Thursday catch up......

Well, how are we all.

I can say I am over batching (DH is away till Monday -will be 11 days total) I am lonely, over back aches (no more really bad attacks but another one on Tuesday night that put paid to my Australia Day celebrations). There was so much I wanted to do whilst DH was away and have not really done anything. Missed out on going to see Tap Dogs tonight as well as I just didn't want to risk my back as I have worked today and it doesn't seem to like work at the moment, unfortunately work is a necessary evil.

But on the positive side, woke this morning at 5.30am so I could make sunrise for some photo's and there was cloud cover, so put paid to one idea but I did manage to get some photo's for another Project 365 POTD and a scrappy challenge "My place in the Sun" over with Jane @ Scrap Beginnings. Looks a lovely journey, why don't you take alook, you might enjoy. Haven't officially started yet but in the planning mode, got to get my head around it all.

Just finishing of some ATC's, my first foray into this world. Have had things planned for a while and a sample made so thought I had better get into finishing this treat, due 07/02/2011. Hopefully will finish this weekend and post Monday. Photo's up when done.

Still planning some fronts for an 'international' card swap, theme 'shappy chic antique easter' how delicious. My mind is racing with ideas and I have some things sketched also have googled some images and hopefully will get started on my sample soon. Need to make 5 card fronts, same but not necessarily identical. Looking forward to this as well as another first in this type of swap. Will post some photo's when up and away.

Well it sounds like I am busy and I am but as you will find I must have the attention span of a gnat and I love to have lots of things on the go and all at one time, lucky I have learnt how to juggle.

Well, I will get back to the tennis (another passion of mine). Will talk soon/Ciao

PS. All this back trouble has made me more determined to get O/S this year, another thing I will have to plan.

ARTastic January 2011 Challenge

Well ladies, I have finally finished the ARTastic January challenge and sent it off to Shazza for addition to their blog. I have had this page in the cooking pot for a number of weeks but somehow life gets in the way and only got to complete it today.

I really loved doing this challenge, the inspitarion painting of Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' really appealed to me. The colours are among my favourites, I love the oranges and the torquiose blues and the air from the painting of a warm, friendly gathering was appealing. I also managed to include all their criteria for bonus points (scrap a celebration, 3 or more people on the LO and food somewhere on the LO, good job).

As soon as I saw this challenge I knew what event I wished to use. A great scrapbooking friend of mine, Helen turned 60 in November of last year and we celebrated her birthday with a High Tea @ The Loft Bar, King St Warf, Sydney organised by my amazing niece Michelle. If anyone is looking for this type of event I can highly recommend The Loft Bar. The service was excellent and unobtrusive, their food was delish and the cost was quite reasonable.

I used Basic Grey's 'Curio' range . My base sheet was the 'B' side of 'Victoria' and my main PP was the ''A' side. I handmade the arrow embellishment using a snippet of Basic Grey's 'Recess' collection 'Biology'. The torquoise, felt flowers I handmade as well. Just layered, off centre, 3 varying circles and used buttons, pearls etc as my centres. Really loved this effect. The butterfly embellishment was hand cut from BG 'Curio' Chiffonier paper. I also incorporated one of the glass mats from the 'Loft Bar' on my LO, they were gorgeous and included some faux stitching lines. This LO was based on a page map from Becky Fleck's Book 2.

Although not shown here Michelle had made Helen the most amazing frame based on the Martha Stewart doillies and if I can find a link across to Michelle's page I will include this tomorrow.

Above are a few shots of my page and close ups of the embellishments. This is a single LO but I will be finishing off another page for this LO as I have so many beautifull photo's to include.

We had a great day and as Helen is a lovely, lovely person, well deserved.

Hospital emergency rooms + more

Well, I have had an eventful couple of days. Had what I thought was a really bad back on Tuesday night, slept it off and thought not a thing more until Thursday whilst at work. Got the same sort of low dull back ache again and thought' yeow! hope that back ache is not coming back, well it did, with a vengenance. So bad that after about 1/2 hour of excrutiating pain work called an ambulance and off I was whisked to Westmead Emergency. Unfortunately for me by the time I could get seen by a doctor the pain had subsided (probably had something to do with the wait time of 5 hours), packed off home with 'we don't really know what it was' apart from a 'maybe kidney stones'.

Went to see my own Doctor on Friday morning, more of the same, 'wait n see', then on my way home another attack, caught in my car, ambulance called 'cause I couldn't drive and more time in waiting rooms with same result, don't know what could be causing it, maybe 'nerve pain' from lower back?????

Spent the weekend resting at home which remained uneventful, thank heavens. Some x-rays to get tomorrow, back to work Tuesday and then some more tests at the end of the week and hopefully no more reoccurrances of the dreaded back ache.

Whilst sitting aroung hospitals for many hours managed to get some POTD for my project 365, the first was the Westmead canula and the second is the 'green stick' for pain relief the ambo's give you. Got to love the ambo's, life savers. Made this little black duck feel very happy to see them. Talk later. Ciao

1st week back @ work

Hi!, thought I would pop in for a quick chat, hump day today and at the moment it has just started raining which is good news for DH's lawn. Hope we are not in for too much considering all the bad flooding our country has had lately, plus I live near a river, the Hawkesbury.

First week back has not been too bad, I enjoy my job and love the people I work with which is a good start. I normally job share but this week both of us have been on deck which has been great, we have managed to get through a lot of work.

DH is heading off tomorrow for 11 days down south (a speedway trip), he is an avid fan of all types of motor racing, especially speedway and for the next couple of weeks the cream of this division of racing (including the visiting contingent of American drivers) will be in Warnambool Victoria, so I will be batching.

I have a number of things planned, all crafty and a few necessay chores to be done and a haircut. I would like to finish my 'Artastic' challenge, which I have had planned for a couple of weeks now, need to finish my ATC's for the LSBS swap, scrapping with Michelle and Helen and Narellan on the Saturdays, am trying to fit in a couple of visits to the city to catch some exhibitions at the MCA and the Opera House, so I will see how I go and report back with photo's where I can.

Enjoy the run to the weekend and we should chat soon. Ciao

CC @ LSBS this weekend

Thought I would just share with you my efforts with the CC from LSBS this weekend. If you are interested take a look here http://www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au/gallery/index.php. A great bunch of girls.

I really enjoyed the challenges this month and I like that they only set us 4, (in the past there has been 6), we play Bingo on Friday nights and there is much hilarity to be had.

Well it is late so I will make this post short. Back to work tomorrow after my holiday of 1 month and it is getting a bit late, better be bright eyed and bushy tale for my boss tomorrow.

Ciao all and have a good week, talk soon.

Scrapping @ Narellan with the Girls

Us girls like to get out to Scrapbook Sensations @ Narellan to

scrap as much as we can. We find the classes very well organised and plenty of room to move, the other girls are lovely and April and Derryck, the store owners are a couple of sweeties, very personable couple.

The store is well stocked, the classes and pages on offer are up to

date with all the latest trends and I don't think there has been a

class where we haven't receved a tip or trick from April. She is very generous with her knowledge. As we have only been scrapping for a couple of years, there is so much we need to learn.

I didn't finish the double page LO during the class (maybe a bit too much chatter from me) but will pop up the finished LO's when dne, hopefully this week.

I can thoroughly recommend this shop to anyone.

365 Project, a CC @ LSBS and a Scrappy weekend coming up

I have been meaning to tell you about my participation in the '365 Project'.

It is a photograph a day (POD) challenge, provides a forum to load our photo's onto, provides weekly themes and photographic tips. Very user friendly.

I feel that this is mainly a forum for photographers to showcase their work but I am treating this as an online, photograhic journal. Hopefully at the end of my 365 days I will be able to upload my photo's and journalling into a digital book, if not I am keeping track of all photo's put up.

You can see my photo's here http://365project.org/kimbo54/365

Why don't you give it a go?

I love LSBS (Little Scrabook Shop) and hope that I am what you call an active member. They are having a Cybercrop this weekend, 4 challenges, prizes to be had. You should get over to here http://www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=257 and join in.

Run by Cath and Nic and a Design Team who are amazing, (make sure you pop into the gallery here http://www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au/gallery/index.php to see their work). If you are looking for a little mojo stimulation or you want to showcase your work pop in, would love to see you there.

This weekend I am scrapping with my niece Michelle and a friend Helen over at Scrapbook Sensations @ Narellan. April runs classes there most days and I love her pages. There hasn't been a week where she hasn't shown us a tip or trick to help us. Pop in and visit her web page here http://www.scrapbooksensations.com.au/.

Well with all the above I better get moving, have a great weekend all. Talk soon.

Creatures Of Habit

Are you a creature of habit, we are.

My DH likes a 'sense of order'. He likes everything around him to be 'right', his form of right, but right. It provides him with a sense of calm.

So as we are habitual creatures and today is Friday, today we go grocery shopping and have lunch at the 'Chatterbox', this is our Friday ritual. Michelle and Gary are the owners of the 'Chatterbox' a local cafe within our little shooping centre and they are very congenial hosts. They know DH and I and make us feel welcome whenever we go in. today, DH felt like Bruschetta, lovely crisp bread, onion, tomato, a little dressing dressed with rocket and shaved sweet potatoe, mmmmm.

There is something about 'recognition' that I like.

I like to shop in my local area, go for a walk, drive up the street and be able to say hi to those I know. This gives me a sense of belonging, this makes me happy.

That is probably why DH and I have lived in our area for coming up to 35 years. It is nice to belong.

The Lawn @ McLean

For many of you that know me and if you are a new friend you will discover the lawn @ McLean is a passion of my DH's. Some may say, especially the inhabitants of Kironée, his therapy.

He mows it and mows it, fertilises it, waters it, displays it and sometimes he ploughs it.........ploughs??? I hear you say, yes plough.

Just when he gets it looking lovely and it was quite lush after all our rain he does this to it.

DH likes our lawn to be like a bowling green, smooth and firm. To get this look every so often he mows it back to the dirt and today was the day, happy last day of holidays Kim.

While he was ploughing I trimmed our Lilli Pilli's which DH likes to be beaten into submission and spherical. I have to admit our garden looks lovely, simple green lawn (normally), lilli pilli's and a border of crocus (rain flowers) which I must say go beserk, but that is for another post.

Oh well I supose it does provide cheap therapy and I would much rather be outside thatn in doing housework. Housework, oh yes, that's tomorrow's job.

Update on progress of the Artastic challenge

Just thought I would pop up a photo of my progress so far on my Artastic January challenge.
Sorted photo's, have to get them printed, a job for tomorrow (usually get my photo's done outside of home, not really happy with the quality my printer produces and not really sure it is any cheaper doing them at home).
Last night I worked on selecting LO map (used one of Becky Fleck's new ones from PageMaps 2), made some embellies, some turquoise felt circle flowers (colour is a bit lighter than as shown in the photo here) , cut out some details from some Webster's paper and some arrows, chose papers and rub ons.

With a little stitiching here and there, should be done soon. I will pop it up when complete.

Hope you've had a great day.

Latest Flick

Hi all, just wanted to share some comments about a movie I saw today with my DH.

Morning Glory has some big names in it aka Harrison Ford and Dianne Keaton but it really is a lightweight movie.

Usual story line of down and nearly out makes good .

It did make for a pleasant hour plus but if my hubbie dozing off in the middle and again nearer the end is an indication, not really seeing any Oscar nominations from this one, but hey, I wouldn't say don't go.

Rating: * * *

Artastic's January 2011 Challenge

As you will discover I am an avid Scrapbook enthusiast, crafter encompassing knitting (soon to master crocheting), sewing, art and especially photography. Over the past few months I discovered this fantastic challenge site.

You can find this site here http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com/.

They base their challenges on inspiration taken from the art world and January's inspiration is a Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party.

The entry needs to be up on my blog by midnight the 29/01/2011, so I think I might have a crack at this. I will keep you posted.

A bit of girls R & R

My very dear GF Margaret and I shared some girl R & R today. On the menu was funnily enough Bra shopping, yup, we decided it was time. We had seen enough of 'Trinny and Susannah' ™ to know that our 'girls' were not really keeping 'up' with the latest trends so of we went to DeBras™, you will find them here http://www.debras.com.au/index.asp.

This was a great experience. For instance, did you know that you should really just take your bra into the shower, rinse it with your shower gel, rinse again and dry by hanging over the line etc with the line resting gently between the cups (aahhh). Dry by shaping your bra into shape and dry laying flat, never and I repeat never wash in the machine, nor in lingerie bags or the like and lastly never turn one cup inside the other, folding your bra in half.

Tips for prolonging the life of your bra can be found here http://www.ehow.com/how_4503774_extend-life-bras.html.

After making our purchases (DH will be very happy) we then set sail for a little light scrapbook therapy at our favourite local store Fred the Needle™, their blog can be found here http://fredtheneedle.blogspot.com/. See my purchases above.

I really loved Becky Fleck's 'Page Maps' so I indulged myself and bought her Book 2, looks amazing. I also bought some gorgeous red/white polka dot ribbon/tulle, shaped into rosettes, I can see that might make it's way onto a singlet or T Shirt as well as a LO. Some Webster's 'Petitte Papers', some felt squares to make some circle embellies, foam tape and some metal beads to add to some hat pins I bought yesterday (oh! that's right, did I tell you I went shopping with my niece here yesterday, well I did say it was our favourite).

We finished up our day at a local shopping centre for Margaret's fav lunch (kebab) and off home.

A very enjoyable day, thanks Margaret.

Last week of holidays

This week is the last week of my annual holidays. I work in admin for a suburban accounting practice 4 days a week. Our office closes down at Christmas and I have been fortunate this year to have had close to 4 weeks leave and as is our want I am going to try and cram in as much as I can in what is left of my holidays, back to work on the 17th.

We have spent some time in Kiama, a coastal town about 2 hours from my home. We have a holiday unit there and we try to get down there as much as we can, but in reality it only works out to be a couple of times a year. Our lives in Sydney seem to be full and our weekends just fly by, but when we are down there it is lovely and relaxing and a few days down there certainly regenerates the batteries.

Thai Chicken Fritters with Sweet Chilli & Ginger Sauce

Well tonight I thought I would try this recipe from Gourmet Garden™ (prepared herbs etc).

I had seen their adds on TV and this one took my fancy as DH and I love these when we go out for Thai.

Their recipe can be found here:
http://www.gourmetgarden.com

The best way for me to decide if a new recipe has gone down well is to ask DH 'do we have this again'. Tonight his response was 'yup' and I did notice he went looking for seconds.

11/01/2011 - Renewal

My beautiful niece Michelle came up to visit today. We spent sometime at a local scrap store, lunched and then home where she took the time to explain the mystery's of blogging to me, or more precisely the technical way around a blog site. Now that I feel more informed a feeling of renewal has settled over me, hence my word for the day 'renewal'.

Looking forward to blogging in earnest.

Talk soon/Kim