The CD has arrived ...

Hello all!

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

The sneak peek ....

Hello again -

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

A double woohoo for a double layout!!

Hello again -

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

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

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

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

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

Talk to you soon,
Ness.

xoxo

Woohoo! Finally, a Fiji photo layout ...

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.

Uh oh .....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.

More CJ entries completed ....

Hello again ...

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

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

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

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

Nadine - yours is next on my list ...

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Another CJ entry complete ...

Hello again -

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Kraft It Up! submission accepted ...

Hello again ...

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

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

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

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

Finally .... a layout has been completed!

Hello again -

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

Ooooh it's been a while ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I forgot to post up this layout ...

Hello all!

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

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

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

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

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

A lovely little holiday over the Easter break ...

Hello again - long time no blog!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Talk to you soon,
Ness.
xoxo

I've been busy again ...

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

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

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

Here's how the cards turned out ...

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

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

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

Cheers,
Ness.
xoxo

A few more things to show you ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's my layout sketch sample ...

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 ...

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 ...

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