Get the Party Started.. It's New Year's Eve!!

I would love to say that.. but some of us have to work tonight... boo hoo! Lol, that's right, I'm on til Midnight tonight, which means not only did Santa beat me home on Christmas Eve, but the Fireworks will go on without me too! If you ever wonder how come you can't get your Pathology results back the same day, don't blame us! We do it same day.. blame your Doctor, he's the one who gets to go home at 5pm!
Anywho, {let me just hop down off my soap box... ok I'm good now}:
I started a Mini Album (8x8) project about a month ago. It's called "Being Charlotte Kingman", and it's about... you guessed it... me! (Selfish I know, but I don't have kids or pets so what can I do?!) I decided to do it, not cos I'm narcissistic or want to learn more about myself, but cos I see 2009 as a year of change for me. And it's already started. I got a Promo at work to Supervisor, which means I have to give up my beloved night shift, but also that I don't have to do so much overtime, so I will be able to Scrap/Stamp/Create more.. (or at least that's the plan) Look out 2009 {rubbing hands together and grinning}! So I decided now was a good time to start cos it's almost my birthday too! In one month I will be 2* (yes, I realise there is an asterisk, it's a modesty asterisk). Oh wait, I just realised the album also says "A Snapshot of me at 26"... well I guess you know now! I can't believe I am turning 27. I don't feel like it. How about I just say I will be 24 and be done with it. Ok, so in 1 month you can wish me Happy 24th Birthday. Lol! If I start early with shaving off a couple of years here and there no-one will realise that I'm having my 30th birthday when my kids turn 21 will they?

So the plan with this album is to use scraps of all my favourite papers that I have hanging around, and all my favourite embellishments so that they can get out of my stash and into something other people might like to look at (no-one usually sits down and asks if they can browse my stash! Only Yvette when I visit her. And she usually spends the whole time saying "Oh, I used to have that, Oh I got rid of that one a couple of years ago"... {sigh, feeling very outdated, and making a New Year's Resolution to use up old papers and embellishments!}) Do you think I can stick to it? We'll see!! I never make resolutions, so maybe this is the year to start and give it a go! The album will have pages on random things about me when I am 26, like this page of my kitchen and my favourite stuff in it. I hope to have it all done by my birthday but there are so many different page ideas I have, I'll have to quickly get around and take pics of them all so I can scrap them!
Well I hope you do get out and party tonight! And have a Champagne for me too ok!!
***HAPPY NEW YEAR!!***
:) C

Happy 100 Posts!

Did you know I've now done over 100 posts?! The landmark number passed me by 4 posts ago and I didn't even realise! There's just so many people I need to thank... {imagining an Oscar-like tune playing in the background} I'd like to thank Yvette, for persuading me to make a blog so I could share my crafting and life with her, my Parents, Felicity and Auntie Julie for regularly reading this blog and commenting.. and Willy, for encouraging my "Arts and Crafts"... thank you all. I love youse all... etc etc.. Now, where's my afterparty?

Merry Merry.. still...

Hi all!

Is Christmas over already? Wow, that was so quick! I still am putting on my Christmas lights and lighting all my Christmas Candles for a couple of days yet.. I love Christmas and want to hang on to it! I had a lovely time at Mum and Dad's, even though it was only Will and I, Aunty Julie and Uncle Daryl and Mum and Dad! Actually, I ended up eating 4 Christmas dinners (Chamber's Family Christmas, Kingman family Christmas, Work Christmas dinner and actual real Christmas Day lunch!) spoilt {grinning!} Needless to say, with all the Christmas busy-ness and lots of food, I think I am a little bit "Festively Plump", time for a run! Run Fatty Run {slapping backside and trotting around the room}!

So to give you an insight on how my Christmas was.. here is the heads up... There are a few important things that happen on Christmas day, the same every year..

1. Wake up early for Church (the earliest possible service so we can be back early to open presents and for the meat to go on!)

2. Choose a seat on the lounge (in our Childhood home Felicity and I used to fight over who got to sit on the seat closest to the tree- the "prize" seat I guess! We eventually just took turns- referring to last years pics to remember who sat where!) and have your presents piled around you.

3. Eat a massive baked lunch on the "good China", usually 2 meats (this year Pork and Chicken), lots of baked veggies, gravy, Crackling {smacking lips in memory!} Bon Bons and you have to wear the hat that comes in the Bon Bons, and Apple Tease to drink. Look how full my plate is! And I ate every bite {holding tummy in painful memory!}

4. Pudding! Mum usually makes the pudding (when I was growing up I always knew Christmas was near when the pudding was wrapped in calico, hanging over the back of a chair in the breakfast room! That chair always weighed a tonne cos of the pudding and was constantly falling back under the weight if you brushed past it!), however I guess time was short this year and we had {gasp} store-bought pudding! It's ok Mum, it was still delicious.

5. Afternoon Nap. Lol, always happens!

So I had a great Christmas! How about the rest of you? I hope you stayed happy and safe with no family dramas!

:) C

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Feliz Navidad, Melakaliki Maka, Frohe Weinachten, Xin Dan Fai Lock (thanks Willy!), Bon Natale, Happy Birthday Jesus, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
I hope you are having a great day!! And I hope Santa found you and brought you lots of cool stuff! Mum gave me directions not to run over Santa on our way down to Wollongong last night!! We didn't, thankfully :) although I think I did see him hovering over Olympic Park with Rudolph's blinking nose.. but it could have been a Helicopter!
It was up early for us, 7:30 church, fried ham and poached eggs for breakfast then present opening. Its only Will and I here with Mum and Dad at the moment, my Aunty and Uncle are coming for lunch soon, so it's a very very small Christmas for us!! It's so strange coming from a big family, to have such a small Christmas! We had a big one last year though, so it's ok. It's overcast and a bit windy here though, I thought it was Summer in Australia?!
I'll upload some pics later when I can..
The thing about a small Christmas is that... there's nothing to do now! We were up early for church and present opening didn't take too long.. we're a bit old to have gotten toys for Christmas (although I am still partial to a bit of Lego!) and we're waiting for our delicious Christmas lunch so now what?! Will is playing my Nintendo DS (last year's present!) and I am blogging! We are watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation though! Love it!
Merry Christmas!
:) C

Baking Bonanza!

I added to my Baking Bonanza yesterday by making Gingerbread Cupcakes, Mini Banana Loaves and another lot of Almond Roca, all in 2 hours. Happy days {punching the air with fist}. Needless to say when I finally got home from work at 12:30am I was totally spent!! And went straight to bed!

The Gingerbread cupcake recipe is from the Martha Stewart website, which has heaps of great recipes. She is a pretty good mentor- apart from the whole "going to jail" thing. Maybe I'll skip that part for my life! I love her magazine too, so many pretty things. Especially the Wedding mag which I may purchase sometime in the future... ok, I'm off topic now.. back to baking.. The cupcakes are DELICIOUS!! Although how could they be anything else when they contain a whole cup of butter, a cup of golden syrup and cinnamon/cloves/nutmeg etc! I did have a tiny disaster though: just as I stood up from putting them in the oven I saw the eggs sitting on the bench. And if they're sitting on the bench, they're not in the cupcakes. D'OH!! I quickly whipped the cakes out of the oven, emptied all the cases back into a bowl and added the eggs, mixed, then got fresh cases and filled them and put them back in the oven. Phew!! {relief!} they worked out! And Fliss, I left one without eggs to see how it was, and it was just as nice! So I'll make them for you sometime with Macadamia oil and no eggs. See if you like them! I didn't have time to ice them fully (and I hate icing anyway, too much sugar, frosting is soo much nicer) so I used a white fudge pen to draw pics on top. I don't think gingerbread really needs icing anyway. I wrapped them up for my friends with a mini banana loaf and a handful of Almond Roca each and gave them out at work yesterday. I think they were all pretty pleased! I got a message from one guy this morning to say they'd eaten theirs for breakfast and they were delicious! Cool!

Will and I are off to Mum and Dad's after work, so a Merry Christmas to you all, have a great day tomorrow, celebrating with your family and friends!

:) C

Only 2 sleeps til Christmas!

Wow, how time has flown this year! Can you believe it is only 2 sleeps til Christmas? No, me neither!

At Saturday night's extended family Christmas dinner we did Secret Santa between us cousins. We do it every year cos there are so many of us, and so many with kids and on a tight budget so there is no way you can buy for everyone! Our budget is usually $20-$30 and you choose a couple to buy for "out of the hat" so to speak. This year I got my youngest cousin closest in age to me, Gareth and his beautiful GF Amy. They live up in the Blue Mountains and Amy is a massive hot chocolate lover so I decided to put together a "Snowman Soup" pack for them to enjoy, just in case they get a white Christmas up there! (It's not totally impossible with our weird weather! It's supposed to be summer.. what happened to our usual 35 degrees?) My Snowman Soup pack consisted of a big tin of Ghiradelli Premium Hot Choc (I bought Ghirardelli chocs in San Francisco 2 years ago when I went and they were superb!!) mini marshmallows wrapped up as "Snowman Soup Croutons", Candy Canes as "Snowman Soup Stirrers", 2 of the biggest mugs I could find, some Lindt Snowmen chocs and Lebkuchen (yummy glazed German Gingerbread- not pictured) and that's the Snowman Soup Pack!

I think they really liked it! I didn't have much time to make the labels for the croutons, soup and stirrers cos of all my OT, next time I make it I'll be a bit less busy (I hope!) and will have more time to decorate the tags cos I had so many more ideas for them!

But it turned out really cool and I was happy! What did Will and I get I hear you ask? I got some really funky Tupperware green translucent serving bowls which are cool and very useful (and I love Tupperware but don't own much!) and Will got a "bucket seat" for fishing which is a big plastic plank with a groove to fit over a bucket (cool invention! Those fishermen think of everything!) and a fish weighing scale and ruler. He's stoked with his gifts too!

Merry Christmas! I'm off to buy food for more Christmas cooking.. watch out Martha!!

:) C

Move over Martha Stewart....

Move over Martha Stewart... Mrs Claus the Cook is here!
I have been baking up a mini-storm in my kitchen the last couple of days in my awesome new Apron from Big W. I love it! {hehe, giggling at self}. It is the perfect kitchen wear and I even put it on this arvo just to wash up in. Lol. Pity no-one but me is here to enjoy it! (Yes Mum, before you say it, I realise this is my fake smile, but I was concentrating on getting myself in the frame! It's hard to take a pic of yourself full length in the mirror!)

I have been a bit behind the times this December. I don't know what has happened with all my time, but Christmas is almost here and I only just dug out my Christmas earrings! Today I pulled out my Christmas Mugs and tea towels.. {sigh} I will have to keep them out til my birthday just to make it worth while!!

So... as for Martha.. I was cooking Pumpkin Pies and Almond Roca for my extended family Christmas Dinner last night. I hadn't made Pumpkin Pies before, and they turned out pretty delicious! I absolutely love all the Christmas themed foods in America; I love Cinnamon and all those sweet spices and when I visited the US 2 years ago {sob sob.. I can't believe it's been that long!} I loved the Pumpkin bread, gingerbread cookies, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan tarts etc etc. So this year I decided to have a go. And also cos I found an English recipe for Pumpkin Pie which made it easier cos the American recipes called for Canned Pumpkin and "Pumpkin Spice" which they don't sell here in Australia. [Incidently.. FYI Pumpkin Spice is similar to our Mixed Spice, so I use that in recipes when they call for Pumpkin Spice.] Anywho.. they are yummy! And we only cut one at the dinner so I have another one for my immediate family Christmas dinner tomorrow night (this year I get 3 Christmas dinners, aren't I lucky!!)

The Almond Roca was also delicious, although I couldn't eat much cos it's total sugar overload! It's basically Almond Brittle (like Peanut brittle) with chunks of white and dark choc on the top. Delicious and very morish. Did I mention Delicious? And fairly easy to make, although you need a candy thermometer and I did panic cos the sugar started to burn to the bottom of the pot (despite my best stirring efforts) cos my stove is total crap, hence I thought I had ruined the whole thing. Turns out I didn't cos it managed to set hard and taste delicious! High Five {slap!}. I am going to make it for my work friends too, cos I know they'll love it. It's on my to-do list (with a million other things.. yet here I am blogging. Don't say I never spend time with you!)

And then, after all my efforts cooking and cleaning etc.. it's time for a cup of Hot Milo in my favourite Christmas Mugs (which live in a box labelled by Mum as "Gorgeous Christmas Mugs" so I know who to leave them to in my will!). Hope your Christmas is turning out not too busy and you still have time to cook and enjoy it! I am burning a scented candle called "Gingerbread Santa" and it is totally Delicious!! I wish I could eat it. And it (togther with sitting around in my Mrs Claus apron) has filled me with the Christmas Spirit!

:) C

Mosaic Of Me...

Here's a fun photo game to play!!

I am a regular reader of the orangebeautiful blog, but I followed the link to this game off the Jen in a Nutshell blog. She is super funny and I love reading candid blogs like hers, I just wish she would post more often!

Anywho, this is a cool game where you answer 12 questions about yourself, and paste your answers into Flickr to get this fun photo mosaic of your life! Instructions are at the end of this post.

So here is the Mosaic of Me.. (Can you guess any of the questions?! Prob Not!.. BTW, It's poor Jason Statham in th middle who lost his head! Oh well, the best bits are still there ;) {wink!})

I can't get the photo credits to work though, hope people don't mind I used their pics.. you can search for them on flickr anyway, using my answers!

And here are my answers that led to the mosaic...

1. What is your first name? (Charlotte)
2. What is your favorite food? (Mexican)
3. What high school did you attend? (Grafton High School)
4. What is your favorite color? (Sea Green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Jason Statham)
6. Favorite drink? (Milo)
7. Dream vacation? (New York)
8. Favorite dessert? (Chocolate Mousse Cake)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (Travel Agent)
10. What do you love most in life? (my family)
11. One word to describe you? (creative)
12. Your Flickr name? (The Hours Between)

Wanna play?: Type your answer to each of the above questions into Flickr's search. Using only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the URL’s into the Mosaic Maker (3 columns, 4 rows)... Enjoy!

I had fun doing it! I'd love to try it for other questions too! There are so many beautiful pics on Flickr!

:) C

Card Crazy Christmas

Here are my Christmas Cards for this year! Yes, I am one of those slack people I talked about, not having sent out all my cards yet. I've managed to send 5! The hardest part is finding time to write on them all :) I like to write something a bit personalised, so then that takes extra time.

I don't usually make cards as bright as these, but I made a card in SU's Green Galore recently and realised it was really funky and cool and so decided that should be the colour scheme for my Christmas Cards. So along with Real Red and White, they turned out really nice! I used the SU wheel "All About Christmas" for the wording, some cute Christmas coloured ribbon and the new SU Scallop Square punch for the little stamped image and it was done! I varied the little image so I didn't get too bored making the cards :) And there are 4 different types of Christmas Ribbon too. This means no 2 people got exactly the same card (I think, anyway {pondering})...

BTW, I now have 4 cards on my Christmas Card string.. YAY!!

:) C

My Weekend Away

Oh what a beautiful weekend away!! I spent Fri, Sat and Sunday night at The Oaks Pacific Blue Resort at Salamander Bay with a bunch of my girls from work and my sis Alicia. This place is Heaven!! The Resort looks like it belongs on some tropical North Queensland Island, or at least Surfer's Paradise, but it's actually in a really weird place, amongst houses and a shopping precinct in this small coastal town. We had so much fun basking in the sunshine (well, after Friday's torrential downpours) drinking champagne by our private plunge pool {hehe, grinning and clapping hands.. this was totally cool!}, chillin, relaxing and having fun. We all had a massage, for me it was the first time ever! It was awesome and a great way to start off my weekend :) Alicia and I decided this is definitely somewhere we have to come with the rest of our family too.
The Lagoon Pool goes the whole way around the villa's (yes everyone spent some time swimming the big circle! It's like a pool highway!) The villa's open straight onto a deck and straight into the pool. How awesome is that! So the grandparents can sit on the deck sipping cocktails while the parents swim with the kiddies in the pool and the baby sleeps in the villa. Great set up! Our villa wasn't on the main pool so that's why we had our own private plunge pool. Still, that was so great to have in our little backyard!
I can't wait to go back with the family now!
:) C

Sad, So Sad...

Is it because my friends are from traditionally non-Christian countries, or just that everyone is a bit behind this year? (Yeah, that includes me cos I've only sent out 5 cards!) I have only the one Christmas Card and it's Dec 12!! I find that very sad {sigh}. I even bought this cute little string of Santa's washing to hang the cards from and so far.. just the one. And of course, its from Yvette.. Little Miss Organised! Good on you!! {clapping hands in the general direction of Canberra!} I don't have a 6yr old to look after and I haven't finished mine yet! Lol. I sent out 5 to my immediate family cos I realised I'm going away for a long weekend and I'm already getting behind!
So here, sharing the string of Santa's washing, clipped on to his pyjama shirt, is my one lonely Christmas Card. At least you get a quick look at some more of my Christmas deco's sitting on the shelf!
:) C

More Christmas Cards...

Oh, time is slipping away.... Christmas is only 14 sleeps away! Luckily I have done most of my shopping and don't need to hit the shops very much.. they are crazy busy!! Have you noticed? Lol.

I made some more Christmas cards with my 3D stickers the other day (I packaged them up before I remembered to take the pics, if you were wondering why they're so shiny!) I love this Christmas paper that's not really Christmas paper! It's so pretty! The angular scalloped white piece is done with my Martha Stewart border punch Alicia brought back from America, I love the different look it gives compared to my threading water punch.

By the way... I counted my 3D sticker packets (remember my previous post where I said I had mountains of them?!!), well I have 150 of them! What?! Yes, 150!! I will endeavour to use more of them up so they're not hanging around in my stash! That's way too many stickers! Do you know anyone who has more than me?
:) C

Christmas Spirit

I just realised I haven't posted a pic of my Christmas Tree and Decorations yet!! Where is my Christmas Spirit? Lol. It's here, it's just hiding behind lots of work and busy-ness! :)

Here is my tree! Yes, it is the size of your average household dog, but once I placed it on the stool it actually rose to almost inconceivable heights (about 2cm above my head). I do love all my decorations, they mean things (where I got them or who gave them to me) and I also have some beautiful glass baubles that I adore cos they aren't "cheap" decorations! Amongst my favourites are some very cute little "Mickey Mouse Head" shaped baubles that made the journey back from Disney World 2 years ago :), a woven straw star that came from the Christkindl Markt in Munich 10 years ago (YES MUM, IT'S BEEN 10 YEARS!! Can you believe it?!), a bauble from Mum and Dad that says "Daughters are a blessing" (luckily they remembered to give us all one, and didn't miss out on one daughter, that would have been some hint!) and 3 gorgeous little glitter filled glass snowmen that came from Target last year. Ahh... so many memories! Feel free to admire the Pink Chicken behind the Christmas Tree. It was supposed to be for Mum for Mother's Day but I put it up there in the mean time and he made his home there, so there he has stayed. Mum did admire him when she visited! I said he would come to her house one day, but for now he stays with me {grins and waves to chicken- ok it's really late and I'm in the dillusional tired state!}

The most brilliant thing about my new TV unit is the massive wooden bench I now have to display some crap, {achem} cool Christmas stuff, on! The candle holders are big flat glass snowflakes, OOhhh I love them! How I wish it snowed in Australia at Christmas Time!!

My newest decoration is this cute tall skinny tin tree that Mum gave me for helping out at her sale. I love that it doesn't stand up straight, imperfection is reality. Wow, I have a lot of Christmas stuff. I think I have inherited that hoarding trait off Mum (and I mean that in the nicest way Mum, I love all my stuff!) And you can never have enough, cos Christmas comes every year!

:) C

Urban Renewal Take Over.

I'M SO EXCITED!!! The newest facet to my Urban Renewal Program got delivered today! A new TV unit!! I did a massive Happy Dance when it arrived {clapping hands and grinning widely!} It is only the 3rd piece of "Real" furniture I have ever bought! (i.e. not a put-together piece from Ikea and not gleaned off Council Cleanup or Ebay!!) It has only been here for half an hour an already it has made me happy happy happy happy!

So here are some before and after pics for you:

BEFORE: The silver shelves were only supposed to be temporary but have been my TV stand now for 2 years! How is that temporary?!! I hate the put-together shelves that the DVD's are on and my CD's are just in a box on the floor! Not too organised. It's just bits and pieces all crouching together next to the wall!



AFTER: Now everything is tucked away neatly in my new, beautiful TV unit from Everyday Living!! {doing a happy dance while sitting here}. I love the timber top and the white washed base, it's so cool and makes my brown house a little more bright! Much brighter than the silver shelves anyway! Plus it's got a big area on the top where I can put some Christmas stuff :)

I had been admiring the shelves for a few months now, and when I turned the TV on at midnight the other night there was an ad for the sale at Everyday Living. I thought it was fortuitous, seeing as they usually only have sex line ads after midnight.. this ad must have been just meant for me! So I went there and it was save $170! Bargain!! I love it!
Hope your Friday is as exciting as mine!
:) C

A little Christmas Cheer

Happy December Everyone!

Only 21 sleeps til Christmas.. yay!! I have been using up my stash of Christmas 3D stickers lately, and last night when I got home from work at midnight I made another 3 cards! I do my best work when I'm pushed for time! I know they're simple cards but they are really cute!

When I look through my stash, I really don't have many Christmas papers that are fresh and funky. In fact I don't think I have purchased Christmas papers for at least 3 years (except one sheet of this plaid one and one sheet of co-ordinating Christmas paisley) so all my papers are old and a bit dull. I am so bored every time I look at them. I loathe my Christmas papers. And in fact they don't even have pride of place in my paper keeper (also cos they don't fit {hahaha, I know Felicity.. I cheated on my "I'm not buying new papers if they don't fit in my paper keeper" rule by taking them out!!}) I'll have to rectify this next time I order from 2 Peas. Come on Aussie Dollar, I want new stuff!! The green paper with the watermark burst in the BG is actually from a Heidi Grace garden pack but I thought it suited Christmas cards pretty well! I love my Perfect Endings SU Christmas word stamps, they fit so well into the word window :) and they are so cute!

It's so good to get some more 3D stickers out of my stash! I was having so much trouble shutting the lid! Does that mean I can now go out and buy some more? ;) Lol. Sure does!

:) C

Deliciousness :)

Hello! And goodbye to the end of the weekend.. how did another one pass by so quickly?! I did get some more Christmas shopping done today with my sister Alicia, but didn't manage to get the tree up which was on my list of to-do's!

Felicity's Stampin Up party on Saturday was great and the ladies had so much fun making the Ice Cream cards! Felicity and I even continued on and made another few Ice Cream cards after the party cos we were enjoying it so much! I made these delicious Apple, Almond & Maple Cupcakes for the Party from my favourite Woman's Weekley Cupcake cookbook. It's supposed to be Pecans but I substituted Slivered almonds and they were delicious :)

Then I was on a roll and made some funky desserts for Will and I tonight. They are Chocolate Mousse with raspberries, whipped cream and a kit kat stuck in. YUM!! I don't know why I was so lazy but I decided to buy already whipped cream (not in the can though!!) so I didn't have to whip it myself {feeling extra lazy in hindsight!}. I bought Gippsland Dairy ready to serve fresh whipped cream in a tub, and I have to say it was delicious!! I recommend this one if you don't have time to whip over Christmas :) It's much more real than the aerosol cream, Lol! But beware... there may be a scary face lurking around your dessert!

Back to the working week tomorrow...

Hope you all had a good weekend!!

:) C

Tart and Tangy Lickable Cards!

Ooohh, I just LOVE these Ice Cream cards! I saw them on Splitcoast Stampers and knew that I had to try them for myself! They use the Tart and Tangy set (only available from Stampin Up til Nov 30, so order NOW if you want it!!) and are just so much fun to make! I am demo-ing them tomorrow at Fliss's SU party, I can't wait to share my excitement! I love love love them :) They look exactly like Splice Ice Creams!! YUM!!
I used my new SU Markers (available seperatly only til Nov 30 also, so it's a great time to put an order in!!) to make the top of the strawberry green and the body red. It's the first time I've used the markers and they are so much fun! I am just imagining all the different colours I can make all my stamps!! Its endless! I also made a Lime card too, I'm going to go and make the Cherry card and Apple card too! Lol. I want to make Ice Cream cards all day long! I used a video by Angie Kennedy Juda to understand the best way to put the card together, but you can pretty much imagine how to do it from the pic. They are super easy and so cool, especially with the "bite" out of the corner! I can't wait to have a Summer Party and use them for invitations!
:) C

Celebrate with Style- and a few 3D stickers too :)

Hello! I have been AWOL this week, I can't believe I haven't posted since last friday! The week has just flown by without me noticing. I think it's only going to get worse on the lead up to Christmas too!! Oh no!!

Mum's Sale was a Success {clapping hands and toasting with a glass of bubbly} which makes us all very happy! It's great to see all the beautiful craft stuff she makes going off to a new home in the hands of a happy customer! I did well too, selling over 20 cards, which has free-ed up my box a little and so now I can make more!

I have a mountain of 3D stickers. I love them. At last count (which was about a year ago) I had over 100 packets. Yep, thats right... 100!!! I shudder to think how many I have now. But lately I have been very controlled and I haven't bought any for ages {patting self on back}. However, I am also trying to work through the plethora that I still have. I do really like using them on cards (I imagine some people think it is cheating cos I didn't stamp and colour the image, but who cares! Lol) and there are some gorgeous 3D stickers out there!

So here are 2 cards I made recently using stickers and only a little stamping.. Hope you like them! The sentiment is from Hero Arts and is the most used one from the whole birthday set!

Did you know Christmas is less than 1 month away now! Whoa!!

:) C

Woo Hoo Friday!

So happy to have no OT today (you may have guessed, I'm at work a lot) cos it's already been a productive day and Oprah's not even on yet {happy dance cos I've still got a little time before work!}. Already today I have made 2 cards and 4 packets of Christmas Food Treats tags for Mum's sale (nothing like cramming at the last minute!) And I plan on doing a little more after I finish my cup of coffee and Banana Walnut Loaf that I made {delicious too, toasted with a little butter! Yum!!}

Here are a couple of cards I made for Felicity's friend who had a combined baby shower for 2 ladies, hence the cards had to be different, but I had only about an hour to make them both! lol. See, I do work well with the last minute cramming!

I love using my cuttlebug to make a plain piece of paper, like the yellow BG, into something really sweet! And the Swiss Dots embossing folder is so perfect for a sweet baby card! Neither of the girls know the sex of their baby so they had to be not pink or blue!

It's Mum's craft sale tomorrow, which is always a fun day! My 3 sisters and I always go to help her out cos it's a garden party afternoon tea also (the kind with lots of delicious cakes and the best china!) and that way Mum gets to socialise a bit more with her friends. It's gonna be especially more fun this year cos Yvette is coming up! We love being all together so I'm really looking forward to it!

:)

C

A little creativity today..

No OT today so the plan was to finish off some things for Mum's Craft Sale this Saturday. I started these cute little cupcakes about 2 weeks ago, felting them with hand dyed wool roving I got at the Alumny Creek Markets in Grafton, but that's as far as they had got. So today I set about sewing the button and beads on, stuffing and blanket stitching the edges and... it took FOREVER!! So much for them being fun and quick {feeling stupid now}. I was supposed to finish off 2 birds I have felted too but I can't be bothered, how bad is that!! They are actually quite small, only about 5cm wide, so were very fiddly. Why did I make them so small? I dunno!! I made up the pattern from scratch cos I thought they'd make cute little hangers, and I also stitched a pin on the back so you can pin it onto bags/shirts etc.
I have sequinned these cute little Christmas Puddings for Mum's sale too, which I find actually very theraputic to do in front of the TV! As long as you take note not to drop any pins on the lounge cos they can be quite painful to sit on. I did sequin them in bed watching TV the other day and woke up with a sequin stuck to my face {giggling}. The hazards of crafting!
:) C

Check it out.. I'm Back again!

So.. did you miss me? Lol, I certainly missed having a working computer! I drove around for 3 hours this morning (thankfully, my car has air con cos it's 30 degrees here) and saught out a new computer screen and Yay, I got one! I don't like to miss out on a bargain (the reason why I drove around for 3 hours and went to 7 places!!) and am happy to say I got a fantastic one.. if only I can get this damn widescreen to look right now.. why is everything so fat? Lol {sigh}.

So here's the page I wanted to post the other day when my computer decided to have a spazz...
Yes, it's Will modelling this year's latest fashion... Fish and Chips. He really was having a great time on holidays! I am happy to say this is another paper that has spent a very long time in my stash and I'm totally happy to have it out!
It's my work Christmas party at Star City tomorrow night! I am so excited, it's always good fun and work pays for all the food and drink so it makes for a super night! This year a whole bunch of my friends and I got a room so the girls are going in early to enjoy the City View with some nibbles as we get ready! Yay.. I'm so excited!
Sorry it's such a short post after a week of no posts, but I'm sooooo busy today!
:) C

Don't miss me too much....

Yes, I'm on another blog holiday.. but it's not by my own doing!!
My computer screen died last night (in a dazzling display of blinking lights and flashing screen) which means no computering for me til I can get a new one! I am thinking of getting a whole new computer since mine is 4.5yrs old and that's about the whole lifespan of a computer these days {who'd have thought they don't live forever?! Damn Microsoft and them forcing us to buy new products every few years!} and I've totally run out of memory and have deleted all my superfluous stuff (like ridiculously funny emails of monkeys).
"How are you blogging to us right now?" I hear you ask.. I had to resort to coming into work on a Sunday :( {ew ew ew} and alas, we can't access the internet on a normal working day so woe is me.. and this blog.. til I can get a new screen/computer. And I've even done a page and some cards to upload too! Hopefully I can get a new computer soon and we'll be back on track!
Bye bye, for a few days at least!
:) C

Last Holiday Page... and it's Sweet!

We couldn't miss out on a visit to the Big Banana this trip and it makes a fun Scrappin subject! I had fun looking through my stash for lots of bright elements to use on this page (which I did while still on hols {love that!}) I used more of my favourite Colorbok Life is Sweet range (so happy I bought so many co-ordinating pieces!)- the epoxy shapes, stickers, "Sweet" word and frame are all from this series. I had to use the 100% Organic sticker, just for a laugh!! hahah.

[As an aside, I'm watching Labyrinth while I type this and it's up to the bit with those freaky red puppets whose heads pop off and on... they always freaked me out and I still hate them now! I remember having to leave the room when they came on when I was little, cos I was so scared of them! Love David Bowie's hair though, its awesome!]

One last holiday pic:

How pretty is Lighthouse Beach in Port Macquarie? We went for a drive out to the lighthouse right at sunset and it was gorgeous. I'm not sure if you can see in this pic but the ocean was Full of surfers- there must have been about 30-40 just sitting waiting for the perfect wave!

Hope you're having a good weekend! I've done one page already and am just generally slothing otherwise! It's awesome!

:) C

A holiday Poser

I found out how especially cool it is to scrap pictures from your holiday, while you're still on holidays! Lol! Here is a page I scrapped while we were still at Port Macquarie, of Willy being a weirdo on the Beach at Darlington Park. As soon as I picked up my camera he did this pose! Lol, such a funny guy.

If you're looking at this PP thinking "I think I used to have that paper, a few years ago though" then you'd be right. Man I have had it for EVER!! But I liked it's bold colours so it stayed in my stash and it finally suited this beach page quite well! The foam thickers "waves" under the title I thought I would never use and look, here they are! Woo Hoo!

And our holiday pics today are from Grafton (my hometown) where it happened to be Jacaranda Festival time when we were there. You might have seen from Yvette's pages that we traditionally had a family portrait (by Dad) in See Park under the Jacaranda's every year. Will and I kinda kept up the tradition with some fun snaps under the magnificent Jacaranda trees of See Park. Aren't they beautiful!!

And then lastly, some ducks. Well, there were waddling ever so cutely around in the fallen Jacaranda flowers so they were worthy of a pic too! Shake your tail feather little guy!

:) C

Fresh Hair

Is there anything that feels quite as good as a fresh hair cut? I always wonder why I wait so long to have one, cos the minute I get one I LOVE the feel of my hair and spend a few hours swishing it around! Of course, I can never do it exactly as well as they do at the salon, but that's what makes getting your hair cut really special, and not just routine.

Yvette gave me this sheet of Sass Lass paper cos I {heart} owls so much and she had 2 sheets of it. I didn't have a clue what kind of photos I could use that would go with it, and so just decide to do a page on something "everyday" that I like having done. A little daily snapshot, rather than a special event or holiday. The page had to include some thickers (Hat Box, by American Crafts), Lil' Davis outline letters and my favourite green and white spotty paper. It's almost all used up but I really like seeing it on pages in my album instead of hiding it away in my stash!

And then for the holiday pics:

Will and I went fishing at Lake Wooloweyah one afternoon during our stay at Yamba. I had only ever seen the Lake from the lookout at Maclean (which is about 20km away!!) so I was keen to head out and have a look close up. It turned out to be a really beautiful, peaceful, picturesque spot where I relaxed, reading my book and taking pics of Willy and he set up 3 fishing rods hoping for a catch. He wasn't disappointed, cos he caught a Bream!! He was sooo excited as he was easing it into shore and cheered when he realised it was big enough to keep and eat! Keep an eye out for a page of it (it's still in my head, but hopefully I'll get around to making it sometime!!) I had fun basking in the late afternoon sunshine and felt totally on holidays as I watched the sun set over the lake. What a perfect day it was!

:) C