Pickle Designs.
I finally finished reading 'The Change' by Germaine Greer. I wanted to read it to know what to look out for in the coming years. My Mum stopped menstruating when she was 41, which is really quite young. I am hoping I follow suit, which means only 2 years to go! Mum said she never had hot flushes or anything like that, so she was incredibly lucky. 'Tho I do remember her being terribly moody. I've already warned Rob (DH) that I will probably be really moody too....cheeky rat says..'not much different then'
Oh men, what do we do with them, lol!
'The Change' was a great book, very detailed and inspiring. I have always been a fan of Germaine's writing, I read 'The Female Eunuch' when I was 21. She has written two enlightening books that I think are a gift to this world. And I really have to thank her for adding to the person I am today for reading 'The Female Eunuch' I think every young woman should read it and every older woman should read 'The Change' Very inspiring and character strengthening reads.
The next lot of books I read was the Sookie Stackhouse books. After I read the Twilight books, of course I was on the look out for another great vampire story...and thanks to DST again, I found one... To begin with, I was totally aghast that vampires had 'come out'. I love the shadowy, secretive lore of vampires, but after a few pages I warmed to the idea and enjoyed the 'difference' of it. The murder mystery/who dunnit element that was more pronounced in the first book also threw me a bit but over all, I really loved the books. The next book in the series isn't out 'til May 2010! EEEEkk!!! How can I wait!
I was so lucky to get on the Twilight kick just a few weeks before the last book was released and I could read all about how they ended up 'living' happily ever after...for eternity....
The only comfort with the Sookie series is the fact that the show 'True Blood' that plays on cable TV HBO in the States now has the first season on DVD. The 2nd season has already started in the States, so I guess it will be awhile before we can see it here in Australia.
It was released here on the 1st of July. I was unable to get the the shops last week to check out if it was available at Kmart. I had rung JB Hi-Fi and Ezy DVD and got their prices and was wondering if I could get it cheaper at Kmart. Well, I went to Kmart yesterday and saw a True Blood poster, so I skipped over to the counter in that area and asked for it and the girl said that it was so popular that they had all sold out in a few short days, and it had been on sale for only $30!! ($26 cheaper than either of the other 2 places I called!) I was devastated! She wouldn't let me get a rain check either....I'm hoping I can get a copy soon!
Here is a layout I did on my latest book obsession...credits Here. The title of the layout is inspired by Eric telling Sookie that she is spoiled for humans, lol. I love it, ooh, and Eric too! We watch the BBC show Merlin and in my minds eye, I see the actor that plays Arthur as Eric, tho he may be a little young for Eric's roll. I do hope that the actor that plays Eric in True Blood can live up to my expectations. Blonde men aren't usually my 'thing' so he has a lot on his plate to cut it for me, lol... I know from trailers that I love Anna Paquin as Sookie. Can't wait to see it!

A Friday Night Post

2009-05-29T21:01:00.004+10:00

I have updated my blog's look using Christy Haig's instructions for 'Customizing Your Blog' lessons.
Yippee! Thank you Christy, I am so happy to have some 'papers' in there for the background, so thrilled! :)
It will be a work in progress tho....as I wanted to use papers that I made, to avoid having to ask a designers permission to use their designs (I am just bone lazy I guess, lol) I am no designer and have no desire to be...but I can see those papers changing slightly on a regular basis, lol.

I have had a layout accepted for publication at The Daily Scrapper.com My very first 'published' layout, so that was a thrill. It will be in the June edition.
Lately I have been having trouble with my EHD. It keeps crashing, but then after a rest, it is working again, but then it will crash again after a few hours. Driving me nuts and I am worried it will crash for good. I must get around to Googling what is wrong with it before it's too late.
Another thing keeping me from scrapping is our eldest DD is getting ready for her first Communion. So I have been sewing her a headdress with flowers and ribbons and sewing beads onto the white jumper I bought her and sewing her a white skirt.
I didn't realize how much I missed sewing until I sat down in front of the sewing machine again.
I just might start sewing again! Whether it is winter approaching or whatever, I am wanting to start knitting again. I think it is that I am sewing the beads onto the jumper while I am watching TV, it just feels nice to be utilizing some free time while I am relaxing in front of the TV. Besides a few dresses I have made the girls and one knitted outfit I made Amethyst, I haven't made as much for the girls as I did for the boys.
Speaking of sewing things... Keenan told me he needed an elf's hat for school...and of course, he needed it the next day...so I scratched through my materials looking for a plain bit of green fabric....after about an hour and a half of searching, I found what I was looking for and made him a hat with a fake brown leather trim...not bad for a midnight sewing machine session. Keenan was happy with it too, so that made my day/night.
Today I went to a Cancer Council fund raising Morning Tea. Here in Australia we call it 'Australia's Biggest Morning Tea' and it is quite the event on our side of town.
I had a lovely time and it was nice to know I was helping in some small way.
OK, onto some of my latest layouts...
I think my next gadget that I'd like to add to my blog will be one of those slide shows for my layouts. I still have one more lesson to do to complete my 'Customizing Your Blog' lessons, so I will do that first. I will probably put flowers or ribbon down the sides of the inner paper, but I will tackle that tomorrow. Gee I hope the kids let me sleep in tomorrow morning!
Star and Amethyst
Amethyst had a talk on guinea pigs, and without telling us, she popped her favorite guinea pig in her school bag and hopped in the car and managed to get to class without us being any the wiser of the stowaway in her bag! After dropping the kids off at school, we were heading off in the car and I got a message on my mobile phone, telling me that Amethyst had a guinea pig in her possession and that animals weren't allowed unsupervised by an adult at school! So we had to turn around and go and rescue the poor over loved guinea pig. LOL! She did manage to finish her talk 'tho, lol!
Digi Shop Talk seems to be down, so I will post the link tomorrow, but that's it for me tonight.
Adios.

Autumn Days.

2009-05-05T14:10:00.026+10:00

It's starting to get cool here in sunny Queensland. Time to drag out the fluffy slippers and extra blankets for the bed.
Since the last time I blogged, the kids have started their new year of school...we have had St. Valentines Day Happy Valentines Day

In February, I also became a CT member for Miss Crow's Magickal Emporium. Here are some layouts using her beautiful products... Family

Baby's First Easter
Purple Girl
Our 2nd DS and eldest DD went to a 'Dance Fever' competition with their school. Amethyst won a dancing achievement award which she was very proud of as were we. Dancers
And then, of course came Easter... Funny Bunnies Happy Easter
The school holidays were fairly uneventful, DH hurt his back at work and is still presently off work, trying to recover, but it was a nice time for us to just relax, enjoy some movies together as a family and not feel the need to be rushing everywhere, and no school lunches to make!
Now the kids are back at school again. My Mum came to our place for a few days for Keenan, our 2nd DS's 12th birthday, which was lovely. It's always a hoot when she comes to town. I miss her a lot when she goes home. Thank heavens for msn and emails! lol!
Here is my Mum and the kids...Mum, DH and I were all able to attend Amethyst's school assembly, which she was thrilled about, normally it's just me that is able to go, so she was pleased to have a larger personal audience, lol. Next week I am going with Ailani (youngest DD) on her first school excursion. We are off to see dinosaurs at the museum. And the week after that, I am accompanying Amethyst (eldest DD) to a Historical Village for a school excursion. So I am looking forward to that, and they are some good excuses to take lots of photos, lol!
(inter)National Scrapbooking Day has come and drained my paypal account. I got some beautiful new kits and some older kits I'd been eyeing for some time....now I have to find the time to sort and tag everything in ACDsee!
I saw in My Scrapbook Art's new online magazine 'Flourish' that Christy Haig has a new tutorial on 'Creating a Customized Blog' so hopefully this will have me being more up to date with my blog and finally fixing it up to how I would like it, thank you Christy!
Kids are just home from school now, so I better go and make the scones I promised them!

2009-01-30T20:51:00.020+10:00

Time to update the old blog...
hello,
well Christmas is long over, as is New Year's Eve, the eldest's 14th birthday and the kids have gone back to school from their 8 week Christmas holidays! Christmas Assembly Can't Wait For Xmas
Happy 2009

Happy New Year
I'm still working on the eldest DS's birthday layout...I started it the day of his birthday, but then my mojo conked out on me and I haven't been back to it for awhile, hopefully I will get some inspiration to get it done soon. Other excitement....DH and I went to see 'Twilight' the movie. I had planned on going to the Gold Class cinemas to see it, but like a derr brain, I didn't think I had to book ahead....admittedly, it was to be our first visit to Gold Class.....and it was booked out...of course...What was I thinking, I should have known it would be crazy popular....so anyway, I booked us 2 seats to see 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' a remake of an old classic. DH (and now I) love vintage Sci Fi movies....I also love them because of the Rocky Horror Picture Show song 'Science Fiction/Double Feature' (I wanna see all those movies featured in that song) and also, when DH and I had only been dating for about 5 months, we went to South Bank to see free 3D vintage Sci Fi movies in an open cinema on the grass...great memories....we saw 3 I think....one being 'Creature From the Black Lagoon'....anyway...The Day The Earth Stood Still was one of them and we had recently bought it on DVD when I read on the internet that Keanu Reeves was in a remake of the movie, coming out in December...so that was also a much anticipated movie to see. We both enjoyed Gold Class and can't wait to go back again when Mum comes to stay (so she can baby sit) As it was our first time to Gold Class, we both ordered a 'Seafood Platter' a dessert to share and a bottle of wine and oh my gosh! We went to see it on December 29 and I felt like I'd eaten more at Gold Class than I had on Christmas Day or Boxing Day! After we came out of the cinema we both felt like the rolly polly people in the Disney movie 'Wall-E' .... Next time we go to Gold Class, we will just be ordering a bowl of chips!
5 days before Christmas, I also took my Sister to see Twilight. (Hubby and I went to see it on the 13th) I had forced the books onto both my Husband and my Sister and so I thought it was only fair that I take my Sis to see the movie with me. She met me in the city and she had my 'Decor' clear container with handle with the 4 books in it that I had borrowed her...she had just finished reading the last of the books a few days before we went to see the movie. I put my box of Twilight books on the counter and asked the movie ticket guy if he could guess what movie I wanted to see that day, lol....I must have looked a bit of a Twilight Twi-hard....but really, I only had them there as my Sister was returning the books to me, lol.
Here is a layout I did, I embarrassed my Sis when I asked an usher to take our photo in front of the movie poster, but, oh well....had to be done...lol Twilight
South Bank
We did a fair amount of swimming over the Christmas holidays, tho I plan on taking the kids back to South Bank a bit before the season is out as we are so close to a bus stop now.
Then in the last week of school holidays we went away on holiday to my parents farm. My Mum is an avid emailer and has been the proud owner of a computer that friends gave her for about 18 months now. As my Father won't have anything to do with the internet bill, she can only afford dial up, which is maddenly slow as you can imagine. I always go to her place with high hopes that I will still be able to log into DST etc and make comments and look around and be inspired by layouts even if I can't create any while I am away, but her connection is always getting interrupted and you have to disconnect and then reconnect to the internet whenever you try and 'turn a page' so in the end I gave up....unfortunately for me, I forgot to sign out of my username at DST on her computer and when I went home and uploaded my first layout after I got back....I faithfully sent Mum the link to the layout, so she could see it...yes, my Mum is registered at DST and is one of my 'regulars' who comments on my layouts. She always feels weird about leaving comments and always tries to make out that she doesn't know me IRL, lol, so her comments quite often make me giggle. I love to do layouts of her when she was young...as a surprise when she clicks on a link I send her. I've told her I am quite happy and comfortable for her to say 'hi Chryss, I like your layout' or whatever, but she can't bring herself to do it for some strange reason and will say hysterical things like 'your Mother would love this layout'
I did this layout of her, to tease her, I wanted to call the layout....'Marjorie, Get Some Clothes On' but I decided that would be a bit much, lol! (I deleted her surname before I uploaded it) her comment is so funny! Miss Marjorie
and this was another layout of her that was supposed to give her a bit of a laugh...tho I think it must have back fired, coz she wouldn't even leave a comment on it as she was a bit horrified that I had called it 'Widgie' ... tho the journaling clearly points out that no one really thought she was a widgie, just they used to tease her that she looked like one in that photo....poor mum...
Widgie
Anyway... to get to the point of this talk about my Mum....when I was a teenager, like many of us, I thought I was cool and groovy and thought Mum was a terrible embarrassment. Now, to give myself credit, my Mum IS rather embarrassing and there is always something bizarre happening with her and she always has her own unique way of reacting to things. As I have grown older I have learnt to cope with her eccentricities and I never bat an eyelid...most of the time...and she is now hard pressed to get me to slink away and pretend to not know her, gasp in horror, and/or turn bright red and almost pop an artery. However... although really, it was my own fault, as I had not signed out from DST before I went home from my holiday at her place....after I went home and uploaded a new layout, I happily sent her the link and off I went to bed.
I got up the next morning to an inbox full of emails saying..."Sorry Chryss, I made a comment on your layout using your username, please delete!!" she kept sending me the same warning over and over, hoping I was still awake and that I could go in and delete the comment, as she had realised she was still signed in with my username, and had signed out and then signed in again with her username. I was quite forgiving tho, as I know what a pain in the neck it would have been to have to sign out and then in with her username on her slow dial up...not that she knows my password anyway...lol....
so if you managed to see my layout 'One Week' at DST that night and saw MY username with MY avatar, praising my own layout.....I am not really in love with myself....it was actually my Mum...bless her...when she signed back in with her username she made the exact same comment as she had with my username, hoping people would realise it was her commenting (that's my Mum's logic for you) For a split second there, I did go red in the face and thought I might pop an artery...but then I just had to laugh....it is so 'classic Mum'...lol!!
I do have another layout that I did 2 years ago about a funny incident that is another 'Classic Mum' example, but Blogger isn't letting me add anymore photos ... here is the link to the layout anyway... Dressing Room Drama.
so that's it for tonight....and yes, I will be sending the link to this post to Mum....lol....I love you Mum xxxx

2008-11-15T18:00:00.028+10:00

Hello, geez, I should not leave this blog 2 whole months, way too many layouts to share. News to share? well, nothing earth shattering...
since September I have had my eldest DD turn 8, I turned 38, I was a month guest Creative Team member for Amanda Rockwell, we had Halloween, we have a new designer at Inspiration Lane, I've had 2 computer screens drop dead on me and I've fallen in love with the Twilight series ....so fairly eventful...all involving many layouts, lol....
here are a few of my favorites :)

This is my eldest DD using our new designer at Inspiration Lane: FruitLoOp Sally's kit Not So Gray Anyway.
Next on the list was my birthday. My DH was on night shift, so was unable to share a birthday dinner with me. I am a bit of a pizza addict and normally I only order a pizza when DH can go pick it up and share it with us, but I was feeling a bit miffed about missing out on pizza on my birthday, so I ordered a delivery of pizza. I got 2 pizzas, one for the boys and one for me and the girls to share. Ailani only ate one slice and she slid all the toppings off, Amethyst had 3 or 4 slices and I had the rest. Within 4 hours of eating the pizza I was violently ill. Whether it was the pizza or not, I don't know, the girls didn't get sick and neither of the boys got sick either, so it is a bit of a mystery, but I spent the rest of my birthday night with my head in the toilet and the next day I spent in bed sleeping, too ill to move. To make up for a fairly atrocious birthday, I was a guest CT member for Amanda Rockwell. I love her designs, they are beautiful and quality products and so I felt quite blessed to be able to work with them for my birthday month. Here is one of my favorites, tho I did 9 or 10 layouts all up I love this one too, especially as 6 days after I posted this Tinker Bell layout, I won and went to a special movie screening of the new Disney movie 'Tinker Bell' with the girls on the 25th of October! It was great to have a girls day out. It was quite some time ago, but the boys have had a boys day out with their Dad to see a movie, so it was nice for us girls to do it too. Makes for a fun day.
Then Halloween came around. Here in Australia kids very rarely go trick or treating, but Halloween is starting to catch on in one way or another. I have celebrated it on a small scale for the past four years, mainly for the fun of it and to bring a bit of joy, I mean, why not! lol! For us, Halloween means "lollies" and scary kids movies and that is about it. Four years ago, I had gone into the city for some reason or other near Halloween and I had gone past a specialty sweet store and noticed that it had really cool Halloween lollies, like vampire teeth lollies and 'blood' lollipops and witches and bat and skeleton shaped lollies. I couldn't help myself and I bought said bags of lollies and decided to host a Halloween mini party just for our little family. Tho I went a bit overboard and I made frozen 'eyeballs' and also a big batch of caramel popcorn and I got Eddie Murphy's "Haunted Mansion" out on DVD for the kids enjoyment. The next year I scaled it down a bit and made my 4 kids a Halloween bag full of treats and made Halloween cup cakes, with purple, green and orange icing with a spider ring on top to hand out at any trick or treaters at the door. The first year we had about 4 kids come to the door, in 2006 I think I gave out about 9 cup cakes, then last year I decided to make full on Halloween treat bags to give out, after seeing a Halloween treat topper layout at Little Dreamer. I made about 30 bags (which included a bag each for my 4 kids, hubby and me) and we were assailed with 25 little kids in one hit! I was happy to give out my bags, that is the whole reason I made them, but it was a bit disappointing to have my little bags gone in one fell swoop! Anyway, we are in a different neighbourhood this year and I again made about 26 bags. This time we only got 13 young teens at the door, so this year I had left overs!! so that was just as disappointing ...I know....I'm never happy, lol... Tho of course we will probably have twice the amount now that word is out, lol! I also gave our trick or treaters another surprise.... this year I decided to get dressed up with the kids! I found a fab pair of ceramic single vampire fangs! I've wanted some proper fangs ever since I first fell in love with Bram Stokers "Dracula" (the book) when I was a young teenager. They have a setting putty that moulds around your teeth to keep them in place, not 100% but much better than the daggy plastic row of teeth that is usually available. I also bought a set of bat wings and ears for each of the girls and I and a new Dracula cape for our eldest boy and we already had a good fabric cape for our younger boy...so we were a family of vampires and vampire bats! lol..here is a layout of me crouching in the doorway, waiting to spook any unsuspecting and un-expecting trick or treaters...they said that we were the only house decorated or prepared to give out treats, lol...so nice to see those happy faces when I flashed my fangs at them, lol!credits: Here and here is a layout of the girls and I in our bat wings and ears.and here is a photo that I just love but haven't got around to scrapping... can you tell I love this adopted holiday! lol!next on the list of events...the 2 dead computer screens...the less said about this the better *roll eyes* , isn't it amazing how a computer put out of commission for even the slightest amount of time puts your whole world in a spin...well, I'm addicted to mine, so it does for me. A very sad affair... at least I was gifted a friend's old sewing machine last month too, so I have nothing to complain about if the computer plays up on me, I can gather comfort in front of the sewing machine instead! lol.
(bg paper by Joyful Heart Designs from her Evoking kit)
And that brings me up to my Twilight obsession. Not sure when I bought the first book. At the non scrapbooking forums at DST I had noticed people talking about a series of books called Twilight. I thought it sounded interesting, as it is about vampires but I thought it would be hard to come by maybe here in Australia, so didn't think too much about it and then I was in KMart and noticed a big display of the 3 Twilight books...(the 4th one came out about 3 weeks after I started reading the first 3) So I bought the first book, it was only $15. I put the book I was reading aside (Ivanhoe) and started reading Twilight....at first I thought I couldn't relate to a teenage girl going to school, but was impatient to 'meet' the vampire...and when I did...I was hooked! I only get to the shops once a week and I read Twilight in 2 and a half days, so I was impatient to get back to the shops the next Friday to pick up the next book in the series. I dropped the kids off at school and got the bus to the nearest shopping center. I did a Meg Ryan from the movie 'You've Got Mail' When I got off the bus, I walked really fast toward KMart, then I stopped myself and tried to walk like a normal rational person, then sped up again and then slowed down, all the while, my heart was racing to get my hands on the second book! I got into KMart.....and they had sold out of 'New Moon' !!!!! My stomach did flip flops, what was I going to do!! and then I silently scolded myself for not getting all 3 books the week before, but how could I have known they would sell out! I thought it was just the women at DST that knew about it! They still had some copies of 'Eclipse' left, so I snatched that up and then went on the hunt to find 'New Moon' elsewhere....there are 2 book stores at the shopping center that I go to, both of which were charging $10 more than what they were selling it at KMart for, but what could I do, I HAD to buy it, so I did and excitedly went home with 2 books, knowing full well that I would read 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse' within the week! Then it was another 11 days before the latest book was released. 'Breaking Dawn' came out and I pre-ordered it! I just love these books and there is a movie of Twilight coming out here on December 11, I can not wait, and the best thing is I begged, pleaded and fluttered my eyelashes at my DH and coerced him into reading them all too! It will be so exciting to go and see the movie with him! He thought they were OK, a bit lovey lovey, but still good. This makes 3 books, or sets of books that we have both read. When we first started going out, he kept telling me that I aught to read 'Lord of the Rings', that he'd loved it and he was sure I'd love it too, but for years I resisted, then of course the movie was soon to be at the cinemas, so I decided to read them before we went to see it on the big screen. Then this year, DH decided to read 'In Cold Blood' : (classic Truman Capote novel that I read when I was a teenager) after watching Bennett Miller's 2006 movie 'Capote' with me and the Twilight books makes 3 books that we have in common. So nice to share a book with someone close to you and be able to chat about it. However, I think I annoyed him by constantly saying "What part are you up to now?" so in the end, I would run over to where he kept the book and look at where his book mark was and find out for myself, lol! And here is a layout I did

And now we are heading on to Christmas! I know this is a clique, but it is so true, that the older you get, the quicker the year slips by. Thankfully, having a December baby, I am in the habit of being fairly organised and the Christmas presents have been on layby since July, so no dramas there, it is really just the food to buy and decorating that needs to be done.
Here is my first Christmas layout for the season...using FruitLoOp Sally's: 'So This is Christmas' kit. At Inspiration Lane, they have a 'sneak peek Saturday' with 40% off the newly released kits, fabulous savings!
and that brings me up to date for now. I will try and be a bit more regular, coz it is a PIB getting the images into the right order, or maybe I just don't know how to use Blogger! Goodnight :)

Fun scrapping news!

2008-09-18T18:59:00.012+10:00

Whoo Hoo! I have made "the honor list" at two sites I adore... first I made Layout of the Week at Authentic Artistry for this layout... credits here
and my layout "My Daughters" using the Weeds and Wildflowers kit I won also made "Best of the Bunch on the Weeds and Wildflowers blog last week.
Also, I have got a guest spot for the month of October, on Amanda Rockwell's Creative Team!! It starts on the 7th of October, which is the day before my birthday, so it is like an early birthday present, so excited about that, thank you Amanda! :)
I also have another guest spot coming up that I am super excited about, but I can't reveal that as yet, as I am unsure of what month it will be, but I can't wait for that also. It's so very nice to have something to look forward to!! :)
Also I have to give a shout out for Miss Huni Buni's new Doll Baby kits at Inspiration Lane.
these are the most adorable little Miss-ies and I have picked up the #7 in the series. There is 10 kits all up. I have customized mine, I've put freckles across her cheeks and even 'painted' her toenails purple. Tho I have to admit, I haven't had a fringe (or..are they called 'bangs' overseas??) since I was about 19 years of age, lol..... I am currently doing a layout using a photo of me with my 'baby doll fringe' when I was younger...lol! So this is my new avatar, I am done with trying to 'Photoshop' my photo for my avatar. A couple of weeks ago I took about 10 photos of myself and then roped the DH in to take some head shots of me, trying, in vain, to get a decent photo of myself to use as a new avatar....needless to say, they all 'should' go in the bin....I hate photos of myself and like a lot of people, I guess, I just can't smile naturally when someone has a camera in my face. But I am happy with my little Missy :) I will have to crop her down a bit to fit her in at Digishop Talk, as their avatars have to be 100x100, whereas at Inspiration Lane they can be 200x200. Such a shame, coz I do so love those cute toenails, lol!
So....just incase you are thinking I am a little kooky, I will seal the deal, lol and leave you with a couple of kooky layouts about myself...just to show that, even tho I hate photos of myself, I still scrap about 'ME'.....for the sake of leaving a true account of myself for my kids and future grandchildren.
The title 'I Am Purple' has been inspired by Will Smith's movie 'I Am Legend' Credits Here My Hat: Credits Here

More Layouts

2008-08-27T17:49:00.010+10:00

Not much news but plenty of new layouts.
Here is a layout I made using The Great Outdoors by Weeds and Wildflowers that I won at their Birthday Celebrations...Another layout... look at this, a pink layout!! but when I saw Joyful Heart Designs new paper pack, A Burst of Happy! I just had to use it straight away, I just love these papers, the patterns are so colourful and really do make you feel happy!

all these products that I used in the layout are new this week from Inspiration Lane.
I love a good vintage frame ... these are by Ali Folendore and these Vintage Alphabets are by Holly McCaig, guest designer at Inspiration Lane.
ooh, and I see Joyful Heart Designs has just released a matching alpha for those papers! Cool!

It's almost Spring!

2008-08-18T08:56:00.006+10:00

Only 2 weeks till Spring! Yeah, tired of the cold, bring on the sun! Ekka time is over here in Brisbane. We didn't go this year, as we went last year. Our eldest daughter went with the school and her best friend's Dad, who was one of the parent helpers, bought his daughter and my DD a big Cadbury showbag, so she was very happy with that, so no complaints about not going. Maybe we'll go next year. I have been lucky again and won the new and very beautiful kit by Weeds and Wildflowers 'The Great Outdoors'

Gorgeous huh?! Can't wait to play with it! Here are some more layouts I've done over the past couple of weeks.., the first one is using Countryside by Natali Designs that I won on my Anniversary...

I also became a site CTM for the new scrapbooking site Inspiration Lane some wonderful designers over there and I am enjoying myself being on their team and meeting new scrappers. Here is a couple of my layouts from Inspiration Lane. credits: HERE
credits: HERE

I Am So Lucky!

2008-07-24T20:51:00.006+10:00

Yesterday was my DH and my 14th wedding anniversary and what did I find in my PM box over at Digishoptalk when I got up in the morning...?

Two PMs with the news that I'd won something! Yeah!

First, I was lucky to win a RAK from Natali Design and I got the very beautiful Countryside

and the 2nd PM was that I had won a $15 GC layout challenge at Christina Renee's Authentic Artistry blog!!!!Talk about being in heaven!!
And what makes it even more special is that we just moved house and in all the stress/work load that comes with house moving, we had both totally forgotten that our anniversary was coming up, so had not planned for it and had no money to do anything, so these 2 wonderful wins really brightened my day immensely!
Thank you so much Natali Design and Christina Renee!! :)

Normally I make DH his favourite cake ...Black Forest cake, on Birthdays and Anniversaries, but I was unable to get to the shops to get cherries, cream and chocolate, so I decided to make his next favourite thing...biscuits. I made love heart shaped jam drops and also a plain chocolate cake as well. Next year we vow to do something special for our anniversary, but really, it is the little things that count and we had a nice day regardless.

(frame is one of the Christina Renee products I got from my Gift Coupon, 'Antiques The Frames')

I've Moved House!

2008-07-03T19:57:00.007+10:00

Around the last time I blogged, I found out that I would be moving house, so I have been in a bit of a deep depression. I hate moving house so much that I've found life pretty hard to handle the last couple of months. But the horrid job is done now and we are in our new house. There are still boxes everywhere, but beds/lounge/TV/computer/kitchen are all where they need to be, so I guess the rest will come together eventually. I'm not rushing it, alot of it needs organising and sorting, so I am in no hurry. I have managed to keep up my scrapping and am also very pleased to become an ACDsee convert! I love it! I SO enjoyed tagging everything and organising and purging my stash. I just wished I was as energetic about the house, LOL!

I will include a few layouts, if I can figure out to insert them, I haven't blogged in so long, I've probably forgot, not that I knew how to do it properly before anyway, lol.

My gallery at Digishoptalk.com is my most used gallery.

The first one is about my love of vampire stories.

The next one is made using a beautiful kit I was RAKed with from New Life Dreams Designs called 'Spread Your Wings'

This one was made using the gorgeous kit by Christina Renee: 'Ultimate Art Collection 2' that she created for the Diamond and Gold Members at Digishop Talk. I have always wanted to become a Gold Member but could never afford it. But as DST is my main hang out and the fact that Christina's kit was too beautiful to pass up, I finally became a Gold Member, so this is my layout using it.

It is my Mum (on top) her friend Renata and some boy who was chatting them up, lol! Images are clickable (I hope) and the next one is my most recent layout using the Digishop Talk Gold members kit by Shabby Princess for this month called Summer Cottage.

Hopefully when I blog next I will be able to say I am all done sorting and unpacking and we are all happy and settled in our new home. The kids seem to be happy and that is the main thing I guess, especially as we are quite close to a good park. We went there yesterday and they enjoyed themselves and I got some nice new photos to scrap with, yeah! :)

Harrah! My computer is back!

2008-04-13T00:52:00.005+10:00

Jacque Larsen paper, Kate Hadfield doodles, Tiff Brady frame.

Made using Creative Confusion Designs: credits

Finally, after almost 2 months my computer is back from the shop! We blew a motherboard, which seemed simple enough to replace, however, they don't make the kind of motherboard that our computer was using anymore and so we needed to upgrade a few bits and pieces that plugged into it. The original computer store that we bought our computer from wanted $700 and we just didn't have that much money on hand, so we took it to our cousin's place, who lives an hour drive away (when we were able to) but things didn't work out as we'd hoped there and then we (meaning my DH) had to drive down there when he could, to pick it up, as we found a computer store right near us, who said they could get a new system up and running with a guarantee for about $200, so we did that. Then the c-drive decided to drop dead, so that was an extra $100.....*sigh* computer problems....don't ya just hate them!!!

Well, I can tell you, it almost killed me! Luckily our cousins had given us an old computer last year, for the kids, so I was at least able to move the modem over to the kids computer and get onto the net, so that wasn't so much of an issue, but my scrapbooking program is on our main computer, so therefore I couldn't do any scrapbooking......that was the most painful part!

Then the computer store said it would be ready this Tuesday afternoon, but it wasn't, it was going to be ready Wednesday...and it wasn't...When they rang my DH at work, to say it wouldn't be ready again, he immediately rang me, so that I was aware that "my baby" wasn't coming home. The day before, when he came home from work, I ran to each of the car windows to see where he had the tower, I almost choked when he said it wasn't ready! So he felt he needed to warn me on the Wednesday, just in case I took it out on him, LOL!

Anyway, on the Thursday, they said it would be ready about 5.30pm, so when DH got home from work, we watched some television together. No word from the computer to say it wasn't ready..that was a good sign, so after we had done watching our TV show, I got ready to go down the street. My hands were shaking like mad...when we got there, they were still working on it, 3 guys, all working on it to get it finished. Background information: this computer of ours is a great computer, in theory, but we have had nothing but trouble with it. Constantly blowing motherboards and power supplies. For the first 3 years, while it was under warranty, it was constantly in the shop, getting fixed. I really don't believe the shop we got if from really had any idea how to fix it, things were incompatable and etc, etc...Hopefully this new shop have sorted out all the glitches once and for all.....if that is ever possible for a PC.

Anyway, we got it back on Thursday night. I set the internet up on it and let DH reset the programs...(we had lost most of our programs when the original c-drive crashed, they tried to transfer as much of the programs as they could, but then it was up to us to re-set or re-load our programs. Did DH prioritise and put on my scrapbooking program immediately to appease his 2 months cold turkey scrapbooking challenged wife?? NO! Grounds for divorce, I'd say! LOL.

Anyway, yes, I guess I could have done it myself, but as DH says...he does all the organising/fixing/maintanance on the PC and I just get to enjoy it....(I am terrified of installing a program) So I spend all day Friday, with a beautiful computer, but with no scrapbooking program...

When DH got home, I sweetly begged him to reset our program....."can't find the disc, other things to do!!!" Did I flip my lid? You bet I did!

So I kicked him off the computer, searched, found disc, rang my computer savy sister and got her to talk me through installing the program....wasn't such a headache after all! Yeah! :)

I love my DH very much...but sometimes, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself! LOL...

so...today being Saturday, I will upload the 2 layouts that I got done today. The Easter one was a 2 second job, the other one, I started last night, after DH went to bed and I didn't finish it till this afternoon. Hopefully I will soon learn how to put photos at the end of the post, or how to get them where I want them...blogger is still very new to me...

Wishing you all a good weekend and a problem free computer! ;)

More layouts!

2008-02-19T21:24:00.001+10:00

Off To Kindy Credits Christmas Toes Credits

First Haircut Credits

Well, I said I meant to use my blog to showcase my layouts, so here are three I did today. Admittedly, two of them, I had started a few days ago, but today I must have had some mojo, LOL!

I started off this blog with a layout about my eldest son starting High School, well my first layout for today is about my youngest child starting Kindy.

It is unbelievable to me that she has started Kindy, she is our last child, our baby, but she is no longer a baby *sniff* I have only just recently been able to break the habit of referring to her as "the baby". The time sure does go fast!

The second layout is simply a funny layout about my love of toe nail polish and Christmas wrapped up in one... erm...pair of feet, LOL!

This Christmas past was the second time I painted my toenails red and green. I love looking down at my toes and feeling all Christmassy...tho right now, they are purple but are actually in need of a new coat of polish. A job for the week end!

And the last layout for tonight is my Kindy girl in the hair salon after her very first haircut, a nice little bob cut, fresh and ready for Kindy.

Gee, I hope I am as productive tomorrow as I was today. I even did a little bit of scrapbook graphic sorting. Tomorrow I need to do a back up burn. Too many downloads and not enough saves to discs!

St Valentine's Day

2008-02-17T13:54:00.000+10:00

Tin Lids credits

Valentine's Day tins credits

Well, Valentine's Day has been and gone.
Normally we don't do much for it, if anything... Last year I made the kids and hubby cards that I put in their lunch boxes to find later in the day and made love coupons for hubby. I still honour them whenever he produces them ;) So this year I decided to go with something a little more tame for Valentine's Day! I made altered Valentine's Day tins and treat bags for our kids. The kids and Rob (husband) got the small treat bags in their lunch boxes and Rob got the burgandy tin and I got the purple tin (but of course! :) and the kids got the larger treat bags for after school.

I said to Rob,..."lets watch a romantic movie together for today" and so he chose "Titanic" so that's what we did for Valentine's Day this year.
Rob has a lot of movies, the majority are his, so there is very few romantic movies in our collection. But it was nice all the same!

I am not into bright red as a rule, so was happy to have the priviledge to play with Creative Confusion's new kit Quixotic. It doesn't have red as the predominant colour, which is a big plus for me. Quixotic
and here is the layout I scrapped with it of Rob and I about to go on our first Valentine's Day 'date'
Where DO the years go! LOL! Layout Credits

CT challenge layout

2008-02-13T11:57:00.000+10:00

The Digi Chick is having a layout challenge where the winner gets to be a Creative Team member for the whole site for a month! wow! Too cool an opportunity to pass up!

As Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I centered my layout around a love heart and am quite happy with how it turned out.

Credits are HERE

2008-02-07T22:42:00.000+10:00

This really isn't a new layout, it is a do-over...

everything here is recoloured, except the stitching,the ribbon and the material flowers. Ribbon and metal charm by Shabby Miss Jenn, papers by Kathryn Wilson, paper flowers by Weeds and Wildflowers, stitching by Gina Miller, flower on the left by Rina Kroes, other flowers by Petit Moineaux, frame by Gina Maria, staple by ksharonk, journaling card art work by Jackie Eckles.

School's in!

2008-02-06T19:31:00.000+10:00

Ok, another post...

I am going to try and post my layouts here and blog more.

The kids are back at school. Our eldest is off to high school and our youngest has started Kindy!

Layout credits are HERE

Another reason I wanted to start blogging again is that I wanted to have a 'diary' of sorts. I had one growing up and I find my journal entries an endless source of entertainment. Reading about what I did as a teenager and what I thought and how I felt about life's goings ons is hysterical and also theraputic in a way. Some things that may have been forgotten can be seen with new eyes and can be quite liberating. It also helps me remember what being a teenager means and helps me be more patient with my eldest son, who just last month entered his teens!

When I first started this blog, I introduced myself and explained the blog name. Somehow it has been lost or deleted, so I will add it in here....

Purple Is My Colour is a song lyric from an alternative Australian band called 'Beasts of Bourbon' It's a fun song called 'I'm a Drop Out'

I discovered the band through watching 'Rage' late at night and spent many a happy hour listening to their record.

At the time, my circle of friends and I wore black exclusively, but as a younger child I was always drawn to the colour purple. My Mother also loved purple. My strongest memories of the colour purple was my Grandmother in New Zealand who sent matching knitted mauve jumpers for my Mother, sister and I.

I also distinctly remember some hand me down sandals I recieved that were violet and I adored them!

When I was a clad in black teenager, I seemed to be drawn to songs that had the word 'purple' in them, like the song 'Drop Out' by Beasts of Bourbon....

I wanna make the in scene

You know it's not such a bad dream

I give my ma some mean looks, Burn all my old school books

I buy a leather jacket so I look real tough

All the little girls will think I'm tough

I spend my time playing pool

That's how I'm gonna be so cool

Because I'm a drop out

I wanna be a guru I wanna be a god

I wanna be your baby I wanna be in love

Purple is my colour

Baby your my heart

So let's take some LSD

We can make a start Cause I'm a drop out

There were other songs too,

'Purple Haze' by Jimi Hendrix, of course,

'Murderess in a Purple Dress' by The Scientists

and up until this point, I was under the impression that one of the lines in 'Wildflower' by The Cult was...

'you're a purple creation'....but I just found out that it is actually

'you're a perfect creation'...LOL!

well....I always considered myself to be a Purple Creation! LOL!

there are probably other songs that had the word purple in them,

but it is 11.30pm and I need to get to bed and I can not think of them at present.

And yes, I did force myself to get into "Deep Purple"

I always thought "Smoke on the water" was funny and when I got an old LP of theirs I really liked 'Speed King' and 'Space Truckin'

Funnily enough, I have a husband that loves 'Deep Purple' LOL!

So there you go, that is the story behind the name "Purple Is My Colour"

Remembrance Day

2007-11-11T07:06:00.001+10:00

Today is Remebrance Day here in Australia. (Armistice Day)
We will be wearing our poppies when we go out today.
Our youngest will be going to an Orientation Day for Kindy. The get together will be for an hour and a half and I am sure she will love every minute of it. I can hardly believe that my baby is off to Kindy next year. For the last 12 years, it seems I have always had a baby on my hip, but not for much longer! It is quite sad really. I will miss having a little one with me during the day. I have always had a baby in my arms when I have waved the others off on their first days of Kindy/School, but not this time.
I just hope that for today, they are able to get all of the little children to stay quiet of a minute silence at 11 o clock today!