Cybercrop this weekend

Its almost time for another Scrap Therapy Cybercrop! Just 2 sleeps to go!

The theme for this month at Scrap Therapy is "And the Oscar Goes to", and all our challenges etc will be movie related! On Sunday night we'll be revealing the new MAN of the month- and I think its going to be a very popular one!! It's not one of my most favourite brands (and I know I am in the minority there!) but I have had some fun creating with it. You'll have to check next week to see what I have done!

Rhythm of Africa

If you are lucky, sometime in your life you will meet someone who you will never forget. This year we all met Josh, a young man from Zambia who came to Australia for life changing surgery. He left his entire family in a the little village of Chibobo and arrived in Australia with nothing but a plastic shopping bag containing a few possessions.

Through St Mary's Anglican Church we were lucky enough to meet him and Thomas, Megan and Josh have become great friends. We spent Christmas with Josh and having him with us on Christmas Day gave the kids a whole different perspective on the true meaning of Christmas. Camping at the beach, catching the ferry to Sorento, playing cricket on a dusty paddock in Lancefield- they were all great adverntures for Josh and the kids. We have had so much fun introducing him to all things Australian, and last night Josh introduced us to his Africa! We went to Werribee Open Range Zoo and went on a safari. Josh couldnt wait to show me "his animals", and afterwards we were able to taste African food and dance to the African beat, and Meg got her hair braided!

Hopefully Josh will be returning to his family in a few weeks. Mum and Dad will see him again when they go to Zambia in 2010 to work in the Chibobo orphange, and I hope that some day we will have a similar opportunity. But even if our paths never cross again, Josh will always be in our hearts and prayers- and I know that the kids lives have been enriched just by the experiences they have shared with Josh.

And speaking of people who enrich our lives....... how beautiful is Eleanor?!!! She turned 6 months old on Christmas Day is quite simply a joy!! Such a happy baby! These photos of her even helped to get the scrapping mojo flowing again after almost 6 weeks of no scrappping! I used the new Kaisercraft Waterberry Range which is still on sale at Scrap Therapy for another week. The first LO I did follows a Step-by-step designed by NicNac, and the last one uses a sketch by the talented Lisa Pate!

Hmmmmmm.......

So much has happened since I last blogged, life has been.... well..... very unexpected. And it makes it hard to go back and blog it all!

A week after my last post Steven had an accident whilst "helping a mate". I got a call at about 8.30am on a Saturday morning to say that Steven had "hurt his hand a bit" and they were waiting for an ambulance. I dropped the kids at Mum's and get to where he was to find him in an ambulance with a cooler bag beside him containing the top third of his index finger which had been completely severed- amputated right off..............at the hospital I walked behind him to xray carrying his finger in a milkshake cup.

Thanks to the awesome surgeons at Royal Melbourne they were able to reattach his finger during 4 hours of microsurgery. He spent 6 days in hospital on a cocktail of drugs and old fashioned leeches, and thankfully 6 weeks later the finger is still there- nice and pink, but without a finger nail at the moment. The pin comes out of the bone in 2 weeks. Steven has done everything right- hasnt drunk alcohol or had any caffeine since it happened, had it elevated in a sling and plastic splint for the first 5 weeks, and so it looks like it might have beaten the 50/50 odds they gave us of it surving the attachment. There are photos, but they are way too gory to share on a public blog!

The past 7 weeks have been hard on everyone. Obviously it was rotten for Steven- he was stuck in hospital for almost a week, came home and couldnt do anything at all- even had to rely on his wife to help him get showered and get his jocks on everyday, had to be "Babysat" coz he couldnt stay home alone with the kids when he was on the heavy pain killers, he couldnt drink all through Christmas and New Year, and he had to have 6 weeks off work. It was also really hard on the kids- the trips backwards and forwards to the hospital, being dumped from one place to the next so I could still work, get to hospital and doctors appointments, the things they couldnt do with Daddy..... And it was hard on me- for all of the above reasons, and for lots of silly little things- like having to be the driver everywhere we went, trying to balance work and hospital, working till 3am to make up for the work I wasnt doing when I was at the hospital, the dressing changes I had to do on the wound everyday, the emotional strain of trying to be wife, mother, daughter-in-law, friend, employee..... But we got through it together as a family! And there are always positives in every situation. In this case I think it was the fact that the kids got to have the entire summer holidays home with Daddy! We still went away for our week at the beach in a tent.

2008 was certainly not our year. It was one of those years we are going to look back on and wonder how we survived it, and marvel at our ability to come out the other side of it.... we've all had our fair share of medical dramas- Tom started it all with his horrible knee injury (his scars havent faded yet and the wound still pops open and gravel comes out from time to time!), then it was my melanoma and 2 surgeries at Peter Macallum Cancer Centre, Meg's ear and adenoid surgery followed by another shocking ear infection in December (a month of antibiotics to clear it) and then Steven's finger! Add to that having to have our beautiful old dog Jess put down, the job insecurities and financial strain of my job and a whole heap of other stuff- and it was one helluva year!

We're not going to dwell on that though- there were some awesome highs that counteract the lows- Steven and I had a wonderful week together in Cairns, my adorable baby niece was born and brought pure joy to the whole family, Domino the beagle became a part time addition to our backyard, and the kids both had wonderful years at school.

And to finish.... please allow me to brag about my wonderful son! At his school Celebration (speech) night Thomas won the Year 5 excellence award for "Oustanding Attitude and Effort". There is one of these medals awarded to a student from each year level 5-12. It topped off an amazing year for Tom- and cemented our belief that changing his school last year was the best move we ever made. We will be eternally grateful that circumstances have allowed us to send Tom to Braemar. So I'll finish this post with just two photos- of Tom receiving his award.

I hope to be a more regular contributor to my blog this year- so check back again soon!

Junior Club Champion

My baby girl rocks!!!!

Tonight we had her Gymnastics Club display and presentation night. Meg took part in the group acrobatic display, and then on her own performed her floor routine and beam routine in front of the entire audience!

When it came time to present the Level 3 awards we were so proud of Meg- she got Bronze on Vault, Silver on Bars and Gold on Beam and Floor! And with those results she was awarded Level 3 champion! She was so excited to receive a trophy! But you should have seen the sock and pure joy on her face at the end of the presentations when she was announced as Junior Club Champion!!! Her overall scores from the competitions this year were the best out of all the Junior girls so was overall Junior Club Champion! So proud of her!!

And now she is rethinking her decision to give up gymnastics! For weeks she has been determined that she was going to stop doing gym at the end of the year and take up a new sport next year. She has our support what ever she decides to do- she has been doing competitive gymnastics for 5 years and has just finished her 3rd year of competing at the state level. Its a lot for an 8 year old! We'll see what the new year brings!

Thanks to everyone who has sent me messages of support following the surgery last week. It went much better than last time- I was given a general anesthetic (sp?) to make sure I didnt wake up! I came out of it with some nausea and stuff but nothing too bad- although I was a little shocked to be told they discovered I have a heart murmur- I think I'm more suprised that it hasnt been picked up before now!! The stitches come out of my face on Friday and let's pray thats the end of that!

I missed the Fire Brigade christmas party on the weekend. Steven took the kids down but I couldnt face doing the whole "appearing in public" thing! I didn't go to cricket but kinda wish I had and just stayed in the car- Tom opened the batting and bowling- took a clean bowled wicket and took a catch in gully!

And you know I cant finish a blog post without some scrapping share and news! The Scrap Therapy Cybercrop is in its last hours... but the MAN of month is on for all of December and this month it's an absolute ripper! The entire range of Kaisercraft- and we're talking hundreds of products are reduced- most by 20% and the Christmas ranges by a massive 30%!!

Happy December

It's December! Can you believe it? I'm so not ready for it to be December!!

The kids took part in the "God's Gang" Christmas service at Church yesterday. Tom was Joseph, and Meg (multi-tasking like any good woman!) played the duel roles of a shepherd and a wise man!! They had lots of fun and it was a great service!

After church we came home and ut up the Christmas tree. I normally dont put it up before December 1st, but if it didnt go up yesterday it might not get up at all this year!

This coming week is going to be a challenging one for me, and one of the reasons I'm not ready for Christmas!! On wednesday I am heding back to Peter McCallum Cancer Centre for some more surgery on my face. It was pointed out to me last night that it is only day surgery and I'll be in and out, which is correct if you look at it only from a calendar/clock point of view. But on the other hand the last round of surgery was "only day surgery" too and look how that one turned out!

The surgery is going to remove the lump and "dog ear" that was left after the last surgery. I will be glad to see that go, and hopefully once it has all healed up my face will look more normal. It's still a little scary to be going into surgery knowing they are going to remove more of my face- and if they dont get it right this time then what happens? It's also a really bad time of year for surgery on your face- 3 weeks out from Christmas- and the time when you see more people than any other time of the year, and the time when the most photos etc are taken, and a time when there is so much going on and so much to be done!

So that's my week to come! Not one I am looking forward to at all! Hopefully I'll be feeling OK by Friday coz its the Scrap Therapy December Cybercrop- starting about 7pm. And speaking of Scrap Therapy.... here is one of the American Craft Modern Albums that I decorated as part of a "Look what the design team did..." challenge. The albums are on sale for 20% for the MAN of the month (sale ends Sunday so make sure you get in quick and order up on the albums, thickers, ribbons, rub-ons, papers etc)

Kinda awesome!!

My DH sent me a link to this site where you are shown a group of photos and you select the one that appeals to you the most. You go through a series of about 15 sets of photos and at the end it gives you your "Visual DNA". It's amazingly accurate !

You can click on the link to read my "visual DNA personality". I'd love to read some of your too!!!

Weekend Catch-up!

Its been a little while since I blogged so here is a catch up!

Two weekends ago we took the Black Forest Guides down to Sandringham to the Guide Scout Sailing Centre. It was a really cold and windy day, but Meg didnt let that stop her! She played with the canoes and paddle boards, and went sailing and for a ride in the Rubber-ducky rescue boat.

This weekend we went up to Maryborough with Tom's school to participate in the RACV Energy Breakthrough competitions. The Breakthrough is an exciting program designed to provide opportunities for students, teachers, parents and local industry to work together to design and construct a vehicle, a machine or innovation in technology that will represent an energy breakthrough. The program encourages participants to examine and use the latest technology while considering its impact on the environment and the way people live locally and globally. Tom's school had teams entered in the Pushcarts, Try-athalon (with human powered vehicles) and the Technology Innovations, which is the team that Tom was part of. They had to build a macro invertebrate that could travel along a trough of water under its own power (no batteries, fossil fuels etc). It also had to be able to transport a full can of soft drink.

Tom was appointed Team Captain which was a huge thrill for him, and made us very proud! He took the responsibility very seriously and did a great job! We tested the spider in the trough for the first time on Friday afternoon and discovered that it wasn't going to make the distance. It was powered by compressed air, but it couldn't hold enough air to make the distance. The team took the disappointment really well and were keen to continue and do their presentation etc.

There were apparently about 35,000 people in attendance for the weekend- and most were camped on 2 ovals! It was the tightest most jam packed camping I have ever done- and was not helped by the hole in our lilo which went flat the minute we blew it up- or the not friendly weather! Check out the clouds in these pics of the tent city on the oval!

There was a carnival set up next to the oval and all the kids had taken spending money so we went over and had some fun in between the rain periods!

On Saturday at midday Tom's team presented their Spider and presentation to a group of judges. They did very well, and then at 2pm they raced their spider in the time trial. There were several halts to the proceedings due to hail storms! Their spider made it further than it had in the trial, but stopped about halfway. Tom and Emma used their initiative and blew it the rest of the way- a technique adopted by many of the teams that followed them!

Despite the weather- Tom is keen to go back next year- and cant wait for his chance to get into the hybrid invention and take part in the 24 hour endurance event!

And now for my Scrapping post.... All of these feature the fantastic American Craft Papers and Thickers which are the MAN of the month at Scrap Therapy this month- and are all 20% off till the end of November!!

Rugby world Cup

Last night we headed into Telstra Dome for the Australia v. England match in the Rugby World Cup. I have to be honest and say that I was expecting Australia to get beaten... but I am very pleased to say that Australia didnt just win..... they whipped England's butt!!!

We had fabulous seats- 5 rows back from the try line on the corner- the seats were so good I was able to get this shot as Laffranchi grounded a try just before the half time break!

And the celebrations that followed immediately afterwards.......And the goal that was kicked to convert the try!!

Love this photo of the giant screen for 2 reasons....

1 because it shows the awesome final score!!! 52 to 4!
and 2 because if you look at the middle of the crowd shot. directly above the letter "A" in "England" you'll see a blue blob! That's me with my Aussie Flag and the kid and Steve are next to me! The boom camera was right above us and filmed our section of the crowd all the time!

Mark your calendars..... it's the Scrap Therapy "Spring Racing Carnival" Cybercrop this weekend! Things will kick off with the first challenge (which I have set this month) about 7pm on Friday 7th. Sunday night we will reveal the new MAN of the month and the November monthly challenges- you'll have to wait till then to see my examples!

A pictorial catch-up

You know your life is just too busy when your husband suggests you go away for a weekend, and you have to look to January for a free weekend! Life is just so hectic right now- and unfortunately the blogging thing has gotten away from me. So here is a quick catch-up (mostly in photos) of the last 3 weeks!

We celebrated Tom's 11th birthday with a night of go-karting and laser wars! So much fun- but so so so hard to photograph!

Tom wanted a V8 supercar mud cake for his birthday- luckily I was able to find one of those edible image things!The next weekend was Sunbury Show. Tom attended his first event as a Junior CFA member, and Meg took part in a gymastics display.

I entered some scrapbooking and cross-stitch in the show and was thrilled to get some ribbons!The Junior cricket season has started back- there goes our Saturday mornings again! All but 1 of the kids Tom played with last year have moved up to the next age group, so Tom is now in a team with a lot of young ones. They have played 2 games so far and are yet to pick up a win, but there was great excitement in the Riley house coz Tom took the very first wicket for his team for the season! (Bit of guilt from Mum coz she wasnt there to see it- I was down at Geelong with all the Scrap Therapy girls!! Got to meet Lee-anne and Danny all the way from Cairns!!! You guys rock!)

Domino came along to cricket this weekend too which kept Meg well entertained- and the kids even gave "3 cheers for the team mascot dog" at the end of the game!

Yesterday I went on a "hike" with Tom's school as part of their middle school activities week. We walked from the Mt Macedon memorial cross all the way back to school! Long walk down the side of the mountain- but it was worth it just for this photo- love the clouds!

And some scrapping to share with you...... I think all of these have been created using My Minds eye which is ther MAN of the month at Scrap Therapy- all 20% off till the next cybercrop (which is on November 7-9th!)

This one's done with Daisy Bucket papers! Happy Birthday for yesterday Bon!!

Scrap Therapy Cybercrop

It's the Scrap Therapy Cybercrop this weekend and it is a rockin one! Our theme for the month is ROCKtober- so lots of music themed challenges and games!


I was responsible for the Card Challenge this month, and set everyone the challenge to create a set of cards using Burt Bacharach song titles or lyrics for the card sentiments! Here's my examples...




Scrap Therapy Cybercrops always run from Friday night till midnight on Sunday so there is plenty of time for you to get your entries in! You'll find all the info in the forum....
http://www.scraptherapy.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5147&start=0


And make sure you pop in on Sunday night... it's super Sunday and we will be revelaing our new MAN of the month, monthly challenges and the winners of our September Challenges.

We now return you to your regular programming.......

School Holiday Catch-up

I love School Holidays! Favourite time of the year- but it means things like Blogging get pushed aside whilst the kids and I have loads of fun!!

So a quick overview of what we did.....

Saturday 20th- Kids went to Phillip Island for 2 nights with my Mum and Dad, Steven went to Fiskville for a CFA Logistics course, and I went to Bendigo to visit Bon and Phil in their new home!!

Tuesday 23rd- We went to see "Space Chimps" at the movies. Only one out of the 4 of us who saw it thought it was good, and it wasnt Steven, Tom or myself!

Thursday 25th- A day at Werribee Zoo with Steve's Mum and Dad.

Friday 26th- A day in Ballarat with my Mum and Dad, and Josh (a young 15 year old from Zambia who is in Australia for 6 months having surgery to repair club feet etc) . We went to the Ballarat Wildlife park and fed the kangaroos, patted a koala and a baby wombat etc.

Saturday 27th- Watched the grandfinal before Tom got violently ill all over the couches just before the start of the final quater!

Sunday 28th- Movies to see Wall-e- kids and Steven enjoyed the movie- I enjoyed the 2/3rds of it that I was awake for! (oops!)

Monday 29th- Kids went to see Beverly Hills Chihauhua with Nanna and Pa.

Tuesday 30th- I "babysat" my beautiful niece whilst Tess, Mum and Dad attended a very sad funeral.

Wednesday 1st- Mum, Tom and I drove Meg to Ocean Grove for a 3 day Girl Guide Jamborella. Then we played mini-golf beofre heading in to the city to see V8Xtra being filmed at Channel 7. I had managed to get hold of 4 tickets to be in the audience for the filming of the Bathurst special, but poor Steven got sick and couldnt come, so Mum filled in for him. Tom says it was the higlight of his holidays! Any wonder when you see these photos!

With Rick Kelly

Tom and Craig Lowndes

With Jim Richards Tom and Dad with the Peter Brock Trophy
With host of V8Xtra- Neil Crompton

Tom and I in the audience Jim Richards, Greg Murphy, Craig Lowndes and Larry Perkins
Allan Moffat, Rick Kelly, Dick Johnson and Mark Skaife
Mark SKaife signing Tom's "Official Bathurst Guide" Finding the page for Greg Murphy to sign!

Proud Mummy bragging.....

The postman has just been and brought Tom's school report (coz he forgot to collect it on Friday!) and his NAP test results!

His school report was awesome! He received 3 scores of 1 (Very High) for his attitude and effort, and 8 scores of 2 (high). He realy wanted to get no 3's this time (even though 3 was perfectly acceptable to us!). For academic code he received 4 Very Highs, 5 Highs and 2 Mediums! This is an improvement on the last interim report and we were really happy with the last one- so you can imagine how over the moon we are!!

And the NAP test report... well..... its too hard to explain to anyone who doesnt have a NAP test result sheet to look at, but for the teachers who might read my blog, or parents who have kids in years 3, 5, 7 or 9, you'll know what it means! Tom kicked butt!

For reading Tom is in the middle of band 7, for writing he is right on the dividing line between band 5 and 6, for spelling he is the lower 3rd of band 8, for grammar and punctuation he is also in the lower 3rd of and 8, and for Numeracy he is at the very top of the chart- at the top of band 8! We have been totally blown away by his results!! The only one where he wasn't well above the band that shows the range of achievement for the middle 60% of year 5r students in Australia was the writing one.

I so wish he was here right now so I squeeze him tight and tell him how incredibly proud I am of him right now! (Maybe I need to scrap a LO about it instead to show him when he gets home!)

My little China Girl

How cute is she?!!!


It was international day at school yesterday, so Meg went dressed as a little China girl! As I was taking photos I was already planning this LO in my head because I knew the colours were perfect for a challenge at a new Blog that Belinda is now on the DT for! I havent scrapped a double LO in ages!

So excited- school holidays start tomorrow afternoon! Tom will bring home another interim school report. I love reading his reports coz they are always fabulous! LOL! He bought one home last week but it was actually a reprint of the one from a month or so ago because they discovered the IT scores hadnt gone on- we were glad they reprinted coz Tom got "Very High" and "1" for effort- it doesnt get any better than that! LOL! We're very proud of him!

That's it for now- very quick update wasnt it? LOL! I have to run and make some cards for a step-by-step this weekend at Scrap Therapy! I was very organised and made a set last weekend, got all the photos uploaded and instructions typed up ready to go. Then I decided I really really liked this set so thought I would try my hand at submitting them to Stamping and Papercraft Magazine. Last night I found an email saying they want to have a closer look at them! How exciting!! So now I have to come up with something else marvellous for my Scrap Therapy friends before tomorrow night! Mmm..... wonder if my order of new thickers and American Craft Cardstock will arrive by then?

More Surgery for Megan

Yesterday Meg underwent her 3rd Surgery! This time it was another round of ear tubes (grommits), removal of adnenoids (again!) and nose cauterization (spelling?!!). There wasnt much time to get nervous about it- we only saw the surgeon on Monday night and she was operated on less than 3 days later!

She was operated on at Freemasons/Epworth hospital and was 2nd on the list for the afternoon surgery. There was another little 8 year old girl getting ear tubes as well, and she had her pink nintendo so Meg and her spent the time before surgery chatting to each other on their nintendos!


They have changed things a little at the Freemason's since the last surgery 2 years ago, and they now get the kids changed into hospital gowns instead of operating on them in their PJs. Meg wasnt too impressed with the gowns that do up at the back!


The surgery went well, but she woke up in recovery in a huge amount of pain. Meg rarely complains about pain, and almost never cries in pain, so seeing her soooooo upset was really hard to deal with. The pain relief meds they decided to give her were out of date by 2 days so poor Meg had to wait for more to be sent up. Even getting the camera out couldnt draw a smile out of her.

We eventually got back to the ward and got some food and drink into her. She started to perk up a bit, but kept losing all her colour and going white, so we had to stay in the ward until 6pm. Her little friend she had made was long gone- but she was happy to just sit in the chair, and eventually did some colouring. We knew she was picking up when she started being cheeky again!


Thankfully Meg had a good nights sleep last night. Her nose has been running a lot and she is sick of wiping it, but she has had to turn the TV down coz its too loud- so the surgery has been a success! Thank Goodness for that

Happy Father's Day....

Isn't time spent together as a family just the BEST time? Here's a super quick overview of our day- and photos of our Dads, Dad's with their Grandkids etc!



Yesterday for Father's Day we had breakfast together and the kids gave Daddy his presents.

Lunch was a yummy roast with Steve's Dad.


And Dinner was with my Dad.

Last night was "Super Sunday" at Scrap Therapy- and we revealed the new MAN of the month for September- Sassafras Lass. We have the BRAND NEW- just released CHA ranges of the Sass Lass- I'm talking the ones that were only released in the USA last week! Lee-anne had them pre-ordered and airfreighted in- and the entire range is on sale for the month of September! I cant beleive I was one of the first people in Australia to play with the amazingly yummy "Serendipity- Hog Heaven" Range!

This is a LO I did for Allie's blind scrapping challenge

And here is my Calendar Class......

Last weekend was one of those weekends where my camera and my photographic subjects just seemed to click and I got loads of wonderful photos!!

I cant help but share lots of them with you!I'm starting with 2 out of a series of about 15 that I took of Tom and Eleanor bonding in the most beautiful way! She was full of smiles and giggles for him- these two shots make me giggle out loud everytime I look at them!

And then there is are all these shots of my gorgeous family.

Daisy Bucket Month at Scrap Therapy is drawing to a close... there are less than 48 hours to get your new DB stock at a discounted price! Here are some more of my Daisy Bucket creations!

Really quickly....

Running out the door in 2 secs to work! Dont fall over in shock but Yes, I have been working every single day this week! LOL! It's a one week casual job working as a "Competition Hostess" for the Father's Day competition at a nearby Shopping Centre. This is not going to be a new career direction for me- being a barrell girl is just not intellectually stimulating enough for me, but it'll give us a few spare dollars for the school holidays coming up so I'm not going to complain!

It's Cybercrop weekend at Scrap Therapy- things kick off about 6.30pm tonight so please come and play with us!
http://www.scraptherapy.com.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=147
There will be 4 grown-up challenges, a junior challenge, bingo, blind scrapping.... and on Sunday night we are going to reveal our new MAN of the month! I have to be very careful what I say coz I dont want to ruin the surprise..... but I can tell you the products are fabulous! I got a pizza box full of them last night and I couldn't stop touching and feeling and jumping up and down! What was more exciting was that it had been dispatched from Cairns less than 24 hours prior- how quick was that?!!! AND the order contained my yummy new thickers- oh my goodness- the tinsel thickers are to die for!!!!

Anyway, I promise to update this weekend with some of the fabulous photos I took of my family on our picnic last weekend! Till then.... "Would you like to enter our Free Fathers day competition to win a 5 night holiday for 2 people on the Gold Coast, including return airfares?"!!!!!!

They have arrived!!!

The 2 scrapping products I have been waiting so patiently for and saving my scrapping dollars for are now in stock at Scrap Therapy!!

The Fiskars scalloped punch, and the latest releases of American Craft Thickers including the new Tinsel foil range!!!!!! Get in quick coz they are quite literally flying out the door!!!

Bad Blogger

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... I know.... I'm a bad blogger!

There is no point dwelling on the past so I'm not going to try and go back and fill you in on several weeks worth of happenings! Instead I'll catch you up on the weeekend just gone and we'll move on from there!

Friday was Tom's first "Snow Day" since starting at Braemar- we were advised Thursday night that school would be cancelled on Friday due to predicted snow falls, and it was a good thing they did as Woodend and Macedon woke to a covering of snow!

Saturday saw Meg go up to Gisborne for a Guide Day, whilst Tom and I headed to Altona for some indoor rock climbing with Scouts. Tom did really well! It wasnt easy for him but he kept at it and showed a lot of courage to get almost to the very top of the yellow wall! I have blisters from Belaying for so many kids!

Saturday night Meg and I made a cake for Tess's birthday. I left Meg in charge of the electric beaters whilst I turned around to line the cake pan. This is what happened when Meg let go of the beaters!!!!

Luckily the cake turned out just fine!

Look at my beautiful niece! Isnt she just the sweetest thing? And dont they grow up too fast?! She is 2 months old today- time just seems to fly!

In scrapping news..... Scrap Therapy has experienced a few technical hiccups this weekend! It looks like things are back to normal now- so pop back in and say hi and let us know we havent lost you!

Daisy bucket month is still going full steam ahead and we are so excited to be one of the first stores in the world to have all the new DB releases!!

I made this card set and the altered tin using Daisy Bucket papers and ribbons!

And you should all be very afraid...... the new thickers are about to hit the shelves at Scrap Therapy! They are going to go sooooooo quickly, so dont miss your chance to get your hands on some yummy new ones! I promise to post a link here as soon as they are available!

No broken Bones!! Phew!!

Last night was Rollerblading night for Hume Group Scouts, to celebrate World Scout Day. Steven decided we ALL should skate! The skating bit wasnt an issue for me... been there, done that.... my concern was the potential broken bones which I could inflict on myself (again.... been there....done that!)

The great news is that no bones were broken in the filming of these pictures!

Tom went extremely well prepared with his full safety kit of helmet, knee pads, elbow pads etc. He took a couple of spills, but not too many and after a few goes around holding the edge he was confident enough to skate on his own- which they tell me was a huge progression from his attempts at rollerblading last year!

For someone who spends so much time balancing on such a thin piece of timber as a balance beam, Meg didnt take so well to the blades! She spent a large amount of time on the floor and is going to have some spectacular bruises! But she never gave up! Everytime she went down she was straight back up again! And in the end she had a ball!

It was a great night, and I am very pleased that we all made it back in one piece seeing as Bon and I fly to Sydney tomorrow morning! Steven had instructions of where everything was to pack for me if I got held up with broken bones in hospital! The only real injury sustained was a very corked thigh which occured "behind play" and involved my thigh and the metal edge of a bench seat! The bruising hasnt come out yet- but I think its gonna be a whopper when it does!

Victorian State Pennant 2008

Yesterday Meg and her team competed at the Stste Pennant Zone Qualifications. The top 3 teams went though to the finals next weekend. The team didnt make it through, and we didnt expect them to, but Meg had another fabulous competition! She nailed beam, had great floor and bar routines, but most importantly- she had the courage to attempt the Front Sault vault... AND.... she landed them both!!

The photos arent great- but they prove she did it! And I think the smiles tell the whole story!

There was relief all around when the top 3 teams were announced.... relief for me because it means I wont miss seeing my baby compete in State finals as I'll be in Sydney next weekend, relief for Steven coz it means he doesnt have to undergo a crash course in gymnastics hair styling if Mum wasnt here to do it, and relief for Meg because it means she can go to the Scout rollerblading with Tom on Wednesday night (I had to have the chat with her that if they made it through she wouldnt be able to go rollerblading just in case she broke a bone- it would put the whole team out of state finals!)

And that now completes the 2008 competition season!! Now I have to scrap the photos! LOL!

Tom didnt come to the gymnastics yesterday as he was playing the role of Joseph in the church play! He had also spent hours and hours putting together a slide show presentation fo the song "remember the Lord". Tom and I had so much fun taking the photos for the "shower" line!

Steven and Meg and I went along to the rehersal on Saturday afternoon so we could see the play, and Bo and Great Granny were at Church yesterday to see it all! And it was a great thrill for Tom becuase he went for his first ever ride in Bo's very old 1969 (? could be a year or two out on that!) Black Ford Fairlane!!

New month, new theme, new challenges

I cant believe its August already!!!

And being the 1st day of the month I have been very busy updating everything at Scrap Therapy! Our theme for August is "Everything Old is New again" and I set the monthly challenge. You need to create a LO that shows the passing of time, and uses random alphabets in the title. Entries are due last day of August.

Here is my example

We are cybercropping tonight and all 4 challenges are up! You can find an overview of everything that is going on here. I was responsible for the sketch challenge tonight- and here is my example (that's me on the sitting on the floor!).

And finally- my example from Wednesday night's blind scrap!

Cybercropping this weekend

Tomorrow night is cybercrop night at Scrap Therapy! The clues are up, and the first challenge will go up about 6.30pm for the Junior Scrappers, and 7pm for the adults! The theme for the month will be revealed tomorrow morning (as soon as I get up and have coffee in my hand!).

I hosted my blind scrap last night and it was loads of fun! Lots of people playing and chatting and giggling! The gallery will be opened tomorrow night for everyone to upload their entries, so I cant show you mine yet! But if you want to have a go... here are the instructions... (without the 23 pages of chat!)
* Cut your background patterned paper to 29cm x 29cm and adhere in the centre of your Cardstock.
* Use a pen to doodle a border around the outside of the paper.
* Take you strip of paper (7cm x 30cm) and alter the 2 long edges so they are no longer straight. (Hint- tearing, distressing, decorative scissors.....)
* Adhere the strip to your page approx 1/3rd of the way up from the lower edge.
* Distress the edges of your photo and adhere to your page, overlapping the strip.
* Doodle a border around the photo.
* Stamp 3 images around the top left corner of your photo, and 3 images around the bottom right corner of your photo.
* Stamp the same image 6 times onto co-ordinating scraps of paper and cut the images out.
* Apply a button or brad to the centre of the cut out images.
* Adhere the stamped images to your LO - near or on top of the stamped images, using foam tape or pop up glue dots.
* Add a title in the bottom right hand corner. Add some journalling on the page.
* Sit back and admire your page

Big excitment on Tuesday night when Tom came home from cubs! He was presented with his Level 2 World Friendship badge, his "Their service our heritage" badge and his Gold Boomerang badge!! All he has to do now is send an email with an attachment to his leader and he will have completed his Level 2 Info Tech Badge- and therefore completed his Grey Wolf Award!! We are so proud of him!

We are also very proud of Moo! We found out on Monday night that she finished 3rd overall in the individual scores at the competition on the weekend! We dont normally get the individual placings as its a team event- but it was such a huge achievement the coach had to share! And not only did she finish 3rd overall- she was actually 2nd on beam! She placed 4th on Bars, 5th on vault (after all the stress and tears) and 7th on Floor!!! It has done her confidence the world of good and she landed all her front saults on Monday night! She is going to train again on Saturday morning with the front saults and then maybe she'll be willing to try front saults at State Pennant on Sunday!

Our little Gymnast!

Meg had another gymnastics competition today and it turned out to be a fabulous comp for her!!

There are only 3 in the team, which means that every score has to count (normally there are 4 or 5 in a team and you can drop the 2 worst scores). Meg really stepped up today and was really really good! Her Bars routine was excellent, her beam was awesome and she didnt fall off after her handstand (check out the photo!), her vault was awesome (Vault was a real worry coz they wanted to change her vault from a handstand flat back to a front sault coz of the higher degree of difficulty/start score. Meg didnt want to do it coz she doesnt always land the front sault and if she cant do it perfectly she wont do it!). There have been tears over it, and in the end we left it to the coach and Meg to decide. She warmed up the front sault, but decided in the end to do the flat back- and it was perfect! Meg tells me her floor routine was the "least best thing' for the competition- and that was only coz she had a little shuffle after her cartwheel.

All the gymnasts received a participation medal, and then there were ribbons for each apparatus, and Gold, silver and bronze medals for overall team scores. I was just hoping that the girls would get just one ribbon ( we didnt have high hopes coz something went wrong for one of the other girls in the team for each apparatus and those scores had to count). You could have knocked us over with a feather when Sunbury won Vault, and got 3rd on both Beam and Bars!!

We got home from the competition just in time for Tom to head off on another 2 hour hike! There are 4 Cubs who are all almost finished their Grey Wolf awards (the peak achievement for cubs), and each of them needs to lead a 2 hour hike for their pack! This was the 3rd one they have done in 3 weeks. Tom held his hike at Brimbank Park last weekend and it went really well! The rain held off and they all came home in one piece!! Tom has just home from todays hike and had had to strip off all his muddy clothes at the back door and then scrub himself in the shower!!

Last weekend was Dad's birthday and we went to the Australian Sports Museum at the MCG. It was fabulous! We spent about 3 hours there and still didnt manage to read and see everything! Our beautiful niece Eleanor (and her beautiful Mummy and Daddy) came too- and Eleanor was the perfect baby! You wouldnt have even known she was there if it wasnt for my 2 kids arguing over whose turn it was to push her pram!!

And for my scrapping posts....... It is all happening over at Scrap Therapy! Lee-anne has made lots of changes since she took over ownership of the shop, and there is going to be lots of new stock filling the shop soon! All the new Kaisercraft is already there! Lee-anne has now set up an e-parcel account so we can track our orders, and there is even an insurance option available for your orders.

Last night I handed over my "Make Believe Master" crown to Mandy who was voted this years winner! Carol came in 2nd place and Deb came third! We had a bit of a cyberparty to celebrate with some challenges. My challenge was to create a LO featuring some of the CHA trends that I have keeping everyone updated with! My sample used Mushrooms, Owls and Butterflies! I will be hosting a Blind Scrap on Wednesday night so I hope some of you scrappers will pop in and have a look- and next weekend is the monthly cybercrop!!

I have also scrapped some Layouts for the Scrap of Faith Blog.


And this LO was for a challenge set by Nic at LSBS- to scrap a LO for National Tree Day, and to use something recycled. I finally scraped these photos of Tom planting trees from 2006!

And this LO was a "just for me" LO- not for any challenge, or DT role! I should scrap more LOs just for me I think!!

And finally.... a big plug and shout out for my friend Nic! Nicole and her business partner have made the tough decision to shut the doors of their wholesale business Acacia Paper Craft. To say goodbye and clear the stock they have gone public- both online and at their premises, with wholesale prices or below to everyone! The address is on the website if you live in NSW and want to go in person, otherwise register and order online!

A Tag to share......

I have been awarded the Brilliante Webblog award by 3 wonderfully talented and beautiful women! Julie, Helen and Carol.

Who gets the “Brilliante Webblog Award“?
Websites and blogs of your choice for their designs that are especially noteworthy.
Here are the Award Rules:
1. The winner can take the logo
2. Place a link to the person that sent you the award
3. Give the Award to at least 7 other Scrapbooking-Blogs, which by its currency,the issues of choice and for their designs are especially noteworthy
4. Put a link to these sites on your Blog.
5. Write a comment on their Blogs that they’ve won an Award.

So I am going to share the award with a few Scrap Therapy bloggers who have recently shared their Blog addresses with us!

Maria
Julie
Bec
Laura
Lea
Tania
Kelly