Merry Christmas

A few images from my little man's birthday party last week.He will turn 4 tomorrow!

Well, it's nearly time for the big guy to arrive and we have been busy in the kitchen today, Mum's made the birthday cake for Jack and I decorated it, we have done the big shop and faught the crowd at coles this morning. Spent way too much money and we are all ready to go out and jump in the pool now. The kids have already got the reindeer food ready and have a donut tucked away in the fridge with Santa's name on it! Hopefully we can all have an early night and be ready for the onslaught tomorrow.
It's nice to have family with us(Mum and Tim). As usual the kids have about a million pressies under the tree, and it will be kaos here tomorrow!
Merry Christmas to all!

Birthday!!

And a great day was had by me::Thanks for the lovely birthday wishes everyone, had a great day at Rydges with the girls and all our kids (10). Lovely coffee, lovely visits by some special friends, lots of phone calls and messages on facebook, emails from old friends, a crazy pass the parcel present from hubby, too many boxes, but an IPOD TOUCH in the last box which was a great surprise! Had my beautiful kids with me, got a little sunburn, but had a great day.And some great RAK's from some scrapping friends rececived in the Post today, fantastic~ Great to be back in Port and in our home!!!!!!

OUr pool is so cool!!!

Some recent layouts and a fridge magnet I have made for the 52 pick up challenges at LSBS, www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au




Well I wouldn't say it's cold cool, but it's great to have it back cool. We have been swimming everyday and loving it! I still have a mountain of half open boxes and have had a few health issues, but slowly but surely getting there and so glad to be home! Dave gave the garden a work over and it looks fabulous, everything has grown so much and it's in alot better shape than I thought.
Went to Cairns today to buy a new bed, it's been on the agenda for awhile, but good old Harvey Norman had 40% off today and also needed a new vacuum cleaner as I literally blew the other one up while cleaning the last rental property we were in. So this was too good to resist. The kids were great, we were in there for 2 hours and lucky, they were doing free photos with santa, so they had that to look forward to aswell as the milkshake I promised them at Stockland if they were good. We saved heaps and the kids got to spend their pocket money in Big W after, so alround it was a very productive day,.Finished off with a swim with Dad when we got home, he has been working 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks and we are a bit over it!

Waiting for the truck

As we speak, yey!!! Today is moving day! We went over to the house last night and had a swim and checked it all out! It's in good nick so our tenants were kind. The garden needs lots of TLC though, so will look forward to getting my green thumb back when I am settled with some time...
It's so exciting, it feels massive compared to the last two houses we have lived in! Oh so good!!!!

The river- Townsville

I did actually get out with my camera in Townsville and take some images before we left, because where we lived, it was quite lovely and picturesque. I used to walk around the lake and then onto the river walk in our estate and this afternoon in particular, I took the kids down with me and we watched the sun set, it was beautiful!

Masters SHORTLIST

I have been busy making cards lately and the Love card is from a LSBS challenge from last weekend! www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au





OMG- such a big week for me this week, so much happening and so much to be thankful for, but the exciting news was an email I received from Kristy Evans at SCRAPBOOKING MEMORIES, telling me I had made the shortlist with my Masters entry! Check it out: http://www.scrapbookingmemories.com.au/newsletter/2009/oct/
It's a huge list and my chances may be slim, but I am very excited to be up there with the best of them, there are some very talented ladies on that list! So that is an achievement I am proud of.
Other news, we are moving house yet again, in 2 weeks and will finally be going back to our home. We cannot wait. We have so much happening that weekend too, Dave's Mum is arriving for a short visit, Dave will most probably be working the whole weekend, so I've organised a truck so we can at least have our gear in the house. Then it's going to be a slow process getting sorted again. The kids are so looking forward to jumping in that pool again, our pool!!! Hopefully, life will settle down fo awhile after that. It has been a very huge, un-settling and tumultuous year!!!! I'm looking forward to my parents arriving at Christmas and for some relaxing time!

Back in the swing!

Taylah and her old buddy Jordan having fun on 4 mile beach
Jack, cooling off in the esky! (Missing our pool!)
Baby Eva, Jordan and Ethan's little sister just gets cuter every time we see her!

Wow, what a mad time. We are home but wont be in our house for another three weeks. Slowly getting the smile back on my dial that's been missing for a long time. Great to be back with friends, there's nothing like good friends and I'm definatley appreciating those that I have missed. Now just can't wait to catch up with my parents at Xmas, and the fact that we will be back in our home with our lovely pool will be awesome.
Taylah has settled back into the school and catching up with old friends, she was sad at first,but hasn't taken long to slot back in. She has a male teacher and is in a 1/2 composite class.
Did my first Kaszazz demo with friends yesterday, they loved it and bought up! Good on them I say!!!! :)

MOVING HOUSE AGAIN!!!!

Some cards I did for a LSBS challenge, using some yummy Kaszazz papers.

I can't believe I have to pack again after only 9 months! It's a good thing we are going back home to Port Douglas, but such a short amount of time to get my head around it all. I was just starting to feel settled and getting my Kaszazz workshops off the ground!(At least i can do that in Port too!) In fact it may be easier as I know everyone up there and will have to force them into having demos for me!!! :)
I think Taylah is a little disappointed now too, she missed home so much and then finally started to like it here and made some lovely friends, and now it's time to go again. Dave can't wait to get home. We are not going straight back into our house as there are still tenants in there, but have found a house to rent around the corner! We will be able to store our gear there in the garage which is a bonus. Now all we have to do is find someone to take over our lease here! We thought we may have someone and then just to make life difficult for us, they have started building a new road right behind the house and of course this will put potential renters off! Anyway, My scrap room is still intact and will be the last thing I pack up. It's keeping me sane! I have a TTD (Team training day for Kaszazz) on Sunday and my neighbour has been so lovely and offered to look after the kids for the day so I can go and have a break from packing. We get to do two workshops, see and use some new products, have a business talk and we were asked to submit a workshop, which I have done and there are prizes!!!!!! And on that note, my cupcake card workshop has been accepted as a Kaszazz workshop and for that I get a shopping voucher of rather a nice quantity!! Yey!!!

Cupcakes go off!!!!!

Here are some pics of my cupcakes. I decided on farm animals, couldn't find any ready made pigs and snakes! Went with the easy option of store bought lolly animals, I had so much other stuff to organise. But I love the way they turned out. There is also a pic of myself with my team leader, Karen and the other ladies who attended my workshop. We're each holding one of my cards I designed especially for the day and I have now submitted it to Kaszazz for a workshop!







Well, I did it, I had my first RSPCA fundraiser for Cupcake day and did my bit for the little animals. My card workshop went so well and even though I had a small group of ladies, they managed to devour lots of cakes and take some home. I sold raffle tickets aswell, with some lovely Kaszazz prizes and all in all it went really well!

Fundraising for the RSPCA

Well, I had a brainwave on the weekend, made some lovely cupcake cards for a LSBS challenge and decided to submit them to Kaszazz for a workshop and will be running a trial workshop with them on Moday the 17th in conjunction with the RSPCA's national Cupcake Day, you can read all about this fantastic cause and fun day here: www.rspcacupcakeday.com.au
I am very happy with my cards and have been busy writing out the instructions for workshop sheets and getting prepared for the big day. Wish my Mum was here to help with the cupcakes too. I am not a bad cook either, but that is definately her forte. If anyone is interested in doing something for this great cause, you can get some decorating ideas on their website, I'm thinking, pigs and snakes, don't know why, ifigure everyone will go for dogs and cats. All proceeds of cupcake sales and raffle will go to the RSPCA, and I will be promoting my business at the same time.
I've added some photo of a mini book I made up with the gorgeous GELATI range of papers from Kaszazz, I love it.

Running!!!!

Tomorrow I'll be getting ready for my demo at Freckles, (where Jack goes to Gymbaroo.) Hopefully I will get a few orders and demo/workshop bookings and have some fun!!! Have been busy making up some new projects and demo samples and just having fun with all my new supplies!!!:)
Oh yeah and check out my little girl doing a great job recently at her Little Athletics Carnival! She tried so hard!

Happy Birthday Darren!!

Yep today is the 3rd of August! Which means I had better go and phone my big brother for his birthday. It's also Ethan's birthday, (Jack and Taylah's little mate from Port Douglas!!) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH XXX
Very busy with Kaszazz stuff trying to get a heap of sample projects made up. Loving it, but not enought time as usual! Having another demo at FRECKLES fun factory where Jack goes to Gymbaroo, this Friday. Looking forward to that, hopefully a few crafty Mum's around.
Just been to the docs and have to have a couple more skin spots biopsied! Blah. Then really looking forward to a MAMMOGRAM on Thursday, (NOT!) Just suddenly realised why I'm feeling a little down today! But, I also just received a lovely little surprise in the mail from Little Scrapbook Shop, littlescrapbookshop.com.au, from the 52 pick up comp. Such a great thing. The DT sets a challenge every sunday night for the whole year and it has been amazing. So many creative ladies producing some absolute gorgeous work, very inspiring and uplifting!!!!
Now, what photo shall I upload today???? Okay, a few weeks ago we took the kids to the Townsville 400- V8 Supercars!! I absolutely love car racing and the kids surprised us by enjoying it too! I think the ear muffs helped with the noise levels to make it all ok! Here's my two guys watching one of the races! :)

Busy, busy!

Hosted my first make and Take demo this week and had some help from my Team Leader which was great! Had 7 ladies and all but one made a purchase, so had a great first one! I ended up spending all my commission on more products to build up by kit, but got heaps of freebies and other cool things. I am loving this already! Looking forward to my next demo which was booked at mine and then will try my hand at teaching a workshop! Fun, fun and fun!
Family are all good and I'm trying to go to bed at a reasonable hour, so keeping this short.
Here is a new family pic I took with self timer and tripod, happy with this one!!!! :)

Exciting stuff

Here's some more of my fave Gold Coast pics, with Taylah waving to me from the carousel, Taylah and Dave watching the Scooby Doo show at Movie World and Taylah and Jack having some fun on the kiddies dodgem cars!

Today I received a huge box in the mail which was my business kit for my new business working as a Kaszazz consultant. Just thought I would try and make some money out of doing something I love. (Which I was lucky enough to do with my Photography, but wanting a change at the moment!) Becoming a consultant or party plan girl was never really up my alley, but Kaszazz have such a great range of new products now and use alot of inks, chalks and other products from well-known companies, and their workshops are becoming alot more hip and catching up with the latest trends. I also like that I have a great support team here in Townsville, so always someone to ask if I need help. I'm looking forward to doing my first workshop, just have to find the scrapping people in my area now!!! So if anyone needs anything or has a question, let me know!!!
Other news- what a very foul weekend we had! My two kids were so sick from midnight Friday/Sat until Sunday evening. I have never cleaned up so much vomit in all my life. Taylah was the first to start, she decorated the mattress they had fallen asleep on, then my bed, which didn't have a matress protector on, her clothes and hair. She was up all night with terrible stomache cramps and lots more vomit. Jack started about 4 in the morning, thankfully he wasn't as bad, but still managed to decorate his bed, clothes and me. Then next day, I washed sheets, matressess, pillows, floor rugs, lounge suites, cuddly toys, clothes and hair. We nearly took Taylah to hospital, poor little thing it was so scary, she has never really been sick like that before, it didn't stop, so we went off to the docs Sunday morning and we all agree they must've got food poisoning. We just wish we could work out where from???? Thankfully, today, they were back to normal and I took them to the Museum for a treat, they love it there, lots of interactive games and interesting things, plus JURASSIC JOE, was singing dinosaur songs. WE all had a little dance and sing, it was just great to see them better, I enjoyed my day with them and being very thankful that all was well now! I even treated them to some fries from Maccas as they hadn't had any tasty food that had stayed in their bellies, since dry bikkies the night before!

It looks like baking cakes will continue to be a family tradition

Taylah and Jack have always enjoyed helping me or Nanna make a cake, or any kind of cooking. One day, they decided they would like to invent their own recipe, I wasn't allowed to give them a recipe, I was only allowed to hand out the ingredients they asked for. The first attempt wasn't bad, but this was the 2nd attempt a few weeks ago and it was delicious!!!! Taylah knows all the main ingredients to put in, I just reminded her of a few she may need and then it was my suggestion to put the choc chips in which they thought was pretty good! I was very proud of them and very happy with the taste of their master piece. When it was cooked they cut it in half so they could decorate 1/2 each. Fantastic stuff!!!!

A new month, and 1/2 way!

Well, we have officially been in Townsville for 6 months now! Time really has flown by, it's taken me all this time to realise we are actually quite settled now. Mind you, both Dave and Taylah are very adament that they don't want to stay here and the one who took so long to come to terms with it all, (moi), is actually feeling like I half like it here!!! We're still not sure what is going to happen in a few months when Dave's job is finished, we shall see!
I'm rather excited to be starting up a new business, especially as it is scrap related!! I shall reveal more as time goes on!
I probably should post some pics here as I don't do it enough, so will leave you with: a card I made today, and a layout, with a pic from our recent Gold Coast holiday. (Taylah found all the characters she could to have cuddles with!)

Feeling crappy-7th day!

Look at my beautiful little man sitting in the car! He and his sister had decided to help their dad clean and polish the car for some pocket money for the show! Jack's new found toy is my new dust buster which is great for vacuuming the car, he just love it and was vacuuming everything he could find this day!
The flowers are from my Hubby just because! (It's been awhile since he gave me flowers and they were just lovely when they all opened up, the kids loved them too! Jack was a little sad when they died!)
Hey all, well, for exactly 1 week now, I have been sick and I am getting a little over it!!! It all started with a sore throat last Thursday and then Friday, I was feeling the start of a flu coming on! Saturday, I spent the whole day on a mattress on the loungerom floor, just so the kids knew where i was, Dave was at work. It was the real, achy body horrible flu! (Not the Swine variety!) Over the next few days, my sore throat developed into the worst one I've ever had and I didn't get an inkling of sleep. Ended up at the docs on the holiday Monday to get antibiotics and now am still recovering from a sinus infection that set in just to top it all off. I haven't been out of action like that for a long time and probably not at all since having the kids. I just want to feel normal again! Jack is in day care today, so making the most of some quiet time!
Slowly working on my Masters entry at the moment, I've got 2 out of 4 challenges done and my mojo has been sick too I think. Now not too sure what I'm doing for the other two challenges, but have a few ideas rolling around thanks to a visit to my local LIFELINE store for some inspiration!

Sleeping angels

We have had friends over this evening, for pizza, popcorn and a movie! The excitement was building in my kids all day and when the other three came over it was pandemonium! Dave was out at a work do and I really enjoyed having a wine and good conversation with a new friend. We didn't get to see the bottom of our glasses in a hurry as we were forever breaking up arguments, feeding hungry kids and playing games, but it was all good!
Now my two are crashed out on a mattress in the loungeroom, hopefully a sleep in will occur tomorrow!
Nights are getting cooler here in the far north and we have our doonas on and no fans. I like it like this, no sweating, and glorious days! Glad I'm not down South at this time of year!
Photos this post are of the Q1 building in Surfers Paradise, and the view of the Gold Coast from the window on Q-deck, (77 floors above!) The elevator only took 43 seconds to take us to the top, the views were amazing! The Coast doesn't quite look like this at the moment, so I'm glad I took heaps of pics!!!

Back to reality!!!

We had 7 fun-filled days on the Gold Coast and hit every world possible! Kids had such a ball, but we did manage to give them a life-long fear of roller coasters and flume rides!!! (Not happy with Mum and Dad for that!) I think I enjoyed it so much more this time around with my family and watching the kids light up when they saw the Sesame St characters and Shrek and Dorothy the dinosaur! Yes they finally got to go to Wiggles world and ride th big red car! It was very special. We were so lucky with the weather, had a little rain at the beginning and then nice days, apart from the chilly nights! Glad we are not there at the moment!
Jack started day care last week, not happy about that either! He hasn't been for 5 months with the move, so he has to get used to being without me for awhile all over again. Heartwrenching stuff!
My photo this post is from Mother's day on the Gold Coast, I got breakfast in bed from my two men and had fun at White Water world for the day!!!!

On the countdown!

My favourite photo of Taylah this last few months and a pic of her and her little friend at her birthday party last week! It was very hard getting a decent pic of the two of them at the same time!
2 more sleeps until we start our holiays!!! Yay, we are leaving early Sat. morning to drive to Port to visit friends and then we fly out of Cairns on Tuesday heading for the Gold Coast and theme park heaven! We are so excited, our first family holiday in 4 1/2 years! (Can't count Adelaide, that's never a holiday!!!) So my days are filled with washing clothes, packing and writing lists and phone calls and shopping for last minute requirements!!!
My little man received his first scrapbooking prize yesterday for winning the kids challenge at the LSBS www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au cybercrop in April! He was so excited!!!

Pay it forward

Well thanks to the wonderful Liss from A Memory Forever,
I have decided to take part in PAY IT FORWARD! For those of you in the scrapping world, you would know it as a RAK, (Random act of kindness), game!


Here are the rules


*

The first five (5) people to comment on this post will get something from me or made by me. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:


• I make no guarantees that you will like what I make (if I decide to make something).

• What I create or give will be just for you.

• It’ll be done over the next 12 months.

• You have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a photo I have taken in whatever size I feel like giving. Might even be a book I think you will like or it could be a hand-made scrapping masterpiece! It may be a pack of scrapping goodies or something just right for you! You just won’t know until you get it!

• I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

• I reserve the right to change the rules! And in return, all you need to do is post this text into a post of your own and make or give 5 things for 5 others.

Of course, you’ll want to send me your mailing address…

**

Sound fun? Comment below, BUT if you aren’t interested in participating in the Random Act of Kindness, please let me know in your comment.

Up late

I was getting so good and back into a routine of getting to bed at a reasonable hour. But here I am again, slowly falling back into the late night routine. But hey, have just enjoyed the longest quiet time in one night in ages. Hubby was out till 10pm for a much needed drink with the boys, I got the kids in bed extra early and settled in on the couch to catch up on 6 episodes of neighbours! (Yes, sorry to say I am still a fan after all these years.) It was peaceful! Then Hubby came home a little chatty after a few beers and he had had a great night and wanted to tell me all about it, now I am wide awake and wondering how tired I'm going to feel tomorrow!
Have just visited another blog and been truly inspired by my blogging friend Liss, (A Memory forever!) She is very inspirational!
And wanted to share a gorgeous pic of my little man I took yesterday! I don't often get him unawares to get the good shots, but this one was a pearler! (Image taken with my 28-135mm IS Canon lens!)(A great multi-purpose lens which I love!)

Easter pics and layout

Firstly would like to credit the lovely digi kit I used for my new header to: CHOUBI who' gorgeous designs can be found at CLD www.colorlinedesign.com
This kit is called BUBBLE POP.

Well here are my few pics from yesterday after the Easter Bunny arrived! This was only a small portion of what the kids got and my giant egg. They each collected 24 more eggs in Dad's treasure hunt which we decided to do inside this year, living in the tropics is not a great spot for outdoor treasure hunts. They had so much chocolate, now there is no room in the fridge and today no-one would leave me alone until I smashed my giant egg. It didn't actually smash, as it was left out of the fridge all night, I dropped it on the floor and it just squashed and the bottom became flat.
Quite funny!
Went to the museum today and had a walk on the beach looking for empty hermit crab shells for our lonely little CHERMIE. His little mate, BELLA, died a few weeks ago and Taylah was devastated, so have to make sure this one has plenty of new shells to choose from. Well I'm off to do some scrapping or photo archiving, bye!

Happy Easter

Hope the easter bunny was good to everyone, we have enough chocolate in this house to last us at least a couple of months. The Easter Bunny was very generous this year and even I scored a giant egg, I've secretly always wanted one of those! The kids had to wait until I woke up to start the treasure hunt and by that time, Taylah was already onto many of the eggs hidden not so well by Dad! Jack had already eaten the ears off of is bg bunny by the time I got up at around 7.15am...
A lazy day today, yesterday we hit the shops to buy a new tv as the old one just blew up during NEIGHBOURS the other night! We have to have a spare to keep the sanity of parents at crucial times, and we got a bargain along with thousands of other punters out spending Mr. Rudd's money yesterday. I've never seen anythng like it before, it was chaos at the shops and Jack is not a fan of shopping, he had another tanty, which was just lovely for us all.
Tomorrow we may hit the museum, Taylah loves it and locals getin for free, which is handy seeing as we broke the bank yesterday!Looking forward to the school holiday week for a break from routine, will upload some easter pics when my camra battery is charged!

More pressies!!!

Just received a gorgeous parcel in the post from Tracy at LSBS, www.littlescrapbookshop.com.aumor albums to start on, I love them, right into the acrylic ones right now! Trouble is, I have loads of ideas and so little time. BUT!!!! Have just booked DS into day care for next term, for one day a week so will have a tiny bit more time for me. Haven't got my Wedding Photography up and running here in Townsville, I'm sure I will pick up work no problem, but right now, just trying to adapt to a new home and get the kids sorted etc. Enjoying a break from the Weddings and would love to concentrate a little more on my creative side of Photography again. There are some beautiful sunsets here over the lake where we live and I have to get out and capture them. We've also got loads of resident Magpie Geese who have all nested recently and every so often you see their little families with new offspring wandering through the neigbourhood.
Still right into scrapping, it's wonderful havingmy own creative space no and th mojo seems to go into overdrive when you know where everything is!!!!!!!
Hubby just arrived home early from work for the easter break, it wil be nice to have a little time off alltogether. Looking forward to these school holidys and a break from all the runnning around!!!!! Happy Easter everyone!!!!! :) For now here's a few pics of my little man doing some easter egg painting!