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!

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

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!

Busy Busy

Wow where do the months go? Last post for inchies was at the start of July. I never realised when I decided to take photos of each individual inchie it was going to amount to over 1000 photos LOL. So I must admit I’ve been a little slack picking up the camera. My ‘4 a day’ plan for inchies fell away too LOL. I’ve still got about 20 inchies to take photos of, but at this rate I’m going to have to step up to 6 inchies a day if I want to get to 1k by the end of the year.

August was a fun month.
Start of the month I went to C4AC with my local girls. We had a great day, with some scrapping achieved, but mostly talking :D
Went up to Brissy to surprise my best mate for her 30th birthday. It was so awesome, the look on her face still makes me smile to myself. We had a lot of fun and managed to stay out of mischief… We must be growing up?? LOL.
After I came back from Qld I stayed 1 night at home then was up to mum’s house for a 1/2 a week and then to our retreat at Cave Hill Creek.
All in all August was a spectacular month.

  

Sad :’(

We got some sad news today that Darren a mate from the farm passed away last week. Darren was a top bloke, he was always willing to help and one to do the right thing. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends. 
Rest In Peace ‘Big Fella’ 

Stuff about Stuff

Car Accident/Insurance

Well I am really happy, mum got a call from the insurance agency and it looks like the lady’s insurance will pay out $3,400. The assessor actually looked at the car as a whole, not just the paint job, which honestly surprised us. We were expecting them to be stingy and go the low end of her market value, even though her car was in excellent working condition. One good thing, in August/Sept while mum was O/s she wanted us to go and get it repainted for her, but the cost was quiet high, so we didn’t.. Good thing too or a few months later it would have been a waste!!

Local Scrapping

Have been having a lot of scrapping with some of my local scrap-a-holics lol. It’s really great to scrap with others, I never achieve much, but I have a good time none the less. I got sick of carrying my stuff around in plastic bags, so I bought myself a tote. It was $62.50 from my LSS, it was down from $125 ;)

Retreat

I am going on a local retreat. It’s held just out of Bacchus Marsh and is at the end of May. I am really excited. Kylie let me know about it, but quiet a few from our scrappy circle will be going. So it will be great!

ATC Challenge Blog

The girls have been doing so well keeping up. We’ve already given away a few prizes. Some more will be coming up soon. Week 26 is our big give away (you have to have done 26/26 ATC’s but if you haven’t been with us since the start that’s ok, you just need to get them all done by week 26.)

The way the year’s flying I’d best think of something for week 52 lol.

Inchies and ATC swaps

There’s another inchie swap on the group. Theme is Nature. I can’t wait to see what the girls come up with!! Signups are open until the 7th of March.
There is also a Wings ATC Swap, signups close on the 10th of March.

Inchies

Hello everyone! Hope you all are well. Sore here, but doing well. Mum has gone home today, Michael had to drive her home. He’ll be picking her up next weekend so she can look at cars (for those that don’t know we were in a car accident that wrote off mum’s car when a lady ran up our behind)
Haven’t done much in the way of craft this week. Had a great weekend last weekend in Qld for my birthday. My best mate gave me a $50 to her local scrapping store, so I bought some great stuff :) Thanks again Shannon!!

Here are some of my inchies. There is the black and white swap, time swap and the Edgar Allen Poe swap. The heart is the “Tell-Tale Heart” inchie opened :) Click to see larger.

 

Christmas Presents…

I made some button fairies for presents. I made one to go in Helen’s Secret Santa pack, I made one for Shannon and one for Stacey as a ‘tide you over’ Christmas present (I haven’t finished their actual presents.. LOL) Here are the button fairies..

Amost home time

Well our flights from KL were pretty good.. Food was not however lol!
Flying home today from Brissy to Melb. Looking forward to getting back and getting my clothes washed properly LOL.. Bath tub washing just isn't cutting it :) Was going to do some here at Shannon's but forgot yesterday. Will be so good to see Michael again!! Mum too, we haven't seen each other since she started HER trip on 17th August.. Been a while :)

KL

We arrived in KL yesterday, have had an awesome time here today and yesterday. Got to go to bed now, waking in 5 hours for our flights :(
Has been a great holiday! Hope to have photos up soon. No where at the hotel here to plug the camera in to.

Well today we had huge plans.. And they kind of fell apart. We were going to go to the elephants, then museum, aquarium and then off to the 3 big stores in Phuket then the night markets.. BUT on the way to the elephants a motorcycle ran into us. He was ok thank god, but his bike didn't fare so well.
We got our lift to drop us just up from our hotel and we did a little shopping. We caught up with them later in the night and they ended up being at the police station for hours. It was the motorcycles fault, his brakes wouldn't work.
Ended up going back to the hotel, getting the elephant people to pick us up and we went and had the MOST AWESOME TIME riding the elephants. We also got to feed them and play with the gibbons :) Made it to the night markets, very busy, very hot but lots of fun :D Shopped lots!

Lazy day?

This was my breakfast view.

Today was supposed to be my lazy day. We got pedicures and I went to the net. We walked back to the hotel and I separated from the girls it was 1ish. Was just going to go for a swim, but ended up going for a walk for 'postcards' was further than I recalled so after I got them I walked on to Juncelon shopping center (omg it was SO far in the heat!) got there around 3ish. Walked around and shopped for a 'little while'. Wasn't planning on being long as we were going to the night markets.... BUT I obviously got caught up because the next thing it was 7ish :O walked around for 10 mins til I got a cheap cab and scooted back to the hotel and 2 worried friends! We skipped the markets, doing them Sunday.

Phi Phi Tour

Had an awesome time out on the speed boat we toured 7 islands but only stopped on 3 islands and snorkled of the boat at another location. It was great fun. I was sad to see all the damaged coral from the tsunami in 2005. There are so many broken and dead pieces. There were lots of fish however. Though I am sure before it would have been prettier. I would have liked to stop longer than we got to, but for A$103 I think we had a pretty full and fun day.

When we got home we went for a walk to the 'market' like shops and I bought lots of stuff. Can't say too much as some is presents, but I managed to spend 1500 baht (A$50) with ease LOL but feel I got good bargains :)
Haven't been able to shop for Michael yet as he measured his clothes before I left, but they just don't seem right.

Big day

Been a big one here, been to the zoo, to the cobra show, been to the big budha, bought snacks. Managed to spend like $75. Only have 140 baht of the $200 I got changed in Aus left LOL
Off to Phi Phi tomoz.
Here are some pics of todays fun :)

Shopping!!

Oh had such a good day so far (it's just after 4pm) have been swimming and shopping, had the first of our buffet breakies at our hotel. Ooh so yummy so much to choose from. It's awesome. I had fried rice and noodles, bacon and sausages, toast and err.. something else lol also 3 glasses of pineapple juice :D
Feeling so much better today, was over hot yesterday and didn't achieve alot, but had a good day none the less. Had a late swim too :)
Off for a massage soon, can't wait.
Bought myself a Louis Vuitton mini luggage bag, got it for 1000 Baht (about $32) SO STOCKED!

OK again apologies for the photos being everywhere. I hope you like my bag like I do :D

Arrival!

Have arrived safe and sound in Phuket, has been a really long 24 + hours. Will try to get photos on tomorrow. Really warm here. Haven't shopped yet, but have already had a couple of feeds LOL!
Had pretty great flights though our one from Brissy to K.L was very bumpy!
Post some pics tomoz!

Play time

Well I got to meet Linda and Robyn today. Had a great day! Did lots of playing with new products and experimenting. I definately need (NEED!! Not just want!) lots of new powders and pastes :) Hopefully when I come back from O/s I can still afford some.
Here are photos of us all scrapping/creating and the things we made. Unfortuately I am using this online blog editior and it is rather crap, so I apologise that all the pics are in crazy mode, it won't go any better!!!
Talk to you all from Thailand :)

Holidays begin..

Left home on Saturday, had a pretty awesome flight. Was quiet bumpy getting in to Brisbane there was a storm brewing so lots of minor turbulence. Otherwise it was all good. The girls were ready waiting for me as we got held up on the run way for about 15 mins.

I so knew I was in Qld the minute I stepped off the plane, you can just feel the humidity.. heaven help me O/s haha! Didn't do much but lots and lots of chatting for the rest of Saturday.

On Sunday I caught up with Katie we went and had tea at the Malaya Hut. Was awesome! We both stuffed ourselves full!! Hoping to catch up with Katie again on Friday. Will be good!

Monday we went down to the bank in the city and got some Ringgits and Baht. Was very exciting!! So have a little here now to play with and learn which is which before we get on the streets lol.

On Tuesday we went to a few mates for a BBQ and lots of laughs! Was a great evening. Food, friends and laughs, who could ask for more??

This weekend I am catching up with Robyn and Linda from allcraftz, it's going to be a top meet up I just know it!! I can't wait to check out Robyn's works up close and personal.

Ok I think that's it! Getting exciting, we leave here Monday night.

Crop Lo’s

I’ve been attending a crop at a local girls house. Last time was my 3rd time to her place. It’s been awesome getting to know the ladies. I don’t really know any locals other than a few people I’ve met through Michael’s work. I am loving going to these crops. I don’t achieve much, but then I am happy with that lol. This boy LO I started and finished at the last crop. Very simple, grungy and just what I wanted :)

This Lo I started at the last crop. Matted the photo (it is so crooked..omg!), painted the grungeboard in crackle paint. Stuck that all down. Got the flower ready and that was about it. This week I stuck the little extra bit of grungeboard down, added the flower, lots of pearls, the little bling at the top and added that lovely rubon, which btw took a lot to get down lol.

I have another Lo that I worked on last time, and this time and hopefully will be finished at the next crop whenever that is :) I also did a card for Michael’s sister (she’s turning 18) and finished off my Angel ATC’s. I will post a pic of those later.

Thanks for stopping by!

ANSD and P!NK

Wow I can’t believe how fast the days are flying by. Last month at Allcraftz was NSD/W here are all the things I made for the challenges. Mostly the sketch challenges were all I achieved. I didn’t win anything though, I don’t even know who did win LOL. I did 4 cards, 6 ATC’s and one Lo. Not bad for a weekends work. You could do the challenges over a week, but I find that too long and drawn out. I was thinking of
doing another Challenge but I ended up going off to Brisbane for the P!NK concert.
Pink was so AWESOME! I had the most fun. It was so hot and tiring too, we had to stand for ages, and sit on the ground lots too. Was definitely worth it though. When she came out the pain disappeared lol. She talked to us all, gave lots of eye contact and the stunts she did were AMAZING!! I would go again!