Sooooooooooooooooo Tired

Why did i think it was a good idea to get a new job this close to christmas!!! luckily its only a 3 day temp assignment and Im one day down already. I actually loved it and being back in an office environment was great every though it took me over an hour to get there this morning!! Damn traffic. Its working down at the shipping docks for a huge shipping company sorting out the backlog of their insurance claims. Went to pick up Bennett tonight from Ama Pa's and he wouldn't let me in the door saying he was having a sleep over - to make life easier for me in the morning (aren't parents great) Bennett has lost his glasses so spending time away from a cross mummy and daddy is probably a good idea :)

My yearly chronicle of Bennett. Aged 3 through to 4

My Lucky Number's....

well it's actually 11 but I was born on the 6th

You Are 6: The Loyalist

You have strong relationships and are intensely loyal. People find you easy to love and care for. You like your world to be stable and secure, no surprises. You're cautious. You prefer your inner circle to the outside world. At Your Best: You are courageous, a positive thinker, and expressive. You can take on the world. At Your Worst: You are secretly insecure - which makes you sarcastic, cold, and argumentative. Your Fixation: Doubt Your Primary Fear: Abandonment Your Primary Desire: Security and support Other Number 6's: Mel Gibson, Woody Allen, Jay Leno, Marilyn Monroe, and Julia Roberts.

What Number Are You?

Tall Award

I don't believe in horoscopes but I tend to think that most of us definately have traits of the zodiac sign we are born under....

However I can't beleieve how spot on this was..........

What Your Height Says About You

You are a very vulnerable and spiritual person. Your emotions run deep. You have a philosophical and poetic soul. You think things through and are a bit of a skeptic. You tend to be very opinionated. You are a perfectionist with high standards. You prefer to work alone. You work hard, and you don't like interruptions. You are about as tall as the average Swedish man.

What Does Your Height Say About You?

An Interesting Read

I don't tend to frequent places like Catch of the Day and Zazz but after listening to a few friends' ordeals with COTD recent birthday sale I found this fascinating...... Read On

Steph

The Transformation

I don't have many pictures on this computer - I pinched these ones from my FB account but here is a quick before and after of the pergola. We absoloutely love it and have been spending SO much time out there!!

Howdy from out on the deck

I'm sending this message from out on our new under cover deck on my new laptop (spoilt much!!) 

Its been such a muggy day today that it's just beautiful out here at the moment. I really may have to drag myself inside I've been saying for weeks how much ironing I have to do but I keep putting it off!! I really have to get some done. I have 3 big baskets so far and the line is full so is the drier and the washing machine!!!!!!

StephXXOO

Blog Candy

I have never heard of blog candy before -its sent my little brain ticking over so stay tuned but in the mean time check outthis gorgeous blog (who said the Brit's didn't scrap!!)

Scrapping Away

Paul is home sick today and I was planning on starting his birthday present today!!!! Bought som gorgeous Buddist inspired stuff and work last night so can't wait to get cracking!

Steph XXOO

Cindy's Angels.........

http://www.scrappeangels.com.au/blog/?p=124

Ouchies!!

I had 3 wisdom teeth out on Monday and I'm still feeling pretty sore!!.... On a brighter not I won the September sketch challenge over at top 50. ($35 worth of orange jelly stamps woohoo)!!!

This is the page I won with..

I'm also busy trying to get some stuff done for the AED stand at Paperific. Alison sent me all 3 new ranges and they are all gorgeous!! So I've been having lots of fun playing with those.

StephXXOO

Story Book Paper

Check out these adorable collage packs from Meet Me at Mikes
If I hadn't just committed to saving my ar$e off for our new pergola I'd be buying one. But I just had to share!!

In case you were wondering..........

These are the fat photos I offered up and that Slimming and Health didn't use for the story.....

And this is the one they did use

A Couple of Shares

These are a couple of pages I did for the most recent scrap therapy CC

For those of you who haven't seen it

My 2 page spread in September Slimming & Health Magazine.

It's Time To Vote

Head over to Top50 and check out the voting for the August sketch challenge :)

Steph

PS I hope you've all checked out this month's Slimming and Health magazine page 44!!

Why Is It So Painful

Waiting for the POSTIE

How sad am I going to me if he DOESN"T bring my magazine today!!!

I'll go do the groceries - hopefully he'll have been and gone when I get back!!

A couple of pages

Merry Christmas (in July)

Today A Scrappe Angels Heaven (ml LSS and also my place of employment) held its annual Christmas in July all day workshop.
I am exhausted, but amongst all the eating and laughing I managed to get some great projects done.

We did 3 double page layouts, a Christmas card, a "never ending card", a photo mailer and a Christmas village which is GORGEOUS I can't wait to finish that off!

I learnt some great new techniques and also discovered some products I know can't live without (purple glue and a centring ruler. My fingers stayed clean with the aide of my new glue spreader too!!)

Anyways 2 more minutes until Bennett is off to bed and I can start the ironing - Oh joy!

Will upload pics of my creations tomorrow

Steph XXOO

Back to Reality..........

With a Thud!

Home again now - time certainly does fly when you are having fun. So when I left you last I was heading up to Joanna's baby shower which was held at her parents place in Miranda. We had a ball and Jo got so many great things for the baby which is great because she has hardly bought anything!!! Jo's mum Linda and sister Emma did a great job baking us yummy treats and we played some great games - luckily no gross birth stories!

After everyone had left Jo drove me into Newtown to Jed's apartment where I met up with some Uni friends Naomi, Damo and Putz and a couple of their friends Ryan and Bec. We headed off to a pub in Wooloomooloo and went straight upstairs to grab a seat. I noticed in the room there were quite a few platters of food and small groups chatting and I suspected we may have wandered into a private function........ my suspicions were confirmed when all our drinks kept getting added to the bar tab. I think because we entered like we had a right to be there -no one questioned us at all. We had a great meal there (we paid for that part although the waitress asked us if there wasn't enough food upstairs!!) After the yummy dinner we headed downstairs to continue the catch up and we stayed there until closing.

Nomes, Bec and myself in one cab and Jed and Ryan in another. The journey back to Newtown was quick but we got to have a good natter about the boys and girls tend to do.

Back at Jed's we ended up kicking on until 3am after listening to Jed rant and rave about his distaste for Miley Cyrus!

Sunday morning a very seedy Jed and Naomi awoke and we discussed breakfast..... Jed decided he should go next door to the Quik E Mart and get some bacon, about 40 minutes later he returns. Another "Jed-rant" was endured whilst he explained that the aforementioned convenience store doesn't sell bacon due to religion reasons (hmmm alcohol and porn must be ok then LOL) so he traipsed along to get the bacon, god forbid he return empty handed to a ravenous Nomes!

I whipped them up a delicious looking breakfast of bacon, eggs, mushrooms and english muffins, after licking their plates clean Naomi drove me into The Rocks to meet up with the KV crew...............

How many 30 year olds do you know that go out for beers with their "parent's friends"? Well that is just what I did - although I definitely consider them "my friends" too seeing as I've known them since I was 9 years old and even chose to go out with them for my 18th instead of a party!

We had a great time, drinking beers and catching up over some yummy pub grub! Unfortunately as I had to meet some friends for a play I had to rush off at 4:30pm but I'm sure they carried on for a while longer.

Next stop was meeting Sam and her friend and we went and saw another friend Simon in a play her was in. It was interesting and nothing like I expected but lots of fun. Following this, more food and good conversation then coffee and great cake. Joanna has returned meet us after dinner (just in time for cake) and she dropped me back at Jed's apartment about 11pm. Jed headed straight to bed and I pottered around for a little while getting excited about my adventures the following day.

Monday morning arrived too quickly but I was excited about the photo shoot but also looking forward to getting home to the boys that night. Jed headed off to work and I finished getting ready, a nice leisurely breakfast and a shower and then I received a frantic phonecall from Jed - he was hoping I hadn't left yet (I hadn't). He had left his laptop at home and in his rush to jump in a cab to come and get it he'd left his keys at work. He rushed upstairs with the cab downstairs so rather than catching the bus to the city like I had planned I jumped in the cab with him and they dropped me off on the way through town.

My call was for 10:30am I wandered around for a bit and bought a few things and headed to the ACP building about 10am. The man before me had cancelled so it worked out well and the 9:30am guy was finishing up so I had an hour on my own with the stylist and the make up girl. The Stylist Alicia picked out a couple of dresses for me, the third one must have registered on my face because she said try this one on first. As I was about to slip it over my head I noticed it was a size 10 - bummer I thought, but bugger me if it didn't fit me like a glove!! When Alicia was zipping it up she said - guess what this is a size 10 and I got VERY excited. She grabbed a tiny wide belt that I didn't think would go around my neck let alone my waist but bugger me again hey!

It's amazing how different my perception is to how I must actually look!

Back in my regular clothes - I sat down for hair and makeup which was lots of fun and in keeping with the style of the dress. Had an excellent chat with the makeup artist who loves all the same old school UK music as Paul and I so that was nice to reminisce about Neds, Carter, Emf etc etc.

Once hair and make up was done, back into the dress and then the accessorising began. tried a few bits and pieces, then shoes and some cool new toeless pantyhoes and I was good to go.

Kristie the art director was cool and the photographer was so lovely and really put me at ease. Luckily I watch so much many reality modelling shows that I didn't need much direction HAHA but it was great having Kristie there to tweak you and tell you what was and wasn't working and pull off stray pieces of lint from your clothes. They took lots of photos and tried a few different positions by the time they were done catering had arrived and I grabbed some food and headed off with Monica for my interview.

Once that was completely I was free to go and I started to think about what to do for a few hours while I waited for Jed to finish work. Hmmm I look fabulous, I'm in the city......... I know....... I'm going to go and see Sex and the City at the movies. I headed down to George St cinemas and as I was queuing up for my ticket I notice they had gold class cinemas there and it was 1:45pm and the next session was at 2pm. Could I? Of course! So I paid my $24.50 for my ticket and grabbed some lollies and headed up to the cinema. I perused the menu and arranged for some calamari and beer to be brought to me during the movie and then took my seat.

There were a couple of young girls sitting near me and asked me to take photos of them - I agreed and got them to do the same for me! The movie was great - the calamari was delicious and the serviette that came with it was perfect for mopping up my tears - WOW what a tearjerker!

After that I wandered around the QVB for a while and then met up with Jed, we got organised at his place and he dropped me off at the airport. My flight was delayed for a bit and I ended up at home about 10:30pm - utterly exhausted but you couldn't wipe the smile off my face!

Steph XXOO

Well Here I Am......

In Woolongong NSW.
I arrived in Sydney yesterday morning. I flew in with Qantas and I felt like a rockstar (well even more than normal). This girl always flies Jetstar and Qantas was so different!! The plane was about twice the size with half the amount of people. Nearly eaveryone had a seat to themselves on the sides and nearly all the middle seats were empty. There was one person in business class - I really should have asked for an upgrade LOL

It was also lovely not to have to get my wallet out to get a coffee.

The flight was quick and painless and Jo was there to pick me up no dramas.

First stop was a factory outlet in Alexandria I wanted to check out, boy was I glad we did. They had 40% off there already discounted prices. I spent about $125 and got LOADS and all that was probably the original cost of the Lacoste shoes I bought for Paul or the Reeboks I bought myself, or the Newcastle Jets coat I bought my Dad!!!

Next we drove up to Camden to visit my Grandma who I havent seen in almost 10 years. It was fantastic catching up with her and she gave me a gorgeous saphire ring my Grandpa gave her for their 50th wedding anniversary shortly before he passed away. I will treasure it!

After that Jo and stopped by Campbelltown to pick up her new pram and then headed down to the 'gong. We had mama mia's pizza for dinner (a local specialty) Michael was rather unimpressed with side including copius amounts of pineapple and the fact I ate it with a fork and knife. Post dinner included too many lollies and bad chick flicks and saw us all flake at midnight!

It's now 11:40am and I am still in bed. Jo's baby shower starts at 3pm so we really better get moving.

Tonight Im having dinner with Jed, Naomi, Stu and the rest of the Newcastle Uni crew. Sunday lunch is with Chris and Leigh who used to work with my Dad and have known me longer than I care to remember!!!

Monday will be a leisurely morning before heading into the CBD for the photo shoot at Slimming and Health magazine and after that Jo and I will browse arond Sydney before my flight home. I spoke to Bennett this morning and he told me its only 2 more sleeps until I come home!! I miss that little monster so much. And the big monster too I suppose LOL

Steph XOXO

I really am a Scrapbooking Dork aren't I?

Today I had my SDU graduation and I really think Paul was mortified by just how DORKY I am!!!!!!!! It was fun though and I was even allowed to cut the cake.

Special Photos needed a fabulous layout

I knew after paying $15 for this photo that I HAD to scrap it beautifully - the easiest way to do a gorgeous layout is to scraplift from my amazing employer Cindy Porter.

Also I'm uploading the make and take's from the AED stand at picture to page this weekend!!

Wedding Card

Only one more sleep until we jet off.............

here is a taster of some of the fun things we'll be doing

And here is the card I made for the happy couple

A new blog to check out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY finally my place of employment has a blog - its brand spanking new atm but its going to great!!! Be sure to head over and leave a comment and let me know here if you do and perhaps I may send some love your way :)

You can check out the blog for A Scrappe Angels Heaven here

Happy Pants and Fresh Produce

Well just before these pants go to their new home via ebay ($3 what a bargain!!) here is one last picture with them - can't say I miss the pants at all.

And this is what our garden produced this year - was tasty but can't say it was worth the effort???

Library Elf

I am forever getting Library fines and I found this on my Library webage today hopefully its going to save me money!!

http://www.libraryelf.com/

Who is that fat bastard

I was looking through some old pictures today and came across this photo from boxing day 2004. My friend Kym said, "who are those fat people impersonating you and Paul?"

FFFFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNISSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Woohoo - 43.5kgs gone :) Now the hard part starts - keeping it off

Bush Walking

On Sunday, Paulie and I headed up to Werribee gorge for a bushwalk he had wanted me to do with him for about 3 years!!!!

It was amazing - very difficult but lots of fun.........

My Crazy Morning

My walk this morning was an absolute ordeal!!! Started off by me being slow to get going so didn't leave till 6:30 so I knew I'd have to do the short version as I have to be home for 7:15 so Paul can leave for work.
Stupid Penny ran off as soon as I took her and Jumble off the lead and only Jumble came back so spent almost an hour looking for her!! Paul just caught his bus but we had to wake up Bennett so I could go back out and look for her again - with the Jumble safely locked in the yard. Bennett and I walked around for an hour (him in his pjs and with no breakfast) until we were going to be late for swimming so rushed home to get ready and the STUPID dog was in the yard - she must have found her own way home and the neighbours put her in the yard.
Man did I have a headache after all that!!!

Mothers Group and a bit of scrapping

Our mothers group was back together after almost 3 years apart!!! Maija and Onni moved to China when the kids had just turned 1, seeing as they are nearly 4 it was great to see them playing together!!


Making a farewell book for Maija all those years ago was how I got into scrapping in the first place so it was nice to be able to make her a few more pages to mark the day, she can add some photos from the day in when she gets them printed.

I also have these 2 pieces completed for various challenges.....

Back to Uni

Well I just finished my last day at Scrapbooking University http://www.scrapbookdesignuniversity.com/

It was an intensive weekend course rather than the 5 week course and OMG I have so much overload its not funny!! I'm so keen to get stuck into my scraproom - I have a few ideas on some organising plus a whole new range of design ideas to start playing with.

My goal last year was to get published - this didn't happen but I reckon my scrapping will take on a whole new maturity now I've done this course!! It was FANTASTIC.

At this stage there are only a few places you can complete the course but if you get a chance DO it!! The fees might seem a lot (my particular store charged $250) but it was WELL worth it - you didn't need to take anything along and got lots of stuff to play with and keep.

We had homework last night to do some journalling and we had to read it out this morning. I managed to make EVERY single woman in that room cry (including myself) LOL so I guess it was some pretty emotive journalling.

Stay tuned for some fab new pages from this inspired chicky!!!

Steph