A "Crabby Day"

No, not really! I woke up really wanting to make some cards. So I did. I set myself the task of using my SU! Crab & Company Stamp Set.

I made two cards that I'm really happy with.

The first one had the crab and a present and stamped background paper, in purple colour tones, using Hand Made Papers from Tasmania. I chalked the "sand" with Stampin' Pastels.

This second card used watercolour pencils, Stampin' Pastels and the SU! White Gel Pen and Hemp twine. The "snappy birthday" is on Dimensionals.

Bonnie made one too. All three are uploaded to my gallery on Splitcoast Stampers :)

I'm off to make another one - or- maybe two.....!

Been and gone for another year.

Christmas Eve day was hard - it didn't feel at all like Christmas, the kids were fighting and unhelpful and my dh and my sister had to work. It was me....and the kids.... :X
Thankfully Christmas Eve was better. The kidlets opened some little presents - from Kimbo and from their Dad's work, then we picked DH up from work and went to look at the Christmas lights. There was a full moon - it was awesome!

On Christmas morning our wonderful son graced us with his presence somewhere around 3am, but after "just having a look" he went back to bed!

Christmas day was a bit more rushed than we'd have liked - us at home, then over to my folks, then back here to do breakfast with my sister's family. We had to rush off to the caravan park to book in for our "mini holiday" and then Chris took us over to the restaurant for lunch. We spent a really nice afternoon eating and drinking and sitting by the pool whilst the kids swam.
Maybe next year we'll do dinner out instead of lunch - so that the children have more time to play with their new toys.

However, when all is said and done it was a great day! The kids were over the moon with their presents and they were well behaved at lunch (although Tys was more interested in swimming than eating!) It was nice to have a lovely sunny, swimming kind of day after last year's chilly day!

All that's left now is to have the kids write some thank you notes....and take down the tree.

School holiday moments

Christmas is certainly getting closer...by the second.
My countdown says 1 day, 12 hours, 27 minutes..

The Santa sacks are hung, the presents are all bought and I'm slowly clearing up my scrapping spaces..yes spaces! My desk has been covered in school books, photos, dust and cat hair. I have been working at the dining room table...
I have a friend, Oley, coming for afternoon tea, so thought I'd better
get it done today - rather than tomorrow. At least now I have room in my
"yellow room" to scrap at my desk!

I just need to find some time to do some Grocery Shopping for Christmas
Morning and our mini holiday (more on that in another post)

Mel came home from Adelaide yesterday. She was VERY proud of the trophy
she won as Girls 10 Singles winner at the tournament she attended.
(although she did mention - it's VERY plastic! Apparently our tennis
club gives much better trophies) She was the only person from our club to win her division. Others came home with medals for winning their plates. M.Henderson got the best result in the senior tournament.

Bon and Tyson are making their way through the Christmas movies we hired on $1 Cheap Tuesday.
So far we've watched:
Santa Clause 3
A Christmas Carol
I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (twice!)
Chasing Christmas
Deck the Halls
and Firehouse dog - not Christmas related.
We also watched "Christmas at the Kranks" on TV.

We still have "The 12 Dogs of Christmas" to watch - a chance for me to hop on my treadmill!

Last night I watched "Bad Santa" ...interesting...?? extremely vulgar....!! He turned out not so bad, but it's not something I'd watch again, or recommend for kids!!!!! And Mel bought "A series of Unfortunate Events" for the whole family when she was in Adelaide.

My Wine Glass Charms interest has continued - with me making a set for Mel's Tennis Coaches, my friend Julie and another couple of friends, Jackie and Richard (pictured). Unfortunately my creativity hasn't spread to card making. It has however been coming out in my Album Pages, which is just as well because I was feeling really bored with my pages!

Something Spontaneous...

A challenge has been set. Blog something spontaneous...

My ds 6, Tys is a bit of a softy. Sure he acts tough - is that a 6yo boy thing to do???
Just a few minutes ago, whilst helping his 8yo sister with the dishes I heard the sound of crying - not an unusual occurence in our home! Then, I heard Tyson Crying...a lot!
Apparently Tyson and Bonnie had been having "towel flick" fights in the kitchen, though, how much Bonnie was involved I'm not sure.
Tyson stood at the back door, crying about how Bonnie could have done it to him, and how he didn't want dad to do it. This went on for about 5 minutes!
I was chuckling to myself about Tyson's reaction as he finally went outside to his dad.

Turns out, DH had heard the noise in the kitchen and mentioned to Tyson that he could do it to him - and Tyson responded that it wouldn't hurt. OOPS! The next comment from DH was for Tyson to "bring the towel here".
That's it.
Not "let me do it to you"...just bring it here.
That is what set off Tyson's tears.

Happy Anniversary to US and ...stuff...

15 years today.
This photo is a little older than that, but it's a nice photo.

We had a really nice day together (with two of the kids).
I had planned on getting DH some nice drinking glasses, but couldn't find any I liked.
I gave him his refurbished wedding ring instead. It looks great - someone resized it with yellow gold once and it looked shocking. This time the jeweller removed the yellow gold, reshaped the ring (from where DH got it caught on something at work), remade the shank and polished it all up. It still fits!!!
We gave ourselves the treadmill as a combined "everything" gift, with birthdays, Christmas and our Anniversary in Dec/Jan it seemed a good idea. It was neat that it was delivered today.
I ran for 2 minutes and walked for 13. The kids enjoyed it too. My goal will be to increase by 10% each day until I get to a certain point..not sure what that will be yet!
Our 1st dd is away on a tennis tournament for 8 days. It's day 6 and she's finally played some tennis. She had two singles and 1 doubles match today and won them all. She only met her doubles partner when it was time to go on the court! They have to play each other in singles tomorrow! DD has a bad (?) habit of feeling bad for her opposition, so I hope that she doesn't take it too easy on her "partner" whilst they are playing their singles matches. She's missing us all, and we are missing her lots too! xxxxxxx

The dd8 and ds6 had a great time playing with the Treadmill Packaging. It was a slide. It was a car! They even managed to find some wood planks in the box which they used as "surfboards" in the pool at our friend's house! Gotta love their creativity - all we could see before they started playing, was M.E.S.S.

Figgy Pudding - this list of questions came from somewhere, and with Christmas so close...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? When someone has taken the time, money and effort to think of me, buy/make me a present and give it to me - it really doesn't matter how it's presented. Having said that, paper or bag, it's always extra special when the giver has added extras - tissue paper, bow, ribbons, straw etc.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. Now. We always had a real one when I was growing up. Then we bought "our" very own tree the year we got married, got a new fibre optic tree in 2005 and "Santa" bought us a really lovely big tree in 2006.

3. When do you put up the tree? When we are in the mood. This year it went up early because I wanted it up for my Creative Memories Christmas Class. My SD and my sister have a "not before December 1st" rule, but we don't. We have made Christmas our own holiday, and we celebrate it "our" way.

4. When do you take the tree down? Again, when the mood strikes! Sometime after new years day. In 2007/08 it might come down early - I need somewhere to put my new treadmill!! - if it doesn't stay where we've put it for now, behind the dining room table.

5. Do you like egg nog? No.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I'd have to say my bike, or my roller blades. I used those blades ALL the time!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, it's something I'd like to have,but don't really have anywhere to put it. I did buy a battery operated light up glass ornament nativity scene for one of the teachers, that I ended up keeping as it was scratched - but I doubt anyone would even notice it is a nativity scene, it's so small:



8. Hardest person to buy for? Really, my middle dd. She never actually "wants" for anything. The others will ask, "can I have......?" LOL

9. Easiest person to buy for? My middle dd. Hardest and easiest. She is always happy with whatever we get her.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I always sent LOTS. Then I started to get less and less, and one year I didn't get around to it. That was it. Now I send emails, or return cards...that's it. I have started making cards, so maybe next year I will be able to send some of those :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I keep getting really odd things from a lady I'd really rather not receive things from. I'm not sure if it's the items, or the giver.

12 . Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th street...Santa Clause 1.2.3...It's tough. I like all the feel good ones and the ones that make me laugh. I think it's more about sitting around as a family watching the movies, than what we actually watch.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I shop all year round. I have a place where I keep all these gifts. However, as the children grow, and their tastes change throughout the year I'm tending to shop closer to Christmas.

14 . Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. But I did win a ring that I gave to a friend for her birthday :0

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham. It's the only time of the year that we buy a real ham. But of course there are lots of other things that seem to only get eaten at Christmas - gingerbread, mince pies, white christmas, rumballs, nuts in their shells, Christmas pudding.

16 . Clear lights or colored on the tree? We have coloured...for no particular reason.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I like lots of them. I don't like to sing silent night - although I do like the words. I don't like it when people sing common songs in a way that makes it hard to sing along.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We prefer to have it just the five of us at a restaurant for lunch, my sister's family at breakfast - year about at her house or ours...and whatever happens for tea. We like to spend the night away from home if we havent' gone away.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? ...maybe....

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? It's a star, a wobbly star.

21 . Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. We have opened some Christmas eve if we have lots from out of town..otherwise it's too overwhelming on Christmas day.

22 . Most annoying thing about this time of year? Impatient and rude people at the shops!

23. Favorite Christmas ornament? I have a new favourite every year! This year I bought a singing Christmas tree. The ornament that starts conversation is my big purple ornament that sings when you make a loud noise!

24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? Prawns. It's something that we don't seem to cook. I love to have an Italian Fruitcake, but it usually gets eaten for breakfast!!

Craft Class 101

What a good day we had :)
It started with Macca's for breakfast and the purchase of my Christmas/Anniversary/Birthday present....a treadmill. An anniversary edition York T203
It's being delivered on Wednesday - the 19th of December - our 15th Wedding Anniversary!!! I can't believe it's been 15 years already.....

After dropping Andrew into work we went into Queen Bead to buy items to make Wine Glass Charms. It was a bit overwhelming...and a little more expensive than I'd planned. Luckily I have the makings for 4 or more sets, including the beads and wire tools I got from Mad Harry's - definitely cheaper for beginners!

Before returning home to get started on these Wine Glass Charms I took Bon and Tys to the plaza for a free kid's beading class. Bon made a necklace for me, and Tyson made a bracelet and a necklace.

I used 4mm Glass Beads, assorted beads from the kid's stash and some $3.50 frogs for these:

I received my Secret Santa parcel today it was a lovely surprise. I'd just finished typing that I hadn't received it yet! I love all the goodies, but especially the 2007 photo Christmas Tree ornament.

Late afternoon we tried to catch up with my sister, but she wasn't feeling very sociable. We went to visit my parents instead...the kids had a swim and we were spoiled with home made Curried Prawns! After the dishes we came home to get ready for bed, do some washing and feed the pets.

December 17th, 2007....a good day.

Christmas is Near

My countdown says we are into single figures. I love this - I've been watching it for almost a month! It gave me the "hurry up!" I needed to get out and do some Christmas Shopping. As of today, I have one present to get. My dd and I went halves in a DS Lite - and I need to go and make my final payment and collect it, wrap it and call it quits...

I went clothes shopping for my 1yo nephew and imagine my surprise when I was told at the counter "go and get another pair of shorts! It's buy one get one free!!!!" woohoo, thankYOU very much! The special was also on dresses. So I came back with my DD and we bought 4 dresses and a pair of denim shorts for under $50! My dd wasn't too sure about the "pink" in the outfits, but she got lots of nice comments when she was wearing one of the dresses today, so she's feeling pretty special! Actually, truth be told, I think she felt pretty good in the shop - she wore one of the dresses and her denim shorts out of the change room and didn't take them off until bed time! I had to pay for them by just taking the tags to the checkout :)

We had a mini Christmas today, for my nephew Brayden. He's off interstate tomorrow, to spend Christmas with his Dad's side of the family. We got him a gardening set - and he absolutely LOVED it...in fact he held onto the big shovel for most of the afternoon. It went from digging dirt, to shovelling wrapping paper, being used as a baseball bat and almost a lethal weapon!!! I found a picture on the internet of the shovel he was playing with. We bought the items individually, and we didn't get the garden fork. He wore the gloves most of the afternoon, until his little brother threw one into the toilet! After that he just wore his new Spiderman hat and Ninja Turtle sunnies... He's a little dude!

He's off to NSW tomorrow - to see his horse!! His horse comes before his dad, it's neat to have this insight into a child's way of thinking.

Tyson had to say good bye to one of his good friends today. He had a good time at the farewell pool party, but he was pretty sad when he realised that was the last time he may ever see Adam.. Their family is moving to QLD. His friend Ridley had a going away party a couple of weeks ago - so that's two friends leaving town soon :( Thankfully he has four good friends that will be in his class in 2008.

Our eldest dd is in Adelaide playing tennis. She's trying to be soooo grown up...she wants to spend all her money on a mobile phone that does everything except the dishes!! I guess that's what happens when your friends are all older than you....I'm sure there will be more of this sort of thing in the next few years!

My song for today is Six White Boomers. If you are feeling Christmassy, check it out and have a sing a long!

This is our Christmas photo for this year :) We always take one and send it as a double page 7x7 layout for Andrew's mum and dad, instead of a Christmas Card. We get the kids to write on the page each year.

Day is done...gone the sun....

Nice day. I had lunch with my sister and my two nephews. It's fun trying to figure out what makes Brayden tick. He gets so ANGRY!! When he talks to you about his feelings, which are pretty deep for someone so young, and then cuddles you it's like you've had a win. Aaron is just plain fun!

After school we went to the Bushies v Townies cricket match - and won!! Mel played and I helped to umpire...although I think the boys were a bit unsure about my calls - one even suggested we needed a square leg umpire...LOL! that was me :)

In between overs we took Mel to tennis for half an hour or so, which included getting in some serving practise prior to the Tournament Tour beginning on Friday. We also managed to deliver two of her coaches Christmas presents.

Once again we were home too late to be bothering with cooking dinner...so...we didnt' have the planned tacos and had Red Rooster instead...chicken and chips. It was very nice. We ate it when we dropped by my sister's to check out her new Stampin Up! stamp set - a thankyou from their corporate office..it's not available yet, but will be a Level 3 host gift - so I can't show it here...

We came home to a bag of girls clothes at the door - a surprise for sure. This morning I took two bags of clothes to school that I don't fit anymore - I thought the bag at the door was the left overs from school.. It wasn't and I'm still not sure who they came from..maybe the lady down the road.

I'm back...

And what a mission it was! First I couldn't sign in. I tried to use my nickname instead of my "User" name - well, I won't make that mistake again, it took me about 10 minutes to sign in!
Then I decided to change my header...that was fairly easy, found a pic on my computer, adjusted it in Paint Shop Pro then played with it until I got it a size that would fit in the block on the template. I'll probably change it again - I'm not so sure I like the bevelled edges on my font..

I discovered that I won the competition on Wendy's blog - to rename it. It's now "Wendy's Scraptacular GSD's" instead of Don't Worry be Scrappy. I like it! My prize is a GSD off the site - I think she's trying to enable me with all this Craft Robo stuff!! Especially with Christmas Sales that are on right now!

I'm pretty sure I'm getting a tread mill for Christmas/Birthday. I think I definitely need to do some work on enlarging our house with all these new toys!!

Testing the email function

After my first post, I went in to settings to see what was available. I
found a place I can send posts by email, but wasn't sure how to set it
up - address wise - so here I am testing the set up :)

My first post

Hi, well I stumbled across the fact that I could easily set up a Blog - through "Don't Worry Be Scrappy".. so I thought 'd give it a go!
Not sure I'll have much to talk about, but it might be somewhere for me just to hang out a bit....

My sister bought a new photo printer today... a Canon Selphy CP720 Compact Photo Printer

Photo printers are everyone's personal choice. I bought a HP Photosmart A716, because it's capable of printing larger images (5x7), automatically detects the size of paper and stores photos on it's internal memory. It also had a great longevity rating for the printing - just what an album maker looks for ... It's also GREAT for when I'm travelling and trying to work on my pages as I go.... I wanted to post a picture and a link - but they are no longer for sale :( Hopefully I'll still be able to buy the ink....it's only just become available at Cartridge World! It's not something I use all the time, but it's great when you are working on a page or a project and you need photos right away...

For example. My flower cards. I've made them for my Kris Kringle presents. I needed them quickly and I had them on my computer. Actually I ended up having to use some of the sample flowers in my system because it would appear that I've deleted the ones I took and have already printed.
I'll try to post an example of the cards I made in my next post :)
Thanks for reading!