Project 365 Collage #22

It's collage time!! From top left: a couple of months back I got a sample packet of cranberries in my letterbox and it came with a recipe sheet.. well, I finally got to make one of the recipes- A Craisin/Oat slice and it was totally DELICIOUS!! I took it to work and it got snaffled up.. it's mainly oats, coconut, honey & craisins (which I didn't have enough of so I used raisins to top it up) and it tasted like the most delicious home-made meusli bar EVER!! YUM!; this is the window of Big City Chic and I found it quite scrabookingly inspiring with it's different PP's for each letter! I have yet to replicate it, but it's on the to-do list!; Will picked me up at midnight and we went for Sundaes and fries to dip into the Sundaes... yum!!; catching the tiny plane home to Grafton- it was actually almost full with 28 people on the way there, but only 18 on the return trip! We got our own flight attendant though!; my High School reunion!; meeting my old School friend Scott's new little baby boy Tristan, what a cutie!; the lamp the Worrell's gave Will and I for our engagement, so pretty!; look at these tiny tiny plastic kiddie chairs all set up for a show at the local shopping centre, isn't that the cutest thing! It was like looking at a real fashion show set up for babies!; and visiting the Dr cos I'm sick off work...

That's it! Yay for Friday... oh man I can't believe how much I want the weekend to be here fast!! It's been a very long week at work, and for no particular reason, just that it has dragged on so much!! Only one 8 hr day stands between me and 2 days of freedom... YAY!!

:) C

I Love you Tivo..

Yep I got my Tivo.. finally!! Remember it's how I wanted to stimulate the economy after KRudd slipped me a couple hundred $$ way back in April for being an awesome tax payer?! Well I didn't get it then cos I thought I had to buy all these fancy connections to get it to work, but after a quick trip to Dick Smith on Sunday I came away with a Tivo and some cheap-o connections from the crap shop down the road and I'm in business!! So the past few days have been an enjoyable sea of TV shows I actually want to watch. Yeah!! (FYI- it's basically a HD Recorder for normal TV but it does cool stuff that allows me to free up my own memory, like you can set it to tape a whole season of a show with only a couple of clicks and don't have to remember to set it every week, you can pause live TV, tape 2 shows at once while watching a 3rd and it acts as a set top box too cos I didn't have digital TV before.) Also it does this way cool thing where you put in an actor's name (such as Jason Statham) and it will tape anything that he's in!! Cool hey! Also you can log on to it via the internet so if I'm at work and forgot to tape something I can log on and do it! Yeah!! Happy me. Thanks KRUDD!!

So last week I also did some scrappin and I'm really knuckling down now and using up lots of my old scrappin stuff that I've had for ages. I consider something old if I got it more than 18 months ago (isn't that sad! I have so much stuff!!) and more and more I'm reaching for this stuff to use it up and only using a bit here and there of new stuff. Plus, I haven't gone scrapbook shopping for ages! You proud? I hope so, I am {wink!!}

My new fave shop is called Cupcakes on Pitt, and although there must be one in Pitt St in the City I've only been to the one at Parramatta, and BOY IT"S GOOD!! I saw a man come up the escalator with a box that had the logo on it and I ran down the escalator and chased around like a mad woman until I found the shop!! I was in HEAVEN!! The cupcakes are $2 each (can you believe it?!) and are just SO SO SO SO good. Yvette, you have to come to stay just to try some! I loved the Lemon Merangue on the left- there was a ball of lemon tart in the middle and the soft fluffy merangue on top was to die for! The Black Forest on the right was also really good: the ganache was just soooooo delicious! I have since been back for another Lemon Merangue and a Peanut Butter cupcake, also wonderful! So the OLD on this page is the PP, fozz felt, chipboard letters, the pink metal tabs, the pink slide frame (cut in half above the pics), the journal spots, metal flower brad, the cherry sticker and the white rub ons! In fact the only new thing is the jewels! LOL!! Yay me! And Yay for delicious cupcakes too... oh I'd love one right now {licking kips!}
:) C

Tuesday and I'm up way too early!

Hi Y'all!

I've got a training course at work today- it's something about Effective Management etc. There was a couse outline but I was more interested in the fact that it listed Morning Tea break, lunch break and afternoon tea break. WOW! 3 Breaks! I'm hoping they feed us those little sandwiches and cakes, I love those. They are always wheeling them from our canteen to the conference rooms and I look whistfully at the mini goodness as it whisks past me. Today, I might be one of the lucky ones! Woo hoo {waving arms and patting tummy}.

Do you have a celebrity crush? You know, the person who whenever they come on an ad you stop dead and marvel at the beauty that is them. Or in my case, the dirty sexiness that is Jason Statham... mmmmm Jason Statham. Yeah, Will knows it. There is something in that beautiful rough English street-accent and his unshaven stubble. Mmmm!! Will's always like "Well why don't you marry him then?" "Cos he's in England, and you asked me first" is my usual answer. Though if JS makes it over here before April 10 next year, Will might have a battle on his hands!One night when we were in the cinemas in the city I came across a giant cardboard poster for Transporter 3 with Jason Statham on it!! Oh my heart {fluttering}!! Well Will grabbed my camera and snapped a pic for me in my closest moment with Jason Statham ever (did I mention Will helps perpetuate my celebrity crush?) LOL! I did get some funny looks, but honestly, those people don't understand. He's hot. That's it. (I don't even care that he has a receding hair line. I'll stiill marry him!!) So I've finally scrapped the pic! I had to modify a letter Q for the U cos I'd run out of U's, pretty nifty hey! Yvette taught me that :)

Gotta run and blow dry my hair so I look presentable at my Leadership training day!!

:)C

Boy Oh Boy.. cardmaking late then early again?

So I was up late last night making cards, come to think of it actually, it wasn't late for me.. normally I sleep at midnight but I finished card making then promptly fell asleep on the lounge watching the Tour de France at 10:30pm. Hence, I woke up this morning at 7:22am (almost an hour before I normally wake up on a weekday!) and so just went straight back to my desk and back to my cardmaking! Did you know Rage rewards the early waker? Usually by the time I wake up on a Saturday it's that weird time between when Rage has started playing the weird "I'm sure they don't even play this on Triple J" music and before Video Hits begins, so I'm stuck watching crap for my breakfast. But early, before most people even open their eyes on a Saturday morning (i.e. 7:22am), Rage plays all the good clips. Hurrah for ABC!! I enjoyed my morning sing-a-long while cardmaking!

So here's some pics of what I got up to: for these preppy baby boy cards I broke out some of the unused stamps from the Hero Arts Precious Baby clear set that Felicity got me for my birthday. I love all the stamps on this set but for some reason have been using the same stamps (namely the elephant and the cloud) over and over, so I decided it was time to break out some of the others!! Did you know the secret to stopping the ink beading on brand new acrylic stamps is to rub an eraser (the plain old soft school kind) over the image, then clean it well on your stampin scrub (if you've got one) and then start stampin away baby! I tells ya, works a charm! I do that for all my acrylic stamps! Take that as my "Tip for the Year". I'd say "Tip for the day" but seeing as I haven't given out any other tips this year, that is probably going to be it for the whole of 2009. Cherish it. It's 7 months worth of thought right there.

Anywho, do you like the cards? I have kept one cos I loved it so much, just in case Felicity has a baby boy in Nov (this is not a random thought, she is actually pregnant and due in Nov, so don't think I'm crazy- it's not "in case she has a baby" but rather "in case she has a baby boy". Lol!) I wanted to use a colour scheme other than my normal baby blue and green, I love the boldness of the red and blue together. And the red gingham ribbon is one of my faves!

Will and I are going to Nick's Diner at Macquarie Centre for dinner tonight and then to the movies afterwards. We're gonna see either Bruno or Harry Potter- yeah, a bit different to each other! We'll see what time dinner finishes. I had to book Nick's cos we've tried to go there for dinner before and they couldn't fit us (and the restuarant is pretty massive) so this time when I called the girl had to go away and "see if we have any room for you"! We are only 2 people! Wow!! It's cos there's only like 2 other places to eat up there. It's seriously lacking in good restaurants- what I wouldn't give for a Hogs Breath less than 20 mins away!!

Well, I hope you're having a fantastic Saturday!!

:) C

Egg All Over My Face..

Attention People buying me Christmas Gifts!!


I would really really really like this for Christmas!! It's a "Sunny Side Up" pillow by diffractionfiber on etsy!! Isn't it totally the coolest thing?! I LOVE it!! Mum will probably say "Ew, gross" but you know I'm still a kid and this would be so cool on my lounge! Alternatively, if you know some crafty people they could probably make something similar don't you think (hint hint!) LOVE IT!!

They also do a totally awesome Fortune Cookie pillow where you can customise a little note that tucks into a pocket like a real Fortune Cookie! I'm thinking I might get that one for Willy {giggling!} So cool. I don't know how people come up with these ideas but they are seriously ingenious! Have you cruised around Etsy before?! You definitely should, I love it!! http://www.etsy.com/ it's like ebay only much better (if you're in to totally unique, beautiful, original handmade artisan products made by home craftspeople or small businesses or you want something vintage and totally special and you like to support the little man, than this is for you!) Check it out.

:) C

Etsy Finds :)

Oh My Gosh, my internet has not dropped out yet and I've been on it for 15 mins! Hurrah!!

Check out these cute little brooches I recently got from Entangle's Etsy Store! How cute are they! I wore the gold bow on the right to work yesterday and got some lovely comments about it! It is good quality and really heavy and together with the gold bow at top left cost me $3.50US. Wow!! He he. I love the 80s stylised chick too, I'm sure I remember Yvette and Alicia had some stuff in the 80s with a similar girl on it :) It's Alicia's birthday in 2 weeks and she is notoriously hard to buy for, so I'm thinking the 80s chick might go to her. I think she'd like it! And the other tiny tiny brooch is a little Cuckoo Clock! That was the first one I put in my cart and what drew me to Entangles. Oh so cute! I'm wearing the top left Bow today, so sweet! I might have to raid Mum's brooch collection next time I visit and get these guys some friends!

:) C

Warning...

I warn you internet... you are that close to ending like this:

GGRRRR!!!!

Project 365 Collage #21

Oh, wow, don't tell me the internet will let me make 2 posts tonight!? Quick, take a picture! Will and I at one of our fave cheap eats from the Entertainment Book- Oscars at Pyrmont. They do $15 ribs on a Monday night! And I'm a sucker for ribs :); the last of the Twilight books, oh they were so good. I'm reading this for a second time now!; check out my new Wall Art! I got this vinyl New York Skyline from House to Home in Wollongong, for the bargain price of $7.95!! I was worried that I'd never get it off the wall, but it's got other ideas, cos every couple of days I have to run my hand over it to stick down all the loose edges! Oh well, you get what you pay for!!; my pink and brown wedding cards; My FAVE winter (and summer actually) drink- Hot Milo, oh oh oh oh so good! And my fave mug too ; how can you beat this for morning tea? A Coffee from Gloria Jeans and a Lemon Merangue cupcake from Cupcakes on Pitt at Parra (keep your eyes peeled for a page I just did on these beauties!!); Will and I out to brunch at Zenja North Strathfield- the food here is really nice and the coffee is lovely too, but the Barrista (and I think owner) is a total bastard to his staff! As you eat you can hear him talking down to them and yelling to them that they are stupid etc.. sours the mood a bit!! We prefer to sit outside where you can't hear him, or you can sit inside if you feel like a bit of drama; my attempt at the Cinnabon Cinnamon buns flopped- I finally found something I can't bake!! {brushing tickets off self}; and finally scrappin fun! This page had to squish a lot of pics on cos I loved them all!!

Lets see if this posts now!
:) C

Where have I been?

"Where have You been?" I hear you ask... I've been right here... bashing away at the keyboard cos my internet connection is TOTAL CRAP!! Anytime a tiny little breeze (e.g. the flutter of a butterfly's wings) comes around, my wireless connection takes a holiday. And that's how it's been all week!! ARGH!! Yes, it has been massively annoying!!

So... quick to it:


Here's my Fiance (awesome pic.... not!!) taking a swig of a very interesting drink in Japan. This thirst quencher was called "Sweat". Yep, like the stuff that oozes out of every pore during the City to Surf (3 weeks to go and haven't trained for 2 weeks cos I've been sick... ouch!!) He said it was salty, like Powerade, but grosser! We had seen it in a few vending machines (on every street corner actually!) and curiosity finally won over Willy! I love the face he's pulling in this pic.. it's one of the many interesting faces of Willy :) See the Japanese book paper at the top? I bought the book in the Jimbocho district in Tokyo especially to pull apart and use on pages! It cost me Y100. hehehe, bargain. I love it! Now I've lost it. Damn! It's somewhere around my scrap stash.. hmmm... wish I could find it!

The OLD on this page is the red disco ball lace paper, the background PP (one of my first graphic papers ever bought! HOnestly, over 5years old!!)

AND THEN I HAD KEPT ON TYPING AND LOST IT ALL COS MY INTERNET IS A WANKER!!

.... I was saying- the journal spot and rub ons are also old, yay to me (said with less enthusiasm after having typed it all out before).
Hope you finally get to read this (and Unwired can buy me a pony.)
:)C

Wedding Cards

Hi Y'all. I'm throwing off the sick blankets today and Will is taking me into the city for the Aroma Coffee festival that is on today at the Rocks :) I imagine we will be 2 of tens of thousands of people so I hope my sick little body is strong enough to cope!!

Remember I made a whole bunch of pink and brown wedding cards a few weeks ago, well I broke out of the pink wedding card mold to make some Blue and Brown Wedding cards using up almost a whole sheet of leftover 3D stickers from my massive stash {punching air}!! For this first card I also used the SU set Blooming With Happiness and the Hampton Art clear set Forever Wedding with Groovy Guava and Creamy Caramel. I love the bride and groom words and I managed to perfectly position them where I wanted them in relation to the double heart stamp. Success!!

Another one of my fave SU sets for wedding cards is the retired Happiness Always set. I had this rectangular 3D tag which is already dry embossed with leaves on it. "What on earth am I going to do with that?" I thought! Well I fiddled with some bits and pieces on my desk, finally adhering it to a scalloped rectangle I had cut with my Cuttlebug and Nestabilites dies and then embellished it with Prima flowers and some bling in the centres. I was so happy with how it turned out!! The ribbon is actually blue with brown and cream stripes so it goes a bit better IRL than here in the pic (trust me {wink!})

Then of course the Wordsworth stick people had to make an appearance cos i love this wedding set! I stamped the striped BG paper with my Autumn Leaves Flourish stamp, then embellished some of the ends of the swirls with tiny bling jewels. So cute!! The frame with the butterflies is off the same 3D sticker sheet as the other 3D embellishments on the other 2 cards, so happy to have used up that whole sheet!!

I hope you all have a great Sunday also, hoping we can get a car park in the city ok and I don't get too worn out!

:) C

Scrappin!

Share time!!

Here are some pages I finished recently, happy days! I have done 47 pages for the year which for me is a great effort!! My personal goal is to do 52 for the year (1 page per week!) so to have already done 47 pages means I have totally KICKED BUTT!! Woot {cheering and doing star jumps!}

One thing I have done a lot of lately is take pics on my phone while shopping and text them to Alicia for a second opinion! I call it "Shop by Phone". I'm sure I'm not the only one who does it, but it does get some funny looks when I'm seemingly admiring myself in the mirror and taking "model" pics!! It works too, sometimes I get a "nah, I think you could do better" but with all 3 of these items (puffer vest, turqoise knit and hot navy dress!) they got the thumbs up and so were added to my wardrobe! I love having a new phone with a great camera in it! It makes shopping on my own a lot more fun!! The OLD on this page is the photography themed stickers along the top, the PP (yes, you had that years ago) and the lace cardstock, hurray for using old stuff.

And then another page from our fantastic trip to Hawaii last year! Yeah, I'm still scrappin those pics... slowly!! Will and I both abosolutely loved Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co Restaurant, being of the "delicious, big servings, hearty meal" loving variety of people (to quote Will: "I don't do etiquette eating") It was our first night in HI and it was brilliant. I love themed restaurants too and this one was quite cool :) It introduced Will to great American food also! I had a lot of pics to include on this page, but I think the PP really worked well with so many pics. The OLD on this page is the PP, I've had that so long!!, and the chipboard letters are forever old too. I did a page a few years ago and spelt Fave "FAV", well I thought it looked ok at the time but Yvette ribbed me about it a bit (yes you did, don't say you didn't!!) so I spelt it with an E this time, and yeah, it looks better! {wink!}

:) C

P.S. Three posts in one day? Unheard of!!

Taylored Expressions Challenge #74

I was so happy today to actually have some time and inspiration to sit down and do one of Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenges!! I always want to do the challenges but never get around to it, but after soaking up the sun at the park watching the local soccer match I was filled with inspiration and so got to work! This card is for TE Challenge#74 It's just a simple card but I love the American Craft's BG paper and I glitzed up the image with my Spica glitter pens... it really shines and sparkles IRL. I love graphic images so this tree makes me smile :) I am going to make more of an effort to actually send the cards I make instead of hoarding them forever, I actually sent out a birthday card to a friend and an Anniversary Card to my parents {Happy 39th Anniversary for today Mum and Dad!!} this week, so I'm on a roll!

:) C

Project 365 Collage #20 & YAY for the Weekend!

Well, actually I have been off work sick the past 2 days, but Yay for the weekend anyway!!


I am way behind with lots of postings at the moment (I think I will never catch up on the Project 365 collages at this rate!) but I haven't forgotten about you, my tiny handful of readers! And also I wanted to give a giant HURRAH {blowing on a paper hooter and waving arms crazily} cos I reached 2500 visits!! THANK YOU FOR DROPPING BY OVER THE PAST YEAR AND MAKING MY BLOG FUN!! So have a seat, relax and share a Blue Hawaii with me :) YUM! P.s. We're going to Hawaii in 2010 for my Mum's *significant (not going to say how many, for her own protection)* birthday! Should be awesomeness!! Yvette, you HAVE to come... it wont be the same without you there... pLEASE!!

Ok, so I'll start with another Project 365 collage:

Hmm... this is getting a bit long ago now, but I think I remember whats going on! This is how I usually spend my Saturday morning, in some comfy clothes eating breakfast at my computer and blogging (hence, that is exactly what I have done this morning!!); my makeup trial at the photographer that we decided we didn't like; reading the second Twilight book (I read all 4 books in just over 1.5 weeks, wow, they really suck you in!); I have been trawling etsy looking for wedding ideas and I saw some really cool stickers and Yvette suggested we could make our own in photoshop- so thats what I did! This is the rehersal one (you'll notice I put it as a button on my blog cos I like how it turned out! Less than 9 months to go! {smiles}; card making; on to the third Twilight book now!; drove Mum back home to Wollongong cos I felt I needed to get out of Sydney and for once I got to stay in the "big bed", not my childhood 2x6 foot antique bed; I bought my Wedding Dress!! The very first one I tried on- So so so beautiful!!; LOOK WHO's BACK!! MR PUFFY!! I hadn't seen him for AGES and he popped by to see me on this day. Mr Puffy usually visits me when a change is on the way... (no, I'm not supersitious, I just think he is delivered to me to say Hello!) so I'm guessing this time it is cos I'm going to be Mrs Lam soon enough. Missed you Mr Puffy!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION UPDATE!!
Well, I am just over 6 months into my New Years Resolution to reduce my Patterned Papers and scraps by 20% by the end of the year, and I have to say I think I'm actually doing quite well! In fact, if I hadn't bought any papers at all this year I would have achieved it already!! But seeing as I am weak and can't possibly go a whole year without buying delicious, exciting, awesome pieces of printed paper, I have caved and bought 30 papers this year. Honestly, thats only just over 1 per week, I don't think that is so so bad, is it?! Well I only have to use up 27 more, without buying any additional papers, and I have conquered my Resolution fair and square!! What do you think? Can I do it?!! I hope so!!

Wow, at risk of having you drop dead from boredom from reading this long, long, wordy post I will stop now, but might come back later to post some of my recent creative exploits!!

:)C