Kickin' off the Girliest Week Ever

It's school holidays.

These are my first school holidays as a real teacher and i am looking forward to two weeks of sleeping in, catching up with mates and not having to do all that much at all.

The first week is choc-full with specialist doctors' appointments and all sorts of other errands I didn't have the time or inclination to do while relief teaching. Annie & I have an all-day-all-night girly extravaganza planned for Tuesday... this will involve some bridal shopping (she can't make it to Saturday's appointment cos she'll be working), lunch, op-shop-hopping, scrapbooking, facials, manicures & pedicures and probably watching a girly dvd or two.. AND she's sleeping over! I've only ever been to one girly sleepover (last YEAR) so this is a HUGE deal for me. Poor Ben's going to have to put up with us! Hahaha. On Saturday, Chloe (my best mate and maid of honour) will be up from Townsville and so she and Hannah and myself are going to go to the bridal shops and try to sort out the dresses for the wedding...yeah...good luck with THAT! I am feeling so indecisive about the dress! Then the next day, Sunday, it will be my Kitchen Tea Party at Mum & Nanna's house where i grew up. IT'S THE GIRLIEST WEEK EVER.

To kick it off, i made the front cover for my Kitchen Tea Recipe Book........

Cairns Crop!!

Today I went along to my first Scrap Therapy Crop. Fun!! :) I had been feeling sick all morning and didn't think i'd make it but i felt a bit better after lunch so off i went; cardstock and patterned paper tucked under my arm! Here is a layout i did when i got home from the crop, using letters i cut out with the sizzex machine.




I am in love with the Sizzex Machine... just thought I'd add that here. Big Big Love.

What I've Made Lately...

I've been sooo busy.. I've started relief teaching at a few local schools. There's lots of variety, huge challenges and lots of fun. I'm loving it! Every day is an adventure! :)

In my spare time, I've made lots of crafty stuff... this is what I've made lately:

1. Teaching Diary: Where i keep notes on which schools i've been working at and what dates i worked there so that i can cross check my payslips.

2. Kitchen Tea Party invites... well, someone's gotta do them! :) I know that the shower should be held by my girls, but meh... I'm scrapping inclined and i LOVED making them so what's the bid deal?

3. My entry into the Scrap Therapy Thickers/Leftovers Challenge.

4. The completed Bridesmaid Boxes. WOOHOO!

5. Re-scrapped the night Benny proposed to me (almost a year ago)

Lately

I HAVE FINISHED MY DEGREE!

I AM A REGISTERED TEACHER!

I had my last day working at after school care... I hope to be teaching in some way or another by September!

In other news...

The Scrap Therapy site is down... well actually, it is apparently only down for some but I am one of the unlucky ones. :(

Anyway, I've been scrapping my little heart out this month so here are some of my latest bits & pieces...

The first layout is one with hidden photos & hidden journaling. The next is one i did for a ST challenge regarding "my greatest achievement." The thankyou card was for my supervising teacher on prac. The ATCs are my very first (very dodgy) attempt at participating in an ATC swap. The CD Magnet Card is for Mel's 25th (still haven't given it to her!). The bear is a WOW promo bear altered to be... super ROSHC bear... a teddy i gave my workplace to hopefully soften the blow of me leaving with little notice. The Treasure Box is my belated birthday present to Nanna. The pink flower card is for Mel & Damo's engagement which is coming up soon. Leaving ROSHC is a pretty self explanatory layout based around the R.E.M song lyrics "leaving new york." The next layout is of Amanda's beautiful baby girl when we all went to see her when she was only ONE day old! And last but not least, the BUGLET layout is my first attempt at the poppet style... the photo is from the day i rocked up to vacation care dressed as a lady beetle when nobody else was in costume... i had read the program all wrong. WHOOPS! The little note is a badge thing Meg had made me the following vacation care when she was making play-badges for herself, the other staff and some of the kids. Anyway i best be off to tutor little Nicole.

Happy Scrappy Days

Last night I was bored and turned two "cigar boxes" from Spotlight into themed sticker boxes for my scrap collection... will make finding "baby" and "birthday" stickers that much easier when I go to make cards!
I also tidied up my scrap-table... my cutting mat is absent as it is still sitting over HERE in the computer room after a maths-related prac frenzy where i couldn't find anything with 1cm x 1cm grid lines on it so that i could attempt to solve a stoooooooooooooooopid problem involving a billiard table before i taught it to the extension maths group the following day.



Oh, and the other day I scrapped this little beauty documenting "my current job" ... the first page i've completed for my "welcome to my life - 2008" book.

The Bible Verse Book

It's rather random... there is NO continuity from one page to the next... so... aesthetically, there are no design principles at work with this album.

BUT i love it because it is a work in progress featuring some of my current favourite bible quotes.

It's been awhile...

I haven't written an entry in SO long!
(I'm not too worried, I have it on pretty good authority that nobody actually reads this as nobody i know knows that it exists!!)
I've been soooo busy over the last two months. Sadly, in early June, Ben wrote off his car when we had an accident on the Smithfield Roundabout on our way to Young Adults. :( We were very lucky to get out of there more or less unharmed. Basically, we were going around the roundabout at a normal/slow speed in the wet and we lost control, slid out and somehow ended up hitting a pole and then facing the opposite direction to which we'd been travelling in IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GRASSY PART OF THE ROUNDABOUT. We're pretty lucky we didn't roll and i'm pretty lucky the pole fell where it did and not a few centimetres closer in my direction. There was Vacation Care (we went on excursions to the movies, the zoo and sizzler). I've been really busy with getting my job applications in and have started the interview processes involved with getting a teaching position. There was the jo-vo swap with my buddy Russ (part 2 is still pending Boofhead finding the time to come along) where we had a "cultural exchange" of sorts.
I am currently on my final teaching prac (FOUR WEEKS TO GO!)


Craft-wise, I have made a bazillion of those CD-Fridge-Magnet-Cards for friends lately but keep forgetting to take photos of them before I gift them. ARGH! Haha. I also made a cool round box for my sister-in-law-to-be when she stayed over our place the other night, and again, I forgot to take a photo of it first! I've been participating in the Make Believe Masters competition on Scrap Therapy forums and have found it very challenging but exciting. My favourite task was the calendar. I made a calendar in a BOX for 2009. Something different, anyway. Hehe. I've also been sifting my way through various photos (new & old, mine & mums) and scrapping away happily. I started my little book of random favourite bible verses (it is very random... there's little continuity in this album but i love the quotes and i love making each page different so i really don't CARE!)

Calendar in a Box:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m192/bella_bambina1986/103_0156.jpg
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m192/bella_bambina1986/103_0167.jpg
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m192/bella_bambina1986/103_0169.jpg

Recent Layouts:

Ben & I at our Year 12 Formal, 2003.
Ben's Car after the Crash aka Barry the Magna's Untimely Demise (June 2008)

Zia's Awesome "Reach for a Peach" shirt at the beach in the early 90s

My year 12 Senior Induction Day, 2003

The ROSHC Club

I'm always joking about how our workplace is a lot like the Baby Sitter's Club... i thought i'd give a ROSHC Club Layout a go. Inspiration taken from old school BSC book covers :)

Me & Karina at our Mug (and TREE) ceremony at JCU. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Cards I Made for the July CyberCrop Card Challenge:

(Challenge: Cards must include triangles, hearts & at least one card must be square shaped)

More layouts...

Just some of the layouts I've done recently. I believe my style is really starting to develop. I've come a loooooooong way.

Please leave your comments....

When Two Interests Become One...

Since I was 17 I have loved op-shopping for a bargain. Several times over the years I've actually taken the time to sit down and write reviews on all the op shops I've been to around town (all but one of them... it always looks closed when i drive past). I've gone through phases with my op shopping over the years. I looked for trendy clothes. I looked for random, funky clothes. I looked for party costumes. I looked for retro orange kitchenware. I looked for deer statues. I looked for little treasures incorporating cute little kids with pigtails and strawberries. I looked for books and magazines. I looked for stuff i could use at school in my prac classroom. I looked for stuff i could use at home. I looked for furniture. I've looked (and found) just about anything you could think of in an op shop. At present, i op shop for little bits of bric-a-brac that i can use in my craft. Scrapbooking can get so expensive so it's nice to know there are other options out there.

Today i found & purchased:
2 x small wooden craft "crates" (one plain wood, the other painted black, decorated and gifted to someone named "Juliette" for her birthday in 2003: i will have to sand this one back before i make it mine).
1 x jar full of buttons
5x 80s Style "Queensland" fridge magnets
1 x House Shaped "Home Sweet Home" fridge magnet
1 x Flamingo Pink nylon knitting ribbon (i hadn't seen the stuff in YEARS and all of a sudden it's popping up everywhere i go... my mum recently gave me cushion covers out of the family glory box and they were made of the same stuff but in these wicked fluro colours!)
3 x ladybird maths books circa 1982 (if my interpretation of roman numerals isn't failing me!)
1 x little 21st key
1 x bright yellow belt buckle
2 x really really old books of sheet music
All up this cost approximately $17

Scrapbooking Space

This is where my scrapbooks come to life...

Yes, that is our dining table.

No, Ben doesn't mind... we eat in front of the telly anyway!