Layouts

My first article has been posted at Aussie Scrapbooking! You can check it out here. If you have any ideas for articles or posts that you would like to see let me know here and I’ll do my very best to accommodate.

Also congratulations to Kate for her new Digiscrapping Design Blog at LazyCow Designs (great name!), head over and check it out, she even has a great freebie there too!

Speaking of Kate, she has some beautiful pictures of one of her daughters dancing on her blog this week, they reminded me of some I took of Quinn earlier in the year, I haven’t posted the layout I did with one of the pictures because I was never sure whether you could tell what it was, (it’s hard to be objective when I took the picture!). Anyway, you be the judge and see for yourself, is it just a blur, or can you see a little girl dancing away?

Twirl Girl

Lastly, I stumbled across these You Suck At Photoshop Video Tutorials on YouTube, at the risk of offending someone, I found these very amusing, and there were a few good tips in there too, if you don’t like, how shall we say, aggressive language, perhaps it’s best not to watch, they are very tongue in cheek, I hope you are not offended. Oh I am worried for you Angela! LOL

I am going to start adding some of my favourite Photoshop/Digiscrapping Tips/Shortcuts to most of my posts (I was going to say all, but don’t want box myself into a corner!), so watch out for more entries. Or better yet, if you have a question let me know :-)

I was supposed to go away with a couple of good friends this weekend for three nights of sloth and relaxation, unfortunately I managed to contract my second case of gastro in the last three weeks, along with Quinn. I still feel miserable and I’m still not over it, so if it doesn’t get better overnight I think I will be off to the doctors in the morning, I am a bit over feeling so queezy and off colour :-(

Also a big hi *waving madly* to some of my past students who I see have joined my mailing list, great to see you guys dropping in, don’t be shy! :-)

Oh and lastly, we spent a night in Melbourne last weekend with some dear friends, we took them to their first Aussie Rules Football match along with some other friends that hadn’t been in years, 6 adults + 6 kids = a great night had by all. And to end a lovely evening we finished it off with another big game of Puerto Rico AND we managed to purchase our own copy! Taught the girls how to play last Monday (Public Holiday), had two games, both of which Bronte won. Thanks to Mandy, Dave, Mallory and Odette for a wonderful weekend.

I am having a lot of trouble with my email updates at the moment, and if you are currently a subscriber you will know that you have been getting numerous emails even when there have been no updates on my blog. I have now cancelled Feedblitz, and have switched to Feedburn, which should hopefully work as it should. For those of you on my current emailing list, I will send an email on how to join, for those who wish to get an email when I update so that you don’t have to keep checking back you can subscribe now by clicking HERE, or using the box in the sidebar.

~Layout…

As a follow-up to the last post, here is a layout that was published in the previous issue of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, I also have another coming out in the next issue, which is a very simple layout of my Bronte Boo, but it’s one I love, so watch out for it!

Click on the picture for a larger view…

~MAC’s with viruses, it can’t be so…

I stumbled across this little MAC virus. What? MAC’s get viruses? Apparently they do. This is the good kind and it’s so smart it works with gravity!…. Check it out at Troika and watch the video below… Judy and Angela, I was tempted to send this to you! MAC’s have all the cool stuff *sigh*

~Have you heard the news?

The current issue of For Keeps is the last one! The magazine will now incorporate cardmaking and will be called For Keeps Creative Paper, you can read all about it here. ANgela, did ask a relevant question…will they still publish Digital layouts? Hmmmm.

~Should I?

Oh I know I am insane, but I am thinking of redesigning my blog again… call me crazy…hey! That was just a figure of speech! I really want a theme with two sidebars in it, the question is, do I want to do all that coding again and have all those headaches and ridiculously late nights…. I think I’ll sleep on it, but I’d like your opinions please.

~Movie Review…

Suzy and I went and saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall yesterday and we had a great laugh, it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, lots of full frontal nudity (although I don’t think any females can be included in this, Suzy, is that right?). Lots of funny lines and a few poignant moments too, can’t pick out too many favourite bits as I enjoyed the whole thing, but the singing in the bar scene was funny and several scenes with the sexually dysfunctional newlyweds were priceless, there was also a bit of Karma Sutra thrown in too.

~MAC dinner….

On Monday night the MAC girls had another get togather, Shez, Ruth, Angela and I drove down to Melbourne on Monday night to meet up with the lovely and talented Karen from New Zealand. She was out here having a holiday with her lovely family, we had a beautiful meal at Docklands and chatted the night away. Unfortunatley, Sharon and Judy were unable to make it this time, but Deb (Judy’s gorgeous daughter) was able to come and stand in for Judy and she also brought Corey along as well, it was great to see these love birds together. It was a long drive and Shez, Ruth and I got home close to 1.30am, so it was extremely hard to front up to work next day, but of course we all did… Photo’s are still on the camera at the moment, but I will post when I get around to downloading them.

~Quinn’s Birthday…

It was Quinn’s birthday on Sunday and she had a lovely day, she only got one little present, but don’t feel sorry for her, it was an 80gb iPod Video Classic!! She is soooo happy with it, it’s a long story but she wouldn’t usually get something so pricey, but just to see her happiness made it worth every cent. And to top it off, she is staying at a friends house tonight (Rachael’s) for a sleepover, out of the blue, about 20 minutes ago, I got a call from Rach’s Mum, she just wanted to tell me what a great kid Quinn is, that she is respectful, polite, fun to be with and an all round pleasure…. well, I couldn’t be any more proud than I am at this moment… it was lovely for Simone to call me just to say that, but even better that others see the special little girl that I do!

EDITED TO ADD:

Almost forgot, we had another Puerto Rico night on Friday night, i won the 1st game, which brought my winning streak up to 7, Brian ended it when he won the 2nd game, and Suzy won the last…Link is still yet to win a game. (Sorry Link, just reporting the facts). We followed it up with the last episode of Lost which Suzy and Link hadn’t yet seen, and which I am glad I watched again…

Leave me some love….pretty please ;-)

This was my big news! I got the front cover of the US Digital Scrapbooking Magazine!

I am completely chuffed as is Bronte (Quinn is slightly miffed LOL, wanted it to be a layout of her).

Thanks to everyone that emailed me or commented here with congratulations, it was great to see you as excited as I was!

Don’t forget to snaffle the freebie below.

Have a great day :-)

~ LAYOUTS ~
First a couple of layouts, the first one is my baby, Bronte and I used a song by Van Morrison in this one, which I love, called, Into The Mystic. Love the dreamy look on her face in this pic.
Credits: Textured Overlay from Scrap Artist. I also grunged it up a bit more with standard PS brushes.

Next one is my bigger baby Quinn, this is the pic I posted last time, which I just love. The frame is by C Borgfield, but I am not sure where it is from, sorry, also the brushes are just free downloads from somewhere, but I can’t remember where. I wish people would name their brushes so I can give due credit. The background and word art are by me.

~ BREAK ~
Hope you all had a great Australia Day and long weekend. We came back a day early as the weather wasn’t great and was going to get worse. But it was nice while it lasted! Got to finish my audible book and got lots of relaxing in, and a lovely walk along the beach and we also got to sit on the beach, all snuggled up with the girls and watch the comet which was pretty spesh, so we did fit a lot in for the short time we were there!

Also met these lovely people that were camping behind our friends, I was in the van and heard Brian chatting to them, and came out and had a short chat, I thought they mentioned something about lambs and that they were from Thorpdale, so I assumed they were Sheep Farmers, then they went off to cook dinner and we ate ours. During dinner Brian mentioned that they were actually potato farmers, I said that Shez’s parents were from Thorpdale and they probably knew Shez’s family, later on we started chatting again.
I said “I have a friend whose parents are potato farmers in Thorpdale, you might know her family. I can’t remember her maiden name but her married name is Sherryll Ray, do you know them?”
The lady (Joan), said “Sherryll Ray…hmmmm….OH!!!! Sherryll Ray, that’s our daughter!!!!!!!”
ROFL!!!
Then they asked my name, which I said, and before I had a chance to explain how I knew Shez, they both exclaimed “You’re Lee!!! You’re to blame for our daughters’ obsession!”
“That’s me”, I say sheepishly! LOL. What a small, small world we live in! They are just the loveliest people, not that I am surprised, their daughter is very special and a great, true and loyal friend to boot!

We are busy today doing more stuff around the house, painting old pots and clearing a few more boxes from the garage, we are also clearing a spot for one of those slimline sheds in the backyard, mainly to house the lawn mower and maybe the bikes, if they fit. I would dearly love to be able to move in our garage, but it is chock full of CRAP! LOL Then we are going to do a bit of plant shopping tomorrow, severely restrained by our budget, we are also in desperate need of a doorbell, all our friends have taken to ignoring the front door and coming straight round the back as we never hear it!! LOL

~ CAMERA CLUB ~
Shez, Tenille (a friend from Brian’s work), and I all went off to the Coal Country Camera Club meeting on Tuesday night. It was a great night and I look forward to more meetings. They have field trips and weekends away and best of all, families are welcome on the trips! The level of skill there is amazing and more than a little intimidating, but I just know I will learn heaps and best of all the people were lovely!

~ INTERESTING STUFF ~
Well, at least I was interested LOL. First this blog had me in hysterics http://www.thingsmyboyfriendsays.com/ it could be my sense of humour but I hope you get a giggle too, I should mention that there is some ‘colourful’ language going on here, so beware.
Also thought this was pretty groovy too, some interesting effects…http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic/ . This is a blog I stumbled across, I have no idea how, but I did http://dooce.com/, the interesting thing I liked on this blog was this series of pics here http://www.3situations.com/BillSullivanWorks/MT4.html loved the candid looks on all the faces, wish I had the courage to set up and take pics of random people like this. I found myself wondering about each persons life and where they are going and where they are now…like I said, interesting, at least to me… ;-)

Have a great day and go spread some happiness ;-)