End of Summer.

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

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

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!

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!

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 BundleThe 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!

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

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!