Thank heavens, I have my computer back, I had to send it to the doctor to be fixed. It got so bad I could not even get it to turn on. I thought I would loose all photos and everything, but didn't loose a thing. Lucky.

I finally got around to producing a Chrissy Lo. Yay the first one for the year. It will probably be the only one. I kept it pretty simple. A bit of scribble, some rubons, a bit of bling and thickers letters, a Chrissy shape thing and not much else.

Speaking of Christmas, my baby is not sure she believes in Santa anymore. She came home from school the other day and said 'Mum, do you still believe in Santa'. I said - yeah of course I do, why, don't you. She said - well last year some of the presents had your hand writing on them (wondered how long before she would pick up on that). I told her they were the ones Santa couldn't get himself and had asked me to pick up for him. She was still not sure, so I told her - you realise that as soon as you stop believing in him, he stops coming. We are still deciding whether we should put the Christmas stocking up or not. She is not sure, I told her if she does not believe then it might be empty in the morning. The jury is still out, awaiting the final word.
She is my baby, she cant not believe, not yet, I am not ready.

Here are a couple of Lo's I did using the blind crop instructions for SC mag. The first one was the example one. Poor Tiff was not feeling well the day I took the pic, and it was blowing a gale, so her eyes were red and puffy and she was not her usual bubbly self.


This one is the other one, I think I might email it in and see if they like it. I used the same paper range for both Lo's and they look totally different. Anyhow that is about it on the scrapping front for me. Will get something more done before silly season begins, I wont be able to take my stuff to work with me for much longer.

I finally convinced the girls to let me take some chrissy pics this arvo, they only agreed because they are going to Tumut tomorrow, and I might not get the chance to take any later. We ARE going to get busy in the shop soon.

How do you get two people to look in the same direction at the same time. I took so many where one was looking and smiling and the other was squinting, or talking or just making a face.

I couldn't help setting up the baubles on the rocks, should have thought to take non shiny ones though, I kept getting my reflection in them. Lol.

This one is the best of the two of them. Can you tell that Sheri has spiky plants sticking in her back, I am a mean mumma and would not let her move.

I love the photo above. I wish I could have highlighted her like in the one below. If I knew how to drive photoshop properly I might be able to fix it. The light is heaps better in the next photo.

How totally awesome is this photo. It is a colour photo. I have not altered it in anyway other than resizing. Wonder what it will look like printed. My printer does not do photos justice.

Here is the Lo I started at work yesterday, I almost had it finished but I had a few late customers (which is a good thing, we really need lots of customers), all I had left to do was adhere the sisters and add the centres to the flowers.
I have been waiting to do a lo like this for ages, but I never had a pic that would suit.
I am not sure whether everything is too low in the corner but I am happy with it anyway.
The girls are not sisters, but do everything together as often as possible, and get on so well together, next best thing to a sister in anyones book.
Check out the stitching, I pulled out my rusty sewing skills and done chain stitch around the

photo.

Think I best shush up now, I think I am raving, must mean I really like it.

Christmas Pudding

My apprentice chef, Tiff, cooked plum pudding yesterday. I got a recipe off the radio the other day, and she was so keen to cook it, that I let her do the whole lot. I got to check the water level whilst it boiled for 6 hrs.
She was so excited to see what it tasted like that she wanted some for breakfast. She made 2 so we heated one up for desert tonight, other than the fact that I busted it trying to tip it out it was pretty good.

Brandied fruit.

Creaming butter and sugar.

Cracking eggs.

Adding all other ingredients.

Taste testing.

Filling bowls

Ready for cooking

Hmmm. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Yum.

Christmas Pudding.

By;

Roger Bayley

Featured by;

Sophie Longdon

ABC SE NSW

Ingredients;

750g Mixed dried fruit

100g pitted prunes, chopped

100g dates, chopped

250g butter

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

4 extra large eggs

1/2 cup brandy

1 cup plain flour

1 teasp mixed spice

1/2 teasp cinnamon

1/2 teasp nutmeg

1/2 teasp bicarb of soda

50g slivered almonds

1 cup fine white breadcrumbs

Method;

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Mix in the fruit, brandy, sifted dry ingredients, slivered almonds and breadcrumbs.

2. Place mixture into a greased 2 litre pudding basin, or 2 smaller basins, cover top with a round of baking paper. Cover with foil and tie a pudding cloth over top.

3. Place in a large saucepan with enough water to come halfway up the basin. Boil for 6 hrs making sure the water level remains constant by adding more boiling water as necessary.

4. When cooked, leave to cool and replace the foil and cloth with clean and place in refridgerator until required.

5. On day of serving re-boil pudding for a further 1 hr. Serve wtih brandy sauce, custard or cream.

Tah Dah, here it is, warts and all. The Lo with my mug on it. It has taken a week for me to finish this, I really dont like red or gold, and using a photo of myself, what can I say, not my favourite subject. But I will say thanks to Sheri for taking the pic. I dont like being in front of the camera at all.

I so tried to be original and use stuff that I might not have done before. I painted some wooden skewers, twisted some crochet cotton, mounted the photo on the same coloured cs as the background. The colours have not come out true. The bracket and numbers are actually gold, not that bronze colour, and the reds seem brighter. I am my own worst critic and I dont like this, but hey it is done now. Maybe I should have gone into my comfort zone and used colours I am comfortable with, like pink and brown, or maybe blue.

Here is the Lo that I done for the delightful Ruby, she and Sheri were doing a photo swap, I loved her photo so much I could not resist doing a Lo too. Such a gorgeous subject to work with. Thanks for allowing me to publish this Rubes.

Oops, I tried to delete a picture of one Lo, and it seems the whole post has been deleted.

I followed instructions too. I cant post again, because I cant remember what was in the post.

Oh the joys of getting old and forgetful, lol.

I am still working on the Lo using the photo of myself that Sheri took. I am finding it a real challenge. It has red and gold on it, yuk, to two worst colours ever created.

Lots of fun in Bermagui last night, we live just outside of town so didn't hear all the news till this morning. There were nine shops and things broken into through the night. They cut phone lines all over town and went in through the roof of most places.

Thank heavens they left our shop alone. We are in front of a motel with the best security in town, any little movement and the place lights up like Christmas, I would say they were not game to even try.

Touch wood they dont come back tonight to hit the places they missed last night. The hassles it would cause would be more than we need this close to Christmas.

I will try to remember which pics were deleted.

I

This is a photo that I took of the Young Endeavour when it was anchored at the mouth of the harbour in early Oct. It was blowing so hard I had to lean on a rock to take the photos, I couldnt hold the camera still. I love this photo, I must have fluked a shot between wind gusts or something.

I have had one accepted for publication, and I cant remember if there should be another one or not.

Wow, have you been over to visit Sheri's blog. She has been taking photos again, some pretty nice ones from today and some from yesterday, before she left for her friends party. She cleans up pretty good hey.

I got 100% rejected. Lol. I sent a few Lo's off to SM and the whole shebang got the boot. Not to worry, I will just whip up a few more and see how we go. I have managed to get one published so far, so I will keep on trying, a few rejections never hurt anyone right.

Here are a couple that I have done over the past week or two.

Oh boy! were the girls having fun the day I took these photos. All I wanted was a nice pic to scrap, and I got cheek, so natural though, no posing at all. Mind you I had to duck the odd hand full of sand and a bucket full of water to get them.

Note to self, next time I decide to experiment with ink and thickers just leave it at that. I wasn't satisfied so added DM on the top. Um, not a real success, it sort of gets sucked into the foam, and does not set hard. Just a bit different. Pretty yuk photo of the Lo, I couldn't find a better one.

Tiff had a party to attend this weekend too. I made this card out of scraps. The photo has made it wonky and the ribbon was not that colour.

I got some glitter mist. I like it. Lol. Warped the CS a bit but I got the effect I was after. I sprayed the lace and flowers with it as well. I could get addicted to this stuff, pity it is a bit expensive.

I spent the best part of the week doing a mini album for Sheri's friend and didn't even get a photo of it. I am hoping that we can borrow it back for a bit so that I can snap a few piccies.

I have some photos to share. I have been looking for them for a few weeks, I finally stumbled across them while I was looking for something else.
Is it a cow, is it a buffalo, or is it just the strangest looking animal you have ever seen?
They are some sort of cow, we think. We quite often see them in the paddock when we are going down to Cuttagee Beach. Maddest looking things I have ever seen, its like they cant decide what they want to be when they grow up.

Front view

Side on in Shadow

What is the weather doing in your neck of the woods today?

The wind is blowing so hard here that the clouds are being blown away and we actually have some sunshine. It is reasonably warm, first day this week that the girls have not worn their jumpers to school. It is nearly Christmas for heavens sake, it should be warmer than this.

Even though it was blowing a gale on the weekend, we still managed to find a quiet place to take some photos. What would I do without my camera, I would truly be lost. Anyway Sheri wrote on her blog that I would load them here, these are a few of my favourites.

Loving sisters.


Just to prove that I exist here is one Sheri took of me. I am a behind the camera sort of person and not usually happy with any photos of me, but I think she did pretty good.

Wonder what you are thinking about.

Not getting wet just checking the water temperature. Poor Tiff had a bad cold and her eyes are red and swollen, and she didnt look well at all.

Reality Bites

The day after. A bit sore and stiff, but still joking about the stabbing incident. Was a bit weary from blood loss, and still insists that it was really only a scratch. I am a whimp and refused to change the dressing for him, so he got his mate to do it for him (his friend thought it was horrific, the whole sorry story). He counted 5 stitches on the outside, and still dont know how many on the inside, I think one continuous one. I am not much help, I crack up just looking at him, how can someone stabb themselves in the back, and not hurt anything, honestly. He truly is talented. Lol!

Gotta see the funny side of life!

Mark stabbed himself today. I know not really funny, but you need to know Mark to understand, he really doesn't take much seriously. He really cracks me up sometimes.

Anyway, he and a rep were looking at knives this arvo, when he accidentally stabbed himself in the back.

The knives were on the counter and somehow he managed to catch a knife with his jumper, which slid along the counter a bit before lodging against a wooden upright thing, causing the knife to imbed itself in his back. The rep says 'oh did that get you', 'Nah only a nick' says mark, as he is feeling around behind him to feel what really happened. The knife was sticking out of his back near his hip. What does he do with it, pull it out of course, what else would you do with it, right. The rep takes a look and says 'well you probably want to put something over that', packs his stuff and hightails it out of the shop.

Mark being the boyscout that he is thinks well I have bandaids in the drawer, but cant see the nick myself, will get the boys working next door to stick one on for me. Long story short they wouldn't touch it, no way, you have to go to the doc for that one.

So he rings me at home. 'Um can you come into the shop for a bit, you might need to take me to the doctor, I have done something really silly' and hangs up. No worries, knowing Mark as I do I straight away think its ok he has only cut himself, must be worse than usual. Grab a towel just in case, not really knowing what had happened.

In the shop he is walking around with his hand behind his back, 'where have you cut yourself this time I ask', and get a really stupid look. 'Um, I stabbed myself in the back' he says and turns around to show me the blood all over his clothes. 'Not a problem' he says, just take me to the Doc so he can chuck a stitch in it.

At the shop I have found the offending weapon, a lovely knife with blood half way up the blade. Oh my, that really cant be good.

The Doc has had to do internal and external stitches to hold him together.

In true form of the converted he says to me, 'get out the camera and take a photo of the knife', complete with blood still on it (hope he doesn't expect me to scrap it too).

We take the shot with a ruler near the knife, the blade had gone in nearly 13cm, without hitting anything vital.

All he can say is ' just imagine what the Doc is writing in his records'. Then he proceeded to come up with the silliest things, really, he has just had a knife sticking out of him and he is still joking around. Everytime I look at him I start laughing, honestly, only Mark could manage to do what he did and still find the funny side of it.

The offending weapon.

A few rejects from SM

These are just a few of the LO's that have been rejected from SM, I guess it is alright to show them here now, as I know they wont be shown anywhere else. They are just a few of my favourites from the past couple of months.

Most of these LO's are challenges set within the family, Tegan, Tara, Sheri and myself set a challenge that has to be completed by the end of the week. It is a great way to get motivated, and also gets us doing things we would not normally do.


This is a photo of my Grandmother on my Dad's side, I think the challenge was to use an old photo and journal something about the person in the photo. My journalling is under the photo and tells all the things I can remember about my Nan, which I must say was not much.


I love this LO, it show cases Tiff over the past year. She has changed but not a lot. The challenge was to use more than one photo, and use the title 'I love the way...'. I used a page from an old calendar as my PP.


This one was easy. The challenge was; dont use any PP, use a rubon and a black and white photo. I doodled the flowers and coloured them in using Sheri's water colour pencils. And the rubon is the journalling tag. I cut around it and slipped the photo in behind.


For this challenge we had to do a boy LO and use pink on it somewhere. Not sure if there were any other requirements on this one. I love this photo of my bro, he is like me, totally camera shy, so we dont have many pics of him. I think he might just be a tad mad with me when he discovers I have done this. What are sisters for if it isn't to totally embarrass us whenever we can.


Not really sure what the challenge was for this one, but it sure looks like I went a little mad with the flowers. Looks like someones garden has gone feral.



Use 2 colours, and a photo that is not really about a person? Not sure but Tara took this photo of Jed at the Zoo in Canberra, I just love the look on his face, it is priceless, you can almost hear him saying 'awesome'.

more Layouts

As promised here are a couple of Lo's I have done over the past couple of weeks.
After the mass rejection from SM (Sheri and I submitted 20 Lo's between us, and all got rejected), I had a bit of a mojo loss, it sure messes with your head. But thankfully its back.
I must say that having a beautiful new grandson certainly helped, nothing like a few baby pics to get me motivated.



Sheri went crook at me cause this one is pink, she said but Zayne is a boy, but if you read the title I was doing the LO of Tani, loving being a big sister.



I love this one of Tiff paddling in the ocean, so simple but came together well.



Tipster was born on a Monday and the verse that is written (in white, so it is not overpowering the rest of the LO) sums her up perfectly. Mondays child is fair of face, you know the one.



I love the little monkey on this one. He was plain chipboard, I painted him then got out the stippling brush and then done a mock stitching around the edges, in real life he actually looks as if he has fur.

One more before I go to bed and that will be it for Oct, I will add some from Nov another time.



Thanks for putting up with my newsletters, I tend to ramble a bit.

I guess now I have a blog I should at least make an effort to keep it updated on a semi-regular basis.

On Thursday night we had a quick science lesson from Sheri, it meant going to the beach to look at the moon rising. Something about the way the earth moon and sun were aligned was supposed to make the moon appear red. We only got a small glimpse of the moon when it peaked out from behind the clouds, it made the clouds red not sure about the moon. I took Rudolph along for a photo shoot, but the wind was blowing about 90 miles an hour and the poor fella kept falling over, this was about the best of the pics.






The girls had the Spring Fair yesterday, the p&c started running them 3 years ago in an effort to raise much needed funds for the school. They have worked out that you can get more people there by limiting the cost of the kids entry tickets. They pay a set amount as an entry fee and then they can go on the rides as many times as they like. Much better for the parents pockets, and ensures they get a good roll up of attendees.

I had a bit of a play with this pic and added a retro vintage look to it, it was pretty bright before. Sheri loaded a lot of the pics from the fair to her blog so I wont add them again here.




I will make another post in a little bit and load a few of the lo's that I have completed in the last few weeks.