Odd Socks!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! We enjoyed a lovely quiet one without any kids sport because our boys are in between soccer and cricket seasons. They are also on school holidays for two weeks so I expect 15 sleep-ins! I won't get the last Sunday because soccer trials start for next year's teams! On Saturday afternoon the boys had their first swim for the season...the water wasn't quite warm enough for me though. I opted for the spa instead.

Thank you to everyone who left us anniversary wishes. My DH and I had a lovely meal out on Saturday night without the kids.

After counting up all the accumulated odd socks in the laundry - 24 of them - I decided to bribe the boys to go looking for the matching ones! I offered 20 cents for each pair they could match....then for each odd one left, they lost 10 cents. It worked really well and there was only about 4 left without partners!

Here's an extremely rare sight!!!! Andrew and Justin decided to wash the cars!!!! Andrew got the big one to wash because he can reach the roof without standing on a ladder!

I have another layout of the boys' 2004 Harry Potter party - 3 down and lots more to go! I desaturated the purple October Magic 'ring' paper and combined it with the yellow one for this page. Matthew and his friend are guarding the chocolate coins at Gringott's Bank in this photo!


Congratulations if you have made it through my post today....it's a little longer then normal. Today I have a new template (no. 56) to share.

SBB Collab .....and Brag Book Pages

It's a big weekend here in Australia for those who love football (Aussie Rules)....which I don't! The final is being played in Melbourne on Saturday and it's all everyone is talking about! We got married on grand final day way back in 1986 and the groomsmen were somewhat distracted trying to get a score!
Well guess what.....it's our anniversary tomorrow....and I have to put up with lots of footy talk! My DH and I are going out for a quiet dinner without the boys in the evening.

Over at Scrapbook-Bytes you can get a fabulous collab kit - Fairweather - with any $10 purchase - Sep 26 to 29 only.


Here's a quick layout I did with Fairweather tonight. This was actually a rare moment when Matthew got to play in the sandpit before his brothers took the toys away to play with themselves! It's hard for nearly 2 year olds and nearly 4 year olds to learn to share!


Speaking of sharing, I have a couple of brag book pages to share which I made with my October Magic kit.

October Magic Now in the Store!

I was going to have a little something to share today, but I stayed out too long and drank too much coffee! LOL I must have needed to make up for last weekend when I didn't have much!
Anyway, I can show you a couple of layouts using my new October Magic page kit to give you some ideas on how you can use it.


I had a lot of fun creating this scene from photos of Justin's 9th and Matthew's 7th birthday party with a Harry Potter theme. You wouldn't believe how much time I spent making the wands, preparing the games, decorations and food. We re-arranged our whole family room just to create the great hall! I still have many more pages to scrap yet!


If you are looking for some Halloween quickpages, I have a set of 4 to co-ordinate with the kit.

Win October Magic!

Things have pretty much got back to normal in our household after the hectic weekend away. The boys have been talking non stop about the pedal prix placings, the vehicles and the photos etc. Lori asked how many races there are - there are two 6hr races in May and July, then there is the big 24hr one every September.

Now to totally change the subject, I have a new release coming very soon - October Magic - and you can win one if you go over to DST. We don't celebrate Halloween here in Australia, but I needed a kit to scrap some photos from a Harry Potter party...this kit will work for either!



I made some extra glitter pieces that co-ordinate with the kit (the pumpkin with the face is actually from last year but there are probably a few that missed it first time around). Grab them here.

I'm Back....and stuffed!!!!

What a busy and tiring weekend!
We headed off to the 24 hour Pedal Prix race at Murray Bridge on Friday morning, then didn't stop until 8pm Sunday when we got to bed (with the phone off the hook).
It is usually easy to get a good sleep on the Friday evening to prepare for the busy race night. This year it wasn't so!! One team had a very loud generator running too close to the sleeping area which made it impossible to sleep. Because there is no power supplied, everyone runs generators, but normally they are closer to the track. Around 3.30am I had just about given up on sleeping at all. I jumped into the car and it was so quiet in there I grabbed 2 1/2 hours sleep.
The race began at noon on Saturday with all riders on deck. Justin got the privilege of starting his bike because he was the fastest rider. With less than 3 hours sleep on Saturday night between riding shifts, the boys started to wear down. Andrew ended up in the first aid tent with a scratched eye after getting some sand in it, but his bike had a great race and finished 7th in their category. This result gave them a 3rd place for this year's 3 race series.
There were a few crashes and rollovers as usual and Matthew was lucky enough to be in his bike for the finish at noon on Sunday.
Although we all come away totally exhausted, it is a fun weekend and the boys are already planning for next year. Here's a few of the 400 photos we took and here's the official website if you want to read more.

The race begins.


A typical view at crash corner!


The most unusual bike!


Justin flying down the straight!


Daybreak.


Want to buy a damaged bike?


Andrew powers towards the chicane.


Matthew looking happy after he finished the race for his team.

Template 55 and layouts

The time has come for our busiest weekend of the year - the 24 hour pedal prix race! The weekend where we hardly get any sleep, and struggle to find a good coffee! LOL

But before I go I have a couple of layouts made with my new Autumn kit.
In this first one Matthew tried to eat the train carriage!



In this second layout, Matthew had a great time playing peek-a-boo behind the curtain! A favourite activity of almost 1 year olds!


And lastly today, I have another new template to share - number 55! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will 'see' you all next week.

Awesome CT Layouts

I have a fetish for affogato's at the moment!! Don't know what this is? It's a shot of espresso poured over a glass of icecream....delicious! I can see myself having lots of these when the weather warms up. My DH recently had one of these in New Zealand with an added shot of Cointreau.....I must try this one soon!

Now I must show you all some of the fabulous layouts my creative team have been doing with my Art 101 and Art 101 Add-On kits. Check out these beauties.

Autumn for Some!

The days seem to be getting away from me at the moment and I am being a very lazy blogger again!

We had another very busy weekend. Justin and Matthew played their last club soccer games for the season and Andrew had two games to referee. There was an evening pedal prix practice on Saturday so the kids could get used to riding the bikes at night, and there was also one last pedal prix meeting for Andrew's team to finalise last minute details and catering. This week is all about preparing for the big weekend coming up which begins on Friday.

I have a couple of new things in my store which you can grab for 30% off!

First up is a mini kit - Autumn.... (I know it's a pretty boring name! LOL)

...then there is a co-ordinating paperpack - Autumn on the Cards!

I have made a bonus Autumn frame to share...enjoy!

Art 101 Quickpage....and donut recipe!

For those of you that requested my donut recipe....you will be happy to know that they are baked, not fried! They are exceptionally easy to make but you will need a bread machine and some bun mix. I am not sure whether this mix is available everywhere.

Basically, I put 2 teaspoons of dried yeast, 3 1/2 cups of bun mix and 350mls (1 1/2 cups) of water into my machine and set it to dough mode. When it beeps 2 1/2 hours later I cut the dough into 24 pieces and roll into balls. I then punch a hole in the middle and place in my pre-greased donut trays. Around 12 to 15 minutes in a medium oven, then they are ready to be iced and decorated.
I made a layout the other day with my Art 101 kit and decided to turn it into a quickpage to share.

Misc...and a free Add-On

My boys have been lucky enough to have a four day weekend and are not looking forward to going back to school tomorrow. Monday was a day off for the show....the Royal Adelaide Show (fair)... which always runs for a week around the first week of September.

Tuesday was officially a Pupil Free day off....the teachers are supposed to use it for training. So with the boys home I decided to make some donuts....so they didn't starve! LOL

Here's what the finished product looked like. Luckily I took the photo when I did...because now there aren't any left! They rose so much that the holes disappeared in some.

I have to share a beautiful photo that my niece Kara took of the Sydney Opera House.

She had been on a cruise around Fiji during July and snapped this photo on her return to Sydney.....just before the sun rose....isn't it gorgeous?

Now I have a layout using my new Change of Season kit.....


... and finally I have a Change of Season add-on to share today.....a few glitter leaves and a bonus paper.

Father's Day - New Kit - Template 54

Firstly I would like to wish all the Dads in Australia and anywhere else who may be celebrating today, a happy Father's Day!

My DH flew home from New Zealand in time for his special day today, and also came home to my very sick computer...which is why I haven't posted here for a few days. I am borrowing his laptop until mine is back to normal.

I have a new kit in my store Change of Season. I used different tones to most of the Austumn kits I have seen around.

If you grab it by September 10th, you will not only save 20% but you will get the set of 8 Brag Book pages for free too!!!

I made this template a couple of days ago but haven't been able to post before now, so enjoy!

It has photo shadows on different layers so you can choose to use them or not.

Kind of funny...kind of scary!

It's taken me a couple of days to get around to blogging because I get far too distracted designing, scrapping and video editing!

I need to share a little story about the weekend. When we got home from Matthew's soccer game on Sunday I noticedsome wet footprints leading to our front door. Justin and Matthew thought they belonged to the boy next door. Just as I was trying to find the front door key, I heard someone inside the house! My heart started racing and I wasn't sure what to do. DH was away in New Zealand and Andrew sent me a text saying he was going to friend's house after pedal prix practice. Then suddenly, the front door opened....from the inside....it was Andrew!!! He scared the living daylights out of me!! It turned out that he wasn't able to go to his friends house, and he got dropped home instead...I just didn't know! I can laugh about it now, but at the time the few seconds not knowing who was in our house were pretty scary!

While DH is away I tend to stay up later and do lots more designing and scrapping. If you are looking for a little layout inspiration, hopefully these will help!

For this first one I used Art 101 and Art 101 Add-On. As you can see, these elements work for older kids school layouts too.

Pool Party was used for this second layout of Matthew at 7 months.

....and finally, Country Blue was used for this one. We got great satisfaction in realising that the boys were tired enough to fall sleep after a big day out! We achieved our mission! LOL

Template 53

This is a very quick post tonight - it's past my bed time!

I had quite a few requests to turn one of my recent layouts into a template....so here it is -Template no 53...enjoy. I will be back tomorrow to share some more layouts.

Link is fixed! :)