That's My Girl!

Ok... yep, this is nothing but a shameless brag!  ... but i can't help it ...  :))

At the High School Awards Night last night my girl netted 2 individual Academic Excellence Awards, an overall award for Academic Excellence in all subjects, plus Junior Sports Girls Award... so proud!  Had to blink back the tears...

... that was after i came out of the 'ladies' with my skirt tucked up at the back!!  hehe

'Oh mum... you are sooo embarrassing!!!' was the predicatable response.

In my defence, it was really light weight fabric and i didn't notice right away...

but i'm pretty sure i fixed things up before anyone else noticed!! :)))

Anyway, best be off - we have visitors all week, so probably won't retreat

into my little creative corner until next week..   :((

see you soon

jules

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Date Friday .... and a Whisper!

Yay for Date Friday! Troy is fortunate enough to be able to negotiate his hours to the extent that, by working up extra time each day, he gets every second Friday off!  Sometimes we go out to lunch {with out littlest mate}   :) ... other times we do jobs around the house :(   .... other days, like today, we just hang out, spend time together and watch a movie while Lachy sleeps!  ahh - nooice!

and finally.... we can reveal the fabulous blog whisper, initiated by the gorgeous talent Bridge some time ago.  If you're not sure how they work, start at Bridges blog and follow the links from page to page

{there are two separate whispers}.

Each participant does their 'version' of the layout that was sent to them,

and passes it on to the next in line until the final participant is finished.

Here is my version of the page Kerri sent to me:

LOVE Glitz pp's atm and the Dusty Attic chippy.

From me, you need to go here to check out Lisa's version of my page.

Can't wait to see the full whisper from start to finish myself!!!

cheers for now, and thanks for visiting.

jules

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A Bit of This, A Bit of That ... and a little bit of the everyday

Got a little bit of a mixed bag to share today.  Last night in the middle of a seemingly mundane moment,

i was suddenly struck by how perfectly and wonderfully every day it was.  Simply getting dinner organised was one of those family moments that you just want to remember.  Claire and I chopping up ingredients for our favourite salad, Cooper munching away on cucumber and capsicum as fast as Claire could cut it, Lachy drawing and scoffing olives and feta {yep you heard right... he just LOVES them!!}, Troy out at the BBQ cooking the marinated pork loin chops.... and Maddi was at the pool for squad and club night!!  oh well, it was nearly a perfect everyday family moment!  :))

oooh... and the salad:

yum - lettuce, baby spinach, cucumber, capsicum, roasted pumpkin, olives, feta and toasted slivered almonds... the kids just can't get enough!

Anyway, you're not here to listen to me bang on about salad are you?

Well, a few of you have mentioned this yearly event already, and i'm really happy and excited to say

that we are dedicating a thread over at the Boxx on the December Daily project!!

 For those of you who want to give it a go, but would like a little encouragement and sharing

of ideas, i urge you to consider joining us.  i've started getting materials together and have decided

to go for a red, cream and kraft theme... just can't bring myself to put green with it!  lol.

Here's my stash so far:

I also recently did a sketch for the latest Boxx newsletter

Here is the sketch:

and here is the layout to go with it.

If you'd like to give it a go, I would LOVE to see!!!

Please leave me a link so i can have a little lookie... :))

and lastly {phew, i hear you say!!}, i also gave the Get Picky sketch a go.

They have a great team of designers over there, so if you haven't done so already

head over there for a look!  :)  i have absolutely no idea what possessed me to do this

long skinny lil thing, but i like it ... hehe!  it's nice to do a really simple lo sometimes too

and not get bogged down in details and complicated stuff.

Here is the sketch:

and here is my skinny guy:

Thanks for lasting the whole post! ... now, i have a whole lotta cleaning

to do for the inlaws visit   :))

jules

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Fabric

The 2nd challenge for the month over at STB was to use fabric!!  Had to give it a go...

i use fabric all the time!  It just didn't seem right not to do it. 

I had a beautiful pic of Lachy that we took during the holidays, so i thought i'd print it onto calico...

which really softened it a lot.  I also printed the journaling on calico and tore strips of blue/white

and brown/white checked fabric too.  Bit of lace... bit of stitching and some dressmakers pp,

and i was all done... bar the random sanding and distressing!

hmmm ... for some reason those denim flowers look really dark.

Hope you like..

thanks for visting.

jules

x

Big Announcement

OK.... the cat's finally out of the bag over at The Boxx, and i can finally exhale!

I got a spot on the Boxx Design Team!!!!!

I've been sitting on this news for a few days now but couldn't spill until the formal announcement

of course... i think i might have come close the popping a blood vessel!

I've been just dying to share....  :))))

I'm just so excited and thrilled to be involved with such a gorgeous group of uber talents

and i can't wait to start creating as part of Jane's team.  The other 2 new appointees are the fabulous and funky Leanne Jago and the inspiring Karen S.

Thanks so much for the awesome comments and congratulations i've already received,

i appreciate it soooo much.

Last night's Girl's Night In was a huge success, with many $$$ raised for breast cancer

and much fun was had by all.... so much so in fact

that i think i need to go and have a nanna nap while Lachy is still sleeping! 

oh well... after all i did have something to celebrate!

oh, and one last thing...
The fabbo talent Treesa is having a yummy giveaway on her blog for her 100th blogday!
Head over and give her some love in order to be in the running for this scrumptious
goodie pack:

cheers and bye for now.

jules

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Sketch Time

Woohoo... i was featured again over at TCR!!  yay... :))))   big smiles!!

OK... it's been a little while since i did a sketch, so i popped over to Inspired Blueprints

and had a little look.  This is the sketch:

and this is what i did:

hmmm ... i know - i kinda butchered it a bit!

I squished it up and almost pushed it clean off the page...

but the basic elements are all there!!  lol

Thanks for looking... i'm in a mad rush to get myself organised for a 'Girls Night In' tonight.

cheers for now

jules

x

Talk to the Hand

Did you know that water based pigment ink does not wash off with soap and water .... ??

... at least not the cardinal red variety!!! Clearly i didn't.... and i have obvioulsy never tried to

use this colour to stain muslin before  ... hehehe!  The lengths we will go to for our craft!

Well... after 5 layouts, i finally have one that i can share!!  woohoo!

I finished one off this morning as a surprise for a friend and posted it off,

so i can't share it until she receives it!  Wish i could be there to watch her open it...  :))

I gave the next colour palette at TCR a go today...  I LOVE any palette with red in it,

however i struggle to do a red and green layout, because i'm always afraid it will look

like a really cliqued Christmas card.  I don't think this one does...

at least i hope it doesn't anyway!  hehe

This is the palette:

and this is my take:

... now for the next Boxx Challenge, and hopefully I'll sneak a STB one in before the inlaws visit!

as always, thanks for visiting...

will be back with more soon!

jules

x

Busy Busy Busy

Well, here we all are again at the beginning of a new week!!  Racing every closer to Christmas .... again!  Where has this year gone?  I'm jsut starting to get my head around the resolutions from last NYE ... lol! 

First things first:

I was featured in TCR this week!!  YAY!

Always a fantastic way to start the weekend.  I came home from a hairdressers visit on Friday

to find the news awaiting in my inbox!! 

It really is a thrill and an honour - there is some awesome international and local talent over there

and it just amazes me that they find my work worthy of a mention.

I had a really productive scrappy weekend.... and i can't show any of it yet!!  : (

Troy took Cooper for an overnight camp trip with our neighbour and his son,

Maddi went on a swim camp with friends, Claire had a play date,

and Lachy kept me company... as usual!

Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing... which is okay.

I'm really pleased that Troy got to spend some one on one time with Cooper.

They also went out to the archery club on Sunday.  Cooper was sooooo excited

when they got home, he was falling over himself to get in the door and tell me all about it!

Anyway, one thing i can share is a thank-you card i did on the weekend for our

wonderful friends in Yepoon, for having us for a week over the hols.

It takes really special friends to accommodate another 6 people in their home for a few days.

I've been going crazy scrapping all of our holiday pics over the weekend!

Oh.. and finally.

Just wanted to mention the Girls Night In.

I'll be sharing my Friday night this week with some wonderful ladies

in order to raise money for breast cancer.

I'm sure it is going to be crazy fun.... good laughs, good friends and good wine!

I'm really looking forward to some 'girl time' ... :))

If you have the opportunity to participate... please consider it.

As we all know, it is such a worthy cause.

Thanks for stopping by...

promise to do a couple of layouts that i can share this week.  : ))

jules

x

Struggling!

Totally struggling to get back into the swing of things this week... the 'routine' seems to have totally flown out the window over the last couple of weeks - and it doesn't want to fly back!!  :))
Never mind... the kids are dressed (in clean uniforms), and i have managed to finish two layouts today....
so all is not lost!!  I think it's because Troy only went back to work today (Wednesday),
so i still felt like i was on holiday too!  :).

I think i left my mojo down south too.  Getting these finished was something akin to pulling teeth.
I fiddled forever!!!  Well, i hope it was enough to blow the cobwebs out!

Anyway, the first layout..... well, you know the ones that sit around on your desk incomplete
for a little while, sitting patiently, ocassionally coughing politely just to let you know they are still there...
well he's one of those!  hehe.  Poor little fella.  He started off as a STB challenge that
i ran out of time to finish... the challenge deadline came and went... we went on holidays... etc etc.
All he was was a whitewashed bg, some punched circles scattered across the page and clock hands.
Please give him some love.... he's been neglected for so long..... hehehe.

Where has the Time Gone

The second one is TCR Palette .... 26 i think...  love this colour combo, so had to give it a go.
I think it also demonstrates the fact that there's no rule that says you have to scrap
a photo only once too ... if you have a favourite, then scrap it all you like!!! 

Here's the palette:

and my take: 

Stop It

thanks for visiting...

hope the second half of my week runs a little smoother

than the first!

hugs

jules

x

Back on Deck

We're back!!!

Made it home yesterday afternoon after a fabulous week in Yepoon with friends.

Camping kinda got postponed due to the wet... even if the rain had of stopped (which it didn't),

it still would have been far too boggy to camp in all the spots we had planned.

The first week of the hols was consequently spent on day trips here and there and a couple

of days in Mackay to take the kids to the movies and do a bit of shopping etc etc.

The second week saw us in Yepoon with friends .... we finally made it down to them to

check out their new house they have just built, with spectacular views of the ocean.

Such a glorious week... the hightlight of which was the day trip out to Great Keppel on their boat,

and the private whale watching show that we were treated to!!!!

We also did a bit of a reconnaissance for a good camping spot for our next visit,

which involved a picnic lunch, a bit of beach 4WDing to quite a remote little spot,

and plenty of amazing views ... finished off with a dip in a big rockpool,

complete with a rope swing ... just beautiful!

Here's a bit of a pictorial summary:

boys on board

 cruising

 drifting

 sand dune diving - Great Keppel

 Great Keppel

the snorkler

tubing

 watching the show

 the show goes on

swinging in the rock pool

the view from the top - 5 rocks

Anyway ... back home and back to reality.  The washing machine awaits....

and the 'getting ready for school grocery shop'!!

The phone call from our bank when we got home to report of suspicious activity on my credit card i could have done without, but never mind ... all sorted now!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday...

i'll be back at the scrap table in a couple of days!

thanks for stopping by

jules

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