Beach Afternoon

Well, this week has unfolded much better (i am whispering this so as not to jinx myself) after last weekend's fiasco!

Happy Australia Day to all ... and what a gorgeous day it was!

I love this photo of the kids (my niece Jessica, my nephew Jacob & my Blake)



As Mum & Dad are preparing to set out travelling for 12 months (to WA & back), this will be the longest our family has ever been apart. We all live within 5 minutes of each other and see each other or talk on the phone on a daily basis. Now this might sound a little "too close for comfort" for some people, but we are just a very close family that enjoy each other's company ... just like friends really! The 12 months apart will be a huge adjustment for Mum & Dad not seeing the grandkids (and vice versa); so, i have been thinking of a little project to send along with them on their journey.

Yesterday afternoon Karen and I bundled up the kids and spent a couple of hours at Newcastle Beach taking some pics for "the project" ...

Here are some of my favourites:









Off to another exciting family adventure today ... will be back to share some more pics!

Have a great weekend :O)

JULIE x

Things can only get better ...

cause they couldn't get any worse !!

I'm sure last Friday was "Friday the 13th" ... if it wasn't it should have been !!

We were meant to leave early on Friday to go to Port Macquarie for a few days with friends ... but ... due to dramas with flooding through the roof of a house and internal ceilings collapsing (not my house), waiting for the SES and re-arranging occupants we didn't get away until after 5pm ... a very stressful day ...

We travelled to Bulladelah and stopped for tea and then set out again for Port Macquarie ... well ... 9klms out of Bulladelah our 4wd broke down (with the van on the back)! Oh Joy! The temp gauge was on H and steam was pouring from under the bonnet and making the sound of a whistling kettle ... eek ! Not to mention one husband blowing steam but his words didn't sound like a whistling kettle they sounded more like something that rhymes with 'truck' !?#@!!

We phoned and arranged help, including our friends (who were already at Port Macquarie) and come back to take our van ...

What a scary experience ... stuck on the side of the Pacific Highway with very little space between you and the cars, trucks and otherwise flying by and nowhere to go ... then when night came and so did the expanding truck population, this doubled the fear factor. Everything seems to shake as they thunder past ... the word "sitting duck" comes to mind ... it was awful.

Well after nearly 5 hours and the amazing effort of 'mechanics by torchlight' (my DH, Dad and our friends), we were up & going but only running at half mast!

The consensis was that we could make it to Port Mac ok and get the 4wd looked at on Sat morning cause at this stage it was thought to be a faulty thermostat (which had now been removed) ... learnt something new - cars can run without a thermostat!

However, it wasn't to be that simple ... the car overheated again at Kew but a couple of litres of water later we got to our destination. A trip that would normally take 3 hours took approx 8! Oh boy ... it was a long night!

Saturday we took the car to a local mechanic to find out that there was a lot more wrong than first anticipated .... The head was cracked on the motor ... double eeek !

Well the long & the short of it is that our 4wd has stayed on Port Mac to be fixed, we left our van behind to be towed by our friends when they come home and we hired a car to bring us home cause DH had to be back at work ...

We will go back up next weekend to pick up our fixed vehicle and will be about $4000 poorer on return [sigh] ... oh well ... as they say "sh*t happens" !!

On to a better topic ... scrapbooking :O)

Last night was my "For the Boys" online workshop over at SCRAPBOOKnBITS. The girls were a great bunch and here are the 2 LO's we created.




Well, this weekend DH is working and i am hoping to have a quite weekend at home getting my next SnB project ready for my new monthly 'Scrap your Stash' challenge (commencing in February) ... hope you can pop in & join us!!

Keep Smiling :O)
JULIE x

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN !

Happy Birthday to my sister Karen!
(this is a pic of her with her two little munchkins)



On Friday night i took her out to dinner and then to the movies to see 27 DRESSES .... great chic flick! We had a great night.

... i made her this gift ....



An album (Piggy Tales Hide & Seek Album) i scrapped with Jacob's baby photos.
Jacob is three and a half and Karen still hasn't had a chance to do a baby album for him so i thought this would be a great gift. And the 'hide & seek' album was perfect with its' little hidden flap sections etc ... here are some of the other pages.









I also got to do a quick LO with my new scrummy LOVE ELSIE ...



I love this photo of Blake taken recently at Wildlife World (Darling Harbour) in the butterfly enclosure.

And whilst i am sharing ... this is a LO i done in October last year which was accepted to be published ... but ... i got cold feet and never sent it in :O(
(won't dare tell Blake i never sent it cause he was quite excited about having his pic in a mag) ... never mind, maybe next time.



The theme behind this LO was Blake thinking he was soooo cool at the snow and had become so confident with his snow skiing that he was reluctant to attend the lessons we had booked for him cause "Mum, i can ski ..."!


Hope you all had a great weekend.

Talk soon,
JULIE x

IT'S LIKE A DRUG ...

VERY ADDICTIVE ... GOT TO HAVE IT ... CAN'T DO WITHOUT IT ....

the new LOVE ELSIE & TIM HOLTZ GRUNGEBOARD that has arrived at SCRAPBOOKnBITS !!
Just gorgeous, so addictive ... BEWARE ... you can't stop at one!!!

Yep ... this is what i'll be doing this weekend




I have been very busy over the past few days madly scrapping & creating for my new workshop at the end of January FOR THE BOYS.


There are sooo many beautiful girl projects with pretty flowers, bling & butterflies etc ... this one is 'FOR THE BOYS' !! We will be creating 2 LO's with the MME range - yummy papers, titles & quote cards. The kit also includes chipboard letters & rub-ons. The SnB kit & class is $15 - GREAT VALUE!!
Click HERE to eyespy ... Hope you can join us!!

On the homefront ... things are just back to the normal daily routine; however, i am sooo enjoying the school holidays. I love school holidays. No routines, no lunches, no uniforms, no homework etc etc ... just have to organise myself! I have managed to have a few hours here and there at home and will be taking a few days off over the next few weeks ... to do some extra family/school hol activities with Blake.

Last weekend we had a lovely time out boating. Blake is learning to kneeboard and loves it ... BUT ... Sunday he was hammered by SeaLice and come Sunday night his whole torso was covered in large red itchy welts ... oh boy, they were everywhere. They were particularly bad on all of his scar areas (Blake had a series of operations approx 18mths ago and has many large & small scars over his tummy). Because the scars are very tissuey (sp?) and soft the SeaLice seemed to have attacked these areas more which has caused a lot of inflammation and itchy, itchy, ITCHY!!!
It brings back memories of the Chicken Pox ... many soothing baths, lots of creams & potions and he has been taking antihystamines (sp?) and as of yesterday they have really settled down and starting to diminish .... Oh the Joys!!!

On a different note ... my last post i was tagged to do the '7 Random Things' about me with a thanks to Michelle for tagging me, i have since realised that i was also tagged by Lexie and just wanted to say 'Thanks' for including me too!

Won't ramble on anymore ...

Talk soon ... Keep Smiling :O)

JULIE x

I've Been Tagged :O)

Thanks Michelle!

Haven't done the 'tagged' thing for a while ... here's a bit of fun!

The rules of the game:
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Ok, here goes...7 Random facts about me!

1) Growing up i maintained that i was never getting married and never having children ... have done both once ... it's all good - still happily married and love my guys to bits (DH - Mark & Blake - 10 yrs old)!!
2) My husband always teases that i drive too slow ... but ... i have never been booked for speeding (touch wood!!) and that is more that i can say for him !! LOL!
3) I have had 3 major goals in life (1 childhood dream & 2 adult life goals) ... childhood dream is to go to Disneyland/America - we are booked to fly out for 3 weeks on 27th Sept ... adult goals to own my own business - that became effected in Oct 2007 ... the other is to buy a brand new 3 series BMW - will have to keep working towards this one!
4) I am absolutely, totally, extremely mousephoebic sp?. Not real fond of frogs either but totally don't do mice!!! arghhh!!
5) I have never had any broken bones ... have had a few close calls ... but no breaks to date!
6) I have been skydiving (tandem) ... rather scary landing (this was one of those close calls mentioned in No. 6) ... other than the landing he he! it was an awesome amazing unreal experience and the biggest adrenalin rush i have ever had in my whole life. I would recommend to anyone to at least try it once!
7) Thinking, Thinking, Thinking of one last piece of trivial information .... my favourite number is 8 (pinched this one off Michelle LOL!)

I tag:

1) Karen G
2) Jane
3) Leeanne
4) Kelley
5) Cherie
6) Megan
7) Karen D

Happy Holidays!
JULIE x

Here's Cheers for a Happy New Year!

Well ... here we are ... 2008 !!
I was mentioning to friends last night that it only seems like 2 - 3 years ago when we were all gearing up for the big year 2000 with the mad hype of the Y2K bug, and the threat of computers crashing, planes falling from the sky etc. etc. How time flies !!
We had a lovely New Years Eve with many friends coming to our house for the annual "Nigel No Friends New Years Eve Party" ... this being an invitation for all those with no where else to go ... but we've all come to the conclusion that considering there are so many of us friends that gathered to celebrate New Years ... we musn't be "Nigel's" after all ... he he !!
Hope you had lots of fun and celebrations; and 2008 brings you wonderful things along with all you have planned for the coming year!!
JULIE x

ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE

A beautiful sunny day at 'The Bay' (Port Stephens) ... it really felt like Christmas Holidays!!



Yesterday, with a few friends, we took the 4WD's onto Birubi Beach for the day.

The men done some fishing ...







the kids swam, dug holes & made sandcastles ...







the girls (that being the wives/mums) got to chatter & relax ... perfect!

Took lots of great photos ... should make for a good excuse to do some scrapping over the next few days before i go back to work!!

Hope everyone has recovered from Christmas!

JULIE x

BOXING DAY BIRTHDAY

Today is my niece Jessica's Birthday ... a big 10 year old!





It only seems like yesterday that we had celebrated Christmas Day and were all staying at mum's when all the excitement began in the wee hours of Boxing Day ... a bit of a suprise cause she came 2 weeks early ... i think it was the craving of milk & choc chip cookies which Karen feasted on at some ungodly hour of the night that done the trick !! (which i happen to have a photo of ... he he!)

Anyway, it's a bit tuff celebrating your Birthday on Boxing Day 'cause everyone is exhausted from all the preparations & celebrations of Christmas Day but our family always makes an effort to keep them very seperate so it feels just as special as a birthday on any other day of the year ....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS JESSICA !!!

ALL OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR!

There's nothing like the excitement of Christmas (or the madness leading up to it!!).

Blake initially woke at 3am (yes, that is not a typo), came into our room and announced that Santa had been .... i do love the excitement of kids at Christmas but 3am is just a little bit early! I told him to hop into our bed and go back to sleep just for a few more hours .... after the usual "i can't go back to sleep" and the tossing and turning, he did go back to sleep until 5am!!!!

So up we got ....




Santa excelled again this year and the wish list was fulfilled!

We had a great day ... love doing the family thing ... ate way too much food ... and crawled into bed exhausted at about 9.30am last night.

Mark was rostered for daywork today and Blake & I had one of those much needed "chill out" days ... this morning we had birthday cake for breakfast with my niece and then spent the rest of the day at home ... needless to say Blake was totally occupied with all the new toys etc which means i had the plesure of laying on the lounge to watch a dvd (chrissy present) and didn't do much else! Love it!!

Hope Santa was good to you all and Boxing Day was relaxing.

Now to the next celebration of farwelling 2007 and welcoming a happy & healthy 2008!

JULIE x

t'was the week before Christmas ....

I am soooo disorganised this Christmas!
Really looking forward to Xmas Day ('cause i love Chrissy and all) but i just can't get motivated.
It may have a little bit to do with our rediculously busy social calendar (not complaining ... but just a little too chaotic at the moment)!

2 Weekends ago we had 4 Christmas Parties and 1 Birthday Party, last weekend was finishing off the Christmas shopping ... Sunday night we finally put up the Christmas tree (which still doesn't have any decorations on it - certainly hope to have that task accomplished by Christmas Eve!!); in between all of that we have had school Christmas Concert and farewell for our principal. Yesterday i had a Hearing at Newcastle for work, back to the office then back to Newcastle in the afternoon, Yr 6 farewell in the afternoon/evening and DH had his work party .... 3 Christmas social gatherings this weekend ... did i mention that i've been feeling a little tired lately?? But it is all good - i do love Christmas, i do love Christmas, i do love Christmas ...... !!

In all this busyness, i have had no time for scrapbooking :O( but do have a few pics from Blake's Christmas (School) Concert to share (it was a bit dark in the auditorium which made it a bit tricky!).

This group photo is Blake and the main group of his best mates. To the left is our retiring principal (who is a lovely man and will be sadly missed) ... to the right is Blake's teacher from this year - Mrs Mac (as the kids affectionately call her) came to our school this year but is moving on to a new school next year ... Blake has had a fabulous year with this great lady and i think i speak for most parents when i say we were blessed to have the year with her - Blake was quite upset this afternoon and has been for the past few weeks dwelling on the fact that it just won't be the same without Mrs Mac as school next year (even though she probably wouldn't have been his teacher anyway).




Cheeky buggers!




This photo is a little blurry but it says a lot about a principal happy to sit on the stage after the concert and have a chat with the boys.




I'm frazzled and off to bed .... hopefully will be back in the next day or so to share a pic of our decorated Christmas Tree !!

Cheers,
JULIE x

AWESOME !!

It is 1.30am and i have just returned home from a night in the vineyards at the Elton John Concert ... totally awesome!! (My sister and i took Mum as a suprise early Christmas present)!



A thousand+ crowd totally entertained by one man & his piano ... he was brilliant ... pure talent!

Off to bed now for some beauty sleep ... :O)

Soooooooo Excited ......

Just a very quick post (off to Blake's golf lesson) but had to share 'cause i am sooooo excited ....




A lifelong wish of mine ......





Today, we booked our next big holiday ......









Have to go but will share the details later ......

Did i mention that i am soooo excited ...

BACK ON TRACK!

WARNING: This is a huge post ... you might want to bring a packed lunch!

Wow ... 3 weeks since my last entry. 3 weeks of 'jamb packed, flat out, busy busy' !!

* My new office is finished and looks fantastic but the move was rather chaotic (that's a nice way of putting it!). The new phone system had a glich and caused a bit of stress; but the main computer system crashed and caused major stress !#*@?!!
Ok, two weeks later a lot of $$ (and many deep breaths inbetween) ... the phones are sorted and a new computer system is now installed ... all is good! Here are a few pics of building the new office and a pic of the finished reception area.






* A few weeks ago we took Blake and 2 of his little mates to Darling Harbour for the day and went to Wildlife World and the Aquarium [Rewind: we have a little family tradition that on the last day of every school holidays we always have a special family day out where we do lunch & some sort of activity which Blake gets to choose ... because our every waking hour was consumed with fitting out my office, we didn't get to do our little tradition on the last day of the Oct school holidays :O( Blake was disappointed but understood. So, we organised the day in Sydney whereby he could bring a few friends along and this was also a bit of a reward for him given how co-operative he had been over the weeks of 'living at the office'.
So, the plan was to drive to Pymble, then catch the train to Circ Quay, then a ferry over to Darling Harbour; but, they were doing trackwork and the trains weren't operating, so we drove to Circ Quay and then caught the ferry across to Darling Harbour. I love a day visit to Darling Harbour ... such a bright, happening place! We spent the morning at Wildlife World, which i must say was a lot better than expected. I expected that this would be no different to any other animal attraction; however, there were a few different features that made it very interesting. In particular, the butterfly enclosure is gorgeous!! A huge net enclosed area that you can spend time in with hundreds of different species & coloured butterfly fluttering around. They land on your hands, hair etc and it is a beautiful experience. Even 3 little boys were quite taken in by it all!!
We spent the afternoon at the Aquarium ... have been here many times before but it is always enjoyable to walk through. Beautiful colours, walking through the tunnel with sharks, stingrays etc swimming over the top ....










* Last weekend was KIWISCRAPS. i think i was looking forward to just 'chillin out' for the weekend more than the scrapbooking! However, the scrapbooking projects were fantastic, the tutors were great and particularly enjoyed the digi scrapbooking class i done with Renae Pearson - this was a real 'outside the square' for me. In conclusion, i am definately a paper & paste kinda gal, but will be inclined to use digi from time to time and particularly for enhancing photos.
The giveaways were very generous ... came home with lots of bits & pieces. Sorry, haven't taken any photos of any KiwiScraps this time - as i said, was too much in desperate need of 'chill time'.
Had a great weekend, got to meet up with friends and met forum friends IRL for the first time ... Hi to Kellie & Manon :O)
Sunday (after a sleep-in & big buffet brekkie [yum], Karen and i set off to IKEA ... OMG, this is the first time i had been to IKEA ... i love that place. We had a huge shopping spree, the car (a large 4WD dual cab) was packed to the max on the way home ... we looked like we were moving house he he !

* This week has been a 'slowly getting back on track' week and feeling like routines are returning to normal (although sometimes i wonder what normal is these days! LOL!)

* Yesterday, we went to a 'Baby Naming Ceremony' and the parents sprung a surprise wedding on everyone as well! Congrats & hugs to Anne, Shannon & beautiful baby Jorgee!! We had a lovely afternoon catching up with family that we don't see as often as we should ... just 'cause everyone's so busy (mmm ... there's that word again)!

Off now to catch up on some more of my poor neglected housework ...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

JULIE x