Yes I know it's been ages ....

Life just seems to get away from me at the moment. I am actually trying to spend less time on the computer and more time scrapping - and basically it is working (as you can see from my updated slideshow). Our 'roadtrip' down south went fantastic!! The Great Ocean Road is just amazing! Australia does have some absolutely beautiful scenery that's for sure. The boys learnt so much about Aust history on our trip. Soveriegn Hill, Eureka Stockade, Ned Kelly, just to name a few. We did Melbourne and Canberra, visit grandparents in Sydney and Coffs Harbour and came home slightly exhausted. I now have the challenge of choosing which of the 800 photos I took will actually be scrapped! This could be a very lengthy process.
well cheers all,
keep well,
Grace

Holiday countdown ....

Only 4 more sleeps and we head of down South for our mega-roadtrip!! DS4 & 5 are soooo excited, though I think that has something to do with the fact that they get to leave school early on Friday. The plan is to head up to Twmba and drop the dogs off at DS2's place then head south/west till we hit water - the ocean that is! Hoping to get to the Great Ocean Road early in the second week of the hols (I think, I must admit I didnt really listen to DH when he was reading the planned itinerary to me of his laptop).
Other things happening at the moment, we head parent/teacher interviews tonight for DS4 & 5 and while there were no mega surprises I feel a bit berated by one of the teacher's for allowing the boys speech problems to go unaided this year. DH and I decided to give them a break from the 'speechy' and let them do swimming lessons after school instead, now I am feeling very 'blamed' by the teacher that one of them in particular has speech issues that are affecting his spelling and reading. Bad mummy!! You would think that experience would count for something! Was I so condescending when I had no childrem - god I hope not!
OH well, roll on holidays, next term is a new start ... I suppose I need to commit more time with the guys and sit and read and stuff, it's just so difficult with working and stuff - but thats a choice I made,
Anyway ...cheers

Fungi Identified .... mystery solved.

I have had a response from the Qld museum and the FungiMap group in Victoria and this is the result. "This is a fungus called Ileodictyon gracile. When it expands out of the 'egg', there is an olive-brown slime on the inside of the arms. The slime carries the spores and it is smelly - a strategy to attract insects which then spread the spores." It just goes to prove that when you think you have seen it all nature is always surprising us!!!

What the ???

Any gardening guru's out there could you please answer this mystery for me ....
What is this a picture of???
I found these weird 'skeletons' on my garden (top right), then I located the 'eggs' from which they hatched buried just below the mulch(front) . After an hour or so the soft skeleton shrivels up (top left).
Any ideas???

Stick and Giggle Retreat update...

Wow!!! it all happened so quickly!! It seems only last week we were counting down the months, now it's been and gone. What a fantastic program Jody had planned for us. The location at Mt Tambourine was spectacular, the company of so many of my EMM, SL and misc friends was brilliant. And the talent was just undescribable. I had a great time and cant wait till the next retreat that Jody has promised us will be in Feb 2009.
Roll on February I say!!!

Busy days

I don't know where the time is going lately. I just seem to be going one step forward, two steps back! I feel like I am running around chasing my tail both at work and home. Rob and I are looking at moving things around in the house a bit, which means another clean-up! And this time we are serious, Rob bought aout 20 of those big plastic storage bins to put stuff in the shed. I am pleasently chucking out heaps of my school stuff - in the hope that I wont need to use it again (maybe wishful thinking, but a lot of it is out of date now anyway). So the garage is becoming a snooker room/bar/scraproom, the twins room is getting bunks, the family room is getting re-arrange so we can hang the massive Buddha wallhanging that Rob bought, and I think there is other stuff too - it's all like a 'domino effect'.
Scrapping is happening slowly, I think I am creating to much of the same stuff (mainly for the DT) and I really need to try and break into some new style ... I just dont know what yet.
Anyway sitting here typing is only avoiding the LO that is sitting on my table, so I better go and let the creative juices flow.
c ya
G

Sublime Point Lookout

It's COLD in them there mountains!!!

Well, DH and I just got back from The Blue Mountains and man it was freezing down there !!!

DH had a 20 year reunion for his Uni class at an absolutely gorgeous resort in the mountains - I'll post some pics of it soon. It was great fun catching up with the guys after so long. It was hilarious to hear all the nicknames being thrown around, and 45 yr old guys easily answering to them! Us wives enjoyed the time shopping in the gorgeous town of Leura, while the boys played golf and rekindled more memories.

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Mother's Day to all...

Well, another year bites the dust. I am officially 40 plus GST! (that's 44 for you non financial types). I don't really think it's much different to 43, or 42 for that matter... I think i actually stopped counting after 3o-something. Except when I had to fill in the twins birth certificate ...but let's not go there!
So, how about Mother's Day instead. I was swamped this morning by the twins (nearly 7 yr olds). They have been 'creating' gifts for me all week - so much paper and masking tape and textas!!! They were so excited and kept telling me they loved me ... and not to forget that I had to go and shop for their birthday present today!!
Yes, I was a Mother's Day baby, and so were the twins. This year tho, their day is on Tuesday. They are looking forward to next Saturday when they have each invited 6 friends to a party in the park .... should be fun (she says grinning...)
Anyway time to go and cut the Mother's Day Cake,
Cheers one and all.

Sick kids ....

Seem to be a lot of them around at the moment. Prob something to do with the change in the weather. Cold nights and warm days. I have DS5 home today, but instead of scrapping I am actually working!
I received some delicious papers and bits from SW last night. I can't wait to get May's DT items started. Some fantastic Fancy Pants and Rusty Pickle papers to work with. I still want to do more with my BG from last month - maybe some Mother's Day mini-albums for the grandma's. My DS2, the jetsetter, is currently in Venice having a wonderful time. I've been shadowing his travelling on GoogleEarth and WOW!! the places he is seeing are awesome!
Anyway I better get back to work. Thanks for the lovely comments re my layouts ladies, it means so much to me, coming from those ppl whose work I admire so much!!
Watch this space for some more creativity in the near future !!!

My Boys mini album & other stuff.

I've just completed my first mini album using the lovely Archaic Range from Basic Grey, and I love it! These quality papers are lovely to use, and suit the various range of ages of all my lovely lads. (Why not pop into Scrappers Warehouse and check out my other LO's using this range?).
I still need to put the journalling in, but that will take me a while to get the right words in my head - I might find some relevant quotes to use, but then I guess my own words would be more meaningful.
Great news at work!!! I've escaped the classroom till the end of the year!!! yippee!!
I have been trying very hard to make myself needed at work, and it seems to have worked. I am loving this job, the people are so supportive and the work is really interesting. And you actually get job satisfaction and recognition ... something I think is really missing from our classrooms/schools as far as the hardworking teacher is concerned.
And, most importantly, I get soooo much more time to create!!!
Like I said earlier....
Yippee!!!!!

Leaving on a jet plane ....

Well its been a long time coming, but my little boy is flying off to Europe this Sunday! Something like 21 countries in 40 days ... the lucky thing. He and a friend are doing a Contiki camping tour, and while I personally want to check out Asia more so than Europe, I am still jealous!!! I can see that this will be the start of the 'travel bug' for him. I mean he did go to Japan with school, and to NZ for a short trip, but this is the real OS experience. And my DS1 confirmed tonight that he is looking at teaching in Japan next year when he finishes his degree, which was expected as he is learning Japanese ... I can see that I will have to get a passport and travel to see my own kids in the future, which is fine with me, but having 3 more at home could be a problem. It's great the opportunities that young ppl get now days to travel, technology has certainly brought the world a lot closer!
G

I'm on the Design Team at Scrapper's Warehouse!!!!!!

I can finally announce it out loud!!!
Well, I can sorta announce it - Gaby at SW is pretty busy with moving and stuff, so it hasnt been officially announced over there, but I think she is tired of me hassling her ("Can I tell them.......please?", "Now can I tell them ....pretty please???" etc, etc....) So she said I can blab!!!!
I am so excited, as you can tell. She has sent me the lovliest Basic Grey papers (Archaic) to play with, and some yummy chipboard words and felt stuff!!!!
I've uploaded two LO's so far, but I have plans for more - so stay tuned.
Why not pop over to Scrapper's Warehouse and check out the shop, Gaby has a flat rate postage of $5 in Aust, so you can spend more on products!! yeah!!!

School Holidays ...... but not mine!

Well, for the first time in over 10 years I am not on holidays with the kids! I gave up my right to school hols to become a public servant! and I love it!! The no holidays are a bit of a bummer (apart from the usual 4 weeks per annum that is) but the decrease in pressure and stress outweighs that immensly. DS4&5 appear happy enough to attend Vacation Care most days, and between DH, DS1 and myself we are entertaining them a couple of days too. Work is going well, though the load is increasing - but I dont feel like I am going to have a 'meltdown' anytime soon. There are a number of staff on hols at the mo, so things should settle down in a week or so.
On a much brighter note ... my DT stuff arrived today. OMG - I received all the BG Archaic range of papers, some great chipboard, felt, ribbons and other stuff. I am going to have so much fun creating with these wonderful products !!! Now I have to go and plough through my gazillion photos for the 'right' ones!
cheers.
Hey - check out the new LOs in my slide show! Some cool teenager ones there on Paper Inklings paper from my stint as Guest Designer at ScrapLounge. Cool stuff!

Easter Hols .... gone too soon.

Well, I am sitting here, relaxing, after a hard day at the beach, finding it hard to accept that the Easter Hols are nearly over, it just doesnt feel right only having the long weekend. But it will prob be worse in 2 weeks time when it really is the school hols ... and I have to work! it's the first time in over ten years that I havent had the school holidays off with the boys. The twins, luckily for me, do enjoy vacation care, I am so lucky that the people there are so nice, but going two weeks straight might be a bit much for the boys - I reckon they will be exhausted by the end of it. This time together on the Sunshine Coast has been great, they loved the beach today. Pity the older three couldnt be part of it, but that is getting harder to organise as time goes on.

Happy Easter

Well, it's that time of year again when you wrestle the crowds and head up to the Sunshine coast, to get away from it all - just like everyone else is!! I suppose it does help tho having a sister living up there who needs to have her house, and dogs, sat for the Easter break. I've had some great news this past week re my scrapbooking - but i am not allowed to share it with you yet ..... so stay tuned! I've been checking out Lusi Austin's blog tonight and her use of 'recycled' stuff on her LO's just blows my mind!!! That is one talented woman. She inspires me to have a go and actually follow my thoughts. I've always said I am an idea's person - I just need to have the courage, and time, to act on them. Hopefully this new situation (the one I cant tell you about yet) will allow me to do that.
Oh well, better keep packing. Hope you all have a happy and safe Easter. Cheers.

Yippee!!!

Wow!!! I just received an email asking me to go on a DT........OMG!!! I am so chuffed. I haven't finalised details yet, so I can't make any announcements, but as soon as I know for sure I will pass it on.
It's wonderful to have someone acknowledge your talents in such a positive way. I mean I love the fact that my friends like my work, and more importantly that I like my work, but this acknowledgement still gives me a warm, fussy feeling.

More details to come soon I hope!!

Free Tibet - YOU can help!!!

As the Olympics are in China this year, there isnt a better time to draw attention to the plight of the Tibetan people. The Dalai Llama, on 10th March, gave a heart wrenching speech, stating the fact that " the language, customs and traditions of Tibet, which reflect the true nature and identity of the Tibetan people are gradually fading away." What a tragic thing for him to watch . Lend your support to the people of Tibet by visiting the Aust Tibet Council website and join their email campaign to our Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith. http://www.atc.org.au/
Thanks guys.

wow - my slideshow!!

It is a truly great feeling to have a go at something and to succeed. I just placed the slideshow here in my Blog, and tho it took a few attempts at fiddling around with settings and finding my way around photobucket, I got it to work!! Yippee!!
This positive, pat myself on the back feeling, is a new thing for me. I have recently started a new job and it is great. People actually call you over just to tell you you are doing a good job! And in the 4 months that I have been there I have never heard 1 staff member speak ill of another (and there are about 20 of us)!!!
Certainly not typical staffroom behaviour!!
Now if I could just cut the 1 1/2 hr commute each way i would be loving every bit of it!!
cheers to all

Phantom of the Opera

I cant believe how much I enjoyed the PotO the other night. It was brilliant!!
We saw it at QPAC and the stage design and special effects were out of this world. Not to mention the singing. Would you believe that we still dont know if we actually saw the real Phantom, aka Anthony Warlow! We are pretty sure it was the understudy during the first act, but I personally think it was the 'real thing' after the intermission. He seemed different - taller for one thing!
I have emailed the theatre to ask them , but to no avail.
I wish someone would tell me.
Either way though it was a fantastic night!

OMG...I did it!!!

I don't believe it, I just added a Blinkie from the wonderful Rondelle at ScrapLounge!!! 10 minutes ago I couldn't even locate my blog in cyberspace .....there is no stopping me now though!!!
Just wait till the morning comes...I am going to update this with some pics of all the LO's I have created over the past couple of months.
Cool ....this is going to be fun!!