Trying new things

So... I have never liked the look or sound of 'green smoothies' they sound terrible and look rather displeasing too. I have a gym instructor that often talks about them and another friend that is a huge fan. I promised said friend I'd give them a go (you know rather than judge them with out trying - as I'd been doing!) Anyhow I signed up to a free 30 day challenge from Incredible Smoothies. I'd signed up and had the emails come in for a couple of weeks before I finally took the plunge. I've been failing at meal planning so I took the leap and put down one week of smoothies for breakfast as well as lots of other healthy meals for lunch and dinner! I've got a goal of 4kgs to lose before my cruise!
Yesterday was the day for smoothie number 1 (which is actually week 2 of the challenge - I'd lost the first email- but the lady that runs the challenge was lovely and resent it). This smoothie was pretty good! I didn't gag which is what I was expecting haha. I could taste the kiwi and the pineapple and the spinach didn't make an impact other than to colour the drink. The only things that could have made it better was if the pineapple was sweeter and if I'd thrown some ice into the smoothie, it was tepid because the almond milk was only made that morning and didn't have a chance to get cold. Neither of these 'bad' things are the fault of the smoothie though :)

Here is my dinner. It's 12wbt Chicken Parmigiana. Michael cooked this!! I was at the gym doing a double class, so he cooked, I'd prepared the salad earlier. I am pretty impressed! I think I might have to make him cook more often. Haha!

Recent Events

Well here I am posting again, almost a record for recent years :D

Call me crazy, but a couple of weeks ago while cheering on my friend Kerry who was completing the 200km 'Ride to Conquer Cancer', I decided to join up! It is a little crazy right? It's a massive challenge, but one I'm excited to partake in. There is a massive fundraising goal of $2500 before I can ride and I have one year to collect that money. If you would like to donate to the cause and help me to get on the road the you can do so HERE. I am so lucky I have my wonderful gym buddies joining me as well as an extended friend group. It's going to be an amazing journey.

I also have to report back, I won the Crafters Cupboard challenge! I'm so excited!! I am totally going to buy some more Jofty Stamps! Love them. Make sure you check out the newest competition over at CC's blog!

Art Journal Page

I am pretty sure this is the first AJ page I've ever posted to my blog. I can't even remember when I started doing Art Journaling, it came somewhere after ATCs and Canvases lol. I'm yet to actually finish off a whole book and I have several 'types' on the go. I never really 'journal' more just play with paint, stamps, stencils etc etc.


The colours used are either dylusions or pritt pens, the main stamps are paperartsy (Jofy). I also used a dylusion stamp at the top for the boarder. I can't recall what the alphabet stamp was (it's a wooden block one that I've not yet pulled apart to use haha). A bunch of different stencils have been used.

Long time no speak

So it seems a really really long time has gone by without a blog post. Where to start?
I was going to come and blog in mid 2012 when I was lucky enough to meet Tim Holtz and do one of his classes here in Australia. I had so much fun and it's something I often look back and smile about. Somehow I never found the time to blog (actually my stupid blogger program stopped working and I HATE using the site to blog).

I posted many a meal here that I ate while doing the CSIRO diet, I ended up going off that, and putting back on most of my weight. Over the last 2 years I've done a mixture of diets/eating styles and am currently doing my own thing, but enjoying recipes from Symply Too Good To Be True (Annette Sym) and also 12WBT, I also get inspiration from Skinny Taste and Slender Kitchen. I am down 56kgs.

Along with the losing weight I've also been getting healthier. I go to the gym most days and even participate in the local Parkrun. I really love the event and I recommend it to everyone! It's a free 5km timed event, and best of all you don't have to run! You can walk, crawl or run :) The kids can be involved and even your dogs!

I haven't been that active in the garden in the last 6-12 months, I had a poor result with my spring plantings last year (due to going away for several weeks at a time in Aug, Sept and Nov), so I ended up with bought seedlings, but then I had friends come and stay for a 'couple of weeks' which turned into 5 months, and somehow routine and things got turned around and I didn't head out to the garden much.

Craft also suffered having people stay, as we only have a small house, I had to pack away my craft table so for about 5 months I didn't get anything done, unless I went away. I'm back on crafting though, and I've been having a lot of fun with that lately. I recently did a "Supplies on Hand" course with May, which I learnt some new things and can't wait to try out.

In January next year I'm heading off with my mother and one of my bestest friends for a craft cruise! We're going on the Voyager of the Seas with Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door! I am so excited I can't wait!!

OK that's enough blathering for me! I will be back soon and post some of what I've been up to. I promise not to be a stranger :D

Give away!

http://purplepumpkincrafts.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/purple-pumpkin-giveaway.html


Check it out!!

Candy Baby!

Go visit Stampin Stuff for a chance at winning some great Timmy Candy!!

http://stampinstuff.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/blog-candy.html

Long time no post..

Does it ever change? Lol

Been up to lots of different things. Gardening, scrapping, hanging out with friends and going away :) It is the life!
The garden has been going well. Had some awesome harvests over the summer months. I started tracking my harvests in Dec, but January was my first full month

Here is how I have been going..

Garden Harvests 2012	Kg	$
January	41.35	$229
February	3154	$141
March	27.88	$151

Things have slowed considerably now we’re coming into winter. This month is nearly over and I’ve only harvested about $60 worth of food. I have yet to weigh up all my pumpkins though :)
I have planted a heap of stuff for winter. I hope that it does well. I didn’t have much luck with broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower last year.
For winter I’ve planted.. Bok choi, tat soi, pak choi, beetroot, garlic, onions, red onions, spring onions. leeks(2 varieties), kale, 2 varieties of spinach, 2 silverbeet/chards, cabbage and mini cabbage, mini cauliflower, broccoli, peas – many varieties, broad beans(2 varieties) and 2 varieties of carrots… I think that’s it.. LOL!
Here is my most recent April photo of my garden it was taken at the start of the month though.

A lot of that has of course changed now. It’s funny how fast it can change.

Ok no promises but I shall try to blog a little more often over the winter months :D

Candy!!

Hey head over to Cassie’s blog - http://cassiesscraps.blogspot.com.au/. There are two awesome giveaways to be had!!

Stencils 101

WOW! Ok I really really suck at using stencils, and now I know all the reasons why, and so can you. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has a FREE class on them, it has heaps of videos and tips. Visit her blog http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/ and click on classes. Then scroll down to Stencils 101 and follow her instructions to get access.
I made myself tags so I know what to do and what NOT to do. I used chalkboard spray as my ‘spray’ and even when I sprayed fairly close, it didn’t bleed under the tag as much as I thought it should have, so I’ll be doing some using glimmermist and homemade glimmermist, just in case there is a difference. I also have another couple of ways I want to try out – inkpad direct, chalks and something I’ve forgotten haha.
Thanks again Julie! Was an awesome class :)

First tag is using Goosebumps spray (FUN!)

Btw get too and DO this class, I think it is only up til the end of 2011 :(

12 Tags of Christmas

Well I fell behind on the 12 tags. This is Day 10. We had Michael’s work Christmas party on Sunday, so wasn’t able to get that day done and only just got day 11 done tonight just before Tim put up day 12.
I couldn’t find my fragments for day 10’s piece and I couldn’t find my shrinkee’s for day 11 LOL. Good thing though, for day 12 I just got a box of the tissue paper in the mail on Sunday LOL. Funny too, as I used it as the background for tag 10, which I made BEFORE Tim put up his ‘using it as a background’– Great minds and all that!!

Here is day 11’s.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 9

Here we are at day 9, only 3 days to go :( I’ve enjoyed challenging myself everyday. I’m going to have to find new challenges :D

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 8

Well I’m a few minutes late getting this one up. Michael came home and I got busy. Had actually gotten this done last night, so was more just slack getting the photo done.
I meant to add a holly and berries to the blokes hat, might add it later :)

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 7

Well uploaded and more than 10 Minutes to spare…. Pretty good
I really liked Tim’s tag today. I couldn’t do most of what he did as I didn’t have the same gear. Instead of the glassine paper, I stamped a flower/flourish image on PP then crumpled it up. I ran the inkpad over the paper and painted Tattered Angels GlimmerGlam over it. Added some flowers, pearls and some fibres. Topped it with a distressed ‘peace’ :)

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 6

Uploaded with about 1 min to spare.. I think I’m getting worse :P
I like the background of my piece today. I didn’t use daubers, just used some regular acrylic ink. I had to apply it twice to stop the silver coming through.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 5

It is really hard to see the detail on this piece, the main part is acetate, so it’s really hard to take a good photo of it.
I like todays technique, I had done it before, but done it on smaller pieces. When it came to blotting and rubbing the archival ink off it was harder as it had started to dry a little and the alcohol ink made it sticky. It’s a little more grungy than it should be, but I like it :)
Made it on to the blog with 2 mins to spare today, because I spent 25 mins looking for my camera LOL!

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 4

Finished with 13 minutes to spare today LOL. My best friend rang me this arvo and we chatted away merrily for 45 minutes. When I hung up I remembered I had to get cracking on my tag :O
I followed Tim’s instructions on my bauble with the stains- then crackle paint. Once it had dried and I added the stains on top I had all the crackle lifting off as I tried to wipe it.. Not sure what I did wrong so I added a top coat of glossy accents over the top.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 3.

Here we are at Day 3 and I am posting in the last minutes of the day LOL! I was at a 12 hour crop yesterday so that cut into a good chunk of ‘Timmy time’. Here is my piece for today. It’s fairly basic, which is good as time was running short.
Thanks for stopping by.

12 Tags of Christmas

Day 2

Wow, I can hardly believe it. I’ve already done day 2. I didn’t have any of the resist paper that Tim had, so I made my own :). I stamped some green spotted paper with Music from Dark Room Door. I then stamped it with a boarder stamp also from DRD. I embossed that image. I rubbed over it with the distress stains then stamped the two Christmas images from Kaisercraft. I added a ‘on the edge’ diecut then added some trim and a diecut from Kaisercraft. Woot. 2/2 :)

12 tags of Christmas

Day 1

I am stoked that I actually finished Day 1, on Day 1, with 7 mins to spare LOL!
Here is my interpretation of Tim’s tag, and his techniques. I embossed the background and just inked over it. For the bird I followed Tim’s ‘embossing – embossing’. I made scrunched flowers using the distressed flower die. My leaves are from the Autumn leaves die. The inking of the background paper/leaves/flowers was using the ‘baking paper technique’ (Distress inks on baking paper-glass-craft mat-whatever and then spritzing water over it and putting your paper on that)
I’ve not added a tie to the top, I am going to stick them down to a mini book

Time Flies?

WOW.. March is the last time I blogged.. that’s ages ago lol. Hmm a lot has happened and at the same time, not much haha. Haven’t dieted in a while. Really enjoyed the CSIRO diet, didn’t lose heaps of weight, though I wasn’t exercising etc, so I guess it’s to be expected. It was pretty easy to stick to and I will go back ‘on’ it. Really it is more of a lifestyle change than a real diet.
Went up to Qld for a couple of weeks. Had an alright time. I went up to Bundy for one of my best and oldest friends 30th, unfortunately her father in law passed away and she ended up having to go to Brissy so we only saw each other once.

Haven’t scrapped lots this year. Have been rather slack on the swaps too.. Hopefully 2012 will be a better scrappy year :)

The garden has been going along really well. Have got all of our spring/summer stuff on the go atm. My favourite time of the year- food wise :)

Have crop for a cause this weekend. Lots of stuff to make and chatting to do. Tim Holtz has his 12 tags of Christmas again this year so am planning to join in.  - which is why I ventured over to my blog LOL!