Missing In Action

Hey there! I am still here, just with a bit happening here in the sticks, but not that much to blog about - or rather lacking the motivation to download camera and then upload them here.

On Sunday we worked some cattle through the yards at LC, and drafted off the second mob of weaners for the year. Kids came along, and had a great time playing in the dirt, chasing the calves like a mob of over-excited cattle dog pups, and getting pretty grubby. Imagine my delight when we got home, turned on the tap for a nice, warm and soapy bath - and NO WATER. Had to wait 45 minutes for the water folk to get the bore pump started.

My middlest girl and I went to the big town on Wednesday, to stock up on groceries and for me to get a haircut. She had a great day with Mum, and she pretty much single handedly unpacked two overflowing trollies at the checkout (there's an art to loading up one's trolley to get maximum use of space!).

Right now I have just finished baking a double batch each of Choc Chip and Anzac biscuits for us to sell at the "Food Shed" at our local race meeting tomorrow (the school P & C does the catering, as one of our yearly fundraisers). Some of the Anzacs are, shall we say...a little CRUNCHIER than the others, and I think they might be staying home tomorrow! I have to say I am most pleased with myself for this (for me) marathon baking effort, and to only have one moderatley over done tray of biscuits is a fairly good result!

A long awaited camping photo.... of me! ye gads - my sister in law took these, and really I should disown her for taking this sort of photo - no warning, no chance for me to touch up my lipstick and powder my nose, book myself in for some liposuction...and aren't I brave for sharing it with you! {sigh} Just keepin' it real folks, keepin' it real....

My girls and their cousins, sitting on a big rock overlooking the river...I think Kate was making sure that Miranda didn't topple backwards - that's a sheer drop behind them - either straight into the water or onto the sand - either way, it was a good 10+ metres!

Anyhow, best go and make some cute labels for my freshly packaged biscuits, and then drag out the race outfits for the family...and myself. Its turned cooler again, so I've had a change of plans for my own attire - mostly centred around how I can stay warm and comfortable whilst also pretending I look stylish and ten years younger!

I'll share some race photos with you in a few days!

Thoughts...

Image from Melissa Deakin I'll be back later with some internet goodness. although....is anyone else having any trouble putting images into their posts, and then trying to arrange them AND add more text? Its driving me nuts.

Wish List

I am in the processing of collating and paying bills for the month, and given that we effectivley run not one but two businesses (our trough making business, and then the property/cattle business) the bills are numerous and staggering! So to distract myself from the depressiveness of it all, I started to compile my Christmas Wish List, with an emphasis being placed heavily on WISH!

This part (yes, part! it isn't called a WISH list for nothin'!) is about camera bags. I do have a bag, but it is getting crowded with the couple of lenses I have - the standard Canon lens kit plus a 28-105 "cheapie" that I bought on ebay {and lets not mention that 50mm lens that is on The List as well!}

This cute red bag is called a Bowler Bag, and frankly I would use it as a handbag just as easily as a camera bag. But I think it will be waaay too small; I think it would only just fit the camera itself. But its affordable (I found it online for $39 in Australia) so go search if it's the one for you! Also available in navy and white....

And then the Jill E bags...oh my. Absolutley gorgeous, but MAN, what a price tag! And this new pink version would match my pink briefcase that Trevor and the kids bought me for Christmas last year {ahem! after my careful research and shopping - at least I didn't wrap it myself! and I was very restrained and didn't even open the parcel when it came in the mail}. Anyhow, unless I win lotto or something, I won't be getting a Jill E bag....

So, after coming across a discussion thread about fashionable ladies camera bags in my quest for the camera bags that are out there - I decided to look outside of the box, and check out nappy bags, but ones that don't look like nappy bags! There are many out there, too many with baby things on them, but then I found this...I think Kapoochi (?) is the brand, but it carries a price tag of $160 on ebay!

So that's where my quest has ended, so far...let me know of any trendy camera bags (or alternate suitable bags!) you might have seen!

Sorry

This is not a camping post! ** Instead, it is all about the few things I am gathering together to make up an outfit to our local race meeting in two weeks time.

Of course, I have NOTHING to wear...well, not quite, but you know how it is! I am giving myself two options, starting with a base of either white linen pants, or dark blue denim trouser jeans (both wide legged).

So where is a girl to go when she is out in the sticks and needs to do some shopping, but isn't going NEAR any shops? She heads to ebay (what did I ever do without the internet?!)

Decided to go with my navy pants as a place to look for a colour theme (and remembering I have a new white blouse that I could wear with them) and opting out of a hat this year, as the P & C is running the "Food Shed" (classy in this part of the world!), I searched for a fascinator. And came up with this little number! Navy doesn't seem popular for a fascinator (there only being one!) but more better for me - a bargain!

Then comes the dilemma about footwear. Hmm, I have some cute red wedge heels (not too high) but they are open toed. Right now, I really have a complete outfit with the blue pants, white blouse, navy fascinator and red shoes. But, horror of horrors! I don't have a red handbag to complete the ensemble! (not one the kids have hi-jacked into the dress up box, I don't!). So back to ebay, to find this other little bargain (its a small shoulder bag - should just tuck under my arm when on my shoulder) that no one wanted. Sigh. I do so love a bargain!

Then I started thinking, which can be dangerous... what it it turns into a warm day? What if I want to wear my white pants instead?! White top AND pants is not a good combo for our races, and sad to say, my favourite top that I like to wear with my white pants is, shall we say... a little snug (sobs quietly). Mind you, so are the pants, but the right top & the wonderful array of suck-er-in underwear can help with that (not much can be done with the bosums, sadly!).

Anyhow, the back up plan - navy shoes to go with my white pants. I haven't had navy shoes for years, and apparently they are not in plentiful supply. But I found these, that again no-one else wanted... am a little pleased - I think Zoe Wittner is a fancy brand of shoe, yes? And low heels for this idiot who manages to sprain BOTH ankles (though at seperate times) in a period of three months.

And below is the replacement shirt for the one that is too tight... not perfect, but navy shirts are apparently a hot item on ebay and was outbid ridiculously on another one I was bidding on.

While I was searching for shirts, I found this other navy and white shirt...and hmm, THAT would look nice with BOTH pairs of pants! I am still waiting to see if I have won this one...

So there you have it: Races outfit(s) for 2009! Obviously focusing on a theme of navy, white and red... the fascinator being the common denominator.

But, help needed here, oh fashionable friends: jewellry - do I go for the classic pearls (which I already have) or pearl/silver earings, or perhaps look for a trendy, chuncky red necklace to tie it all together, teamed with silver earrings?

Your due consideration would be appreciated!


**Normal programming will return shortly. I apologise for any shock or inconvenience this post may have caused.

Another Page

Folding?? WHAT folding? Don't know what you are talking about! {wanders away whistling aimlessly with hands behind back}

I so enjoyed yesterday's page, that I decided to do another one today.

But MAN, this one seemed to take a long time, and I rest the blame squarely on the shoulders of some scrappers who always inspire me... :-)

The page is based on a deceptively simple layout by simpple layout & sketch queen Nicole (everything has to be measured precisely so it all lines up!!). I decided to continue with the cool handwriting font (though in this case it doesn't look right, but who cares? its done!) which more or less, was inspired by Nicole's Canadian blogger friend Barb (sorry, don't have her blog link). Then the brads for the dot points, which I always do now, originally came from an article or blog post from Rebecca ages ago. And the butterflies, oh the butterflies.

The butterflies: I own a Cuttlebug, a very un-used and neglected Cuttlebug, that I considered selling. Then Ingunn {when I grow up, scrapping wise, I want to be like Ingunn!} posted an album she did with die-cut butterflies...I fell in love and rushed out...well I didn't rush OUT so much as rushed to the internet, and searched for butterfly dies for my Cuttlebug {for the best price I could find of course!}. And bought two different sets - Sizzlets and Quickutz.

I have decided, when I finally do our wedding album, that Quickutz butterfly will feature. Butterflies were not involved in our wedding, but daisies did, and flowers and butterflies go together, don't they?!

Anyhow, I didn't really like this page much, (as there are some measuring/cutting mistakes hidden under the carefully placed butterflies!) to start off with, but now its done, I don't mind it. I've never pulled a page apart yet (I'm far too lazy!) and so, in the album it goes, another story told. {and in this case, the photos have nothing to do with the little antecdotes about Georgie - the photos were only taken 'cause they looked so cute and had no story attached, but went perfectly with what I wanted to say about how sweet she looks but how UN-sweet she behaves!)

Still haven't done the camping tale yet, have I?! I'll be back later...

Sketch Challenge Layout

Well, I am pleased to report that I have had some wins this week, crossing a few things off my list of things to do in the office. I can't say that my washing has been folded though (well, little bits of it have been) but it IS clean!

Today I acheived very little, with the whole family affected with Saturday morning-itis (we all watched Hannah Montana together) and so the slow and lazy start reflected the pace for the rest of the day. Well, not Trevor, he still went and did a lick run (with his little offsider; he was so important heading off with His Dad WITHOUT any sisters!) but was only away for a couple of hours.

Anyhow, Nicole posted a sketch challenge a few days ago - here is the original sketch:

And here is my version:

The lady bug covers an error I made in printing the journalling (I turned it around and printed it again!) I should have used a tree, but don't have any, and couldn't be bothered making one from hand or finding a free one on the net.

That cool handwriting - that's not my own, sadly! It's a font called PeaColston from kevin and amanda ; I plan to go searching for another handwriting font that will more closely match my own but still be "cool"! And then I won't ever have to worry about spacing and even-ness and so on!

Anyhow, its freezing here (though not the ridiculous 1 degree or less that it was two nights ago!) and my girls need putting to bed after having an extended bedtime to watch a Harry Potter movie on TV. (incidentally, I am so putting the new movie on my Christmas list - hope its on dvd by then!)

I promise I will produce some camping/fishing stories and photos soon(!), though I am not feeling enthusiastic about editing them. I think that the disappointing quality might have something to do with it (photographer/camera issues? who knows!)

Hope you are keeping warm in your part of the country...and that you caught Grey's the other night (POOR GEORGE! I didn't see that coming!)

Balance?

Right now I am struggling to find balance between housework, business related work (which is AT home, making things doubly harder) and garden, plus the FUN things that I really want to do (like scrapping! etc). I haven't included the kids in that, because they are around me pretty much all of the time, so they just have to fit into whatever I have to do.

I guess it is stressing me at the moment because I am way behind in washing and folding and keeping the place in any sort of order, but also have hours and hours of office work that really, really needs my attention, and should have had it before now. I also have a dilemma - do I do a little bit of each every day, or do I leap in and just focus one of the tasks until it is done - but then I have even more to catch up on after (especially the dirty washing, which is apparently breeding!)

Anyhow, all this is is why I probably won't post much in the next little while (unless I am procrastinating, which has been known to happen) as I have a few office deadlines that I need to meet. Hopefully I will find time to do Nicole's sketch challenge....perhaps...

But, I do have stories to share, so stay tuned...one of which involves CAMPING. Yep, camping by the river we went fishing at a few weeks ago, this past weekeind. Camping, as in sleeping on the ground (albeit in swags, in a tent) in the middle of winter. Camping, as digging a hole when needing to go to the toilet. Well, really, a big hole was dug, and someone brought along a fancy smancy folding and highly unstable toilet seat on legs (making toilet visits QUITE interesting!) but still, it was all outdoors. I could go on, but I think you get the picture - it wasn't really my idea, but it was quite comfortable given all of the crap that we all took (my husband's brothers and their families, and us) - AND I even had a hot shower, so what do I have to whinge about?! I took lots of photos...

I'll leave you with the catch of they day...

Its done but...

I did this today using a digital collage pattern thingy I found somewhere out there on the www. Not sure that I like it, however its DONE and another one for the "family" album. {I think the photo of Angus all dressed up with the girls will probably make another reappearance in his album...especially with the story attached of him running out to greet the men - Dad, uncle and Grandad - in his sequinned finery! They are very blokey blokes!}

Anyhow, without further ado, my neice's recent birthday (husband's niece, actually)

The pages as a whole make up a double 12x12, but again, done seperatley so they can be printed and then attached to cardstock base. I think the finished "real" version will be different to this digital one, I think this one is too busy. It may not even end up the double 12x12, maybe smaller. I really must get all of these collages printed and finished properly!

By the by - extrafilm have $3 8x10's, that's the best online price I can find - anyone else find a good deal?

Edited to add: anyone wondering about the HUGE candles? My s-i-l forgot to bring normal birthday candles (the "party" was at the grandparents property, where the men where working) and the only candles we could find were the everyday in-case-the-power-goes-out variety. Didn't matter, she was too scared to blow them out and her little boy cousin was QUITE happy to blow them out, without asking!

Anyhow, best go and try and remove my boot from my foot, I don't think sitting at the computer desk has helped in anyway (I would have been better off folding that laundry, though it would not been nearly half as fun!)

Got a few other digitally made collages to do - I seem to be doing the "recent events" in that fashion for the family book, and the kids (where I still in 2007!) in paper. Whatever way, I am happy just to get some pages out and done - enjoying the process, and remembering!

Hobbling Along

I am SO annoyed with myself! Remember a few months back, I turned my ankle very badly (a trip to do the doctor probably should have occurred, but didn't), so badly that my ankle and foot swelled up and went black and blue with bruising. Took me ages to walk properley, and I still favour it when pressured.

Well, until yesterday morning. I must be turning into a klutz in my old age. I was walking to feed the chooks, mis-stepped off a paver about 2.5 cm high, and turned my other GOOD ankle. And fell flat on my face. Again I heard a nasty pop, but I knew straight away that it wasn't as bad as the last time...but still, my ankle is quite swollen, but at least my foot hasn't immediatley swelled up like last time, and I could walk on it, with caution, after feeling sorry for myself for a minute or two (no-one else around to give me sympathy!)

Why is it, when fully able bodied, I have no desire to do any of the household chores that haunt me, but as soon as I become limited in movement, I suddenly want to play catch up, and can't?!

Oh well, hopefully I will return soon with a page or two - at least I can do that! ;-)

(apologies for no pics, but no one needs to see my neglected feet!)