{ Chance Meetings }

~ LAYOUTS ~
First a couple of layouts, the first one is my baby, Bronte and I used a song by Van Morrison in this one, which I love, called, Into The Mystic. Love the dreamy look on her face in this pic.
Credits: Textured Overlay from Scrap Artist. I also grunged it up a bit more with standard PS brushes.

Next one is my bigger baby Quinn, this is the pic I posted last time, which I just love. The frame is by C Borgfield, but I am not sure where it is from, sorry, also the brushes are just free downloads from somewhere, but I can't remember where. I wish people would name their brushes so I can give due credit. The background and word art are by me.


~ BREAK ~
Hope you all had a great Australia Day and long weekend. We came back a day early as the weather wasn’t great and was going to get worse. But it was nice while it lasted! Got to finish my audible book and got lots of relaxing in, and a lovely walk along the beach and we also got to sit on the beach, all snuggled up with the girls and watch the comet which was pretty spesh, so we did fit a lot in for the short time we were there!

Also met these lovely people that were camping behind our friends, I was in the van and heard Brian chatting to them, and came out and had a short chat, I thought they mentioned something about lambs and that they were from Thorpdale, so I assumed they were Sheep Farmers, then they went off to cook dinner and we ate ours. During dinner Brian mentioned that they were actually potato farmers, I said that Shez’s parents were from Thorpdale and they probably knew Shez’s family, later on we started chatting again.
I said “I have a friend whose parents are potato farmers in Thorpdale, you might know her family. I can’t remember her maiden name but her married name is Sherryll Ray, do you know them?”
The lady (Joan), said “Sherryll Ray…hmmmm….OH!!!! Sherryll Ray, that’s our daughter!!!!!!!”
ROFL!!!
Then they asked my name, which I said, and before I had a chance to explain how I knew Shez, they both exclaimed “You're Lee!!! You’re to blame for our daughters’ obsession!”
“That’s me”, I say sheepishly! LOL. What a small, small world we live in! They are just the loveliest people, not that I am surprised, their daughter is very special and a great, true and loyal friend to boot!

We are busy today doing more stuff around the house, painting old pots and clearing a few more boxes from the garage, we are also clearing a spot for one of those slimline sheds in the backyard, mainly to house the lawn mower and maybe the bikes, if they fit. I would dearly love to be able to move in our garage, but it is chock full of CRAP! LOL Then we are going to do a bit of plant shopping tomorrow, severely restrained by our budget, we are also in desperate need of a doorbell, all our friends have taken to ignoring the front door and coming straight round the back as we never hear it!! LOL

~ CAMERA CLUB ~
Shez, Tenille (a friend from Brian's work), and I all went off to the Coal Country Camera Club meeting on Tuesday night. It was a great night and I look forward to more meetings. They have field trips and weekends away and best of all, families are welcome on the trips! The level of skill there is amazing and more than a little intimidating, but I just know I will learn heaps and best of all the people were lovely!

~ INTERESTING STUFF ~
Well, at least I was interested LOL. First this blog had me in hysterics http://www.thingsmyboyfriendsays.com/ it could be my sense of humour but I hope you get a giggle too, I should mention that there is some 'colourful' language going on here, so beware.
Also thought this was pretty groovy too, some interesting effects...http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic/ . This is a blog I stumbled across, I have no idea how, but I did http://dooce.com/, the interesting thing I liked on this blog was this series of pics here http://www.3situations.com/BillSullivanWorks/MT4.html loved the candid looks on all the faces, wish I had the courage to set up and take pics of random people like this. I found myself wondering about each persons life and where they are going and where they are now...like I said, interesting, at least to me... ;-)

Have a great day and go spread some happiness ;-)

{ Disaster Strikes }

~ ROAD TRIP ~

Let's start with the good stuff first. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend, well Sunday anyway. We went for a drive to Tarra Bulga National Park. First arriving at Bulga and doing one of the beautiful walks across the huge swing bridge, then back in the car and a short drive to Tarra Falls, which is just a scenic stop on the side of the road. All the falls we saw were in a sorry state, but the surrounds were lovely. Then down to Tarra and a lovely stroll into the falls there we we had a yummy picnic on the rocks right in front of the falls. Then we walked out again and started the next leg of our road trip to Agnes Falls which is at Toora. It is a divine place completely hidden in the rolling hills of dairy farms, but when you drive in there is a huge rock gorge with a huge waterfall (just a trickle of water though). It is the highest single span waterfall in Victoria (see top left, not my pic). We can't wait to go back in winter and see it with lots of water cascading down. We also saw the wind farms there too, quite spectacular up close and more than a little mesmerising. We decided not to have our afternoon tea there as the flies were just awful (another good reason to go back in winter). On we drove to Walkerville Beach where we spread out a picnic blanket on the beach and ate Turkish Bread and Dip. Yummy. And then on to home we went. The girls loved it, because they got to do some hiking and they also got to try out their Christmas present too, the portable 2 screen in car DVD player. So between places it was quite peaceful! The next 3 pics were taken on the day. I really love the B & W one of Quinn, the colour one had a terrible green cast to it because it was taken in the rain forest but in black and white it's just divine (at least I think so). :) The next two were also taken on the day, the web is slightly blurry because it was quite breezy, but I am pretty happy with it anyway. CLICK ON THE PICS FOR A LARGER VIEW)

~ A WEDDING ~

Saturday, we went and had a peek at my Day Care ladies, daughters' wedding, (does that make sense). She just looked beautiful. I only got 3 shots of her and I was not in a great spot, but I just love this one. I can't wait to give it to her Mum on Monday! I hope they like it!

~ LAYOUTS ~

Just realised it must look like I am playing favourites, will have to make some more of Bronte before I get into trouble! The first one (Little Ray Of Sunshine), is made with a Rhonna Farrer frame brush and various free brushes. Background is by me. The next one is Seriously Sweet, Seriously Special, again background made by me using a huge variety of free brushes. The last one, Book Worm, uses a frame from Scrap Artist and the rest is by me.

~DISASTER~

OK, now for the disaster. I think my camera is very very sick. Last night a tried to clean the sensor, as I have done before, with a can of compressed air, only

this time, some sort of residue spurted out before the air came and landed on the sensor, I am beside myself! I took straight down to the camera store today and they have sent it into Nikon, but it will be away for at least 4-6 weeks :( I use it almost everyday, so I am not sure how I will cope without it!

Disaster two is our bloody car. Our car heater has been broken for a few months now, so we finally were able to afford to get it fixed, which is a big job as they have to take the whole dash out. We took it in Tuesday morning, they said they would try and get it back that day, if not Wednesday, inconvenient, but sometimes these things happen. Well now it's Friday and it was finally ready today. Except when Brian went to pick it up, they said that they had forgotten to attach the hose and would need it back next week, well that was bad enough, but then on the way home Brian also noticed that the speedo isn't working and nor are the indicators! Man I am ticked!

Not happy Jan!

BBSPF

Oh well, I think next week will be better :). Please tell me it will.....

{ Sex and Seduction }

That title got your attention, didn't it! ;) hehe

At the lovely Lis's urging I thought it best to post this... (You can check out results at Angela and MiYon's blogs too).

And just a little layout dedicated to all the champagne lovers out there!

Oh and as you can see I have had yet another blog makeover and whilst I loved my previous banner, I didn't make it so I was never happy, so I re did it again, using a banner I did myself as well as all the other graphics and titles. I think it was an avoidance thing...still haven't done those calendars! ;)

Have a great night :)

{ Layouts etc }

~ LAYOUTS ~
Here are 4 more layouts I have done recently. Top one I used brush frames from Scrapartist.com. The Christmas layout uses brushes by Anna Aspnes and the Puzzle one uses a stamped alpha by Michelle Coleman. Click on them for a better view.

Top ones are pics taken at Seaspray...just love that place.

Quote Reads:
Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments and running toward whitened waves like the homesick refugees of a long war. Loren Eiseley.

~ REAL LIFE... ~
... has returned with a bang. I am back at work and while I still enjoy it I miss my family terribly, especially when I know they are at home without me! It's been very hard getting my sleeping habits back in order too, I have always been a night owl and have had to try and curb it since I started working 4 days, at the moment I am still going to bed about 2am but it has been soooo hard getting up in the morning...I will make a concerted effort to start getting to bed at a reasonable time!

~ CHESS UPDATE ~
Quinn has beaten me 3 times now :( and Brian once. She is getting really good

now, and I am going to have to start giving my full attention when I play her!

~ RELAX ~
My word is going pretty good actually, a few times I have started to stress about things and then realised that it's not important so I think I am making headway there...hope it continues!

~ THANK YOU ~
To the lovely person that sent me a voucher for my birthday, it was very sweet and I wish you would tell me who you were so that I could thank you properly! Anyway thanks again :)

~ NEXT PROJECT ~
is calendars, I usually do one for Brian, my MIL and myself (for work) so I really want to try and knock them over on the weekend, which might happen since the girls have a party on Saturday...we'll see. That reminds me, I actually did one for a Kris Kringle present, it turned out really well, especially since I had no photos of/for the person I made it for, I ended up using stock pics and I think it turned out great (well OK anyway)...might get around to posting it here one day...or maybe not! LOL

Again life is good for me and my family at the moment! Hope you are all having the same luck as me! Have a great day everyone....

{ Some layouts & a Word... }

These are layouts that were all done for our MAC digi girls using their photo's. I have revamped and changed them to suit my own pics and here they are.....

Oh and the bottom one is a new one :)

Been busy around the house this week while we are both off work together. While I have missed camping it has been lovely being able to spend some time at home. We have managed to do a bit, and spend some time with the girls playing their new favourite game, Chess. Quinn has already beaten me, so I will have to work on my strategy I think!

Went and saw Happy Feet with the girls on Thursday, which was good (not fantastic IMHO), managed to pick out all the light fittings for the house, now we have a 4-6 week wait for an electrician, which I hate! Can't stand waiting for stuff when I am all set to go LOL.

Which brings me to my next thing. I read a great article by Ali Edwards about a tradition she started for herself, where she chooses a word for herself at the beginning of the year and tries to incorporate it into her every day life. I thought this was a great idea. Her word for 2006 was Play and this year it is Peace. I have decided on the word RELAX for me for 2007.

I can be quite regimented in regards to time (I hate being late) and definitely like things done a certain way. If we are running late for school or other social events I am a RAVING nut, yelling and carrying on etc etc LOL. If I make a mistake at home or at work I am very very hard on myself and tend to get very angry, even though any one else would and does think my error is minor I can't help but get very disappointed. I intend to try and RELAX more and try and accept situations for what they are. If there is no real importance in what's happened, I will TRY not to let it bother me so much!
I also have a tendency to be very very strict with my girls, whilst they are shown an immeasurable amount of love, I can be quite hard on them and expect a lot. I think I need to acknowledge that they are great kids now and I can RELAX a little on the every day stuff. I am constantly told by family, friends, teachers etc how well behaved they are and well mannered etc etc, so I guess O need to start giving them a little more leway. I WILL RELAX. So I guess that is my New Years resolution in part. We'll see how it goes....

I have resolved to try not to web surf anymore, I keep finding things I really really want and can't have LOL! This is the latest! Oh well...hope the increase in my hours comes soon! LOL Also lusting after Foto Fusion and several books too! Including all the quote books the lovely Angela has. The list is never ending! I will resolve to be happy with all the wonderful things I actually have, including and most importantly my family and friends.


Have a great day! :)

Oh you should be able to click on the layouts for a larger view.

LAYOUT CREDITS
All papers and backgrounds made by me. Also used brushes from Anna Aspnes and Denise Docherty.