Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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

Friday, April 17, 2009

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.







Add Image




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

Sunday, April 12, 2009

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

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

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