Words and Pictures

Hello 2012

2012-01-03T19:15:00.001+11:00

DSC_3722.jpg, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

Guess what I got for Christmas... no not purple nail polish, a hammock! LOVE

Working on finishing some pressing projects from 2011, then I will be ready for 2012. My 2012 projects will all start in February this year, due to aforementioned pressing projects. It will be a huge weight off my shoulders to finish these darn things, then I will really feel free to focus on being creative again rather than sticking my nose in a text book. 2011 was a constant war between the two, then the resulting guilt meant that even when I chose creativity I couldn't put my all into it because of the necessities I was neglecting.

So I know its been quiet here in 2011, but come February things should pick up again :)

Happy New Year!!

Breakfast in bed

2011-11-02T18:07:00.000+11:00

Today my lovely children made me breakfast in bed. It was toast with vegemite and a cup of coffee. They served it on a tray with a vase of roses from my garden. Nice. It was the first time they have done this, and it was really sweet, then they lounged on the bed and chatted while I ate it. It was really a great way to start the day. It probably wont happen again for a long time, but the memories will last long enough to keep me going until then.

Pink Pixie

2011-10-20T20:01:00.001+11:00

18/10/2011, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

We were heading out for a walk when Brett sees Kelly standing next to an Azalea bush that is the exact same colour as her tshirt and her phone. How could I not snap a photo of that, too bad its on my phone so not the best quality photo, but she looked so cute sitting there amongst the flowers :)

Baking bread

2011-10-17T19:17:00.002+11:00

16/10/2011, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

I bake bread. Everyday. Everyday I bake one loaf of bread, During the weekdays its a German Grain bread completely done in the breadmaker. On the weekend I experiment.

A few months back we went by the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston and picked up a delicious smelling loaf of bread complete with olives, sun dried tomatoes and basil. Since then I have been working on perfecting my own version because, quite frankly it was like a little slice of heaven. On Saturday I got the closest I ever have to replicating it. This is not a picture of said loaf because it got eaten before I had the chance to capture it. So this is a picture of Sunday's sourdough, which incidentally was probably my best ever sourdough loaf, and all but one slice was gobbled up quick as a flash. This morning I had the last slice for my breakfast :) mmm

5 Questions

2011-10-15T11:16:00.000+11:00

OK I totally stole this from PhotographingMom's blog, she was kind enough to leave me a comment yesterday after my long absence, and she had these questions on her blog so I thought I'd put them up here.

1. Do you prefer your ice cream in a bowl or in a cone?

Always in a bowl! a big bowl... and I like to eat it with a teaspoon to make it last even longer :)

2. What three things do you love the smell of?

Vanilla
Coffee
Newborn babies

3. Giftcards or no? (In regards to gift giving...)
I used to always say I would never give gift cards, I wanted my gifts to be well thought out and personalised, then I acquired 11 nephews and nieces who have everything they could ever want, now I love to give gift cards ;)

4. What sports did you play in high school if any and do you still play them?

Netball is my game. I started playing in Under 12's and continued playing until I was 27 when I fell pregnant with my first child. I also coached and umpired for most of that time too. When the winter day competition was over I played night comp, and indoor netball too. I think I was a little obsessed :D I have played a couple of times since having kids, but the old body is just not up to it anymore. I am now coaching my daughters team.

5. Were you in band in high school? What instrument did you play?
No band, I played piano for a few years and hated every second of it, and now I wish I could still play?

So a few little things about me you probably never cared to know, but now you do :p

Coming out of hibernation

2011-10-14T16:30:00.000+11:00

I nearly fell off my chair when I looked at the date of my last post, July... no surely that's not possible! I know I tend to get a bit off track in the winter time, but seriously, July...!

I think I have been hibernating. It seems I do this every winter, I am not a winter person, the cold makes me want to curl up in a ball, to read books, and to eat chocolate. None of which is conducive to keeping fit or keeping up with the things I have to do. I need to catch up with lots of photo editing, scrapping, cleaning and studying :(

The only light at the end of the tunnel is that as the weather warms up I always start to feel more energized, so hopefully I can catch up quickly.

A timely reminder

2011-07-22T10:31:00.004+10:00

I am finally getting around to working with the photos I took on our holiday last year. Yes I know it was a year ago next month that we left and I still don't have the photos edited and uploaded, let alone scrapped or in an album, bad, bad bad...

The reason... well one of them. Just too many darn photos. I have about 70 photos of Uluru at sunset alone. Seriously after scrolling past two or three I am over it, my photos are not bad, but they are not spectacular either, I certainly wouldn't get paid for them, so I just need to get busy with the delete key.

Here is a post from the Digital Photography School website talking about just that - deleting ruthlessly. I think its time I searched out the delete key on my keyboard too and did something useful with my photos ;)

Smells like Jamie Oliver

2011-07-19T13:58:00.003+10:00

I am quite the Jamie Oliver fan, I am the proud owner of a number of his cookbooks, and can also claim to have watched quite a bit of Jamie TV.

My latest thing is Jamies 30 Minute Meals, the idea being that you can get a great meal on the table in 30 minutes, and forgo the takeaway or frozen pizza.

So when my husband walks in the door and says "hmmm smells like Jamie Oliver in here" I guess now you understand what he means.

Mad about Harry

2011-07-15T17:16:00.002+10:00

I know everyone in the known universe is probably talking about Harry right now, but I had to chime in. Saw the final Harry Potter movie today. It felt like the end of an era for me. I was feeling almost deflated by the end of the movie.

I loved it.

I have loved every minute of Harry and his friends over the past decade, and am so grateful that JK Rowling had the inspiration to tell his story.

Give me a month or two and I think I will pick the books up and read from the start again.

sweet drama queen

2011-05-27T10:09:00.001+10:00

Years ago I took a series of photos of Hayley sitting at the table while she was supposed to be eating her dinner. It was peas actually, the rest of the dinner was gone, and there were just a mouthful of peas to eat. She was so funny, she really didn't want to eat those peas, and she tried all manner of facial expressions to convince me. This LO shows just a couple of them.

Supplies:
Studio DD Layerworks No. 3, Katie Pertiet
Young Love Kit Cilenia Curtis
Vintage Love Kit Cilenia Curtis
AbsolutelyAcrylicAlpha1 Pattie Knox

A quick LO

2011-05-19T21:57:00.001+10:00

Amy from Over at our Place posted a LO, and challenged everyone to capture something from their everyday lives. So I decided to just do it. So here is my LO showing my pistacio tree in all its autumn colour as it looks from my family room couch :)

Supplies: Template, Amazing - Cathy Zielske. Papers Acrylic arrow and circle element- Focused on You Cilenia Curtis. Scruffy Overlay - Honey Scraps. Stitching - Anna Aspnes Stitching - Katie Pertiet. Worn paper edges - Katie Pertiet. Staples and clips - Cilenia Curtis. Fonts VT Portable Remington, CK Alis Hand.

My New Car

2011-05-10T21:02:00.001+10:00

09/05/2011, a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

For mothers day I got a new car! I am a very lucky individual ;) She's a lovely red colour, and we are calling her Rosie. So fun to drive and I couldn't be happier :)

Now if you want to see a really good LO

2011-04-29T16:15:00.000+10:00

Go and check out my friend Michelle's page at 2 Peas. I am totally scraplifting this page, I heart it!

She used a new kit that will be available at Digital Designer Shop next week for (i)NSD. For a chance to win the kit and to get some nice freebies and have some fun come and check out Digital Designer Blog for details.

Feast or a famine round here

2011-04-27T22:01:00.000+10:00

OK so I go for weeks without posting and then, here I am with a third post in one day. I had to put this up here though because its been so long since I scrapped I had to record the event for posterity.

Template Double D from Designer Digitals, all other elements and papers by Cilenia Curtis at Digital Designer Shop.

How can you not smile?

2011-04-27T20:43:00.000+10:00

Its kind of hard not to crack a smile when you walk out to get in the car in the morning to find that someone has left you a message for the day :)

Last day of the holidays

2011-04-27T14:34:00.000+10:00

Just hanging out today with the kids, our last day of school holidays before the new term starts. Its been a funny type of holidays this time, I worked the first week, while dh stayed home with the kids then he went to work while I stayed home. Then my parents came for a visit, which was great. Then it was Easter, and we had heaps of jobs around the house to sort out. And now, we are here at the last day.

I wish we had another week... its all been over far too quickly.

The grunt years

2011-04-14T13:47:00.000+10:00

Many years ago I gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy. He was the light of my life, he always had something interesting (well he thought it interesting) to share with me, he laughed a lot, he even thought I was funny. He loved hanging out with me, he like to bring his friends home to meet me.

Recently that boy went missing. In his room there is another boy who lives there, he answers almost all enquiries with a grunt or meh or whatev', and heaven forbid his friends coming to our house, or even meeting us. All the experts say that I can expect this boy to live in my boy's room for about two or three years, then my old boy will in all likelihood come back.

Universe, if you are listening, I am praying for patience. Really. Praying. Hard !! I long for the day when I ask "how was your day Mate?" and get more than a grunt in reply ;)

Nobody warns you about teenagers when you decide to have a baby, I guess if they did people might be less interested in the whole affair :)

Netball

2011-04-13T19:13:00.000+10:00

For most of my life I played netball, I also coached and umpired. Most winters my entire Saturday was spent running up and down a netball court, and when I was old enough to drive myself I started playing mid week in night competitions, then also indoor netball. It was a HUGE part of my life.

Sadly my poor body is not up for playing anymore :( but both of my girl are playing Saturday competition now, and this year I took the plunge and put my hand up to coach again. Tonight was our first training session, and I felt almost exhilirated when we got home. I have missed being involved so much. I had some misgivings when I volunteered, but they have all faded for now. I had fun. I can only hope the girls did too.

Miss H has the most fantastic coach so I didn't want to intefere with a good thing, but Miss K's team was coachless, so I am looking after her team this year. I have nine girls all around 13-14 years old, some familiar faces, but a few I don't know. I only hope I can help them all to enjoy a great season of netball.

spare a thought

2011-04-01T17:43:00.001+11:00

just a quick post today to ask anyone who reads this to spare a thought for my two year old nephew, he is in hospital with pneumonia and asthma. He is responding well to medications but still needs some more healing before he can go home.

The Lost Weeks

2011-03-30T14:07:00.001+11:00

Hmm something weird seems to have happened. I looked at the calendar this morning and its the 30th March! wth? Surely not, there must have been some mistake, it must be closer to maybe March 21st?

I hate how that happens, I think I am on top of things, and wake up to find out that somehow I have misplaced two weeks (sometimes more). I am trying really hard to remember what happened in those lost weeks, but cant come up with much. The only occassion of note was our 16th wedding anniversary. Luckily for me it was the most important occasion in said lost weeks, so its good that I can at least rememer that ;)

This year we stayed in and ate at home. My Delicious magazine featured an article on Rachel Allen, and Irish woman, who cooks. I think I may well become addicted to her because I used some of her recipes for our meal, and it was the best. Ever.

We started with little bruschetta style things, thinly sliced, toasted baguette pieces, topped with an olive and caper tapenade, then slices of tomato and bocconcini with a little basil. To. Die.For. alongside a G&T, so so good.

Next up was a baked salmon with tomato and avocado salsa and aspargus spears. Wish I'd eaten it slower just to make it last for longer. I ate slowly as it was, but I could have had that experience for many more hours without tiring of it.

Then we finished with Chocolate Creme Brulee. Only I don't own a kitchen blowtorch thingy to cook the top with, so we had to place the brulees under a hot grill till the sugar melted.. and well lets just say that now I am getting a kitchen blow torch thingy because they would have been heaps better if I had one, and the brulees were good enough to justify having a blow torch to use even if it were only once a year ;)

We had a lovely New Zealand Sav Blanc with our meal, and I had a lovely Peter Lehman Botrytis to go for after but I was so full I didn't even open it! So that is there for another day anyway. So like I said, I may have lost a few weeks, but the day I remember was pretty good. Brett and I both felt it was as good or better a meal as we would have had in a restaurant, and the kids joined us for desert after making themselves scarce for the main meal.

Week4

2011-03-07T16:55:00.001+11:00

Week4 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

Last one for the day, I now have the first four weeks of the year recorded - yay!

Week3

2011-03-07T14:49:00.001+11:00

Week3 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

And another one, I am on a roll today ;) Its so much easier to churn these out when I use the same basic template and kit for everything.

Week2

2011-03-07T14:12:00.001+11:00

Week2 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

Second week of P365 for 2011

week1

2011-03-07T10:25:00.001+11:00

week1 a photo by jocfly on Flickr.

I finally got my act together and started my P365 layouts last night. I have finished this one, and have four more that are almost finished. Its such a relief to finally make some progress on this, I was starting to think I would have to forget about it this year :(

So here is Week 1. I have used a template from the Project 365 2011 Kit by Joey Lynn Designs and Wild Blueberry Ink purchased from Owl Tree Studios, and papers and elements from the Joyce Paul Awakenings Kit.

Fairy cupcake

2011-02-21T09:31:00.002+11:00

Fairy cupcake
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Hayley received a few Master Chef junior cooking sets for Christmas and has been in cooking mode ever since. That doesn't mean she has done a lot of cooking, just that she has badgered me constantly to do some cooking.

Finally on the weekend I agreed it was time to cook, and these fairy cupcakes were the result. They have tiny M&Ms spread through them and when they came out of the oven they looked like a little rainbow explosions - she was so proud!

So now they are iced, sprinkled and packed in lunchboxes ready for school.

When I asked Tyler if he was "man enough" to take a pink fairy cupcake to school he gave me "the look" and snorted, "just hand over the cupcake Mum", so I guess he is tough enough for it lol.

Valentines Day

2011-02-16T17:00:00.001+11:00

14/02/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Tonight was Kelly's turn to cook tea, she had already decided what she would cook, then I noticed her busily scribbling away at her desk. I didn't pay much attention at the time, so I was sweetly surprised when this turned up on the table when we sat down to eat :)

Ages ago we got a free chinese dinner set from Bing Lee which has been sitting in the cupboard unopened. This year they were giving them away again, and the ads were constanly on the television which reminded Kelly about it. She really wanted to cook something that we could use this dinner set with.

She ended up cooking Thai chicken and noodle soup, so it wasn't exactly Chinese, but, we did need to use the chopsticks for it, so she was happy with that :) and the soup was very tasty. I love that she is interested in cooking, and wanting to try out some different things.

Sunday, and the cooking is easy ;)

2011-02-14T09:43:00.001+11:00

13/02/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Turkey burgers for tea tonight. After another busy day in the garden we needed something quick and tasty tonight, and burgers hit the spot, and of course a glass of Margaret River Cab Merlot helps it all go down that much more smoothly ;)

As much as I enjoyed our holiday, and would do it again in a heatbeat, taking two months away from the garden at the beginning of Spring leaves a tonne of work to be done later on! Its been a really hard slog but finally things are nearly back under control whew.

Another first day

2011-02-10T11:25:00.001+11:00

HayYr310111_web
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Last week all the excitement was around Kelly starting high school, but the same day you started a new year of school too.

You were aprehensive, as is your way with anything new, on one hand you were looking forward to seeing all of your friends again, but on the other hand you didn't know who your teacher would be or which friends you would have in your class. We thought for sure your group would be split this year, but we were wrong. All four of you are together again this year, and, you have Mrs Walls as your teacher. If I could have hand picked your teacher for Year 4 it would have been her, so we feel pretty lucky about this :)

Have a great year Blossom xx

Hot and tired

2011-02-04T13:30:00.002+11:00

03/02/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its the end of a long hot day, we are all struggling to keep to cool (literally and figuratively) and right now I am just over it...

I just wrote some more words, but, I decided to delete them because nobody wants to listen to a long whinge. So I leave you today with a last minute POTD, Hayley and I taken with my phone just before she went off to bed.

xx

High School

2011-02-01T17:52:00.001+11:00

KelYr7310111_web
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its amazing to me that it is time for you to start high school already, surely you are only in Year 1 or Year 2? High School, wow, what blows me away is that I remember so clearly my own first day of high school. I remember the aprehension, and the excitment. I remember meeting new friends, and getting lost trying to find the right classroom. I remember catching the bus and the train for the first time.

But most of all I remember saying goodbye to my mum in the morning and seeing the look on her face as I stepped on to the train. I can only imagine the same look was on my face as you left the driveway this morning. And, I imagine the same look will be on your face the day you watch your beloved child take the next big step in their lives independent from you. You will look proud, but, you'll also have that tiny sense of sadness about you when you realise that your baby is growing up so fast.

xx

Camping

2011-01-29T10:27:00.002+11:00

25/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Our first camping trip since the big trip last Spring, oh I had almost forgotten for a minute how to put up the camper ;) It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things though, and once we were all set up and settled into our chairs, we started talking about doing it all again.

Its funny how you think that seven weeks holidays is a long time while you are dreaming about it and planning it, but, then when it happens it flies past so quickly, and then after its all done and packed away it seems like it happened in the dim dark past, not just over three months ago.

This trip was a two nighter at the coast with my BIL and his family. The kids all had a great time running wild, boogie boarding, playing beach volleyball, and running around with flashlights in the dark. They were so well entertrained it left Brett and I with time to just relax and chat. Lovely weekend.

Here's Kel, getting ready to hit the beach and brush up on her boogie board skills.

Genuis at Work

2011-01-25T09:36:00.001+11:00

25/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its so hard to get a photo of this kid lately. He scowls at the camera, or shifts suddenly out of the way, so even though this is blurry and dark it takes pride of place as the photo of the day for today.

Most of my POTD's this year are coming from my camera phone, and I am finding it much easier to post them to the internet and blog them doing it this way. I tend to leave photos on my camera for too long before downloading to the computer then ending up with a huge job of organising, tagging and uploading, which made P365 last year quite a chore. This year I decided the most important thing was to capture the moments, not necessarily have the "best" photos, and it has really made my P365 process simpler.

I am still taking some photos with the DSLR which will be included, but the camera phone is making life easier for the majority of the everyday shots.

You might have noticed there is also more blogging going on too, again the phone camera is helping here, because I take the shot, send it to Flickr from the phone, then when I hop into Flickr, I can blog the photo directly from there. Many of my non blogging resulted from the hassle of opening blogger and waiting for it to decide it was ready to allow me to post etc. The Flickr interaction has made it all so much quicker. 2010 was a slow blogging year for me, but already 2011 is looking up :)

Summertime fruits

2011-01-24T12:48:00.001+11:00

23/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

One of the things I love most about summer is the escape from the ordinary apple and orange routine for fruit. Don't get me wrong, I love apples and oranges, but, I love the variety of melons and stone fruits, and berries so much more.

Every afternoon I cut up a plate of fruit like this one and put it on the bench, then I call everyone out, and they start nibbling. If they don't finish it all in one sitting it just stays on the bench and they tend to snap some up as they are walking past. Eventually the whole lot goes. Some days I add some cheese, or a small bowl of yogurt which they use as a dip.

This is last nights plate, and it ended up disappearing right before my very eyes, all except the blackberries, which were a little tart, but I dont mind that so much, so it just meant more blackberries for me :)

List Girl

2011-01-24T12:02:00.001+11:00

20/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

All over my house there are lists. I am totally a list girl. If its not on my list it doesn't get done. Well actually sometimes it can be on my list and it still doesn't get done, but that's a different story all together lol.

Lately the rest of the family has been getting in on the act too, and adding things to the list as they use them. I love that they are finally doing this, now when they say Mum did you get muesli bars, I can say, if they were on the list I did. If they weren't on the list - well that's just bad luck ;)

Waiting for the movie to start...

2011-01-20T16:55:00.001+11:00

19/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

3D glasses? Check.
Big smile? Check

Ready to watch the movie. On Wednesday we all went to the movies together to see Tangled. We also invited Gma and Gpa along. I am not really sure what Gpa thought of it all, but Hayley's smile was even bigger when we left the theatre than it was while she was sitting here waiting for the movie to start!

Good Morning

2011-01-19T09:02:00.001+11:00

19/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Every weekday morning my routine is the same, set up and go for a walk, shower, turn on the coffee pot, pour cereal into my bowl, heat the milk, listen while the cofee perks, pour it into my cup, sit at the table with my bowl and my cup and the pull out sections from the paper and eat my breakfast.

I never read the "official" parts of the paper while I eat, just the general interest section, and the comics. And, on Wednesdays its the Food and Wine guide - I love the Wednesdays papers. Over the holiday break the paper has not had its normal pull out section each morning, but a supplemental section... not good. So glad to have the normal papers back :)

and so glad to have coffee ;)

Movie Night

2011-01-18T08:08:00.001+11:00

17/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Did you know that movie night is not really movie night unless there is popcorn? This is something I learned from my children. When the popcorn was made and sitting on the table Hayley announces "now it is movie night" up until then it must have been in doubt ;)

We watched the Scorcerer's Apprentice, which was perfectly marketed at Kelly and Hayley, but Tyler thought was a bit lame, especially the kid who played the apprentice.

Still it gave everyone a few laughs, and more importantly gave us time together as a family, so it was lots of fun.

My Niece Emily

2011-01-14T17:58:00.001+11:00

Emily_December2010_web
Originally uploaded by jocfly

In December when she was three weeks old I took lots of photos of my new niece, now I have to work out how make them look as good as they can look before I put them in a scrapbook for her mummy.

Rain

2011-01-12T12:01:00.001+11:00

11/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

The rains in northern Australia are causing huge amounts of damage and grief, but the rain here at home are just a different landscape for us than what we have been used to for the last eight years.

Its almost fascinating to me right now to just watch all that water fall from the sky. No doubt after getting my electricity bill at the end of summer I will feel differently because the clothes drier is earning its keep this year.

Jam Time

2011-01-11T09:18:00.001+11:00

11/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Summer time in our house means its time to start making jam again. On the weekend FIL brought over two large buckets of apricots from his tree in the backyard, and last night I turned one of those buckets into twenty jars of Apricot Jam.

Then I looked up into the top of the pantry and saw at least 15 jars still waiting to be opened from last year! And that doesn't count the plum, strawberry and loquat still waiting up there as well.

I remember DH talking about clearing out his Grandma's house when she moved and finding jars of preserved fruit that were older than him. Its possible that my grandkids will find the same thing in my old house one day in the future too :)

Enthusiasic... not

2011-01-10T20:52:00.001+11:00

10/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Hmm, Kel would rather take photos with her phone and text people than worry about shoe shopping ;)

New shoes for school

2011-01-10T20:50:00.001+11:00

10/01/2011
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Its that time of year again, preparing the kids for a new school year. Today was shoes for the girls. Neither of them were that impressed at the idea of wearing "proper" shoes, they would both prefer to wear running shoes, but at the end of the day they accepted the inevitable ;)

My Santa Collection

2010-12-09T22:04:00.000+11:00

My mother has a gorgeous collection of Santa's that she brings out each year at Christmas. Most of them are kind of expensive, and all are absolutely gorgeous. A couple of years ago I decided that one day I would like to have a Santa collection too, so I started collecting.

My first was a Heartwood Creek Naughty/Nice Santa, which I love so much, and it actually has some of my kids names on the lists that Santa is holding, and there was enough room to add the rest. Then my best friend gave me another Santa another year. Then each year another has been added to my collection. Some are inexpensive, and some not. This year I added another Heartwood Creek Santa with Woodland animals.

I hope to continue this tradition, and to have a note of where each Santa came from, and hopefully my kids will like the idea enough that they will be happy to give my Santa's a home one day.

to P or not to P

2010-12-03T17:43:00.000+11:00

Perfectionist = a person who is displeased by anything that does not meet very high standards
Procrastination = the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time

In reality I am not a true perfectionist - and that is something I have been working on for quite some time ;) but when it comes to anything photographic, scrappy or paper crafty my perfectionist nature rears its ugly head. It seems that because people know I love to take photos and scrapbook I feel that they expect something really WOW from me when it comes to things like, ummm, say.... Christmas Cards.

That means I put stupid pressure on myself to design and create something fantastic, which leads me to the second word Procrastination, because I seriously doubt my ability to produce said fantastic production, I put off getting started on it, and put it off, and put it off until.... oh dear its Christmas Eve and I still have not sent any Christmas Cards! eeek

Last year I only posted five cards, and that was because everyone else on my list had an email address, so I could email a .jpg of my card to them on Christmas Eve and they would still receive it before Christmas. I am afraid the posted ones probably arrived a day or two after New Years. I took the annual photo of the kids early enough, I even wrote the annual letter in plenty of time. I them ummed and aahed over the design, then decided it was all too hard, and put it off for another day, and another, and another. Of course then I had to go with something that I was way less than happy with, because I had run out of time.

Stupid huh?

So this year I am changing tactics. I have downloaded some free card templates from Becky Higgins blog, I am dropping in one photo of the family, typing a greeting, printing and posting (the envelopes are still here from last year already addressed and ready to go). No fuss, no responsibility for the design, just a simple greeting to our family and friends for the holiday season. The goal is to have them in the mail by December 16th.

I'll keep you posted - wish me luck!

White Christmas?

2010-12-03T09:45:00.000+11:00

....I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas.... hey wait a second, that should be white not wet shouldn't it? Around here right now wet is the word. After years of very low rainfall, dam levels below 40% capacity, water restrictions and drought reports on the news each night we have been thrust into waterworld.

Overnight last night 87mm was recorded as falling on us. Gutters are running fast, dams are filled to overflowing, and the grass in the yard gets to knee height in record time. It feels quite surreal.

Christmas season to me is always couched in thoughts of heat, sweat and dust. Not damp, rain and wet ;) Yes I am sure there have been wet Christmas seasons before, but the overriding memories are of those long hot days leading up to Christmas, of being too hot to sleep at night, and of dreading the thought of having to cook and eat a hot meal for Christmas lunch. This year as the season starts we are far from those kinds of thoughts. Its probably amplified by the fact that the past few years we have been under drought conditions, so all of the green and damp feels decidedly out of place.

One of my dreams for Christmas is to actually experience a white Christmas. When I was 21 I spent a Christmas in Switzerland, surely you would expect snow... but no, for the first year in I don't know how many they had no snow for Christmas. Disappointed? you bet. I love seeing the snow scenes in photos from my overseas friends, everyone rugged up and red cheeked, it all seems so special, so romantic. At home we are all red faced from the heat, and hot, tired and irritated often too. White Christmases seem to be absent of all of that, although the reality is most of that is probably very good marketing from Hollywood lol.

So this December I am settling for a wet Christmas. Its cool enough that we can be a little rugged up, we can snuggle up inside with hot chocolate and watch movies together, we can leave the tree lights on without fear of melting the tree, we can have a hot lunch, and hot pudding without complaints.

...yes I'm dreaming of a WET Christmas ;)...

Time Flies

2010-12-02T18:20:00.000+11:00

Its December!

I mean, really, where did the year go? In less than two weeks the kids finish school for the year, Kelly finishes primary school forever, and I only have one primary schooler left.

Time to start my December Daily and gear up for Christmas. I love Christmas, I find its lots more hard work these days than it ever was when I was a child, but its still lots of fun. Its funny how different Christmas is as an adult, I obviously never appreciated all of the work that my mother had to put in to make things special for us, and its only now that I get it.

Our tree is up, thanks to the girls, they love "tree day", the 1st of December, they were a bit excited, and I am already sick of hearing them sing Christmas carols lol, but luckily its all good :)

Foto Friday

2010-11-19T12:24:00.000+11:00

It was my birthday a few weeks ago, and Hayley decided that to make it a special occasion she needed to put on a pretty dress, and make sure that I had music to listen to. She happily played Happy Birthday, then moved through her small repetoire. So sweet!

Foto Friday

2010-11-12T10:46:00.000+11:00

Its been a while since I posted a photo Friday, so here is one from last weekend. This is a Waratah bush, the colour was amazing, from the distance all the other plants around it faded into obscurity. I am told they are very hard to grow in our area, and given that my thumb is far from green, I wont try, but I do think they are amazing.

Lucky

2010-11-12T10:38:00.000+11:00

Today I am having one of those moments, you know, when you just feel appreciative of what you have in your life. Its Friday, which means I am at home. I love my home - it feels good, I am lucky to live in such a perfect home for me.

The sun is shining. I am warm. My dog is sleeping by my feet. There is homemade mango ice cream in my freezer. My kids are healthy and happy. My husband loves me, even when I am less than loveable. Its not long to Christmas and I feel organised and ready. I am healthy. I have internet. I have good friends. There is nothing in this world that I need (only things I want ;) which is different).

Today I can say, I am one of the lucky ones. Have a fabulous Friday xx

Pretty curse

2010-11-11T21:55:00.000+11:00

All around town at the moment the paddocks are covered in purple. From a distance it looks just amazing, but, sadly it causes irreversible liver damage to horses, so it is bad bad bad.

Even so I couldn't help myself, I had to stop and take a photo of it today. Its called Patterson's Curse around here, a friend calls it Scottish Thistle, I dont know its true name, but it is very pretty, even though it's a curse.

Support your SES

2010-11-10T09:10:00.000+11:00

This week is SES support week, to find out some more check out Amys post here. The last few years the SES has not been short of work here in Australia, so here's to those who volunteer!

Typing wounded

2010-11-09T09:37:00.000+11:00

Hmm and I thought it would be a good idea to get the kids to cook one night each during the week. It appeals to my laziness to be able to sit back and play on the internet while supervising dinner being cooked. What a shame the reality doesn't line up with the fantasy ;)

Last night it was Kels turn to cook, but she still requires more hands on help, so I was slicing veggies using a Zyliss slicer and I managed to slice off a part of my finger too - ouch!! It was quite a deep slice, although nothing requiring stitches, but painful nonetheless.

Also bad was the fact that even though I was slicing a zuchini when the incident occurred, just prior to that I was slicing an onion, and of course I didn't rinse the onion juices off before starting on the zuchini. Man that smarts....

Then to add insult to injury this morning while making my bed my fingernail snagged in the blanket as I was snapping it tight and ripped off and flew accross the room. Both injuries on my right hand, both stupid and avoidable, and both hurt more than they should given how small fingers actually are.

Bummer :(

Here's a fella I met while on holidays

2010-10-27T18:36:00.001+11:00

This cute little guy sat watching me intently while I clicked away, then darted straight at my foot! What I didn't realise was he was waiting for a big juicy fly to land on my shoe, then he pounced, and voila! lunchtime.

We all sat for ages watching him repeat his trick over and over, he was very entertaining. I dont know his real name, but the locals call him a ta ta lizard, becasuse while they are watching they wave one of their front legs as if saying ta ta or goodbye. We were in Lawn Hill NP by the river when we saw him. We also ran into one of his cousins in Mt Surprise who was equally as cute!

Project 365 update

2010-10-26T21:58:00.000+11:00

Last time I attempted project 365 I fell flat before May, this year I am happy to say I am still going strong in October. There were one or two weeks that may contain a couple of photos taken on the same day, but overall the photo a day thing has continued.

At first I really wanted to take superb photos every day, to finish up with an album of magical visual delights, but as the weeks went on I realised that not every photo is going to be a magical visual delight, in fact some photos will be downright near unprintable ;) Funnily though not all of my photos could be considered excellent from a technical or artistic persepective as I look back through them I am finding them quite magical. Its unlikely that anyone outside our family would see the magic, but for the five of us living in this house it is there.

It's there in the way it shows how many more freckles have appeared on small faces, or how much smaller the height difference is between a boy and his father, or the number of amazing faces one girl can make, or the love that three kids have for their dog, the magic in the garden that makes the hard work worth it, and the life experiences we face as a family.

I started out thinking that Project 365 would be an artistic endeavour, but found that approach made the whole task daunting, when I started shooting it as a labour of love, that's when I really appreciated the true value of Project 365.

I am back!

2010-10-25T09:20:00.000+11:00

The last few months have been a real whirlwind in our house, we had numerous birthdays in July and early August to contend with, then on the 22nd August we drove down our street and headed for the great outdoors for a whole seven weeks.

So we spent seven weeks touring around the country (well the Eastern to Central part anyway) and having an absolutely fantastic time. Coming home has been hard.

We have slipped back into the routine of housework, school, work etc etc, but if you asked me if I wanted to go again tomorrow, the answer would be a resounding YES!!!!

We tried to keep a blog along the way, but due to sporadic internet, and so many other exciting things to do the blog was sadly neglected. All of us kept travel journals on the road, so over the next few weeks I will be uploading the record of our adventures. If you are interested in reading about our journey you can find it at Are we there yet??

There will be more to come.

12 years

2010-07-20T19:57:00.000+10:00

xxx

Safe as houses...

2010-04-30T13:55:00.001+10:00

Sometimes you see headlines in the paper like "Burglars thwarted by family dog" or "Family Dog protects home" but, with my dog its more likely to read "Guard Dog - I think not!!" lol

This morning I managed to drive up my driveway, walk through my side gate, cross the yard to the back door and open it and go inside without even a flicker of fur from my vicious attack guard dog!

Hope no one is relying on him to protect the family home lol

Here is just one of the hundreds of photos of our dog that I downloaded from my p&s after my daughters had been using it for a weekend. Its probably lucky they love him!

Camping at Easter

2010-04-09T16:17:00.000+10:00

Another weekend of great weather, great friends, and time spent in the great outdoors. There was the small inconvenience of multiple tick bites per person, and I am still itching four days later, but otherwise nothing to complain about.

Fireside entertainment provided by the boys and their guitars.

Earth Hour 2010

2010-03-28T10:38:00.000+11:00

She's back

2010-03-27T11:47:00.000+11:00

and she loved every minute of it!

and I am so happy to have her home :)

Whining to start but ending with optimism ;)

2010-03-25T09:50:00.000+11:00

Only one more sleep and she will be home. The weekh as gone faster than I thought it would :)

The day before yesterday I slurped up my coffee too soon and burned the roof of my mouth. Oh I hate that! now evertime I try to eat something a little bit crunchy it pokes into the sore parts of my mouth.

As if that wasn't bad enough yesterday morning I woke up and couldn't open my mouth fully without bad pain in my jaw, and of course, I found myself needing to yawn much more often than usual. Have you tried to yawn without opening your mouth fully - totally unsatisfying lol

Thankfully work is really slow this week, so I am spending Thursday at home yay! I have a huge pile of photos to edit, so I will be busy most of the day, but at least I can lounge around in my trakky daks while I am busy ;)

Only one more week until school holidays, which I am really looking forward to this term. We will spend a few days camping, we will have some pyjama days, and my sister will visit with my neice and nephews for a few days. I am so looking forward to that!

Living 300km apart means we dont spend much time just hanging out, and on previous visits her kids were still young enough that there were some things only Mummy could do. Now they are that bit older, and my kids are keen babysitters, we might actually have time to really talk to each other and hang out.

Just have to get through the next week and then the fun begins!

Time flies... too fast

2010-03-22T13:03:00.000+11:00

Yesterday she was just a little tacker toddling around the house, always underfoot, today she left me for five whole days to go on school camp...

Week 6

2010-02-26T16:42:00.000+11:00

Two posts in one day, think I need a bex and a lie down now ;)

Favourite for January

2010-02-26T16:12:00.000+11:00

This layout shows my favourite photo from January. This particular day was just one of those great days. The sun was shining, everyone was in a great mood, and standing with my feet in the water looking out over the ocean just filled me up with all good things.

Week 5

2010-02-22T18:14:00.001+11:00

p365week5
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Better late than never, here is my Week 5 P365 layout. Elements by Karla Dudley, template mofidied Linda Roos. (In the Making blog).

Crazy busy

2010-02-17T21:27:00.000+11:00

I know that's a crappy excuse for not blogging for two weeks, but it has been fairly busy around here. Thankfully I am home on Friday and I have no outside commitments other than getting the family to work and school.

I plan to scrap some, study some, and get things back in order around here. Just got a new computer on the weekend so I am busy trying to set it up with all of my important stuff, (had to do the husbands first so mine has been coming along in dribs and drabs). Really looking forward to having my online life back in control again, and the best thing - its a laptop, and it is password protected, and my kids have their own computer with internet access now, so nobody but me should be touching it!! Yay.

I am still keeping up with my Project 365 and will upload my latest pages on Friday for you to see.

In the meantime here is one of my recent favourites:

Week4

2010-02-06T11:36:00.001+11:00

Week4
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Fourth week of Project 365. I am working on week 5 today, but its time for a change to the layout, I plan to vary the layout every four weeks or so just to add some interest, so week 5 will take a little longer to put together.

Week3

2010-02-04T09:32:00.001+11:00

Week3
Originally uploaded by jocfly

Just catching up on my P365 layouts, here is week 3, which was all about our holiday at the coast, Week 4 is coming later today!

One little word progress

2010-02-02T13:28:00.000+11:00

So I narrowed down my goals for this year into 10 general areas, in keeping with my word SIMPLIFY, and now that it is February I thought it would be good to look back at the last month and see how I went.

I want to exercise more.

Good progress here, I have done heaps of walking, which is simple and free, and am now back in the saddle of 6am rising followed by 30-45 mintues walking with my husband.

I want to spend more quality time with my kids and my husband.

Again I am doing pretty well here. I walk with my husband every day and we talk, uninterrupted by the kids. We are also getting to bed earlier most nights which leads to... being less tired and grumpy with each other so spending more time together (I know what you were thinking people!!). I am also using the time in the car to talk to the kids to find out what is on their minds. We also went camping together as a family for a week - really great quality time hanging out at the beach and around the campsite together.

I want to read more books.

I am reading for 20 minutes each evening before turning the lights out.

I want to finish my course and get my Bookkeeping Certification.

Fail. Have not done any study in January, this is one I really need to focus on in February.

I want to take more photos.

Project 365 alive and well. A photo a day, but most days it has been 15 - 20 photos a day.

I want to scrap more pages.

Have only scrapped two pages in January, both of them Project 365 pages. I am aiming for more in February, more P365 of course, but a page for each person in the family, and a camping trip wrap up would make me happy.

I want to write here more often.

UM, ok not so good here, but in my defence I was away for over a week, and I had intenet ish-ews for over a week too. February things will be different lol.

I want to declutter my house, and simply things around my home.

Hmmm OK that's another one to focus on in Feb.

I want to keep in better contact with family and friends.

Better but not great. We spent two days with BIL and his family at the coast, we had the in laws over for tea, we had good friends over for tea, but I only talked to my sisters once and my mum twice.

Funny as I was writing this it really helped me see the areas in my life that I am not paying quite enough attention to. I guess that is why it is recommended you write your goals down and review them regularly, now I know why goal setting has never worked real well for me in the past. Its not enough to just have goals, you have to constantly know what they are and where you are in relation to them - der... You can stop laughing at me now, I get it now lol.

So it looks like February will be about studying, scrapping, decluttering and blogging to improve things.

I'm back...

2010-01-29T10:16:00.000+11:00

Actually I got back on Sunday, and today is Friday, but, its not my fault that I didn't update here, really, truly, I promise. I have been having internet troubles - yuk.

How sad we are that both myself and my husband jumped on to the computer fairly quickly on Sunday after we arrived home. I managed to start my email, download 288 messages, open my blog reader ... then... nothing! Nothing for five whole days aaarrrggg!

Keeping my fingers crossed that things are back on track, I cant go through that type of frustration again, I might hurt someone.

Camping was lovely, we got all dirty, salty and suntanned, we came back relaxed (which was instantly eradicated due to aforementioned internet ish-ews) and wishing we could have been away for longer. No falling trees this time, no injuries or illnesses, just lots of fun.

I took a stack of photos which I am editing and will post when they are ready.

Getting back to work has been not so fun, and I think the kids would probably say getting back to school was not so fun either, but life goes on. The girls have great teachers this year, and we are looking forward to a great year for them, especially for Sweetpea as it is her last year of primary school. My son was almost keen to go back to school as he is in Year 9, and the Prime Minister promised to give kids in year 9 a laptop, so he will head of to school eagerly until it arrives, then no doubt he will want to stay home and play on it all day lol.

He is not the only one getting a laptop this year, lucky little me is also getting one!!! yay yay yay, I have been wanting one for ages so I can locate myself around the house depending on what is going on in different rooms. Cool.

I will get back to editing photos (and doing all the boring things that I have to do too lol) and I will get some pictures up very soon.

Week2

2010-01-15T08:31:00.001+11:00

Week2
Originally uploaded by jocfly

My second week of Project 365 photos. hmmm, yes I do have a son as well, will have to try and capture him this week, heaven knows he is a teenager and spends a lot of time just slothing around, shouldn't be too hard to track him down lol

Today

2010-01-14T08:07:00.000+11:00

From the Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window... cloudy and cool, such a relief after the heatwave shocker of last week

I am thinking... only four more hours of work, then I am on holidays

I am thankful for... grandparents who are only too delighted to have their grandkiddies for sleepovers

I am wearing... green t shirt, white skirt, no shoes

I am remembering... that I have so many things I need to do before we go camping

I am going... to enjoy camping by the beach

I am currently reading... Eclipse (a Twilight sequel) again!

I am hoping... that the weather will be fine next week

On my mind... the need to get my exercising habits established

Noticing that... I get really grumpy when I dont sleep well

Pondering these words... simplify

From the kitchen... Thai style pumpkin soup mmmm

Around the house... mess, mess and more mess!

One of my favorite things~ Lindt chocolate

Week1

2010-01-07T15:05:00.002+11:00

Week1
Originally uploaded by jocfly

My first week of photos, completed. :D

Happy 2010

2010-01-07T12:28:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year people, I have returned... briefly, as I will be heading off for a week at the beach very soon, but for now I am here.

I am not generally a resolution maker, I always feel a bit sqirmy inside at having to commit to a resolution, knowing full well that by the end of the year the guilt will set in due to having failed to stick to it. Having said that I do like at the beginning of each year to think about what may lie ahead, and what I may want to do (in a very general sense) in that coming time.

Since 2007 I have selected a word for each year, inspired by Ali Edwards. For the past week or so I have been narrowing down what my word will be this year. It started off as organise, as it seems to me there is always so much stuff around here that needs to be organised, and I can never find anything when I really need it, but, that felt a little sterile to me. Then a few nights ago while searching for something I had lost I found myself saying "why are things always so complicated?" and I found my word.

SIMPLIFY

My plan for the year is to simplify things. Go back to a simpler way of living. I am hoping that this will allow me to spend more time living in the moment, not stressing about the details of the things that I am forgetting to do.

A big factor in this equation applies to my scrapping. The last 12 months I was nearly paralysed by the continuous feeling that my scrapping pages were not good enough, they needed more techniques, more fancy shmancy (expensive sometimes too) stuff. So as a result I hardly finished a project. And let me tell you I have many projects on the go. This year I am changing that. I am not going to download every free product around, only the ones that I absolutely love and couldnt live without ;-), I am putting myself on a self imposed bann from purchasing anything that is not on sale, and I am going to finish tagging my digi stash, and purge the things I know I just will never use.

I am attempting Project 365 again. There I said it, I haven't been game to even say this out loud yet given my spectacular failure last year. I am using my simplified method for this too. As per the name of this blog I will focus on the Words and Pictures. The end result of this project will look fairly simple - plain pages, with just the pictures and the words to describe them (where necessary).

I also have a short list of things I want to do this year:

I want to bake more - I like baking, my kids like to eat what I bake, it makes me feel good. My mother gave me Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" for Christmas, and I plan to work my way through it, one recipe a week (or fortnight if things get too busy) either on my own, or sometimes with my kids who all love to bake too.

I want to exercise more.

I want to spend more quality time with my kids and my husband.

I want to read more books.

I want to finish my course and get my Bookkeeping Certification.

I want to take more photos.

I want to scrap more pages.

I want to write here more often.

I want to declutter my house, and simply things around my home.

I want to keep in better contact with family and friends.

That's 10 things I want to focus on this year. 10 things in 2010.

Just Because

2009-12-22T12:32:00.000+11:00

This whole Christmas business is doing my head in! Ten minutes ago my last present arrived in the mail - yay, so the shopping is all finished and I can breathe again. Well, the present shopping is all finished, I still have some food shopping to go, but that will be dispensed with this afternoon, and because I am not hosting any Christmas functions this year I am pretty well only having to do a normal weekly shop.

Also this afternoon the present wrapping will begin, at which point I will probably realise that I have forgotton something really important, and then feel obliged to hit the shops again eek!

I have fallen a bit behind on my December Daily, but have kept notes so should be able to catch up pretty quickly. Using a set of templates and papers for the entire project certainly makes it easier to make decisions about what goes into the layouts. Maybe I should think more about that idea, limiting my options cuts down on the amount of procrastinating time between making decisions hmm.

I will leave you with a sweet little layout about a sweet little girl that I did this morning when I should have been doing something else... who can argue with the muse, if it is time to scrap, then it is time to scrap, housework can wait ;-)

Credits: Papers and elements Indefinitely Kit by Taylormade at Oscraps. Fonts: Gills Sans, CK_Ali's Hand.

Hi Santa

2009-12-18T21:39:00.000+11:00

A little whinge

2009-12-15T21:32:00.000+11:00

Why is it that the school sends home a letter telling me my daughter is to receive a special award on presentation day, and that due to lack of space in the school hall could parents consider that Years K to 2 will receive their awards in the first half of the assembly which starts at 9.30am, and years 3-6 will receive awards in the second half of the assembly due to finish at 11.00am (try 11.45am), that they then present in this order K, 5, 6 ... ???

Irritated? who me? Absolutely.

After six years at this school this is her first "big" award and she has worked so hard for it - and I MISSED IT when I arrived at 10.05am, then I got to watch all of years 2,3, and 4 receive their awards in the second half of the assembly - who cares!

So cranky about this!

Think I will go pour a G&T

New digi shop

2009-12-14T21:39:00.000+11:00

Any of you digiscrappers out there might want to take a look at a new digi shop just opened on the net.

It is called The Digital Designer Shop, and there are lots of lovely goodies there to take a look at.

December 8 and 9

2009-12-13T22:39:00.000+11:00

Getting late and I have to get to bed, credits etc the same as for all other layouts in this project.

December 6 and December 7

2009-12-13T10:27:00.000+11:00

Whew, got caught up in a bit of crazy this week, one minute you think the calendar is clear, the next minute you don't have time to scratch yourself. So finally I have December 6 and 7 ready to upload, and I am working on 8,9,10 and 11 today. All the stories and photos are there, just need to put them together on a layout.

December 6

December 7

Credits: December Daily 2008 Templates by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals, Classic Cardstock Christmas by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals, VT Portable Remington.

December 5

2009-12-07T19:55:00.000+11:00

Well its actually December 5 and 6, part 1. Part 2 will come later, its all journaling to tell all about what was going on in part 1 ;-)

Credits: December Daily 2008 Template by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals. Papers - La Cremerie by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. Brushes - Joyeux Noel by Nancie Rowe Janitz (will have to find a link to her) my own white cardstock :-D

December 4

2009-12-07T19:09:00.000+11:00

The ice cream was good!

Credits: December Daily 2008 template by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals. Papers - La Cremerie and Classic Cardstock Christmas by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals. Negative Sleeves by Katie Pertiet Fonts - CK_Ali’s Hand, VT Portable Remington.

December 3

2009-12-07T16:58:00.000+11:00

OK so I am a little behind, what's new, but I did have a super busy weekend. So December 4, 5 and 6 will be coming soon!

Here is December 3

Credits: Daily December 2008 templates by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals. Brushes Joyeaux Noel by Nancie Rowe Janitz, Papers by me courtesy of a quick tutorial by Celenia Curtis of Mommy and Me Storybooks.

December 2

2009-12-04T15:04:00.000+11:00

Credits: Daily December Template 2008 by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals, Papers - Classic Cardstock Christmas by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals, Brushes Joyeux Noel by Nancy Rowe Janitz, Fonts - VT Portable Remington, CK_Ali's Hand

December 1

2009-12-04T14:24:00.000+11:00

Credits: Daily December Templates 2008 by Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals. Font - Gill Sans and CK_Ali's Hand. Quote and idea shamelessly scraplifted from Amy at Over at our Place.

Currently working on December 2nd, hope to have something up here before I have to pick up the kids from school.

Wish

2009-12-04T14:16:00.000+11:00

Getting nothing done again

2009-11-30T16:47:00.002+11:00

Must walk away from the computer... must cook dinner, good heavens this place is so addictive ;-)

Foto Friday

2009-11-27T13:27:00.000+11:00

My boy... where has the time gone?

In ten months time I will be

2009-11-26T11:31:00.000+11:00

Sailboarding off Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays.
Photo: QLD Tourism

HERE

That gives me ten months to complete the process of turning this 42 year old slightly worn and bulging body into a sleek and smooth object of admiration, or at least time to lose a couple of kilos.

To say I am excited is kind of an understatement, because I am beside myself with excitement. We have made plans to do this trip before, but the planets have never aligned to allow it to happen. We are going with friends, there will be four families all together, and amazingly we can all make it at the same time!!

Some of the others are flying directly to Proserpine, but we have decided to make the most of the chance, and take the kids out of school for six weeks and road trip our way there. We are going to the Whitsundays via Central Australia and Uluru (that's Ayer's Rock to those who haven't caught up yet!).

Wow six weeks on the open road and the open seas (ok so the Whitsundays are hardly the open seas lol), it will be really hard to come back to reality after that.

So today I state my intentions for getting in shape before we go. I have already started, but its time to really speed up the action. Before we leave I will be comfortable again in my size 12's, that includes no muffin top bulging. I will be fit enough to participate fully in all of the walking, swimming, snorkelling etc that will be happening without feeling totally wrecked, and without having to slow anyone else down.

To do it - clean eating, daily exercise. Sounds simple... but we all know how deceiving it can be. I will post updates at the end of each month.

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

2009-11-25T11:19:00.001+11:00

OK the good news... its only a month till Christmas!

The bad news... its only a month till Christmas :-(

I love Christmas, I love seeing the excitement build in my kids, I love the ripping of paper, and the sounds of enjoyment on Christmas Eve. I love the slow and lazy time on Christmas morning, late breakfast, hanging out with the kids, going for a walk around the neighborhood. I love seeing our extended family for tea. The kids play with their cousins, and the adults lounge around in the garden. Food is alway cold because the temperature is hot, conversation is laid back and amusing and the wine goes down easily. The boys do the dishes ;-)

But,

leading up to Christmas there is this evergrowing sense that there is too much to do. There are gifts to be purchased and no car parking available at the shops. There is food to be prepared and the temperatures are soaring here already. There is wrapping of presents to do, and it always seems to be done the day before it needs to be done (I think that is called bad organisation on my part lol). There is the pressure from all around to spend spend spend, to create the perfect picture book Christmas, and there is complete disregard for the things that really matter.

So although I love Christmas, I also dont love Christmas in some ways, and whichever way you look at it - its only one month away now!!

Mouth watering

2009-11-24T21:17:00.001+11:00

I have a question...

Do you like food?

Does your mouth water when you look at photos of food?

Ok so that's two questions, if you answered yes to either question you should go and visit

Citrus and Candy

This blogger has a way of talking about, and photographing food that speaks to me.

MMMM off to find something to eat now ;-)

xx

The Story - Cousins

2009-11-22T15:12:00.000+11:00

Credits: Papers: Eternal Love Kit - Scrapgirls.Whitie Tighties Katie Pertiet - Designer Digitals .
Fonts: CK Alis Hand, Century gothic.

Another old photo scrapped, circa 1975, me and two of my cousins.

Hot

2009-11-21T11:08:00.000+11:00

Its mid spring and we are experiencing high summer temperatures and everything that goes with that. Flies, fires, sticky skin, muggy sleepless nights and fraying temperatures.

All of this could be easily aleviated if only Mr Accountant had seen fit to allow for the cost of an air conditioner when we built our home. But, he didn't, so we swelter.

Its too hot to even sit here and use the computer :-(

Plans are in place to obtain relief in the form of sweet cool air directed through out the house via fancy little ducts in the ceiling, but the timeframe is still hazy.

Hope you are keeping cool (or warm as the hemisphere dictates). More blogging will follow if I manage to drag myself from bed before the sun rises and heats us up, otherwise things may be slow as my fingers can't even find purchase on the keyboard through the film of sweat coating them.

xx

10 things I love RIGHT now

2009-11-16T14:36:00.000+11:00

1. Pink and fluffy slippers
2. Cool mornings for walking before the day gets too hot
3. Photoshop Elements (so cool that program)
4. Vegemite toast for breakfast
5. My kitchen - after ten years I still would not change a thing
6. True Blood Season 2
7. My glasses, no more headaches after hours at the computer
8. My Y&T Yahoo group - these girls have so much to share and are so entertaining at the same time
9. Long warm evenings
10. Taylor Savignon Blanc (to drink on those long warm evenings on the back patio)

This weeks Spraground challenge is to scrap a page about what I am loving right now, so here's the list, and later the page.

xxx

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-11-15T19:38:00.000+11:00

No, not me unfortunately :-(

Learning to deal with loss is one of those life lessons, we all have to do it, its never fun.

The area we live in has a very high transient population, there are people who work for the Defence forces in our country, which generally means they are posted to an area for a couple of years, then they pack up and are posted to another area. We are not a defence family, I imagine I will live in this area until I am carried out kicking and screaming to a lovely nursing home, that I will complain about until I breathe my final breath, but that's another story all together.

Getting back to the point in hand, my children have had to learm from an early age that people will enter their lives and then they will leave. Of course there will be some who are always there, but there are likely to be many that will only be here for a short period of time. My middle child met her friend in the last few weeks of term last year, and they instantly clicked. In the last few weeks of term this year my daughter's friend and her family will be packing their bags and moving back to England.

We are all sad to see them go, mostly my middle child, and we wish them all the best with their next posting. On the weekend I snapped a couple of shots of them together, and put together this page. I will add another page when middle child has had a chance to think a bit, and she can add her own journaling about her friendship.

Who knows, in this day and age of technology they may keep in touch via email and Skype, and when they are old enough to travel overseas they may even meet up again and continue on with their friendship. Here's hoping :-)

Credits: Sayge Paper Pack by Michelle Martin at Designer Digitals

Faces have been blurred to protect the innocent ;-)

I laughed

2009-11-12T16:56:00.000+11:00

I especially like the bit at the end where she swipes at the camera, think I have done this myself.

Enjoy!

I Twi

2009-11-11T12:17:00.000+11:00

Hi my name is Jocelyn and I am a Twihard.

Yes that's right I am a huge Twilight fan, I have read all four books in the series more then once, have watched the first movie Twilight many, many times (too many to acually admit to here) and I am eagerly awaiting the release of the movie version of New Moon next week.

So in celebration of my addiction I have temporarily redecorated around here. We will return to our original programming soon (probably).

In all liklihood I will not even see the movie for ages yet as we just don't do movies here much anymore. The cost of five of us going to the movies is ridiculous, especially when one in particular of us isn't even remotely interested in watching teen/vampire/werewolf romance, heck, I can't even convince him to watch human adult romance lol.

All of the elements used to create the new look are from the digi kit Into the Twighlight, by the very talented Flergs.

Moving right along now...

2009-11-10T09:16:00.000+11:00

Ok so I needed to post something, anything to make sure the the photos of my messy house were no longer the first thing anyone sees when they come to visit my blog lol.

I promise it doesn't look like that around here anymore, it is actually tidy momentarily ;-), no doubt it will be back to that state again before long and I will have to start all over again. That's the thing about housework, it really is the most thankless task, and it is never done. Well it might stay done if no one was living in the house, but because we have five people continually in and out of the house, plus extras on a regular basis I have learned to accept that my house will never look tidy all of the time.

Having said that, most days it doesn't take me long to get things in order. I have a system that works, ever heard of Flylady? that is where my system started. I have customised things for myself now, and I dont get the Flylady emails etc anymore, but when I was a full time stay at home mum with three kids underfoot that system was my life saver.

Most days around here I still feel like I am playing house, then every so often I will look around and be surprised to realise that this is MY house, I am the grownup, and all of that mess is MY responsibility.

Then I go and turn on the computer and ignore the mess for a bit longer.

Round here...

2009-11-07T12:07:00.000+11:00

Guess I should turn the computer off for a while.

Sigh...

Vegemite kid

2009-11-06T11:49:00.000+11:00

Many years ago I used to have vegemite toast for breakfast everyday. Two slices of toast with vegemite... every day.

Then I started reading stuff, and listening to other people, and I changed my habits and started eating cereal and milk for breakfast. For a long time I did this, but I was never really satisfied. There is just something about that salty, yeasty, vegemitey taste that cereal cant live up to.

You see I was under the impression that having vegemite toast for breakfast was unhealthy and was contributing to my waist gain :-D

So I ploughed through bowl after bowl of cereal, never feeling satisfied, always left wanting something else. Because I was feeling unfulfilled by the cereal I looked in the cupboard for other things, eating my way through until I felt satisfied.

Not to mention the other side effects... which I wont because well... yuck who wants to mention those things?

So last week I said to my husband I think this cereal is bad for me. He in his loving attentive way continued to spoon cereal into his mouth, raised his eyes from the newspaper for a millisecond and said "well dont eat it then"

And just like that 14 years of self imposed vegemite toast denial was over.

Photo courtesy of Limes and Lycopene

This morning my son came out to breakfast commenting that my toast smelled so much better than his cereal - I just smiled and pointed to the toaster - that's my boy!