PEEPING TOM

Finally i can upload some more pics; however, just uploading this lot took about 15mins. I don't know whethter it is my computer of Blogger but it is such a pain!
This is the Bendigo trams I mentiond in my last blog. They are so beautifully restored and the tram museum which we were taken to as part of our trip had all different shapes & sizes and many old trams that were still being restored ... apparantly some of them are quite sought after and expsensive heritage items!

Anyway, i am trying to finish off the last leg of our trip and share some of my pics before i bore
you all to death! I've started scrapp'n some of my pics and will share them with you later on.

A bit of a plug here ... My sister Karen has just started a mobile & online scrapbooking business, Scrapbook'n'Bits and she has asked me to do some layouts with some of the beautiful papers she has in stock so she can use them for displays. This will keep me out of mischief for a few days! Anyhow, the website is just having the finishing touches programmed and will be up and running in December. Be sure to have a look ... lots of beautiful things and some great crop days coming up!!


Now for the PEEPING TOM!
the next part of our journey took us up to Euchuca ... a quaint little town set on the Murray River. We went for a walk along the port where there are lots of lovely little shops etc. and came across The Old Time Penny Arcade! What an incredible old place. As part of your entry fee, we were given some pennies to
operate the old machines which were games, challenges etc. (i guess equivalent to today's modern games arcades) ... and ... they also had the old Peeping Tom Machines. What a crack-up! Of Course, my DH couldn't help himself ...!! They were like an old flick show with pictures of ladies showing their boobies and lacey knickers ... woo hoo! I suppose in their day they were thought to be very sexy! My husband was amazed that even in the olden days there was provocative things such as these ... he must think sex was an invention of the modern day era !?#@!! Anyway, Blake & I played old fashioned soccer games, guess the weight etc. etc. All in all, a lot of fun. When all of our pennies had run out we spent some time in the old theatre and watched a Laurel & Hardy movie ... very cute!
Well, another busy weekend coming up ... the Christmas parties have started already (tommorrow night we are double booked!). I do love Christmas but it can get a bit hectic ... no wonder they call in 'The Silly Season'.
Until next time,
Keep Smiling!
JULIE x

COLD SNAP

This cold windy weather makes me feel like we down south again. Particularly along the Great Ocean Road it was very windy and cold changes just like here today!
Here are some more holiday pics. Once we left the coast we headed inland Victoria. We spent a few days at Ballarat ... what a great old town! Sovereign Hill was a great day out and the "Blood on the Southern Cross" show (which is all about the Eureka Stockade) was fantastic!!
We did a tour down the gold mine, visited the lolly shop and watched candy being made ... yum and of course did some panning for gold. Blake was so into this!

The boys found lots of tiny little flecks which blake has proudly displayed in a little bottle.
We also visited the Eureka Centre which was a very interesting place, and the Gold Museum which obviously had lots of gold and gold stories.

The we moved on to Bendigo. I really liked Bendigo and in particular the magnificent old buildings with their grand architecture. We took a ride/tour on a 'talking tram'. This was lots of fun tramming our way around Bendigo with a running commentry of all the buildings etc. and just the fact of riding a tram was a novelty for Blake cause they are basically non-existant
around here. I have a lovely tram photo of the boys but it won't upload ... grrrr! Will have to post it later.
From here we travelled up along the Murray River ... Euchuca, Swan Hill & Mildura. Will post some more pics soon.
Hope you have all had a good week ... not long now til the weekend.
Be good,
Cheers, JULIE x

ANOTHER HOLIDAY UPDATE

How quickly a week goes by ... I have slackn'd off with my holiday pics etc but are getting to the last leg of our journey now. So ... anyone that is getting bored with my holiday, not long to go now!
These photos were taken at Warnambool which is pretty much the end of the Great Ocean Road. A really beautiful place which is rich with heritage and has that 'village by the sea' atmosphere. One of the highlights of Warnambool is Flagstaff Hill (similar to Sovereign Hill at Ballarat) depicting the olden days of a maratime village. In the night time we attended the "Shipwrecked"
sound & lighting show which is based
on the story of the Loch Ard shipwreck (approx 150 yrs ago); hence, the history of the Loch Ard Gorge on the Great Ocean Road. The show is brilliantly done with images projected off water fountain sprays etc. The next day we had a lovely time wandering around the village which included visiting The Inn of course!
The picture below is of the Loch Ard Peacock which is a famous statue cause it survived the Loch Ard wreck. Apparently it was found still encased in its packaging washed up on the shore following the shipwreck. Anyway, there is other history about it etc. etc. but something interesting
is that it's value today is $2million ... WOW!!

Anyway ... we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Warnambool. Lots to do & see and a beautiful place to visit.

From here we travelled through to Port Fairy. The image I had in my mind of this place was pretty much as it was. This cute, sleepy little town (not much there but very quaint) is by the seaside with a port in the middle of town where all the fishing boats are moored etc. We had tea at the seafood restaurant at the pier whilst we were visiting ... Yuuummy!


This pretty much finished our coastal travelling, from here we headed inland Victoria.

Will do another post in the next day or so of Ballarat, Bendigo and a few other places.

As for our life as per current ... busy, busy, busy. My holiday is just a distant memory. Back into work flatout, usual school stuff, housework etc. etc. But something on the positive newsfront ... our plans should be completed for our pool this week (Yeah!), now just have to tackle the Council and hope for a smooth ride !*?@#!!
And more exciting news ... in June next year my DH & i celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Every year we take turns at organising an outing (usually dinner, movie etc. etc) ... but, next year is my turn! We always said we would do something special for the supposed "milestones" ... so, i have organised an exciting holiday!! Unfortunately, i can't tell you what or where cause it is a secret ... but ... I can tell you it is for 1 week and involves passports, travel agent etc. etc. Oooh, i'm very excited.
Anyway, eyes are getting heavy, time for some beauty sleep ...
Have a great week,
Cheers JULIE x

KASEY CHAMBERS & MORE HOLIDAY PICS

It is after midnight and i am on a hight, not ready for bed yet. Have not long got home from the Kasey Chambers concert in Newcastle. I just love Kasey's music and think she is a gorgeous person in that she is sooo 'down to earth'. Had a great time!
Back to the holiday pics .... We left the Mornington Peninsular are and went by ferry (with our car & van) across the water from Sorrento to Queenscliff where we headed to start our journey of The Great Ocean Road. What a beautiful part of Australia! We visited the lighthouse at Split Point which is where the children's TV series "Around the
Twist" was filmed, we did a drive by the famous Bells Beach (just looked like any other beach to me!) and went through to Apollo Bay where we stayed for a few days. Very pretty little town situated on the Coast of the GOR but also a very windy place, or at least it was when we were there ... nearly lost the roof on our caravan on the last night and had to do the emergency bale out thing into a cabin at 11.30 at night ... now that's another story!#?@!!
The Twelve Apostles (or however many of them there are left) are just a magnificent piece of scenery. They postcard picture perfect (does that
make sense??)! We also done a
helicopter flight from here and flew over the apostles and along the coast (Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, The Arch etc. etc.) From the air it is quite an amazing sight. The rock formation has such a perfect shape from the erosion that it looks like is has been cut out with a craft saw!
The photo of Blake at the water was taken at Loch Ard Gorge (named after the famous shipwreck & it's history). We climbed down the stairs and walked along the sand ... for me this was a very surreal feeling and just all so very pretty.
Whilst in the area we also visited 'The Otway Fly'. This is a huge metal boardwalk that spans for metres & metres through the tree tops and The Otway National Park. Obviously you are very high up (i think the tallest point at the tower is about 50mtrs) which is quite unique to be up in the tree tops however I got a dose of vertigo cause the tree tops sway around but i felt like i was swaying on this boardwalk thingy and I was all a bit much. Anyway, it was still fun and the lunch we had there was yummy so all was good!
We also visited Cape Otway Lighthouse. This was great. This lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Australia. It's surrounding are beautiful and there are even old staff quarters and cottages that you can walk through and check out the different displays and relevant history. We climbed up to the top section, that was great ... very very windy up there but at least it didn't sway, i handled this one well!
The Great Ocean Road and all of the towns situated along the way is just lovely. The scenery is magnificent and it just a great experience. From here we visted Port Campbell and then went on to Warnambool for 3 days. This is a lovely place with lots to do & see. More pics in next blog.
Getting tired now, time for bed.
Talk soon, be good .... Julie x

PICTURE PERFECT

Throughout our month of travelling we seen lots of beautiful scenery and visited some lovely places but one of my favourites was the Mornington Peninsular area. Beautiful beaches, jettys and wharfs, lovely shopping areas to wander around etc. etc ... but above all of that, I was soooo in love with all the gorgeous colourful little bathing huts that line the beaches from Mornington to Sorrento. Taking piccies here was like being in scrapbooker's heaven! We went for walks along the different beach areas and the boys were very patient whilst I went bezerk with the camera.
We got talking to some tradesman that were busy renovating one of the huts and had a quick peek inside. They are basically just like a little studio but apparantly you are not allowed to reside in them. They are privately owned and cost varies $100k - $200k.
I almost think i could live here but real estate is very expensive so I have to just settle with owning a beach hut ... that wouldn't be so bad!

Late in the afternoon we headed down to the pier at Sorrento and put our car & van on the big ferry and shipped across to Queenscliff.
This was the start of the next phase of our journey and heading towards the Great Ocean Road.

Will be back with some more piccies etc. soon.
Hope your not getting too bored with my holiday blah blah blah!

Have a great day everyone ... had better run -

now going to be a little late for work.

Cheers,
JULIE

PHILLIP ISLAND

WARNING: Incredibly loooong post!
One of the highlights of our trip was definately the Fairy Penguin Parade at Phillip Island (before I go any further just need to let you know that this photo wasn't taken at the Penguin Parade - will explain later). We pre-booked for the Penguin Parade and were lucky enough to get premium tickets - this meant we sat in a seperate little area alongside the path where approx 70% of these gorgeous little creatures make their way home every night. We learnt that (just like us) after a hard day at work i.e out fishing, they return to the same burrow every night! There were about 500 penguins that waddled past, making their way home ... absolutely, positively adorable! They were soooo close to us that we could have reached out and touched but of course that is definately not allowed. Actually, when we went out to our car at the end of the night, there was one just under a little bush across from the front of our car ... not sure if he/she was lost or still on the journey to its' burrow? My son was just besotted with them and would dearly
love one as a pet ... not quite that simple son! Anyway, getting back to the photo thing ... cameras are banned! This is because obviously being a night time thing there would be a million flashes going off which is really not good for their well being let alone their sensitive little eyes. The fairy penguin centre is very much about educating people regarding their conservation cause the penguin population has diminished somewhat over the years mainly due to human interference. So the next morning we took a drive out to Nobbies Point, this is just a little further from the main cove where the penguins come in. Whilst it is all very beautiful scenery, I think this is about the windiest place I have ever been to in the world ... "blow a dog of a chain" kind of wind!! At Nobbies Point there is a huge boardwalk around the headland and also viewing areas across to Seal Rock (yes, that's because there are seal colonies out there), as well as a huge amount of sea birds that nest in the area ... which of course included the common seagull. I have never seen so many seagulls in one place, there must of been hundreds of them and then multiply that again with the hundreds & hundreds of seagull chicks all nested in the grass areas ... all tiny little brown spotted chicks. I didn't know seagull chicks were brown ... they say you learn something new everyday!
Well .... (talk about going the long way 'round) whilst we were out at Nobbies Point we also seen some fairy penguins which were huddled under one of the little bridge sections on the boardwalk. We were so excited to see little penguins in the day ... right there ... right near us ... sooo, i was able to take some photos cause i didn't need to use a flash and certainly didn't disturb or harass them in any way. Further along we also seen one huddled at the entrance to it's burrow. We were told that because it is coming into their breeding season, quite often, one will stay behind of a day to start getting the nest ready, whilst the other goes out to work! We learnt lots & lots about them but i won't "waffle on" anymore ... i just want to say ... it you haven't been there, it is a wonderful place to visit and i would certainly recommend it for adults and children.

Well as I'm sure you know, Fairy Penguins aren't the only things on Phillip Island ... there is also a race track. We're not really into car racing and the like but we thought we would do the "touristy" thing and go out to the track and have a look.
Well ... they had a "Hot Laps" thing happening where you could do 3 laps around the track in one of their "fang dangle" cars with a professional driver. Not for me thanks ... 110klms on the freeway is my limit! My husband Mark was keen ... so here he is. Blake and i got to spectate up on the viewing deck above the winners straight. These cars fly! They took off near sideways (you can seen burnt rubber smoke behind
the car), but i must admit the sound was incredible the screeching and roaring around the track ... 230klms p/h down the winners straight! Hubby came back adrenalin pumped and thought for a split second he might like to trade his pride and joy 4wd for a commodore !?@#!! but he got over it pretty quickly when i pointed out that he'd be lucky to have his license a week driving something as fast as this!
Anyway, here is the Mark & the pro driver ... smiles all round!


This was the end of the first week of our holiday ... phew ... what a great time ... 3 weeks to go!

Next we visited the Mornington Peninsular ... I just loved this area ... the lovely shops, beautiful beaches and those gorgeous little beach huts!

Will blog again in the next day or so. Cheers for now, JULIE x

WE'RE BACK CONTINUED

These photos were taken at Yarra Valley and in the Yarra Bulga National Park. We walked along rainforest trails to the waterfall at Yarra Valley and also another walk through the Yarra Bulga National Park down over the suspension bridge ... not good
if you don't like heights but certainly very beautiful looking down
into the canopies of the rainforest. When we walked over the bridge, this linked us with another trail through "Fern Gully'. It was really lush and lots of big old established trees with huge gnarled tree roots covered in moss, lots of ferns and ground cover, it got really cool down in this bottom section and when we exhaled it was wafts of fog ... it was almost as though little pixies or fairies could easily live there!! As we got back onto the trail to bring us
out of the National Park we spotted a Lyrebird ... Blake thought
this was just so cool; but, wouldn't you know it, whilst I was trying to zoom & focus on the darn thing ... the camera batteries went flat!!*@?! Where were the spares?? ... in the car (in the carpark) of course! Never mind ... this was a good learning curve, I was very "on the ball" with batteries, spare memory cards etc thereafter.
We were staying at a little town called Yarram whilst we did the National Park thing; and the locals told us about a lovely little
place a few kilometres the other way on the coast ... Port Albert.
This was a cute little place situated on the water with not a lot there but lived up to its' name being a large port and certainly a lovely place to sit and enjoy our fish and chips we brought for tea from the co-op.
We left Yarram and travelled down to Wilsons Promentory National Park. Wilsons Promentory is the southern most part of Australia! To go right to the bottom tip you actually have to do an overnight hike ... I'm sure it is really lovely but to the end of the roal would do us. The road took us as far as Tidal River which is a
really big camping/recreation area. If we lived closer, what a
fabulous weekend getaway with great camping areas through to cabins and group lodge facilities!
We went for a walk along a few of the easier trails ... it was really lovely walking along the boardwalks around the waters, the footbridge area was pretty (where these pics were taken) and lots of the big rock formations were very picturesque! We also seen lots of lovely wildlife including echidnas waddling along the side of the road out on the highway and emus on the way down to Tidal River ... this all contributes to a wonderful experience.
Well this will do for tonight ... hope I'm not boring anyone too much!
Next chapter ... Phillip Island (and those gorgeous little Fairy Penguins).

On a different note ... Australian Idol ... I have never been an idol fan, but this season I have gotten really hooked. I happened to flick over on the tv one night when the auditions were on and seen Jessica sing, she has got the most amazing voice and I continued to watch to see whether she progressed. Well, 4 to go ... I think Dean is great too, but really hope Jess wins!

Keep Smiling ... JULIE x

WE'RE BACK

One Month's Holiday, 5022 klms & Over 500 Pics ... Where do I Begin??
We had a fabulous time. We've been, seen & done soooo many things ... I can't believe how fast it went. Back to work today ... that is a definate reality check!! Our holiday certainly wasn't rushed, but it was very busy. Everyday we had somewhere to go, something to see, a tour to go on ... lots of fun.

We left home on Sunday, 1st Oct and our first stop was Kiama. We have friends who live here (lucky people ... this place is beautiful) and we havn't seen them for about 12 months so it was great to catch up with them for a few days.

Then we travelled along the south coast down through Berry (what a gorgeous little country town & lovely shops). Drove out and had a look around Jervis Bay & the National Park - this area is sooo pretty and the water is bright aqua blue. Batemans Bay, Ulladulla and all along the South Coast is just beautiful.
These photos taken of the kids (my son Blake (on right) and my niece Jessica & nephew Jacob were taken at the park we stayed at on the river at Moruya. Moruya is just off the coast and a lovely little country-like town. At the park we had the river on one side
and lush green paddocks on the other with lots of very healthy looking cows. It is amazing how such simple things can keep children amused. We continued our travels along the South Coast and there are so many places I could 'rattle off' but this blog would turn into a novel ... a few places that come to mind are Tuross Heads, Bermagui, Merimbula, Pembula Beach, Eden ... all very pretty. On our travels through Bega we stopped in at the Bega Cheese Factory. They have a public viewing area where you can
watch the cheese being made and also a museum/history area - all quite interesting!
Once over the border and into Victoria it really felt like we were tourists! We stayed a couple of
days in Lakes Entrance. This is also a lovely place and has a big working port with lots of trawlers etc which all adds to that seaside town atmosphere. By the time we had got down this far we had experienced some fairly cold weather and wind (oh boy, I was so sick of wind by the time we got home)! Wouldn't you know it, I left our lovely warm all weather jackets at home (layed out on the lounge ready to pack in the car) !*?#!! So we now have some more jackets to add to our collection (which we need like a hole in the head) all the way from Victoria! One thing I noticed about
Victoria is that the parks & waterfront are maintained and presented beautifully, even when we travelled inland further on this is one of the things that stood out. Along the waterfront at Lakes Entrance is lots of big wooden carved statues ( i think they are carved out with chainsaws). There is lovely big long jetty which goes from the township over across to 90 Mile Beach - all lovely. The scenic photo was taken from a lookout down over the water at Lakes Entrance - off course these things always look
better in real life but it really was gorgeous.
From this area we headed down to Yarram so we could visit the Yarra Bulga National Park - beautiful rainforest walks with waterfalls & a huge suspension bridge over the valley ... then down to Wilson's Promentory which is the most southern part of Australia. I'll start of my next blog with some photos of these ... I think this will do tonight ... I hope you are still awake!
No matter where you go, it is such a true saying that 'there is no place like home' and all jokes aside , it is good to be home.

Went to a scrapbooking day yesterday (first lot of scrapping I have done in about 8 weeks) and it was lovely to catch up with all my scrapbooking friends again.

Hope everyone has been well and all has been good over the past weeks.
Look forward to chatting/blogging with everyone,
Have a good week.
Cheers, JULIE x

Last Minute Blog

It has been nearly 3 weeks since i have blogged so i thought i should do a last minute post before we head off on our holiday. The time is now 2.30 in the morning (yes I know I'm crazy) and we will be leaving in approx 2 hours ... One whole month ... travelling the South Coast, Great Ocean Road & Victoria! I am soooo excited and also soooo disorganised; hence i am still up at this crazy hour taking care of all those last minute things like packing clothes, making sure the camera & memory card is all in order and of course ... a last minute blog!
So farewell for a month. When we return i will have a super dooper long blog with photos to catch up on our snow trip from 2 weeks ago (had a great time) and lots of piccies and chat about this holiday.
Cheers,
JULIE x

ONLY 4 DAYS TO GO ...

Only 4 days until we leave for the Snow ... yeah ... can't wait.
I have been very busy this weekend finishing last minute preparations and cooking for 27 people! Now i have my kitchen (almost complete) it has been a bit of a novelty cooking and baking lots of yummy things. Considering the weather has been so lousy, there isn't much else to do. I know I shouldn't complain but living on the coast we have already had plenty of rain this year and I am sooooo over it! I wish I could send it inland to the farmers and catchment areas where it is needed.
Anyway, just a short post tonight, have some more things to do so i am organised for the start of another week.
Have a good one,
JULIE x

Sad Little 'Steve' Fan

I can't believe today's tragic news, that Steve Irwin has died. My little man (my son, Blake) idolized him and is just devastated (as i'm sure many children are). Blake has literally cried nearly all afternoon and has asked a million questions whereby we have tried so hard to answer and justify why such tragic things happen. It is the weirdest thing, but because Steve Irwin was such a 'large than life character', it makes you feel as though you knew him. We visited Australia Zoo in 2004 ... what a great place and a credit to all that he promoted and believed in regarding animal/nature conservation. As Blake put it this afternoon with tears streaming down his face ... "it just won't be the same"!
Setting aside the public & celebrity status, what a tragedy for his family including his 2 little children who to them I'm sure he was "everything" just cause he was their dad, husband, son etc.
My thoughts are certainly with them.
JULIE x

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONICA ... The BIG FOUR - 0

Today we had a fabulous time at Rathmines park with lots of our friends and families to celebrate our dear friends birthday ...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONICA !!
This lady is one of the sweetest, gentlest, kindness most beautiful people you could ever meet; and therefore, a wonderful friend!
I mentioned in my last blog that I had a little project that was "secret squirrel" business and I would share it with you soon ... well ... our dear Miss Monica is a very humble shy person and had given strict instructions to all that she did not want a big fuss made for her birthday. Mon (as her friends affectionately call her) goes out of her way to avoid being the centre of attention ... sooo ... we organised a simple little picnic in the park with our families but failed to mentioned that there would be approximately 20 families there !!
Anyway, all was good, the weather was glorious and we had a lovely day ... as you can see by this photo, the Birthday Girl enjoyed herself too!
Ok, stay with me, i am getting to the point about the secret project ...


Like most of us fine female specimens, Monica luuuuvs scrapbooking; however, having 3 beautiful sons she never gets to do "girly" scrapbooking ... so ... our friend Janelle (aka Marilyn that appeared in my blog a few weeks ago celebrating her birthday) came up with the idea of doing a "girly" tin and issuing all of Monica's friends (scrapbookers & non-scrapbookers) with a file card to decorate and fill the tin with Birthday Wishes!!
Janelle beautifully decorated this tin and everyone was very creative with their little cards.

So .....











The secret project I was working on was my card to go in the tin.
I must say, i enjoyed doing "girly" scrapbooking too, cause i always scrapbook my beautiful little boy and my dear husband.

The little card had a photo flap with a
hidden message underneath.


And .....










I am sure you remember the beautiful cake that another of our beautiful friends (Karen) made for Janelle's 40th; well, she has excelled once again and come up with this gorgeous creation for Monica's Birthday.
How cute is this handbag cake (and it was yummy too!).
It was so life like it was almost too good to eat ... would have made a beautiful fashion accessory!

Anyway, this has turned into another of those super dooper long blogs; but, i would just like to say how lucky i am to have such kind, beautiful, wonderful friends ... and once again ...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MON !!

Have a great week everyone,
JULIE x

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE??

Warning ... catching up for approx 2 weeks ... long blog ahead!
I have been such a slack blogger ... over the last 'week and a bit' i have had a quick look on the computer to read a few other blogs but haven't had the time to sit down and do a post on mine. Anyway, where has the time gone??
I mentioned on an earlier post that we attended a day of scrapbooking with all the "Scrappy Chics' in aid of Daffodil Day ... well this was my main effort for the day along with plenty of chatting etc. etc.
This layout is from a group weekend I organised at the Blue Mountains in June last year. We spent the first night at Lithgow and went on the Zig Zag Railway.

They had a special event running called "The Wizard's Express" which revolved around the Harry Potter theme. The kids dressed up, and were sorted by "the Sorting Hat' to be placed into groups of Griffendore, Slitheren (spelling??) etc. etc. The train stopped at each station at each stage down the mountain where we were met by Harry Potter characters including the spooky dementors. When we got to the bottom of the mountain the huge workshop had been transformed into a dungeon where we were fed puppy dog tails (hot dogs) and other delightful treats, plus a magic show for entertainment.
Anway, to sum it all up ... lots of fun!
The second day was full of adventures at Katoomba and Leura. We visited the Leura Toy Museum, The Three Sisters, Scenic World at Katoomba (this is where they have the cable cars etc) and finished the day at the Leura Lolly Shop ...

What else have I been up to ...
Last Saturday Night I hosted a Trivia Night for one of the local Pre-Schools (Peter Pan Pre-School at Wangi). My son went to this gorgeous pre-school when he was little and I was happy to oblige with helping them in their fundraising efforts. It was a great night, they were a great crowd and certainly provided plenty of laughs.
Sunday we spent the day at the Park for our 'end of season' soccer team picnic. What a great bunch of little boys, they are real little trojans and certainly win the award for being 'great sports'. They got 'flogged' in nearly every game this year (only won 1 game); but still turned up every week with a smile on their faces and happy to be with their mates ... well done boys. My husband is their coach and they thanked him with a gift of a lovely Newcastle Knights shirt (anything Newcastle Knights is a sure thing) ... he is so proud of them all.
This week has been chaos in our house. My kitchen is pulled apart (cupboards emtied and no appliances) ready for the kitchen man to come on Tuesday to install my new kitchen ... yeaahhh! My DH has been so busy trying to dodge the rain and finish the house exterior and yard. He got the new fence frame up this week ... at least it looks like we are making progress.
I have been busily organising the final details for our snow trip in 3 weeks. Really looking forward to this (another one of those group holidays) ... and then ... two weeks later we leave for our big holiday travelling the South Coast, Great Ocean Road and Victoria ... Oooohhh, i can't wait!
Well if you are still awake and reading this, give yourself a pat on the back :o))
I am working on a little project for a friend but can't share it with you yet (secret squirrel business!!). Will show you soon.
Have a great weekend,
Cheers,
JULIE x

ANY CAUSE IS A GOOD CAUSE TO SCRAP!

Today I attend an all day scrap hosted by Scrappy Chic which was in aid of raising money for Daffodil Day! As per the title "any cause is a good cause to scrap"!!
Here is one completed LO (Love the yummy new Urban Lily range ... yuuummeee). Only having a son, who is 99.9% of my universe and scrapbooking LO's, I love finding groovy boy papers & stuff.
I have another LO that is almost done and I will share it with you soon.
It is ironic that today's scrap was relevant to fundraising for a cancer cause as one of our dear friends, was diagnosed with Melanomia (spelling??) this week :o(
Just a regular great guy, a husband and father ... you just never know what is around the corner. Lots of positive thoughts and prayers my friend, you know we are all thinking of you :o))
Just a short blog tonight - off to get uniforms, school bags, work clothes etc. etc. organised ready to start another week.
Speaking of another week - that leaves just 4 weeks 'til we go to the snow and just 6 weeks 'til we go on our one month holiday (yes, that's right ... one month) travelling the South Coast and Victoria. Ooohhhh, I can't wait!
Have a great week.
JULIE x

BUSY, BUSY & ANOTHER WEEK GONE

My how quickly the weeks fly by!!
When i first started doing 'the blog' thing (before i had my own blog) i'd visit blogs and be disappointed if they hadn't updated since the last time i visited ... now i realise how quickly time passess and how quickly our blog entries lapse.

So what have i been doing in the last week ....

• Went out on Saturday night (ooooh, 2 weeks in a row) for one of my dear friends birthdays. Jo is actually more like a family extension but i won't go into a detailed explanation ... you get my drift. Sometimes our 'catch ups' are months apart but without fail we always have a girls night out for her birthday on the same weekend every year!! I call this my annual drink, cause i rarely go out these days ... too busy scrapbooking!! Had a great time, a good dose of Vodka Cruisers :O)) more karaoke (2 weeks in a row for that too!) ........ and .............. drum roll ............. Jo got Engaged !!! Wow what a big night out!! So "Here's Cheers" to my dear friend ... Happy Birthday & CONGRATULATIONS xx
• Sunday was pretty non-eventful after a big night out. I don't bounce back quit as quickly these days.
• Monday our new fridge (yes the lovely BIG fridge) & kitchen appliances were delivered. The 'kitchen man' came and done our final 'measure up' ... my kitchen will be beautifully re-vamped in 3 - 4 weeks ... Yippee!

Well that's about it really ... today (like most other week days) was just the normal work, school & household routine!!

Looking forward to this Sunday - full day scrap (being hosted by Scrappy Chic) at Wangi Workers Club to raise money for Daffodil Day. Great cause to raise money and I say any cause is a good cause to scrap!!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

JULIE xx

The Cake

Finally i got this picture to upload (i don't know whether blogger was "playing up" or the operator was faulty ??1?) here is the wonderful cake creation I was raving about in my last blog about Janelle's birthday.
As i mentioned, the cake was adorned with miniature shoes and matching handbags which were hand made and painted by our very talented and gorgeous friend Karen. Sooooo clever!!
Well now all the party madness is over, I can concentrate on our trip to the snow.
In September, our group of families (all whom have become great friends through our children at school) are off to the snow for 4 days.
We did the group adventure last time and had a wow of a time. Nearly all the kids were first timers and all were skiing by the end of the stay.
It is very much a budget snow holiday ... last year we stayed at one of the lodges at the Department of Sport & Rec complex in Jindabyne which was great for a large group. This year our group has grown a little more so we are staying at the Girl Guides Lodge ... it's just like being back at school camp!!
For anyone wanting to do a family trip to the snow or wanting to organise a group it is a great way to go about it without costing a fortune!! The Department of Sport & Rec have lodges that cater for 2 to 26 people and you can hire all of your gear through them too. Grrrreat Fun!!
We time to get my beauty sleep ... enjoy the rest of your week.
JULIE x