Sad News

My dear old Gran passed away peacefully in her bed last night with Mum and Dennis by her side.
At 96 and a half - she is and always will be an inspiration to me and my girls.
Love you Grandma.
Rest in peace.

 On a happier note, I have scrapping to show you.
My creative efforts have slowed down to once a month - I just struggle to get the spare time these days.
Thank goodness for my DT gig with SHOW US YOUR STUFF to keep me going.

A simple little "recipe" for the September #2 Challenge.........

Multi photos (i.e. - more than one!)

Stripes

And of course something handmade

How cute are these handmade flowers?

I found them for the SUYS Try This Technique.

SO cute and SO easy. 

How gorgeous would they be on a hairclip or headband?

More news and pics to come.....Book Week, Kate's BD, etc.

See you soon!

Pausing to catch my breath

....and catch you up on all that's been going on in our household this past month. CRAZY BUSY does not even describe our August!

1. My rusty-nail-through-the-foot experience was most inconvenient....one week bed rest, three doctor visits and 5 weeks later, it's healed enough this week for me to walk upright without any sign of a limp.

2. Armidale for the New England/North Coast Multicultural Public Speaking Competition - Kate was representing the Inverell area with her speech on Asylum Seekers. She did so well, but came unstuck on the dreaded impromptu. This is the first year she has put her hand up for public speaking - and we were so very proud of her!

3. A quick dash (well, a 5 and a half hour hike) to the coast to see my dear Gran who is in hospital with kidney failure. At almost 97 we were worried at the state we would find her -  but as usual she amazed us all with her quick wit and cheekiness. Underneath all the bravado, she really is very sick....GET WELL SOON GRANNY!

4. As soon as we returned it was all systems go with the Inverell Speech & Music Eisteddfod. Our Bethy, looking extra cute in her country get up, did a gorgeous solo on her guitar - her first - and not even a loud siren screeching by in the middle of her piece could distract her concentration!

5. That same day Kate was off to Tamworth for the Regional Athletics, having qualified for the 800m and the 4x100 relay. Despite being called to the start of the relay directly from the 800m finish line (gasp!) her team went like lightning to get 2nd place and are now headed to Sydney Olympic Park for the State Athletics!  A dream come true for Katie Belle!

6. The very next day, fighting off a cold, Kate was on stage with her clarinet at Eisteddfod, winning a swag of awards including Junior Instrumental Champion. If only I had half her energy and determination.....

7. A few days later it was back on the same stage for Kate's Dance Concert....three nights in a row of rehearsals and performances.....

8. Relaxation time at last! Which included a visit from Mum bearing gifts and stories of her European tour, a quiet fish at a local dam.....

....and a hot stone massage for me.....BLISS!

Oh yeah....in between organising and ferrying children here there and everywhere.....I did actually work 4 days a week and get a promotion to boot!

And I created this for the SUYS August Quote Challenge.....

Do you like my little air-dry clay cloud and bone (my handmade items for this month)?

So you see my friends, my blogging time has been rudely interrupted by life, and I do apologise for that. Let's see how September is looking.....

• Book week projects and costumes
• Soccer grand final
• Catering for Technology Camp
• Kate's 12th birthday
• Bike Day at school
• Yamba camping holiday

Ummmm.......hope to see you around soon!!!

Lesson learnt...

.....crocs are not suitable footwear for fetching firewood from the wood shed.
Big rusty nails go straight through and cause excruciating pain. Owwwey!!!!!

If I could walk, I would go down and take a photo of the nasty culprit to show you....it was a bigg-un! Tetanus booster done, now on antibiotics, strong pain killers and instructed to keep my foot elevated.....(we all know how impossible that is in a busy household)!

To cheer myself up a bit I might go and make a birthday card for my lovely sister in law using these gorgeous butterflies I made.....

So cute! They are for the new monthly technique feature I'm running over at SUYS.....check it out!

Sorry for the slackness of my blog updates lately. I will do better I promise!

Big shout out to MUM (who's having a wonderful adventure in Europe....jealous!), JOY (yes, I'm still here!) and LINDA (miss you!)

xxxooo

The Rainbow Party

Mia's RAINBOW party was a huge success!

THE CAKE

I made a marble cake.....divided the batter into 5 and coloured it very brightly before blobbing alternate colours randomly in a ring tin (no need to swirl before baking). When cooked and cooled, I cut it in half, iced with white butter icing and decorated with M&M's. It looked fab and was a huge hit with the kids.

THE PRESENTS

Wrapped in stripey rainbow paper - of course!

Mia got her longed-for pink Razor scooter plus heaps more.

THE FOOD & DECORATIONS

All garishly coloured (and sugar-loaded!)......gum balls, fairy bread, swirly lollipops, sherbet sticks, blue clouds, homemade M&M fudge.....

Not all bad.....my rainbow fruit platter kept the health-conscious Mum's happy....

I used a white plastic tablecloth and served the food in mainly white or glass containers to make the colours pop. Colourful plastic party trays from Crazy Clarks held chips and fairy bread. The girls went crazy with textas on white sticky labels to attach to white plastic cups for each guest. Decorations easy - colourful party hats and balloons tied to every available spot. And the guests were asked to wear rainbow colours.....

GAMES

I found the perfect pinata at our local party shop.....

....was stuffed with Chuppa Chups, mini boxes of Smarties, gold coin chocolates and party favours the kids collected up and placed in their take-home lolly bags.

We played Pin-the-Nose-on-the-Clown, Musical Colours (Twister Scram circles scattered on the floor, danced around to music, when music stops choose a circle to stand on, spin the spinner, everyone on that colour is out, repeat until one person left!), had a fashion designer team challenge using streamers.....

.....I let the kids colour-in my chimney with chalk.....

......and had face painting and rainbow manicures.....

.....and the trampoline is always a fave....

Mimi announced it was the "best party ever".....and you can't do much better than that!

Meet Ted and Lucy....

......two cute-as-pie Kelpie puppies who came to live with us last weekend.

Yes, I know....another couple of mouths to feed.....but truly, who could resist faces as adorable as these.....

This is Big Ted - he has a very, um....how can put this politely....chunky figure....we love his little wide view from the back.....

Miss Lucy is the sweetest cuddliest girl....pick her up and she burrows herself under your neck....way better than a scarf!

Jemima is tolerating their antics......just.....

Tim took the kids to the movies yesterday (along with the rest of Inverell it seemed) to see the long awaited....

Leaving me at home to finish off another good book.....

......picked it up cheap at a bookstore in Broken Hill last year.

When searching for an image just now I find out it's the last in a series of 3! How annoying! You really wouldn't have guessed though.....a complete story in its own right.  I also found out Oprah had it on her book club a few years back....and its been made into a movie too!

One more week until the school hols......kids are counting down.....

Plus a certain someone's 7th birthday on Friday.....

she wants a party with a RAINBOW theme.....any ideas please pass them on!

Layout share

Been scrappin again.....

This time for the latest sketch challenge at Pencil Lines.

.....correction tape makes a great base for strip journaling on a dark or patterned background....

....continued my latest fad for crumply edges....

.......this is the sketch......versatile don't you think?

....and great for wallet sized pics....print them in one strip and cut down on trimming.

That's all for now!

It's raining it's pouring...

....and Penny is scrapping.....(sing it with me now!)

OK. Time to share the latest SUYS challenge with you dear readers. A lovely simple colour challenge. Check out the details here.

Here is my double page that featured in SM recently....Vol13 No7......the best thing about this one is that Kate and her friends showed the mag around school and got to feel "famous" for 15 minutes......you can imagine the excitement!

How was your long weekend?
We took the kids out of school a day early and made a quick escape to the coast here.  A fabulous little spot right on the river - the perfect quiet getaway.

The sun shone down on us at first.

We launched the new boat and set off to explore the river.....climbed the ginormous sand dune....

......got lots of bites and a few fish too.....

.....went paddle-boating....

......and then it rained. And rained....and rained....and rained. Bucketed down in fact. All day and all night for the rest of the holiday.

We had to slosh through the puddle (or should I say lake) outside our cabin to pack the car on our final morning.

And just made it back out to the highway before the road flooded.

But you know what?

I loved this mini-holiday, rain and all!

When else does one get to snuggle up and read a whole 630 page novel from start to finish and feel completely guilt-free about it!

Loved this book! Was totally absorbed until the very last word.

Bye for now xxx