Let's Get Shabby!!

YAAAAAY! :D I won the first RAK on Let's Get Shabby.... soooo exciting, I can't wait to play with the pretty bits & pieces that are on their way.

"oh yeah, i have a blog!"

Life has been ridiculously busy lately. No time for scrapping and certainly no time for blogging! Last night I managed to get a coupla layouts completed... one is for Pinkalicious Sketches (which is now moving to monthly challenges, in case you were wondering) so I won't post it up just yet and this other one was just for fun.

The photo is of two of my mates, Karina & Katie, at my Hen's Night last weekend. It is now exactly TWO WEEKS until our big day. Most things are organised, all we're doing now is confirming our details and paying stuff off. My dress is almost ready... they just need to take the hem up a bit more (i was still tripping on the length at the front) and steam clean it and then it's MINE to take home. YIPEE!

5 Days left of the school term. I am soooo glad report cards are over, I never knew just how time-consuming they were. I can't believe I've been full time teaching for a whole semester... it is so cheering to see the changes in my kids in this time. It makes it all worthwhile :)

Anyway, it's a busy saturday so i best be off to run some errands. Take care!

Two Recent Layouts

I was home sick today... eventually the scrapping itch hit and i scrapped one single layout (the one of Ant & I). Here it is, along with another layout I scrapped a few days ago for the first challenge in Scrap Therapy's Make Believe Masters Competition.

I have two lots of exciting scrapping news:

Firstly, I am just one member of a very talented team of girls designing at Pinkalicious Sketches. Read the announcement here.

Secondly, I have been picked to be a DT Member for the month of June over at Scrap Therapy. I am running an INSPIRATION challenge and cannot wait to share it with you all!

RETREAT!

A whole day of scrapping, 7 layouts, 1 collaboratively-made card and a LOT of talking with new friends later and I am absolutely wiped out... however, i am ALSO really hyped up on chocolate sooooOOOooo I am up and unable to sleep! LOL. Here's pictures of just some of what I got up to today:

The girls surprised Annette & I with Bride to Be packs full of lovely, awesome goodies including these little cuties! :D

Thanks ladies!

Annette & I looking a bit worried about what could happen next... What's Lee-Anne got planned?

The little ones... myself, Ant & Annette.

Thankyou for a lovely day :D

Clean Out....RAKs up for Grabs

I have a whole heap of older KaiserCraft, American Crafts & Sassafras Lass Papers i'm keen to pass on to someone else. Some papers are whole 12x12 sheets in good condition, others have bits cut out of them but are still pretty big chunks of paper.

Is anyone interested in a pre-loved paper RAK?

If so, leave a reply about your favourite older paper....

Counting Down!

Scrap Therapy Retreat is THIS COMING WEEKEND!

I've had so much trouble deciding what to bring with me.

I'm almost all packed up.... is this too much stuff?

Yes, I realise I am a local so the whole "packing" thing is not quite as full on for me as it is for the out-of-towners coming along to scrap, but STILL!

Here are some layouts I've managed to squeeze in during the last week and a half. I've been very busy and there's a lot going on here at the moment so this is about as good as it's going to get until the retreat.

Yup, after a busy game of Taboo, Cat & Hannah fell asleep in our loungeroom. But lookout - Graeme is about to squeeze the squeaky purple french guy at them. They will awake, shamed & cranky.

The photos in the following layout are from approximately four years ago. They desperately needed to be scrapped. I think i did alright using pink on a layout of "my boys" and I.

And finally, the Redlynch carpark back when I used to work there and you could tell which staff members were present and accounted for simply by reading our personalised plates.

Have a good week!

Pinkalicious!

Ohhh! I won this fortnight's challenge over at Pinkalicious Sketches! How exciting!!

Thanks Ant!!

If you haven't already checked out Ant's Sketch Blog... you should! There's a new sketch each fortnight and prizes to be won. Lots of awesome layouts are contributed each time too, so heaps of inspiration can be found in the gallery. You will find the blog HERE.

Day Tripping

DID YOU KNOW THAT LACE IS REALLY CHEAP IN ATHERTON?!
I did not know this.
From now on, I will buy lace in Atherton.

Ant, you'll be seeing more of me.


I hope you don't mind! :)

Sneak Peak!

I had my hair & make-up trial today... I actually feel REALLY pretty right now!!

AWARD!

Awww Christine made me blush by giving me (just ME!) this award for my scrapping journey (ahem... this blog is turning about a year old as we speak!) and so I am passing it on... to absolutely everybody in my blog list... recognising that not all the blogs I visit are even ON my blog list. It's too hard to pick favourites!

On a side note, i picked up this beautiful (old! VERY OLD!) "fashion trim" lace from the Salvo's shop this arvo for just 50c.

AND ANOTHER ONE

Woot! I am catching up on the mail (and RAKs) I've been meaning to send so expect them some time soon. Sorry to Ant, Christine & Sarah for the delay. I'm doing a biiiiiiiiiiiiiig scrapping cleanout today... if it's too dodgy to swap it will end up in the craft cupboard at work.
One more layout for you all:

Wishing you a fantastic week and, for those of you to which this applies, HAPPY SCHOOL HOLIDAYS! :)

Two More...

I'm on FIRE!

School Holiday Madness

The LOVE IS Box is the (latest version) of our "guest book box" (we've changed our mind about the guest book about 3 times now).

Here are some entries for my "one year in 60 pages recipe book diary"

Here is a page I've been hanging out to scrap for a while:
I used an embellishment (by Lisa) which came in a pack I received as part of a swap I was supposed to contribute to (long story!).


Here is a layout I was really excited about until i wrecked it with random rhinestones and scribble.... urgh.. i should think before sticking! But a bit of cutting fixed everything....

It's just not 12 x 12 anymore...

I am absolutely obsessed with this red dotty paper from American Craft's new Craft Fair range. It reminds me of the dress i wore to our engagement party.

Look, I've used it more than once in a single weekend!

Here is a photo I scabbed off my cousin's facebook... it is him with his baby girl, his first born only a few weeks ago! They live interstate so this will be as close as i get to this cute little baby for a while.

Isn't she just the cutest? I used a sketch from Antonella's Challenge Blog... Pinkalicious Sketches.

As you can see, I've only been on School Holidays since Friday.

I have gotten a LOT of scrapping done. Most of what I'm showing in this post was created while the boys were LANning in the living room and i was hiding in here, my scraproom, with the music blaring.

The LAN Widow

From midday yesterday until one this morning, my DF had his 2 closest friends over for a LAN (Local Area Network) aka a NERD PARTY.

While this was going on I achieved soooo much because I was trying to stay out of their way. I got 2 loads of washing, the dishes, 2 scrapbooking layouts (not very exciting, can't be bothered sharing them), two beautiful boxes (one for the wedding guest "cards" and the other for recipes) all done AND i painted the back of the "something borrowed something blue" album i started the other day. I managed to get small smudges of paint on the wrong side too. :( I also added a bundle of little stickers and some Bella journaling spots and away we go. All done. I also did the Red Arrow walk then I went over to a friend's place and a bunch of us girls had dinner together and then watched P&P (it was my first time watching it) and I am a newly converted Mr Darcy fan. Came home from Cat's place to the scene above (not much had changed since I'd left several hours earlier other than a few empty pizza boxes). At least it'll give me something to scrap! :)

Today, etc...

Today:

I spent 3 hours at school getting miscellaneous bits of paper ORGANISED...ie; I spent the morning filing.

Ben, Russ & I went up the hill to the Kuranda Candy Kitchen and watched them make wedding lollies.... and now Ben & I are seriously considering getting them too. We also had a nice late lunch together at the only place we could find that hadn't closed its kitchen by 2:30 LOL.

Tonight:

I did some hardcore scrapping... it is now after Midnight so it's not even "tonight" anymore it's "tomorrow."

I realised that I've completely forgotten to mail out those RAK packs... :( I've still got P/T interviews this week so I guess I'll be mailing them during school holidays. I am sooo sorry to those of you who won them and have been waiting patiently to no avail. I have had my head in the clouds as I have been so incredibly busy with work!

Thought I'd share what I scrapped tonight and also the COROLLA layout I scrapped a while ago for the APRIL BW2 Challenge.

25%

Just a quick note to say HELLO and let you know that I'm still ALIVE.

I have been so incredibly busy with work... on top of the usual school stuff I've also been marking tests and assessment pieces and preparing for my very first set of parent teacher interviews which started today. So far it's not nearly as scary as I had anticipated and THERE'S ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT! This term has been a MASSIVE learning curve and I'm constantly learning new things and I still have sooo much to learn but I'm getting there slowly and I'm really enjoying the journey. My kids surprise me all the time and it is truly inspiring. I love my job.

I am 25% of the way through my first full school year!
("Year Sevens... what is 25% as a fraction? ONE QUARTER. YES! That's right! How about as a decimal?")

ANYway, I haven't had time to scrap anything *but* I do have some very exciting scrappy news to share. I'M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THE UPCOMING SCRAP THERAPY SCRAPBOOKING RETREAT. It's only a month away now and and and and and ANT IS COMING.... I'm so excited to finally meet her. YAY! YAYAYAYAYAY!

Graduation

Today was my university graduation ceremony... I wasn't overly enthused about it all... i mean, I completed my course last August so it all seemed a little redundant. BUT ANYWAY:

Hmm... starting to wish I *had* invested in some professional photos today cos the ones I've got are rather dodgy... and I missed photo opportunities with some of my closest mates with all of their grad gear on too. WHOOPS. Oh well.

Here are some of my pics from today... hopefully the ones my aunties took are of better quality. That's my mum, me and 2 of my aunties in the photo above.

This is Carla, Me & Bernadette... we all graduated today and we all teach at the same school this year.

This is Hannah's hubbie Graeme... getting ready for next year's ceremony a little bit early!

This is Melissa M & I. We go to church & young adults group together.

Yes, here I am posing with my Degree. By this stage I'd had about a million pics taken with this thing and I was seriously over it.

Russ even came along to my grad... so here I am with my favourite guys.

And here's one last crazy not-posing-properly photo of me in my Harry Potter get-up.

Busy Weekend

Me, Katie & Meg

Today the old ROSHC girls got together for a lunch at the cafe for the very last time before Meg leaves for Brisbane tomorrow. The layout titled "My Girls" which is a few posts below ended up being my gift to her. It was great to see Amanda and baby Jazzy again too. Then tonight we all went out to say goodbye and, of course, take some awesome photos!

Tomorrow the Young Adults Group is running the service at church as part of Youth Week celebrations. So exciting, can't believe a year's gone by since we last did it. Heaps fun and this time the group is absolutely thriving so it will be awesome! We're having everyone over for lunch afterwards too. Good times.

It's been a tough weekend for other reasons but I'm trying really hard not to think about it too much and focus on the good stuff and hope that the not-so-good-stuff sorts itself out soon.

Around 2009 is 60 Pages...

Well, I wasn't going to participate in a 365 Challenge...

"Too hard" "too much effort" "not enough time" were some of my excuses.

Then, just over a week ago, it started. I was in Spotlight when IT HAPPENED... I came across this cute 60 page recipe book. Recipe book my foot!

I decided I would start scrapping the highlights of the year, as captured in photos, in the 60 pages of this book. This would mean I would be trying a whole bundle of new things.

Firstly, I've never done a "whole year project" before.

Secondly, this is only the second "Really Big Album" Project I've done (the Kitchen Tea Album being the other).

Thirdly, I've never done A4 Sized Scrapping before. I always do squares and they're almost always 12 x 12s.

So uh... what do you think, so far?

Oh yeah and finally, I am trying to use a more "shabby chic" style... with mixed results. I feel like i'm repeating the same basic layout formula on all the pages so if anyone has any shabby scrapping links they'd like to share PLEASE do... i need ideas!

ANYway... the "boys" page shows my favourite boys on the planet (my darling fiance Benny and our best mate Russ), the "in-laws" page shows Ben & I with his siblings and the "Christening" layout is about my baby-2nd-cousin's recent christening.
Thanks for looking :)

A bit more...

Oh... and here is another layout i made tonight.

As you can see there is some hidden journaling and also some photos poking out from behind the featured photos. It was my first attempt at using KRAFT cardstock and i think i pulled it off with this layout but i'm not very happy with my "doodling" that i did on the pink paper... kinda wrecked the look i was going for. :(

Here is a new photo I cannot WAIT to scrap:

It is quite possibly BEST photo of Benny & I for quite a few years now... he's looking gorgeous after all his weight loss (and his goatee!) and I scrubbed up alright too. We took this photo of ourselves last night before we went out for dinner with our mates.