Scrapped This... and this...

Wow, you can tell when i'm having a rather scrap-happy day and haven't really done much else, hey? This is my 3rd post today!

I've made these items as part of the Scrapping with Kaisercraft Competition over at Scrap Therapy:

OH AND THIS IS JUST MY BLING BOX! The gold box had choccies in it for Christmas. I begged and pleaded with Ben to let me transfer the choccies so that i could have the box... and so I added some thickers & pearls and ta-da... BLING BOX!

BEN IS A LEGEND!!

My darling fiance` Ben is a deadset LEGEND. As part of my Christmas present he got me a subscription to Scrapbooking Memories. Today I got an awesome pizza box of free Kaisercraft goodies as the free gift for subscribing. WOOHOO!

It will be a challenge, that's for sure! They're not my usual colours or styles to scrap with. BUT THEY'RE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Yippeee!!!

We're all going on a SUMMER CLEANING SPREE!

We're not going to Tinaroo this year... I'm a bit sad about that (it was beginning to be a tradition to go to the platypus campsite at the dam for NYE) but I honestly don't care what the awesome foursome does at this time of year, as long as we're together. I really do like spending NYE with those guys. It's a special night... remembering the year that was and looking forward to the new year... and what better way to do that than with your best mates who were there for the best and the worst and will continue to do so the following year.

No, instead of going to Tinaroo we're going to a Taipans game (Annie's a newly obsessed fan!) and then apparently coming back to our place for quiet drinks. OUR PLACE?! eEEEEeeep!! That means cleaning!! I'm sick at the moment too so it is quite difficult to suck up the energy to clean at this time but it sooooooo desperately needs to be done. I figure if i tackle little areas at a time it'll all be fine. I hope!

Boxing Day

Here are some recent layouts. Some I made today and others I made on Christmas Eve.

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and didn't get totally wiped out at the sales today!

I'm currently working out who to vote for in the Triple J Hottest 100. I love this time of year!

Cast your vote here:

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/

The Fantastic Five

Apparently it's physically impossible to get a nice photo of the five of us in the dark by ourselves. That's okay. LOL. Our numerous attempts are rather funny but definitely not our finest photographic moments. WHO CARES?! This lot... *sigh* ...getting sentimental here. These are my best friends in the whole world EVER and i'd be stuffed without them. When i talk about my mates who are closer than family IT'S THESE ONES that i'm talking about. So much love!

It's Christmas-Eve-Eve!!

I would just like to wish everybody who follows my blog (the whole like, um, one or two of you) a fantastic Christmas-Eve-Eve. This is by far my favourite day of the year....hmm... okay, second favourite, to my birthday. C.E.E is an annual tradition involving Ben, Russ, Annie & I (and sometimes Russ's brother Adam as well) exchanging gifts and usually having dinner out together as well.

It's the holiday made for spending time with, giving gifts to and sharing a meal with best mates who may as well be your family...

I have a mission in mind for tonight. I MUST GET A PHOTO OF THE AWESOME FOURSOME. Deadset, 2008 is almost over and there is not one photo of the four of us together in this calendar year. It's a keen scrapper's nightmare.

ANYWAY:

In the last two days I've scrapped three layouts and an OTP album.

Two of the layouts are with photos from the wedding we just went to on the weekend and the other is a photo of Ben & I being silly together a few weeks ago when we were in town with our best mates. The OTP album is going to be a Christmas present for the minister at our church. It's not very Christmasy and I'm not 100% finished the journaling (i still feel like there's something missing) but I think it's pretty cool considering I did the whole thing on Sunday night... stayed up pretty late, I was on a roll and there was no way I was leaving it so that I could forget my plans by the morning!! Have had that far too many times before. I am entering the OTP album in the Scrapping With Kaisercraft competition over at Scrap Therapy. I can't wait to see all the entries, I have a feeling it's going to be HUGE.

Weekend in Malanda for Melissa & Damien's Wedding

This afternoon we got back from a weekend away for Melissa & Damien's wedding up on the Tablelands. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and very, very true to THEM. Loved it. I cannot WAIT to get these photos developed and to start scrapping them... very exciting stuff!

I caught the bouquet and Ben caught the garter...I wasn't sure if we even qualified as "single" seeing as we're ENGAGED and have been together for 5 and a half years but our mates insisted we were fine to enter and well... I didn't even TRY to catch it... the flowers just came hurtling towards me and i extended an arm and plonk. Mine. Epic moment :)

Impressions of a Beginning Teacher...

I spent this morning in my room. My classroom.

I was trying to make it a bit more "mine" but there really wasn't that much I could do considering that a) pest controllers & cleaners are still going to come in between now and when we go back and they will move everything around and b) the teacher from next door has all her stuff in my room cos she's waiting on someone else to move out of her room so that she can move in. Basically all i did was move some furniture around (ripped up some skin on the tip of my big toe in the process...YOUCH!), set up my desk, spray&wiped the cupboards behind the whiteboard as they were absolutely filthy with dust and then sat and ate chocolate while reading over syllabus documents.

Feeling Very Special!

Awww i'm feeling all special cos i got a blog award from Ant. SoooOOoo I'm passing it along...

For the award:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs.

2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions.

3. On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link back to their blog.

So heres my five fabulous addictions:

1. Chocolate... even though i'm lactose intolerant. Don't think about this too much! :)

2. The Internet... I spend far too much time on here.

3. My fiance` Ben.

4. Scrapbooking

5. Driving... broom broom!

Five Fabulous Blogs

1. Antttttttttttttttttttttonella

http://antonellar.blogspot.com/

2. Belindaaaaaaaaaaaaa

http://belindasescape.blogspot.com/

3. Annettttttttttttttttttttte

http://annieandrex.blogspot.com/

4. Reeeeelsiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

http://ramblings-of-relsi.blogspot.com/

5. Tamaraaaaaaaaaaaaa

http://princess-tamara.blogspot.com/

Have a fabulous day! :)

FINALLY!

Four & a half years of uni, a couple of months of relief work and now finally FINALLY I have a class of my own for the first six months of next year. Year 7. LOL. I can't wait! :D

Christmas Presents I've Made Recently

Here are Annie & Russell's Christmas presents I've made for them.. i'll get them something bought as well but yeah... i wanted to try making something just for a more personal touch, i guess. I'm only posting these up cos i am fairly confident they don't know I've got a blog and consequently won't see them... Annie's looks better but Russ's is more personal... the white bit of folded cardstock is a letter... it's not so much that it's private but rather cos there was so much of it it didn't FIT!

Annie's album:

Annie's Frame:


Russell's Album:

Yeah that's one and a half of those albums... i wish i'd planned russ's album better before i started it.. i stuffed it up so badly and didn't have spare paper and oh, it was drama after drama making it. I had to put it away for a few weeks so that i couldn't see it and wouldn't be tempted to change it again!

SO yeah... those are the "personal presents" my best mates are getting this Christmas...

The Prize Box

Clearly I have no life... I just spent half an hour cleaning out my prize box for school... LOL.
I merged the two (the one i take with me and the one i leave at home with the back up stock) into one in the hope that I will have a class of my own next year and won't need to lug it around but instead can leave it at school in my classroom. Wishful thinking?

Pink Shoes!!

I've been debating the pros & cons of buying a pair of Converse All Stars for the last FIVE YEARS. I always wanted an orange pair but they were hard to find in my size. I went to the Converse shop in the new DFO here in Cairns and found that these pink babies were only $50 reduced from $80. How could i say no? Seriously, in the last few months (especially since the lead up to my VERY PINK Kitchen Tea party!) pink has slowly been overtaking orange as my favourite colour. I don't drive "The Corolla With The Pink Grille" for nothing!

I also got some scrapping done this afternoon...

I'm also umming & ahhing over the DT kit i received yesterday... the one for the "member's month" challenge i'm in charge of in January. Not too sure how to work this stuff in with the challenge and examples i had in mind but i'll figure something out!!

Should be fun to play with, anyway!! :)

I hope my throat starts feeling better REALLY soon. I'm so over it! I've been sick for over a week and a half now. It's ridiculous. "Rest & Get Lots of Vitamin C" said the Doctor. :P Uh huh.

I hope to have some new photos by next week... over the next few days I've got:

Mel's Hen's Night

Church Christmas Carols

Young Adults Group Christmas Break Up Party

and even some time spent with the in-laws...............

THEN after that we have a weekend away up in Malanda for Mel & Damo's WEDDING and and and and and then shortly after that it's CHRISTMAS (oooh I best start planning Christmas-Eve-Eve then hey!?!) then... not too sure what the plan is for NYE. We've gone to Tinaroo the last two NYEs in a row but not real sure what the go is this year.

Scrappy Happenings all around... should be good :D

Nicola, Jamie & Tilly

Here are half of my second cousins... in layout form!
Tilly, Jamie & Nicola.

Nanna-isms

A while ago I started to write down a list of Nanna-isms... things that my 84 year old Sicilian grandmother says that aren't quite italian but aren't quite english either. A lot of them are partly my fault... i grew up with mum, nanna & nanno in one house together and i tried to teach my grandparents english and nanna would try so hard to impress the friends that i brought home with her "enga-lish-y"

Debida - Tepid/Warm
OOOOOM *shouting and putting lots of emphasis on the ooo cos she can't quite get the W sound happening* - warm
i buuuuuunnns - the bones (as in chicken bones... most commonly used to tell guests to place the chicken bones in a particular plate in the centre of the table)
u cricketi - the cricket
u capitano di cricketi - Mark Taylor (usually when he appears in a fujitsu ad... reason being, I was obsessed with cricket back when Tubby was the Australian captain so i went through a stage of trying to "teach" nanna about cricket circa 1998 and yeah... he was my hero!)
garro/carro - car
gecko/cecko - cake
sprayare - to spray
bookare - to book
pushare - to push
spreadare - to spread
(seems we should just say the english word and add "-are" to make nanna verbs)
tatsamidi - geckos
gesso (J-ess-oh) - toilet (this made for fun times in year 3 italian class when i tried to convince my italian teacher she was WRONG and that "chesso" was NOT CHALK but TOILET! hmmph.
chipisi (chip-izzy) - chips
bogesi - boxes
beggi - bags
ass-a-screama - icecream (ass cream? nice. nanna. NICE! she's lucky my friends were always too polite to point this out)
chewygummy - chewing gum
macadonali - Macca's
Jaffali - Jaffles
Come-y Onni - Come on!
I awfendi - i'm offended (the face she pulls with this one is hilarious!)
No wanti - doesn't want
SooFA - sofa

Friends Names...
Benny - Ben
Rossolli - Russ
AnnaMaria - Ann Marie
LOL there are definately more but yeah... we have a lot of fun paying out on russ for his 'name'

Things that ARE Italian but i'm probably spelling incorrectly:
Giufa`... Giufa` is a guy.. i'm not sure if he's for real or not...but he was in a lot of stories my grandparents told me when i was little....he was basically the biggest idiot ever and did stupid things like when his parents told him to help bathe his sister with warm water and they said it was too hot he added MORE hot water and burnt her. WHOOPS. And like, he had to carry a heavy load of supplies on his shoulders and when he realised it was heavy... he went and got MORE stuff to carry! But basically, Giufa was this warning guy... if you were about to do something stupid as a kid, you'd be warned to not do a Giufa. Or something. Google It. Seriously, he's not just a nanna-ism, he's a wog-ism.

"Christo per cundo so`" (i'm pretty sure i spelt that all wrong) Basically means someone is acting as though they have a God of their own and are acting as though the world revolves around them and what suits them best.

"Quando Caccano Iddi" Literally translates to "When they poo" BUT Nanna (and now Ben & I) use this to refer to the waiting around that has to be done while someone else gets their act together... basically, the world revolves around that persons poo schedule and it's bugging you. That's when you say that.

Phew...that's all I've got for now.

Summer DT Member!!

Wow, so exciting! I've been picked to be a DT member at Scrap Therapy just for the month of January (Member's Month) while the real DT take a break!

AND... did you notice the new look of my blog? What do you think?

Lessons for next time...

I've been playing around with a few different ideas & styles in my scrapping lately... with mixed results. I'm not 100% happy with them...hopefully i'll learn from my mistakes. It's funny how you can see what's wrong with a layout AFTER when it's TOO LATE and it's all GLUED down. Perhaps i need to start laying out the whole page before sticking ANYthing and before STICKING anything i should really really look to see if i like the overall look of it all.

Lessons from my own Disaster Layouts:

1. Keep it simple, stop adding stuff... It's like that principle about accessories... "before you leave the house, take one item off."
2. Keep the extreme brights to a minimum.... no more than 2 crazy extremely bright colours per layout!
3. Black & White Photo + Black Background = Dodgy Layout :(
4. Learn from previous mistakes... it's like when you're in school and you rub something out with your eraser only to write over it with THE SAME THING YOU JUST RUBBED OUT.
5. Think Before Scrapping: What is the purpose of this page?

Yes, these are all lessons i've learnt in the last week or so. I had originally posted the layouts up but i'm that ashamed of them that they are gone. They seriously look worse than my first layouts when i was starting out (scroll down to see my old layouts).

Okay, i'm going to stop being so hard on myself and share some other recent layouts, ones that i don't think were total disasters!!

"Shabby Chic" Attempt #1 This was my layout for Mandy's Blind Scrap Challenge a week or so ago. Initially i wasn't happy with it, but i grew to really like it. How couldn't i? It's got PINK and it's got SPOTS.

I (L) Cairns....

This is one i actually did a few weeks ago but somehow got lost in the crowd and never got uploaded... I repeated the idea from my t-shirt in the title, used co-ordinating journaling spot & patterened paper (sassafras lass) and kept it pretty simple. I also wrote the names of all (i hope, i did it off the top of my head!) the suburbs of Cairns around the edges. I love journaling in this way, by going around the edges, have done it on a few layouts and i'm always happy with the result.

That's all for now... will have more in a few days as it is.... CYBERCROP WEEKEND over at Scrap Therapy!!