Counting Down to holidays

After the incredibly hectic past month or so ... we are looking forward to a week at Kirra starting next SATURDAY!! I have four work days to survive after a SHOCKER of a work week last week! I'm hoping my 10 days off will centre me and give me the strength to survive the next 6 months!

DH is thankfully starting his new job TOMORROW (after his previous company up and moved to CHINA to manufacture their data cable!). He's now going into the aluminium business although has a longer drive to work (out near Ipswich). The big NEGATIVE with starting tomorrow is he won't be joining us at KIRRA except for the weekend and Good Friday.

Scrapwise...I've done a few LO's this week (therapy purposes!!!) and finished the wedding invitations I was making for a friend at work!

Scrap Chat's OLW this week was "chain" - I did my LO based on a Sam Cooke song title around a detention I received for chewing gum at boarding school a million years ago...

This was for the CyberCrop challenge at Scrap Chat...

The 52 Pick Up challenge at LSBS was to use a quote for a title...I've used a great photo taken by Sara Pearcy of eldest DD at the Point Shoot Play Trash the Dress shoot in December last year.

I also did a colour combo challenge for the Scrapbook Hub this week...

Finally a LO for the travel CC at the Stamp Shak last weekend...

I haven't done my Inchie for Stamp Shak this weekend so will share last weeks and this weeks once I've done it!

Might miss my weekly post next Sunday as I'll be lazying down the beach!

My Baby is TEN (or the Big "1" "0" as she's been saying!!!

We celebrated Tara's 10th birthday today and she's had a great day (although she does have a sunburnt face!! - naughty Mum for not re-applying!!)

Invited 6 friends to join us at a local water park for a swim, sausage sizzle and cupcakes! Here's some pics - including first thing this morning as she opens one of her presents!

(love the look on their faces in this one!)

Eldest DD & my Dad


Some scrappin' has been squeezed into the last few weeks but not much :(

A card for one of Tara's friends (and the Scrap Chat March sketch)

Managed to do this weekend's OLW at Scrap Chat ... "peace" (could seriously do with some of that after our last week or so!!)

OK - this one was a quick one ... for OLW last weekend "snap" ... and yes, it's my 'blast from the past' LO from the 70's!!! Determined to use some of my old stash (and it shows!!!)

Bit hard to see this one...it's for the LSBS 52 Pick Up challenge .... to use white space. And I literally used white (or cream) space for this one - from Tara's first communion a few weeks back.

DH spent Friday & Saturday out on Moreton Bay with my Dad, brother, god-father & UK relatives ... came home with a good feed of sand crab! Yummo - although they are alot of work did enjoy them for dinner tonight!

Have a good week! I'm counting down until 2 April - when I go on holidays for a week!! Bring it on!

Chika's Visit

For nine days we've had a 15 year old Japanese student, Chika, staying with us.

This is our first time inviting an international student into our home - and it was a fabulous experience for us!

We managed to show Chika some of the sights of SE Qld including Southbank (in the city), Burleigh Heads (on the Gold Coast) and Dreamworld! She went with eldest DD to Girl Guides.

We ate at a Japanese and Thai restaurant - Chika loved both (especially the Japanese and she'd never tried Thai before!) She got to watch the girls play school sport and enjoy an "aussie" family BBQ. She ate all the food we served her including home made pizza and spag bol!

There were tears on Wednesday night when we gave her gifts for her and her family. I made an album (cover above - inside pages below) of her visit with us and have since made eldest DD a wall hanger with some other pics from Chika's stay (for LSBS 52 Pick Up challenge #11).

Eldest DD and Chika are emailing already - planning her next visit to Australia and asking us to visit her in Japan! So I guess she enjoyed herself too!

Exhausted

We've had a huge time since Chika has been staying with us. Had to post tonight (being Sunday & all) but will have to come back later to share as I'm just too exhausted atm....

Stay tuned :)

First week and I'm already behind

So much for every Sunday night posting! So here we are on Monday night instead!

Much excitement here as we prepare for the arrival of our Japanese student coming to stay with us for 9 days. Chika is 15 years old - so she's a little older than my eldest DD. Every year students from her school visit our school. We have lots of plans and hopefully the weather will be nice to us on the weekend.

Mum & Dad also have international visitors at the moment with a cousin from the UK and his friend staying. Planning a good ol' fashion "sausage sizzle" on Wednesday night for the Aussies to meet with the Japanese and pommies!

Scrap wise --- not as much done this week and I dare say I'll get very little done in the coming week - with visitors AND I'm making wedding invitations for a friend at work.

Speaking of invitations - made the invite below for Tara's 10th coming up real soon!

Scrap Chat is having another CC MONTH --- with challenges set each weekend. The first challenge was a sketch challenge --- here's my effort using one of the photo's taken of Danah at the Point Shoot Play Trash the Dress photo shoot last December! Can't wait to scrap some more of them!

My OLW LO for Scrap Chat --- the word was BLUE this week.

Only challenge I managed to get finished for Scrap Therapy's CC this past week...and it's a DOUBLE! Those of you who know me ... know how much I LOVE doing doubles (not)!!! Wanted to do another CC challenge but couldn't for the life of me find the photo I wanted :( Must do something about my photo system!

The card and LO below are for LSBS 52 Pick up challenge #9....we had to make "sprouts" (check out the thread for more details) and use them on a LO and a card.

The last two weeks mini LO's using pics from my weekly photo challenge ...

Enjoy your week everyone!

Sunday night

Trying to get back into the habit of blogging each Sunday night....see how long it lasts!

Whipped up a digi last night for the Scrap Chat February digi challenge...


The Scrap Chat OLW this weekend was "Today" - I used a quote by Obama as my inspiration and to capture his becoming President as an important moment in history.

I did a blind scrap over at Scrap Therapy but am not really happy with the end result - think my curly arrow threw the balance of the whole LO out :(

LSBS 52 Pick Up challenge #8 was to stamp on chipboard and use it on a LO...

I also did a sketch challenge over at A Passion for Craft this week...

Final LO share this week is the monthly "She" challenge at Scrap Chat...bit of a deep & meaningful one for me - don't usually put my feelings 'out there' but risked it this time~

Two Stamp Shak inchies to share this week .... "Green" and "Junkmail"

Have a good week everyone!