Reflections

October Scrappitpacks

The October Scrappitpacks have been released a little early and I have to say that I just loved working with the 'Family' pack that Jan sent me!

As you can see, there's lots of punched blossoms on this one to compliment the two larger ones that are included with the pack and I've dotted the centres of them all with cream Kaisercraft Pearls.

It's hard to believe that the last week of school holidays is already here! As we spent the day at home yesterday - recovering from the BIG weekend - it gave me a chance to catch up on some domestic duties about the place - you know vacuuming, mopping, washing, ironing, etc. - as well as playing a few games of pool with the boys - ever since James came back from camp he's been keen to uncover the pool table and play a few games! I have to admit, he's going to be hard to beat before too long! *grin*

Well - it looks like it might be a relatively nice day today, so since I need to go into town to grab a few groceries, we might as well make a day of it and take a visit to the park or river as well - actually, that reminds me, I'd better go and charge up the camera battery!

Until next time, here's hoping you have a fantastic day!

Go Karting - Winner!

To say today's Go Kart racing was eventful, is a real understatement! We knew that the weather wasn't going to be all that good - very cold, extremely windy and showery - not your normal typical Spring day to say the least - but something else happened that will make the day truely memorable!

To start with - the winds were absolutely shocking! We endured cold galeforce south-westerly winds all day but thankfully we only had a couple of very light misty showers that passed by but didn't really impact on the day at all.

James had a fantastic first race, finishing 1st and then came 2nd and then 2nd in the following two races. This set him up in a great position for the final race starting second on the grid beside the boy who had won the previous two races. We had our fingers crossed for a great start for him and honestly, it couldn't have been better with him taking the lead by the first corner!

HOWEVER, after only a couple of laps of him leading, the race would need to be RED flagged (or stopped) after a major incident between two of the Midget karts!

Having been on the track earlier in the morning taking photos, I decided to head around to the outside of the track on the south side and hide behind a tree for wind protection to take photos of the drivers as they came out of what is called the cut-through.

As I stood there snapping photos, through the view finder I saw one of the Midget karts drive up and over the back wheel of one of the karts infront and this is just one of the photos I managed to capture as I kept the shutter going continuously - the rest I'll save for the Bairnsdale Kart Club Gallery!

Thankfully, although the child did end up coming out of his kart and rolled along the track a little bit, he wasn't hit by any other karts and was able to walk away - I'm sure he will be very stiff and sore tomorrow though! The other driver who had been involved initially, I would imagine will also be stiff and sore because the wheels of the other kart actually hit his shoulder and wristI Thankfully he is OK too BUT unfortunately for both drivers, itended up being the end of the day for them.

Once the track had been cleared, the Midget race was re-started and James went on to win not only that race BUT also the day as well! Another 1st trophy for his bedroom shelf! That certainly helped his overall position in the championship with only two rounds left for the year. Congratulations James!

Until next time, I hope everyone has had a fantastic and warm weekend!

Blog Giveaway Winner

Thank-you to all those who took the time to leave a comment on my 600th Blog Post - the lucky winner of my Blog Giveaway was ANGELA!

Congratulations Angela! I do hope you enjoy filling this mini album with photos and wonderful memories! Please send me your postal details and I'll pop it in the post when I am in town this week!

Until next time, have a fantastic day!

Bairnsdale Kart Club

For those family and friends who are interested, I've finished updating the Bairnsdale Kart Club website - including the addition of the September Newsletter which is ready for download!

Check it all out here!

Until next time, here's hoping you have had a great day!

'Thinking of You' Greeting Cards

Aside from having the boys home on school holidays and doing various things with them - like going to see the movie 'Up' in 3D on Tuesday - I've been busy working on 2 custom Greeting Card sets for a lady who recently learnt that I makethem!

She ordered two sets of six cards each as she plans to give one set to her mother to use. As you can imagine, I had a lovely little production line happening as I was making them all! Next she wants another two sets with the same style of card but with 'Happy Birthday' as the greeting! Looks like another busy creative time ahead! Maybe I should be making some extra and listing them in my 'Made It' Shop?

The digital image is one I created a while back from a photo I had taken and once printed, I attached a length of polka dot ribbon and then mounted the image onto black cardstock before then mounting it onto a white textured card.

In other news, well it's Go Karting this weekend again - gee it seems to come around so very quickly at the moment - weeks are just flying by! The weather that is being forecast is just dreadfull - windy, cold and wet! Here we were hoping for a fine weekend of racing - I just don't think it's going to happen! I guess only time will tell!

Until next time, here's hoping you had a great day!

600th Blog Post Giveaway

To celebrate my 600th Blog Post - my goodness I can't believe that I have actually written that many of them - I'm going to have a little giveaway!

It's Spring here in Australia and one of the things I do so love about this time of year is being able to get out into the garden and appreciate the beautiful flowering grevilleas and bottlebrushes that are attracting so many birds at the moment.

What do you love about Spring? Why not leave me a comment before Midday AEST on Friday September 25th and I will randomly choose a person to receive this hand crafted Concertina Mini Album that I have made!

Just incase someone does ask - International entries are most welcome too!

I look forward to reading your comments!

Until next time,

Greeting Card - Basic Grey

I recently sold a number of greeting cards to a lady who also wanted me to make a special card for a friend of hers who has just become an Auntie - she's thrilled with the results!

I lightly sanded the edges of the large flowers as well as around the outside of the whole card too - oh and as you can see - I couldn't resist adding some hand stitching too!

Speaking of cards, I've had a request to add some of my hand made cards to my 'Made It' Shop - which I've neglected very badly of late - so hopefully over the coming week I will do exactly that and see what happens! I'm not sure how much interest there will be BUT I'll be sure to let you know when there are some listed!

Until next time,

'Slice of Cake' Box

Yesterday at Longford Scrappers, despite only 3 of us there, Jan showed us how to make these very simple but cute Slice of Cake boxes. The idea with them was that you create 12 little boxes and then arrange them in a circle, tie them together with ribbon if desired, and you have formed a cake!

Rather than make a whole cake though, I decided to make just one decorative slice!

The original design uses Bazzill with stamped images on it BUT I decided to use an embossed floral pattern paper/cardstock and I have to say that I really do love the effect that this has created!

The two piece ribbon was a little on the fiddly side but I like the effect of it looking like cream through the centre of my cake slice! I tied the into a knot and then tied only the wider piece into a decorative bow.

I then simply decorated the top with a blossom, some green buttons and some KaiserCraft pearls.

We were discussing how effective this would look as a table centrepiece for Christmas - I think white boxes with sprigs of holly would look fantastic!

On the homefront, well - school holidays begin today - I can't believe how quickly they have come around BUT I must say that I am really looking forward to enjoying the no school routine for a little while! The boys had their School Disco last night too and they both had a fantastic time - James has a bit of a croaky voice today which he says is because of singing and shouting to one another so loudly - *grin* - and Adam, well - he just loved playing around with his glow sticks!

Oh and before I sign off for today - I have to wish my dear wonderful hubby, a very Happy Anniversary for today - it only seems like yesterday! I love you as much, if not more today, than I did 16 years ago! Here's to US!

Until next time,

Sympathy Card

Inbetween doing some more sorting out in the boys playroom, I got a little creative and made this sympathy card for a dear friend who sadly just lost her father.

I used some of the Black Market 6 x 6 pattern paper, a little inking, some simple black letter stitchers, a transparency butterfly and a little hand stitching.

Tomorrow is my Longford Scrappers day and I must say that I'm really looking forward to spending some time scrapping and chatting with everyone. I feel like I've been in a little creative slump the last couple of weeks - I haven't had the inspiration to get really creative - so I'm hoping I might be able to turn it around with the girls! We'll see what happens!

Until next time,

Scrappit Design Team Challenge

This weeks' Scrappit Design Team Challenge was titled 'Friends' - what a nice broad theme that one was and since I'd come across this photo of my paternal grandmother with her siblings, I decided to create a heritage style page using some of the soon to be released September ScrappIt Now kit!

My paternal grandmother is the one on the far right.

Each of the flowers is actually a rubon that I applied to some of the matching pattern paper before cutting out leaving just a thin border of the paper showing around the rubon. I added KaiserCraft pearls for the flower centres and even added some additional hand stitched detail on the larger flower in the bottom right corner too!

On the homefront - well - this week I'm tackling some sorting out in our 'playroom' - I figured I needed to tackle it BEFORE the boys start their school holidays otherwise if I do it with them next week, we won't get anything sorted because they like to keep EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. Don't get me wrong, I'm not throwing everything away BUT even though I consider myself a true hoarder in every sense of the word, I don't think my boys need to head down that very same track - *grin* Anyway - I've made a vast improvement on things today and look forward to tackling some more tomorrow too!

Before I sign off - I came across this fantastic quote in my diary today as I turned over for a new week and I thought I would share - how true!

"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter"  - Satchel Page

Until next time,