Still not back in the swing of things

I'm hoping when Madeleine goes back to school on the 3rd February I'll get back to some kind of routine.

Still can't seem to get really motivated for scrapping. I did sign up for Kim Archer's seven layouts in seven days, and managed to get 3 of them done. All seven layouts (plus one bonus layout) are terrific.

Here's two out the 3 completed.

1. Seriously Cute GIRL- I really love this one, there's a bit of stamping (on calico (title)) I got to pull out my little davis alpha stamps which haven't seen the light of day for quite some time. There's also machine stitching, hand sewing. Good old fashioned brown paper thrown into the mix, an old piece of dressmaking tissue and lastly some very cute frilled gingham trim. Kim's layout used the green version and I just had to go out and get me some of that, It is so cute.

























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2. Obsession - This one's all about Madeleine and her Twilight obsession. Yes I know I'm obsessed too, but I thought it might be a bit sad if I was seen kissing a poster of Robert Pattinson. (hehe). Another great design of Kim's this one is the 8x8 format and she encouraged you to use some sort of packing on this one. I used the top of packing from my MM alpha. Now I'm looking at my stash to see if there is some other pieces I can use instead of throwing out when I open a packet of something.


























I haven't taken a photo of the third layout yet, so I'll share that next time.
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Now for a quick catch up on other events that have happened over the last couple of weeks.

The 14th was my sister Julie's and brother Michael's birthdays. Michael lives up on the Gold Coast so I gave him a call and sang a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday to him. We caught up with Julie for dinner and went to our fav Thai restaurant in Patterson Lakes.
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The next day Madeleine headed off with Neil's sister to Ballarat. They stayed over night at the Motel at Sovereign Hill to see Blood on the Southern Cross.

It's a sound-and-light show like about the story of the Eureka Rebellion, a dramatic battle between gold miners and Government forces at Ballarat on 3 December, 1854, is retold nightly at Blood on the Southern Cross, Sovereign Hill's acclaimed sound-and-light spectacular.
Set under the night skies at Sovereign Hill, Blood on the Southern Cross involves no actors – just voices, dazzling sound and light effects and a stunning open-air set.

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Then on Saturday Madeleine and I, along with other friends went off to see a local production of Grease at the Frankston Arts Centre. It was brilliant, the company is the Peninsula Light Opera Society (PLOS) and they usually put on around two shows a year, and all are absolutely fantastic.
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Sunday Neil, Madeleine and I headed off to the McClelland Gallery for lunch and a walk around the sculpture park. The food is simple and delicious and some of the exhibits are amazing.


















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Other than that it's been a fairly quite week. Oh except for poor Neil who ended up with a severe bout of Gastro Monday night. Not good, I don't think I've ever seen him so sick. Luckily it seemed to be one of those 24hr things and he was back to work by Wednesday.

Madeleine went off to Camp with Youth Group on Thursday morning, so it's been even more quite around here. I got a brief text message this morning telling me camp was awesome!!!
They get back at 1pm tomorrow afternoon so I'll get the low down after that and hopefully she'll have lots of pictures to share.

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Last night we had an impromptu invite out for dinner around 6pm. Luckily I hadn't started dinner so I quickly said yes. We had a beautiful Indian feast.... I so love it when I don't have to cook. Anyhoo then we went and sat out on their decking and it ended up being one of those easy nights where you sit around chatting and laughing and before you know it you've drunk way too much. Needless to say I have been a little weary today.
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Well that's it for me

Have a fantastic week

Cheers

leeanne xxx

Out of Practice

Re keeping my BLOG up to date.

I've come in to start this so many times and it just felt like I'd left it so long I didn't know where to start again.

So decision made here it is. I'm not going to go into the crazy CRAZY month that was December, except to say we had a wonderful Christmas day with family. Two roast dinners in one day, I don't know how we do it but we somehow manage it.

Boxing day as usual we spent with our wonderful friends and their families (25 in total). The day starts for me at around 8am, shopping, preparing, setting up etc Then the gang starts showing up around 2pm and we finished up around 12:30am. I love boxing day. Seems to me though, that it's taking me longer each year to get over both Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

New Years Eve we spent with friends who live walking distance from home and had a lovely evening. Earlier in the day my not quite one month old Laptop decided to completely stop working, and as it turned out I lost everything on it when it was decided it was the Hard Drive that was the problem. To say not Happy Jan would be an understatement.

I had time off work from the 23rd December to 5th January which was fantastic. This week back though has been a little crazy. I've been working 8 - 8 1/2 hours days. Me thinkst having time off is not always a good thing. Neil is still on leave though so he has been home for Madeleine which has been great.

Last Sunday we had our annual Sunday Lunch out for Julie and Sue's birthdays and this year Lynne and her husband joined in as well which was lovely. Lynne and Sue both celebrate (or commiserate) their birthdays on the same day, this year is was another winery down on the Peninsula. The winery is in Merricks North and is called Willow Grove and the restaurant is called Salix. The food was magnificent and presented so beautifully. I only got photos of the desserts but they give you an idea.

So far Madeleine has seen Twilight 6 times and me I've seen it 3. Robert Pattinson is now officially her number one pinup boy and future husband apparently. We went to see it in Gold Class a couple of weeks ago which was very nice. I took a few photos of Madeleine before we left in one of the new dresses she got for Christmas and I also got to take a couple in Gold Class but had to sit down when I was apparently embarrassing her.

We've also been to see Yes Man which I laughed and laughed and then laughed some more in. Bedtime Stories which was a nice film nothing really special.

Madeleine has also been to see Marley and Me we apparently is very sad and you need to take a couple of boxes of tissues along with you. Think I might wait to see that one on DVD.

This week I've also been out to dinner with another couple of girlfriends. One of whose birthday was on the 2nd January. We went up to Vincents in Beaumaris another lovely evening.

Nothing much planned for this weekend although Neil and I may go and see Slumdog Millionaire at the movies which is supposed to be fantastic.

I managed one layout during December (no photo taken yet). Another one of Charlie when we visited the Gold Coast back in July.

I'm going to try and get back into being creative this weekend. I've signed up for another Kim Archer workshop called Seven. Seven layouts in seven days to help get you kick started for 2009.

I've also signed up for Kim's roundrobin layout swap which start this week. There are about 4 or 5 groups participating in this. My group has six girls in it, so I've sent my layout off to the first person on the list and I'm just waiting to receive one. Can't wait to see how my layout turns out after it's visited the other girls so they can add their touches to it.

If you haven't seen this months Tarisota Kit you really should do yourself a favour. The kit is full of absolutely gorgeous goodies. This month the guest DT member is my talented friend Helen Karinfilovski. Go check out the Tarisota Gallery to see her fabulous work along with all the other Beautiful work done by the DT, it's simply stunning.

Ok Ok that's it for now,

Happy Belated New Year to everyone

Cheers

Leeanne xxx