Quinn

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.

A quick welcome to my new subscribers, introduce yourselves in the comments section, so I can get to know you, visit your blogs, find out where you are from, you know, all that stuff…

Guess what! My baby is on the front web page of the Digital Scrapbooking Magazine site! Check her out (Proud Mum gone mad!) LOL. Isn’t she just beautiful?

OK without further ado (who really says that?), the link for the freebie is below in the alert window, beware, it is close to 80mb. Why? I hear you ask, well it is a layered file, saved as a TIF, so it is usable in various programs, not just Photoshop, you can move the Ribbon and Buckle (or hide it), and also move the frame, or just use the background on it’s own, the choice is entirely yours.

Please leave a comment if you download it, it may lead to a Freebie Frenzy, dancing in the street, and ticker tape parade, world peace….OK, I’m getting carried away! LOL (Download Link below)

CLICK FOR A LARGER VIEW

[download#2#size]
By the way, if you read this post , you may be interested to know that Quinn is STILL wearing my old slippers, melts my heart really. *sigh*

A quick thank you to Nick Ohrn who just rewrote some code for a Wordpress plug-in that I was having problems with and it’s now working. Thanks again Nick, I really appreciate that you made the effort to do this. You can check out this handy Pre-Publish Reminders plug-in here.

If you’re in Australia, have a great long weekend, if you’re not, well, have a great weekend!

I am very excited to have been asked to become a contributor at AussieScrapbooking.com. My first Introductory Post has been published. This is a great informative site with lots of good information and lovely ladies, head over to check it out.

What I am listening to…

Angus and Julia Stone. Loving this Brother Sister duo, every song is unique check them out here. This is one of their songs Mango Tree, but they are all great, it was hard to pick just one, check out “All Of Me” if you can too….gorgeous.

What I am reading…

The Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli

Certainly it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I am loving it, laugh out loud hilarious, but it may require a certain sense of humour, I don’t consider mine particularly sick, but then who does? I had dog earred several pages to quote here, but really it won’t seem as amusing out of context. As you are reading, imagine a lovable, slightly alcoholic, effeminate English womaniser with a cutting wit, it will give you the right tone. I saw this recommended on First Tuesday Book Club, and I’m glad I bought it. After that I am reading The Confederacy of Dunces, which I am told by Link is one of his favourite books, and he should know, he has a book database and everything!

Did you know you can purchase books from Amazon directly through my website? Check out the link in the navigation menu at the top of the page. And when you think Amazon, come and visit and order through me!

This weekend we had our dear friends Mandy, Dave, Odette and Mallory come and stay, I haven’t been very well at all this week, but it was, as it always is, a delight to see them and spend time with them, I promise to be more fun next time we see you guys! Loved seeing the girls catch up again too. Quinn burst into tears tonight saying how much she misses them and wants them to move back, I so wish they could. We fitted in a few games of Puerto Rico, since we had to give it back, and I am sad to say my 7 game winning streak is well and truly over, in fact I think I came last in two of the games, Dave was the reigning champ, although there was some controversy over his first two wins… but he is so sweet he is forgiven… and I am going to tell John Faine to leave him alone too!

I am thinking the fact that I am unwell contributed to my dismal performance, well that’s my story and I am sticking to it!

Once again, bad timing with my being sick, but we had Quinn’s 11th birthday party (yes, it’s a month late, but I have reasons OK!), anyway, she told me tonight it was the best party she’s ever had (although she did say that last year), I will post some pictures soon of what we organised for the party, I think they all enjoyed it, it was quite fun, headaches and all.

Brian and Bronte went to the footy again today, and saw the mighty Hawks victorious again (just), Bronte received her 3rd (or is it 4th)? football given to her by one of the team members what a lucky girl!

Coming Soon:- I’ve been tagged, watch this space.

A little bright spot in the middle of my dismal week. Quinn, Bronte and I have all been sick with different things, which included Bronte throwing up over the doctor when we went to see about a sore ear, she seemed to develop a case of gastro at the precise moment the doctor was investigating her ear. What are the chances? Within hours I got sick too… Which culminated in 1 day off work for Bronte, 2 days off for me, 3 days off in total. Cancellation of going to information evening for Quinn’s secondary school on Tuesday night, cancellation of movies on Wednesday night, cancellation of my class Thursday night.

What was the bright spot? Quinn found an old pair of slippers of mine in my wardrobe and has taken to wearing them constantly, (her foot is now slightly bigger than mine! eeek!), despite the fact that over the years it’s been a nightmare to get her to wear anything on her feet even in the dead of winter. So I am rapt that she is wearing them, especially since she has been a unwell and it’s getting colder by the day. But curiosity got the better of me.

Me: Why are you wearing slippers all of a sudden?

Quinn: What do you mean?

Me: Well I ask you all the time to put slippers/socks/something/anything on your feet when it’s cold.

Quinn: oh, [she smiles a coy, slightly embarrassed smile] because they’re yours.

awwww isn’t she sweet… all is forgiven.

And that was the bright spot in my crappy week.

~ DREAMS ARE ILLUSTRATIONS ~

Had lots of fun making this layout and have always loved that pic of Quinn, I really enjoyed experimenting and what I ended up with, it shows up a little bit light on the compressed version though. I used brushes by Hybrid-Genesis and a mesh brush by Denise Docherty.

Quote Reads: Dreams are Illustrations….from the book your soul is writing about you – Marsha Norman.
CLICK FOR A LARGER VIEW

~ CAMERA ~
Yay I have my camera back!!!! Woohoo, it is perfectly alright with no sign of the muck that was all over the sensor, I am so lucky and feel very very relieved and thankful to have it back….life is good ;-) I took some pics at a pool party that we went to yesterday/last night but haven’t downloaded them yet, must get to that….

~ STRANGER THAN FICTION ~
Went to the movies on Friday with my cousin and my auntie and saw Stranger Than Fiction, I wasn’t overly keen as I really don’t like Will Farrell, not that I have seen him in much, but the sort of movies he is in just aren’t my thing. Thankfully, the movies I had to choose from were narrow as I was time challenged and was going to struggle to get back in time to get the girls from school, so I was kinda forced to see this or nothing. Well what a FABULOUS movie it was, so refreshingly different, sweet, funny and sad all at once. It had some REALLY great actors in it and there was a real potential for Will Farrell to overact, but he didn’t, his performance was beautifully subtle and I think I can safely say, I am a convert. If you get a chance, go see it. Dave, my cousin thought it was the best movie he had seen in the last 5 years, I wasn’t quite there, but was very impressed nonetheless.
ROFL, I just read that back and I sound like I should be on The Movie Show with Margaret Pomerance! hehe!

~ SOME OTHER STUFF ~
Found these links over the last few days, this first one is via a blog link that Lis provided at MAC, not one of those links, but 1 I found via one of those links (boy that was a mouthful, not even sure I know what I mean LOL). Anyway I am addicted, it’s quite fascinating watching all these people tell a stranger about their lives. This man is from England and has decided to meet someone new every day for the next 30 years and ask them 3 questions check out Thirty Year Project.com I’d love to see what you think. It actually reminds me of a show that used to be on SBS a few years back where a guy would just stop people in the street and ask them about their lives. It was amazing how open and honest people were, the name escapes me now and I know it will annoy me for days…if you know the name please put me out of my misery ;-)

Next is a movie poster that was posted at Photoshop Top Secrets.com on the blog there, it is a really great effect on the poster and I am going to try and incorporate something similar in a layout (yeah, sure I am ;-) ). Anyway there is a thumbnail to the left of the poster, you can click for a larger view or go check out the blog.Also found these cute little camera bags on Donna Downey’s website, they are way to small for all my stuff but I thought they were cute anyway. Would be nice to have one for a day trip I guess where you only need 1 lens and no flash.

Anyway that’s it for me, hope you had a great weekend and if the pics are anything special I’ll come back and add them to this post!

~ PARTY PICS ~

And did you notice? There is not a spot on these pics….*sigh*…… thank you Mr Camera Fixer Man :)
BFN!

~ 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 ;-)

As a kid, having a birthday on Christmas Day really, well there’s no other way to say it, sucked. Big Time. I only ever remember having one party. And while my parents tried to separate it, Christmas in the morning, Birthday in the evening, there really is no getting away from the fact that you share your special day with everyone else’s special Christmas Day.
The last two years there has been a bit of a turn around though, and while it has been a long time coming, I have noticed a benefit. Mostly, when people find out when my birthday is, they groan and say “Oh no, I suppose you get combined presents?”. Well as a rule I usually didn’t, but the past two years I have and they have both been the BEST presents EVER!
If you are a regular reader of my blog (all 10 of you ;) ), you will know that last year I got a Nikon D70s Digital SLR, no complaining about that! Woohoo, I just love it!

Anyway, this year I got…..

A 30gb VIDEO iPOD!!! Yay. And I am loving it! I have already filled 10gb with music and a good handful of Photoshop TV Video Podcasts, so I can watch them when I do school pick up or take the kids to Tennis Lessons etc etc.

I am already almost half way through my first Audible Book, called Water for Elephants which I am just loving. I thought my mind would wander while listening but I just get lost in a new world! It’s great.

We had a lovely, but very hectic Christmas Day, having both lunch and dinner here. The morning started early, which was OK, because for a change, we weren’t up until 3am wrapping presents. Brian and I have both decided that Christmas should be on a Monday every year. Girls came hurtling down the hallway at 6am, but were coaxed back into bed with us for another half an hour. They got stuck into there presents as soon as we said OK… they had a good day, present wise, a little too good, we think! Both getting, from us, MP3 players, iDogs, Doona Covers, gorgeous Clocks which I bought at Southbank while on the MAC conference, a portable DVD, with two separate screens for the car ( I like this one, because they can’t nag us to watch it, I don’t like them watching too much TV and they can’t really use it unless we go on long trips, sneaky I now), they also got a Netball Ring, a ridiculous amount of clothes from Pumpkin Patch.

From Santa they got an array of things, mostly from the Australian Geographic Shop I think, the elves must pick up stuff from there too…) from, Spyrograph Machine, Kaleidoscope Makings Kits, Fibre Optic Torches, a watch, booklights, even a pedestal fan each for their rooms (Santa obviously likes to keep them cool, fun and practical! LOL), also Squiggle notepads (they are great, think Mr Squiggle), and Nipple Balls The family got a MP3/Stereo radio for the family room, and a Stunt Kite. Brian got an MP3 player and Travel Scrabble too.

So we are a very happy little household here!

As the year ends, and a new one is about to begin, I realise what a big year this has been for us.
I started teaching Digital Scrapbooking classes and had the great pleasure of meeting some fabulous people through that, who have become very good friends.
I started a new and very rewarding job and look forward to developing that in the future as the girls get older.
We moved into our new home, which we just love, and I don’t believe there is a day goes by that we don’t thank our lucky stars for it.
I got to meet the BEST bunch of MAC girls ever, these girls have made me laugh, given me cyber hugs when I needed them and have just been there always, and make they make their presence felt in sometimes copious amounts of emails, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have felt fierce support and friendship and getting to meet them was a privilege and one that I hope will happen again next year, but this time with the lovely Karen also!
I have met some lovely new cyber friends, especially at Pickleberrypop and via blogs too. This Art that is digiscrapping is a great one and I am glad that I do it, along with all these talented girls, I look forward to continuing these friendships and making more.

Lastly is a list of Movies that Suzy and I saw this year. I know I have missed a few and in 2007 I intend to keep a proper list. Can’t say that any of them was bad, in fact, I really loved them all, in varying degrees. If I had to pick from the list though, I would say that “The Departed” and “Little Miss Sunshine” were the standouts. Although I could barely pick between the two, you could not get two more different movies.

Before I list them, I am putting a layout here so that the big white space is filled LOL.
This layout was done from pics I have wanted to use for ages of Quinn trying to help Bronte climb a tree. Background by me, flower brush, Rhonna Farrer.
Journaling Reads: If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again. Click on the image for a larger view.

Anyway, here goes.
*Beyond The Sea
The Lakehouse
*Walk The Line
*Capote
Failure To Launch
*Inside Man
Poseidon
*Brokeback Mountain
Kokoda
*Little Fish
Pride and Prejudice
Proof
Pirates of The Carribean 2
The Da Vinci Code
Seperate Lies
*Wah Wah
*The Departed
*Little Miss Sunshine
Thank you for Smoking

OK as I typed, I realised there were some “must sees” in there, I have put an asterick next to them, so try and see them if you can!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a New Year filled with love, laughter and happiness!

Happy New Year!
Edited to add: As you can see, I have done yet another makeover on my blog, the credits are in the side panel! Feedback welcome.