The year is almost over ...

Hello all -

Can't believe it's nearly the end of 2009 already!! I have very vivid memories of discussions with my friends when I was in primary school - wondering what the world would be like in the year 2010 ... back then, it seemed soooooo far away, and now, here it is, only one day away.

I'm actually heading in to work for a few hours tomorrow too, which is really not much fun at all, but we do have party plans for New Year's Eve, which will hopefully be a blast.

It's about this time of year that I normally get a bit reflective about life too ... I'm not silly enough to make New Year's resolutions (because I know I won't stick to most of them LOL), but I do like to take stock of my life, and see if I'm heading on the right track for me. I have to say, that at the moment, I am so happy and content with my life - I can't really think of much that I want to change. I want to be a little better at documenting things - the scrapbooking layouts haven't been that regular of late, and I need to work on that a bit, and I also want to start a 52 week photo journal too, to document 2010 in some way... and I really hope I can stick to that one. I've got my A4 black are journal all ready to go ... time to clear out the memory card on the camera, and start taking some pics!

I hope that 2009 has been a good year for you all ... and that 2010 proves to be even bigger and better!

Stay safe on New Year's Eve - and I'll be back next year!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Can't believe it's Christmas Eve already ...

Well hello again everyone -

It's been over a month already since my last post - where has the time gone?? Oh that's right, I've been really busy, again! Is life ever going to slow down for me??

I had another successful day at the Warrandyte market at the start of December - it's nice to know that people are actually prepared to part with their hard-earned to purchase things that I make. I'm certainly not planning to retire on the profits, but it's still nice to know that I make stuff that people like enough to buy.

Here are a few pics of some of the new cards I made using the new MME Christmas range - just love the colours!!





We also had a very busy end to Ashton's first year at school - I helped at the Prep breakfast and we had Carols on the oval, Ashton competed in the chess tournament at school (and apparently actually won 2 matches!!), Ashton had his orientation for his Grade 1 class next year, and we also had Liam's Childcare Christmas party (which I thought was a Christmas concert, but turned out to just be a party), I had a work dinner, and a work lunch, and a dinner for Nick's work ... and somehow we even managed to fit in starting renovations on the house and getting our roof restoration done, and I also did all the Christmas shopping. Phew - no wonder I've been a bit weary lately ....

Oh, and yesterday, we constructed the gingerbread house that I bought in kit form at the Warrandyte market - here's a pic of our handy work - I reckon it looks great!


We're going to take it over to Mum's for lunch on Christmas Day - almost seems a shame to eat it!! But, it does smell soooo delicious :)

Now, unfortunately, I haven't scrapped a layout in a very, very long time now, so I don't have any new work to show you other than the cards above. Hopefully, now that the Christmas madness is out of the way, I'll get a chance to sit down and scrap some pics soon - and I'll post them up once they're done.

Well, I guess I should go get ready - we're heading to the Carroll's for Christmas drinks tonight and I've just got a text from Nick that's he's knocked off work already - YAY!!

Hope you all have a truly wonderful Christmas, and a very safe and happy New Year !!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Midnight screening of New Moon ....

Firstly, for all those who haven't seen New Moon yet .... probably best that you don't read on ...

I just had to tell everyone how totally fabulous New Moon is!! Kath and I went along to Eastland for the midnight screening last night (well, it didn't start until 12.45am, because there were so many people queueing to get in and grab their drinks and magazines), and I'm so so glad we did it.

It truly was an absolutely fabulous movie - I had purposefully not watched any of the previews for the movie, as I didn't want to spoil it in any way - and it met, and then surpassed, my expectations.

I'm still buzzing. Totally totally awesome. Want to go right back to the cinemas now and see it again, except that I have a 3 year old with me today :(

The acting really did step up a level in this one, both Jacob and Bella's parts were played brilliantly - I really warmed to Bella more in this movie - and Edward of course .... *sigh* .....

Jacob's buff-ness is very tasty indeed .... I had seen some shots of the new buff Jacob, but watching him in action - yum! There was an audible gasp in the cinema when he first rips his shirt off ....

The humour was an unexpected part of the movie, but totally suited it - the whole cinema was laughing out loud many times, which was good - I think it was needed to lighten the mood a little - and it gave me time to work at blinking away the welled up tears :)

The blank pages in the book were dealt with so well ... such an effective way to convey the passage of time ...

And Charlie was super cool again - he's been cast so perfectly for that role.

The CG was awesome - really really loved the bit after the cliff dive, with Edward under water, where Bella's pulled away, and Edward just 'dissolves' ... very cool. The wolves were fabulous - brilliantly done.

And the ending ... the whole cinema went 'nooooooooooo', but it was a perfect way to finish it, very well done.

Oh, I so want to go back now ... must make time to go see it again on the weekend me thinks. A stand alone movie, that has more than met my expectations.

Chris Weitz, and the whole cast and crew for that matter, deserves a big round of applause.

Can't wait to see what they do with Eclipse ... and I can't wait for New Moon to come out on Blue Ray - I want to watch it again and again and again.

At long last ... some work to show!

Hello there again everyone :)

It's been soooo long since my last post (over a month!!), which is just terrible, sorry!

I have been very, very busy of late, but I can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel now, so hopefully I'll get a chance to post a bit more regularly from now on.

I got back late yesterday afternoon from a fabulous weekend away on the Gold Coast for the Ohana retreat with many of my fellow Scrapchat-ers - I had a great time, and actually managed to get a few layouts done!! The first I've done in so long, it felt really good to get back into it again. Wanna see them?? Well, here they are :)






Noticing a bit of a trend with the Kraft cardstock there?? I really like using it - goes with just about everything....

And, the weekend prior to that, I had another stall at the Warrandyte market, and did really well - sold 22 cards, and heaps of little gift cards, so it was a great success. I'll be at the market again on the 5th of December, so I hope to have another successful day then too!

Something else that has been taking my time up lately is the Twilight saga (thanks Kath for getting me into it!). I have very quickly become completely and utterly obsessed with the series ... read all 4 books in a week and a half, which is SO not like me! I don't read much at all any more, but I just couldn't put these down. And, I'm getting very excited now too, because the New Moon movie comes out on Thursday, and Kath and I will be there to see the opening session at 12.05am on Thursday morning! Yes, just after midnight, we'll be watching New Moon, and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

I've also been pottering on another round of wedding invites for MJ and Andy, and now that the retreat is out of the way, I need to focus on these again, as they need to be sent out at the start of December. Really pleased with how they're turning out too.

Well, that's all for me for now - hope you've all been well - and I'll talk to you soon!

Ness.
xoxo

Busy busy busy ...

Hello - sorry it's been a long time since you've heard from me, but there's so much going on in my world at the moment, unfortunately keeping the blog up to date got pushed down the priority list.

Firstly, the knee is healing quite well - I'm getting around without the crutches now, but I'm still limping, and the knee is still very weak, but I'm working on strengthening it and the physio I started a couple of weeks ago seems to be working very well.

And, the main source of my busy-ness of late has been preparation for the Warrandyte Market - yes, I've got my first ever market stall lined up for this Saturday morning. Sharing a site with my mother-in-law. I've been busy sorting all my cards into themes, and working out how best to present them, preparing little display boards to show off a select few and buying black velvet to cover the tables - you get the idea. Lots of time-consuming running around. I've had the trestle table out today for a practice run setting it all up and laying it out - up to now, it's just all been ideas in my head - and it looked pretty good. Just a couple of finishing touches to one of the display boards, make a quick sign, and maybe bang out a few more cards tomorrow night, and then I think I'm ready.

Can't have too late a night though ... need to be down at the market by about 6.30am to start setting everything up, as the market officially opens at 8.00am - ouch!

Anyway, I'm certainly not planning on retiring on my profits from Saturday, but I will walk away very pleased if I sell even one thing :D

Wish me luck!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

I'm still alive!

Hello again :)

Just thought I'd check in with you all and let you know survived the big op! Everything apparently went well, and I ended up being in hospital from the Monday until the Saturday. My knee was the size of a football for a couple of weeks, but thankfully the swelling is starting to go down now, which makes bending my knee and doing my exercises just that bit easier.

It wasn't really as painful as I was prepared for after the surgery.... until I moved it, that is! Lying around it would just ache, but when I had to get up and move around, boy oh boy was it sore!

It's been just over two weeks now since the surgery, and I had my check-up with the surgeon a couple of days ago. He's very pleased with my progress - my leg strength is great, and the bend I'm getting in the knee is much better than he would have expected so soon after surgery.

So, it's so far so good for me. The only thing I might need to consider in the near future is an "MUA", or a Manipulation Under Anaesthetic, which sounds quite gruesome. I may find that I plateau a bit with regards to the amount of bend I'm getting, so they may need to knock me out and force the knee to bend and increase the range, but at this stage it's not looking likely, which is a good thing.

I'm very excited for Ashton today - he's off on his first ever school excusion! They're going to the zoo today, which should be great fun for the preppies. Unfortunately, it's been raining a bit this morning, so I hope it clears up soon and the kids can all enjoy their time at the zoo without getting drenched.

Well, I have a date with my scrap room today I think ... might go re-introduce myself to all my supplies.

Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday, and I'll speak to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Well, the time has come ...

... for the big knee operation. I'm off to Latrobe Private Hospital tomorrow, and should be in hospital for around a week or so.

After having to wait 8 weeks after the harvesting arthroscope, the last couple of weeks have actually gone by very fast indeed, and it's now come up with a bit of a rush! I've got so much to do around the house before I go in to hospital - had a very busy day yesterday making sure every single piece of the boys clothing is washed and hung up in the wardrobes ready for the week, and have vacuumed, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned the mouse cage, changed the kids bed sheets ... you get the idea.

Today I need to clean all the bathrooms, wash the floor, wash the dog (!), sort all the socks and jocks, do a final grocery shop to get the fridge and freezer well stocked for the next few weeks, and pack my bag. I'm sure there's more on my list, but I can't think of it at the moment. But, unfortunately, today I have woken up with a doozy of a migraine, so that has put pay to any housework so far. I've only just managed to get out of bed now, thanks to the magic migraine tablet starting to do its thing (I LOVE Imigran!), but now the usual muscle cramping is beginning in my neck and shoulders, so I think it's going to be at least an hour before I feel up to doing any housework.

Thankfully the boys have been great this morning - I put Ben 10 on for them, and apart from a few toy disputes which were easily resolved, I haven't heard a peep out of them.

Nick should be home late this afternoon to help out a bit - he's doing a St John First Aid Course this weekend, and was very keen to show off his bandaging skills to Ashton last night :)

We did have a lovely dinner last night - we went out for dinner with Kath and Justin, to a great Japanese restaurant at Southbank called Miyako. The food was delish, and as always, the company was fabulous too :)

Well, I guess I should try and get something done ... probably wasn't a bad idea to get a bit of extra rest this morning, as I doubt I'm going to have a very good night's sleep tonight. Feeling just a tad nervous about what lies ahead for me ... having never had anything done like this before, I have NO IDEA how much it's going to hurt ... but I'm sure they'll give me some stunning painkillers, and I won't particularly care for the first few days LOL.

I've got the roster sorted out for the boys - unfortunately, they're being shipped off all over the place next week while I'm in hospital, but it's only for the week, and then we will return to some semblance of normality while I'm home.

So, it's going to be at least a week before I manage to post again ... so wish me luck, and I'll speak to you again soon!

Ness.
xoxo

Busy busy busy ....

Hello all :)

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth ... life in the Bradford household has just been so very busy of late.

We have had friends over for dinner and drinks, we have brewed (and then had to bottle) more beer, we have been doing Wasgij's (backwards jigsaw puzzles), there's been go-karting (although unfortunately I was only able to watch - didn't want to push the knee so close to surgery), more gigs (The Butterfly Effect at the Forum on Saturday night), working, school holidays ... need I go on?

I think we are all subconsciously trying to fit as much stuff in as possible before I have the knee op LOL.

Oh, and add to that the fact that I am working on more wedding invitations for a friend of mine, so I'm a very busy girl right now. But it's great! I'll obtain permission, and will post a pic of the invites as soon as I can.

We also thoroughly enjoyed watching Mark Webber win his first F1 Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago too - a very deserving winner. He has had his challenges over the past few years, but it's great to finally see him in a reliable car, with a great team behind him - here's hoping there's more success ahead for him too!

I do have a couple of exciting things bubbling away in the background too, which I can hopefully share with you all very soon ... I will of course keep you posted.

Well, back to these invitations ... I guess I'll talk to you again soon!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Sketch challenge time again ...

Hello again :)

Happy July! Can you believe that we're half way through the year already?? It's doing my head in - time is moving way too fast ....

Last weekend Nick and I had an absolutely fabulous time! It was finally time for the long-awaited Karnivool gig at The Forum. Justin, Kath, Nick and I all headed into town nice and early to grab a bite to eat, and we had also arranged a couple of rooms at a hotel in town too, so that no-one had to be the designated driver. The gig was just awesome - they played almost all the songs off their new album, and a couple of the faves off Themata as well, and we all had a great time. My knee was unfortunately still letting me know that it's sore, so I wasn't able to go too far forward and get close to the stage, but I was standing directly behind the mixing desk, and had an uninterrupted view front and centre of the stage. After the gig, we headed up the road a bit to a bar, and continued enjoying our evening. I think we left the bar around 2.00am, with a few friends in tow, then headed back to the Carroll's room for another drink or two. It was probably around 3.15am by the time I got to bed, but I had had a wonderful night - it was everything I'd been looking forward to.

Saturday morning saw us sleep in (for once, which was great), and then we had a lovely late brunch in town, wandered around town a bit, and then headed home early in the afternoon. I went over to mum's to pick the kids up, we had a relatively early dinner, and watched a movie. A fairly early night was in store for me - I was sooooo tired from the night before.

Sunday was good too - a bit of time at the park, a visit to Great Grandma, and then the Carroll's came for dinner and we had another Trivial Pursuit challenge.

All in all, a totally fabulous weekend for me :)

Anyway, with the new month comes my new sketch challenges at Scrapchat, and the sketches this month are again from the fabulous Pagemaps site.

Here is the layout sketch ...


And my sample layout ...


And here is the card sketch ...


And my sample card ...


If any of my blog readers ever do one of my sketch challenges, I'd love to hear about it, and see your layout or card too! Please leave me a comment to let me know ...

Well, it's off to help the boys play with their newly acquired pet mice .... I'm still getting used to them, but they are actually very cute little things.

Hope you've all had a great week so far, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Finally ... a layout done ... almost ....

Hello all :)

Just a quick post from me today - I'm about to head off for my review appointment with my orthopaedic surgeon, to get de-briefed about the surgery I had a couple of weeks ago, and find out more about what lies ahead for me in about 6 weeks time.

But, I do have to share a layout that I did last night ... it's been so long since I've done a layout, it was great to get creative again. It all started after having a little clean up in my scrap room - I discovered that there was actually a desk hiding there, so thought I should put it to good use :)

Anyway, here is a gorgeous pic of Liam's girlfriend Hannah, that just had to be scrapped. Thanks to Kath for permission to post the pic!



I'm still trying to decide on a title, but this will do for now.

Anyway, better run - got to pick Nick up on the way through. Thought it best to have another pair of ears there for this appointment ... I have a feeling there's going to be lots of information to absorb.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Happy birthday Scrapchat!

Hello all :)

Yes, it's Scrapchat's 2nd birthday, and to celebrate, we're having a birthday Cybercrop this weekend.

The games have been played, and the challenges have now been loaded up ... come on over and check them out, and join in the fun!

I've done the card sketch challenge this time around - here is the sketch (from Pagemaps of course) ....


And here is my sample card. The twist to the challenge was to make a card in UN-Scrapchat colours - absolutely NO PINK at all :)


It's the first time I've used the German Scrap - it's great stuff!

On all matter related to my knee, things seem to be coming along nicely. I'm up and walking around ok now - almost back to normal - but still having some issues walking down stairs ... going up is fine, it's the bending going down that causing me some grief still. I've got a check-up with the surgeon on Wednesday next week, and I'll hopefully hear how the cartilage is growing, and maybe we can lock in the date for the next surgery (it's tentatively in for the 3rd of August at this stage, depending on the growing speed).

I'll have a list of questions a mile long when I go to meet him ... so many things running through my mind about what's going to happen, and what I can expect after the surgery. I'm not getting lot of sleep at the moment, mulling things over in my mind all night ...

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, and I'll talk to you soon!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

It's out!!!

Hello all! Yes, finally, edition 67 of Scrapbook Creations has hit the shelves of the newsagents ... and I've got my first published layout in it - I'm on page 76. Very exciting indeed! Now I need to look forward to edition 69 as well ... I've got another layout scheduled for that one.

Life has been pretty busy in my world of late - we've had night time Auskick sessions, dinners, brew days, and on Sunday night we went to the COG gig in at the HiFi Bar with Justin. It was an absolutely fabulous gig - they've got such a big sound for a 3-piece! The supports were nothing flash - lots of noise, and trying hard to be rock gods, but they were neither rock, nor gods, so it was a bit sad really.

Then the public holiday Monday was spent cleaning up the house a bit, in anticipation of me going in for day surgery on my knee yesterday at Glenferrie Private Hospital. I've had knee problems for quite some time, and I finally decided to go and get it looked at recently. Basically, I have no cartilage left on the underside of my knee cap. It's bone on bone when I bend my knee. Oh goody! So, round one was yesterday's surgery, where they harvested some of the remaining cartilage cells, which will now be grown in a lab for 8 weeks, and then I have another operation (a biggie!), where they will basically be turning my knee inside out and doublesided sticky-taping the cartilage back on to my knee cap. Icky! And, if that's not enough, they'll also be cutting out some bone where the tendon attaches to it, and moving it across a bit, so that my knee cap is finally in the right spot, and won't wear away again.

So, there's a whole world of pain ahead for me ... I'm not doing too bad today after yesterday's surgery, but I am feeling quite nervous about the second operation. It's going to be hard on everyone ... I'm not going to be able to put any weight on that leg for 4-6 weeks, and then only partial weight-bearing for another month or so, so it means that Nick is going to need to do just about everything around the house, and I'm going to need to call in a few favours from my friends as well. It's going to be fun trying to work out getting the boys to and from school and childcare, and I'll not be able to work for about 6 weeks. Lots of scrapping coming up for me!

Then, there's going to be months of physio, to try and build up the quad muscle that is basically going to waste away because I won't be able to use my leg at all. Fun fun fun.

Oh well, it's got to be done - doing nothing about it will render me virtually cripple in a few years anyway, so I really don't have much choice. Doesn't make the nerves go away though. It's going to mean I'm in hospital for about a week after the surgery too ... it's going to be pain like I've never known before! Sheesh!

Anyway, I'm still working away on my secret behind-the-scenes project, and can't reveal any more about it yet, and haven't had any time for scrapping lately ... but that's all going to change quite soon!

That's all I have to report for now - hope you are all well, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Yet more cards ...

Hello again :)

Just thought I'd quickly show you some cards I made last night - I found some old Bazzill Chip Toppers that I had bought a couple of years ago, and hadn't used, so I thought I may as well turn them into some cards! I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out too :)







And this last one is using some of the new Kaiser rub-ons that are now available - great for cards!




That's all for now - will hopefully get some more done on my layouts soon, so will be able to post pics of those as well in the not-too-distant future.

Hope you are all well, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Finally!!

Hello all :)

I am pleased to announce that I FINALLY did a layout last night! Well, actually, I half-did a layout ... but at least it's a start :D Actually, I half-did two layouts, so that nearly adds up to one full layout in my books - yippee!!

I had the chance to meet a couple of scrapping friends last night for the first time (hello to you, Sandy and Renee, and also to you Belinda :) ), and I had a lovely time. Drove down to Sandy's family beach house in Blairgowrie, and chatted up a storm. Also got a little bit of scrapping done, which was a bonus.

The layouts aren't finished yet, as I didn't take all my stuff with me (I never know what to pack to take, as I never know what I will end up working on ...), but hopefully I'll get a chance to finish them off tonight, and will be able to post a pic soon.

Life in the Bradford household has been particularly busy of late ... we had a lovely family catch-up last weekend - it was a chance for my boys to meet their 2nd cousins for the first time (Nick's cousin's kids ... I think that makes them 2nd cousins?? I have no idea how all that stuff works ...), so we had a lovely drive down to Grovedale, and it turned out to be a beautiful day, so the kids all went for a wander around the farm.

And our Saturday mornings for the majority of the rest of the year have been booked up, thanks to Ashton's Auskick commitments. I have now joined the club of parents that are rapidly losing contact with their spare time on weekends. Spare time?? What's that????

We've had brew days, and dinners, and school open nights and investigation days, and rock'n'roll theme days, and we even went and saw a movie a couple of weeks ago - I can't honestly remember the last movie that I saw in a cinema ... I think it was one of the Lord of the Rings films. I kid you not. It's been that long. So, we had some Gold Class tickets to use, and went and saw the new Star Trek movie - and I really enjoyed it. Nick liked it so much he and Justin went and saw it together only a couple of nights later.

And the next couple of months are going to be equally busy for us - we've got a few gigs to go to (which I am very excited about - COG are first, in early June, then the long awaited Karnivool gig in late June, and then The Butterfly Effect in mid-July), and there's a trivia night at school which I'm getting a table together for - I love trivia nights, they are always so much fun!

And, the birthday season is about to start for us too - Liam's birthday is in July, and all of Ashton's friends start having their 6th birthdays from June through until about October, and then, before you know it, it's going to be Christmas again - aaaaagggghhhhhhh!!

Ok, I think I need to get a bit of perspective here... it is still only May. Just. It's going to be June before we know it though - my how quickly time is flying at the moment.

I've also been very busy behind the scenes working on a little project of mine, which I can't say too much about just yet, but will be sure to tell you all about it when it's up and running. This has also been taking up the rest of my spare time that is left, so I have been a very busy little bee.

Anyway, now, I think it's time to try and finish off those layouts ... I hope you are all well, enjoy your weekend, and I will talk to you again soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Still no layouts for me ...

... but I have been making yet more cards. Just can't seem to get any ideas flowing at all for the layouts unfortunately. Hopefully some inspiration will strike soon! I need to do a photo swap layout, and 4 CJ entries - eek!

Anyway, here are some of the cards I've made this week. I personally particularly love the brown and teal combination :)








This last card was a make-to-order for Nick's mum, who had a party to go to on the weekend. It was a combined 40th wedding anniversary and 60th birthday celebration, with a ruby red theme, so this is what I came up with for her.


Anyway, I've got a friend coming over today who wants to have a look through my scrapping albums, and get some hints and tips as she's just starting scrapbooking herself, so I'd better actually clean up my room a bit, so I can find things to show her!

Hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk so you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

It's been so long ...

... since I've done a layout, I've almost forgotten what to do!

I have been making so many cards of late, that when I sat down tonight to do a CJ entry for the Scrapchat CJ swap, I just sat and stared at the cardstock for a while, with absolutely no inspiration flowing at all! I had heaps of ideas for more cards, but layouts - nope, nothing!

Oh well, after much deliberation, I got there in the end, and will be sending off my entry for Possum's CJ tomorrow. The only problem is that Possum's entry was meant to have been done in March, so now I have to do the two I was supposed to do in April! I hope more inspiration strikes soon ...

The Bradford household has been fairly busy this week - Ashton had Auskick again on Saturday morning, and then Nick had another brew day on Saturday afternoon, which of course led into dinner on Saturday night with the Carrolls :) On Sunday morning, I braved the extremely cold weather and headed out to a local craft market, and then we went over to the in-laws for dinner on Sunday night. And then, it was back to work again on Monday.

I did find some time last week to make a few more cards ... here are some of my latest offerings.







And now, I need to work on a layout for a photo swap that I'm doing through Scrapchat - it's been soooooo long since I've done a full size layout, I hope I can do the photos justice.

I hope you've all had a great week so far, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Cards, cards and more cards!

Hello again :)

I have been a busy little bee this week, making heaps of cards for my little stash, as I will be having a market stall with my mother-in-law later in the year. She makes felt scarves and hats and silk scarves and things, and we'll be sharing a few stalls at the Warrandyte Craft Market. I'll also be doing some more of my monograms, and some canvases as well I think, and some of my decorated greeting card gift boxes.

Anyway, here are a few of the cards I've made this week ... I've made multiples for most of these designs as well.












So, as you can see, I've been busy!

On top of making heaps of cards, we had a busy week with the school holidays as well. We went camping over the Easter weekend, and then on Monday we went to the Melbourne Museum, Tuesday was a trip to the park, Wednesday was Scienceworks, Thursday was a visit to Great Grandma Amy, and then I was back at work today, so Liam went to childcare, and Nick took Ashton rollerskating! From all reports, they had an absolutely fabulous time - Ashton can't wait to go again, and take me along. It's been over 20 years since I last went rollerskating - I hope there's a little bit of muscle memory there somewhere ....

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now - my friend Tanja is coming up on Saturday for a bit of a scrap session and will be staying the night, and the lovely Kath will be joining us as well! (I'm sending Nick and the boys over to keep Justin and the kids company, while Kath comes here to play :) ). Will be a lovely night, and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with them both. Might even get something made too! LOL

Anyway, I'm off to chat on Facebook now ... won't be up too late tonight - it's Ashton's first morning at Auskick in the morning, which he's really looking forward too.

Until next time, take care, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xoxo

Notice anything different?

Yes, it's pretty obvious ... I've decided on a change of template for the blog again. Was getting bored with the old colours, so I've gone with one that is nice and clean for a bit of a change.

I'm sorry that I haven't really blogged much lately, but I haven't really had an awful lot to tell you all.

We had an interesting weekend last weekend - we decided on Sunday to take a drive out to Marysville, to see for ourselves the effects of the bushfires. I knew it wasn't going to be particularly pleasant, but it was something that I felt I needed to do. It was very sad to see that the Black Spur has been burnt, but thankfully there are parts of it that are untouched by the fires. The drive into Marysville itself was a different story - Narbethong, at the turn-off, has basically been reduced to rubble, and there's not much standing all the way in to Marysville. There are a few very very lucky houses, and some not-so-lucky right next door, and then once you round the last bend coming into town, all that is left is a few chimneys and twisted corrugated iron. There is one house down to the left that appears to be untouched, but everything else that you can see from the main road is gone. Thankfully, the beautiful bakery in the main street is still standing (although only just - all the gardens are burnt, and the building right next door is gone ...) and was doing a ripper trade with the lunch crowd.

We sat down and had some lunch ourselves, and then wandered down the main street, remembering what it used to be like. For the last 10 years, we have spent the Christmas/New Years period in the Marysville area, and it feels like a second home to us. It was a very sobering afternoon, but I am glad we went to see it.

After much consideration, I did take some photos of the main street, which I will probably turn into a layout at some stage in the near future.

Anyway, on a lighter note, we got back today from a couple of days away camping - our friends Greg and Brooke invited us to go away with them for the long weekend, and Greg's brother and his girlfriend joined us as well. Headed down to the lovely Golden Beach, on the 90 Mile Beach south of Sale, which is a bit of a favourite spot of ours. It's such a lovely beach, and the campsites are terrific - right behind the sand dunes, tucked under the teatree. The kids and the dogs had a fabulous time frolicking on the beach (as did the adults, mind you!) --- it's hard NOT to have a great time at a beautiful place like that.

Greg's brother proposed to his girlfriend last week (and she said yes!), so they will be busy planning their wedding from here on in. I think I will be doing their wedding invitations too ... can't help myself! :)

I haven't really done much scrapping in the last couple of weeks - the mojo seems to have taken a bit of a holiday, but I have at least been making quite a few cards, which has been nice. I will take a couple of pics in the daylight, and will upload them soon.

I have been having some trouble with an online scrapping store of late, not sending out my orders (there are two), and not responding to my attempts to communicate with them, so I have been forced to take the matter to the next level, which was something I was hoping I wouldn't have to do. Unfortunately, I am not alone in my complaints. Hopefully we will all have a satisfactory resolution to the problems shortly ... I just want the stuff that I have paid for; I don't think that is being unreasonable at all. I think this could be contributing to my lack of mojo too ...

Anyway, I'm loving the fact that I don't have to go back to work until next Friday - it's fabulous! Nick's got the whole week off too, with time in lieu that he has accrued, and he's got the following Monday off as well, and then the following Friday! How good is that?

I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter so far ... and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xoxo

It's been a long time ...

... since I've made any cards at all - I was very out of practice!

Here are a couple of cards that I made last night, using two of the retiring stamp sets that I purchased from Stampin' Up!





And now that the housework is all done, all I need to do is plan something to cook for dinner (and then go shopping for it), and then I think I'll take my littlest man to the park for a bit - it's a gorgeous Melbourne day today - I think it's predicted to get to 30 degrees. Hopefully Liam will get tired at the park, and have a nice little afternoon nap, and I can get some more cards made.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

The new Stampin' Up! Catalogue is out!

Hi there ...

Just thought I'd let you know that today is the 1st of April :)

So, firstly, happy April Fool's Day to everyone (and I hope none of you were subjected to any tom-foolery this morning), and secondly, that means that the new Stampin' Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalogue has been released!

If you would like to take a look at all the lovely new products available, here is a link to the online catalogue.

The products retiring from the old catalogue are now no longer available ... but there are some lovely stamp sets in the new catalogue that have taken their place, and I really like the layout of the new catalogue too.

If you are interested in purchasing a new catalogue, or indeed if you are interested in purchasing any of the products from the new catalogue, please send me an email (vbradford@optusnet.com.au) - I'd be happy to hep you out.

Now ... in other news, I actually made some cards last night! It's been sooooooo long since I've made any cards (aside from one wedding card that I came home and made in between Greg and Brooke's ceremony and reception!) - I'll take a couple of pics and upload them later.

I hope everyone has had a lovely week so far ... and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Such a good night last night ....

Hello all :)

Last night I had the opportunity to do a class at Scrapchat, run by the very lovely and supremely talented Leanne Stamatellos (aka the main subject of my scrap-stalking LOL), with the kits available through Tanyah at Scrapncraft with T.

Leanne had designed a beautiful layout for us all to emulate ... and here is my take on it.

I had originally decided to use a different photo to this one, but couldn't think of an appropriate title for it, and I then decided that I wanted to scrap in 8.5 x 11 for the Book of Me album I'm working on, so chose this photo mid-class instead.... apologies for the quality of the photo, but it was taken at around midnight last night. :)




Journalling reads: "Turning 37 this year bothered me a bit. It's getting very close to 40. But then I remembered .... I have a wonderful husband, 2 beautiful children, and many wonderful friends. I am happy being me."

I am very happy with how the layout turned out (thanks Leanne!!), and am also very pleased that I decided to go with the 8.5 x 11 format.

I would have taken a better photo of it today, but we have had a house full of people for most of the day today, and I just never got a chance. Nick had decided to invite 'the guys from work' over for a bbq, and so, with partners, and associated kids, and a mother-in-law (yes, a mother-in-law came as well), we had a grand total of 22 people here for lunch! Phew!

Arrival time was midday today, and here I am .... finally getting some time to myself .... as the last guests left at 8.35pm tonight. Such a long day! But, it was good to meet everyone that Nick works with, and their partners, and I think the day was a success. I'm sure Nick will get the debrief tomorrow at work, but it looked to me like everyone was having a good time.

So now, it's time for me to catch up on all the emails and forum posts, and then I think I might get an early night tonight.

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Another layout done ....

Hello again!

Here is a layout I did this week for Scrapping Around, using the Kaiser 'Lovestruck' papers.

I just adore this pic of Liam, with his girlfriend (and my future daughter-in-law) Hannah. I have flocked the title (and half of my scrap room to boot ...) and think it's all turned out ok.


In other scrap-related news, I received an email back from Scrapbook Creations this morning - I decided to submit a layout for publication about a month ago, and this morning they advised that they wanted to publish it!!

So, I now have my first ever published layout appearing in edition 67 (which is the June edition I think), and now another layout will be appearing in edition 69. Fingers crossed it doesn't get bumped!

Nothing much else to report in my world at the moment ... so I'll sign off for now.

Hope you're all having a lovely Wednesday!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo.