Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!

I just got back from a run and man is it hotting up outside! Finally Summer has come to Sydney.. Woo Hoo! Now I get to enjoy it from the inside of an Air Conditioned Lab, at least we have windows in our new lab and are no longer raving mad scientists stuck in a windowless cavern. Lol!

Here's a page I finished the other day... you may have seen a sneaky little pic of it on the Project 365 Mosaic of my first 9 days.

It's another one of the Big Banana from Will and My Road Trip/Beach Holiday back in October. I love the pic on the right where the Banana Split looks GINORMOUS!! YUM! Do you like my journalling spot/ speech bubble? Will says the sweetest things... and I'm sure I remember him saying this, but it doesn't really matter anyway cos I know he was thinking it, and it made for good journalling anyway {wink!} Look Felicity, I used one of the big paper flowers you gave me for Christmas {cheering a blowing on a hooter}!!

Ah Monday, I hope you're all not suffering Monday-itis! Mine used to be alleviated by the fact I knew Monday was my day shift amongst a sea of nights.. happy times.

:) C

And Owl Will Love You.. Owlways...

I hope you now have Bon Jovi stuck in your head too :) {sniggering to self}. Well, today has been an interesting mixture of uneventful and eventful! And I accomplished my goal of taking a non-crafting related pic- you can check it out next time I do my Project 365 mosaic in another 8 days.. There's a tempter for you to come back and check me out! Lol.

After wasting my morning waiting for a potential new housemate that decided at the last minute my place is too far from her work so didn't come, I was wandering around aimless at home cos my whole day had been messed up. I was surfing for some new Baby Stamps when I realised Art Stamps is the Australian distributer for Hero Arts and had all their new stamps in! I jumped in my car and toodled off to their shop (conveniently only 15mins from my house.. woo hoo!) and I relaxed and indulged my stamping senses in looking at all the new Rubber. Delicious! I only got one stamp from the new range (however, family, I saw many sets I wanted there!) but as soon as I saw it I put it in my shopping basket, and that's where it stayed. No, it's not an owl or a baby stamp after all.. it's woodgrain {licking lips, thinking of all the wonderful cards and scrappin I can do with this stamp!} It is actually a big circle of woodgrain and it just fits inside my Giga Scallop punch from Marvy so it's a match made in heaven. Check out the cool cards I made with it when I got home! I stamped it in Chocolate Chip on Kraft, and I think it turned out fabulously! That's the eventful part- upon making it home at 2:30pm, I made 3 cards and am currently baking a dairy free, egg free, nut free cake for Felicity (we'll see how that turns out- it currently smells pretty good though!!)

Check out the paper on this third card... I think it may have been one of the first papers I ever bought. That makes it about 9 years old! Oh my gosh!! Get rid of it!! Why on earth do I still have it! Lol. It's so amazing to think I have had some supplies for that long! Oh yeah, there is a spanner in the works for my New Year's Resolution. I just found 11 more papers I bought in the after Christmas Sales at Spotlight and RJ's in Wollongong. D'oh! This means instead of being 6 papers down with 48 to go, I am actually 5 papers up. Crap on a stick! Oh yeah, the scallop square punch is from Stampin Up's Summer Mini and the Thank You stamp that fits inside it is from a set in the Summer Mini called "Say it with Scallops." Already quite well used by me!

Hope you're doing something interesting for your Saturday night!!

:) C

Project 365

Is anyone doing this? Have you heard about Project 365? If you just got your December issue of CK (like me, on January 7- gotta love the Australian distributers- isn't it called the December issue for a reason? And what's with the new format, I can't sort them by date on the spine, cos there's no spine any more!! GRRR!!) then you might still just have enough time to jump on the band wagon and you wont be too far behind on pictures.

I'm pretty sure I am SO NOT going to last with this one. You're supposed to take a picture a day for a year and make 'em all up into one album- the Kit of the Month from CK. Unfortunately they didn't order enough kits and their order system crashed so there is a big Hoo Haa but anywho... not the point. Taking a pic a day is really hard. Especially when you are me and lead a pretty uninteresting life. Highlighted in the fact that one day this week I took a pic of an Ice Cream Punnet! An Ice Cream Punnet people... not a cute pic of a day at the beach, or a beautiful sunset... Ice Cream. Maybe that will be interesting in 10 years when the packaging changes, but right now... boredom-ville. Here's my first 9 pics to prove that I did take a pic a day (this is for you Yvette). I blurred out my work building sign so you can't stalk me, BTW.

The tree is finally down too. Now I can get around to putting normal things on my new TV unit, not just Christmas stuff. You know what I want- one of those giant Apocathary jars from Freedom. Love them {hearts emitting from head}. They are way cool.

Tomorrow's goal- take an interesting pic and don't resort to a pic of something I scrapped/stamped.

:) C

Some more selfish pages.. (My Book about Me!)

Here are a couple more pages I did at Christmas time for my Book about Me. I love scrappin and stampin while I'm watching TV and we were watching The World's Fastest Indian so I got a lot done. Quite a good movie too if you haven't seen it, I liked it, mostly cos I like to giggle at the NZ accents (ey bro). Lol.

Ah, my room.. what can I say. It looks like this. It always looks like this. Even if I try to clean it up, it looks like this. There is some small black hole/space wrinkle in my room that prevents everything from maintaining stasus, hence it's strewn all over the floor. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, I am the last person in the world over 12 years old with a single bed. Clearly Urban Renewal has not reached my bedroom but I hope to fix that this year!! {Daydreaming about so many plans}. I wish I could paint the room, but I can't so I really really want to get some of those cool Vinyl wall art stuff instead. (Hint hint, family.. birthday in 23 days!!)

And here is my desk and work area. You can see that I keep it in just the same state I keep my bedroom: clean, organised and tidy {snort!}.Thankfully it actually looks a little bit neater than this at the moment! I have been getting lots done lately so I'm surprised it doesn't look more like my bedroom! I am so lucky to have an inlet off the lounge/dining room where my desk and all my supplies are permanently set up. I have no idea what normal people would put in this inlet, but I know it's perfectly sized for all my junk, I mean stuff. {wink!}

I have been enjoying my nights at home (apart from the whole 'missing Willy heaps' thing) getting used to night time TV (good and bad), finding time to scrap, paint my toenails, sit on the veranda and read my latest CK. Not too bad so far!

:) C

Keep it Rollin....

I'm off to a great start this year, I've done 4 pages already! Awesome!! That means also that I'm almost 1/10th down on my New Years Resolution to reduce my papers by 20%! Woo hoo! If I keep on this course I'll be finished my resolution in no time! :) {clapping hands}

The first page is of the MASSIVE Hail stones that pelted down on us at Darlington Park when we were on hols in October. DP is notorious for Hail (we were there in a massive hail storm in 1985 that went through the roofs of the caravans and littered the ground with dead birds!) and of course there was no shelter for the car so we threw every blanket in the cabin over it! Other cars had cracked windscreens and dints but Willy's was fine. Look at my totally unimpressed face! I was amazed by just how many Cricket Ball Size stones there were- it wasn't just 1 or 2, there were dozens!

The second page is from the Oct Long Weekend (yeah, I'm so totally up to date with my scrappin! Whatever!) when Will and I did a late afternoon run to Dee Why for a fish and chip dinner by the sea. Totally delicious. The Calamari Rings at this chip shop are gigantic!! We really should share one box cos there's so much food, but we gorged ourselves and had one each {fatties}. I loved how awesomely blue the sky was this day and I was so happy when it came out that way in the pics too. I love will's Black hair against the blue sky, Black hair is so dramatic! So glad he did something about those creeping sideburns though.. I think he was planning for them to reach his chin! Lol.

:) C

Today is the first day...

... of the rest of your life... Ok, a bit too dramatic, but today I do start my Supervisor-ship at work. Woo hoo, watch out, I'm the boss! Lol. Well, at least I'm training to be the boss. This is a major change around for my life, I've gotta get into a new groove for Scrappin/Stampin time etc. Hmm.. see how we'll go. Maybe it'll turn out better and I'll be churning heaps out!

Further to the book about me, here are a couple of the next pages in the book. You can see the first few here. Ah Willy, what would I do without you? A constant source of amusement with his lack of apparent emotion and his compulsion to talk if there is silence for even a minute, and tell you all his deepest darkest secrets. Sometimes way way way TMI. But I love him, so there you go.

And that is followed by something I don't love: having Diabetes! What a bummer. There are so many things I miss.. at the moment I am really craving a Bounty Chocolate Bar (it must be summer reminding me of it's coconut goodness) and on the hot days I would do anything for a Frozen Coke. Why can't they make Frozen Coke Zero!! Argh!! The Coke Cola company should employ me to come up with wonderful ideas like that, cos it seems they can't do it on their own!

Oops, gotta be at work in 40mins.. should go have a shower i guess {wink!}

:) C

Scraplifting..

Here are the 2 pages I did when I discovered my Mojo yesterday. The first is of the Bakerella Cupcake Pops I made at Yvette's place back in Sep. If you think this page looks familiar it is because I had already done this page on pink and white spotty paper about the same event! LoL! It wasn't planned but it's no biggie either, seeing as they go together in the album so they kinda match. I had all these pics of us making the Cupcake Pops so I thought they deserved a page just as much as eating the Cupcake Pops did! Man were these delicious.

Then I did this page, which is a Scraplift of a page by Jennifer Pebbles, one of my fave scrapbookers. If only she would post more often!! Her page is here. I bought the Mr Campy range by Cosmo Cricket specifically for the pics of our Road Trip/Beach Holiday, and I just love the way JP uses them. So cute! I don't generally Scraplift so closely, but I loved her page :) I hope mine still seems different enough! Will was so funny when he caught this fish.. he kept pointing at it's face and saying "I'm so gonna eat you!". He did! I tried a bit, but maintain my view that fish tastes like shoe.

So.. Happy Days.. I have done 2 pages already for the year! Did you know in 2006 I had a plan to do 52 LO's for the year and i did 36. Wow, so underwhelming. Last year I did 68! What an effort! I was quite pleased with myself. This year I hope to equal or better that number. Especially seeing as I have to use up my stash, as per my New Year's Resolution (to use 20% of my 269 PPs). Well.. so far so good... these 2 LO's used 3 sheets of paper! Woot {blowing a paper hooter} only 51 to go!

:) C

Found it!! (What the? you ask.. see previous post)

The Giraffe's Sleeve was hiding under the crap on my desk. Incidently, my Mojo was there too, so I'll have something to post tomorrow now! Woo Hoo {doing star jumps}.
:) C
P.S. Willy and I have a date tonight, to the Bavarian Bier Cafe.. YUM, schnitzel!!

And the Wheels Fell Off..

They fell off my creativity.. already! {Sigh}. I had plans for today, great plans. And yet I have sat around for hours, surfing the net, playing my Nintendo, I nipped down to the shops but most of the good local browsing ones are shut for the holidays.. alas, I have wasted the day! I have no motivation! Grrr!!

Here are the other cards I made yesterday..

And look! I can make a card without ribbon! What an effort. What I would do without ribbon and my collection of scallop punches, I don't know.

But the very next card was back to ribbon again. lol. The Giraffe is making quite an appearance in my cards at the moment. Probably cos I can't find the plastic sleeve he lives in and so he's wandering around my desk and I can't be bothered taking him off my acrylic block! I just keep using him. Once I clean up the montrosity that is my desk I'm sure I'll find his sleeve. Unless it fell in the bin. Let me go look...

:) C

Off to a Good Start!

Yep, that's right... 2009 is already off to a good start with me finishing 6 cards yesterday! Woo Hoo! I'm feeling the creative juices flowing already!

After Mum's Sale and Alicia taking my cards into her work, I realised my box only had about 4 Baby cards left, so I set out to rectify that. I wanted to start by making a baby shower card that would be for either sex and this cream/green/red combo fits the bill rather nicely I thought! I hope everyone else loves Owls as much as I do! (Could you tell?) I made 2 of these cards, just changing the ribbon for the other one.

The next Baby Boy card uses the gorgeous little Giraffe stamp from Imaginesce that I picked up in the great Scrapbooking Shop at Yamba and Wordsworth sentiment. I love this little Giraffe, he is so so cute, just perfect for baby cards. When I go through my stash of stamps and stuff I realise I really don't have that many that are usable for Baby Cards (I've got lots of tiny ones but nothing bigger to make a focal image from). I just keep using the same ones over and over. Family, if you are looking for something to get me for my birthday, cute Baby stamps or a gift voucher to a stamp site would be gggreeeaaattt!

And the last one for today (I'll post the other 2 later) is another cute Baby Boy card using my Hero Arts pram and the new Stampin Up "Say it with Scallops" stamp and Scallop punch available in the current Summer Mini Catalogue. I love these stamps and the punch, they are awesome! I'm sure you will see that Congrats stamp pop up all over my card-ing!

Back to work today, my Last OT and night shift.. {sob} I'll miss blogging at breakfast, I don't think I'll be able to drag myself out of bed early enough with my new shift!

:) C

Happy New Year!! Bring on 2009!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

I hope you managed to get out there and party.. guess what?! We saw the fireworks!! We were sitting around at work (for like 1.5hrs doing nothing) waiting for out last delivery to come (due at 9:30pm, but went AWOL) and we begged and pleaded to be let go.. I think our manager was scared the crew were going to riot (not far off the truth!) and he let us go!! So at 11pm Will and I jumped in the car and raced off to Gladesville to try to see the Fireworks. We drove around for 30mins trying to find a carpark but the place was PACKED!! We eventually did a dodgy park (if you're a Policeman reading this, our park was completely legitimate and within the boundaries of the law) and RRAAANNN to the Burns Bay Bridge and made it with about 2 mins to spare! Even though the Fireworks were a fair way away and we had the Butt view (everything is angled out to the harbour and not the west!) it was still so pretty, heaps of beautiful colours, MASSIVE bursts and the ones that hang in the air for ages... soo beautiful! The greenies musn't have been happy with the smoke though cos by the end it obscured half the fireworks from us and we couldn't see the city any more!!

Here comes some exciting news too... I'm going to make a New Year's Resolution!! WHOA!! I've never made one before so I hope this is one I am going to stick to!!

Drum Roll Please.. {brmmmmmmm}

"I solemnly Resolute to reduce my Patterned Papers and Scrap stash by 20% by the end of 2009"....

WOW!! How Liberating!! I'm serious about this you realise and I've done the figures:

Here's the current number crunching...

Full Sheets of Patterned Papers: 269 (4.15kg on the kitchen scales!)

Scrap Stash: 2.35kg (I'm so not going to count these individually!)

So this means a reduction of 53.8 papers/0.83kg (oh no!) of full sheets and 0.47kg of scraps.

WHAT HAVE I DONE!!! How will I ever use up that many, not including new ones I buy... hmm.. I've got some serious crafting to do!

Have a great Public Holiday! I've got some creative plans for my day!

:) C

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?