I have a hot date tonight :-)

My husband knows about it. He's totally cool with it, because I've known "him" longer than Mike. Already worked out what I'll wear, makeup, hair. I'm getting tingles just anticipating.

hahahahaha

I am going to see Billy Joel tonight. YAY ME ! Sixth time I've seen him in concert, a bit of a fan huh?

I'm taking mum along, she's a big fan too. Mike on the other hand would rather stay home, in the comfort of the lounge chair with a bourbon watching a DVD of Billy Joel, no screaming fans, pushing, shoving, hard seats. He doesn't get it doesn't he? It's the whole thing about live performance, it's special, it's exhilarating. So anyway it's going to be a girl weekend, we've even booked accommodation right in the city as well.

Watch out Melbourne!

Twolittlepixels has an amazing lot of talented new designers and we're so lucky to be able to play with their goodies to present them to the digi scrappers. I got to use Emily Giovanni's beautiful Glitter Snowflakes here in this page. Go nab a bargain 25% for Black Friday sale.

For any overseas people this page will make you laugh. The very first time I saw snow. It was at the top of Mount Wellington in Hobart, Tasmania. There you go Jodie, I've been up there. I was soooooooo excited to see the snow. Truly, there is snow there, I'm pointing to it !!! haha

Credits here.

And with that, I'm logging off, I have a bag to pack and a date night to be had.

Go Wes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you know I'm an Idol fan. Have wanted him to win since the audition stage. So very pleased and yes, I will be buying his CD absolutely.


Okay first things first, I have been neglecting my knitting on this blog, so will show you the socks I have finished. The yarn is The Knittery Chubby in Merlot, sounds good enough to drink doesn't it? I was given this wool by a good friend Tanya with the express instruction that the socks I make must be for myself. So here they are Tanya and I love them.

The pattern is Spring Forward from Knitty, knitted on 2.75 needles. The pattern, although it looks complex, is really easy and I think has surpassed monkeys as my newest favourite pattern.

More on the knitting front. I nabbed a couple of skeins of Colinette Jitterbug when in Geelong last week. Stitchery Blue is now stocking it. Delicious to knit with. I'm knitting with the bright coloured one (colourway = Jewel) right now. Of course I didn't knit a swatch for size and they're turning out a wee bit bigger than I imagined. Oh well, they will make brilliant bed socks I reckon. The other skein there, the black and white one (colourway = Zebra) will be for mum, the ardent Collingwood fan, for Mother's Day.





Now back to the scrapping, thought the very last page of the book should be a current picture of the house where we grew up. It's changed a lot over the years, as the journalling attests. I think it will be a fitting end to the book. By the way, I'm not scrapping in order, so just because I say this is the last page, I've still got a couple more to go and then away for printing.

Credits here.


Hmmm, the journalling is a bit small to read. It goes like this:


"A lot of changes over the years. Painting, awnings, new side fences, change of roof colour, front fence up, front fence down, plants grown, plants ripped out, wattle tree, pampas grass, bottle brush, wooden window frames, change to aluminium, driveway paved, ramp put in, different cars, different neighbours, altering fittings and fixtures, wood panelling, new carpets, change of whitegoods, things break down, things keep on going, cracks appear, cracks get fixed, floors creak, the sounds of the house, children raised, adults coming back to visit, meals enjoyed, laughter abounds, tears shed. Yes, lots of changes over the years, but one thing remains constant - Love grew in this house and you can feel it every time you walk in the door."


And with that I must be off to bed. It is tragic having to set my alarm tonight, but back to work tomorrow.

Guess what I'm playing on right now?

My beautiful new Wacom Bamboo. That's what. It arrived today and Mike quickly connected it up because he knew he'd never hear the end of it if he didn't, hahaha. Oh it's so beautiful. And so responsive. Plus it looks so sleek on my desk. I LOVE IT ALREADY AMANDA !!!! She promised I would.

And what was more of a surprise was the other little gifties Wacom sent me also. Not that I do paper scrapbooking but a packet of 180 assorted 12x12 inch papers, and another packet of 120 assorted 8x8 inch papers. I will put these to good use with other craft projects most definitely. Plus a really neat digital scrapbooking book. I was not expecting these other gifts so was most surprised when I opened the box.

I went to a craft party on Thursday night actually. Oh yes, I live on the wild side! It was for Stampin Up! Although I have no plans to get back into stamping, I must admit it was a brilliant product. Once stamped they actually looked like they were printed on rather than stamped on.

So amongst the layouts I've done this week, I've had a huge play. Sharon has a wonderfully fresh Beach Play kit out and Shen has the most beautiful soft Christmassy Fa-la-la kit which I know I will use long after Christmas photographs are put away. Check out the links to take you to the shoppe.

And I am going to give you a plethora of pages using the kits ha! All for the now famous (or should that be infamous) family album.

Yes, what a rotter I was telling all the kids at the Christmas party that it wasn't really santa but it was my dad. Eeeek. I don't know how old I was here, it was in the 70's some time. Surely someone would have told me that round stripes do nothing for a girl's figure, hahaha.

I love looking at pictures of when I was a wee toddler. And it still blows my mind that these photos have stayed so pristine over the years. This was from 1966.

And yes, please feel very sorry for me. We had to wait until AFTER lunch was over, AFTER the dishes were done and AFTER mum and grandma put lipstick on (why? who knows), before we could open our Christmas presents. This meant there was a lot of secret touching and shaking going on during the morning. By everyone!! Even grandma, I love seeing that picture of her, all 70 or 80 years of her, on the floor checking out the presents.

And we were very lucky to have a pool when we were growing up. It's not there now, one too many leaks unfortunately. Do you remember back to those days, we would lather ourselves in baby oil and positively cook ourselves in the sun? And thought we were doing wonders for getting a great tan. I get the horrors now thinking of it. These photos weren't the clearest of pics, but they made for a good collage of some summer fun we had as a family.

That's it from me, over and out, time for bed.

Fly by posting

I'm tired, I'm aching, water aerobics tonight was like boot camp. What happened to the fun nights of floating about on a noodle? Hmmmph.

Meant to take a picture today of some beautiful yarn goodness that I bought over the weekend. I will tempt you with that thought, tomorrow there will be pictures. Stitchery Blue in Geelong is now stocking Collinette Jitterbug yarn. Whoooooo weeeeee !!!

I will leave you with a page that I love the feel of it. Pictures through the early 60's during mum and dad's dating and courtship. And once again I thank our lucky stars we are so fortunate to have such clarity with these old photographs. Yes there was a little bit of cleaning up on photoshop, but only to fix dust particles that found it's way onto the scan.

There's a few poses going on below too. Do we do that in the early stages of relationships when the camera comes out? I know I'm a terrible poser now, bring out the camera and I'm jumping in front of it, haha, but the arm on the hips and the leg up on the tree, hmmmm don't know that I did the model poses as such.

When you see these early pictures of their relationship, you realise just how many years have gone by. Here are two people with hopes and dreams in their eyes and a whole future ahead of them.

Credits here.

Sparks a plenty!

I've been spending a few days with mum, just wanted to be there over the weekend because Saturday would have been dad's birthday. Mum and I ended up going to dad's favourite eatery and having a lovely meal, a few wines, and a nice time.

I've actually had quite a busy long long weekend. I met up with my very good friend Myra from Florida. She is out here again visiting . How lucky I am to see her once again. Myra and Joe took us to a lovely restaurant where we were served the biggest meals I've ever seen in my life.

And then Sunday I met up with some dear dear friends. I've stayed good friends with a group of girls where we all met on a wedding forum and all got married around the same time. We're from all over Australia, all walks of life, and we make sure we meet as often as we can. And it's terrific. These girls keep me sane!

NOW .....

I can tell you my very very good news that I hinted about in an earlier post. I entered a competition with one of my scrapbooking pages, first time I've ever done that, with Wacom Pen Scrappers. And unbelievably I won one of the runner up prizes and will soon be the very proud owner of a Bamboo. There'll be no stopping me then!! This page is the one that means the most to me out of all the pages I've ever made so it's meant a lot to be amongst the winning entries. Check them out here.

I've posted the layout before, but I think it deserves another showing.

Credits
The Beautiful Day Kit by JoFia Designs
Diamond Rain by JoFia Designs
Fonts – Carpenter and Mom’s Typewriter


I'm just amazed, stunned really. And Wacom have been wonderful, after the initial email advice, they made they phoned to ensure we knew that we'll be getting an Australian model so the plugs will work, and just now I've received an email from Wacom Asia Pacific who are planning a worldwide press release announcing the results of the contest and would like to customise the Australian and Southeast Asian press releases to highlight me and my artwork as the regional winner among scrapbooking media in the region and would like to interview me. This is too wild for words !!!

Okay, stop getting carried away!! Onto other things ...

I did say in the title sparks a plenty and I meant it. Last Thursday there was an almighty storm here and although the house didn't get hit, the lightening has hit a pole somewhere and sent a shock through our phone lines. Final count - blown up telephone, my computer fried (YES!!! *MY* COMPUTER), the modem blew out and the fax machine went kaput.

Because Mike's best mate is an IT Guru, he's already hooked me up with a brand spanking new computer that he's built, and it's AMAZING! What a very spoilt girl I am.

Off to make dinner. Yes we can be lucky and spoilt, but dinner still awaits! haha

Whew! That was close

Heck I nearly vowed and declared never to watch Idol again last night when Wes was in the bottom two. I frantically got on the mobile and sent another 10 votes in! hahaha Now I *never* do that, so I'm feeling quite passionate about this year's competition. What a great final three. This is probably the best Idol year yet.

In my efforts of online shopping this year I've turned to Etsy. Do you Etsy? It's like going to one big craft market under the one roof. I found a fabulous gift for my step-son and purchased it but alas there was confusion about the postage. It appeared that it was free postage worldwide, which I should have realized was too good to be true. Unfortunately I received an email to say it would be $26 US postage on top of the price of the goods. I panicked! I wrote a nice email to the seller thinking gosh I'd done my dough (considering I'd already paypalled for the goods) and he's let me rescind the purchase and already refunded my money.

Doesn't it reaffirm the goodness in people, especially people in business? I'm feeling very warm and fuzzy right now, considering he would have probably incurred costs through paypal too. My online shopping expedition continues and I will email first to check on postage.

Another family album page to show. Ahhh I'm taking a walk down memory lane looking at these clothes, yes the swirly skivvie makes another appearance in the bottom photo (I don't look very happy do I?) but the top two photos I was wearing my beloved Hollie Hobbie skivvie. I think the kicker with a lot of these photos are the fashions. At 10 years old I was a style guru! What can I say? haha

Credits here.

And now another shiny new button to display, I love blinkies!! The twolittlepixels gallery is now an open gallery, would love to see new members sign up and so we can see the beautiful way you've used twolittlepixels goodies. Lots of inspiration there.

Must ... go ... sew. I have many Christmas stockings to finish.

A little bit of Idol chatter

Well who watched tonight? I loved it, but I think Teale has to go. I'm still thinking it will be Wes and Mark in the final two and although in my heart I just think that Wes will win, it was Mark's night tonight. Was he hot or what?

My lovely friend Di and I text all through Idol with various comments. Why we don't just pick up the phone and chat through it I have no idea. At one stage the text read "Sex on legs" and that's all that was needed, no other words. Mark burned up the screen. haha

So bottom two for tomorrow night will be Teale and Luke and Teale will leave. So says the prophet of Carol.

I'm having to do a bit of re-arranging in the family album, I'm starting to run out of pages for all the rest of the ideas I have. I'm hitting the maximum number that Shutterfly hold for a book, eeeek. This is going to be expensive, but so worth it. I got an email today saying 47 days till Christmas, oh my goodness, when did that sneak up? Usually by September I have my gift shopping done and dusted, not this year.

Mum is still not wanting to have anything to do with Christmas this year, she doesn't want to go anywhere or see anyone, wants to be left alone. I want to respect her wishes here but I just can't. She has relented and mentioned the other night that she was going to have a Christmas tree (after adamently saying for months she was not). Thank heavens for Trevor's new step-children. That's the only reason she's having a tree. I'm still biding my time with her, I don't know what to do or which way to jump.

So this is why the family album is going to be the 'be all, end all' present for her. Hopefully! So in an effort to rationalise pages, I've decided to put our 21st birthdays on the same page. Can you believe there's only 3 years between photos, my brother went through a bleached hair skinny phase. Me on the other hand looks like I was auditioning for Psycho the way I'm killing the cake with the cake knife.

Oh and if you could see the full length shot of my 21st outfit (which you won't! ha) It was all shiny all the way in 1985. Shiny electric blue shirt, shiny electric blue pleated skirt, white lace stockings with white shoes, pearls and a brooch. And I was HOT TO TROT !!!!

Credits here.

That's it from me, Sunday night is over and time for bed.

So much to tell ...

So make yourself comfy, grab a cuppa, dunk your biscuit and let's start chatting. Where to start?

Firstly how did I get so lucky? I have no idea. Twolittlepixels has expanded in a big way. Six new designers. All amazingly talented. Sharon has found the most wonderfully talented group from all over the globe. I think only three have been announced so far so I'm keeping my lips zipped. Go visit the shoppe to see their goodies - so far Emily Giovanni, NatashaNaSt Designs and Pure Scrap have been announced. There's a few freebies to pick up in the shoppe too, so go have a wander.

As part of the twolittlepixels creative team I'm also part of creashens creative team and she's given us a shiny new button to display. Isn't it purty?

I do sometimes wonder how this gig has happened for me. I was scrapping along minding my own business, stalking Sharon's blog most days, especially Fridays for her freebie, and she calls for some creative team members and wham, I'm on for the ride of my life. Such a nice group of girls I'm honoured to call my friends.

I had another play with creashens' Pure paper pack, it's so beautiful, perfect backdrop for pictures. And this is my favourite paper in the bunch. I love this picture of the four of us, probably not the best day for my brother to remember, but it's part of our family history so into the album it goes. The CT girls will know how I obsessed about what journalling to put down, if any, not wanting to offend my brother. So I went with a bit of a telegram speil. It's so special now to look back on pictures of the four of us together. Yes ... even me with boofy hair and a very dated bridesmaid's dress. LOL

Credits here.

The other thing that makes me smile about this page is that my dad didn't dance. But funnily enough the few times we did manage to get him up on the dance floor someone snapped a photograph, so it actually appears in our photo albums here that he danced a fair bit. But that wasn't the case. And for a rather big man, he was surprisingly light on his feet. I think he would have been a great dancer if he had the inkling.

I have a wonderful roast pork doing it's thing in the oven right now, the smell is wafting throughout the house. It smells yummy. It's been cold and rainy here today so it will be the perfect fodder for dinner tonight. Mike is having a granny nap on the couch and I'm playing here and then I'll be doing some stitching tonight. So that's us in a nutshell right now.

You will recall that Lynne of Too Hot to Knit awarded me with an "I love your blog" award, which was just lovely. I've thought long and hard and there are just so many blogs I love to read and I don't want to leave any out, so if you are reading this and I've ever commented on your blog, know that that award is for you too.

How's that for sitting on the fence? Thank you again Lynne.

Now I think a bit of retail therapy is in order, I want to do a bit of online Christmas Shopping. We all know that November is the quickest month of the year. Don't be fooled, Christmas will be on us like a flash. If any Aussies (and I guess non-Aussies for that matter) are looking for great quality online goods to purchase I can highly recommend Peters of Kensington. I've never been disappointed yet. If nothing else sign up for their weekly emails with all their best buys.

I have some other news that I'm bursting with but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put it out on the WWW yet, so I'll just have to leave you with the thought that there's something exciting about to be shared. Tis rather mean saying only so much isn't it?

Toodlepip. :-)

The man in white is always right

Isn't that how it goes? Except nowadays the man in white at the footy has become a man in a myriad of colours. I don't like the baseball caps on the goal umpires, I don't like all these neon colours they are now wearing. It looked so respected in the past being the man in white.

My dad was a goalie for a zillion years as we were growing up and even when he stopped waving the flags, he was still involved on the appointment panel. I bet you didn't know that even the local football games in the oval up the road may have someone scoring the umpires, on their skill, managing the play, decorum, etc. He spent 46 years involved with his beloved football umpires so we grew up going to matches. Oh those were the good old days, we would sit in the car along the boundary fence, tooting the horn when goals were kicked, on the nice days we'd be sitting on the car bonnet cheering the play, a meat pie in one hand, thermos of drink in the other. It brings back so many memories. And oh for half time when the players went off the ground and all the kids (old and young alike) would en masse take over the ground kicking their own balls around.

These were my winter Saturdays growing up. And a perfect opportunity for a page in the family album, along with an ... err ... quite funny story. Hmmm, it is plain to see where I get my sense of humour from is it not?

Credits here.





The lovely Lynne of Too Hot to Knit (yes Lynn, I know I've been slack in showing my knitting, but I'm up to the toes of the second sock I'm currently knitting, so soon, I promise, soon! LOL) presented me with a very warm and fuzzy award recently. Isn't it pretty?



This blog world really is a lovely place to be. I need to award this as a pay it forward to some of my favourite blogs, so I will do that during the week. Thanks Lynne!!

In between scrapping and knitting (and sitting here indulgently with Molly who I fear can sense a thunderstorm coming, oh I'd say in the next half hour judging by the look in her eyes), I've been sewing. I've put a few new offerings on Molly*Bo Gifts so go check them out.



Well I suppose I best go do some ironing before this storm that seems to be coming hits. I had to buy a new iron during the week, mine actually blew up last weekend. Not from overuse I might add! ROFL. I hate ironing!

Happy Halloween...

To those who enjoy it, dressing up in fancy dress, eating lollies, what's not to enjoy huh? Hmmm, sounds like something I'd like to do, you know my love of fancy dress.

I felt quite sad for my two new American nephews, their first Halloween in Australia, no spooks, no dressing up, no lollies or candy. Yes, we are seeing a bit of it infiltrating our shops over here, but there is no trick or treating, at least not where we live. So I sent two big Halloween helium filled balloons tied to a big jar of lollies to their house. What a surprise my brother said, the look on their faces were enough! Okay so it cost me a fortune to send it but it is worth it. And that's what Auntys and Uncles do right?

Credits here.

So Happy Birthday today. Firstly to Miss B, number 3 step-child. Sweet 16 and never been kissed today. We're off to a family BBQ this afternoon, weather is looking a bit tenuous out there, so we'll see what the day ends up like.

And Happy Birthday to twolittlepixels. I can't believe it's been a year since Sharon and Megan opened the shoppe for the digiscrap followers. And well birthdays there are presents right? How about 30% off the goodies in the shoppe? How about some fabulous new stitches by guest designer Syrin, and we all love Syrin's stitches!!!! How about a present from twolittlepixels to you?

HUH?

Yes that's right YOU get the present. [ksharonkdesigns], creashens, Angelica E. and guest designer Syrin have all gotten together to create this wonderful "Happy Place" collaborative kit and it's yours FREE. Click on the picture to take you to the shoppe and check out all the other goodies too. Lots of birthday goodness!!