corporate lunch....

Here's my baby!!



AEIOU's Corporate Lunch is on again. Michael went last year and was massively impressed (note: very hard to impress Michael) with the speakers, food and company and level of philanthropy that eventuated.

If anyone is reading this and has someone in the Brisbane area who would is looking to enter this rewarding venture of philanthropy, show them this invitation featuring my beautiful boy (courtesy of Rachel Richter).

Consequently, I've had time to do little else. I did a good 3 hours of "controlled sleeptime" with Rainer in the wee hours of Monday morning but thankfully he's slept through every night this week - barring the odd wake-up for a drink. We're in a holding pattern with the diet while we hook that worm but the recipe book has been a dream.

Raided Robins Kitchen today and bought a new set of measuring spoons, cups, a whisk, preserving jars, candy thermometer and meat mallet. I had to refrain from buying more. That's in next month's budget.

I also did some retail therapy yesterday... BECAUSE WE HAVE A SEASON IN BRISBANE!! Yep, I reckon it's officially COLD and WINTER. Took us a while but we made it. We're only guaranteed "coolth" until the end of August so better get out and get some value out of my recent purchases!!

A fabulous trench coat from Portmans. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price!! Cheap as....... Looks fabulous (have I said that already???) and a new scarf, belt, and junk jewellery.

On Tuesday I went back to my oldest and dearest friend Sandra, to have my hair cut and to "remove" the highlights. Both Capricorns and so chatted up a storm in the hour or so appointment. I hadn't seen her for about 4 years!!!! Won't let that happen again!!

And I feel so much better for spending a little on myself. Not guilty at all. I feel I deserve it.

What have my other friends deserved lately????? I can't be the only Mum who has said to themselves "I will buy this/ do this / have this.." and NOT feel guilty!!!!

BELINDA....that layout's still on my table!! But it's all stuck down and ready to be attacked with pens, colour and other stuff. Hope you like, my friend.

brighter and buoyant......

new recipe...

at Forever Always tonight but Rainer was being a troublesome

BIRTHDAY BOY!!!


Happy 5th Birthday my sweet sweet prince!!!

The kiddies at kindy loved my carrot-cake-muffin-thingys today. Recipe is from "Healing Foods" by Sandra Ramacher (an aussie) and this is where I'm getting most of my recipes from now on. Such a relief.....

I'm keen to get onto Stage 2 but need to get rid of this hookworm first. Made almond milk to hide the Vermox in a milkshake, but the bugger wouldn't go for it. I think we might have to just risk cow's milkshake at Cafe Tara just to get it into him. I've done this diet once, I can do it again!!

HOW HARD CAN IT BE????? (that was for Tamara {wink, wink})

I have this layout on my desk following the purge the other day. It's the only photo I had ready to print b/c Belinda V photoshopped it before she sent it to me!!! Yes, supremely LAZY!! Very cute photo though and I like it...but still haven't had the time to stick it all down. Needs something else and I'm sure it will come to me.....

And I'm loving my music again. It's such a powerful medium for me. I have it on when I scrap, cook, clean, wash and drive. It's on right now "Home and Hosed" on Triple J. This song just evokes something powerful in me and I know there's a layout in there...somewhere

No video clip yet, so just click PLAY and listen - hopefully you'll know what I'm rabbiting on about

"Embrace" by Pnau


brighter and buoyant......

MY cards ROCK!!!!

Finally finished the CARDS THAT ROCK kit from Funkstreet Designs. And yes, it did RAWK completely. Used the entire kit with the ideas and instructions from Charm and Kars so that was definitely money well spent.







Here's one layout from Ngaire's class last weekend (or was it the weekend before???)


I love the design and leaned some clever tricks, but I think the photos needed more white space around them. It looks too busy/heavy????

Waiting for some journaling inspiration for the other layout. Need some "good to know" quotes - serious or humorous - to put on cards on the layout. I'm usually good with this but the grey matter isn't working at the moment. It's a very funky pink/aqua colour combo.

I've been cleaning/organising my scrap space - emptying pizza boxes of supplies that I haven't even touched yet or just figure needs to go in the COMMUNAL stash. I'm amazed at the amount of stuff I still have. Me-thinks it's time to just scrap some magazine submissions so I can use up some stuff. Still might be too lazy to ACTUALLY submit......but at least they'll be done!!

brighter and buoyant.....
p.s. didn't scrap anything this week....too tired with Rainer waking up all hours :( and cooking like a Mad-Maggie-Beer!!

the TAG, the LAYOUT, the MASTER and the WAIT

the TAG
Okay Charmane!!!!

Question 1: Ten years ago I was.... 29 years old, I'd just scored a permanent full-time teaching position (very rare) at Villanova, Michael and I had just got engaged. Everything was PERFECT!!

Question 2: Five things on my to do list today: 1)get Rainer to school on time; 2)keep Oskar and Mackinley occupied on pupil-free day; 3)bake one more thing; 4)ring Trish for a good gossip; 5)fold and put away clean clothes for tomorrow.

Question 3: Snacks I enjoy: roasted almonds, dark chocolate, vanilla choc chip ice-cream, red wine (is that a "snack"?), and whatever someone else wants to cook for me (I'm not very picky these days LOL!!!!)

Question 4: Things I would like to do if I was a Millionaire: well, we've just paid off the house, so I guess we'd build whatever house we wanted once we tore this house down (love the area too much to move), split the rest with family (naturally), put some aside for the boys continuing education, buy myself an old Mercedes Benz convertible - a really, really old one, pay someone else to clean the house!!!!!!!!

Question 5: Places I have lived: BRISBANE, BRISBANE, and BRISBANE. Why would I want to live anywhere else???? Hmmmm, do I count the month in San Francisco? or the 2 weeks in Toronto? or the month or two in London?

OK I'm going to tag 7 more people
TOMORROW!!!! hahahahahaha

the LAYOUT
The latest Scrapbooking memories in the Quirks gallery...

I think this was the first time I just piled stuff on a layout. It was for a "How Much is Too Much" challenge. I should get back there to deplete my stash!!

the MASTER
Last Wednesday Michael took the day off and I went to the Picasso's Collection exhibition at GoMA. OMG....so glad I went. I really loved Picasso out of all the Masters when I studied Art. He really reminded me of what we do as scrapbookers. HIs style changed a lot over his lifetime, he swapped his artwork with his mates, and I believe now that he was the first to do ATCs and mail art!!!!

You'll just have to go see for yourself to understand that - no photos allowed in GoMA, of course.

Bought some goodies for myself and some prints to hang in the new house (whenever that gets built)...but I wait patiently....photos for another post.

And we wait......
to scrap tonight......(how many 123CC challenges can I finish??)
so no MSN chatting please!!!!!

YOU'LL have to wait.......(hehe)

I think Rainer is ready for Stage 2 of the diet. VERY EXCITING!! This means more vegetables and fruit but only one at a time. He's coped with everything so far, so fingers crossed.

brighter and buoyant.....

Delayed Gratification

Yes, I'm practicing this a little. Curbing the urge to pull all my scrap stuff out way before I should...way before school goes back on Monday/Tuesday and I can have the days to myself again.....ahhhh, pure bliss.

So until I can scrap again (and while the boys are out shopping) I'll share this...

I MET MARCUS GRAHAM LAST NIGHT!!!!

I've been very fortunate to meet a heap of celebs through AEIOU fundraisers and getting freebies with Kelly and through DH's work, but I have to say that this man was one sweetie.

DH and I went to ROARS AGAINST RACISM soccer match at Suncorp last night. The curtain raiser was a bunch of celebs, politicians, sports stars, etc and was pretty funny to watch. We were in the Qld Govt corporate box (food was DELICIOUS and the company was good too).

The conversation with Mr Graham began like this.....

DH: Hey hon, your man's arrived (in the corp box).

(I look - wide-eyed - just as he passes me and our eyes LOCK!)

Me: Oh Michael!!!!! (a little peeved)

DH: Excuse me Marcus, this is my wife Giovanna, and she's totally in love with you!!

Marcus: Ha! That's nice to know!!

and for the next 30 mins we chatted about soccer, Shakespeare and how he came up to Brisbane especially for the game....but mostly about Shakespeare and Frank Woodley's hilarious one-man-show on ALL Shakespeare. Bloody funny.

Ditch Davey (Blue Heelers) was also there but didn't get time to talk with that one.....

so was the Minister for Health - was going to bail him up about extra funding for Child Health but had too many wines by then and figured he needed a night off from being harangued!!!! (Nice, aren't I???)

I've been tagged (boomerang-style) by Charmane and I've finished my CARDS THAT ROCK cards from Funkstreet Designs, but for another post. Boys are home.

Leaving with a song that I absolutely love at the moment....
Clare Bowditch "your other hand"
WHY WHY WHY is she leaving Oz????? I want to be re-incarnated as Clare...such a spunky chikkie and she DOES have it all


brighter and buoyant....

one down >> one to go + omg a TAG!!!

yes, I am pleased to announce that we have all survived the first week of school holidays!!

Mackinley has spent 2 days in Vacation Care and today we drove to his god-mother's house on the Sunshine Coast only to find they'd gone shopping. I tell ya....she really tested my ability to contain 2 freakin' "I've been sitting in a car for 1.5 hours!!" boys while we waited for another half hour for them to return. Silly me always forgets to put her mobile number in my phone....that'll learn ya Gi!!

And it ALWAYS rains when we plan to visit...so we are consistent. (p.s. the rain was GOOD.)

Lovely park morning yesterday with Rainer. We have ONE fully fenced park in our area and we turned up to find the biggest gate was dodgy and the one I've told council to fix, still hasn't been fixed. No matter. Rainer was a delight!!


I wore him out because I had a MOUNTAIN of shopping to do (and therefore cooking) and he was AWESOME!!
Won't try that again soon. Not into tempting fate just yet.

I'm a big fat chicken!! Here's what happened last Friday night when Michael and I tried to give Rainer his new meds....


and I haven't tried since (man I loved that jumper...and yep, it stinks!!). Have joined some new yahoo groups to get some help. There are lots of different ASD-types so I had to trowl through hours of posts to find SOMETHING that might work for Rainer. I think I found the answer!! It has to do with a visit to my local Vet and Mackinley's god-mother (who's a clinical psych) has some good tips too.......STAY TUNED!!

HOLY CRAP...I'VE BEEN TAGGED......
I really can't remember last time someone thought so much of me to tag me. Thank you to the beautiful Melanie (a cyber-BFF!!) for this one....

I never really know who's reading my drivel some days, but I stick to the belief that this is MY PERSONAL BLOG and others are invited to read....so I persist (not in a negative way...)

THANK YOU MELANIE

and now to PAY IT FORWARD I have to nominate 7 blogs/people that inspire me and have just scrummy-loveliness to share....

hmmmmmmm.....only 7?????

Charm, Kerry, Sonia, Bon, Kate, Belinda, Karlene

and if I were to pick more....
Claudine Hellmuth, Kelly Rae Roberts, the girls at IOD, NgaireB, Loretta, Michelle Coleman, Donna Downey, my friends Kylie and Angela (who are REAL artists and Art Teachers, and authors - they don't have blogs, but they should)

and you know what...looking through my list (the one in the side-bar needs a serious overhaul!!) there isn't one I wouldn't give it to. For every different reason, know only to me, all of these women (and a couple of blokes too) deserve praise for giving someone out there motivation and inspiration.

Do I suck up??? Not on your life...so you know this is genuine. I have no reason to get all mooshy and sappy - I want nothing...only genuine friendship and trust. Some take it, some don't and that's fine. It just simplifies my life LOL.

now, where was I????? these damn "tangents"

TOMORROW......
I'm looking forward to all of tomorrow......
2 classes with the wickedly divine Ngaire B. I promise (hand on heart) that I will behave and not get cranky and snappish at Cherie when she asks me to pass something to her. I will gaze lovingly into her sweet face and offer to her the item she requests.
Mandy is turning 40. She's a divine 40. She reminds me of Zena except she has reddish hair, 3 children, a husband, a house and lovely manners. Going solo (YAY, JUMPING IN DELIGHT..) so Michael can stay home and be himself (read into that whatever you will) while I cut loose!!!!

be brighter and buoyant.....