Exstinked ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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!!

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!

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 ...

Hello all -

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

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

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

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

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

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

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

Well hello again everyone -

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

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

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





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

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


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

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

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

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

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

Midnight screening of New Moon ....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At long last ... some work to show!

Hello there again everyone :)

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

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

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






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

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

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

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

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

Ness.
xoxo

Busy busy busy ...

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

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

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

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

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

Wish me luck!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

I'm still alive!

Hello again :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Well, the time has come ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ness.
xoxo

Busy busy busy ....

Hello all :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Sketch challenge time again ...

Hello again :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the layout sketch ...


And my sample layout ...


And here is the card sketch ...


And my sample card ...


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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

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

Hello all :)

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

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

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



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

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

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Happy birthday Scrapchat!

Hello all :)

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

It's out!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Yet more cards ...

Hello again :)

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







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




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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Finally!!

Hello all :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo