May 2006

This will be a bit depressing and not really a fun read but I feel like I have to get it off my chest, so bare with me.
I went to see Capote today and really loved it. It was a great movie, well filmed and also a story I didn’t know anything about. It is basically the story of Truman Capote, who got to know two men that murdered a family of 4 in their own home in 1959. He wrote a book about it that became a best seller and made him the most famous author in America. Basically the thing that effected me most was the realization of the power we hold as parents. We can create well adjusted loving children that grow into wonderful adults, but if we treat them badly they have the potential to become monsters. It is very scary to know that there are parents out there like this and makes me want to wrap my kids up in cotton wool. In saying that there are many children that are treated badly that can become normal, contributing, functioning adults, but why would we take the chance?
There was a line from the movie that stuck in my head. Truman Capote did not have the greatest upbringing either, as he explained to one of the jailed men, he said that his mother would lock him in hotel rooms while she went out on one night stands with men. He would stand at the door screaming and crying, night after night, until he collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep on the floor beside the door. He explained to someone that he felt that he and one of the jailed men had been brought up in the same house, and that he had left by the front door, while the jailed man had left by the back door. I hope that no-one in my family or anyone that I know ever meets someone that left through the back door.

I also saw two other moving things on TV recently. One was on the ABC Compass program and was about the Genocide in Rwanda that happened in 1994. It was about the man that was sent over as head of the UN peacekeeping force and his trip back after 20 years. It brought up things I didn’t know, like the fact that 800,000 thousand men, women and children were murdered in 100 days. Yes 800,000 in 100 days. The worst part was that the world looked the other way and our indifference to it all. It was awful to actually see the footage, and know that there were people there that were trying to get the worlds attention and no-one would listen. And yet 4000 people die on Sept 11 and we are in an uproar (as we should be), how can these things happen, without us barely knowing about it. I don’t know what I could do to change these things, but I do know that I feel incredibly impotent. Read more here, if you are interested.

I also watched another program called Saving Andrew Mallard about a man with bi-polar that inferred (during a manic episode) that he murdered a woman. He was subsequently jailed, despite the fact that there was no evidence to support that he did it. His Mother and Sister contacted a journalist to champion their cause and she said she would read the transcripts of the trial, thinking that they were another family in denial. She concluded also that there was no evidence that this man committed the crime and enlisted the help of a lawyer. The appealed several times over an 11 year period and at the last opportunity (The Australian High Court) his conviction was eventually overturned.

There are people out there that fight injustice, there are just not enough of them.

I will do another, much lighter entry later tonight….. Sorry for the downer…..

Oh Miss A, I hope you are keeping your promise and are working on your blog as I type, you need to share with the world your amazing talent and I need to get some comments on my blog directed to me! ROFL!
For those of you that aren’t aquainted with this talented young lady, check out the layout below, this is just a small taste of the glorious Miss A….. (hope it’s OK to show you off!)

See… isn’t she great! Angela…. GET A BLOG!

The pic below is one I took tonight when we got home after netball training.. (we hope to get our 2nd goal this week!) I was checking out all the blog references to Miss A, on my laptop in the kitchen and the girls were in the lounge room watching TV, when I walked in this is what I saw! How cute… I quickly ran and got the camera, I love these special moments, I wish I captured more of them on camera, particularly first thing in the morning when Quinn jumps into Brontes bed and starts reading books to her, special moments for sure.

Went back to the house tonight and this time remebered the camera, the pics are a sneek peek of our ensuite. I am not sure how they will show up her, but the colour of the cupboards and floor tiles are deep earthy brown. The grouting still hasn’t been done yet, but hopefully it will be done by the weekend!

I think if you click on the pic you will get a bigger pic, it’s still pretty dirty and grotty there, but you will get the idea.

SUE’S GREAT DANES

I owe Sue Jones a big apology, I mistakenly referred to her Great Danes as Dalmations twice recently, and apparently she is quite miffed now because everyone will think her great danes are spotted! Sorry Sue, my mistake, does this rectify it? LMAO! (Great Danes is a euphamism, can you work out for what? Anyone that works it out (MAC digi members are not eligable) will get a freebie!)

Off to watch Lost now…. I’ll be back tomorrow with a short review on Capote!

Have a great night all……

PS: Get a BLOG Miss A~~~

Poor little Quinn turned 9 a few weeks ago and she agreed to wait until we moved into our new house before we organised her party… which I thought would be about 1 month after her birthday, but it will probably be more like two. She has been wonderfully patient and understands the delay, but the other day I had (what I thought) was a great idea. After seeing a kit that Karin from MACdigi had purchased from Scrapbook Bytes, I thought it would be a great activity for the party. It’s a collage kit, so the kids will get to make their own trading cards which we will laminate on the day. I will take pics of each of the kids when they arrive and they can make a few each and take them home. The kit is above as well as a sample of what you can do with them below. They
are so cute and I hope they are a winner
with kids, Quinn seems pretty pleased with the idea and wants to have a practice!

Did anyone watch Big Brother tonight? Man that Anna is an annoying, selfish cow! I hope she goes ASAP she really grates on my nerves. Yep if you don’t already know it, you soon will, I am a huge reality TV fan, Survivor, Amazing Race and Big Brother amongst my favourite TV shows. Don’t know what happened on Survivor yet as I was at class last night, but I taped it and will watch it on the weekend, isn’t that what winter weekends were invented for?

I took the girls to see our house tonight after school, so they got to see all the tiling (still to be grouted) they are very excited and had fun running around and opening and closing all the doors (the door knobs are on now). It is so much fun to see their enthusiasm and gets me excited all over again, when I see them squealing and jumping up and down! LOL
I did measure our fridge cavity while I was there and sadly the space isn’t big enough for the fridge I would like to buy But I think Brian thinks that is bloody great! (But he is thinking of our finance!) The fridge I want would need to be plumbed in as it has a water dispenser and automatic ice maker. I just fell in love with it, it wouldn’t be all that hard to get the space adjusted as it is only the height of the fridge that is a problem so I might have to work on that problem (need to get lessons from Judy on how exactly to attain that goal! )! Anyway, pictures of my dream fridge are below….
How cool is it? They call it french doors! On a fridge, what a riot! LOL.

If you don’t already know, I have a standing date on Fridays with my cousin… we both love the movies and since we both have no kids at home any more. It has been great getting together every week for this (She is the same cousin we go camping with and is more like my sister than my cousin…) This week we are off to see Capote, I am so excited and can’t wait. I have wanted to see this one for ages and thought we must have missed it… so stay tuned…. I’ll do a movie review! LOL

ANGELA, START A BLOG YOU ARE STILL GETTING COMMENTS ADDRESSED TO YOU HERE! lol

till then……….

Well a huge thank you to all the MACdigiscrap girls, that gave me lots of feedback on my blog, everything was looking fine on my screen, but wasn’t showing up properly on others, so I moved the two slides and went from there. I really appreciate your help in this girls, you are the greatest bunch of girls to be cyber buddies with
And Angela, it’s time you got your own blog, as I seem to get more comments directed at you on my blog than I do about my blog! LOL, just kidding! If you want to be part of a great bunch of amazingly talented and diverse, Aussie and New Zealander girls who love digiscrapping, but frequently forget to talk about it, whilst covering every other topic on the known planet, and some that are out of this realm altogether, then come and join the fun! You might even get to hear more about Sue’s dalmations … Also Karen, if your reading this, when you get your website up and running send me the link too, I wanna add your site to my favs also!

Below is a card a good friend of mine asked me to make for her brothers 40th birthday. Some of you may or may not have seen it before. I had a limited amount of photos to work with and not much time. I had forgotten all about it, but was reminded today when she emailed me to say that she had had it blown up and framed, and how fantastic it was. I was so pleased she liked it and he was very teary apparently, the ultimate compliment! Anyway, since she reminded me I thought I’d post it and show anyway that may not have seen it. The brushes used were from Rhonna Farrer and were part of the prize for winning the Best and Brightest Competition.

Speaking of winning, I am not sure I actually told anyone about this, but I got a runner up prize in an epson competition for the layout below. The criteria was things about Summer and was A4 requirement which I rarely scrap in. I altered a layout I had done for BnB and was pretty happy with the result. Here is a link to the Runner Up Page, to see me and the other losers! LOL

Had another great class tonight, that group are so clever and it is a pleasure to teach them, we covered the bubbles layout tonight, which can be seen at the bottom of this page, and also a brief overview of the Connections and My Hearts Desire layouts posted yesterday.

Got to have a walk around our new home today, the builder had a question about the tiles, so I got to go in and have a look, almost all the floor and wall tiles were done in our ensuite and all the wall tiles were done in the girls bathroom. All the doorhandles are on now and all the painting is finished. The shelves in the linen press and the pantry are all and it gave me butterflies, feels so close now. Just the floors, toilets, showerscreen, dishwasher, stove, oven, power points and lights to go in now. (think that’s all) but we are still looking at about 4 weeks. woohooo!!!!!

Well wasn’t it great that those miners finally got out today, I cried this morning when they showed it and cried even harder tonight when they showed it again on the news, it’s such a miracle but at the same time heartbreakingly sad that one of them didn’t make it. I think the highlight for me was about a week ago when they were interviewing the mine boss, he was saying that they had been able to get some food, I-pods, magazines and a few other things to the men, one reporter asked what sort of magazines, and with a sly half grin he answered “uh, I believe they were appropriate magazines”, cracked me up and was a good light moment for all involved. Must be my twisted sense of humour.

This is just a test, I can’t figure out why on one of my posted pics I can get a bigger version, but on others I can’t… What a conundrum!

Two entries in two days, this can’t last LOL! OK I forgot more news I had on the weekend, well not my news, but anyway…. Quinn’s netball team (Go Gems) had their third netball game on the weekend. They finally got their first goal!!!! The roar from the crowd was reminiscent of the ’89 AFL Grandfinal between Hawthorn and Geelong. It was a fabulous moment and our second smallest player, the amazing Bethany got the goal. It was very exciting and we hope to get at least a few more before the end of the season LOL!

Also below are the other 3 layouts I completed on the weekend ( I am exhausted LOL). The first two are with Paper Packs from Iron Orchid and was an assignment for Digital Scrapbooking mag as part of the Best and Brightest team, I hope at least one gets in!! The journaling for the first one reads:

“Connection…. You have such an amazing connection, you are sisters in the truest sense. Your sisterhood binds you by much more than blood, you are able to see each other as true friends, as companions and allies. You seem to understand each other as only those with true respect and love can. You are friends, not because you are sisters but because you are soul mates. It is a rare thing you have, and I am comforted when I think of all the times ahead that you will be thankful for having the other to rely on. My special children, you are not only a blessing to me, but to each other.”

The journaling for this one reads:

“My Hearts Desire…..This was taken at Bronte’s 6th birthday party. We all had so much fun at the gymnastics party, with all the kids running around, bouncing, climbing, tunneling and swinging. Bronte you are such a feisty, funny, intelligent girl, it is hard not to be proud of you. Your company is always so much fun and you always keep those around you entertained. I always wished for a little brown eyed girl and I got you, your eyes are definitely a window to your soul and I see your empathy and sense of mischievousness in them. You are everything that my hearts desires.”

These papers were a joy to work with, I recommend them, and I am not affiliated in anyway!

Finally the layout below, I am not happy with, I love this photo but it was hard to work into a layout so I may have to revisit it again, which I never do, so I guess it will stay like that forever . Anyway, you decide for yourselves! (If there is more than one out there!) LOL. I am not sure if it will show up but the background is a linen look which may be lost here…

Anyway, work was great today, I love the job and can’t wait to feel completely competent! I wonder how long that will take…..

Signing off… until, well, some other time….maybe

Well I have been in a huge creative slump recently, mainly because I have been so busy with other things….

My new job, which I am loving and finding myself disappointed that Friday has come because that is my day off. I am sure it won’t last but I hope I will always enjoy going to work. There is lots to learn and it has been a bit hard as I didn’t get to spend much time with the girl that I replaced, and just quietly she and I have completely different working ethics and styles. My boss is out a lot so that can be hard when I have no-one to answer my questions, but that will be changing so things will get easier! Hopefully

Then there is the course I am teaching, (Digital Scrapbooking with Photoshop) that is also so much fun, but it is mentally draining, and doing the course notes is also tiring too, but I find it very rewarding and so blessed that all the students in my class are doing amazing layouts and are so enthusiastic, I am lucky to have had this opportunity.

Of course then there is the brain space our new house is taking up, mainly worrying about finances and how to pay for all the extras, but at the same time it is so exciting, although the date has been put back again, and it now looks like we won’t be in until the beginning of June… disappointing, but at least it gives us more time to pack etc!

Then there is my new Scrapping website adventure, I have been unable to do as much as I would have liked to help out, but my new partners, Robin and Cheryl have been amazingly understanding of my situation. It is going well and I have my first kit in the shop… See preview below…

I tried to jump out of my comfort zone and see if I could create a kit with colours I would not usually use, I think it is OK, but we’ll see how it sells once the site is up and the advertising is out!

Below is a layout I did using this kit….

This was one of 4 layouts I created today and yesterday, I am so pleased that I finally got some done, I don’t think I have done a layout since February, maybe even January! Anyway here are the others I created. I am not sure about “Days Of Miracle and Wonder”. It was a hard pic to scrap but I got there in the end, might have to have another go one day….

I think I will publish the others tomorrow (yeah right!) Someone tell me how to add links to the side aaaahhhhh!