Autumn Days.

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!

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

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 upI 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!

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

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!

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!

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')