A Creative Weekend

It's amazing what you can achieve when you have a quiet weekend. Besides taking Madeleine to Youth on Friday night and then Netball on Saturday, we had a lovely quiet time with no other commitments. Don't get me wrong I love to go out, but on the rare occasions when we don't have anything planned it's soooooo nice to kick back and relax.

Because of the above, I was inspired to Scrap and managed to achieve 4 layouts and 2 cards. Nothing like some new patterned paper and new photos to get you going. For 3 of the 4 layouts I used the new basic grey Ambrosia line. The 12 x 12 layout shows photos from last Thursday night when some girlfriends got together to celebrate 2 of the girls 50th Birthday. It was such a fun night... so many laughs. The third snow layout I used older Scenic Route Grafton paper and Summer rage and a tiny piece of new October afternoon.

1: Snow Fun

2: Going Going GONE

3: Winters Playground

4: Celebrate 50

Thank you to everyone who has asked about Madeleine she is so much better this week except for a bit of a cough she's well again... and went back to school last Thursday. Lets hope that is it for her she has not had a good year.

That's it for me today, take care everyone and enjoy the week.

Cheers

Leeanne x

There's Snow business like Snow business

Last weekend we headed off Bright for a few days with friends. For those of you who don't live in Victoria, Bright is approx 308ks north-east of Melbourne and is located on the Ovens River and nestled in the valley below Mount Buffalo.

We had a really lovely weekend and best of all because its been so cold here, there was lots and lots of snow up on Mount Buffalo. Madeleine had never been to the snow before so she was really excited on Saturday at the prospect...and she wasn't disappointed. The weather was just superb and we spent the day tobogganing, building a snowman and having snow fights. Now tobogganing is easy but by the time you've climbed up the hill for the umpteenth time to go back down again you are pretty well exhausted. I haven't laughed so much in long time.

On the Friday we went on one of the beautiful walks at the back on the Bright township, its a lovely hour long walk through a canyon and back. The scenery is just magnificent. Then we headed off the chocolate shop for a milk shake before heading back home.

It was so nice to get away except on Saturday night after the snow Madeleine started complaining about being achy and sore. I just thought at first she was sore from all the exercise she'd been doing, but about an hour later she had a raging temperature and has been really unwell ever since with the fluey thing everyone seems to be getting this year. Poor thing she really has had a bad trot lately.

On the scrapping front I've completed a class by the very talented Helen . You can get this cool class for nothing over at Anna's Craft Cupboards Blog check it out. Except for the scalloped border all the papers are from basic grey... the Eurphoria range.

Inspired by Wendy I decided to make some cards from all the scraps. There are 7 simple cards, I always find cards difficult for some reason. One of the designs is a direct rip off of one the cards Wendy has just made.

Oh I almost forgot last Thursday there was a bit of a Dolly reunion in Frankston. Around 8 of us who used to be regulars at Paper Doll got together to catch up and say hi to Connie. Connie has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, so it was great to see her and chat with her about everything. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she goes through this immense challenge. It was also fantastic to see some of the other girls who I haven't seen since the shop shut back in February. I really miss seeing everyone regularly.

I've also had to postpone my class at Debling in Design from this Thursday night to Thursday 4th September. Sorry about that girls I have a 50th to go to on Thursday night for two friends who have turned the big one recently. I totally forgot..... well I didn't actually forget both events just didn't register in my brain until Monday that they were the same day. I worry about me sometimes.

Well I think that's it for now

Happy Scrapping everyone and have a great week

Cheers

Leeanne xxxxxx

short and sweet

Still recovering from last Friday when Madeleine's school participated in the Rock Eisteddfod at Hisense arena in the city (aka vodafone arena). We had to get up at 4:30am to get her to :school :15by 5:15am to catch the bus in with everyone. They were first on for rehearsals at 7:15am. What a great experience for them all and it all went really well. They didn't make it through to the finals but a good time was had by all. By 11pm when it finally finished Madeleine had hit a brick wall she was sooooooo tired.

Saturday was pretty much a vegie day except for netball.

Sunday Madeleine and a friend went ice skating at the Olympic ice skating rink in centre rd. Now that place is in a time warp, Lynne and I used to go there as kids; her mum would drop us off and pick us up later. Nothing much has changed I must say. Anyhoo it was Madeleine's first time ice skating and she was a bit nervous, I think she was afraid if she fell over some one might come past and chop of her fingers. I think she had a good time (lol) I went along with her and sat and chatted to her girlfriends mum for a couple of hours while we watched the girls.

Things have been very quite on the scrapping front the past couple of weeks, in fact i've done nothing. It could be because I've read all 4 books in the twilight series in the past week and a half. All four books are great and I thoroughly enjoyed them all...Now bring on the movie another mother and daughter bonding trip to the movies for a good chick flick me thinkst. (hehe)

Here's the teaser trailer

cheers

Leeanne x

Heidi, Kim, Madeleine and Vampires???

First of all................ Yeah!!! I have a place at Heidi's create08 in December. I'm so thrilled to get to be a part of this, along with lots of my old Dolly friends and some new blog friends (who I'll get to meet in person). I'll have to start a countdown until the 16th December I can't wait.



Here's a layout share, this is another of Kim Archers classes. Love the texture on this one with the fabric. There is also bubble wrap stamping on this, but I didn't have any bubble wrap on hand, so I just used my making memory stamps instead. All the papers are from Cherry arte. The photos are of the girls on the Claw, from our recent trip to Dreamworld.





The only other kind of scrapping I've done is a OTP. I'm a bit of a collector of costume jewellery and for years my necklaces have just hung off my dressing table. When I was shopping with Lynne a couple of weeks ago I came across a set of four hooks that had Marilyn Monroe tiles as their feature. I knew straight off that this would be perfect to hang my collection from and I could see those Jenny Bowlin papers fitting in perfectly. So here tis....



Madeleine was presented with her Class Captain badge this week at assembly and also a certificate to say she had collected the most merit points in her grade. Merit points are handed out for various reasons. The merit points then go to the person's house. Does that make sense???




Madeleine got given a book to read this week from her friend Alex. It's called Twilight.
Has anyone else heard of it or read it? It's a kind of Romeo and Juliet story between a teenage girl and a vampire. Sounds weird I know but I thought I should read it to see what its all about and though I'm sure I'm not in the demographic the book is pitched at, I was hooked straight away. Currently there are 3 books in the series with the 4th installment coming out on Monday. The movie has already been made, and comes out in December. It's the kind of book you just can't put down and so far the second book is just as good. We are both eagerly awaiting the movie now. The guy who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies has the lead role of the Vampire Edward.





In other Madeleine news her Basketball team won their grand final this morning. 59 - 37. It was a pretty close most of the game until just near the end. Yesterday she didn't play netball because she had all day rehearsals for the Rock Eisteddfod on Friday night at Rod Laver Arena. They're all really looking forward to that.


Since we got home from there I've been baking. I don't bake that often anymore and really enjoy it when I do. I've made a raspberry and coconut slice and a Cinnamon Tea Cake, in preperation for Neil's family who are coming over later for afternoon Tea. While I was on a roll I also made a vege lasagna for dinner.

Ok I think that's about it for now, Neil's folks will be here any minute.

cheers

Leeanne x

I wish......

I wouldn't leave it so long between posts. The longer you leave it the more daunting it seems to go back and fill in the detail. So grap yourselves a cuppa this may take a bit of time, I will try to keep it as short as possible. That said lets go............................

First week back at school Madeleine was voted Class Captain, she was so excited and thrilled that the kids had voted for her, it's good for a girls ego. Aside from that she is so happy at that school, on the way home one day she said "Mum! I'm so happy at school, thank you for sending me there". You can't get much better than that. It's so good to know she is thriving academically and socially. So far so good.

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Saturday night we went to see the Aussie SYTYCD concert. It was fantastic, and so good to see some of my favourite routines in the flesh. They are all such beautiful dancers. I drove in and then we had dinner in China Town in the city and caught the tram down to Rod Laver Arena.

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Sunday afternoon Madeleine and I went to see the new Batman Movie (couldn't talk Neil into coming along). It's not something I would normally go to see but other friends of ours were going so we headed off to meet them down there. I have to say I pleasantly surprised what a fantastic movie, well the bits i saw anyway (hehe) I closed my eyes when I thought things might get gruesome. Heath Ledger is truly amazing in it and I'm sure even if his life hadn't been cut so tragically short he would have won awards for his portrayal of the Joker. Simply wonderful performance.

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I finished two of the Kim Archer workshops I have recently purchased. I know I always say this but really Do Yourselves a Favour if you've never done one of Kim's classes they are totally awesome. The following two are from her recent Behind the Scenes workshop. $20 gets you 3 layouts so obviously I have one more to do.

The first one I used mainly Love Elsie products, It's been pretty dreary in Melbourne recently so I've found it hard to get good photos of the layouts. The colours are not very good but you'll get the idea.

The second one I used October Afternoon papers and the photo is an old one from when we went to the Grampians about 4 years ago. I've always loved this photo of Madeleine crossing the river at Mackenzie falls. She was half way across and then got nervous, so Neil went back to guide her across. The backdrop of the falls is just beautiful.

In other great news I was also lucky enough to win a class over at the at home site. Gotta love that. Thanks for alerting me to the fact Deb.

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Tuesday night Madeleine's basketball team won its semi final so they are now straight through to the Grand Final next Sunday morning. This is Madeleine's last season for a while so it would be great if they win, no pressure of course.

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Wednesday Lynne and I headed down to Frankston for some retail therapy. We arrived and stopped for a coffee straight away. Then we stopped in to see Wendy at Kumfs and while we were there Kim C turned up so we all headed back for another coffee. It was great to catch up with the girls, so by the time we actually started shopping it was 12 O'Clock. Still it was good to spend the day with Lynne we don't do it often enough. We're always on the phone to one another but don't see each other that often.

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Thursday night I taught my second class at Debling in Design. We had a great time and the girls all really enjoyed learning the beading technique. Deb also had lots of new stuff so I basically just gave her back my wages and called it even (lol).

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Friday, Wendy came over to help me set up MYOB at work, she was only there a couple of hours , but it was fun to have her around even for a short time.

Friday night I finally got around to doing the layout to go into the draw to win a ticket to Heidi Swapps Create08 workshop in December. They are only offering 150 places, so I think it's going to be difficult to get into. I so hope I manage to get a spot,along with other like minded Heidi devotees. (lol). So here is my layout using only Heidi Swapp product (some old some new). The chipboard quote says "Never underestimate the power of cute"

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Saturday was netball (they won) and then Madeleine had a birthday party down at Strike Bowling, and then back at Jame's house for pizza and guitar hero. The adults all sat out in kitchen enjoying the nibblies.

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During the week Neil had suggested to Madeleine that she get a band together and that he would play guitar for them until they find someone their own age. She immediately got on the phone to her girlfriend Alex who has a really sweet singing voice to tee up a jam for this Sunday. They didn't actually have a jam as such, but Neil recorded them. Alex sang and Madeleine played Bass guitar. Eventually they'll have proper jams.. how cool.

Tonight my brother;who is down in Melbourne for the weekend came over for dinner with my sister and her two girls. We had a magnificent lamb roast and apple crumble for dessert. It's been a long long time since I've made roast dinner and I must say I really enjoyed it. Nothing beats a good old fashioned roast.

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Anyway thanks for hanging in there and getting to the end of this post.

Keep Safe, until next time

cheers.

Leeanne x

Qld beautiful one day perfect the next

What an absolutely fantastic time we had . We arrived last Wednesday afternoon, settled in then headed off to my nephews place for dinner and caught up with delightful baby Charlie. She is so so so so cute... Here's a few photos to show just how cute (no bias of course).

Thursday the girls had a swim in the pool and then we headed off for a days shopping at harbour town, where they shopped till they dropped. Dinner was takeaway at Shaun and Amanda's then we took Amanda off to the movies to see Mama Mia.

The movie was just as much fun as the stage show. Pure unadulterated fluff and so enjoyable. I think we might go and see it again when we get home it was so good.

Friday girls had a swim again in the pool before we headed down to Currumbin Wildlife Park. In the numerous times I have been to the Gold Coast, I've never bothered to go there. Big mistake it was to much fun and a really lovely day. The girls had a camel ride, feed the kangaroos and then went on this really fabulous adventure ride. Well not so much of a ride as a high wire course. The were attached with harnesses and had to walk along a wire while holding the one above and pulling themselves along, then they had to walk along a very wonky suspension bridge, then onto these swingy things and then they had to go along on their backs while hanging from a wire, which lead them to the last part of the course which was a huge flying fox. Terrified and a few bruises later they actually did have a good time. Before we left the girls feed the Lorikeets all in all a great day.

Friday night we ate out at a Malaysian restaurant in Mermaid Waters and then it was back to the unit for a quiet night in. We had an early start the next morning as we were heading out to Dreamworld.

Dreamworld was packed, school holidays, a weekend and lots of extra people in town due to World Youth Day. Most of the time we had to queue for at least 30 - 40 minutes to get on rides. Having said that it was still a great day and jam packed with thrill rides. We all went on the Cyclone roller coaster (2 loops on that one), The Claw, Tower of Terror, and Wipeout. The girls went on a couple of others as well I just can't remember them all. The only one I would say I would probably not go back on is the wipeout. To much of being upside down for my liking.

Then for dinner that night we went to a great Thai restaurant at Nobby Beach and caught up with my brother Michael for dinner. We were all pretty much exhausted after such a big day and crashed once we got home.

Sunday we drove out to Tweed Head West (hinterland) and had lunch at Penny Ridge. The view from up there is just magnificent. You look out right over the Tweed Valley across to the Coast. It was just beautiful.

Monday we left the unit around 8am to go to Shaun and Amanda's to babysit. Sunday night their babysitter called to say her little girl was not well and had foot and mouth. We were going to go out for lunch again with my brother but we jumped at the chance to help out and look after Charlie. Out flight home wasn't until 2:50pm so we were able to look after her until 1:30pm. Then Shaun was coming home to take our place. It's so hard for them as they don't have family near them to help out. Amanda's mum and dad live and work in Brisbane and of course all of Shaun's family (except his dad) live in Melbourne.

So that my dear friends is Queensland in a nutshell. A good time had by all. It was great to get home to see Neil and also to sleep in my own bed. Holly was very excited to see us as was the cat. A warm welcome home.

It was back to work for me yesterday as well as back to school for Madeleine. so we are already back into the daily routine.

I'll leave you with a few more photos , mainly of the girls trip away.

cheers

Leeanne x

We're all going on a Winter Holiday

Well 2 out of 3 of us are going to QLD tomorrow whoo hoo!!!!!!

Holly had her stitches out this morning and the plastic collar/bucket removed off her head. She is still not using he leg properly but is getting around really well and is certainly a lot happier than she has been over the the last couple of months.

I actually completed one layout on the weekend using one of the new Heidi papers and a hambly transparency and a few other sundry items. I actually scraplifted it from one of Helen K's lovely layouts. Hers was called "Joy"

Speaking of Helen, she has a new class over at the Home website. The classes are called Fresh Vintage and this is the second in the series so far. I love her use of beautiful laces and trims, coupled with ordinary things like masking tape. Head on over for a sneek peek & while you're over there check out the other fantastic classes by Kim Archer they are amazing. I'm always blown away by Kim's layouts; there is always something new to learn and the layouts always have that fresh, funky feel to them. I've got one sitting on my desk that I'm not going to finish :(((( before I go away unfortunately.

The other thing I forgot to mention was a couple of weeks ago I taught my first class over at Debling in Design. I had seven girls in the class and all their layouts looked fantastic, we had such a fun evening. Thanks girls for making the night so enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to the next class in a couple of weeks, the girls will be learning the beading technique. A bit of patience needed but well worth the effort.

Ok that's it for me, I better head off to bed. I've got an early start tomorrow to get out to the airport.

Take Care Everyone

Cheers

Leeanne x