When One Thing Leads To Another

So, Di pointed me towards  post by Madeline Bea photography... I looked at the images and just adored them for many reasons.  Here are some of them:

Love the dreamy spring/summer afternoon-ish quality of them, the girls dressed in light airy summer clothes topped with a cowboy hat (just the sort of thing my kids wear on a summers day! ;-) that , or nothing!)

But particulary, I love the little quilt, and its strips of colours.  So much so, I went straight to ebay and bought this:

Its called a Jelly Roll, and the material comes pre cut into 2.5" strips (two of each different fabric) the width of the fabric roll.  All I have to do is sew em together, quilt and bind.  AND I have a couple of old truly vintage embroidered pillowslips from when I was a baby that will perfectly go with these combinations of fabrics.  I am not sure quite what I will do with them all when I am finished (apart from a cute photo shoot!) but I am thinking as a throw on a day bed on the verandah would be very cute!

So, I'm looking forward to the mail in the next few days, waiting for this parcel to come in!  (and a cd in the mail from Di too, should she EVER get to the post office!) Gotta love the internet, not sure how I managed to get by without shopping online ever before! ;-)

I blame that TV show

Australia's Got Talent.  There was a three ladies performing on the show that really caught my girls' eye...let me tell you this story.

This morning I had to ring our school and was speaking to the teacher aide/cleaner/admin/phsyco fitness fanatic lady there.  She was BUSTING to tell me a story about Georgie at school yesterday.  They were doing a little book on 'what they wanted to be when they grew up'.  Georgie didn't really know, they went though a few different scenarios, and then Georgie settled on something.

"I want to be a pole dancer".

Pauline was all "OK, I'll let that one go, that's what she thinks, but lord knows what her mother is going to say!" (at this stage in the story her mother was about peeing herself with laughter).  And so they proceeded to write out their sentence, and illustrate suitably about their choosen career.

Teacher Miss Mac comes along, and sees what Pauline has written on the board for Georgie to copy - and has a pink fit!  She makes Georgie rub out the pole bit and just have "dancer", but Georgie still proceeds to illustrate her story with a girl, and a pole.

Mother still cacking herself as story is recounted.  Now I have no doubt that one can make a wonderful career out of pole dancing, but I really hope that Georgie changes her mind and chooses a career in which she wears more clothing to work - like a VET for instance.  (having ones hand up a cows bottom a far more attractive job, wouldn't you think ;-)

And yes, I blame Australias Got Talent for this new found admiration for pole dancers - those three VERY fit (did ya see how that girl jumped onto and stuck to the pole like velcro?!  skimpy costumes aside - and I bet every male in the country enjoyed them - that takes a serious amount of muscle power and control!) girls really caught the eye of my girls...I think it was the sequins and bling they really liked the most! ;-)

I am quite certain that this a story that will be repeated at her 18th or 21st birthday - especially if I can get my hands on the story and drawing itself!

(and if the formatting of this post seems wierd, it is becuase of doing this from my vista-bloody-laptop, which does funny things when trying to edit/upload images).

Trying something different

So with the last layout and walking on the wild side using a circles :-) I thought I would continue the trend and trying something different again.  I've long admired banners or pennants or bunting, so thought I would give them a go.

At first I really didn't like this page....but now I really do.

Which is a good thing, as the page I have on my desk right now I have made a complete dogs breakfast of...too much being adventurous for me - I lost my way on it!

Things might be a little quiet around here for the next little while - I have had to replace my old PC so need to spend quite some time transferring and purging files from the old one to the new, not to mention looming BAS deadlines and other committments calling for my attention.  Oh, there's also a few kids running around too that apparently need feeding, rousing on and cuddling from time to time!

Millicent

Well folks, there were many guesses to what or who Millie might be (and it is quite possible that we on occassion have unordinary pets) but no-one actually guessed correctly.

And by the way - over my dead body are we EVER having a goat as a pet.  Perhaps if we ever move and there is 50 000 acres for the thing to roam around and very very large electric current running through my houseyard fence to keep it out of my garden and away from my clothesline, THEN I might consider it.

But a minature donkey, well I would seriously love one of those!

Anyhow, Millie is neither of those.  May I introduce Miss Millicent:

She is quite the ball of business, thinks she should be an inside-the-house-dog (particulary at 2am in the morning) and thinks that chooks have been put on this earth just for her chasing entertainment.  But we love her exuberant little personality, her loyality (even when she has been given quite a few good whacks for the chook chasing episode) and her joy for life. Even when she does her gallop through the bathroom, lounge and kitchen and then out again when the first person gets out of bed and opens the back door (who knew such a little dog could be so FAST?!)  She adores the kids, but knows where the food comes from ;-) she is asleep on the mat at the office door as I type (worn out from playing with the kids! Georgie is home from school "sick" - one of those miraculous 9:30am recoveries!)

So there you have Millie. 

But there is more to the pet story.  Last night our neighbour at LC called in and dropped off a little squealling white and black bundle, caught out in the paddock. Kate named him "Nibblet". He's not nearly as friendly and loving as Millie (not yet!) - can you guess what THIS new pet is?! 

Think Luke Perry and George Clooney. They had these sort of pets. 

And just quietly, I think one of these could be nearly as bad as a goat....

****** circles (and warning more scrapbooking. Yes I am on a roll!)

Alternately this post could be titled bl**dy Suzi.  But let me back up a little.  On Saturday my new-to-scrapping sister in law came to my place to "play" - ie for the kids to play and for US to play with scrapping supplies.

So we did. In between feeding the ever hungry children, we fluffed about and looked at albums and the like.  Suzi noticed the linear design of most of my pages...and I'll admit it, they are quite STRAIGHT (or straight-ish, depending on what angle I have held me head when cutting!).  She challenged me, as I did a nice straight and aligned layout, to use CIRCLES on my next page.  And she quickly said - brads don't count as a circle.  Bummer.

After this excercise, I was never going to use a circle shape ever again. But then that would be wasting the nice little pile of scalloped circles that I gleefully punched but never used.  Look for scalloped circles on a page soon (but oh, HOW am I going to used the darned things...they are so NOT straight!)

Anyhow, may I present:  the circle page: (click on to view larger)

I am not sure if I can say I am "happy" with it (not sure that it is balanced) but it IS done, and I refuse to go back and do something over "just because".  Anyhow - DO YOU NOTICE THE BLOODY CIRCLE? (or half of one at least!) It certainly is different to my normal pages, and took longer to do (and I even sewed on it, around the circle) ....especially in stark contrast to this one below!

Time to complete - possibly under a minute - not including the time make the collage in PSE (maybe 15 minutes) and print. It probably does need something else, but I can't think of what and where, so its done and away.

And one more.

There are those straight lines again!  I like this one - sorta has a CZ collage feel about it even though it was done from scratch and I just winged it.

That's it for now...remind me to introduce you to Millie (Millicent) the new member of our family...can you guess what/who she is?! ;-)

Seeing as you asked nicely!

Here are some more.  And if you are not into scrapping, well then, you'll want to skip this post!

Crappy photo (weird dark day here today, took the layouts outside to photograph, and that wasn't easy either with sneaky breeze, and slightly damp pavers from drizzle meant I couldn't put them on the ground. anyhow.)  See the kraft backround?  Again being economical - the white cardstock is stuck onto the back of the previous page - which was the Prep page I shared earlier.  Man, I am getting soooo lazy!  I like this page...except for that tiny bit of trapped white space (see CZ I was paying attention in class!).

Yep, you;ve seen that collage before. Printed it at home (not something I often do) so it is around 1/2 an A4 page in size, trimmed and done.  All of these pages are for Kate's album, so being lazy again  - collage already done so use it again.  And I will two more times for the other two kids.

And yes, you;ve seen that one before as well. It was printed on the other side of the A4 sheet the first collage one was on.  Originally I thought that printing it smaller would not have worked, but I LOVE the versatility and the change of impact it has, while still telling the story!  Both super fast pages. Did them both this arvo, but I didn't time myself - I was also answering emails and the phone and mediating fighting grumpy kids at the same time. But they didn't take long at all. (if I'd had to make the collage up from scratch, it would have been longer)

Mind you, I just used my last sheet of half decent photo paper, so this will probably be the last at home printing job for awhile.  I bought some cheap stuff, and well - I really don't know what I am going to do with it. Perhaps print the my yearly christmas letter on it - its slightly heavier than normal paper, but that's all.

Moving on:

Just for a change of pace, back to a 12x12 page, with an enlargement I had printed  for a reason I know not why, but still, it was nice to work with a larger than 4x6 photo!

So, there you have it - and  I feel like I've got a good way through 2008 - well for this child anyhow. I only just decided to get into this a couple of days ago, and instead of watching crap TV decided to get at least one page done each night after the kids went to bed.  Have a couple of "summary" type pages to do, and then I'm out of printed photos! (yes, I've only printed to October 2008!  its on my to do list, don't worry!)

Like a Pig in Mud

and if that doesn't scream that I live in the sticks, nothing else will!

I've been scrapping!  In the lead up to the madness that will take over my life for two weeks in August (due to being on the wrong end of two committees organising two of the largest events in our district, which by bad fortune, happen to be within a week of each other) I am trying to get through some pages and get "up to date".  Well, I know that's never going to happen, so let me say "MORE up to date".

Here is a sample:

yep. you read right. 2008. Now you see why I want to be more up to date!

And you'd be right in thinking that purple bit of cardstock is the same colour...that's because it is the SAME bit.  I put the 2008 bit on the back, and the page on the nice side. All about simplicity AND economy here!

Do ya wann see some more?  Ok...just one more!

Poorly photographed and stitched together, yes.  Double page spread on good ole kraft.  Inspired a little by Laura Kurz (I cannot remember her blog address, but she's easy to google!) And look Di and Amy: my own handwriting. Now be quiet.

I have a few more pages that I might share with you later.....but only if you want to see them!  Leave a comment and let me know if you want to see some more super, super simple and fast pages.

I forgot one

You know those silver steel shelves that you can get from Bunnings for about $20 - meant for the shed or the laundry (where mine was destined for).  Well, I got rather sick of the kids reading books and the husbands newspapers (our weekly delivery of the Queensland Country Life and the NQ Register.  And if you haven't heard of them, I am not surprised - content rural /agriculture based!) all over the place.  So I spent a HOUR AND A HALF putting together these stinking shelves...which I think don't look that bad actually!  The writing you can see on the wall is where we measure the kids heights (considering transposing to a strip of timber each and relocating to another spot).  I threw the kids reading books and sight words from school in the little baskets - instead of dropped wherever they left them or on the coffee table.  The newspapers and truck books go on the bottom shelf....and the top shelf hold a few pretties just to try and make the shelf look less like it should be in the shed, and more like a peice of modern designer furniture!  :-) It sits near the dining table/kitchen area.