Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Some cards to show ...

Hello again!   Long time no blog ... I'm afraid that life has switched into overdrive again, what with work and school winding up for the year, and Christmas fast approaching, time is just flying by ..

Anyway, as far as Christmas goes, I'm fairly organised this year - I have basically finished my Christmas shopping already.  Woot woot!!   There might be the odd little gift I need to buy, but I can't think of them yet,so I'm happy calling it complete.

I've even made and sent out my Christmas cards already, which is way too organised for me!

Anyway, I have finally found some time this week to get back to creating a few little things ... today I have had to make this sympathy card for my boss and his wife, as her father passed away this week -




And here is a card I had a play with last night, using the lovely After Five range from Kaisercraft....


And here is a cute little birthday card I made, that I coloured with Copic Ciao markers (thanks for the loan, Vicki!).     I would love to get some of these markers, but there are sooooo many colours to choose from (344 at last count I think), and you need to get the right colour combinations and numbers, to make sure that the shading works properly.  Anyway, Christmas is coming up (and I've been VERY good this year!), and I sold a few Stampin' Up! sets on Ebay recently, so I might just treat myself.


And finally, here are some pics of some extra Christmas cards and general cards that I've made, just to have on hand, using scraps of letters I had lying around.  


 



So, with Nick out in the garage playing with all his new car audio bits and pieces (and there's a LOT of them!), I think it's time to get creating again.

Hope you are all surviving this weather we've been having - I'm starting to feel a little waterlogged!

Thanks for visiting, and I'll talk to you soon.
Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Finally, another layout to show you ...

Hello again!

Just thought I'd quickly post a pic of the layout that I did last night - it's pretty similar to one I've done before in style, and there's certainly nothing complicated about it, but I just HAD to do something with this fabulous photo of my boys from the photoshoot with Leanne Stamatellos.   And also I just love using Kraft cardstock ... I think it makes the colours in the photo really pop out at you.

Anyway, here 'tis!


I'm hoping the inspiration continues tonight - Nick's away at the moment, so I've got the boys in bed on time tonight, and I'm heading down to my scrap space - might work through some ideas for Christmas cards - it's not very far away at all!

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Introducing Lily ...

Hello again -

Just thought I'd make a really quick post, to introduce you to the newest member of our family, the lovely miss Lily ...


Isn't she gorgeous??   We got word through Nick's mum that a friend of hers was looking to house a couple of black labrador puppies, so we decided we just had to have one.   It will be great for the kids to be involved with raising a puppy, and will also give Zali a bit of a spark back too ... and anyway, all excuses aside, who could resist such a beautiful face??

She's been terrific so far - very playful when she first wakes up, but pretty chilled out for the rest of the day - and she's very, very snuggly!   She loves cuddles, and loves to climb on to my lap as soon as I sit on the floor to play with her.

So now I have even MORE photos of things that I want to scrap - guess I better finish organising my stuff then, so I can get cracking on the scrapbooking front.

That's all for now ... just had to share a pic of our new baby girl ... so I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Here's my layout pic ...

... I'm going to try again and upload the pic of the first layout I did using one of Leanne Stamatellos' beautiful photos .... here goes!



Having a little bit of scrapping inspiration of late too, so hopefully I should have some more pics to show you soon.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend so far - Nick's gone to the Phillip Island MotoGP, so I'm with the kidlets today.  I think we'll take a trip to the aquarium in Boronia and get a few more fish ... our tank is pretty healthy I think, as we have baby fish and baby snails at the moment, and 2 more fish are about to pop as well (livebearers).

Other than that, I'm a bit stuck for ideas today, but I'm sure we'll think of something fun to do :)

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Thursday, October 14, 2010

It's been so long ....

... since I last updated my blog, but so much has been happening in my world of late, and not all of it good I'm afraid.

First of all, I had to bid a very sad farewell to my gorgeous pussycat Winston a couple of weeks ago.  The little spunk had been part of my life for just on 16 years, and it was so sad to have to say goodbye to him.   And to make matters worse, the last couple of weeks of his life weren't the best, as he decided to run under the car while I was driving up the driveway, and I ran over his leg!   So, off to the vet we went, and we did a series of blood tests, to determine that, even though he was 16 years old, he really was still in top condition, so we decided to operate to pin his leg, and $850 later, we had Winston home with us again.

Things were going along really well for about a week and a half, and then on the Thursday of the second week, he just wasn't himself.  I went in to feed him in the morning, and he just looked so grumpy.   That was the day that the stitches had to come out, and I was a bit concerned about him, so I got the vet to check him over.  He didn't have a temperature, but did seem to have some fluid on his shoulder at the surgery site, so they drained some fluid and said to take him back if he hadn't improved in a day or two.

Well, that night we went to dinner for Dad's birthday, and I came home to find Winston in quite considerable distress in the bathroom - front legs locked outstretched while the rest of his body was floppy, and his head was lolling around with his eyes tracking from side to side ... he was breathing very rapidly and was 'moaning' a bit as well, and as soon as I saw him, I knew that the end was near.  

Thankfully, I still had one syringe of painkiller left for him which I gave to him straight away, and we went and had a long cuddle on the couch.  I could feel him slipping away in my arms, and it was so distressing.   After about 10 minutes he let out this really big sigh and finally his legs relaxed a bit and his breathing became more regular, and he gave me one last nudge under my chin and snuggled into my arms.   We sat there for what seemed an eternity, but I decided that I just couldn't be holding him when he actually passed away, so I put him up into his bed and made him as comfortable as possible, and said my goodbyes.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), when I went to check on him in the morning, he had died during the night.  He hadn't actually moved from the position that I put him in on his bed.   At least I didn't have to take him to the vets and make that terrible decision that I had dreaded making only a week and a bit earlier.

I hope that I made his last moments with me as comfortable as possible ...he really was one of the most beautiful cats I've ever known. 

Writing this is proving to be quite therapeutic, as I currently have tears streaming down my face again ...   Winston came into my life in 1994 after a very difficult time in my life, and had been with me ever since.   I will miss him terribly.

The boys took the news really well - Ashton's first response was that we should go and buy a beautiful tree for the garden - The Winston Tree - so we can remember him forever.   We have done this, and planted a nice little garden for him to boot, and we go out and visit him daily. 

Here's the most recent pic I have of Winston - taken back in summer this year - with him totally flaked out sleeping under the back table .... so chilled out ...


And, on top of all the Winston drama, I've had another operation on my knee, so I'm back to hobbling around again with a knee the size of a football.   Thankfully the recovery is tracking along nicely though, and I should be back to normal again in another week or two.

We've also had school holidays to deal with again, and so many birthday parties for the boys to go to as well - including Ashton's 7th birthday.  We had a lovely party for him at the local minigolf centre, and I even organised a terrific cake for him ... how fabulous does R2D2 look??  (With a big thankyou to Max from Megamax cakes for making such an awesome cake!)


 I have also done a layout using one of the pics from Leanne's photoshoot, but Blogger has now decided to be rather annoying, and isn't letting me upload it, so I'll have to have another go at it over the weekend.

Well, I know I have a very busy day at work tomorrow (including organising for our hot water serve to be fixed as it blew up today), so I guess I should get to bed.

I will write again soon, I promise ...

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The CD has arrived ...

Hello all!

Very excited tonight, as I checked my letterbox today, and the CD from Leanne Stamatellos Photography had arrived (packaged beautifully, I might add  - of course!).

Here are a few more pics from the shoot ... there are so many great shots, it's hard to choose a favourite!












So there you go - some really great shots there - lots to keep myself busy at my scrapbooking table for the next little while, that's for sure!

Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The sneak peek ....

Hello again -

Just thought I'd let you know that the sneak peek of our photo session with the lovely Leanne Stamatellos is now up on her blog ... you can check out the pics here.

I'm so thrilled with what Leanne has done - it's lovely to have such beautiful shots of the boys, and I really like the one of Nick and I as well.   The family is going to get lots of lovely pics as Christmas presents now!

I can't wait to see the rest of the pics from the session ... will post up some once I've received the CD.

Thanks again Leanne - it was lovely to finally meet you, and seeing these photos tonight has just made my weekend.

That's all from me for now - hope you've all had a lovely weekend, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Saturday, August 14, 2010

A double woohoo for a double layout!!

Hello again -

I had a little bit more inspiration last night and completed another layout - this time, it's a double, and I've managed to put 7 photos on it.

Really, really pleased with how this one's turned out - I just love the colours.


I have soooo many photos from Fiji, it's good to knock a few over on the one page. :)

Off to peruse the photos some more and see what else I can come up with!

I'm still waiting on my sneak peek from Leanne Stamatellos from our photo shoot last week too, but as soon as I hear about it (hopefully this weekend), I'll let you know.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

xoxo

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Woohoo! Finally, a Fiji photo layout ...

I know, I know ... it's only taken me just over 2 months, but I have finally scrapped one of the MANY photos that we took in Fiji.

I really like this pic of Ashton and I (shame Nick didn't wait until the lady in the background had walked out of shot, but oh well). We both look so relaxed and tanned and happy - and we were!  This was taken at the Bilo bar ... a fabulous little place that became our regular haunt before dinner - we could have a couple of drinks at happy hour, and the kids were entertained by David on the lawn, with colouring, singing, board games you name it!   Free babysitting during happy hour - perfect!


I'm looking through some more Fiji pics now, so I'll hopefully have some more to show soon.

That's all for now - hope you've had a great week so far, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Uh oh .....

... somehow, in attempting to check out the new Template Designer for Blogger, I inadvertantly changed all the settings in my blog, and I can't get it back to looking how it did!  I've been browsing through all the new options, however I'm not finding any of them to be particularly inspiring, so I've chosen this one for now, until I have the time to sit down and go through them more carefully.

Well, what a busy little bee I've been - I finally finished off the wedding invitations this week, and delivered them to the client this morning.   She was very happy with them, so now it's just a matter of waiting for the RSVP date, finishing off the placecards, and then that's another job done.  I'll try and take a pic of them this week and post it up on here to show you.

I also had the opportunity (finally) to meet the lovely Leanne Stamatellos yesterday, as I had arranged for her to do a family photo shoot with us.   We arranged this back in February this year, and we nearly stumbled at the last hurdle - Nick came home during the week and announced that he now had to work this weekend!   Thankfully, it was only on the Sunday, and thankfully Leanne was happy to change her schedule around whilst in Melbourne, and we were able to fit our shoot in on Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday afternoon as planned.

It was so nice to finally meet Leanne - I have 'known' her for quite a while, but have not met her in person until now.   She was fabulous with the boys - instantly forming a rapport with them - and made both Nick and I feel very comfortable in front of the lens ... hopefully this will translate to some lovely photos.   I can't believe that to date, we only have ONE photo of all four of us, and that was taken back when Liam was only about 5 months old!  I'm very much looking forward to seeing the pics - Leanne thinks she may be able to have a sneak peek up on her blog by next weekend ... I'll post something here as soon as I can :)

My Saturday was also particlarly busy because I had to prepare for the school Trivia Night last night - as well as running around picking up the props that I wanted for the photo shoot, doing the grocery shopping and getting my hair straightened, I also had to fit in making the rice paper rolls that I was taking for supper last night - and I wanted to be in town for our photos by 2.30, to meet Leanne at 3.00.  A busy busy day, but all the timing worked out perfectly, and Melbourne put on an absolutely stunning day for the photos.

The trivia night was heaps of fun - we didn't win, but I think we ended up coming 4th or 5th, out of 20 tables, which is a pretty good effort.   Our table was themed purple, and I was fully purpled-up - even donned a long purple wig for the night - I'll see if I can post a pic on here at some stage.   Thanks to all my purple team members for coming along and helping us on the night - we had a blast!

Poor Nick had to work today though - headed out the door at 8.30 this morning (yes, on a Sunday!), and didn't get home until after 8.30 tonight - so, he's understandably exhausted.  The boys and I did have a lovely day though - after delivering the invitations this morning, we headed over to the Eltham Lower Park again, and the boys had a pony ride and then we all went on the trains ... so many people there today though - had to queue for an hour to get on the train!

Anyway, I think that's all that I have to report to you for now - now that I have the wedding invitations done, I should be able to devote some time to scrapping again.  Can you believe that I haven't scrapped one single photo from our Fiji trip yet?   And I'm going to have even more to work on soon once Leanne's pics come through ... I'd better get cracking!

I think it's time for another reorganisation/clean out of my scrapping area - it always seems to work to provide me with some inspiration (and refresh my memory as to exactly what I have in my stash) - that might be a good place to start tomorrow night, and see if the inspiration flows from there.

I hope you all have a lovely week ... thanks for reading my ramblings ,,, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

More CJ entries completed ....

Hello again ...

Well, I've had some more time to do some scrapping this week - and got to continue working on my outstanding CJ entries.   That is, the entries that I need to do that are still outstanding - not saying that my entries are 'outstanding' as in fabulous ... LOL!

I'm ripping through them now - only a couple more to do.   Unfortunately, the outstanding ones are going to be a little tricky, so I think I'll procrastinate on them for a litlle tiny while and up come with some ideas.

Anyway, for FIGs CJ (with the theme of 'A funny thing happened ...', I have done this one -



And for Frangipani's CJ (with the theme of 'The girl in the mirror'), I have done this one -



Nadine - yours is next on my list ...

I'm off to the movies tonight - I'm seeing the Twilight/New Moon double feature first tonight, prior to then seeing the midnight screening of Eclipse at 12.05 am.   Thankfully, it's school holidays, so I don't have to be up too early with the kids ... I see a fairly quiet day in store for me tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm off now to taste one of the Raspberry and White Chocolate muffins I've just baked with the kids, so I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Another CJ entry complete ...

Hello again -

Well, as promised, here is a pic of the CJ entry that I finished the other day.   The theme for this CJ was "I'll get by with a little help from my friends ...", and asked for a friendship quote.    I'm not sure where this quote comes from, but I do really like it.


I'm happy with how this one turned out too - I just love the colours.

Anyway, I'd better go do some housework now .... talk to you soon!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Monday, June 21, 2010

Kraft It Up! submission accepted ...

Hello again ...

Just letting you know that my submission to the Kraft It Up! challenge was accepted, and currently appears on their blog - here.

Look at all the stunning layouts that people have sent in - there are soooo many talented scrappers out there!  Such a fabulous site for inspiration ....

I actually got some more scrapping done on Saturday night - I managed to cross off another CJ layout from my to do list ... it's too dark now to take a pic, but I will try and remember to take one tomorrow, and will show you my finished page soon.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Finally .... a layout has been completed!

Hello again -

Well, after what seems an eternity, I finally sat down at my scrap desk last night, and had some inspiration for a layout!

I've been browsing a few scrapbooking sites this week, checking out some of the fabulous work that people out there are doing, and checked back to the Kraft It Up challenge site.   This month's challenge is 'minimalistic' - which suits me just fine!

I've been wanting to do something with this lovely pic of my boys for a while now .... and here's what I came up with last night.


I often think that my boys look so different to each other ... then I look at this pic again, and see the eyes, and realise that they really are very similar indeed.   I just love this pic.

And I'm so glad to have done some scrapping again - it's been soooo long.

Anyway, now that I'm feeling inspired again, I'm off to peruse the many photos from our Fiji trip, and will hopefully have some more pages to show you soon.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Ooooh it's been a while ...

.... since my last blog post!   Sorry about that, but life just gets in the way of good blogging sometimes.  Boy, have I been busy!

My family and I have just returned from a fabulous holiday in Fiji - we've been back just over a week now, and unfortunately I can see my tan fading by the second.   Fiji was just lovely - the resort was great, the staff were wonderful, and we all had a wonderful time.   Our days consisted of breakfasts by the lagoon; swimming in the pool; swimming in the lagoon; snorkelling; playing volleyball, cricket, boce, soccer, soft ball, touch rugby; massages on the beach ...  oh, and cocktails at happy hour each night too - you get the idea.   It was a very tough ten days, but we struggled through :)   So tough that we're already trying to work out when we can go back there again!

Prior to our Fiji trip I was still busy working an extra day in a second job, plus I had picked up a few scrapbooking jobs as well which were keeping me busy, as well as working on samples for another wedding invitation job I've picked up.   Busy busy busy ....

Anyway, now that I'm back to reality with an almighty thud (back to freezing cold Melbourne and back at work already) I'm hoping that my scrapbooking mojo will kick in soon, as I have some stunning photos from Fiji that MUST be scrapped soon!

However, until then, I will leave you with some photos of a few pieces that I completed for the lovely Paula at DIY Blockmounts ... I hope to have more work to show you soon!

These first three pics are done on 20cm x 15cm block mount boards, using the beautiful Devonshire range from Kaiser -



This pic is of a piece done on a 9cm x 9cm magnetic board -


And this piece is a collage set which comes complete with a backing board - the finished size is about 25 cm x 25cm -


Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon!
Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Monday, April 19, 2010

I forgot to post up this layout ...

Hello all!

I'm justing having a little clean up of the desk before I start my new project, and found a layout that I'd forgotten to put away, and I guess had also forgotten to post it up here to show you ... so here it is.


It's a great shot I took of all the kids up at Porepunkah over the Cup Weekend last year ... and I just love how Thomas's expression matches that of the chipboard owl!   I still don't think it's finished, but I'm not sure what else I want to do with it, so it will do for now.

Another busy week ahead for me this week and a busy weekend planned too - we've got a BBQ lined up for the long-weekend Monday, which will be nice, and dinners with both sets of our parents on Saturday and Sunday nights ... plus on Sunday we inherit Gabby the nutter of a dog again for a few weeks, which is going to be interesting ...

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely week ... I'm off to do some creating!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A lovely little holiday over the Easter break ...

Hello again - long time no blog!

I've been pretty busy again of late - we headed away to Porepunkah for a week or so during the school holidays - over the Easter weekend - which was lovely.   The weather was just perfect ... lying on banana lounges in the afternoon sun, reading and enjoying smoked salmon, crackers and ciders .... most enjoyable indeed!   Thanks for a great weekend, Kath!   Let's hope the weigh-in at Weight Watchers tonight isn't too unpleasant ...

The school holidays seemed to go by really quickly, having Easter in the middle.   Ashton returned to school yesterday, and is right back into the swing of things again.

We're counting down to the big Fiji trip - only 39 days to go I think now .... can't wait to get there.   I have a very important date with a cocktail and a banana lounge on the beach that I'm very much looking forward to :D

I'm still working my extra day during the week at the other company ... not sure how much longer I'm going to keep doing that - I'm really missing my Wednesday time to get the housework done and just recharge a bit.   Tomorrow is technically the last day that I'm contracted for, so I'll have to negotiate with my 'boss' and see how much longer he wants me to work.

I've been doing a little scrapping here and there ... nothing much though.   I do have some projects on the go, but I don't think I can really talk about them yet  - will provide more info as soon as possible though :)


Anyway, there's really only one layout to show for now ... hopefully I'll have more pics to upload soon.



Well, I hope you've all been well ... time to go get dinner ready, then it's off to WW for the post-Easter weigh-in ... wish me luck!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Friday, March 19, 2010

I've been busy again ...

Hello all - I can't believe another working week has come to a close ... time is just flying by so quickly - I'll be in Fiji relaxing on the beach before I know it ...

I've been busy again this week making a few little things here and there - I've done another of my overdue CJ entries, so I'm slowly (finally) working through my list, plus I decided to buy one of the Basic Grey card kits in the 'Indian Summer' range, to see what the kits are like.

I have to say that I thought the kit was great - it came with virtually everything I needed to make 8 cards, including the envelopes.   Even all the chipboard accents and letters were included, as well as a sheet of rubons.  The only things I had to supply were adhesive, some ink, and a small piece of string.  The instructions were very clear also - these kits would be great for people who want to make cards but don't necessarily do it very often - a clear picture of the finished product, and step-by-step instructions for each one.  Too easy!

Here's how the cards turned out ...


I really love the colours in this range ... I think the cards turned out really well.

And, here's a pic of the CJ entry that I did for Kylie ... the theme was of course my favourite photo.   This is a pic that I took of the boys during our extended family holiday just over a year ago ... it was taken on the pier at Mallacoota, with a fabulous salmon-coloured sunset, and my gorgeous suntanned boys with their sunbleached blonde hair ... it's such  peaceful pic, I just love it.



Anyway, Nick's out tonight with some mates, and the kids are in bed, so it's time for me to get crafty!   Hope you've all had a great week so far, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

A few more things to show you ...

Hello all - hope all you Melbourne readers survived the severe storms we had over the long weekend - thankfully, here at home, we missed out on the hailstones.    Probably not a bad thing too, considering we just spent a lot of money on having our roof restored!

I've been doing a little bit of pottering at my scrap table over the weekend, in between working on the deck.  I was working outside until the next band of rain came through, and then headed inside to scrap until the rain stopped.   Perfect!

I have completed the sample for the March card sketch challenge at Scrapchat, I have finally started work to complete all my CJ obligations, and I just did a layout of a pic that I like.   Hope you like them ...




And here is my CJ page ... had to be black and white with a splash of my favourite colour - what other colour combo was I going to use but black, white and RED!


I have just done a spot of shopping at my local scrap store too, and bought some of the new Kaiser ranges that came out at the start of March.   I also bought myself a new OTP to work on (as if I don't already have enough waiting to be done in my OTP drawer ...), so I have a nice new project to start on tonight.   Or maybe I'll do some more CJ entries, now that I'm in the mood to do them and on a  bit of a roll ... I'm sure I'll find something to work on.

Hope you all have a lovely week, and I'll talk to you soon.
Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo