twang twang twang

Geeze the old dulcimer is a bit tuneless! Hasn't been played for awile. Oh well you get that.

It feels like a lifetime ago when I posted on PBP that I would put up my button templates. Well here is the first. This is the butterfy one. I have set it up as a layered tiff file and intructions are included. I designed these on PSE4, so the instructions are for PSE4, however I am sure most of you will manage to adapt them to your own preferred program.

Here are some examples of what you can do with it. Different backgrounds and bevel depths will change the charatcer of the button.

Click here to download this button maker template. Let me know how you go, both postitivve and negative feedback welcome. Have fun!

I'm so sleepy....

Not getting enough REM sleep so I am totally exhausted. Will has been teething all week and chooses to do so in the middle of the night. I thinl he spends more time in bed with us than in his cot. Two more eye teeth to go, so hopefully another two weeks of this and then SLEEP! AJ has been bed hopping too. The other morning he came up to me about 5 am whining where's my blankie? Huh? go look in your bed! Not there. Where's my blankie? Did you take him to the toilet? I don't know. You look mummy. No you. I can't find blankie! (insert inappropriate thoughts from my head). I get out of bed, look and there is blankie in his bed. ARRGGHH!!!!

Happier note, I bought a new camera! So be warned, an influx of photos coming this way!

David Palmer - World Champion!

We are so proud to say that David is World Champion again! YAY! In what? SQUASH
Its great to say we have a sporting legend in the family!

Bubbles!

Here's is my lastest, my inspiration was some fancy camera work on a TV show called Top Gear (a car show on SBS), this is where I got the idea of splitting and tinting the photo.



I wanted bubbles, and couldn't find any quickly so I made my own brush. Here it is. I am quite proud of my effort.



No Longer Available. Enjoy, and please let me know how you use it.

A letter to Aunty Kit

I was inspired to scrap this page after reading Faer's blog and downloading the latest PBP mega kit freebie by Heather's d.r.e.a.m.. Faer has been making some really nice sketches available to download. The one I used was called Letter Sketch, and combined with Heather's part of the mega kit I came up with this LO of my Great Aunt Kit. I altered and coloured the heart to match the ribbon buckle. She always had the most beautiful and stunning stationary and the paper's in Heather's kit remind me of my favourite aunty.

Writing the journaling was quite cathartic for me, it bought back some memories for me that I had not thought of for a long while. I was crying during the process, I really do miss her. Kit was a very special lady. She had experienced a vaired and rich life. She was an "old school" teacher and had some very strong opinions on life. She was never idle. She had some wonderful stories to tell us. Even when she was "elderly" she kept up with her calisthenics. Her favourite phrase was "now let me give you some advice". She was even in a buliding society advert in Newcastle where she was recorded talking about surfing there.

Just thinking about her again has brought tears to my eyes. Here's to you Kit!

So sick of being sick

Yep that's it so sick of it all. As soon as one child gets well another gets sick and now I am as well. One week down of antibiotics and another week to go for me. I have a stupid bacterial infection in my throat and it has really knocked me out. My darling J came down with it yesterday and got AB's as well. Not happy, he cannot afford time off work - he has some deadlines for work this week.

Some exciting news for me down at clikchicdesigns I am a finalist in the August colour challenge! If you really want to you can vote for me here .

Life is pretty busy here, we went to Wakefield Park (Golbourn) Monday to watch a friend drive his civic around the track. All the boys had fun (even the biggest) who had a chance to drive around at high speeds.

I am busy preparing for a big gathering at my place in September. I am hosting a rather large BBQ for my internet mother's group. There are families coming form NSW, QLD and VIC. I am getting really excited as some of us will be meeting for the first time after chatting to each other for 2 years over the net.

"POP"

The sound of me pulling my finger out.

My slide is updated except for one scrap LO. Try and work out the new ones! I will howeverpost two of them because I am mighty pleased with them and just love the kit I used for them. There will be more of these comming soon.



Credit goes to Faer Oak for her beautiful faer haven grand opening kit (available at the pickleberrypop shop). It was almost as if she had designed this kit for my wedding photos only. I was only just a few weeks ago actually thinking of making my own papers to go with my wedding photos and voila! here's this fabulous kit!



This one you can really see how well the greens go well with Ali's dress. Ahhhh. Beautiful.

Have some photos of the weekend that will be up later on, but Will beckons with a wail, it is lunchtime........

I am the great procrastinator.....

When I should be doing the housework here I am.....

I am just so tired today, Will would just not sleep by himself last night and had to sleep on top of me for most of the night.

I have scraped a few more LO's which I need to upload on to my slideshow above.

It's funny when it rains it pours so to speak. I joined up at clik chic designs
last week and then also find out a few days later another Aussie site has just started. I was very fortunate to be invited to have a sneak peek at pickleberrypop. Congrats to all that founded PBP, I hope your ventures succeed.

So now I have two Aussie shops to shop from. YAY! I feel very odd about buying things over the internet so this is my compromise, I only buy from Aussie sites!

Happy snaps from our weekend away

Here is darling Will at my friend G's place in Cesnock.

Timmy riding down the path at Nanna and Grandad's.

AJ riding the trike at Nanna and Grandad's.

Are we there yet?

Was the constant question all the way to Lake Macquarie Friday night. AJ managed to stay awake the whole trip from Canberra to Toronto, where he fell asleep at the freeway exit. He awoke about 20 mins later when we arrived at my parent's place all full of beans. He went to sleep about half an hour later, but both Timmy and Will stayed awake until 2 so excited to be at Nanna's.

We had a nice time just staying there and playing in the backyard. AJ and Tim have become adventurous and ride the tricycles down the slope from the garage to the house screaming with delight. Tim tried the neighbours concrete driveway and I think left little skiddies in his nappy - Daddy said his face was horrified!

I managed to get a little recreational shopping with my mum - now a 6 monthly stint, instead of once a month!

I managed to meet up with a few friends I have made on the internet through my online mother's group. That was nice. We plan to make a big meet up one day soon with as many as we can.

Will has been sick with a virus, he had a high temp on Sunday and all he wanted was to be cuddled all day. He has a rash on his chest and back which the GP said it was related to the virus and it would go away in a couple of days. It looks just like a measles rash.

We arrived back on Tuesday to a freezing house. We got the gas connected on our central heating (which was installed on Friday) and are now all toasty warm.

Have some photos from the weekend I must post up when I can find my download cable.

Are you my mother?

No but I wish I was! I found this little guy on Saturday afternoon, I heard him sounding very distressed on Friday and was able to coax him down from the tree on Saturday.

He reminds me so much of our dear lost Cookie who flew away last year after being startled off my shoulder. He is sitting on my head right now preening away. I wonder if his owners are looking for him?

Watch this space!

OK I wasn't so happy with the filmloop I had in my profile, so now I have a slide show!! Thank you so much Retta! I am a complete and utter nuffer when it comes to setting up my blog so I had to ask for help from my e-friends at Scrap 'n Chat.

So now it is off to fix up my banner for the top and the a few other things and that will do until I become more adventurous!

Timmy the tornado

Wow, this week has been a week for Timothy to be revoltingly naughty. He has scribbled all over the screen of my lap top with pencil. I cleaned that off. He trampled all through the garden beds after planting seeds and telling him not to. He spilled cordial over both lounges and the floor rug early one morning (we were all still in bed). He pulled off almost all the keys from laptop - I caught him doing this and as he pulled a key off he threw it over his shoulder saying "whoopsidaisy". I have all the keys back on bar the backspace. Grrr. He spilled milk on the rug yesterday morning (once again he was wake and we were still in bed). So now I am getting up with him. 5:30 am when most mornings here are still in the minus. BRRRRRR!

I hear him browsing the fridge - I'd better go and rescue what ever he is holding hostage.

Film loop up in my profile

Well it took me almost all of yesterday to do it, but here it is, all of my scraps to date (except for the ones I haven't quite finished). You have to click on the link in my profile to view. You have to download filmloop to view it. Sorry about the ads but that's what you get with freeware! Just fastforward until you see them!

Forgive me blog, I have not posted in so long....

Wow time has flown. Zoom, zoom, zooma, zoom, zooooom!

Loads has happened, AJ turned five, Will learnt to walk and we moved house.

Have heaps of photos and scraps to post. I am making a slide show of my scraps to put up here as a permanent fixture, just have to get my finger out of the many other things that seem to be tying up my time, like unpacking and caring for three boys!

I have a software dilemma, I have now used both demos of CS2 and PSE4 and I cannot decide which ne to choose, so I am stuck using my very old and outdated version of PS, sucks man.

Time is against me now, AJ wants to play jigsaws and Will is making grumpy noises - the kind that mean I really want to go to sleep and I want a feed too!

Back in another few months (hopefully sooner) HA HA HA!

Long weekend too short!

Phew! Need a holiday after the long week end. We did heaps and had so much fun.

On Friday we went for a walk around part of Lake Burley Griffin - from the Museum to Regatta Point, stopping for a coffee at the bike hire. We then walked through Commonwealth Park up over the pedestrian bridge into the city and walked to where Rydges is and then back over another pedestiran bridge back to the lake. We fed the swans and the moor hens. AJ and Timmy were able to hand feed the parents, the cygnets are still a bit wary. They are almost adult size but "peep" like babies rather than "honk" like adults.

Saturday was a hang around the house day with the kids playing games.

Sunday, we had an egg hunt in the garden and then had a picnic lunch at Cotter Reserve. We had a walk around part of the reserve and then headed home, via a detour to Mount Stromlo for afternoon tea.

Monday after lunch we went to Tidbinbilla Nature Park to meet up with some friends and relaxed with the kids at the playground.

I managed to get a page scrapped on Easter. I used a freebie kit by Lisasdesigns called Hop Hop. Thanks Lisa. Fonts were: Papyrus and Script MT Bold. My demo version of PSCS2 has expired and I had to use my really old version of PS. I am now going to try a demo of PSE4 and then make the decison of which one I will get.

I finally downloaded some photos I took a few weeks back too. Here is a photo of the ceramic wall art the DH got me for our anniversary. I cannot wait to be able to hang this up in our new house. For the non-Aussies that stalk my blog this is the body armour that an infamous bushranger called Ned Kelly wore.

Where has the week gone?

Too fast that's for sure. I guess having to deal with sick family and the cleaning up that goes with it tends to take up a heap of time.

My darling husband and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last Tuesday. Not that we did much, he spent most of the day throwing up. He bought a piece of wall art. A hand made ceramic of Ned Kelly's armour. I had seen it at the Nation Museum gift shop a few weeks back and said that I had liked it, I had no idea that he was going to get it for me. I felt a bit lame buying him the second season of Voyager and some Darrel Lea goodies. We had our special anniversary dinner on Friday night instead.

I have finished a LO. This is of J and AJ when he was a new born. The kit is Versatality by Annette Farrelly, font is impact, I did it all using a demo of PS CS2. The colours look great with the photos.



I have been exploring the demo of PS CS2 and have found it excellent. I have even had a go at designing my own kit. I still have a way to go with the designing side of digi scrapping. I am in awe at those who do design, they all do such a fantastic job. My attempt just pales with comparison to them. I call this "linen". I was inspired by my bed sheets, so maybe credit has to go to Sheridan.

Well, 'tis late, I need my beauty sleep.

A bucket, some towels and a whole lot of washing

errrrgghh!!!

This week could not get any worse....or could it? I still smell like vomit.

Friday night AJ complains of stomach cramps and throws up a lot overnight. He's fine. Fresh as a daisy. He slept in between vomits, but I was awake waiting for another moan, every little twitch I was reaching for the bucket and towel.

Spent yesterday washing a lot of bed linen and towels and airing a down quilt. Thank goodness for febreeze!

Cue in next child........Will was unsettled all night spent most of it in with us, we thought it was just the cold night. Until about an hour ago. Woke up, a little cough, a little moan, a little vomit on a pillow (missing AJ by inches) I grab him and he throws up all over me. J comes to the rescue (he was in AJ's bed as AJ had taken over ours) takes Will. I go have a shower. I went to run a bath for Will to discover that he managed to keep himself vomit free.

Turns out I coped the full force of his, with only a small bit on our pillows.

I've put some towels around Timmy's bed just in case.....he was in our bed for a few hours last night too being rather wiggly.

So much for my Sunday lie in!

Reality check

A big shake up for myself and J. Yesterday so tragically a co-worker of J's lost his life in a car accident on his way to work. What makes it so sad is that this man's death is reported in the news as an after-thought in an article about traffic snarls and congestion. He was someone's husband, father, son.

It made us realise how we need to set up our wills/life insurance for our children.

Warning: contains caffeine

What was I thinking last night when I ate four gourmet biscuits each topped with a choc coated coffee bean? I drink decaff coffee for goodness sake. Guess who didn't get much sleep last night?

Add to that AJ coming in for a cuddle, then putting him back to bed to feed Will, then putting him back to bed. Then finding Timmy wanting a snuggle and putting him back to bed and then bringing Will back as he is unsettled - he spent the rest of the night. AJ returned to and spent the remainder as well.

Between two warm sweet smelling boys I finally found my repose.

Those bickies were very nice tho'