Royal Melbourne Show 2010

Today, Jarrod & I took Harry to the Royal Melbourne show.  369 photos  later, these are some of my favourites from the Freestyle Motocross and Sampson the Monster Truck.  I also managed to snap a couple of the ponies - lucky the boys were bored by the ponies, otherwise I think I would have filled my memory card.

This first on is from the Fancy Dress.  This was the winner.  I'm not sure if you can see it properly here or not but the pony is dressed as Donkey from Shrek.  Shrek is leading, Princess Fiona is riding and Puss in Boots, Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming are also there.

Other place getters included a beautiful black pony that was dressed like a poodle, Humpty Dumpty, Scooby Doo, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  All very cute, and such a lot of hard work put in to them all.

Here are a couple of Sampson the Monster Truck

All of these are from the Freestyle Motocross

I like the middle rider - Look Mum,  no hands (or anything else for that matter, lol)

And I think this little poppet was competing in one of the Junior Rider Classes - this was the only shot I got of the ponies - the boys were bored

Well, that was our day at the show, Harry went of heaps of rides, the lines for showbags were so absolutely massive it was a complete joke, we're sunburt and tired but we had a  pretty good day considering it was super, super busy.

I'm off to watch my Top Chef which I recorded earlier, have a good night

Digital Scrapbooking

I can't believe it.  I have completed, not one but two digital scrapbook pages today.  I have been a fan of Jessica Sprague for quite some time, but have been totally overwhelmed by the whole digital scrapbooking thing and have never got any further than looking admiringly at her blog. 

Fast forward to a couple of months ago, when I saw Amanda posting some super cool digital pages.  She told me she has taken a Jessica Sprague on-line class and encouraged me to have a go.  So I promptly purchased Jessica's class, Up & Running with Photoshop and today I sat down and worked through Lesson 1.  (I was home from work today as last night Harry was doing his best Linda Blair impersonation :))  What I'm going to show is actually a bonus page, I haven't got the 'right' photos to finish Lesson 1 properly.  Look at what I did

Honestly, I couldn't believe it was so easy.  I may actually get some of the hundreds of photos I have of this kid into some sort of album for others to see.  The fantastic photo was taken by Shaz Martello-Rowe, if she had a website, I'd link it because she has taken THE most fabulous photos of us.  If you're in Melbourne and need some family portraits done, let me know and I will forward you her details. 

OK, time for me to get into the 'studio' and finished off my JAI Design Team Swaps.  Thankfully that Early Espresso cardstock I was waiting on arrived in time.

Tomorrow is my DT day, hopefully you'll drop by to see my submission :)

Cheers

October Promotion

So, tomorrow hearlds the start of Stampin' Up!'s new promotion, 'Spring Is In The Air'. During the month of October if you purchase the Looks Like Spring Stamp Set and the coordinating Spring Bouquet Punch you receive either Spring Flowers or Spring Showers Double Sided Designer Paper absolutely FREE!


Now, I'd love to show some samples of cards I've made with this set, however, I think I must be the only demonstrator in Australia who does NOT have it! Am I going to get it during the promotion? - well, I'm still deciding. I just recived my lastest order on Friday and there are another couple of sets that I REALLY, REALLY want (that I didn't order and am now kicking myself). I figure that if I really wanted it, I probably would have got it by now. So for those of you interested in the promotion, here's a link to Stampin' Up!'s site.


I have actually done a little stamping over the last week, I just need to take photos, a task that is determined by the amount of sunlight that comes in my kitchen window. It has been a bit overcast this week and the only day it was kind of sunny, I was rushing out of the house for a job interview. Hopefully, the sun will be shining brightly tomorrow.


Instead I'll leave you with a photo of my gorgeous little boy. It's hard to believe a year has passed since he brightened our lives! His personality is really starting to bloom. He's learnt to wave and say 'bye bye' and now, when he's tired, he'll wave at us and say 'bye bye' and take himself into his room and laydown, ready for us to put him to bed. It is SO CUTE! This photo was taken at this 1st birthday party - he just loves cupcakes, not so keen on the sponge cake!

A Weekend of Firsts

A few weeks ago, my mum sent me a text message. This is what it said "Do you know anyone who could teach me to make cards like you do?" I know, what do you say to this......... I mean, 'DUH'. My reply, "Me stupid". So, yesterday my mum came over for her first stamping lesson! I gave her a couple of left over M&T's from my last workshop and set her in motion. I also made a discovery - I found out that my 'Ribbon Challengedness' is INHERITED. I also showed her how to colour images using coloured pencils & OMS. She CASED my 'Sorry Bear' card, except she changed the sentiment to 'Happy Birthday', & she even wrote her greeting in the matching Pale Plum marker!!! She was so proud of her creations. Next week, a box of SU goodies will be arriving at my door for her! How cool is that! I'm so pleased that we can enjoy a hobby together, and with her coming over to my place to stamp too, she gets to spend some extra time with Harrison, who just LOVES his Nana's.

My second first - I know, not really logical but bear with me, was Harrison having his first sleepover! Jarrod & I had an engagement party to go to so Harrison spent the night at Jarrod's mum & dad's. It was SO strange coming home and seeing an empty little cot. It was SO strange waking up without his smiling face greeting me! He seemed to have a great time & I know Nana & Pop had a great time too!

Next post will be of some recent projects, including those I made for our friend's engagement.

Just to finish off, here is a photo I took of Harrison last week, just before his shower. He looked so cute and has begun to realise that he should 'smile' for the camera (or in this case, just open you mouth and look super cute). I'm hoping to get another scrapbook page done soon, this time with a 'bath' theme so I can include this one.

Photo Credit: Joanne Eades - copyright 2007

Making Up For Lost Time

Since it has been so long since I last updated, I thought I would do 2 in one night !! (and there's still MORE to come - I have actually been doing something, LOL!)

Monday was Jarrod's birthday (Happy Birthday, babe) so I had Harrison help me make a special card for his birthday. Here it is.

When I saw SCS CC99 I knew these colours (Night of Navy, Taken with Teal [or NQN] and a neutral) would be great for a Jarrod's card. Harrison 'helped' me by letting me cover his little hand in W/White Craft Ink and 'stamping' it onto the Night of Navy card, which I then embossed using White Detail EP. (I also did a footprint at the same time - I'll use that for Father's Day) . Amazingly enough we DID NOT get ink everywhere, not a bad feat since he is VERY wriggly at the moment. I then matted that onto a layer of TWT and stamped happy birthday from EFP in NON ink. The dots were made using a white gel pen. I then matted that on W/White and then mounted this using DS Foam Tape onto TWT card that I had stamped with the Print Pattern background stamp, using my TWT marker to outline just the edges. I got this idea from Kendra. Once again the dots were made using a white gel pen.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Print Pattern, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Night of Navy, W/White
Ink: W/White Craft Ink, Night of Navy Classic Ink, Taken with Teal Marker
Accessories: White Detail EP, Embossing Buddy (must remember to use this more often!), DS Foam Tape, White Gel Pen

What's Been Happening??????

Well, not all that much here, what about you? Once again, I can't believe how quickly the days are flying by......next week my little boy will be 5 months old. Watching him today, he started to move his legs in the crawling motion......time to start baby proofing the house. The big question is -what do I do with all my stamping & crafting supplies - they are currently stacked in clear plastic boxes beside our dining table as what was going to be my craft room is now Harrison's room (we only have 2 bedrooms). I also have lots of things in draw units too. Now I know the boxes will be too hard for him to open, but the drawers - I think they'll be easy picking. Any ideas?

I've been meaning to get some samples done for some upcoming workshops but I haven't been sitting down until late & the light is SO bad that it has really put me off. I need to go out and get a new globe for my light TODAY so I can get going. I did get a scrapbook page started - only my 2nd one EVER - I say started because now I'm stuck. I just don't know where to go from here?!? Scrapbooking is WAY HARD. I'll post what I've done so far & hopefully someone can give me some tips on what to do next (please....)

This week I have been inspired in other ways - actually, by Triple J's Annual Hottest 100 countdown that was broadcast on Australia Day (Jan 26), so yesterday we ventured out to JB Hi-Fi to spend a gift voucher Jarrod got for his birthday LAST YEAR before it expires (we are so bad at using these by the due date). We picked up the Foo Fighters - 'Skin & Bone' and the very first volume of Triple J's Hottest 100 that is full of really cool songs from way back in 93. So last night I decided to get busy 'updating' my itunes library on the home computer. It now 'looks' very pretty. lol. I also downloaded a few songs that I seem to be missing from 'The Smiths' - bits & pieces from the album 'Meat Is Murder'. Much to Jarrod's dismay, I am still pretty much stuck in the '80's when it comes to my music. He calls me the 'Queen of Crap Music' and reckons that we have music on our iPod that no one else has never heard of! Well, he might be right, LOL!

Christmas Photos

Alrighty then, got the first photo up without any problems. Now this time, I'm going to try to add 2 to the one posting. Let's see how this goes.

This is my 16 week old cutie, dressed in his Santa suit, ready to help Santa dish out the presents on Christmas day. We're very lucky - he is such a wonderful baby - everywhere we go, everyone comments on how happy & content he is....they wouldn't have said that if they had seen us during our Christmas shopping excursion. Boy, was he loud. I guess he just wanted to let us know that 4 hrs is too long to be shopping, lol. Well, he is a guy after all!

This is another photo of Harrison, taken yesterday, wearing his new Quiksilver hoodie that Santa bought him. How cute is he, although he doesn't look too impressed about having ANOTHER photo taken. Enough already........

This photo started off in the wrong place, but it was easy enough to move. Not too shabby blogger!!!