Quick (?) post

I've been thinking, thinking, thinking, but not doing much at all.....maybe it's because Summer has FINALLY arrived in Brisbane. Nights 24 days 34. Thank God for ceiling fans -means the scrap projects dry much faster (lol). But the mozzies!!! Aaargh.

Thinking about resolutions I made in 2006, thinking about resolutions for 2007 (will post these daily next week).

Thinking about putting instructions up for the altered photo frame for Tanya (will do that also, next week).

Thinking about finishing off some layouts (2 down and 2 to go - will finish next week).

Thinking of a new blogger template - already .... yep, next week!

Why next week??
Because Mackinley starts Grade 1 on Tuesday and Rainer starts new days at Kinky - Mondays and Tuesdays and the following week back at Special School Wednesdays!!! Am I thinking I'll have a LOAD of time on my hands????

Me thinks YES!!!

More tomorrow night....I can't sleep because I'm sooooo excited!!!

BE STRONG
Giovanna

p.s. My new video from Good Charlotte "Little Things". Remember "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff"? Well, I was thinking, what if all you had in life was lots and lots and lots of small stuff happen, no earth-shattering tragedies, just life as a series of small stuff. So, maybe we should take more time with small stuff because, as the song says (and I'll paraphrase here) it's the little things that make us who we are, the sum of our experiences large and small, significant and insignificant - embrace your SMALL STUFF this week, just for a change!!!

Busy Busy Busy.....

Wow, how time flies when you have 2 crazy children at home driving you absolutely mental!!! Mackinley is turning into a realy 5 year old and is so very very contrary that this week I really didn't like him at all!! He's been an absolute treasure of a son, and now he's just turned into walking Testosterone!!!


Nonetheless, the lovely Mrs Reedy came to Brisbane to visit and brought with her the delightful Tristan and so Mackinley and I joined them at the Museum. The boys hadn't met before but within seconds they were racing around like mad and Tanya and I had trouble locating them at one stage (oops, there goes our "Mother of the Year" nomination LOL). Here's a brief montage of the day's activities:


It was a great day and hopefully the boys will remain great mates (as I hope will Tanya and I).


And I've been thinking, thinking, thinking.....
Ali Edwards is making us all think about our word for the year and it just literally popped into my scone.....STRONG!! I know it probably sounds a little w***y to a non-scrapper but hey, it's all about ME!!

STRONG FOR: body, spirit, Rainer, Mackinley starting Grade 1 (yay!!), Michael beginning his work trips overseas, me as a scrapper/life artist (yes, continue the w***ering, but it kinda fits) gotta be more forceful about what I want out of this little sideline - DT? published? small band of admiring subjects?? a book?? TV appearances?? radio programme?? ... okay, I digress, but I still am in a bit of limbo about whether I want to keep going in this direction.



Another hot topic on the SBC forum was Texture Paste. It's something we all seem to have but never use. Well, here's my little effort from my unopened jar, until the other day, that is. It began life (in my head) to be on a layout, but the darn thing turned out to be HUGE, so now it's a stand-alone frame on our buffet. Got the idea to twist the leather around a painted twig from Vivian Bonder in a SC mag. The flower reminds me of Snow Daisies that Mum used to pick as a young girl in Italy. Wow, really surprised me. I'll post some instructions if anyone out there is reading and is interested (LOL).


Be STRONG
Gi

Back to Scrappin'

Well, I've got my desire to scrap again. Mind you they were layouts (or bits of layouts) that have been sitting in my WIP (work in progress) folder for about 3 weeks!! So here's 2 of them, but more to come. Michael gave me the day off from all things domestic so I could do this. The boys were good as well. These days are sometimes difficult for Rainer to cope with when I'm not focusing on him 24/7, but he was a trooper (thank God).

This one is of Michael and Mackinley getting ready for the Dragons game at Suncorp Stadium in September. I love how the colours have worked together. I punched out the holes in the SEI paper because we can't have pink in a blokey layout (LOL).

This one is from the Scrapbook City Cyber Crop in December. Yeah, I know it's late, but I'm ineligible anyway. These photos were taken at Lilly's house at Mt Glorious of Mum, Mackinley and Meg feeding King Parrots. Can't say I'm overly wrapped with the result even though I lilke all the elements seperately IYKWIM.

More on the way. Hopefully I can do more scrapping tonight and tomorrow.

WELL THE WAIT IS OVER AND FINALLY I CAN REVEAL THE NEW VENTURE AT SCRAPBOOK CITY....

It's going to be a hoot!!! I've already sent in my challenge for Week 1 (following the Qualifying Round) and then I have to set a challenge for the Friday Night Games. Thankfully Alicia and Sara have given me antoher week or two to get it in.

Leisa is in Anaheim for CHA and hopefully I'll get to play with some more new yummy stuff before my guest spot there is over.

In the latest edition of Creating Keepsakes (USA) they have a few ideas on how to organise photos and now I'm motivated to do it this year. Not only do I have to keep on top of 2007 photos, but get back to the last 3 or 4 years worth of photos into albums. In addition to this, Michael and I have separate overseas photos that need to be organised. I looked in the box with mine the other week and they're not in good condition....

SO ANY HELP OR ADVICE ON HOW TO RESTORE THEM WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

I've been blog-hopping more efficiently and love it when I get personal emails in return (thanks Ngaire!!). Sometimes I really feel like I've found my "thing" in scrapbooking.

Gi

xx

The Excitement is unbearable....

Firstly, thanks to the lovely Tanya, Pauline, Michelle and Katie for completing my tag. Katie now has her own blog so I'll be visiting that one too!!

Now that Australia has won the Ashes, Michael has been busily doing all those "delightful" maintenance bits around the house. He's very vocal about his mistakes but thankfully he now says them much more softly so the boys can't hear...only me (it's the spooky teacher hearing thing!!)

Michael is back to work on Monday and this year will be very busy with lots of traveling in the works, and the word is we may be able to join him to the U.S. later. Yay, haven't been since 1992 so need to catch up on friends past (Michele in SF, you know who you are) and if time permits go all the way to Alicia, Jess and Erica. But we'll see.

Rainer is back at C&K on Mondays and Tuesdays with SEDU on Wednesdays still (but not til Feb). No word from AEIOU about the intake for this year....so, we wait. At least I had a Plan B if he didn't get in January's intake, I would image a lot of families just crossed their fingers.

Have been organising playdates for Mackinley this week before he starts Grade 1 (YAY) and we might have the chance to go to the museum again soon. Looking forward to that. He's very excited about choosing the contact for his books!! He wants Star Wars but if that's going to break the budget, we might just go for the book plates instead.

Can't bring myself to scrap again this week. Just trying to get the family back into a routine again which is really important for Rainer and my sanity (read "control freak" here) and the house cleaned and all the CRAP (and there's a lot of it) in the bin.

Waiting patiently for the exciting news to be made public at Scrapbook City.....I've been offered many bribes but no chance!! If you read this and haven't signed up to the forum, do it now and get yourself acquainted with the layout of things before it goes ballistic!!!

Won't be long now and then I'll be busy again!!! Feel the strange need to paint...don't know whether it's the canvas kind or the wall kind.

How time flies ....

I've just realised how quickly this year has flown by already (LOL!!)!!!!!!

Many exciting things about to happen at Scrapbook City this year, so make sure you drop by and get hooked on the excitement (can't say ANYTHING at the moment, but it'll be big).

I tagged Katie H and I think it made her think about starting her own blog, so in the meantime, here's a little bit about our newest DT member:

INTRODUCING KATIE HOWARD

A - Available/Single? Married
B- Best Friend? Kirsty and Debbie
C- Cake or Pie? Christmas cake!
D - Drink Of Choice? Baileys
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? Kettle
F - Favorite Colour? pink
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Gummy Bears – I like them soft
H - Home or Homesick? Home
I - Indulgence? Hour long massage---anywhere
J - January Or February? February, cause it is full of celebrations for us!.
K - Kids & Their Names? 2 girls and 1 boy - Niamh (7), Erin (5) and Liam (2)
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Family and my new camera!
M - Marriage date? 4th February 1995
N - Number Of Siblings? 2, sister - Sooz and brother - Richard
O - Oranges Or Apples? Depends on my mood…right now, neither!
P - Phobias/Fears? Fear of loosing someone I love dearly
Q - Favorite Quote: “There is no try, just do or not do” Yoda
R-Real Hair Color? Brown.
S - Season? Spring
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? 3, but I don’t know many others who have blogs!!! Kirsty, Debbie and Georgie
U - Unknown Fact About Me? I was a teenage headbanger!
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Can’t think of any …
W - Worst Habit? I am a really grumpy sick person….Is that a habbit??
X - X-rays You’ve Had? Just teeth as far as I know…
Y - Your Favorite Food? Anything that someone else has cooked for me!!
Z - Zodiac Sign? Sagitarius
That was a bit of fun! Had to think about some of them though!!

THANKS KATIE!!

Here are some more layouts and presents I conjoured up the last month. A lovely "brag folio for the Out-Laws:

And the inside the gorgeous Maya Road tin I altered for Scrapbook City. I used the tin, some Pink Martini papers, Maya Road ribbon and rub ons and chipboard flowers. Really pleased with the results of this one!!

And more of the new We R Memory Keepers Peasant range and the Technique Tuesday Baseboard, featuring the very sweet but incorrigible Rainer:

and my take on Michelle's sketch for December, photos are from my birthday at The Zoo (see a previous post) and I used the Technique Tuesday Baseboard to give the layout some dimension:



and lastly, here's my latest entry into the Scrapboxx Newbie's Circle Journal. It's teeny tiny, but the theme was "Firsts" for sarah13 and this one was about our first REAL family holiday to Burleigh last September.


Thanks for visiting. More to come next entry, including my Christmas January sketch for SBC.

xx
Gi