Soooooo.....

OK I suck at blogging, i guess this will just have to be a when i remember/when i can be bothered type thing!

so what has happened since I last blogged?

Another year has come, i have turned another year older, Andrew and I have chosen a house after looking at many, many different display houses and are at the early stages of getting that in progress. The soil test on out land has been done, wait for the results of that, and we just got the colour booklets today so we can start picking the colours of everything from the roof titles, to the walls, carpets, door handles etc. Which is a fun, but daunting task.

Another of my scrap layouts has been accepted for publication and will be in Scrapbooking Memories in may for the Mothers day issue.

My Absense

I have had so much going on lately. So it's no real surprise to see I haven't blogged since October 9th! Eeek!

We have had 2 deaths in the family, one a suicide and the other a stillbirth. There has been lots of upheavil and I think I just needed some time out in my own head.

My computer died the other week too. Hopefully I will get my new one by the end of this week, so i dont have to sit on Andrew's computer again, as for one his chair totally sucks, its uncomfortable, its creaky and Its in the one place in the house that I can't use whenever i wish.

A few quick updates;

I have had 2 of my layouts published in 2 different magazines, 1 in Scrapbook Creations and another in the current Scrapbooking Memories (both Australian Mags)

Katrina is talking lots and lots and lots and did I mentions ever so cute.

This is just a heads up that i am still alive, just in case anyone does read or subscribe to my blog. Hopefully i can get a bit more active with this again.

Some bad and good news

Today I experienced the first moment where I wish i could have sheltered Katrina from something. Mum & I were out for a walk with Katrina in her stroller and we seen a poor little dog run out on to the road in front of as and was hit by a car. The dog died as a result of this right in front of our eyes. Katrina said 'dog sleeping' and mum and myself just said yeah the doggy has lied down to have a sleep. I don't know how much of this incident Katrina would understand and what sort of impression it has left on her, so I just wish i could have kept her from seeing it somehow. I has tears streaming down my face and just felt sick inside at this, especially since the driver stopped way up further for a sec and then continued to drive off without even seeing how the dog was. I know it was an accident, but wow what an awful thing to do by just driving off. I just hope Katrina didn't notice any of the blood we could see coming out of it's mouth, as i can still picture it now. I just hope the little dog is in a nice doggy heaven right now.

Now that that awful stuff is said and done I will say that after awhile of Andrew and I not spending much time together and not communicating all that well as of late we had a big talk and I feel much better about things and feel close to him again. I think the sooner I get a possible job my next door neighbor is trying to set me up for the better, as then we will be able to start building a house on our land and eventually be able to move in and really be a family together not the sort of mis mash that goes on now while we are at my parents. it also helped hearing what's on his mind and him expressing exactly how he feels about me and Katrina, as it's one thing to assume and another to really know. So I am feeling rather positive today except for the little incident earlier.

Also Katrina has used the potty twice today. I started getting her to sit on it a while back, but just wasn't consistent. Today I got her to sit on it in the morning and she did #2s and this afternoon she said she wanted to go on the potty and after a few Min's of playing around she did #1s so hopefully this leads to a proper route of potty training. I know I have to be more consistent every day and hopefully she will get the hang of it all.

Updates

I have been a super bad blogger (i think thats just how I am though).

Katrina and I had been sick for a while and somewhere along the lines I got lazy as far as blogging goes.

On Sep 19th Katrina turned 2 years old. Wow I still can't believe it.

She had 2 little parties. 1 on the weekend before her birthday at her Grandma's House, where we had a barbecue and a cake with family. Grandma got a lovely Dora The Explorer cake and poor Katrina was quite upset that we cut up and ate Dora and Boots.

Then On Tuesday(the day of her birthday) we gave her her presents and had a few friends over and had another cake and I picked a Hi-5 one for her. She was so excited to see them on the cake, so I made sure that it was cut while she wasn't looking this time!

We went to the Royal Melbourne Show yesterday and it was lovely esp since it was Katrina's first time. Katrina really enjoyed the day and Andrew looked after all our stuff while Katrina and I went on a kiddies Train ride. She loved it and was saying chugga, chugga, toot, toot! all the way through. She loved seeing all the animals and she was able to pat some Dogs and a rat. We got bored of the cows easily as they weren't doing too much.

When we got home we opened up the few show bags we got. They were so expensive this year as to the point they really weren't worth getting but you can't go to the show and not get show bags so we got the 2 different Dora show bags and the Hi-5 one. I would have got the wiggles one but it was sold out.

She loves the instruments that were in the Hi-5 one. Our ears might not have the same feeling though as she has been bashing the symbols, rattling the tambourine and shaking the maracas. So good to see her having so much fun though.


I just finished up a PSD Template layout for a freebie. Don't know if anyone will want it though but here it is: Template Download
Please leave me a comment if you download and send me a link via email if you use it too.

Here is a layout I did using the template, though i have altered my layout slightly. Credits can be found here.

Sick and Busy

So I have been suffering the last few days with a cold I must have picked up off Katrina. Katrina also seems to have got the symptoms back so it's been ohhh so fun. Yes that was being sarcastic.

But in the Digi scrap world things have been super busy. I have been working on this weeks Diva Dares Challenge... it's almost ready to post.

I have been a little impatiently waiting for the DSD Grand Re-opening. It's at midnight for me so hopefully Katrina stay asleep and Andrew doesn't bug me for the computer or anything else.

I applied for Shannon Lee Carlson's DT knowing full well I wouldn't be accepted and I wasn't but I received a $20 gift certificate for her designs at PDW what a beautiful soul she is. The best rejection I have ever received. Now I have to make some to to spend it!

DigiScrapDivas (DSD) Grand Re-Opening pt2

So I have been a busy girl scrapping wise. But unfortunately I can't show you what I have been working on until the 1st.

I can tell you it is all with fab stuff which will be avaiable at the DSD Grand Re-Opening on Sep 1st. If you don't know about it yet (where have you been??!)

What You Need to Know:
Be at www.digiscrapdivas.com on Friday Sep 1st at 9am EST. What is the purpose of this 15 straight hours of FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

It will be a fun-filled day of crops, games and prizes as it will be a day to chat it up with each of the new designers. All chats will be held in the OPEN chat room. First chat begins at 9 am eastern and the last chat begins at 11 pm eastern. Please see the home page for a complete listing of all chat events.


Now I have to go and convert Melbourne, Australia time to EST so I can see just how much of it can join in on myself.
[edited to add]: 9a.m. Friday September 1, 2006 in EST converts to
12:00 Midnight Saturday September 2, 2006 in Australia/Melbourne... so looks like Im going to be up half the night at least and suffering the next day!

Should be lots and lots of fun though. Can't wait!

DigiScrapDivas (DSD) Grand Re-Opening

As I am Part of the DSD CT, I have a slight privy to seeing and knowing a little about the Grand re-opening and all I can say is WOW!

Everyone is going to love the kits I have already seen including the September Mega Kit.

All the New and exisiting designers are fab and there are challenges ahoy to come too, not to mention prizes and did I mention lots of Fun!

DSD is such a great freindly place I just love that it's my digi home.

Paper scrapping

Well laziness and Katrina's 2 weeks of being sick has kept me away from blogging.

First she had a bad cold and then it turned into gastro during the second week with bad nappy rash, so I was starting to feel like a nurse. But things have calmed down and she is almost 100% again.

I have been doing a few layouts here and there and I actually had a reason to pull out my paper supplies last night. My aunt was holding her monthly scrap night and I happened to be free to go along. They are all back in the day when you would cut up your photos into little squares and put it back together leaving a small gap to make a mosaic effect. I would love to get through to these people that you sooooo shouldn't do this, but since it's run as a class type thing by a family friend I don't want to turn up once in a blue moon and tell people what and how to scrap especially when most of the girls there are very much beginners and probably feel comfortable getting any sort of assistance.

I had my print outs of 30 or so of my layouts, so at least they got to see my work and see that there are better styles out there. Not that my work is something to be copied or admired more than others but at least it doesn't require mutilation of your photos. I was also helping spread the digi word which is important to me.

It was good to just use paper and photos, cutting matts and paper trimmers for a change. I even opened and used a prima like flower and brad for the centre in an effort to A. Use some supplies and B. Show them a little lumpy bumpy style, even if my layout was pretty crap.

Unwell

Katrina has come down with a cold, so things haven't been fun the last 24 hours. She had some phlegm on her chest and trying to bring it up cause here to throw up all over her sheets and toys in her cot at 3am. She's now got a runny nose and a cough so it looks like I will be busy with looking after her for the next few days.

In scrapping news...

I made it as the Layout of the Day over at Digiscrapdivas for 9th August.

Also if you are up for a challenge check out my current Diva Dares Challenge for layouts with Multiple Photos here

New Look, a Few Kinks (fixed)

I got a little bored with the old look so here's something new.

I used Kathy Moore's In Bloom kit for the title banner and color scheme. Thanks Kathy :)

I do have a little kink in all this though.

the new look required me to change the BG color from white to black. No problem there.

But now i have some weird white border around my banner title image and i can't see anywhere (perhaps I am blind) how to get rid of it or at least make it black so it won't stand out.
If you can help me in this problem I would be super dooper happy.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[edited to add]: Thanks so much to Genevieve over at DSD who helped me out with the problem as you can see it's all fixed now. Thanks ever so much.