Ooooo... Less than a month

Between posts... lol, must be on a roll!!

Well I really haven't got a lot to say just needed to do some updating ;).

Spring is definatly around the corner (although the past few days have been FREEZING!!) and I got one of the first bunches of freesias the other day (from work).. also got a bunch of tulips, but freesias would have to be one of my favs.. just love that smell.... the blue gum was from our garden.. love THAT smell aswell :).

I also have to apologise to some of my blogging buddies.. I've been soooo slack in the blog visiting side of things lately... I'm sooo sick of these stupid computer issues. My laptop is away again.. fingers crossed that they can fix the motherboard and it doesn't need to be replaced.. and then to top things off, the desktop is now running even slower than is was!! I didn't think it was possible but there you go lol.. it's supposed to be running on 512 ram, but the last few weeks it's been 256! VERY frustrating.. the funny thing is that on the odd time it will run at 512 so I'm thinking it's a connection problem.... we've switched ram around and given it a good clean, but still the same..... thankfully there is an end in sight >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'M GOING TO GET ONE!!!!! Well when my tax eventually comes in anyway lol....

And on that high note I'll leave you ;)

TFL and TTFN

The monthly rundown....

It seems like it tends to be a monthly update doesn't it? lol.....

Well lets see.. I hate not keeping up to date, as it's so hard to remember what has been happening! I'll just go off the photos I have then ;)

School holidays started at the start of July, and I must say that I always love them.. .no rushing around in the morning, and I get to spend the time with Julieanne... She never seems to get bored at home either (touch wood) and that always helps.

I got tickets to go and see Disney on Ice (finding Nemo) so that was the first Friday of the holidays taken care of.... We took mum with us (as she missed out when we went 2 years ago as she'd put her back out), and we all loved it.. it's amazing the amount of work that must go into producing these things. Julieanne got spoilt again, and came home with some silly light up nemo thing.. that will just take up more space in her room! Oh Well...... ;). We ended up catching the train into the city as I wasn't too sure how the parking would be (I'm confident to park at Jeff's Shed but that's about it!!). Got off at Richmond station and walked to the rod laver... it was a fair hike (especially since mum has got shocking knees and back) but we were lucky as it didn't start to rain until we were on our way home!

{Hmmmm... blogger isn't letting me move my pictures for some reason, anyone know why that would be? Very annoying!!!}

Then that weekend Wayne had the *bright* idea of doing the driveway... I did ask him if it wasn't too wet, but he said no it would be alright!! Anyway, you can see the result above... he now calls it "the missile testing site!! It's terrible!! Instead of having our circular driveway, we've had to block half of it off as it was too boggy..... just something else to add to the list of things that need to be fixed!! ie the laptop!!! It's still not working properly, and I don't want to take it back to the guy that had it, as I don't think he fully knows what he's doing. Wayne's great uncle knows a fair bit about them, but I've been told that he's pretty flat out at the moment so don't want to bug him with it.. maybe I can just ask him if he knows of anyone I can take it to?

In the second week of the school holidays, I took Julieanne to Fountain Gate, as they were having a simpsons show on (it was pretty lame lol, but she liked it) then she had to have her photo taken on the simpsons couch.... shame that the Canon peoples camera died just before it was her turn so they had to use the point and shot, lol, luckily I had mine stashed in my bag... LOL, I felt right at home with my Canon... hehe, should have offered it so they could take the rest of the photos with it, but no way! would I give up my baby!!! hehe.....

I love the fact that I'm a SAHM when I get to do these things with Julieanne....

I was also supposed to go to Adelaide with Wayne during that week, but at the last minute plans got changed, so we had Isabella over a night, and I took them to Docklands Winter Wonderland to get their faces painted (as Isabella had got it into her head to have it done... ) I only found out about it after doing a google on face painting in Melbourne! Anyway, we had a great time (well once we'd got over the initial complaining of sore legs that is ;)... and I took some nice photos of the girls.

I also saw MAC Deb!!! On the way back to the car... really shouldn't have been that surprised as it was outside her work ;)... come to think of it, I think it was just outside her work that the bird pooped on my bag on the way to docklands lol! It's supposed to bring good luck isn't it? Maybe that's why I saw Deb.......

Also did some layouts.. only because Krys from Scrapbooking memories asked me for a birthday LO... I did 2 instead not knowing what type they would have wanted.. so anyway they both got picked up!! Pretty happy about that!! Also I used painter on the one of Julieanne, and I just have to say that I LOVE it!!

Credits for 15:
Journaling: It’s kind of hard to believe that the gorgeous little boy that I first met 12 years ago is now 15! The start of the real teenage years in my eyes. OK I know that 13 is the official start to teenagerness, but at 15 I think the real “fun” begins.. and the not so fun.. I know that you will have the strength to see your way through it all, and to enjoy yourself (but not too much ok?!!) in the process :).
Poem (from 2peas):
Somewhere in the middle,
A journey lies ahead
for all teenagers today
A journey to adulthood,
Our growth a kiss away.
But as we go we find ourselves
at a truly awkward stage,
We’re partial, unripe, Sketchy and
crude at this tender age.
We’re old enough to make a choice
Yet still young in many ways.
Too young to pack our bags and go,
too old to want to stay.
Young enough for fun and games,
TOo old for carefree lives,
Young enough for hopes and dreams,
yet for reality we strive.
Old enough for heartfelt pain,
too young to find the cure,
Too old for childish ways of past,
too young to be mature.
Old enough to fall in love
and gie our hearts away.
But, still too young to understand
just why we feel this way.
We’re trusted, loyal, proud and true,
Yet scolded, sneered and scorned
Between the role of adult and child,
We are somewhere torn.
Like an uncompleted work of art,
We’re awkward, unsure, half-baked.
But be patient please
for we’re on our way
to becoming something great. Liza Ortega

Credits: Anna Aspnes - Monoblendz origins papers
Anna Aspnes - Monoblendz Grafix papers
Anna Aspnes - Sk8ter Dude Brushes
Anna Aspnes - Painted Circle Splatz Brushes
Rhonna Farrer - roughed up tool kit
Nancie Rowe Jantz - textures vol 1

Fonts: OCR A Extended, LD Unconventional, Guilty

Credits for The Wish:
Journaling: Sweety, I can’t believe that you are 6 years old already! I hope that all your wishes come true.. whether they be birthday ones or everyday ones...

Credits: Anna Aspnes - La Playa papers
Anna Aspnes - Magical Sparkles brush set 3
Anna Aspnes - Celebrate Doodle stamps
Rhonna Farrer - Roughed up toolkit

Fonts: ITC Avant Garde, Beautiful ES

Well that's about it.. will see if I can move these picture into the correct positions, but if not it will just have to do won't it?

TTFN TFL :)

I know, I know...

It's been over a month, but only just.. and you can't honestly tell me that you have been missing the boring stuff that I go on about.....

Lets see... where should I start... really there isn't much to say.

First off here's a photo I took on Mothers day when we were in the City.. sad to say it was one of

the only ones. It's of the new Eureka Tower. didn't manage to go up it and have a look (as it hadn't opened yet), but am wanting to have a look at that skybox thing!



Um.. what else have we done.. gee I hate this trying to have to remember things.. lol, I suppose it will teach me to update more often!! NOT!
We dropped BIL and SIL off at the airport as they were going to Germany for 2 weeks.. for business, but still I was jealous.. after we'd said goodbye, we headed off to a look out where the planes land.. and they get sooooo close!!

Nulab had a special on the other week too for super cheap 20x32 inch prints, so I had to quickly do some.. was going to do something for the lounge as our walls are very bare, but ended up doing one each for the kids. Now I just need the money to pick up the frames that I had made for them lol...

And I also did this at some point

If you want to see credits for these please see my gallery at Designer Digitals as all the details are on my laptop... ahh why aren't you using your laptop you might ask! WELL............. After the in laws came back from said Germany they wanted me to put some stuff on the mp4 player they brought back for my niece.. anyway, to cut a looooonnnngggg story short, she knocked Julieanne's chocolate milk over (which I'd already moved once grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!) and it spilt all over my baby!! It's been over 2 weeks and I still haven't got it back ggrrrrrrrrr! Still angry thinking about it.. Hopefully tomorrow... So I'm stuck on the old desktop... mind you it may be slower to process, but the Internet is a heap faster lol!

To top that off, the tipper work has really died off with the rain we've had lately (yes we've had some rain!!) So we've had to go in another direction with one of the trucks... it's now hauling trailers to SA... and while I don't like the fact, I fully understand that the wheels need to keep moving, so to speak, to pay the bills (not too mention getting my new iMac roflol - new model should be coming out sometime this year! Please!)

On the positive side, our homeloan mess has finally been sorted out!! so that should save us a fair amount per month.. just need to finalise some paperwork. Shame that it could have been sorted by tomorrow as we've got a mortgage payment due... oh well.....

Queens Birthday weekend was a fairly big one.. we headed down to Iverloch, and stayed there the Friday and Saturday night with the in laws, celebrating Stewarts 15th birthday on the Saturday night (his birthday was the following Thursday) at a local pub... I had a very nice chicken wrapped in prosciutto (sp) thing.. yum!

lol, and after all that effort of getting down to the bottom of the phantom lens spots.. stupid me forgot to take the filter off before taking these photos.. good thing the spots weren't as bad as Julieanne's and I was able to heal them out with PS (gotta love that!)

Queens' Birthday Sunday was our MAC get together in the city, to meet the wonderfully talented Karen!

We had lunch at Egusto's on Southbank, and had a delicious lasagna (thanks to the persuasion of Deb)... We then went up to Lee's hotel room, and then Karen took some photos of the girls outside, although it was starting to get a little on the darkish side by then.. the time just flew, and next time we will get some more in! Also we will make sure that Sharon and Shez are there in the flesh!!

Finally I'll leave with a photo of the four of us.. we really don't get enough of these, and the other day when Wayne's parents were here his mum wanted one so out we all trooped in to the garden.. non of us was dressed the part, but who cares... although Wayne could have had a better expression on his face!(and I should really do something about that belly) Oh and I had my hair cut last week, so it's a little different now lol...

My wrist is stinging...

from that slap I just gave it for being such a bad blogger!! It's been a month, but honestly I don't think that a lot of noteworthy stuff has been happening (lol, although does it ever?)...

Well first things first.. I finally got a sever set up so I can upload photos and share with the family (mental note: must get onto the last lot!!).. the site itself isn't much but I've had a go: http://www.thistledoo.com/ any CC is most welcome, just remember that I've really got no web experience (well apart from a small community-house course) so be kind ;). Also most of the links don't work sorry lol, another thing I need to get on to!

Some other things that we've done have been: Went to the city (docklands) spur of the moment and had red rooster for dinner, and also had a beautiful fruits of the forest gelati! YUM!.. then after that we went to a spot where you can see all the aeroplanes land..

Not the best photo, but you can sort of see the plane... the lines and stars near the right light pole... didn't have my tripod, so I had to rest my camera on the car.. also it was hard to know where the plane would actually go lol.

Also had to share this one.. very spooking looking I think.. it looks like Julieanne is choking Isabella ;) (actually not sure what they are doing!).. this was just a shot taken while I was playing.. just having the shutter open and really not paying much attention to what I was doing.

Julieanne had her house school sports on the 4th (she is in yellow house) and I had to go out especially to get her a yellow top as she didn't have one... I picked this one up at Target for $3.00!! Bargain! Not too mention that it was the only one that I could find lol.

She wasn't the best sports person there, but she did come first in the sack race.. last in the egg and spoon.. but going from the look on concentration on her face she did try her best ;)

That Saturday PMA was on in Melbourne (big digital imaging show).. I only found out about it that week, so didn't really have a lot of time to try to organise a time to go (which i really wanted to do!) we had a big family do at Wayne's aunties house that night (the whole family was there for a change) and the show didn't open until 2 that afternoon.. so I rushed around and actually managed to drive into the city myself!!! Wow I was so proud of myself.. even though it really was just off the freeway ;). Did not have enough time there though (only an hour and a half) before I had to head off to pick Wayne up (the kids were with his parents). And the amount of people that were there!! WAY to busy for me, I HATE crowds!! But I did see a demonstration of the Wacom intuos3 , and guess what? I got mine in the mail yesterday!! Haven't had much of a play, but I'm liking it so far.. bit of getting used to though.

The Sunday we went to the Cider festival at Kellybrook winery. We went last year as well, and as Wayne just loves cider, had to go again... must say that the weather was a bit better this year ;).. I think it rained last year.

The have a storyteller there for the kids (under this GORGEOUS old oak tree) and Julieanne was all excited as she got to go up and help him make a picture of a monster (she called the purple faced monster... very original ;) )

Ummm... what else? Oh yes Mothers Day! I hope that you all had a great one.. Mine was ok, though I didn't get to spend anytime on the computer ::shock horror::.. we went into the city for lunch with Wayne's mum, and then had dinner at my mums..glad to get home in the end..

Oh and here is what i did for Wayne's mum...

Not much on the layout front... just this one

Credits: Rhonna Farrer: Roughed up tool kit Anna Aspnes: hipster plumes mega pak Anna Aspnes: Ephemerosa Paperie Katie Pertiet: Ledger Frames 2
Fonts:2peas DW Bunny hop Al capone 2 peas Bad hair day Al Sandra

Ok, will leave it there I think.. although no doubt there is something that I've left off ;)

TTFN, TFL

Edited: I'm such a doofus.. I knew that I'd forget something lol.. see that is what happens when you rely on your photos to try to remember what you've done lol...

I forgot to mention that I met Lis at fountain gate on Wednesday. It was great to see her. We met up at Krispy Kreme, and then had a wander around the shops... stoopid me forgetting to pick up a layby there too... see shocking I am!

Also wanted to just send some good vibes to DebF at pickelberry.. Hoping that she finds the strengh to make it through this time....

Obessed by a green eyed boy...

Ok, as some of you may know, I'm always a little behind the trends lol. A couple of years ago I bought the first two books of the Harry Potter series for Stewart, and had a read of them myself too. Thought they were quite good for a children's books too.. anyway, after running out of books to read in the house, I picked them up again a couple of weeks ago. Then had to go out and buy the third one....

Now after just about finishing book four, I can officially say that I'm hooked! I can't put the thing down! The house is a total mess, and I feel like I'm starting to neglect my laptop too. I'm going to have to get the fifth copy today as I've only got about 50 pages left, and that is not going to last me through tonight.

Anyway, I'm sort of glad that I've left it this long to join in on the Harry Craze.. as now I'll be ready for the 7th book due out July 21, with out having that long agonising wait! Now I just need to slow my reading down to time it properly.... lol ;)

Forgot

to say a couple of things ( I know it doesn't seem possible from the length of that last post ;) ) I really need to keep up to date with this thing so I remember to get everything in!

First off I need to send a HUGE thank you out to Mollie (aka readstoomuch) at Designer Digitals. I was getting desperate to get my hands on a copy of the new digital scrapboooking magazine, and as I hadn't had any success dealing with the distributor of it, and not finding it anywhere here in Oz, I went to the forums and put a call out for any info on an online shop that was selling it.. Anyway, Mollie was super kind enough to offer to send me a copy. I'm not a big forum participator, just never finding the time to keep up with all the different treads, but this has shown me what a wonderful resource they really are, and that the digi community is just a wonderful group of people :). I received my magazine this week, and I'm really happy with it.. just love seeing all the digi layouts in it.. and some familiar names too :D. Jane your layout is just stunning (but then I love all your work :) )!! and reading about some fellow digi's.. not too mention Anna's Anna Layout!! Anyway I could go on, and I've just flicked through it!

Another thing that I wanted to share was my drooling over this

I am so loving the iMacs and really want to get the 24" one. I'm really having colour issues with my laptop (it's really blue) and I can't adjust it, so before printing I have to transfer all my files to the desktop, which is way to slow to actually work on. I love my laptop dearly, but this colour problem is really starting to get to me (especially now I'm shooting in the RAW), and feel that I should update my desktop and mainly work on that soo.... I'm looking at the Mac, being able to run windows on it as well, and being able to use my programs just makes it that much more attractive.

I also forgot to mention that it was FIL's birthday on Tuesday, so we had a special cake for him on Sunday... and I got some photos without the candle reflections!! I remembered to take the filter off! Thanks Mel :D!

Mum, Juileanne and I also went shopping at Knox City on Wednesday, and spent forever in Pumpkin Patch.. mum spent up BIG! and got some nice stuff for Julieanne (boy does that girl get spoilt!)

Finally, had to share I got this published in the current Scrapbooking Memories Mag.. have to say that it's one of my favorite LO's. Not sure what happened to my Sk8ter Boy Lo though, it was supposed to appear in the same mag... lol, look at me complaining about getting published.. just be grateful girl!! Ok, I think that's it... no doubt I'll remember something once I publish this ;). And just ignore the graininess of the photos.. I forgot to change my ISO! Doh.

Have a great day everyone.

A challenge.....

Well for me anyway... turns out that I got tagged by the very talented Miss Sue (thanks Sue ;P), for the Be Original Blog Project... I really don't think that I've got any original ideas for this but here is the run down.. .once again a copy and paste (sorry :) ), this one from Mohit Singhania's blog, where this all started.

In a new blog post, list and write about 5 to 10 methods you use to create original posts. It has to be a method you use regularly. These should be the best, quickest and easiest to apply methods.
At the start of your post, tell your audience (briefly or at length) what you are doing with the "Be Original" Project and put a link and/or a trackback to this post, for the purpose of giving them the full rules and for me to compile the master list of all participants that I’ll link to in a future post.
Be sure to also put a link/trackback to the blogger who tagged you for "Be Original" in order to let your readers follow the conversation around and to spread the link love.
Sharing your "Be Original" methods with your own audience, will also share them with the blogger who tagged you and the bloggers you tagged, as well as their whole audience!
Pick as many bloggers as you want and “tag” them to take part in the fun. You will be helping their exposure by linking to their site from your blog, and they will return the favor by having a link to your site in their initial post. After all, that is how a meme works (a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another.)

So here we go:

1. I basically just write about what has been happening in my life.. well the stuff that I can remember anyway ;).

2. Try to keep a record of some day to day things, as something to look back on.

3. Post photos, and the details of them.

4. Post scrap pages and the details and products used on them.

5. post the occasional helpful link, or idea (not that this happens very often ;) ).

Ok, I hope that I did it right, if not apologies to all involved. As for the tagging bit.. as regular readers would know, I've never been into the whole tagging others thing, so consider yourself tagged if you want ok, if not your not.. I know I know, I'm a party pooper, but that's just the way I am (as Wayne is more than happy to point out) ;P .

Ok, onto other things. I hope that everyone had a happy Easter.. bad blogger that I am I totally forgot to wish it for you all in my last post lol. We ended up going to Barwon heads Friday morning, dropping our stuff of at the house we were staying at, and then heading to Queenscliff for the seafood festival, raising money for the Good Friday Appeal. Had some nice fish and chips, even though I got in the line for the wrong one, and it turned out to be the longest line too.. oh well.

Afterwards, we went for a walk along the main st, and boy do they have some nice little clothing shops there.. I saw some lovey cardis. I just LOVE my cardigans ;).. does that make me a dag? (nah, just trendy right?!?) A photo of my 2 dags...

Then we went back to the house, to have this

ugly isn't it? tasted ok though....

And the bed!! Have to say that it was the softest bed I've ever slept in, I like a hard one though, so we did have some issues getting to sleep, although by Sunday night, I think that I must have gotten used to it lol.

Saturday, the local fair was on at the school. so we walked down the road to that. Julieanne got to see the baby animals

And I procrastinated on buying a cardigan (see another one ;).. which I didn't get in the end lol.. I'm shocking at spending money. Well shocking unless it's like a computer or camera or something lol.

Easter Sunday, we had the Easter hunt (well after I'd attempted to sneak into Julieanne's room to place her present from the Easter bunny: a dancing chicken that sings the chicken song).. I don't think that we went to overboard with the chocolates this year.. thankfully ;)

Wayne's parents drove down and they surprised us at the beach while we were there (I thought she sounded all suspicious on the phone!) We then walked home, Wayne, Micheal (dh brother) and I stopping off to have a look at an auction on the way home, boy was it expensive!

In the afternoon Wayne and I wanted to go for a walk to have a look at this run down house that was selling for over 1 million, but it ended up that most of the clan came with us. We then went and had a look at the surf beach and the gorgeous golf course there.

The afternoon was spent at the house, with everyone outside.. the boys playing table tennis, and the girls having a story read to them by grandma.. I did get some good shots of them.

Then before dinner snuck back to the beach to attempt to get some shots.. wasn't very happy with my results though

and the clubhouse

We left Monday morning as Stewart needed to be at work by 3 (in the end he didn't end up working lol), and I must say that it is always nice to come back home too.

Wednesday was 2 years since Wayne's grandad passed away. I still can't believe that he's gone, he was such a healthy person, and his mum and grandma lived to about 100.. so we were expecting him to go on forever, but it wasn't so. He had a heart attack, and complications.... I don't think that we really know what he died of in the end :(. Anyway we had a family get together at Wayne's parents and it was good to see some of the other family. I did feel a little sad that Julieanne wasn't there. She was having a sleepover at mums, and I thought that she would have liked it better there anyway.

Here's Wayne being his usual self

And I have to say that he generally is the life of the party.... even when he doesn't want to be, but if he's not it's always "why are you in a bad mood?" lol, he's not, he just wants some quiet time! But you can't please some people ;)

And finally here is something that I did for Wayne's mum.. I'm not real impressed with it, it was a rushed early morning thing, but I wanted to do something....

credits: painted circle splatz brush - Anna Aspnes. Roughed up tool kit - Rhonna Farrer. Blended Autumn papers - Denise Docherty. Autumn Glory texture - Nancie Rowe Janitz. Monoblendz Grafix papers - Anna Aspnes. Fonts 28 days later.

Well, that was a post and a half.. sorry for the rambling ;), but I need to get it all down so I'll remember it hehe.

Oh I almost forgot. Julieanne and I went to Chadstone today to see Happily Never After.. it was ok, but I think that I'm starting to expect to much from these kids films. I blame Shrek for that! Can't wait until June when the new one comes out!!

TFL and TTFN

A Tooth and some other stuff...

Well not really much other stuff ;).




Julieanne's first loose tooth finally came out today, after much wiggling. I'm surprised how well she went with the whole thing.. she is now extremely anxious to put it under her pillow tonight lol.. hmmm.. wonder what the tooth fairy will bring?

I'm glad that I actually managed to get this LO done before it fell out...


Journaling: It’s the first that is going to fall out.. it’s been wobbly for over 2 weeks now, so I’ve started to get used to the idea of you losing those precious little teeth.. I still don’t like it, but I’m slowly starting to accept that you are losing all of that babyness... it has come around so fast, and I really don’t want to see the end of it, but I know that you are going to make a beautiful girl with “big” teeth and big dreams.I will never forget this gorgeous grin of yours, though, showing all those precious baby teeth. 31 March 2007.
Credits:Monoblendz Graphix papers - Anna Aspnes. Ledger Frames No.2 - Katie Pertiet. Roughed up tool kit - Rhonna Farrer.
Fonts: Cooper Black, 2peas Journaling dingbats, 2peas Harlequin, 2peas Field Marshall.

We had a fairly quiet weekend.. Wayne had to work on one of the trucks as it's been making a funny noise, so he did that on Saturday. Then Sunday the lawns got done.. lol, that is a full days work around here.. well it should be, somehow I got stuck doing one section today ;). It seems that even the small amount of rain we had (we had 7ml last week when an hour away had about 40!) did wonders to the grass...

Also had a bit of a shock on Sunday on our way home from dropping Stewart off. The car we were following failed to stop at a shocking intersection... he went straight through, but there was a car coming along the other road.. she slammed straight into him, as she really had no other choice in the 100km zone.. anyway they were all so lucky, if either of them had of been going a little faster it would have been a pretty serious crash. As it was she only hit the back passenger panel, and spun the car around... I shudder to think what would have happened if she had of hit the front of the car... nobody was hurt, which was a blessing. We were the first there, so Wayne got out to see if everyone was ok, I don't know what he would have done if anyone was seriously hurt... he's a bit of a fainter with blood ;). Anyway he called 000, and the emergency services arrived a while later (I was actually surprised how long it took!). So that was the excitment of the weekend.. it does make you think of how dangerous the roads are! All is takes is someone not to give way... ::shudder:: :(

We have also deiced where we are going over Easter. We were going to go to Seaspray, and then that changed to Inverloch when that was booked, then Inverloch was booked so we got a house in Barwon Heads. It will be nice to get away :). Now just need to clean attempt to get the dust of my camera....... not holding high hopes ;)

Anyway, I can hear Wayne coming in the drive so will leave it at that.

TTFN

Shooting in the RAW!

Well that's what Wayne likes to call it anyway ;).


It's been a while between posts. I'm such a bad blogger, and really the only reason I keep it up is as a reference to what we did when and where (and even then, my record keeping skills leave much to be desired!)... and it came in handy when I did this...

I totally love Anna's week in review layouts (love ALL her work actually), but I think that a weekly LO is a little ambitious for me ;).. so when the month in review brush came out, had to grab it! This is a round up of January.. I had WAY to many photos to choose from though so I ended up with a pretty cluttered LO... hence the black and white, makes it look a lot neater :). Credits: A month in review brushes - Anna Aspnes. Monoblendz Grafix papers - Anna Aspnes. Fonts: Avant garde, Bernard Mt Condensed. Love my fotofusion too, would not have been able to do it without it... I might actually upgrade it one of this days too, so I can actually get a full 2 page spread done with out having to enlarge later ;).

Saturday night Julieanne had a sleepover at her friends house (oh and I just realised I left that off my Jan LO - her first sleepover - doh!! Opening PS as I type... grrrr... now the system is sooooo sloooooooow), as she'd been before I wasn't overly concerned about it this time, so Wayne convinced me to go out to his aunties restaurant in Healesville... well at 9.30 we get the phone call that she wanted to come home... we were over an hour away!! Terrible parents that we are ;).. but it would have to be the one time that we go out that it happens.. anyway, we'd organised Wayne's parents to go an get her, but then 2 minutes later get a phone call that she was sound asleep... ah children, life would be boring without them right?!

We went to the movies on Sunday and saw a 3D screening of "meet the Robinson's". It was a fun movie, nothing to jump up and down about, but it had a great message, as most of those Disney movies do... speaking of movies, I was talking to a lady at work about it the other day, and we both had to say that we weren't that impressed by "happy feet"... ooooo how un-Australian is that?!? It was a wonderful movie, but I don't think that it's deserved all the hype that it's got, and I can' believe that it won an Oscar over "Cars"... that was a good movie ;)... OK will get off my soapbox now lol... Anyway, the kids loved the movie (back to "meet the Robinson's now") even with the glasses, and afterwards we had dinner at TGI's.. which ended in a tired child throwing a tantrum (not mine), but I was glad for it, as otherwise it might have been a late one, which Julieanne really didn't need, after the Saturday night.

Also managed to do this for the ad challenge over at DD. I don't often do challenges but thought I should give it a go. Journaling: These are the days of Miracle and Wonder.Mordialloc Festival Sunday the 18th of March. Julieanne and Isabella on the Teacup ride. They were the only 2 on the ride, but they seemed to have a wonderful time, waving to use and laughing, and generally having fun just being children. It was so nice to see them enjoying their childhood, as I sometimes think we tend to force them to grow up way to fast. I hope that they will look back on these days and think of them as days of Miracle and Wonder, and hope they don’t pass to quickly. Credits: Font Al Capone. Anna Aspnes: Ad challenge Film Frame. Katie Pertiet: On the Edge Flourishes 2.

Umm, and suppose I should explain the title of this post, well I've decided to finally start shooting RAW.. I've been doing it on and off for a while now, but really couldn't be bothered with it all, but after playing with some files I did notice the difference in quality.. now I just need to get some bigger compact flash cards.. those 256 ones that I have just ain't going to make it ;). Oh and I also found this handy little tool for windows uses.. I was sick of not being able to see the thumbnail in windows explorer so did a google and found this.. and it actually works! And it also has (apparently haven't tried it yet) has a save as feature that lets you just save it as a jpeg... handy for emailing I suppose without having to open PS (and yes it has finished opening lol). Also found this too. It actually allows me to see my psd thumbnails (although not the big preview).. yay.. no more bridge!

Well... I might leave it there... round of applause if you actually made it this far ;).

TFL and TTFN :)

Little update...

But not much to say really :).

The weekend seems to fly past (as it usually does!). Saturday night we went to my mum and dads for dinner and watched the Concert for George, which mum had just got on DVD. I know it's fairly old but it was great to see. Me being a huge Beatles fan loved it... and I want to get a jacket like Ringo's for Wayne! Amazing how much George's son looked like him too... spitting image, although just a little smaller.

Yesterday we ended up at the Mordialloc Festival. We were supposed to go to the in-laws for lunch, but the local festival was on so ended up there... needless to say we were really not dressed for it, and my neck did get a little burnt.

It was fairly busy, but there was a great atmosphere there with lots of live music, food and drinks and hippy stalls. Rides too, but Julieanne only went on 2 of them ($5 a ride a bit on the dear side)... the teapots with Isabella

and the Cha-Cha with Daddy


It still surprises me how much of a speed freak she is, she just loves her fast rides (and this was fast), but is afraid of a moth.. funny girl :).

After we'd all had enough of that we walked across to the beach.. once again not really dressed for it as Julieanne is demonstrating here by hitching her skirt WAY up ;) (ooo, the compression has made the colours all weird.. oh well)

We then had dinner at Cafe Blah Blah and I had a lovely Chicken parma (Waynes standard)... and the sticky date was beautiful!

We had an early night last night, but we are all still tired! Another early one again tonight I think. Also picked some of our tomatoes today.. not the best looking ones, but they taste alright!

Still trying to figure out our home loan too... we are paying WAY to much at the moment, (care of our stupidity and a hopeless mortgage broker!), so hopefully that gets sorted out quickly, because we can't take much more of it as it is..

Also did this quick LO. I got the idea from Photoshop Creative Magazine (I think it's that way around), after doing a quick flick through in the newsagent.. didn't buy the magazine though, so had to go off memory... I had all these 4x4 photos and really didn't know what to do with them (as they are not of my fav topic) so just did this as a test... CC most welcome as always.. Used Roughed up tool kit by Rhonna Farrer. Fonts AL SongWriter, 28 Days later.

Well no more news on the wobbly tooth either... still just wobbly.. how long do these things generally take?!

Turns out I had more to say than I thought lol.

Lastly Hugs to a certain friend that has had some bad things happen and is feeling a little low.. thinking of you :).

TFL and TTFN

Wobbly Tooth!!

Wahhh... Julieanne has a wobbly tooth. She's going to lose those precious baby teeth, and I'm not happy about it!! I don't want her to grow up just yet, but I suppose it has to happen doesn't it? Wayne says it's about time, he seems to think that she is fairly late in losing them, but she's only just turned six, and I always thought that 6-7 was the average for losing that first tooth... Anyway, Julieanne is pretty excited about the whole thing.. lol, she just knows that the tooth fairy is going to come and give her some money ;)... Not too sure how much the tooth fairy actually pays these days though lol.....

Just a pic of those teeth....



On another note, we went camping on the weekend, and I must say that it was an experience. We haven't been for about 11 years so I'd sort of forgotten how grotty you can get after a couple of days with no shower! It was just so dusty! We camped right next to the Latrobe river at Hawthorn Bridge (or so I'm told anyway! I really haven't got the foggiest idea of where we were!). Then on Saturday the trail bikes stared appearing. Not that I have anything against bikes, but they are VERY noisy and I'd really prefer to hear the running river. Anyway, we packed up Sunday and found another *isolated* spot. Isolated because you needed a 4x4 to get there, and really we could not hear any other person around at all :). I was a little concerned about snakes though, but I just kept telling myself that they are more scared of us than we are of them lol....

I wasn't too sure how Julieanne would go, but she seemed to really enjoy it. And even manged to go to sleep! She loves her own bed and generally has issues sleeping somewhere else, but she was happy on her Bratz lilo.

Must say that it was FANTASTIC to get back home though!!! Even though we didn't have a shower straight away (had to put rock on the drive. MORE DUST!!), it was great to just have running hot water to wash my hands properly. Worst thing of all though is that I did not take one photo!! And I call myself the family photographer...

TFL and TTFN :)