What a day!

Wow what a mad day!

We headed off about 9.30 to go to Milton as we had been told about all the great gift shops down there and we planned to do some serious shopping! (Apparently the shops are very much like the Berry ones!)

ANYWAY I don't know where they hid the shops but we only found a couple (and this is a small country town so I don't know where they put them!). We stopped for a cuppa and had a beautiful cappucino at a cafe on the main (hehe - just about only) street then went shopping! Now the theory to shopping away from home is that the time spent in shops should at least be equal to the time spent driving there!! We fell short today!

We went into Ulladulla for our lovely lunch on the harbour and the lunch was lovely but I'm not sure about the harbour as it was raining so hard we had to sit inside and we could barely see the boats at the dock! I'm sure it was a beautiful view just wish I could have seen it!

Then we did a quick look through the shops and came home EMPTY HANDED
Yeah I know - very scary don't think I have done that before!

We were going through the shopping high withdrawals so to help the cravings we made a detour on the way home to Sanctuary Point to the scrapbooking shop and (YAY) finally spent some money! Got home about 4pm and raced into work for a lesson on the new software program at work - which is so simple and even though I had never used it before I ended up figuring it out and teaching the girl who was supposed to be showing me how to do it!

Tonight the kids and I did some more cooking (made coconut rum balls and brownies!) and yeah Tasha ended with chocolate smeared on her! She did say it was better than the flour fight we had cooking in the weekend so that was okay! Have a Stampin Up party on Friday so have been cooking nibblies for that.

I am going on an excursion with Kyle next week to Taronga Zoo (3 hours by bus up then all day at the zoo and 3 hours back with 60 11 and 12 year olds. Not sure how sane a decision that one was!

Looking Forward!

Well today was a bit of a shocker at work. Came home feeling very frazzled and flat but then I sat down and thought about all the things I have to look forward to and the smile just leapt onto my face!

Firstly I have a day out with the lovely Miss Jane on Wednesday. We are having a girls day out in Milton for shopping and then heading into Ulladulla for lunch on the harbour. It will be great to catch up!

Tony and I have a weekend away planned in Sept JUST THE TWO OF US!!!!!! Will be great! Although Tony is organising it so that could be a bit of a worry - we could end up anywhere!

Then (drumroll please) I'm back in Melbourne for 4 days to go to Paperific and spend time with the Allan's! I always have so much fun in their house and SJ and I just seem to "get" each other. Isn't it cool when you find a friend like that!

And in the middle of all this I'm waiting to hear from my brother about his job. Looks like we wont have to go to Brisbane this year they will probably be moving again! SOOOOOOOO exciting

So whenever things start to get on top of me I just think forward!!!

Another Congrats

Went out and bought my Handmade magazine this morning to have a look-see at Gail's tins (Although I had had a preview!)

Congrats Gail on your first publication!!!

CONGRATS

Just have to say congrats to one of the most amazing scrappers I know.

Well done SJ for being published! (Pg 32 of the latest SM mag)

You know I love all your work (your minibooks and tag books etc are just amazing) and it's great to see your work out there for others to see as well.

I am sure this will be the first of many

Pics from Scrapping with Soul Weekend

Gennie gettting her gift from the scrap of faith girls
ALl the scrapoffaith girls at the SWS weekend

Rowena, Gennie and Tracey

My "Date"

Had a special day out yesterday.

Simone and I went and saw a movie called Amazing Grace which was a really interesting movie. It was about the abolition of the slave trade and about the guy who wrote the song Amazing Grace. Very confronting but very thought provoking as well. (and it did bring a tear to my eye)

Then we went to lunch at Postmans Tavern for a beautiful meal (and we splurged and had dessert too - yum yum).

All in all a great day.

SWS Weekend

Well what a weekend. I had a great time at the Scrapping with Soul weekend.

I was really concerned going into it but it was just amazing.

Gail and I met two of her friends from scrapoffaith.com at Maccas at Bomaderry. Tracey and Jeanette were just the nicest people. I immediately felt at ease with them and we chatted there for a while. Then we headed off to Waterslea.

We met up with Cass there. She is an absolutely beautiful soul. I just felt like we had known her for ages. We also met Gayle from Scrapbooking Memories who is just great. I sat at one end of the table with Gayle so we got to chat a bit over the weekend.

Also got to catch up with Lin from the scrapping camp we went to in Canberra.

It was a great weekend. Got a special project finished that I wanted done and 4 pages. AND I came second in the card making competition. That one blew me away. I really didn't expect to get a prize so it surprised me but I was soooo excited.

The Scrapping with Soul team are always so friendly and helpful and welcoming and organised things beautifully.

Anyway am very tired now so I think I'll sort these kids out and have an early night.

Will post some pics later.

Thankyou

I would just to say thankyou to you all for leaving messages on my blog . It meant a lot to me to see that people not only read my blog but that you cared enough to leave a message so thank you very much.

Miss you Dad

Well today is four years since Dad lost his fight with cancer and I still miss him heaps.

I will see something or be doing something and think "Oh Dad you would love this". He was such a proud Pop to Kyle and Tasha and would be bursting with pride with Kyle's school accomplishments. I feel so sad that my kids wont know the special man he was. They never got to meet Tony's Dad and then they lost Tony's Mum and my Dad in a very short period of time. I know he spoilt the kids rotten but he also loved them dearly and would brag about them all the time.

I just hope Dad knew how much I loved him and just how special he was. He put up such a good fight lasting 2 1/2 years after his diagnosis (when the doctors gave him 6 weeks) but when he died he was a shadow of the man he had been.

Love you Dad and miss you more than I can say. I wish I could speak to you just one more time to let you know how much I love you and miss you.

XXXXX Love your little girl

Oooops we did it again.... ~LOL~

Well after doing the whole running into Kay and Brian thing a few weeks ago. Tony and I were strolling through the supermarket doing our grocery shopping and who is right in front of us but Margie Knight! So we stood there for ages in the middle of the aisle having a chat. She was down seeing her dad who is in hospital again.

It was so funny because we had only mentioned contacting her and Greg a week or so before and there she is!

HHHMMMMM lets see who can I run into next !?!

Our holiday - warning long post!!!!!

Well after getting a little nudge I thought I'd better update my blog with the holiday details!

We drove down via the coast road stopping at Bega and Lakes Entrance. Lakes Entrance wasn't too bad - not too much water but still lots of sandbags everywhere! Apparently the place we were staying had the back rooms flooded earlier in the week but the water had all receeded.
This is taken on the footbridge at Lakes Entrance.
Driving through Barinsdale and Sale there was still lots of puddles in all the paddocks but all the roads were clear.

We then stayed at the Hambrecht's in Keilor (out near Tullamarine airport in Melbourne) and got to catch up with Debby and Dayna and Dayna's boyfriend Garry. Dayna is now Tasha's new best friend because she is a great musician and is currently practising High School Musical for her school performance. So she played the piano and sang all the songs with Tasha!!! Friend for life!!!!!! It was great to have some time with Debby too (Ken was away again - we seem to time our visits for when he's away - Is that a subtle hint? lol )

Tasha, Dayna and Kyle

Melbounre was great. We went to the Zoo, Kyle saw Cook's Cottage and caught a tram! Tasha was tour guide for us at Old Melbourne Gaol but the definite highlight of the trip was catching up with the wonderful SJ and family. I was heartbroken when we had to leave after such a short time but whilst I was there we made our plans to meet up again in October and received a wonderful invite for our family and the Allan's to do christmas together so will have to see what happens there. The kids all got on really well together so that was great.

The Mob!!!!

Then we went onto Ballarat. Talk about cold! Very, very cold. We went to Sovereign Hill which was one of the most expensive places and somewhere I don't think I would go to again. The kids had a ball with all the snow and the winter theme but they weren't really interested in the old town and there wasn't a great deal to see. It cost us $90 to get the family in and then you have to pay extra for each of the activities when you get in - very little is included in the entrance price. Pay extra to try the candle dipping, extra to try the old presses, extra to ride the Cobb and Co coach etc etc etc. But having said that the kids had a ball. Tasha loved the hourly snow fall in main street, they got ride down a snow hill on a ski tube and (of course) had a snowball fight or two.

The kids with Mr Joe King at Sovereign Hill.

Feeling a bit flat now we are home. Can't wait to go back to Melbourne to see SJ. Had a bit of a bad weekend emotion wise.

Just thought I'd make a quick post to say we made it to Melbourne - Tony made me drive through Melbourne up to Ken and Debby's place at Keiler (near Tullamarine Airport). Melbourne drivers have to be the maddest bunch of people ever! Mind you his navigating skills have a lot to be desired too!

Anyway we are having fun - went to the Zoo today - having a day in the city tomorrow to do the markets etc and then out to point cook for lunch with the Allan's on Wednesday before heading out to Ballarat.

Catch up with when we get home

MWAH

Cath

Here's my stash!

Here is a pic of Kay and I - I had to take a pic just to prove it was actually her!!!!! (note the braids - they were just on their way home from Bali when she got the call to come to the craft show)

Just thought I'd share pics of my stash from the craft show! Got almost everything on my list so it was a fairly successful shop!

What a weekend!

Well this weekend has been just amazing!

Jane and I got up nice and early Sat morning to go to the Crafy show at Darling Harbour. We wandered around picking stuff up, putting some back down, buying some etc etc. There was a lot of wool/knitting stalls and quilt and patchwork but there was only about 3 stamp stalls and about the same papercraft/scrapping stalls but Art Stamps were there so I still bought quite a bit!

The big surprise was when wondering around I looked up at one of the stall owners and thought "Gee that person reminds me of Kay". I thought about it a minute and was just about to say something when she looked up and saw me and shouted " Is that really you???" It was a good friend of ours Kay Cooper from Perth!!! She had been called in to do the show at the last minute. So we had a good chat and catch-up and then her daughter Tegan and husband Brian arrived. We haven't seen them for about 6 years so it was great to catch up. I sent Tony a message - he would have been so disappointed not to be there! Tony has been wanting to catch up with them for years.

Anyway with all the chatting and shopping we run out of time to look at the quilts.

We raced over to our hotel, had a quick shower and change and headed of to the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. A musical with Marina Prior, Lisa McCune and Magda Szubanski that was just hilarious. It was excellent. It was only a small cast of about 10 and they had a couple of roles but one of the best shows I have ever seen. Poor Magda - about 2/3 of the way through she missed her cue to come back on stage and then they stopped the show because apparently she was very ill and there was someone standing in the wings with a sign saying "Magda is unwell!" But in true professional fashion after about 15 minute she came back on and finished the show - what a trouper.

We did Paddy's Markets today and I got the hats I wanted for the kids so all-in-all a very successful weekend. Seeing Brian and Kay was a wonderful unexpected surprise to cap it off.

Here are my LO's for the cyber crop on the weekend

Life is busy!

It's been a while since I updated my blog so I thought I'd better do it now before I forget!

This weekend is a busy one - Froggy Todd have a cyber crop this weekend so will have some new stuff to post in a day or two. They have extended the deadline until Monday night which is do much better than trying to cram it all in on the weekend.

The next few weeks are pretty mad too. Worked 3 days this week! Not bad for someone who quit work to take it slowly!!!!! Next weekend is our girls weekend in Sydney. Can't wait. A day at the craft show, dinner out and then we are going to see the 23rd Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (I think thats the name of it) at the Sydney Theatre Company at Woollloomooloo. Should be heaps of fun. Then Paddy's Markets Sunday and home again!

A week after that we are off to Melbourne for a weeks hols. Tony had a week off and there are some friends we wanted to catch up with do we thought we'd take the kids down and do the Zoo etc.

Home for a week and then I'm off to Cedarvale for my 3 night package I got for christmas from work. Not sure how I'll cope being away for 4 days and not being able to even ring home but am looking forward to relaxing and being pampered!

Then home for a nother week and am off to the Scrapping With Soul weekend. Feeling really quite anxious about this. Hopefully it will be a good time.

Anyway I'm off to get some scrapping done for the CC. Will posts pics in a couple of days

Farewell Natalie

Tomorrow is Natalie's last day at Dr Ryan's. Her DH has a transfer up north to Mackay (lucky her!) We had a night out last Saturday with lots of fun and frivolity. Started off at North Nowra Tavern - food was lovely, they have done the bistro up and it looks cool! Then we went to Bomaderry Bowling Club for the variety club rock and roll night which was a bit of a fizzer so we caught the courtesy bus into town and went to the ex-servos. Another shock there! The place was half empty! But we had fun - gave the DJ a list of songs we wanted played and Natalie and I went home with hoarse voices from singing along!

Anyway tomorrow is her last day so I have spent this last week madly scrapping the pics from our night out last weekend. It is all I have done for the last few days but I finally finished. Here is a couple of the pages. I actually completed an 8 x 8 album. What a big job but I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to give it to her tomorrow.

Hope she likes it!

Natalie's Book

Some more layouts for Natalie's book

Some More QUOTES

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it. ~Jack Handey

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May you find serenity and tranquility in a world you may not always understand. May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism. Always know that there are those whose love and understanding will always be there, even when you feel most alone. May you discover enough goodness in others to believe in a world of peace. May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile be yours every day of your life, and may you give these gifts as well as receive them. Remember the sunshine when the storm seems unending.-- Unknown.

Some more layouts

This page is about my dream for kyle as he grows up. The journalling inside is about how he can be whatever he wants to be

Wasn't he a cutie! The tag says "Let your heart guide you....it whispers so listen carefully" It is a quote from Land Before time