Ness's Blog

So much has been happening in my world ...

2011-08-16T17:14:00.001+10:00

Wow - just checked my blog, and realised that I haven't updated it since June! That was a looooong time ago, and so much has happened since then!

We've been away to Fiji for another holiday (which was FABULOUS), Liam's had his 5th birthday, we've had heaps of social functions on lately, and I've become an aunty again! I'm sure there's more, but it escapes me for the time being.

I thought firstly that I would upload a couple of my fave pics from our 2nd trip to Fiji ... this first one is of a sunset that just sort of sneaked up on us! We were having drinks back at the room, marvelling at the beautiful salmon pink coloured sky, then while walking to dinner I noticed how much it had intensified on the horizon! Needless to say, I sent the others on to dinner, and ran back to the room to get the tripod and camera ;)

This shot is of when we were heading back to the resort after a fabulous session out parasailing. It was my first time, and while I hated being on the boat out in the deep water (NOT a fan of boats), being up in the harness, 150m up in the air, was really quite something. So peaceful! Just loved the colours in the parachute - this was taken just as they were packing it away.

And this was another 5.30am sunrise shot - probably need to enhance this a little bit in photoshop, but there was a beautiful range of pinks and purples and blues in the sky - a magical time of day.

And what else have we been doing? Running around to swimming lessons (Liam's been promoted 2 levels!), Auskick (although thankfully it's now finished - was getting very chilly in the mornings!), birthday parties for just about every child that either Ashton or Liam know, Liam's own 5th birthday party (his first ever party, which, surprise surprise, was dominated by girls!), work functions, play dates with school friends, the school trivia night (we won best dressed table! see pics below), AFL games, movies, rollerskating, go-karting, dinners out, and I've started a 7-week photography course at Box Hill TAFE - we've been sooo busy!

Here's a pic of all the girls from my table at the trivia night - we had been allocated the letter 'E', so of course we went with 'Eighties' as our theme! (That's me, second from the right, if you're not sure ;) )

And here are the boys - thank goodness Spotlight had mullet wigs on sale! It's scary how comfortable they all were in this sort of get-up ...

It was a fabulous night, and I'm so pleased everyone got really involved and put a lot of work into their outfits - we were getting great comments all night, and it was fabulous to be voted Best Dressed Table (not bad, considering there was around 18 tables I think ...)

And that's what we've been up to. Coming up, we have Ashton appearing in the school production next week, more work functions for Nick, dinner with work friends, the school sleepover is not too far away now, and basketball will be starting up on Saturday mornings soon. I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!

Anyway, better go get dinner ready - talk to you soon!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

What a fabulous day of photography ...

2011-06-06T21:31:00.000+10:00

Well, after booking it way back on Christmas Day last year, on Saturday I finally had the chance to go on my full day photography tour of Melbourne with Mark Gray Photography.    And what a fabulous day it was! My good friend Brooke came along for the day, and we had a wonderful time! There was only 7 of us on the day (the groups are limited to 8, but one person had to pull out the day before), so we all got a good amount of one on one time with Mark at each location.   We all met up at 8.15am in town, and were quickly loaded into the minibus for our transit to the banks of the Yarra, for our first technical session. A great introduction technical discussion, which was followed by our first actual photo session - located on the bridge over the Yarra just at the Tennis Centre, looking back up to the city. Had a play around with white balance and different f/stop settings, and also tried out the polariser, and basically just got used to handling my camera on the tripod.   We then wandered along the banks of the river up to Birrarung Marr and tried to get some shots of the bells, but unfortunately they were surrounded by scaffolding, which made it a bit tricky!   Another city skyline shoot from a different angle, then it was time to head back for another technical session.

Lots of great information and handy hints and tips, and then it was time to head down to St Kilda for our shoot out on St Kilda Pier. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't brilliant, but I still tried to put into practice some of the tips we'd been tought re: the rule of thirds etc.and checking the image for sharpness, given that all the boats moored were rocking around quite roughly because of all the wind. A lovely lunch was had at the Beachcomber Cafe, and then it was time for another transit, down to Brighton Beach for our final technical discussion, and then a shoot down at the Beach Boxes.   Again, the lighting wasn't brilliant, but it's still good to try and use the tips we'd been given about leading lines etc.

Then, after a chilly half hour on the beach, it was time to head back for afternoon tea (mmm, coffee and apple and cinnamon muffin!), and then we headed into town for the final session, which was what I'd really been looking forward to all day - the twilight shoot on the banks of the Yarra river.

Well, what a beatiful evening we had!   We set up across from Flinders Street Station, and just watched the lighting change, almost by the second.   I took many gradul photos, every minute or so, and looking back through them now, it's awesome to watch the night time descending on the cith skyling. We were starting to get longer exposures - up to around 15 seconds, and then it was time to move to our second last location for the night - up on the bridge at the Arts Centre.

This was just the most perfect location, and it was the most perfect evening for the shoot - I was getting 15 second exposures, that turned into 20 second exposures, and my favourite shot of the evening was a fabulous 25 second exposure!   Just magic!   The light had gone past it's useful level, so we headed over to Flinders Street Station, and had a play with capturing light trails at the intersection, and then at 6.30pm, it was time to call it a night.

Anyway, here are some pics of my day ... I am really, really pleased with how the first 2 shots turned out.   The lighting wasn't great for the earlier part of the day, but I will be going back to those locations again one day, when the lighting is better, and will hopefully get better shots.

So, here you go ...

Brooke and I were just buzzing with excitement all day, and it didn't stop on the drive home. We were absolutely exhausted, overloaded with information, but I'm so glad I signed up for the tour. Mark was just lovely, Tony the driver was great, everyone else on the tour was really nice as well, and I learnt so much. I can't wait to put what I learnt into practice again - and at least now I know how to play with my camera settings to get the different effects, and also what settings to change if I need to correct an image. A very worthwhile day indeed.

So there you go ... I had an absolute ball, and can't wait to get out there and play with my camera again!

But that's all for now ... talk to you soon!
Ness.
xoxo.

A couple of quick cards to show you ...

2011-05-31T21:26:00.000+10:00

Hello again -

So, so busy in my world again at the moment - it's getting a bit out of control! We had a 40th birthday party to go to on Saturday night (and they begin!!), and Nick had been away for work all the previous week, so it was just me and the boys from Sunday to Friday night. Did I get any scrapping done? Nope. Absolutely none. I was happy to pile into bed and read most nights, but I did watch a movie one night - Black Swan - a rather disturbing, but strangely compelling movie.

Anyway, I managed to get a couple of cards made a week or so ago ...

And that's really all the creative work I've done of late.

My photography tour is coming up this weekend, and I am SO excited about it! The weather doesn't look too bad ... at least for Melbourne in winter anyway ... I just hope we're all able to get some good shots. And I've signed up for a seven-week Digital SLR Camera course at Box Hill TAFE which starts at the end of July, which will be great - really looking forward how to REALLY use my camera - you know, take it off auto and play a little?? Will be great fun.

Anyway, unfortunately, the pile of washing on my couch isn't folding itself, so I'd better go do it.

Talk to you soon!
Ness.
xoxo.

Proud as punch ...

2011-05-19T21:57:00.001+10:00

... of my biggest little man, Ashton.   He was selected to play his guitar as part of the music display for his school's open night last night, and he was an absolute star!

He had been practicing his song, over and over, and over again, for a couple of weeks now, and had it absolutely nailed.   He played "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In", accompanied by his teacher, Damon, and was given the honour of playing the final song for the night.   I was so nervous for him, I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest it was beating so hard, but Ashton was as cool as a cucumber, and just sat there in front of the microphone (and the 40-odd people watching!), and played the song exactly as he had practiced.   No stage fright whatsoever!

And, what's more, he had such a rocking little rhythm going, with Damon on support, that the little kids sitting at the front were clapping along, and one even got up and danced!

I was beaming with pride at the end of his song ... so proud of my little man :)

Anyway, on another note - I treated myself to a new lens for my camera the other day, and I think it's going to be fun to play with!   I was driving down our street the other day, and drove past this amazing Japanese maple tree, so I just had to go home and grab my camera, and drive back and take some pictures - just love the autumnal colours in Melbourne at the moment ....

I'm very impressed with the clarity in the following pics - given that they're hand-held photos, AND using a lens that doesn't have Image Stabilisation - when I zoom right in, there's so much detail in the veins in the leaves! The little bit of lens flare was intentional by the way ...

I can't decide whether I prefer the darker or lighter pic ...

Anyway, I think that's all for me for tonight - might go put the electric blanket on and curl up with my book for a while.

Hope you've all had a good week so far - I'm going to get the chance to (hopefully) do a bit of crafting in the next week or so, so I may well have some new pics to show you soon.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

I love my camera ....

2011-05-03T15:03:00.001+10:00

Hi there again!

It's been a while since I've been here - whoops ... sorry about that!

I haven't really been creating much over the past few weeks - have been working on something else in the background which has been taking up a bit of my time, and will hopefully be finished soon.

So what have I been up to lately? Well, we had a lovely Easter - we had the chance to head away for the
weekend to a friend's family farm in Bengworden (between Sale and Bairnsdale), and of course I took my camera .... just love these pics! The first ones are of a fabulous falling-down fence on the shoreline, just as the sun was starting to set ...

And then I tried my hand at a couple of zoomed-in shots of the moon - not bad, considering I wasn't using a tripod ... I love how you can even see the craters!

And this last one was just taken on my deck at home - was playing around with my tripod and some beautiful roses I bought ... thought I'd get in nice and close ...

So there you go ... can you tell I just LOVE my camera? My full-day photography course with Mark Gray Photography is coming up soon .... here's the link if you're interested - looks like he's put his prices up since I signed on though! Hope I manage to take some pics that look even remotely similar to those ones ...

Anyway, that's it for now - time to get ready for the school/kinder run.

Talk to you soon!

Ness.

xoxo

A couple of cards and a layout to show you ....

2011-03-23T15:51:00.001+11:00

Well, for some unknown reason, I seem to be on a bit of a roll with my creating at the moment - I went for sooooo long doing absolutely nothing, and now I'm doing a layout or card every day or so - woot woot!

Anyway, here are the latest things to show you -

And some lovely paper from the Olivia range from Basic Grey -

And how cute is this little dude? I bought a mixed pack of chipboard bits and pieces, just because this little guy was in the pack :)

Well, that's all for now - I had a play with my Copic markers and one of my new La La Land stamps last night - have to turn him into a card tonight, so I might have something else to show you tomorrow.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

We're all famous -

2011-03-23T11:06:00.000+11:00

Hello again -

Browing through all the Facebook newsfeeds last night, and noticed that Leanne Stamatellos now has her very own website (and what a fabulous job her designer has done, too!) ... and I highly suggest you check out pic 15 in the Portraits gallery ... might see some little rugrats that look familiar :D

And we all feature on her new blog header as well - which you can see here.

Leanne really does do such beautiful work ... I can highly recommend booking a session with her if you get the chance!

Anyway, that's it for now - will hopefully have some pics to show you later today.

Take care!
Ness.
xoxo

Yay - another layout done ...

2011-03-19T21:32:00.000+11:00

Hello again -

Well, what a busy week it's been!   All the usual running around during the week, and then I had the chance to do a Copic beginners course with Vicki this morning at the Picture to Page scrapbooking show.

It was great to spend a couple of hours learning how to use these markers properly - they really are fantastic! And then we got to do the obligatory scrap shopping at the show afterwards - picked up a few bargains, and a couple of super-cute La La Land stamps, to use my new Copic markers on ... and I even managed to win myself a door prize!   I never win anything, so this was a lovely surprise.   I chose a beautiful pack of Fancy Pants papers - the "That Boy" range - lovely muted boy colours on Kraft cardstock ... right up my alley!

Anyway, only one pic to show you tonight - whipped this up during the week after flicking back through our photos from Christmas time .... I never thought I'd end up using the St Kilda Schoolgirl saga as inspiration for a scrapbooking layout, but there you go.   I really love how this series of photos turned out.

Well, that's it from me for now - I'm off to play with some of my new purchases from today. We've got another 1st birthday party to go to tomorrow, so not much crafting time for me I'm afraid - hopefully I can get back into it again tomorrow night.

Hope you're all having a great weekend so far, and I'll talk to you again soon.

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Everybody loves Liam ...

2011-03-11T22:02:00.001+11:00

Well, here it is, as promised - the pic of the layout I worked on last weekend while Nick took the boys camping.

Finally opened up my new sewing machine last night (only bought it a month ago!) and had a play with the machine stitching border around the pic ...

For info, the journalling reads:

I don’t know what it is about Liam …

but it seems that all the ladies love him!

He’s always had more girls for friends than boys

at ABC … Hannah ( of course!), and then Emily

and Alexia, and then there’s Daniella up at school

while we’re waiting for Ashton, but now that Liam’s started at kinder,

the trend for female friends

is continuing! After each kinder session,

there are long goodbyes with Emily, and now

there’s also Elsa, Eden, and Tori

to contend with - they even jostle for position,

to be able to sit next to Liam for story time!

I don’t know how he does it … but then again,

he’s so darn cute,

I guess it’s no real surprise ….

Thanks for looking!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo.

Feeling a bit like the family taxi ...

2011-03-09T22:13:00.001+11:00

Hello again!

Haven't had a lot time to do very much creating lately - I seem to be either working, dropping off at school or kinder or childcare, or picking up from school or kinder or childcare, or driving to basketball, or driving to gymnastics, or driving to swimming, or attending kinder as a parent helper, or attending kinder Social Committee meetings, or attending kinder Management Committee meetings, or attending morning teas at either school or kinder .... spare time - what's that?? So much for taking 2 hours each week and having some ME time ... so far, each week, something else has had to come first. Hopefully, next week, I'll get 2 hours of ME time, all just for me, but knowing me, I'll either book something into the diary, or if I do have free time, I won't know what to do with myself!

Anyway, I did have a chance to put a little layout together very quickly last night while Nick was out at (yet another) work function ... and I also did a card using the February card sketch challenge over at Scrapchat -

And I'm currently putting the finishing touches to a double layout I started on the weekend when Nick had taken the boys away camping ... it's almost finished, but I want to do some machine stitching on it, so I will need to actually open up the sewing machine that I bought about a month ago, and learn how to use it first!

Stay tuned for a pic of that layout though - I'm really loving how it's coming together so far ...

I had the opportunity to be a helper at kinder again last week, and it was great fun! Liam has settled in really well to the kinder routine (we haven't been late once - not even when it's an 8.30 am start!), and he has already made many friends. His teacher and her assistant are just lovely - they really do run a fabulous program there.

Anyway, I need to go peruse the instruction manual for my new sewing machine, so I'll leave it there for now.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Finally, some creativity strikes ...

2011-02-20T20:41:00.001+11:00

Hello again -

Well, isn't time just flying by this year? I can't believe we're over half way through February already ...

I've had a little bit of inspiration lately - finishing up some lettering that has been lying around, and I also decided to embark on my first ever paper bag album ... here are some pics for you.

I have decided to give the album to a friend for her birthday this week - she can choose whichever photos she would like to include in it. There are also cards inserted into each of the open bag ends, for additional photos or journalling. Hope she likes it!

And here are a few cards I've made ...

Things in the Bradford household have been pretty busy of late - school is back, with Ashton now in Grade 2, and Liam has started at kinder, which he's loving! We've had dinner with friends both nights this weekend, and have been busy most Friday and Saturday nights since the start of the year! It's all good though :)

One thing I'm loving is getting back into playing 500 again - we used to play it A LOT with friends, but they aren't together anymore, and so our card playing ceased forthwith as well. But, we've been teaching Kath and Justin how to play, and they've picked it up really quickly. We also had a chance to play 500 with Greg and Brooke when they came for dinner last night, which was great.

We took the boys to the Victorian Herpetological Society Expo yesterday - there were snakes and geckos and frogs and turtles everywhere, and it was actually pretty cool. The boys got to hold a couple of snakes, so they were pretty excited about that.

Well, I'm still feeling inspired with the whole paper bag album concept, so I'm making another one for a friend who has a birthday coming up in a week (and she's just had a new baby too), so I need to finish it off and post it to her in time for the big day.

Thanks for dropping by,
Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

A quick link about Formula 1 ...

2011-01-29T09:35:00.000+11:00

Well hello again everyone, and happy new year to you!

Can't believe it's taken me nearly all of January to actually post in my blog ... sorry about that. And sorry that this isn't even a scrapbooking post! I did actually sit at my desk and create a few things last night, for the first time this year, but I'm not ready to post pictures yet.

I did stumble across this link last night whilst going for a bit of a surf, and thought I'd share it - it's a fabulous montage of coverage by the FIA of the 2010 Formula 1 season. It was shown at the F1 Gala at the end of last year.

Awesome footage, mixed with a few little funny bits (funny to those that follow the sport). Maybe a little bit too much Sebastian Vettel coverage for my liking, but I spose it's understandable, given that he was the World Champ last year. Even so ....

Anyway, without further ado, here's the link - FIA Gala Formula 1 montage

Enjoy!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Some cards to show ...

2010-12-08T21:32:00.000+11:00

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

Finally, another layout to show you ...

2010-10-26T20:58:00.000+11:00

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

Introducing Lily ...

2010-10-21T21:22:00.000+11:00

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

Here's my layout pic ...

2010-10-17T10:24:00.000+11:00

... 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

It's been so long ....

2010-10-14T23:18:00.000+11:00

... 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

The CD has arrived ...

2010-08-19T21:55:00.001+10:00

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

The sneak peek ....

2010-08-15T23:37:00.000+10:00

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

A double woohoo for a double layout!!

2010-08-14T17:16:00.000+10:00

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

Woohoo! Finally, a Fiji photo layout ...

2010-08-11T22:58:00.000+10:00

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.

Uh oh .....

2010-08-08T23:03:00.000+10:00

... 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.

More CJ entries completed ....

2010-06-30T15:59:00.001+10:00

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

Another CJ entry complete ...

2010-06-22T14:09:00.001+10:00

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

Kraft It Up! submission accepted ...

2010-06-21T21:35:00.000+10:00

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

Finally .... a layout has been completed!

2010-06-17T16:40:00.001+10:00

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

Ooooh it's been a while ...

2010-06-10T21:44:00.001+10:00

.... 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

I forgot to post up this layout ...

2010-04-19T22:28:00.000+10:00

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

A lovely little holiday over the Easter break ...

2010-04-13T17:56:00.000+10:00

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

I've been busy again ...

2010-03-19T21:47:00.003+11:00

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

A few more things to show you ...

2010-03-09T13:37:00.001+11:00

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

Here's my layout sketch sample ...

2010-03-04T18:14:00.000+11:00

Hello again -

Just thought I'd post quickly to show you the layout that I have prepared as the sample layout for the March sketch challenge at Scrapchat ...

I bought these papers a while ago now, and absolutely loved them - so glad I finally thought of a use for them :D

Hope you've all had a lovely Thursday - mine has been particularly harrowing, but it's a long story, and I'm not really up to explaining it right now. Everything's fine now though ... my nerves are just a bit frazzled.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

March sketch challenge time ...

2010-03-02T14:39:00.000+11:00

Hello again everyone ...

Just thought I'd post up the sketches that I've selected for the March sketch challenges over at Scrapchat.

The sketches are of course from the wonderful Pagemaps site - so full of inspiration if you're feeling a little stuck for ideas.

Here's what I've chosen this month -

Be sure to let me know if you use these sketches this month - I'd love to see what you come up with!

Talk to you soon,

Ness.

xoxo

Exstinked ...

2010-02-25T18:12:00.001+11:00

Hello again everyone :)

I thought I'd post up this little pic of a layout I completed during the week. I had actually started it quite some time ago, but lost motivation and pushed it to the side of my desk. On cleaning up a little bit the other day, I found it again, and thought it about time I finished it off.

I wanted to record one of the great conversations that I've had with Ashton, when he was 5 years old....

Just in case it doesn't show up too well in the pic, the journalling reads "Me: So Ashton, tell me about the dinosaurs. Ashton: The dinosaurs walked around the planet many years ago, but they are all gone now. Me: Where did they go? Ashton: They all died. Me: Do you know what that's called, when they all die? Ashton: They are 'extinct'. Me: How do you think you spell 'extinct'? Ashton: E-x-s-t-i-n-k-e-d - when the dinosaurs died, they all got very smelly, and now they're 'exstinked'.

It was such a lovely conversation, I just had to capture it in a layout.

Now, in other news, our bi-fold doors were delivered yesterday, and we semi-fitted them last night - the suppliers are coming back tomorrow to fasten everything into place, and then fit the glass! The doors look fabulous - and, they actually fit as well!! Can't wait to use our wonderful new deck space, without having to climb through the laundry and around the back of the house LOL.

Anyway, I'd better go get dinner ready - we've got a 'getting to know you' meeting with Ashton's teacher tonight, and we need to eat and get the kids showered and ready for bed before we go.

Hope you've all had a lovely week so far ... talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

The 52 week photo challenge continues ...

2010-02-13T20:58:00.000+11:00

Hello again to you all ...

Just thought I'd quickly post up the next few layouts that I've done for my own personal 52 week photo challenge ...

I'm about to get cracking on the week 6 page now, so might have another one to show you soon.

Didn't get up to too much today - handed over the church booklets and placecards that I've been preparing for my friend's wedding, which is on next weekend - can't believe how quickly that's come around! We also went shopping to get some clothes for the boys - they adore the couple that are getting married next weekend, and we're going to take them to watch the actual wedding ceremony (with permission of course!), so we needed to get them something decent to wear. They're both going to look very handsome indeed.

Not quite sure what's in store for tomorrow - probably a bit of clean-up around the new decking, as the delivery date for our new bi-fold doors is fast approaching (which reminds me ... I'd better pay the balance soon!), and we need to clear a path so that they can deliver the door to it's new location. Can't wait to have the deck all finished and usable ... the bi-fold doors are going to be fabulous.

Anyway ... time to go get creative again ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

My own personal 52 week photo challenge ...

2010-02-11T23:14:00.001+11:00

didn't actually start off all that well ... I kept forgetting to take the photos!

But, I seem to be on a bit of a roll now! Aside from the first photo, which wasn't actually taken by me, I'm trundling along nicely, and have scrapped the first 4 weeks of photos, with another 2 layouts planned (that I already have the pics for).

I've taken pics of the first 2 that I've done ...

I'm loving the concept of putting everything into the black art journal - everything seems to 'snap' out of the page! I'll take pics of the other pages I've done on the weekend, and post them up soon.

I had a rather exciting day today - I finally got to officially book our Fiji holiday in May - woohoo! Ten fabulous nights at the Shangri-La Resort on the Coral Coast ... aahhhhh ....

It's our 10th wedding anniversary this coming May, and we had contemplated going away, just the two of us, to Thailand or somewhere similar, but then we realised that we'd want the boys there, experiencing everything with us, so we changed locations to Fiji, and we're all going together. The resort has a fabulous kids club, and they stay and eat for free (although my boys eat a lot, so they may well regret not charging us for their food LOL), so all we need to cover for them are the airfares ... I'm so excited to have something to look forward to ... I'm counting the days down already.

I've also been in touch with the lovely Leanne Stamatellos, and have booked in a photo session with her when she's down in Melbourne later in the year - can't wait to finally meet her, and have her take some beautiful photos of my family.

Anyway, it's so humid here tonight - we had a fabulous thunderstorm roll through late this afternoon, with some of the loudest thunder I've heard in a long time, and a lovely, long downpour of rain too, but now, as a result, everything's got that damp feeling to it - not good really, because I'm scrapbooking tonight, and all the papers are warping!

Maybe it's a sign that I should go to bed (I am working tomorrow, after all), and revisit the scrapbooking tomorrow night, when the humidity has hopefully dried up!

Hope you've all had a lovely week so far.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Another card to show you ...

2010-01-20T22:05:00.000+11:00

Hello again - hope the week is treating you well so far.

Just thought I'd share with you a card that I made last night (well, actually I made 10 of them!), for the January card swap at Scrapchat - a 'love' themed card swap.

I've used the beautiful MME 'Be Loved' range of papers ... I just adore this colour combo!

I've got a few ideas floating around in my mind for some of my 52 week photo challenge layouts too - I've got the photos from the first 3 weeks, but I haven't got around to scrapping any of them yet! Not off to a good start with that project eh?

Hopefully I'll get on to them on Saturday night - Nick's heading out with his old uni mates for the night, so I get scrapping time :D

I had a lovely chat with the delightful Leanne Stamatellos last night, and have arranged to have a session with her when she's down in Melbourne later this year - VERY much looking forward to that, I can tell you - she has a fabulous eye for fabulous photos ... one talented lady.

Anyway, that's all to report for the moment, so I'll say goodbye for now. Hope you enjoy the rest of the week, and that you celebrate Australia Day next week in style!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Happy birthday to me!!

2010-01-19T14:29:00.001+11:00

Hello all ...

Just wanted to write and tell you how very blessed I'm feeling today ... it's my birthday, and I've had a lovely day. Actually, I've had a lovely few days to be honest - it's been a bit of a birthday festival for me ... started with a lovely dinner on Saturday night with Kath and Justin (thanks so much for my sparkly Pandora pressie - I absolutely love it!), and then we had dinner with Nick's folks on Sunday night (and they gave me a beautiful polished stone necklace), and then last night I got a gift from Nick and the boys (another sparkly Pandora addition - just gorgeous), and then this morning I've had a lovely coffee with Kath (as is the tradition on Tuesdays), but Mum joined us as well this morning, as we also went shopping for my present from my parents - 2 more charms for my Pandora bracelet. :) :) :)

How lucky am I??

My authentic Pandora bracelet that was full of cheapy charms is now rapidly filling up with authentic Pandora charms instead ... and it's looking fabulous.

I also got a beautiful bunch of flowers from Kath ... look how full the rose buds are!

So yes, I've had a lovely lovely day. And I've had so many well wishes from all my Facebook friends as well ... thanks so much to everyone :D

Off to do some housework (I know, I should boycott it on my birthday, but this house is such a mess at the moment due to the renovations, so I can't really avoid it), and then I might treat myself to some daytime scrapping time - it is, after all, my birthday :D

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Happy 2010 to you all!

2010-01-12T16:15:00.001+11:00

Afternoon all ...

Here we are, almost half way though January already! Twelve days in, and already we've all been very busy.

We did have a lovely New Year's celebration at a friend's place - how fabulous was the storm that Melbourne had that night?? It's been a long while since I've seen that much lightning ... and rain too, for that matter. Very very welcome rain indeed.

We've also been very busy around the house - we've pulled down a couple of old pergolas, and we're currently building a new deck off the dining room - we're going to install bi-folds where the windows are currently, and make what is currently wasted space a lovely new outdoor area, with a spa!! It's coming along quite nicely - can't wait until it's all finished. Here are some progress pics for you ...

So you can see we're going to have a lovely, usable space there - really opens up the existing dining room too, which is great.

And I've had the chance to get a little creative too - it was Mum's birthday last week, so of course I had to make her a card, and I've done a sample for the January layout sketch challenge at Scrapchat ... feels good to get creative again!

Here's what I came up with ... using some of the lovely Kaiser Empire collection papers.

Well, I guess I should go and do some housework, and then think about starting to get dinner ready.

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

The year is almost over ...

2009-12-30T15:15:00.002+11:00

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 ...

2009-12-24T14:36:00.005+11:00

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 ....

2009-11-19T11:29:00.002+11:00

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!

2009-11-17T14:01:00.003+11:00

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 ...

2009-10-01T18:30:00.003+10:00

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!

2009-08-20T09:43:00.002+10:00

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 ...

2009-08-02T10:58:00.002+10:00

... 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 ....

2009-07-21T23:45:00.002+10:00

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 ...

2009-07-01T17:06:00.003+10:00

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 ....

2009-06-24T10:33:00.002+10:00

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!

2009-06-19T21:07:00.003+10:00

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!!!

2009-06-10T19:52:00.002+10:00

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 ...

2009-05-26T21:19:00.004+10:00

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!!

2009-05-23T21:58:00.002+10:00

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 ...

2009-05-06T09:28:00.003+10:00

... 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 ...

2009-04-29T22:22:00.003+10:00

... 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!

2009-04-17T21:43:00.004+10:00

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?

2009-04-12T22:18:00.003+10:00

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 ...

2009-04-01T11:32:00.004+11:00

... 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!

2009-04-01T10:05:00.002+11:00

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 ....

2009-03-22T21:05:00.003+11:00

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 ....

2009-03-18T13:48:00.004+11:00

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.

March mega month-long cybercrop ...

2009-03-14T00:16:00.004+11:00

Hello again -

Well, it was time tonight for me to upload my challenge for Week 2 of the March Mega Month Long Cybercrop over at Scrapchat.

My challenge was :

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a layout that:

- Must have a black and white photo
- Must have 3 different types of patterned paper
- Must have a large journalling tag
- Must have rub-ons
- Must have bling
- Must have some ribbon, and a button on it somewhere.

No problems you say?? Well ....

... to make it just that little bit more challenging, one piece of your patterned paper has to have stripes on it, and one piece has to have polkadots on it!

And here is the sample layout that I prepared for it:

We also had a lovely chat tonight with Leanne Stamatellos - and I have to say that I am VERY much looking forward to doing Leanne's class through Scrapchat next weekend ... her layouts have always appealed to me; I really really love her scrapping style. Kits for the class are available through Scrap N Craft With T - it's going to be great!

Well, I should really get to bed ... I've got to take the boys to a 5th birthday party tomorrow, and a 1st birthday party on Sunday, and I have a feeling I will regret not having enough sleep!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

A week full of scrapping ...

2009-03-12T18:55:00.005+11:00

Hello again!

Well, this week, I've been able to get quite a bit of scrapping done, in between housework and coffees of course!

I've finally worked on a Kaiser car album that has been sitting in my OTP drawer for ages now ... it's good to finally take it off the to-do list.

Here are the pics ...

Finally had a play with Heidi Swapp ghost letters - they're tricky little things to use, aren't they?? I ended up running them through my xyron machine, which seems to have worked a treat, and then traced around the edges in permanent marker so that they were defined a bit.

Now I need to finish getting dinner ready, and think about what I want to work on tonight :)

Hope you've all had a lovely Thursday ...

Talk so you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Scrapping Around March CC is underway ...

2009-03-05T19:40:00.003+11:00

Evening all -

Just letting you know that the Scrapping Around March CC has now kicked off, and I have just loaded the first challenge up.

Challenge #1 is:

You need to do a layout ( any size ) that includes your favourite Autumn photo (or, if you don't have one, do what I did and find a new favourite Autumn photo on the internet, by searching for 'Free images of Autumn' ).

- Scrap the photo using appropriate autumnal colours
- Incorporate crumpled paper on your layout
- Incorporate ribbon on your layout
- Include a quote about Autumn (again, internet searches are great for this!).

And here is my sample layout (with thanks to Chelle and Kylie for your assistance) -

Thanks for looking!

Ness.
xoxo

Another 2 layouts to share ...

2009-03-03T16:52:00.004+11:00

Hello all -

I have been a busy little bee again over the last couple of days - I finished off another layout that I half-started at the crop a couple of weeks ago, and also did a DT sample for Scrapping Around, using the lovely new Kaiser Argentella papers.

I've also got a couple of cybercrops to tell you about too - the Scrapping Around March cybercrop kicks off this Thursday night, at 7.30pm. The theme for this month is 'Autumn'.

Also, the March month-long Cybercrop at Scrapchat gets underway this weekend too - starting at 7.00pm Queensland time on Friday night.

Well, I'm off to go play cricket outside with the boys now - hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Stampin' Up! Retired List is out ...

2009-03-01T23:31:00.002+11:00

Hello all - it's almost time for the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue to be released, and to make way for all the lovely new items, it's time to retire some of the current Ideas Book stock.

Here is a link to the official list on the Stampin' Up! website of those products from the current catalogue that will be retiring. Some of these sets are discounted by 25%! There is only one more month left to order these retiring stamp sets, so if you would like to order any, please send me an email (vbradford@optusnet.com.au) - but be quick - stocks aren't going to last too long at these prices!

Also, with the arrival of the new catalogue, there will be some price increases which will come into effect on the 1st of April 2009. For example, the ink pads will be $11.95 (currently $9.95), and the papers will be $19.50 (currently $11.95).

So, now is a great time to get your orders in, before the price rises!

New papers to play with ...

2009-02-26T17:41:00.005+11:00

Hello again -

I hope this week finds you all happy and well.

I made a trip to my local Scrap Shop the other day, prior to going to a new Melbourne crop with Kath, and bought some of the papers from the new Basic Grey ranges - Marrakech, Bittersweet and Porcelain. They're just lovely! I also got some of the papers from Ambrosia, Urban Prairie and Offbeat - Basic Grey really are pumping out some great stuff lately!

Here's a layout that I started at last weekend's crop, and then all my inspiration flew out the window, so I couldn't finish it off. I got to the stage where I was just shuffling paper around on the page, and Kath was laughing at me, so I put it aside and half-started something else.

I finally got around to working on it again last night - just love the Ambrosia range. I did start out loosely basing it on a Pagemaps sketch, as inspiration had failed me, but then fiddled with it more, and ended up with this :)

I hope to try and get another layout finished soon (maybe tonight??) that I started on the weekend ... but I'm still a bit stumped for a title. I just adore the photo of my two boys, and normally titles are not something that I struggle with, but I've got nothing yet for this one. Hopefully inspiration will strike for that one soon!

Melbourne's weather is not sounding too good for tomorrow, with high temperatures and high fire danger again, so for everyone's sake, I'm really hoping that we don't have any more fires break out ...

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxo

Some more layouts to share ...

2009-02-18T15:09:00.004+11:00

Hello all :)

I've been on a bit of a roll with my scrapping lately - I think it's because I was scrapping-deprived while we were away, I'm trying to make up for lost time.

Here is a layout that I did last night of a great pic of Ashton on his first day at school, and also a couple of layouts that I had started back at Warana last year that I finally finished off last night as well.

And here is page 1 of the Book of Me that I have started as well. Now my challenge is going to be finding (or taking) some half-decent photos of myself for the BOM. Hmmm ..... I like being behind the camera, not in front of it!

And finally, just a quick hello to Kath too :)

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

My first CJ entry ...

2009-02-12T12:21:00.004+11:00

Hello all ...

Having been in the duldrums since the events of Saturday, I decided to try and scrap myself out of 'the blues' ... so I have been creating things this week!

I have done my first ever CJ entry ... have always heard about CJs, but never really knew what was involved, and didn't really think I was of the standard to participate. But, this year, I've decided to throw caution to the wind, and am participating in the 2009 CJ at Scrapchat. This year's CJ is a little different - instead of everyone having to send around the whole album from participant to participant, we're actually making our pages, and just sending that page to the album's owner (saving heaps on postage!). I think that that is the reason why we have had such a huge response - there is about 20 people taking part in the CJ this year, and we are each doing 2 entries a month.

Here is the entry that I have done for Sandy - her theme is 'A few of my favourite things', and she had 10 topics for people to list. She also requested that Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers be used if at all possible. Thankfully I already had the matching brads as well! :)

Here is my sign-in card ...
And here is my left hand page ...

And here is my right hand page ...

I have chosen the theme 'Betcha didn't know ...' for my own CJ, but I'm yet to complete even my own entry *sighs* ... being away for most of December and January has put me behind a bit, but I'm working hard to try and catch up with everything.

Here is a pic of the card I made for Greg and Brooke's wedding ... I decided to go home between the ceremony and the reception, and whipped this little card up while I was there.

And here is a card I made for my Dad's cousin's 70th birthday. My dad has decided that, rather than going to shops and buying cards, he'll support me in my endeavours, and 'commission' me to make all the cards they need. They get cards that they really like, and I get my name out there a bit as well with all their friends etc. A very sweet gesture on his part ...

And now, I think it's time to put my littlest kidlet to bed for a rest, and I can get back to doing my first ever Book Of Me layout. The Scrapping Around forum is posting BOM topic suggestions each month, and I have decided to give this a go too. I will be scrapping these pages in 8.5 x 11 as well - something else I've never done before - just to try something a little different. Now, watch me struggle with trying to lay everything out on the different sized pages .... LOL.

Thankfully, we had a tear-free drop off at school this morning with Ashton - we had a little chat after his drop off on Tuesday, and determined that he's getting frightened with so many adults around. So, I suggested that we find his little friend Saskia from his class, and maybe he could stand with her in line, and then he wouldn't need to get frightened. He thought this was a great idea (he's besotted with her already ...), and it seemed to work a treat :)

Anyway, I hope you're all having a lovely Thursday, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xoxox

Such a sense of sadness ...

2009-02-10T16:25:00.005+11:00

I'm writing to you today with such a heavy heart ... the bushfires that swept across Victoria have really left everyone here in such a complete state of shock.

As I write this, a total of 173 people have been confirmed dead, and unfortunately, this total is still expected to rise in the coming days, as fire crews and Disaster Victim Identification teams gain access to the affected areas.

The weather on Saturday was the worst I have ever seen. The heat was almost unbearable (about 47 degrees where I am), the wind was unbelievable, and the smoke in the sky was frightening. We had a grass fire in the street next to ours, but thankfully, it was contained very quickly, and spread no further.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for so many Victorian communities. I am still in a state of shock when I see the photos of places like Kinglake (about 30 minutes from me) and Marysville. Marysville is my most favourite little place - such a gorgeous little country village - and the stopping point for most of our camping and four wheel driving adventures. I feel such a deep sadness that a place so beautiful has been decimated by this fire. I cried when I saw the pictures of Marysville's main street.

Kinglake, as we knew it, doesn't really exist any more. The horrible pictures of those cars, all crashed together, and now burnt out - obviously desperately trying to escape the fires, but came to grief with the poor visibility ... that image will stay with me for a long time.

If you're wanting to see some of the pictures first hand, The Australian website has some very compelling slideshows available ... they clearly show the force of these fires, and the total destruction they caused.

And then there are pictures like this one that really bring a lump to the throat ...

The fires were coming down closer into towns that are not really that far from me. They worked down into St Andrews, Christmas Hills, and Kangaroo Ground. We have even had a couple of small grass fires in Warrandyte, which is basically just 'next door' to us. I have been on edge with the prospect of the fires getting that close to me - I can't begin to imagine how those people who have been through the thick of the fires are feeling. I think there are many people who are still numb - in a state of shock, because this all happened so damn fast.

What I am struggling with at the moment is just how helpless I feel. I'm lucky. I have my house, my car, my family and my friends all around me. I have a job to go to in the morning. So many people now have absolutely nothing.

This morning I drove to Diamond Creek, to the Community Centre, which is acting as a collection centre for donations from the community, and where those directly affected from the fire (which was really just up the road from there) can go to get assistance. It was so upsetting to look across to the next hill top as I was driving in, and all I could see was burnt forest. There's nothing there. It's all just black, and a lot of it is still smouldering. The road block at St Andrews is still there, stopping people from returning back up to their homes.

Once I got to the Community Centre, I was overwhelmed by the level of support I could see there. I had to queue in the main street, before I could even turn into the driveway, to drop off what I had to give. I gave them baby bottles, and small baby food containers, bath towels, hand towels, facewashers and manchester, and I also donated my 3-wheeler pram and toddler seat that has been sitting here waiting for me to list it on Ebay. I thought someone there might have a more urgent need for it.

I also have heaps of kids clothes that I can donate, and also some of my own, but at the moment, they are struggling to sort through everything they have received. There were piles and piles of clothes, all needing to be sorted into sizes etc. There was a small army of volunteers, directing people in the right direction to drop off their goods, and then sorting the goods once they had been delivered. I was advised to hold off taking more clothes at the moment - they need to sort through what they have before they can accept much more. People were arriving with toilet paper, shampoo, razors, toothpaste, soap .... the personal things that everyone is going to need, much more than 20 cans of tomato soup.

I was so heartened to see so many people springing into action to help their community - it brought a lump to my throat.

The more immediate need for people affected by these horrible fires right now though, once the basics of clean clothes and essential toiletries have been sorted out, is money. If anyone reading this (even my international visitors) would like to contribute, to try to ease their suffering in this desperate situation, the Red Cross has a secure online donation system happening. At last count, I think there was about $15 million that had been donated by the public, and more is still coming in. More is still going to be needed though, to help these poor people through, so if you are able to contribute, even a small amount, please consider doing so at the Red Cross website.

Now is the time for everone to pitch in to do their bit ...

I did a layout!!

2009-02-07T16:11:00.003+11:00

I know ... I know .... I too was beginning to think I'd forgotten how to scrap! It's been so looooooong since I've done a layout - I think it was mid-November?? I made a few last-minute Christmas cards in December, but that's about it.

But, thankfully, the Scrapping Around CC this weekend (where I'm on the DT) gave me cause to do my sample layout, and also another layout for one of the other challenges. I hope to get more challenges done too if I can.

Here is the sample I did for my '3 Little Things' challenge ...

And here is the layout I did for Tanja's Challenge #2 - 'Who stole my heart?'

It's so nice to be back and scrapping again, although I did sit at my desk for a little while so I could remember what it was that I had to do.

Hopefully the mojo will stick around for a while, and I'll be able to show you a few more layouts in the next little while.

Hope everyone is surviving the heat today - we've had a grassfire down at the end of our street, and the sky is full of smoke, but thankfully there's no direct threat to us yet ....

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

A successful first day ...

2009-02-03T16:14:00.004+11:00

Well, it's been a long time coming, but my biggest little man started school today!

He had a wonderful time - was up bright and early, and was dressed and ready to go by 7.45am! Poor thing wasn't meant to be there until 9.30am ... so we waited, and waited, and finally headed to school about 9.00am.

I've just been to pick him up, and he has had a wonderful day. He skipped out of class and was singing songs and telling me he played with train tracks and was bursting with excitement. So, SO happy to hear he had a great first day.

I'm sure the enthusiasm will wear off eventually, but I hope it lasts a little longer yet :)

Here are some pics of School Day #1. I don't have Photoshop back on my pooter yet, so they're unedited, sorry ...

I'm back!

2009-01-28T18:59:00.003+11:00

Hello all - sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but as some of you know, we've been away on the Big Bradford Adventure!

Nick had long service leave to take, so we decided to have a nice big family holiday with the boys, before Ashton starts school (which is next week, by the way!!). So, we headed off in mid-December, and got back about a week ago.

We did have a totally fabulous time, but it's fair to say that the holiday didn't quite turn out how we expected.

We decided to go straight up towards Sydney, as we've done the SE Victorian coast drive enough - I wanted to see something different. So our first stop was in Gundagai, and then Wombeyan Caves for a couple of nights, then Terrigal just for Christmas Eve (we had a lovely fish'n'chips dinner on the beach while Ashton went nutso running around in the sand), then Hawks Nest for a couple of nights, then Manning Point for 3 nights, and then we went on to Nambucca Heads.

We were just settling down after dinner on our second night in Nambucca Heads when my mobile rang - Nick's mum was calling. Nick's dad had had some chest pain, went to the doctors, who sent him to hospital, where they did an angiogram, found 4 blockages, and he had been scheduled for quadruple bypass surgery the next day (New Years Eve). Obviously we were rather shocked by the phone call, and took an hour or so to work through our options. If possible, Nick wanted to get back and see his dad before he went in to surgery, so we booked him on a 6.00am flight from Newcastle, and set about packing up camp. We drove out of the caravan park at 1.00am, and drove through the night, arriving at Newcastle airport at about 4.30am, and we dropped Nick off. The boys and I headed in to Newcastle, and after quite a while, managed to find ourselves a motel for the day, so I could get some sleep. Dad flew up to Newcastle that afternoon, to help me bring the car and trailer home - was good to have someone to share the driving with.

Laurie had had surgery that afternoon, and thankfully had made it through very well.

We headed off after picking my Dad up, and made it to Mittagong, where we grabbed a motel room for the night. I got to spend New Year's Eve in the lovely Motel Melrose, with Duck Egg Blue walls, with my dad and my kids!

We set off early the next morning, and made it home late that afternoon.

At least we were able to be here to assist our friends from England, who had arrived on New Year's Day, and show them a bit about setting up life in Melbourne.

Laurie was making a really good recovery, and was out of hospital after 6 days, so we decided to head off again on our holiday once he was settled at home.

This time we went to Lakes Entrance, then on to Mallacoota for a week (lovely little part of the world, that one), then on to Jervis Bay to stay with Nick's cousin for a few days, and then drove up to Sydney so that Ashton could see the Bridge and the Opera House, and made our way down to Goulburn, then to Strathmerton on the Murray to camp with my friend Vicki for a night, and then finally home last Thursday.

We are all very well rested, and I am not looking forward to going back to work at all!

Unfortunately, my computer has had a little conniption fit while we were away, so has been rebuilt, and as yet I don't have photoshop back on it, so I haven't been able to work on the photos at all. Never fear though - I'll post some pics as soon as I can - and you'll be seeing a lot of them in my forthcoming scrapping work too!

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, and I'll talk to you soon!

Ness.
xoxo

A busy week ....

2008-12-20T23:34:00.005+11:00

Evening all :)

Well, what a busy week it's been for me .... not only did I get a layout accepted for publication by Scrapbook Creations, but I have also been offered a position on the Design Team for Scrapping Around, which I have of course accepted - very excited to be part of the team!

Plus, I had the most delicious Christmas lunch with work at Rockpool yesterday - it was just divine! Next time I'm flush with money (yeah, right!), I'm going to take Nick there. The food was fabulous, the service the best I've had in a long time, and the decor was really lovely too - all in all a wonderul dining experience - especially because I didn't have to pay the bill! Hooley dooley - the dearest steak on the menu (Wagyu) was $110 .... I DIDN'T order that one LOL!

Well, I hope the pre-Christmas madness isn't doing your head in too much .... I have had a very busy day today, and am currently finishing off a nice glass of wine, and will be heading to bed shortly.

Only a couple of creations to show you tonight ...

Here is the layout I did as part of my DT application ... it's the pics from Ashton's orientation days at primary school.

And here's a clock I did as a step-by-step ... love that photo of my boys.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xx.

I've received an award ....

2008-12-18T23:00:00.003+11:00

.... from the lovely Annie at The Scrapbook Hub. I have received a Proximity Award!

"These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So the 8 bloggers I choose to pass on the award to are Tanja, Chelle, Kylie, Manda, Lisa, Belynda, Gypsyangel and Tanyah.

I love reading your blogs ladies - keep up the good work!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx

Been very busy ....

2008-12-16T00:18:00.002+11:00

Hello all -

Just a quick post from me tonight - I have been madly trying to prepare for Christmas so haven't been posting much, but wanted to share some news with you ...

At the recommendation of my friend Tanja, I've decided to apply for a Design Team position, and was busy on the weekend putting my application together. I sent everything off last night, so it's beyond my control now .... I think applications close on the 19th, so wish me luck!

Also, I decided to try and submit a few layouts to the Scrapbook Creations magazine, just to see what happened. It's one thing on my scrapping to-do list ... getting a layout published at some stage .... and considering I got bumped by Scrapbooking Memories a few months back, I thought it was time to try again.

Well, I have had some success - I got a lovely email back today, advising they want to publish one of my layouts in a forthcoming edition of Scrapbook Creations!! Very exciting :) See - doesn't hurt to try!

Now I need to cross all my fingers and toes, and hope that this one doesn't get bumped too :)

I will, of course, keep you posted, and I will post pics of my Design Team application pieces as soon as I can.

And now, it's late, and I need sleep .... so I'll talk to you soon. Hope you have a good week!
Ness.

Another present completed ...

2008-12-13T20:29:00.003+11:00

Hello all :)

Wow - what a wet weekend we're having here in Melbourne - and isn't it fabulous?? I can hear a collective sigh of relief from all the Melbourne gardens ... desperately needed a good watering.

Well, after finally fishing off the canvas during the week, I had the chance to work on the gift box of cards that I gave to mum.

I had a paper mache cigar box from Spotlight sitting here on the shelf - covered the lid in some Crate paper, added some Kaiser rub-ons, some Green Tara flowers and a selection of green, blue and silver bling, and it's done! Here is the finished product :)

Gave it to mum last night as her Christmas present, and she loved it. And, we gave her the canvas today too, as we won't be seeing her for her birthday, and she was absolutely thrilled - even teared up a little bit! Awwwwwww .... very pleased I decided to finish it off for her.

I've got a little project that I need to work on at the moment, so I hope to get the boys into bed shortly so I can get some scrapping done and make a start on it. They've had a couple of late nights in a row, and they are VERY tired, so hopefully they won't put up too much of a fight and I can grab a glass of wine and head to my craft room.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Finally finished ....

2008-12-09T23:36:00.004+11:00

Evening all!

I'm pleased to say that I have finally finished the canvas that I started back in May ... I'd painted it, and stuck the photos and PP down, but that was it. I lost motivation, and put it aside. Well, I had a brainwave last night that I could finish it off and give it to mum for her birthday, so now, it's finally complete!

It's a pretty big canvas - 15 inches x 30 inches, and I just love those photos of my beautiful boys. I hope mum likes her pressie!

I've also been madly working on cards lately too - making my Christmas cards, but also making normal cards that I'm giving to mum in a gift box as her Christmas present. Just finished decorating the box tonight too, but it's too late to take a pic, so will post that one tomorrow. Here's a pic of one of my Christmas cards (I've made all different cards this year) with thanks to Claire for the colour combination idea, and also just a general card I made to give as part of mum's present.

Well, we ended up having a pretty busy weekend - I had a work Christmas dinner on Friday night which was lovely, and then we had a wedding to go to on Saturday night at the Melbourne Savage Club. Very interesting venue, and as it's traditionally a men only club (no, not THAT sort of men's club! :) ) I doubt I'll ever see anything like it again. Lots of leather couches and hunting equipment and valuable paintings and books and pool tables and poker tables ... very stuffy, but still an interesting venue for a wedding reception. The food was lovely, and it was also nice to be able to wash it down with a glass or two of 1988 (yes, that's 1988) Wynn's Coonawarra. Yummo!

Sunday was really just a clean-up day, as I'm trying to give our house a nice big spring clean, as we've got friends coming to stay over Christmas and New Year. My to-do list is massive, so I'm trying to whittle a few tasks off it each day.

And this evening has been very exciting, celebrating the announcement of the 2008 Scrapbooking Memories Masters, as my friend Chelle has been 'crowned' a Master - congratulations Chelle - such fabulous work by you, and look - you're even on the cover!! Well done indeed ... what a fabulous year lies ahead for you - enjoy your prize :)

Hope the rest of the week treats you well ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

It's December ....

2008-12-03T16:10:00.003+11:00

..... and that means that I can finally show you the card I made, using one of the stamp sets from the new Summer Mini from Stampin' Up! I also borrowed one of the new scallop punches when I was at Genna's house - very easy to use!

This is the Embrace Life set, and I also have the Eastern Blooms set, but am yet to use it ...

I love the products in the new mini - I've got some of the felt flowers coming my way, as well as some of the coordinating rubons ... they look lovely! If you're interested in getting any of the Stampin' Up! products, just give me a hoy!

I've been busily making Christmas cards this week, and also cards to give in a gift box to my mum as her present, so haven't done a scrapbooking layout for what feels like ages ... although I did make the trip down to the new Kaisercraft store in Geelong today and got some lovely papers and bits and pieces, so who knows ... maybe there's a scrapbooking page not too far away.

Hope everyone has had a good week so far,
Talk to you soon,
Ness.

A couple of cards ...

2008-11-25T22:11:00.003+11:00

Hello all :)

Just thought I'd post a couple of pics of the cards I made at my catch up with Tanja and Genna last week ... there is a third card as well, but it's got the new Summer Mini stamps on it, so I can't show that to you yet ...

The exciting news in my world this week is that my friend Jacqui has finally had her visa approved, so that she and her hubby and daughter can now migrate out to Australia. It's been about two years in the making, but they've finally been approved. They're planning on getting here around Christmas or New Year, so now it's full steam ahead for everything for her - trying to organise flights and pack up their lives ready to ship everything over to the other side of the world!

They'll be staying with us for a bit until they find a rental property - and I'm actually really looking forward to helping them set up home here in Melbourne - who doesn't enjoy spending someone else's money??

Anyway, I'm really tired tonight, so I think I'm going to call it a night ... thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon.

Ness.
xx.

Time for school!

2008-11-18T16:55:00.006+11:00

Hello all :)

Hope you've been well. The Bradfords have again been busy busy busy ... and it's also been an exciting time for Ashton too, as he had his first orientation day at school yesterday. How cute does he look, all dressed up in his uniform??

Don't you just love the look of the school uniform that's got room to grow? And the cute little peg legs poking out the bottom of his shorts?? :)

You may recall I had a little scrap session with Tanja a few weeks back, and managed to whip through a few really simple Christmas cards ... just love some of the Kaiser Christmas rub-ons that are available at the moment.

Also whipped up this normal card too ...

And, other than the wedding invitations, that's about all I've done lately. Have started some other cards using the Unfrogettable set, but they're still unfinished, so won't post pics of them yet. Here's a pic of the front of the wedding invitations I've made for Greg and Brooke ... she loved the exampe in the Stampin' Up! catalogue, so here's a copy as close as I could make it :)

I've just placed an order from the Stampin' Up! Summer Mini Catalogue too, which will hopefully arrive this week sometime, so it will be great to have a little advance play with some of the lovely sets available in the new catalogue. Will be sure to post pics when I'm allowed too!

Well, that's all from me for now - hope you are having a good week so far!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

What a busy weekend it's been ...

2008-11-09T16:54:00.002+11:00

Afternoon all :)

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend! I know I have ...

It all started on Friday when we had a lovely catch-up with Kath and Justin and the kids again, and also gave singstar another belting into the wee hours of the morning! We downloaded one of the Queen special packs, and were singing our little hearts out :) It was another 4.00am finish though, so we were just a tad tired on Saturday ...

We had to drive over to Epping yesterday to order our new trailer for our camping expedition, and once home, Nick and I tag-teamed nana naps in the afternoon, so we were both a bit more prepared to go out for dinner again to Stu and Sonia's house. Had a lovely roast dinner, and then played the usual games of 500 (Sonia and I actually one a couple of games this time!), and then called it a night about 12.30am.

Today has been busy busy busy too - headed over to Eltham Lower Park and took the boys on the train and also the pony rides, and they had a great time. Then lots of work in the garden this afternoon to make room for us to park the trailer, and we're about to head out go-karting tonight as well.

I'd better go get ready ... but hope you all have a lovely week! No new creations to show you yet, but I'll be able to take a pic of all the wedding invites now, and will post that shortly.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Monthly sketch challenges and a mini-retreat!

2008-11-02T21:46:00.006+11:00

Evening all ...

Wow - I can't believe it's November already ... or should that be Movember? I found out on Friday night that Nick's dad, who has a full beard and moustache, and has had a full beard and moustache for 43 years now, has been gathering sponsors, and is planning on shaving it all off for Movember! Good on you Laurie :)

And, of course, being November, it's now time for my next monthly card and layout sketch challenges at Scrapchat.

Here is this month's sketch, designed by Anna Bowkis, and taken from the PencilLines sketch blog.

And here is the sample layout that I prepared.

And here is the sketch for the card challenge - design is by Lucy Chesna, and is from her sketch blog My Sketch World.

And here is the sample card I prepared, using Stampin' Up! cardstock, stamps from the Priceless and Warm Words sets, and the double-stitched ribbon in Blue Bayou, as well as some fabbo SEI patterned paper.

And I also want to say a big thank you to Tanja, who invited me down to her place yesterday and overnight for a fabbo scrap session and 'mini-retreat'! Thanks Tan, I had a great time! It was lovely to catch up with you again and spend some time with your family - I really appreciate the invitation :D I churned out a few cards, so I'll work out how to resize things on this laptop, and upload a few pics for you at some stage soon.

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

Ness.

October photo swap layout -

2008-10-25T12:20:00.003+11:00

Hi there - me again.

I have been given permission by the lovely Sue to post a pic of the photo swap LO that I prepared for her ... for the swap that runs most months over at Scrapchat.

It know it's very green, which is not a colour that I normally work with, but it's also very sparkly, which matches the pic perfectly, I think.

Thanks for letting me post it on my blog Sue!

And now, back to the housework. Ugh ....

Hello sunshine!

2008-10-25T09:59:00.002+11:00

Hello all :)

Just a quick one from me today ... and I don't even really have anything to report.

Just wanted to wish you all a wonderful weekend! It's going to be a super day in Melbourne town today - 30 degrees! The sun is already shining, and it's lovely and warm outside already.

A day of action is ahead for me - we have friends for dinner tonight, so there's all the housework and shopping to be done, as well as washing the dog (which she's NOT going to enjoy... she loves water, just not being washed :D), fixing our curtain rail that fell down yesterday, and I have to get some drinks for tonight as well - Kath's bringing the Singstar, so I'll need to get some Dutch courage !!

I hope everyone has a lovely day, and I'll have some more pics to post in the next few days - I've been busy preparing sketch challenge samples and photo swap LOs, so I'll be able to post the challenges at the end of the month, and will post my pics here too when I can.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx.

A new scrapbooking resource website has been launched ...

2008-10-15T19:45:00.002+11:00

Hello all -

Just a quick one for today - letting you know that a fantastic new scrapbooking and papercrafting website has been launched - the Scrapbook Hub.

It's chock-full of inspiration, and useful information and links, and showcases specifically the Australian papercrafting industry.

It's well worth the look if you want to check it out ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx

Stampin' Up! specials for the month ...

2008-10-15T09:13:00.007+11:00

Oops - I almost forgot to mention the 20th Birthday Specials that Stampin' Up! are having this month. Just spend $20 on regular catalogue merchandise and you will recieve 20% off the following sets.

Item	Page #	Description	Regular Price	20% Off Price
112594	37	Big Bold Birthday	$53.95	$43.16
108894	38	Pretty Princess	$45.95	$36.76
108753	51	Birthday Best	$25.95	$20.76
110246	55	Crab & Company	$52.95	$42.36
112318	118	Short & Sweet	$29.95	$23.96

and the extra bonus is that you only have to spend the $20 once and get as many discounted sets you like on that order. This offer expires 31st October, so check out your catalogues, or if you don’t have one yet, there are links here on my blog to the catalogues on the Stampin’ Up! website.

Let me know if there is anything I can help you with!

Long time no blog ... and Happy Birthday to my future daughter-in-law!

2008-10-14T20:06:00.006+11:00

Hello again -

Sorry it's been well over a week since my last blog post, but life just seems to get in the way sometimes!

I've been busy busy busy lately - not with anything in particular though, just generally busy.

On Friday night I caught up with my friend (and Stampin' Up! upline) Tanja, and her other downline Genna, and had a lovely night (well, night and morning, considering I didn't leave Genna's house until 2.00am!!) I didn't get a huge deal done though ... mostly chatted :) I did make a couple of cards and did some stamping to use on future cards, so all was not lost. Here's a nice simple male birthday card ....

We have just had a lovely weekend weather-wise here in Melbourne, so the boys and I (including the big boy!) got out into the garden on Saturday and tidied up the back yard - all the trees had become a bit overgrown since we've moved in, so we've chopped off a few branches, and pulled out a few shrubs that hadn't survived the drier conditions, and it looks soooo much tidier in our yard now. Nick even got the mower and whippersnipper out - I don't think the neighbours knew what those strange sounds coming from over the fence were! The whippersnipper protested a bit initially, but eventually Nick got it started, and away he went. Anyway, the garden is looking great - he even got out and did the nature strip!

Then, on Saturday night, we had our friends Greg and Brooke over for dinner, and so I could show them the mock-ups of their invitations (I'm making their wedding invitations for them) - and I was very pleased to see that they liked what I had prepared. They have decided which one they want, and I'm now organising to order everything in, so I can get cracking. I'm doing 50 invitations, 50 RSVP cards, and 100 placecards - so I'm going to be a busy little bee in the near future. The design they've decided on is using a lot of Stampin' Up! stuff - and is basically a replica of the invitation in the current Idea Book & Catalogue (which is what Brooke had asked for) ... and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Sunday was a sensationally sunny day, so we got out early and went to a couple of nurseries, and bought a few little plants to re-stock our newly tidied garden beds, and then headed home to watch Bathurst. It was a good race, but it never seems to have quite the level of excitement if it's not raining LOL. There was a very good tussle for position in the closing laps though, which made for excellent viewing.

And then, before I knew it ... it was time to head back to work yesterday. Bleh. Didn't have a bad day at work at all, but after such a lovely weekend, it's always icky being stuck back in an office.

Today was the usual Tuesday thing - swimming lessons for Ashton, and then to the playcentre - but today we had the added bonus of it being Hannah's second birthday! We gave her a gorgeous little handbag and purse (what is it with little girls and handbags??), some necklaces and bangles, and a plush Elmo - and she looked so cute running around the playcentre with Elmo poking out of her brand new handbag :)

Well, my scrapping to-do list is again at monolithic proportions, so I'd best get my little kidlets into bed and get to work.

Hope everyone has had a good week so far, and I'll talk to you again soon.

A quick card ...

2008-09-28T21:24:00.005+10:00

Evening all :)

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend ... it's a shame it's over so quickly though ...

Firstly - congratulations to all the Hawks supporters out there, and commisserations to all the Cats supporters! At least it turned out to be a great game. So often Grand Finals can be complete fizzers, but it was a very tight, tough tussle, and was very enjoyable to watch.

Just thought I'd show you the male birthday card that I did - with many many thanks to Tanja for the inspiration ...

I've made a few more cards today too, but by the time I remembered to take a pic, it was too dark outside, so they will need to wait until during the week.

Hope everyone has a lovely week, and GO WEBBER in the Singapore GP tonight :)

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

The Stamp Shak CC is on tonight!

2008-09-26T18:27:00.003+10:00

Hi all :)

Hope you've all had a lovely Friday ...

Just a quickie from me tonight - a reminder to you all that the Stamp Shak CC is on tonight.

There's no theme per se for this month's CC - it's been a 'grab bag', whereby all forum members had the chance to submit an instruction, and they were all thrown into a hat, and 3 instructions were drawn out for each challenge.

Here is my sample LO for one of tonight's challenges ... I'm being a bit sneaky and uploading it now (the CC is only just about to start ....), but I'm not going to say which challenge I've done, or what my instructions were, so I don't give anything away :) (Sorry about the crooked pic)

I'll be back again over the weekend to show you a nice little male birthday card I made last night for the Scrapchat september card swap - with many thanks to Tanja for the inspiration.

Have a great weekend!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

A quick Christmas card ...

2008-09-24T17:29:00.003+10:00

Hello all :)

Hope you're all having a lovely day so far! It's been quite a nice day in Melbourne town today, and it's going to be absolutely glorious tomorrow - 24 degrees and fine - so the girls and I are taking the kids to the Warrandyte Bakery park for a bit of a run around ... will be great to get out into the fresh air again.

Just a quick post from me today ... I participated in the Christmas Card swap through the Stamp Shak forum, and here is my little creation. I sent them off to Tiddlypeep, the swap organiser, today, and I'm looking forward to getting my selection back!

Well, my first official order of Stampin' Up! stuff arrived on my doorstep this morning, so I'm hoping to get around to making some lovely new cards with my lovely new stamps in the next few days or so.

I'll post up pics once they're done!

Hope everyone has a lovely Thursday, and go the Cats on Saturday!!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

It's nearly retreat time again!

2008-09-20T23:25:00.002+10:00

Hello all :)

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far.

It's been a busy week in the Bradford household ... the year seems to be absolutely flying by of late.

During this past week I signed up for the Very Special Getaway scrapbooking retreat, run by the Remember When Paper Company, in support of Very Special Kids. I went on this retreat last year (my first ever retreat!), and had a great time! I got to meet Tanja in person there for the first time last year, even though we'd been chatting on line for quite a while beforehand ... and we're both going to go again this year. The retreat this year is on the Cup Weekend again, but the venue has changed to the Black Spur Inn ... such a beautiful part of the world up there, I just LOVE the drive through the Black Spur :)

Well, my Stampin' Up! Starter Kit was waiting on my doorstep when I got home on Friday, and it was very exciting rifling through my new stamp sets and all the paperwork. There's quite a bit of reading ahead for me, but it all seems fairly straighforward. And now I need to sit down and make up some nice sample cards ... I placed my first order this morning too, so I should have another box (or 2 - thanks Vicki for helping to flesh out the order!!) arriving on my doorstep this week.

I've also decided that I'd like to see if I can sell some cards and gift cards to local florists etc., and there's also a few craft markets around here - so I'm aiming to make up a little stash and hopefully have a market stall at some stage in the future. If just one person buys a card that I've made, I will be happy :)

I had a quiet-ish day at home with the kids today while Nick was down racing at Phillip Island ... I do enjoy going down to watch him racing, but at the same time it does make my stomach turn watching him drive so fast around the track ... thankfully he didn't break anything on the car, and was able to (yet again) drive it home safely.

I finished off my Christmas cards for the swap at The Stamp Shak forum during the week (will take a pic and upload soon), and tonight I've made a card for the October card sketch challenge sample at Scrapchat, but as it's not October yet, and the challenge hasn't been listed, I can't show you! You'll just have to be patient :) My next item on the to-do list is the LO sketch challenge sample ... I need to decide on a sketch to use first!

Tomorrow is meant to be quite a nice day I think, so we'll hopefully be able to fit in a nice family outing somewhere. And I need some 'me' time too tomorrow - I've done stacks of housework today and entertained the kids from 6.30am until 10.30pm on my own (we had a friend over for dinner which means the kids got to stay up late), and I'm feeling VERY tired tonight.

As a matter of fact, it's actually bed time for me now ... I can't believe it's nearly tomorrow already.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday, and I'll talk to you soon.
Ness.
xx

Time for a change ...

2008-09-17T17:07:00.002+10:00

Yes, you're in the right place ... this is still Ness's Blog :)

I thought it was time for a bit of a change of scenery for the Blog, so I've chosen a new template for it, and will be working on updating the page elements etc. in the next couple of days, and I'll be incorporating a few Stampin' Up! links as well of course!

So ... you like?? Easy to read?? It's still all getting tweaked, so stay tuned ...

Just a quickie ...

2008-09-17T00:11:00.003+10:00

Evening all, or should I say morning all :) I seem to have lost a few hours tonight ... have been cleaning up and organising my scrap room a bit, and was surprised to look at the clock and see that midnight has already ticked over ... oh well ....

I just thought I'd show you a very quick card that Ashton and I whipped up today - one of the ladies that works with me was extremely generous and gave Ashton a HUGE box of LEGO the other day, because her kids no longer play with it - it's even got the instruction booklets and everything - and this massive box of LEGO has just doubled our entire LEGO stocks (and that's no mean feat!). It was so kind of her, so we made her this card today (and Ashton wrote on the inside), and we're going to take her a bunch of flowers tomorrow to say thank you :) It's very basic, but this is what Ashton wanted it to look like!

Oh, and I guess I can share my news with you now too - I got my confirmation email this morning - I've decided to sign up with Stampin' Up! as an Independent Demonstrator. My friend Tanja has been a Demonstrator with them for almost a year now, and is just loving it, so I decided to give it a go too. I'm only planning on being a Hobby Demonstrator, but would like to get into running workshops etc., once I've found my feet a little bit. I'm very much looking forward to receiving my Starter Kit later this week (hopefully), and also to meeting the other people in my team. Wish me luck!

And now, it really is bed time I'm afraid ...

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

So much going on ...

2008-09-16T09:12:00.003+10:00

Hello all ...

My life just seems to be in a bit of a blur at the moment! We had a lovely time for Ashton's bowling birthday party -all the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves, and so too did the parents that had a little game or two:D Nick excelled himself, getting the highest score I've ever seen him bowl - 155 - which was a bit weird, because I'd been telling everyone how bad he is at bowling LOL. The kids all loved the icecream cake, and then hit the amusement section, and before we knew it, it was time to head home, with two little exhausted kidlets. The whole day was really well run by the bowling centre, so I can highly recommend bowling birthday parties for kids.

I've been busy working on organising something for a couple of weeks now, so I hope to have some news for you about that soon ... it's nothing particularly earth-shattering, but it's still exciting! Anyway, I'm not going to say what it is until I have official confirmation, which should hopefully be in the next few days.

All this organising has meant that I have been in close contact with my friend Tanja, which has been great! I went down and caught up with her in Mornington on the weekend, and we just HAD to coincide our catch-up with a visit to Paper2. It would have been rude not to, really! I only bought a few little things ... I need to save my pennies to spend on other things in the near future :D

And, we have both decided to attend the Very Special Getaway again this year - a retreat organised by Remember When Paper Company, with all monies going to Very Special Kids. This is where Tanja and I physically met each other last year (having been chatting online for a bit) and we had a great time, so we're going in for another round :D It's held on the Melbourne Cup Weekend, so it's not long to go now!

Well, just a quick one from me today - I've got to get the kids ready to head to swimming lessons and then the playcentre, so I'll catch everyone later.

Hopefully I'll be able to tell you my news soon .... :)

Cheers!
Ness.

Happy birthday to Ashton!

2008-09-09T23:19:00.006+10:00

Hello all ... well, today is my biggest little man's 5th birthday - Happy Birthday Ashton!! - and I've been feeling slightly melancholy today - where have the last 5 years gone? It's been awesome watching him grow into the very special little man that he is, but time has just gone by way too fast.

We had a lovely day today - the usualy swimming lessons then the playcentre, and we had both sets of grandparents over for his birthday dinner tonight. And, because it was his birthday, Ashton was of course allowed to choose what he had for dinner - and he chose ROAST. Yummo!!

He got some great presents, including the school bag for when he starts primary school next year, the logo on which he recognised instantly (I have NO idea how!), an art set, Mr Men books, a telescope ... you get the idea. And, we're having his first official birthday party for him on Saturday (where children OTHER than just Emily and Thomas have been invited LOL), and we're going bowling -he's very much looking forward to it, as are all of the parents I think! Lucky I've hired the lane next to us as well, so the parents can have a game too :)

I managed to complete my LO for the first week of the Project Scrapaway challenge at Scrapchat too (see first pic) - and I'm happy with the result! Week 2's challenge sounds fantastic too, but time might just get away from me this week I think ... I'll do my best to get a LO done though!

I've recently become a bit addicted to Stampin' Up products - I bought a couple more stamp sets a couple of weeks back, and I think I really need to buy even more still! I have made a couple of cards in the last day or so (the last one being a pretty close copy to one of the samples in the current Ideas Book), and I do just love the Stampin' Up products.

Here's the card I made for Ashton's 5th birthday ...

And here's an 'elegant' card I did for a challenge on my friend Tan's website Compulsive Scrapbooker ...

And here is my very close interpretation (read: almost exact replica!) of a card from the current Stampin' Up Idea book and catalogue.

And finally, here is the LO that I created as one of the Guest DT's for September for Scrap 'n' Craft with 'T'. I'm really happy with how this one turned out :)

Well, I hope everyone has had a lovely week so far! Thanks for looking, and I'll no doubt talk to you soon.

Cheers,
Ness.

It's sketch challenge time again -

2008-08-31T18:37:00.007+10:00

Hello all :D

Well, I can't believe that it's the end of August already - where is the time going?? What with renovating and sickness and socialising at all the 5th birthday parties, this month has just flown!

And, being the end of the month, it's also time for me to upload the sketch challenges again for Scrapchat. And, yet again, these sketches have been taken from the wonderful Pagemaps site.

Here is the card sketch ...

And my sample, which I've turned into a Father's Day card (kills 2 birds with 1 stone)

And here is the LO sketch ...

And my sample ... (I can put the pic back now that edition 67 of Scrapbook Creations is out :)

For this LO, I had a play with flocking for the first time (the title, and the tips of the flower, have both been flocked). And, it was fun! Messy, but fun. I successfully managed to flock most of the work surfaces in my craft room I think, but after a little bit of practice, I seemed to get the hang of it, and can't wait to use it again! I think next time though I'll use slightly more substantial chipboard - will just make handling it that little bit easier.

I got my flocking through the wonderful Gypsy at Scrapchat, and I believe you can also purchase packs of the flocking in about a dozen or so colours at the newly launched Scrapchat Craft Exchange. This is a fantastic new auction site that Gypsy has started up, where people can buy, sell or swap their excess scrapbooking and general craft supplies. I have a heap of tapestry wool skeins and embroidery cottons left over from when Dad had his shop, and I need to bundle them up and try and sell them off too. And I'm sure I've got some patterned papers that I just don't think I'll get around to using .... there are heaps of auctions underway already, so it's well worth the look!

My LO for the August photo swap is slowly coming along - it's meant to be finished today, but I've been a bit held up ... sorry Kylie! I'm working on it tonight, so should hopefully have something to show you in the next day or so.

And, Project Scrapaway was launched with a bang on Friday night at Scrapchat as well - it's a 10-week challenge, where participants have to complete LOs each week that meet 5 certain specifications, and depending on how well they meet those specifications, and how quickly they upload to the gallery, participants will be awarded points each week. There are no eliminations for this competition - it's purely based on a points tally. The first challenge has been listed at Scrapchat now - I'm not in the running to win, but I'll be trying to complete the challenges anyway - always love a good challenge.

Here's the first week's challenge ....

MONOCROMATIC

Yes I want you to design a monocromatic layout with lots of tones of Blue.

Our 5 design elements needed for this challenge are:-

1. Must have at least 3 different tones of blue.

2. Must include 2 photo's.

3. Must include ribbon.

4. Must have journalling.

5. Must have a stamped image.
Remember ladies, you need to first sketch your idea and then put it into practice when you complete your layout.

Try to use all the design elements to maximise the amount of points you will receive as the winner of round one will be the one with the most points.

Please upload your sketch and layout to the gallery by 6.00pm Thursday.

Hopefully I'll get to have a go at this tomorrow night ....

Oh, and I'm not in the running to win the prize for Project Scrapaway, because I have recently been 'promoted' to Administrator for the Scrapchat forum, just to give Gypsy a bit of extra help with everything that's going on. There are heaps of new things planned for the forum - it's already bustling, and is only going to get busier. :)

Well, I'd better get off the computer and actually start doing some scrapping ... the clock's ticking, and I'm not getting ANYTHING done! Thanks for reading my ramblins, and I hope everyone has a lovely week.

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xx.

So sick of being sick ...

2008-08-21T00:22:00.002+10:00

Hello all!

Sorry I haven't blogged again for a while, but the Bradford household has again been struck down with a bit of illness of late - which has unfortunately meant that I myself have been unwell for 2 weekends running now, and that's just not on!

Thankfully, it's only been a really bad head cold each time, so life could still essentially continue, but boy did I feel miserable while I was soldiering on. I just wasn't feeling even the slightest bit creative ...

And, I also decided to give Liam's room a bit of a freshen up - we bought a new bed for Ashton, so that Liam could have Ashton's old bed, and given that Liam's has been painted pink since we moved in, I thought it was high time we made it into a boy's room. I painted the walls blue, the trim a glossy white, and even went as far as making new curtains for the windows - Elmo print, of course! And to top it off, while I had all the painting equipment out, I gave the laundry a freshen up as well :)

So, that took up a weekend and my evenings for the following week as well, and as a result I have had a massive scrapping to-do list which has been building and building, and it's all due by the end of the month. Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, eh?

I have slowly been working through things, and I'm happy to say that I've knocked over the card and LO sketch samples for Scrapchat (and in doing so prepared a Father's Day card as well!), and I've done the CC sample LO for the Stamp Shak CC which is coming up this Friday night.

Now I just need to do some cards for a card swap, a guest DT layout for Scrap'n'Craft with 'T' and the August photo swap LO for Yillup. She'll be right mate!

I'm having a little get together at my house on Saturday - a friend who is an independent Stampin' Up demonstrator is coming to show off the new range, and we're all going to have a nice little cardmaking session, so hopefully I'll knock over the card swap cards on the weekend. Then I've got all next week to get 2 LOs done - easy!

Just remind me not to renovate again will you ...

August challenges for Scrapchat ...

2008-08-02T00:04:00.001+10:00

Just thought I'd share with you the sketch challenges I've posted for August for Scrapchat ... both sketches are courtesy of Pagemaps.

Here is the card sketch ...

... and my sample card -

And here is the LO sketch ...

... and my sample LO (note that I've turned the sketch on its side for the sample).

The Bradford family had a lovely day yesterday - Nick's had a couple of days off for all the overtime he worked last week and on the weekend, so yesterday we took the boys up to Lake Mountain for a few hours, and had a great session of tobogganing and snowball fights!

Liam's still a little unsure of the white stuff falling from the sky (it actually snowed a bit while we were there, which was very special), but at the same time sees Ashton enjoying himself so wants to get involved. I'm sure that on our next trip to the snow, be it this year or next, Liam's going to relax a little and actually start having fun :)

Frantic day at work for me today finishing stuff up for my boss who is on three weeks holiday as of Monday morning. The best part about putting in a bit of overtime tonight? I don't have to do any typing on Monday! And the best part about him going away for three weeks? I've already been told that I can bring my scrapping into work because there won't be anything else to do! How good is that??

Well, it's very late, and I'm very tired, so I will leave it there for now ...

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Thanks for looking, and I'll talk to you soon,
Ness.

My top 10 ...

2008-07-30T00:10:00.004+10:00

Hello all :)

Just thought I'd share quickly my attempt at Challenge 2 for the Stamp Shak July CC - layout had to include a list of my Top 10 songs, and a photo of me as well.

I guess this just shows I like my music a little on the heavier side :)

There have been some fantastic entries for the CC this month - it's going to be VERY hard to decide who to vote for!

I've finished off my layout for the final challenge tonight, but it's too late to be taking pics now, so will share that shortly too.

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