Blogs

What is it that happens to my brain when I go to write a blog post? I have all these cool (well, what I think are cool) things to write about, and then bam, I open up my blog and it all goes out of my brain….

So, I think I’ll just ramble on a bit and maybe it will all come flooding back… (come on brain, that was a subliminal hint)…

OK, first, we finally got our hands on a Wii Fit! And it was worth the wait! It is so much fun and best of all it doesn’t feel like you are exercising. Perfect for this cold, cold winter and it is a great work out… I am not a huge fan of kids sitting on console games, but the Wii certainly has changed my thinking, if the kids have to be inside then I don’t mind them playing on the Wii Sport and the Wii Fit, it keeps the moving and having fun at the same time… I have spent nearly two hours on it today, and I am no where near sick of it yet… mind you my co-ordination is not the best on some of the aerobic exercises, but it is amusing LOL

Also, I had a complete change yesterday, I let my hairdresser attack me, I now have dark brown hair and a new blunt hair cut… I must say I don’t mind it at all, but after one wash it is already fading :-(. Julie my lovely hairdresser did warn me this would happen as it is dyed over blonde and will take a couple of times before it really ‘sticks’. I wonder if I’ll have less fun now that I am no longer blonde!
This is just taken by my webcam…sorry it’s pretty scary, no editing, double chin and all…

I was over at the lovely Karen’s Blog today (check it out she is an amazing photography and a beautiful person to boot) and she had this link on her blog, Days With My Father is a beautiful account of a sons love for his elderly father and the challenges that he faces. If you have ever wondered why you you scrap, go to this site. Our memories are precious things, both our memories and the memories we create of the people we scrap about. My favourite photos are the ones of the notes the father writes for himself, some beautifully poignant and wise, some tragically sad as he realises that his 98 year old mind is letting him down. While I cried all through this, the sense of love and hope is strong…. do yourself a favour… thanks Karen. I also love how the site is set out, move to the bottom of each picture to enter the next section… I’d love to know what you think.

This is turning into a bit of a ‘linkfest’ post… I am currently in awe of the art found here and here. Irene Suchocki has an amazing knack for beautiful photo manipulation, I wish I knew exactly how she acheives these effects. It looks like she uses a lensbaby on her camera, but the textures she choses finishes off her art beautifully… she even inspired me to have a go myself… here is my feeble attempt…

Obviously it doesn’t compare!

Since I am on a link binge, head on over to PickleBerryPop, they have had a site revamp and I must say it is looking very fresh, mind you I have always thought it looks great, but a change is as good as a holiday. It’s PBP’s 2nd birthday this month, there are lots of freebies and challenges going on at the moment, so head on over and have some fun!

What now? You guessed it, more links LOL…. Are you a digiscrapper? Do you like freebies? Well duh! Don’t we all! Check out both of these great sites. Digifree is run by an Australian, Maria from Sydney, but the free kits listed on the blog are from all over the world, there are some really great freebies there so check it out. Gingerscraps is run by Ginger and is another blog soley dedictaed to finding freebies and posting them all in one easy spot just for you! And me, and them… LOL Check them out and leave some love, they are both great resources…

More… these I found on Aussie Scrapbooking, which is a great link in itself, but they also have great links…man this is getting convoluted, are you confused yet?… I digress…. Aussiedares is a scrapping blog to get you motivated, a new scrapping dare is posted every month, a challenge for you to try something new and different… If you are looking for something to motivate you this might be it… Another blog to inspire scrapping, that was also mentioned at ASB is I Inspire Me, fabulous ideas on how to take inspiration from the every day things around you, plates, cushions, clothes, art, magazines, you name it… there are some great examples of how to use the things you see every day to make you pages…

This link is for the blossoming photographers amongst you, 3 videos on photography, I particularly like the first and last one.

For my last link(s), check out my sidebar, under Blog Food For The Soul, these are the blogs I visit regularly, there is so much talent and inspiration there, but most importantly they are just great people! Enjoy :-)

Here are the winners of the give-away from the last entry….

Kate F (7)

Nic (11)

Holly (3)

Karen (16)

Sheila (15)

Unfortunately Kate is on dial-up and can’t download from home, so she has opted out of the give-away, so I did another draw and

Ness (17) was the lucky girl! I have just found Ness’s blog, head over and check it out, it’s a blog after my own heart LOL I will be following it with intense interest. Thanks for dropping by Ness :-)

Below are screen shots of the draw I just did, just so everyone knows it’s above board!

I’ll get an email out to you all by the end of the week… I have, once again, gone over my monthly download limit so I am now on dial up speed (BLAH!), once I am back on REAL SPEED I will upload to my server and email the link to all the special girls above!

I really hope you enjoyed the links above, let me know if you did. There is so much good stuff out there on the web. If you have anything good to share let me know… because I don’t spend near enough time blog and site hopping! Hear the sarcasm? LOL

Just wanted to wish my good friend Lisa and her husband Richard, good luck on the impending birth of her 4th beautiful child, she is due in less than a week so it could happen any day now… I am thinking of you :-)

And to my friend Megan, who won’t be able to read this as she has just entered the Queensland Police Academy for her training… Good luck Meegs, I hope it’s not too painful!

No Photoshop Tip today, but check back soon, the next entry will have one, or two, or three….

I am off to write my next article for Aussie Scrapbooking, be sure and check it out when you can. Have a great day and leave me some love!

Yes, I am at it again, and while I am busily renovating my blog (AGAIN, CC welcome)…. I’ll leave you this little video to watch…

Kramer, eat your heart out, this is the ultimate coffee table book… found at this great typography site here

Enjoy

About an email I received last night (it wasn’t saying that Mr Weuna Bweligthigi was offering to give me half of $20,000,000 US dollars if I helped him get the money out of his country)….

Can you guess why? Jen A already has! I had a lot of fun doing this but it was a lot more work involved than I had anticipated, lots of toing and froing and emails, but now I see it, it was all worth it, and given the chance I’d be in again in a flash!

EDITED TO ADD: A huge thank you to Kristarella, after reading her instructions PROPERLY, I solved the header problem… thanks so much Kristarella, you’re a gem, and I won’t bother you any more LOL

OK, I finally think it’s done, after much ado, I present my new blog (and site)! I won’t be making any changes for a while now, AND I will be blogging regularly again, well, I’d better, since I have spent two weeks on this without a night to bed before 2am… several after 4am…. well, I will say, I am tenacious…Please leave me some love and tell me it wasn’t all for naught!

I do know that I have an issue with the header and centring, but when I fix it in Firefox it goes awry in Internet Explorer, so I am aware of it and will attempt to fix it soon!

Some bits….

~ Congratulations…

To my dear friend Megan, who recently achieved her dream of becoming a police officer, I am so proud of you hun, and I know you will be great!

Thanks to Kate, for mentioning my new blog and saying such sweet things about me, right back atchya Kate…. If you enjoy an amusing read head over there, she is wonderful at telling bits about her life in the most amusing manner. Check out a recent one called The Trouble with Double.

And just because I prefer posts with some sort of graphic here is a layout I did a month or so back, my usual, “Embrace The Whitespace” style, hmmm I should coin that phrase… when I looked at these photos I couldn’t get the song from the Milo Ad out of my head, so of course, what better way to get it out, than put it in a layout… so here ’tis…

Update on the Puerto Rico, last time we played, we had 3 games (they are getting quicker now), I won all 3! Very happy indeed.

Hugs to Odette, who recently broke her leg, we are thinking of you babe and hope you are feeling better soon.

Also went to a trivia night on Friday night, it was a fund raiser for the Make A Wish foundation, last year we won (yay) and this year we came second, which does make you wonder about the rumours that alcohol dulls the brain, since last year the end of the evening was quite, shall we say, blurry, and this time we were all, well, much less affected by our drinks, however we only came 2nd, but that, of course, is nothing to sneeze at! So we came home with lots of lovely prizes and knowledge that we are good at, ‘knowing useless stuff’.

Hmmm just noticed I seem to have an aversion to fullstops in this entry, I’ll try harder next time…. put it down to the late hour…

Oh and Lincoln Eddy, yes you, stop nit picking on my blog spelling/grammar/ errors, you’ve had some that I have opted to overlook, and besides, Judy likes the way I type PLease….

Which reminds me! Go and check out the lovely Judy’s blog, she is lucky enough to be travelling around France at the moment and has been updating her blog very regularly, with lots of pictures and wonderful entries about her time there…. go on, go now, leave her some love!

OK check back soon, I have plans to add some pages and stuff, maybe some freebies, some tweaks…. so many plans…..

~ 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!

Oh I so wish I was this motivated when it comes to spring cleaning my house LOL. I have been busy renovating my blog, as you can see, and while I was doing it, I was getting lots of valuable feedback from the MAC girls, so thanks girls.

In my frenzy I have also helped renovate, Angela, Shez and Sharon’s blogs (Sharon’s is still a work in progress, under review and discussion.) Go check them out, I must say, I think they look better than mine LOL, oh well!

~ IMAGINATION PROMPTS ~
I have also added a section for “Sites I Love to Visit”, the top one is a site I found yesterday, called “Imagination Prompts”, I thought it was a great site to use when I can’t think of anything to write here, but, in saying that, I really am enjoying this blogging journey. I have found that it helps me focus on all the good things in my life, and when I sit down in front of my computer ready to make an entry, I can clear my mind and really think about what I have achieved, enjoyed, laughed at, and for the most part it’s all good! Anyway, I am rambling, check the site, if you need to be inspired, either for writing on your blog, or even in your layouts, I think it’s a great way to get started…. so get writing, I love reading about my cyber friends, it’s like a special glimpse into everyones inner self, don’t worry about your spelling, or editing your feelings, the important thing is to get it down….*stepping down off soapbox now*. ;)

~CAMPING~
Our camping holiday was delayed slightly, due to inclement weather, (otherwise known as bloody strong winds!). We are now heading over tomorrow, it’s been nice to get those few extra days in at home. Also, I am going to try and take a leaf out of (MAC) Judy’s book and not overpack, I loved your theory Judy, but I am not sure I’m strong enough to do it! LOL

~REALITY~
Well I spoke too soon about how great my darling daughters have been lately, it all came crashing down today LOL. They argued over everything and it drove me insane! Hopefully, getting away tomorrow, will interupt their cycle, and they will revert back to loving sisters. Even worse, is when they are arguing one minute, and start giggling insanely the next! Oh soooo frustrating, but I love them more than the world either way.

~SLOW COOKER~
Finally bought a slowcooker today, threw in some Chicken, Carrots, Brocolli, Cauliflower, tinned Tomatoes, and a sachet of Apricot Curry Chicken, (didn’t have any apricots LOL). Anyway it was quite tasty and the meat was lovely, but I forgot to put an onion in and I think that was a missed. But I am looking forward to experimenting more! We might even take it camping!

~LASTLY~
*Judy, I hope you are enjoying your holiday, I’m sorry I mixed up your departure day, and don’t forget to have a drink for me when you meet up with (MAC) Karen :)
*Mick, glad to hear you are healing well, although my morbid side is dying to see your scar! LOL
*Lis, so glad your back

Oh I was gonna upload some camping pics, so you could all see how beautiful it is, but bloggers not playing fair tonight :(

Happy days…. :)