Using my new stamps from SU!

I finally bit the bullet and ordered two stamp sets I'd been looking at for a long time...Lovely as a Tree and Happy Christmas Mate. My order arrived, along with my new Bone Scorer and Happiness Stamp set, just in time to make cards for our Serbian Tennis coach who was leaving for NZ before relocating to Kabulcha, QLD. I made two cards the same - imagine my delight when I discovered, belatedly, that I save HEAPS of time by doing two identical cards at the same time!! LOL, not to mention that if I hadn't I might have only done one... Something to remember for the future. The trouble with home made cards is - you are never really sure the people at the other end appreciate the effort! I know it's fun, but it would be nice to hear - wow, did you make that!? I love it!! Aaaah, yes I know - it's meant to be in the giving - and it is really - but I wonder - do people appreciate hand made cards? Or would they prefer a bought one? It would be interesting to do some sort of poll on a non craft forum :)
This card was CASED from one I saw on Splitcoaststampers. Thanks!!

Girl Dog has a new home...

We couldn't keep her. She was in the cage a lot of the time and was playing with Turner or running amok down the street the rest of the time. Almost impossible to train her under those conditions and almost as impossible to convince Turner that it was a good thing to be stuck in the yard when Girl Dog was out front....
I posted a message on my work Email Chat and found her a new owner. Well two actually. Apparently they have "come to some arrangement" LOL, whatever, I'm sure she's being loved to bits as she should be.
After a whole heap of name changes she was affectionately known as "Girl Dog" and I told her new owners this..
These photos were taken whilst I was waiting for the (very grumpy) Council Ranger to say I could keep her. Thanks to the lovely Lady at the RSPCA who told him I wasn't breaking any rules and was welcome to keep her! This actually meant I am allowed to give her to Maria and Phil!! After a whole heap of name changes she was affectionately known as "Girl Dog" and I told her new owners this...I must find out if they have named her something else...watch this space :)

Uh oh, I'm in trouble - for neglecting - again :)

Well, I've got an excuse or two.
First- I am DESperately trying to plan our New Zealand itinerary. We've jotted down lots of things we'd like to do - but now we have to try to fit them all in - and start booking some stuff!!
We are planning on going to Bonz n Stonz to make our own "treasure"

This is a photo of me from our work Christmas party on Friday night. I must thank my friend Smurf for babysitting, doing my hair AND lending me her top!!


Can't imagine how many photos we'll take on our trip! Mountains, valleys, old buildings, weird buildings, guysers, hostels, hire cars, trains, planes, boats, buses, helicopter rides, glaciers...wow. I finally got my "prison issue" passport photos taken yesterday - I'll be lucky if they let me into the country - or as the photographer said - even luckier if they let me come back into Australia!

Speaking of photos - I just took this photo of my Advent Calendar.
I made it based on an idea in CM's Scraps magazine and I really like how it turned out.



I just want to say "THANKS" to Mel for keeping me honest :)

Guess what I'm getting for Christmas????

A bug.
A Cricket.
A Cricut Create!!


Yay!! It comes with the Design Studio and Don Juan cartridge. I'm sooooo excited. Great price too - $495! Cheaper than buying the old model locally!
Paperbark Creations

Movember

I forgot to mention - if you'd like to support MOVEMBER go to https://www.movember.com/au/donate and search for registration number 402821 (our mate Nathan) and donate to the cause! He's promised to shave his head too if he makes enough :) And I'm sure we all know someone affected by mental illness and/or depression....

Quick update :)

Just popping in whilst the mince is browning - so can't stay long!! Puppy is still with us, and still as yet, mostly unnamed!! She's getting on really well with Turner for the most part, although he tends to squash her in play :/ Still not sure she's staying - hubby is convinced shes not! lol

Til next time - keep smiling!

Kicked into action...

Well, apparently SOMEbody reads my blog (((((((Melita)))))) and noticed I haven't been posting regularly! So, I've officially added this page as my homepage, right along with my current favourite websites, SS and Facebook.

Wednesday night coming home from work/tennis we rescued a puppy. A very cute puppy, who was very lucky not to have been run over by a black car... We visited a couple of houses and posted some lost puppy notices with no luck. The puppy is still at our house.

She's had a heap of name changes, some of which included: Rat, Slipper, Sliver (as in just a piece of a dog!!), Cocoa, The Dog, Girl Dog and Cat Dog. We haven't named her officially, because officially "we aren't keeping her!" DH isn't an inside dog lover at all, so we've come to a compromise and if she does ok outside with Turner, and no one claims her, we can keep her.

Oh my ...

It has been SOOOO cold! Everybody I know is sick (and I think I'm getting it now too...)
I'm off on a plane to my friend's wedding and I really DON'T need this illness to overtake me now. I ache all over.
..Is it the Flu? or is it that I'm 37 years old and still playing B-grade netball???? I collapsed on court yesterday when both my calves cramped up and I couldn't stand! I managed to get up and get going (after convincing my team mate that I could not reach my toes and she really needed to help me stretch!!)
The upside of the game is that I scored more goals than I have in my Adult life and some of them were just AWESOME!!!
I'm going to sign off now, and get some rest for my eyes.
Keep your fingers crossed I don't get TOO much worse before the weekend...

One word...

I got this idea from somebody else's blog..looks fun.
Not as easy as you might think... answer each question with only one word!

1. Where is your cell phone? bedroom
2. Significant other? husband
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? sporty
5. Your father? dead
6. Your favorite thing? peace
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream/goal? unity
10. The room you're in? lounge
11. Your hobby? photos
12. Your fear? divorce
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? married!
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you're not? patient
16. Muffins? fruit
17. One of your wish list items? CR
18. Where you grew up? Goolwa
19. The last thing you did? typed
20. What are you wearing? gown
21. Your TV? on
22. Your pets? 5
23. Your computer? compaq
24. Your life? buys
25. Your mood? relaxed
26. Missing someone? yes
27. Your car? great!
28. Something you're not wearing? pants
29. Favorite store? BigW (is that one word?)
30. Your summer? hot
31. Like someone? lots
32. Your favorite color? green
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? recently

The year is flying by!

I can not believe it is already the end of term and half way through the next lot of school holidays!!
The first week was busy, but really nice, with lots of tennis. I went to Darwin with the tennis exchange and then stayed on to watch/supervise kids for two more tournaments. Mel went to another couple in Katherine, but I flew home to the family.
It's been a very hectic upanddown term. Not much fun, one I'd like to forget really.
Here's looking for a wonderful two weeks off and a better term 3 :)

School Holidays

We are nearing the end of one week of school holidays. It's been a busy week of Tennis and In-Laws, but it's been nice. Nice not to rush off to work - although I've still spent quite a lot of time working from home...
We saw the Spiderwick Chronicles at the cinema and we all thought it was good fun. The green slime and tomato sauce was certainly colourful!
Also full of colour was my popcorn. Mel decided I needed to try something new...M&Ms in my popcorn! It was actually a very nice combination. I usually dip my ice cream into my popcorn, so the sweet and savoury thing is actually something I quite like!
Bowling was in the pipeline, but didn't happen as Nanna had sore fingers and Grandpa had a sore back.
Instead, I took the kids to out to a BBQ breakfast with friends. Breakfast lasted until about 1.30pm - it was lovely to catch up with friends and the kids had a good dose of fresh air. The play station, DVD player and computer have had a good workout this holidays. Before dinner we spent an hour or so out the back shooting goals and kicking the soccer ball - mixed in with chasing Turner the dog to get our balls back! I think he'd make a good Aussie Rules player, he tackles and holds the ball really well with his paws!
The in-laws left early this morning to drive home over the next two days. It's back to normal today with us spending all day Saturday at netball; coaching, playing and umpiring. Tomorrow we'll finish the holidays with a Netball Barbecue courtesy of our Sponsors. The kids are hoping and praying it will still be warm enough to swim.

Pay it Forward RAK

RAK - Random Act of Kindness
I just saw this on Melita's blog, inspired by a post on Veronica's blog.... and think it's a great idea so I'm doing it as well!

”The idea of the exchange is I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on this blog post requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog - this means you must have a blog, sorry blogless readers.”

I have no idea what the gift will be at this stage, whether it will be big or small... All I ask is that you pay it forward :)

7 of 2007.

This post has been a while coming. I mentioned it a while ago, but hadn't got around to it, until now...

1. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:
This was my youngest's first day of Big School. He was so very excited to be there! I enjoyed the idea of not having to race around for the preschool pick up/drop off... He had the perfect teacher for his personality. One I'd preferred not to have for the girls. Surprisingly - I wasn't sad about my "baby" going to school. We always take a photo on the first day of school. Until 2007 it was always taken out the front. We changed it in 2008.


2. TURNER:
Turner was actually my middle dd's Christmas Present for 2006. It was all she wanted! Ordinarily we wouldn't give a pet as a present, but she really didn't know what else to ask for. We organised him through a friend and arranged to pick him up after we returned from holidays in January 2007. We wrapped a picture of him to give on Christmas Day. This photo is from the day we picked him up. He has made himself a big part of our family. He loves to go out of the yard, especially running around the oval, exploring the drain. He attended "Puppy Pre-school" early in the piece and we plan to take him to dog obedience school in 2008.


3. NEW CAMERA:
I bought my first digital camera in Camberra, a 2MP mini camera just to try out. To see what I liked, didn't like and/or needed in a Digital Camera. After some playing around I bought a real one from Harvey Norman...a 7mp HP camera that I loved. I replaced it a few times, but one day at netball it was dropped by somebody and the screen broke. It was time for a new camera :( I used hubby's Olympus for a while, but really didn't like it. The flash was too bright and the images were very "digital". I bought my new camera at K-mart, on Sale. It's a Fuji, FinePix S5700. I love it. I love that it takes two different types of Memory Cards. The zoom is awesome and so is the shallow depth photography on Auto. The only thing I would say I don't like, is that sometimes inside pics are a bit grainy. I took this pic of our elder dd when I first got the camera. I was just playing around with the settings :) But as I don't have a picture of the camera, I thought I'd post our dd instead!! My camera has inspired my sister and mother to buy new cameras. They both bought different versions of the same camera.

4. TENNIS:
Tennis is another big part of our family life. My dh and I met at a friend's house and began playing tennis together before we became more than just friends! We have played tennis on and off through the years. All three children have had some tennis coaching. Our elder dd is hooked. She has coaching 2-3 times a week as well as playing in a regular competition, School Sport comp and tournaments. She had an awesome year, winning tournaments left, right and centre. She even won her age group in a tournament interstate! She has had a few different coaches, but Craig is her favourite. They've had a few "ups and downs" but she's so much happier about her tennis when he's coaching. Thankfully he has agreed to fit her into his already busy schedule for 2008!


5. CLIMBING MOUNT GILLEN
Mount Gillen is beautiful. We can see it from our front door (see pic at the top of my blog page) and have often climbed it. Hubby more than me! In fact he used it as training for his trip to Kokoda in 2006. On July 10, 2007 we climbed with the kids. It was fun to do it with them and they did it fairly easily - in fact our younger dd ran quite a lot of it!! Coming down was harder than going up - it's very steep and there's a lot of loose rock, but the view makes it all worthwhile :)

6. TENNIS TASMANIA
This was my first year as a Manager for the School Sport NT Tennis Exchange Team. The bonus was going to Tasmania. We flew from here to Melbourne, where we spent the night before our train on the next day. Our train on consisted of taking a train then walking to the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne park, where the kids trained on the practise courts! It was a great experience for them. After a cold wet day and a couple of tram trips we made our way to the Spirit Of Tasmania for our overnight trip to Tassie. A few of us (including me) didn't cope too well with the sea travel. Thankfully we had beds to sleep in for the night. We spent the week in Burnie, with games being played at Burnie and Devenport courts. Our tennis team had the best Result for an NT Tennis Exchange team to date!

7. CHRISTMAS
Christmas day was rushed, as usual, but very enjoyable. We visited my mum and sd before breakfast then had breakfast with my sister and her family at our house. I was able to use the self timer on my camera to take this photo, meaning I could be in it too! We rushed around to book into our cabin at the McDonnell Range caravan park, before heading out to lunch at the Barra on Todd restaurant. We wanted to stay at the restaurant but would have had too book two rooms, so we took the cabin at the caravan park instead. After a large lunch and a few drinks we headed back to our room for the night. The kids did some exploring and found a big air pillow for us all to play on. After a VERY cold swim we played on the pillow until it got dark. After spending some time in the games room we returned to the cabin for a dinner of cheeses and dips and biscuits. This year I think we'll do dinner at the restaurant, instead of lunch, so that it's not such a rush. PlayStation 2 and Mel's DS Lite were the presents of the year!

Easter Was Awesome!!!

It was FANtastic to see my brother and all his family (bar one daughter) over the Easter Week.
The kids loved meeting their cousins and they all played really well together. The eldest is turning 20 this year and the youngest is 1. We played cards (MAY I?), did SingStar, went to the Desert Park, had meals together...it was fun. My darling brother even cooked lunch for me!! Warm lamb salad. . . it was delicious!!



It was also interesting to see how the nature/nurture thing works. My nephew has grown up on the other side of the country to his dad. They see each other about once a year. They look alike. They sound alike. It's amazing.
The family genes must be very strong. My niece and my middle dd are very similar in appearance (with about 8 years in between).

The Wedding Anniversary party went well, with the three kids (my sister,brother and me) and our families giving Mum and SD a digital photo frame with photos already on it. It has quite a big internal storage capacity, plus you can add photos by card or USB...





Can't wait to see them all again!

March so far..

March has been HUGE! Dh has been working days, and I'm still getting used to working full time (over two jobs). I seem to be waking at ridiculous hours of the morning and feeling exhausted each evening.
Netball is starting soon. I've taken on a 13/U netball team, that has somehow become 2.
Thankfully I've found a lady to take one on each Saturday.
I'm also in the midst of planning a Tennis event and organising to take some kids to another one next term.
DH is slowly getting used to being the one that's home to do tea etc, although it did take some convincing. I guess it is hard when he's so used to finishing at bed time, to be home and able to cook dinner..?
I have two name tags to wear for work. My morning job says "tutor" which really confuses the kids who are just learning to read!! The second one actually has my name on it - I like it. It makes me feel a part of the school :)
It's almost Easter. With that comes family. It's my sister's birthday on Tuesday, then my brother and families come to celebrate mum's wedding anniversary on Thursday. This just reminds me - I forgot to say happy Anniversary! 30 years!! I think it was on the 11th... Oh well, I'll have to do something nice for her party...really should get together with the siblings and organise something...
It will be nice to see them all, though at this point I'm not even sure when my brother is coming. His girlfriend, 3 of his kids and two of hers will be here on Thursday. I hope he can come!!
I caught up with him in Melbourne last year for an hour or so, but it would be nice to see more of him :)
...Now, I need to remember to go chase up the Easter Bunny!

...truly a blessing..truly a blessing... :X

Wow. I hadn't even collected my baggage and the elder dd and her dad were fighting about dinner!
I think this may be inspiration to do the seven best things of 2007...

Work can be a blessing!

Sometimes work gets on top of me. Especially now that I'm working full time (plus) for the first time since the kids were born.
BUT sometimes it's nice to go to work. To get away from the bickering. The mess. The stress of trying to fit everything in.
TODAY is a different type of blessing - one of the reasons I love my job. I get to go away. 1500kms away in fact - and I get to do it several times a year.
And it's these times that you realise how much you will actually miss the chaos. You can't have it both ways...but provided I get there and back safely - I'll take the opportunity to appreciate my family for who they are, whenever I can and if this means getting away for work..I'll take it :)

SS Blog Challenge #1

My new year's resolution was to take part in the SS Blog Challenges. Well it's February and I'm just beginning...better lat than never!

This week's blog challenge: RECIPE! We all dig out special recipes during the holidays - some that we ONLY use at holiday time. Why do we make those dishes every year? Where did the recipe originate? Does someone request it? Would it just NOT be the holidays without it? What memories of this recipe do you have from your childhood?

Christmas every year as a child we had White Christmas and Rum Balls.

White Christmas from Australia

3 cups rice bubbles
1 cup mixed fruit
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup dry powdered milk
3/4 cup of sifted icing
sugar
225 grams colpha
vanilla essence

1. Put 3 cups of rice bubbles, 1 cup of mixed fruit, dessicated coconut, dry powdered milk and 3/4 sifted icing sugar in a bowl.

2. Melt 225 grams copha in saucepan. Add copha to dry ingredients in bowl - mix well.

3. Press mixture firmly into a biscuit tray. Set in a refrigerator. Cut into squares.

I make neither for my family, although I do love to eat the Rum Balls that my mum still makes!
We have our own tradition of Ginger Bread houses. We began the tradition in 2004 after tasting our Canberra neighbours, Malcom, Rodney, Bonny and Alison's gingerbread house. We thought it was a fantastic idea - but being our first time, we cheated and looked around until we found a house to buy, rather than making one...but all we could find was this litte tree. None the less - a new tradition began. Christmas 2004...
We usually make our own Gingerbread House or houses - depending on how many we need. They were a hit at the class parties in 2005 and we made our first one for my CM Xmas in July workshop. In 2006, when we were in Adelaide in a tent we bought another tree as it was a bit hard to bake in the caravan park!! Below are some of the houses we made in 2005. We also made some mini houses as Christmas Gifts, with pink and green icing. They were hard to make so we are sticking to white!

Then there are the stock recipes that we ALWAYS keep ingredients on hand for. What's one of yours? What's your family's favorite dish? What do you ALWAYS make when you have company for dinner? Are you known for a certain recipe that people always request? This week, tell us about the recipe(s) that invoke special memories for you.

My favourite biscuits are "Lady Alice Biscuits" they are custard based and melt in your mouth. These were an old recipe of my mum's.
Andrew's favourite dessert, "Alice's Apple Squares" is from his mum's recipe book, my favourite version is apple and rhubarb.
We don't have people over for dinner often, but when we do it's usually a barbecue. My favourite salad is the Crunchy Noodle Asian Salad.
When I was growing up we didn't have lots of money and "KiSiMin" was often on the menu. It was always a two night dish and it was always MUCH tastier the second time around.

Ki Si Min

Ki si Min (fast and yummy)

mince meat

cabbage

onion

curry powder

mixed frozen vegetables

chicken soup in a can

You use as much as you want but for say 7 people l use:

600 grams of mince

1/4 cabbage

1 onion

curry powder to taste

saucepan lot of frozen vegies (l use lots cause love me vegies)

2 tins of soup (you can use one but l like mine creamy)

Chop onion and saute in pan with some butter till translucent, add curry powder to cover. Add mince and stir till browned. Slice cabbage thinly and add to mixture, cook vegies and add to mixture also. When all mixed together and cabbage has softened add the tins of soup and mix well and heat through. YUMMMMMY and l might add l add extra curry powder to taste when thats done.

Quick easy and tastes better than it sounds very cheap to make too.

Well, not quite weekly!

I said in my last post that I'd try to post weekly. I haven't. In fact the only time I even think about my blog is when someone else's is mentioned on a SS post. Last time I was here I mentioned posting pics of cards and glass charms I made for a swap,I took some pictures but they aren't great as I'd already packaged them up before remembering to take the pic...
The cards are Criss Cross Cards and I think they look really nice :)

I took some pics of my wine glass charms too - but I seem to have deleted that file :(

Life is full on. School is back in. So's work - and now I have a new job that has almost as many hours as my other job does (officially - you know the one's I actually get paid for)
It's nice knowing there will be money for holidays and stuff, but it's VERY busy. Thankfully I've had the hubby home this week helping out - it will be interesting to see how we cope (and what we eat!) when we are back to normal hours...
The kids are also back into their respective sports, which includes a LOT of running around on Saturday mornings. Not sure when I'm supposed to do my Creative Memories classes...and how successful they'd be anyway! I've got one this afternoon on Circle Pages - and I still haven't done one to show!...I did manage to buy some blades for my workshop ladies to use to cut the circles out with. I guess I really shouldn't be on here!
My next post I will address some of the SS Blog Challenges.....watch this space :)

It's about time.....

And not enough of it!! I was recently directed to Sparkpeople and am busily entering my Nutrition and Fitness Goals on their site. I set up a Sparkpeople blog - Lushy in Alice!! Finding the site in January 2008 was great timing, as my sister Kathryn and I have decided to start/return to Weight Watchers in 2008.

BUT, all this means I don't have as much time to browse my two favourite sites!!! Oh well, guess we can't do everything!!

I really do want to keep this Blog moving along though...so I'm going to make an effort to post at least once a week. I think I'll send the link to the In-Laws so that I'll need to keep it up to date for them to know what's going on in the Alice :)

I'm not going to talk about my Fitness/Nutrition on this blog - but I would like to mention that if I didn't get my treadmill for Christmas then my exercise would be non existant. It's been SOOOOOO hot. I've done nearly all of my exercise inside. It's great!!

I have done a few cards - I actually completed 10 Christmas cards for a SCS challenge. Hopefully I'll actually send some Christmas cards OUT in 2008!
This birthday card uses some CM cardstock that I had already cut into card blanks for a Girl Guide meeting and SU! "Let's Party":

Since I took the photo I have added my newly acquired Crystal Effects from Stampin'Up! to a couple of spots on each present.

I've also made some more wine charms for a swap. I'll post my swap charms and swap cards in a later blog post.

Julie my MIL wasn't sure what her butterfly glass charms were!! Luckily her other DIL, Helen, was there to help her understand they were for her wine glass - not her EARS!!

We went shopping!!

It's so exciting! FINALLY we got a new computer :) The one we had was
loaded with Millenium Edition Windows and nobody offered support for
that system any more ... and a lot of products (including my last
printer) weren't compatible with ME.
Now I have a BIG WHOPPING screen, speakers that I don't have to wear on
my head a dvd burner...I'm a happy gal!
I have a little pink dude holding a clock at the top of my desktop -
that incidentallys says it's past my bed time!!
Whilst we were shopping for our new mattress (at the same time as the
computer) we also purchased a new bed for DD#1. It means we need to
move their room around AGAIN! It's got a little cupboard and shelf and a
desk that goes under the bed - it's like a low bunk, or a high bed. She
needed it though - the last one never really went together properly and
it felt like it would break whenever you sat on it. She's really excited!!
Of course the other part of her excitement is that they get to keep the
old computer. I took heaps off it and it's working quite well without
all the extra memory taken up.
T & B spent the afternoon playing games on the old computer and are very
happy with the idea! It's set up in the girl's wardrobe so it isn't
extra visible "clutter".
Now, if I could just work out how to make this monitor not so bright my
eyes would be happy too :)

A "Crabby Day"

No, not really! I woke up really wanting to make some cards. So I did. I set myself the task of using my SU! Crab & Company Stamp Set.

I made two cards that I'm really happy with.

The first one had the crab and a present and stamped background paper, in purple colour tones, using Hand Made Papers from Tasmania. I chalked the "sand" with Stampin' Pastels.

This second card used watercolour pencils, Stampin' Pastels and the SU! White Gel Pen and Hemp twine. The "snappy birthday" is on Dimensionals.

Bonnie made one too. All three are uploaded to my gallery on Splitcoast Stampers :)

I'm off to make another one - or- maybe two.....!

Been and gone for another year.

Christmas Eve day was hard - it didn't feel at all like Christmas, the kids were fighting and unhelpful and my dh and my sister had to work. It was me....and the kids.... :X
Thankfully Christmas Eve was better. The kidlets opened some little presents - from Kimbo and from their Dad's work, then we picked DH up from work and went to look at the Christmas lights. There was a full moon - it was awesome!

On Christmas morning our wonderful son graced us with his presence somewhere around 3am, but after "just having a look" he went back to bed!

Christmas day was a bit more rushed than we'd have liked - us at home, then over to my folks, then back here to do breakfast with my sister's family. We had to rush off to the caravan park to book in for our "mini holiday" and then Chris took us over to the restaurant for lunch. We spent a really nice afternoon eating and drinking and sitting by the pool whilst the kids swam.
Maybe next year we'll do dinner out instead of lunch - so that the children have more time to play with their new toys.

However, when all is said and done it was a great day! The kids were over the moon with their presents and they were well behaved at lunch (although Tys was more interested in swimming than eating!) It was nice to have a lovely sunny, swimming kind of day after last year's chilly day!

All that's left now is to have the kids write some thank you notes....and take down the tree.

School holiday moments

Christmas is certainly getting closer...by the second.
My countdown says 1 day, 12 hours, 27 minutes..

The Santa sacks are hung, the presents are all bought and I'm slowly clearing up my scrapping spaces..yes spaces! My desk has been covered in school books, photos, dust and cat hair. I have been working at the dining room table...
I have a friend, Oley, coming for afternoon tea, so thought I'd better
get it done today - rather than tomorrow. At least now I have room in my
"yellow room" to scrap at my desk!

I just need to find some time to do some Grocery Shopping for Christmas
Morning and our mini holiday (more on that in another post)

Mel came home from Adelaide yesterday. She was VERY proud of the trophy
she won as Girls 10 Singles winner at the tournament she attended.
(although she did mention - it's VERY plastic! Apparently our tennis
club gives much better trophies) She was the only person from our club to win her division. Others came home with medals for winning their plates. M.Henderson got the best result in the senior tournament.

Bon and Tyson are making their way through the Christmas movies we hired on $1 Cheap Tuesday.
So far we've watched:
Santa Clause 3
A Christmas Carol
I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (twice!)
Chasing Christmas
Deck the Halls
and Firehouse dog - not Christmas related.
We also watched "Christmas at the Kranks" on TV.

We still have "The 12 Dogs of Christmas" to watch - a chance for me to hop on my treadmill!

Last night I watched "Bad Santa" ...interesting...?? extremely vulgar....!! He turned out not so bad, but it's not something I'd watch again, or recommend for kids!!!!! And Mel bought "A series of Unfortunate Events" for the whole family when she was in Adelaide.

My Wine Glass Charms interest has continued - with me making a set for Mel's Tennis Coaches, my friend Julie and another couple of friends, Jackie and Richard (pictured). Unfortunately my creativity hasn't spread to card making. It has however been coming out in my Album Pages, which is just as well because I was feeling really bored with my pages!

Something Spontaneous...

A challenge has been set. Blog something spontaneous...

My ds 6, Tys is a bit of a softy. Sure he acts tough - is that a 6yo boy thing to do???
Just a few minutes ago, whilst helping his 8yo sister with the dishes I heard the sound of crying - not an unusual occurence in our home! Then, I heard Tyson Crying...a lot!
Apparently Tyson and Bonnie had been having "towel flick" fights in the kitchen, though, how much Bonnie was involved I'm not sure.
Tyson stood at the back door, crying about how Bonnie could have done it to him, and how he didn't want dad to do it. This went on for about 5 minutes!
I was chuckling to myself about Tyson's reaction as he finally went outside to his dad.

Turns out, DH had heard the noise in the kitchen and mentioned to Tyson that he could do it to him - and Tyson responded that it wouldn't hurt. OOPS! The next comment from DH was for Tyson to "bring the towel here".
That's it.
Not "let me do it to you"...just bring it here.
That is what set off Tyson's tears.

Happy Anniversary to US and ...stuff...

15 years today.
This photo is a little older than that, but it's a nice photo.

We had a really nice day together (with two of the kids).
I had planned on getting DH some nice drinking glasses, but couldn't find any I liked.
I gave him his refurbished wedding ring instead. It looks great - someone resized it with yellow gold once and it looked shocking. This time the jeweller removed the yellow gold, reshaped the ring (from where DH got it caught on something at work), remade the shank and polished it all up. It still fits!!!
We gave ourselves the treadmill as a combined "everything" gift, with birthdays, Christmas and our Anniversary in Dec/Jan it seemed a good idea. It was neat that it was delivered today.
I ran for 2 minutes and walked for 13. The kids enjoyed it too. My goal will be to increase by 10% each day until I get to a certain point..not sure what that will be yet!
Our 1st dd is away on a tennis tournament for 8 days. It's day 6 and she's finally played some tennis. She had two singles and 1 doubles match today and won them all. She only met her doubles partner when it was time to go on the court! They have to play each other in singles tomorrow! DD has a bad (?) habit of feeling bad for her opposition, so I hope that she doesn't take it too easy on her "partner" whilst they are playing their singles matches. She's missing us all, and we are missing her lots too! xxxxxxx

The dd8 and ds6 had a great time playing with the Treadmill Packaging. It was a slide. It was a car! They even managed to find some wood planks in the box which they used as "surfboards" in the pool at our friend's house! Gotta love their creativity - all we could see before they started playing, was M.E.S.S.

Figgy Pudding - this list of questions came from somewhere, and with Christmas so close...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? When someone has taken the time, money and effort to think of me, buy/make me a present and give it to me - it really doesn't matter how it's presented. Having said that, paper or bag, it's always extra special when the giver has added extras - tissue paper, bow, ribbons, straw etc.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. Now. We always had a real one when I was growing up. Then we bought "our" very own tree the year we got married, got a new fibre optic tree in 2005 and "Santa" bought us a really lovely big tree in 2006.

3. When do you put up the tree? When we are in the mood. This year it went up early because I wanted it up for my Creative Memories Christmas Class. My SD and my sister have a "not before December 1st" rule, but we don't. We have made Christmas our own holiday, and we celebrate it "our" way.

4. When do you take the tree down? Again, when the mood strikes! Sometime after new years day. In 2007/08 it might come down early - I need somewhere to put my new treadmill!! - if it doesn't stay where we've put it for now, behind the dining room table.

5. Do you like egg nog? No.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I'd have to say my bike, or my roller blades. I used those blades ALL the time!

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No, it's something I'd like to have,but don't really have anywhere to put it. I did buy a battery operated light up glass ornament nativity scene for one of the teachers, that I ended up keeping as it was scratched - but I doubt anyone would even notice it is a nativity scene, it's so small:



8. Hardest person to buy for? Really, my middle dd. She never actually "wants" for anything. The others will ask, "can I have......?" LOL

9. Easiest person to buy for? My middle dd. Hardest and easiest. She is always happy with whatever we get her.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I always sent LOTS. Then I started to get less and less, and one year I didn't get around to it. That was it. Now I send emails, or return cards...that's it. I have started making cards, so maybe next year I will be able to send some of those :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I keep getting really odd things from a lady I'd really rather not receive things from. I'm not sure if it's the items, or the giver.

12 . Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th street...Santa Clause 1.2.3...It's tough. I like all the feel good ones and the ones that make me laugh. I think it's more about sitting around as a family watching the movies, than what we actually watch.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I shop all year round. I have a place where I keep all these gifts. However, as the children grow, and their tastes change throughout the year I'm tending to shop closer to Christmas.

14 . Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. But I did win a ring that I gave to a friend for her birthday :0

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham. It's the only time of the year that we buy a real ham. But of course there are lots of other things that seem to only get eaten at Christmas - gingerbread, mince pies, white christmas, rumballs, nuts in their shells, Christmas pudding.

16 . Clear lights or colored on the tree? We have coloured...for no particular reason.

17. Favorite Christmas song? I like lots of them. I don't like to sing silent night - although I do like the words. I don't like it when people sing common songs in a way that makes it hard to sing along.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We prefer to have it just the five of us at a restaurant for lunch, my sister's family at breakfast - year about at her house or ours...and whatever happens for tea. We like to spend the night away from home if we havent' gone away.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? ...maybe....

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? It's a star, a wobbly star.

21 . Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. We have opened some Christmas eve if we have lots from out of town..otherwise it's too overwhelming on Christmas day.

22 . Most annoying thing about this time of year? Impatient and rude people at the shops!

23. Favorite Christmas ornament? I have a new favourite every year! This year I bought a singing Christmas tree. The ornament that starts conversation is my big purple ornament that sings when you make a loud noise!

24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? Prawns. It's something that we don't seem to cook. I love to have an Italian Fruitcake, but it usually gets eaten for breakfast!!

Craft Class 101

What a good day we had :)
It started with Macca's for breakfast and the purchase of my Christmas/Anniversary/Birthday present....a treadmill. An anniversary edition York T203
It's being delivered on Wednesday - the 19th of December - our 15th Wedding Anniversary!!! I can't believe it's been 15 years already.....

After dropping Andrew into work we went into Queen Bead to buy items to make Wine Glass Charms. It was a bit overwhelming...and a little more expensive than I'd planned. Luckily I have the makings for 4 or more sets, including the beads and wire tools I got from Mad Harry's - definitely cheaper for beginners!

Before returning home to get started on these Wine Glass Charms I took Bon and Tys to the plaza for a free kid's beading class. Bon made a necklace for me, and Tyson made a bracelet and a necklace.

I used 4mm Glass Beads, assorted beads from the kid's stash and some $3.50 frogs for these:

I received my Secret Santa parcel today it was a lovely surprise. I'd just finished typing that I hadn't received it yet! I love all the goodies, but especially the 2007 photo Christmas Tree ornament.

Late afternoon we tried to catch up with my sister, but she wasn't feeling very sociable. We went to visit my parents instead...the kids had a swim and we were spoiled with home made Curried Prawns! After the dishes we came home to get ready for bed, do some washing and feed the pets.

December 17th, 2007....a good day.

Christmas is Near

My countdown says we are into single figures. I love this - I've been watching it for almost a month! It gave me the "hurry up!" I needed to get out and do some Christmas Shopping. As of today, I have one present to get. My dd and I went halves in a DS Lite - and I need to go and make my final payment and collect it, wrap it and call it quits...

I went clothes shopping for my 1yo nephew and imagine my surprise when I was told at the counter "go and get another pair of shorts! It's buy one get one free!!!!" woohoo, thankYOU very much! The special was also on dresses. So I came back with my DD and we bought 4 dresses and a pair of denim shorts for under $50! My dd wasn't too sure about the "pink" in the outfits, but she got lots of nice comments when she was wearing one of the dresses today, so she's feeling pretty special! Actually, truth be told, I think she felt pretty good in the shop - she wore one of the dresses and her denim shorts out of the change room and didn't take them off until bed time! I had to pay for them by just taking the tags to the checkout :)

We had a mini Christmas today, for my nephew Brayden. He's off interstate tomorrow, to spend Christmas with his Dad's side of the family. We got him a gardening set - and he absolutely LOVED it...in fact he held onto the big shovel for most of the afternoon. It went from digging dirt, to shovelling wrapping paper, being used as a baseball bat and almost a lethal weapon!!! I found a picture on the internet of the shovel he was playing with. We bought the items individually, and we didn't get the garden fork. He wore the gloves most of the afternoon, until his little brother threw one into the toilet! After that he just wore his new Spiderman hat and Ninja Turtle sunnies... He's a little dude!

He's off to NSW tomorrow - to see his horse!! His horse comes before his dad, it's neat to have this insight into a child's way of thinking.

Tyson had to say good bye to one of his good friends today. He had a good time at the farewell pool party, but he was pretty sad when he realised that was the last time he may ever see Adam.. Their family is moving to QLD. His friend Ridley had a going away party a couple of weeks ago - so that's two friends leaving town soon :( Thankfully he has four good friends that will be in his class in 2008.

Our eldest dd is in Adelaide playing tennis. She's trying to be soooo grown up...she wants to spend all her money on a mobile phone that does everything except the dishes!! I guess that's what happens when your friends are all older than you....I'm sure there will be more of this sort of thing in the next few years!

My song for today is Six White Boomers. If you are feeling Christmassy, check it out and have a sing a long!

This is our Christmas photo for this year :) We always take one and send it as a double page 7x7 layout for Andrew's mum and dad, instead of a Christmas Card. We get the kids to write on the page each year.

Day is done...gone the sun....

Nice day. I had lunch with my sister and my two nephews. It's fun trying to figure out what makes Brayden tick. He gets so ANGRY!! When he talks to you about his feelings, which are pretty deep for someone so young, and then cuddles you it's like you've had a win. Aaron is just plain fun!

After school we went to the Bushies v Townies cricket match - and won!! Mel played and I helped to umpire...although I think the boys were a bit unsure about my calls - one even suggested we needed a square leg umpire...LOL! that was me :)

In between overs we took Mel to tennis for half an hour or so, which included getting in some serving practise prior to the Tournament Tour beginning on Friday. We also managed to deliver two of her coaches Christmas presents.

Once again we were home too late to be bothering with cooking dinner...so...we didnt' have the planned tacos and had Red Rooster instead...chicken and chips. It was very nice. We ate it when we dropped by my sister's to check out her new Stampin Up! stamp set - a thankyou from their corporate office..it's not available yet, but will be a Level 3 host gift - so I can't show it here...

We came home to a bag of girls clothes at the door - a surprise for sure. This morning I took two bags of clothes to school that I don't fit anymore - I thought the bag at the door was the left overs from school.. It wasn't and I'm still not sure who they came from..maybe the lady down the road.