My favourite time of year

I love autumn, lovely sunny days and fresh crisp nights and the colours, oh the colours. Our native trees don't tend to turn but here and there are dotted gorgeous maples and elms and other trees that turn to glorious russets and golden yellows. There are also the vineyards. One of the many advantages to living in a wine producing area is watching the seasonal changes in the plants, from rows upon rows of spring green to acres of these glorious rich colours, it's always a beautiful thing to see. Unfortunately I only managed to get two shots before my battery went dead so I missed the most beautiful of the views, the wide swept paddocks full of golden leaves only a few minutes up the road. It had been a drizzly start to the day and the sky was still heavy later that morning so all the colours were heavily saturated when I drove past paddock after paddock of a really intense golden yellow colour with the little bit of light that was there sweeping across it and the Australian bush thick in the background. Oh the times when you kick yourself for leaving behind something that normally should be always carried with your camera. So here are the two I did take and you will have to use your imagination with the rest,lol.

Just popped in

To wish all you Mothers and any women who care for children anywhere a very happy day.

A few things to share.

Mum's mother's day card.

Coloured using copic markers, paper- KandCo, Stamp-MyFavoriteThings , Brads-FTI(white coloured with copics)

Felt flower-scrap of felt from home die cut with a forget me not bosscut die.

My little box of colour happiness, holds my markers, prisma pencils and baby oil

Box-Kaisercraft, Pattern paper, stamp and ribbon-PaperTreyInk

Scalloped die-nestability from BizzyBec's

Donna Downey inspired fabric album for Joseph. A work in progress, I still need to add some diecut stars and photos printed on to fabric. Some more happy colours.
I finally finished Brendan's Mulgaria station album the other day. Used some distress inks to age the cover and bound it using the bind-it-all. A very simple design but I didn't want anything too overly embellished for him.
It was great to find a piece of paper that had Lake
Torrens printed on it.
I'm working on a canvas for my son Joseph's special female friend Sophie. I just thought I'd share the stamp he picked for her, (hope you can read it ok) it says 'you are beautiful' . I thought it was really cute and she really is a beautiful young girl, sweet inside and out.
My favourite saying is on a stamp, woo hoo.

Not a lot to report, had the day home with youngest not well, nothing serious, he will be back at school tomorrow. These are just a few little things I have been doing lately.

A little tale to share.

I've got lots to blog about but no time at the moment but I have to share this little story. I have just picked up my two eldest boys from their after school part time jobs, the older of the two works for a few hours a week at the local supermarket in the fruit and veg department. He couldn't work out why a friend of his could not stop laughing at him at work tonight . She had came into the supermarket looking for asparagus and asked him if he knew where it was, being fairly new he didn't but said to her he did not even know what asparagus was and that he thought it was a part of the body. Which part??? Asparagus veins of course. the poor girls no wonder she almost had a melt down in the store, I'm still laughing every time I think of it.

Arte y Pico

Sweet Em from http://inemscloset.blogspot.com/ has awarded me the Arte Y Pico award, I am very honoured. Once awarded the idea is to send this on to 5 other bloggers who's blogging inspires you. So here's the list (I don't suppose I can send one back can I Em?)I wish I could add more, there are so many inspiring blogs out there.

Kathryn http://kathryn-timeforachat.blogspot.com/ Scrapbooker and home school Mum extraordinaire

Lisa http://theblogoflisavc.blogspot.com/ Cool creative freestyle scrappin'

Peta http://mummaspage.blogspot.com/ Always coming up with original ideas

Kaz http://canwebefrank.blogspot.com/ The rockinest landscape photographer

Bec http://thespiceoflife.typepad.com/ You've got to check out this girls paper crafts work, it's amazing.

So there is the prestigious list, I hope you print the award out and sit them on your mantle and dust them regularly,lol.

Whipper snapper cards

Sorry the cards are a little distorted, I must have photographed them a little crooked, they are at right angles irl, promise, lol.
The dotty back ground on this card is made using the swiss dot embossing folder that wonderful Emily Em'sblog sent to me as a RAK recently, along with a gorgeous card and roll of soft sage ribbon. It's so exciting to get a surprise in the mail, especially all the way from the States. In light of her generosity I have decided to 'pay it forward' and do some blog candy next week, stay tuned for details.
I recently purchased a couple of new stamps from Whippersnapper stamps and had the time last week to have a play with them. I thought the monster stamp would be a great boy card stamp, and we have plenty of boy birthdays in our family, and the umbrella I purchased just because I liked it. I thought the rain sentiment from Papertry Ink went perfectly with it. I'm still loving my nestability dies, used for the border of the sentiment on the bw card, that I bought from BizzyBecs , they are so cool and easy to use with the cuttle bug machine.
Bits of my text keep disappearing as I type, I think there may be something wrong with my computer at the moment ,not sure if is going to show up later when I post this, will have to get it checked out, so if this post makes no sense at all you will know why.

Some shots from Xavier's baptism and Joseph's footy

Joseph playing for his school in the SAPSASA school tryouts

Cute little Xavier and his gorgeous Mum Rachel

For some reason either blogger or my computer are not doing as they are meant to tonight so I'm not sure if all these photos are going to show. There are a few more from Xavier's baptism and the other ones (if they show) are from Joseph's school football game. Kids from schools all over the district came to try out for the SAPSASA (South Australian primary schools athletics? association)football match. Only twenty three kids were selected to form a team for this district (upper south east) to play in Adelaide in a few weeks time, Joseph was overwhelmed to be chosen to play.

The first babtism photo

Of Brendan's uncle, Fr Des FitzGerald who performed the baptism on baby Xavier last Sunday, more photos to come.

Please don't click on the link

on the comment left on the post below. It says "see please here". When I clicked on the name 'salar' I received a message saying it was an undesirable site, thank goodness I did not touch the 'here' link, goodness knows what would have happened. This is the first time I have had anything like this happen on with blogger and hopefully will be the last.

A few photos from the weekend

This weekend just gone we had a trip down home to Port Fairy for my nieces wedding on Saturday and nephews baptism on Sunday. It was the most wonderful weekend catching up with relatives and friends, some of whom we haven't seen in ages. I have popped a few of the wedding up before I go and have a very much needed sleep and will hopefully get more up over the next few days.

Mmmmm cupcakes

Sweet little AmeliaYes, I did bake.

It seems everywhere I look lately there are cupcakes, on stamps, clothing, like this cute little top my friend's sweet daughter Amelia is wearing, (It's possibly a good thing I do not have daughters because with such cute clothes around I would most defiantly never have any money left), I even saw the perfect looking cupcake in our local plant nursery, turns out it was a soap. So with all this cupcake inspiration around I felt I should rev up the oven and bake some myself, they are so pretty and believe me pretty is not something common in our house, which is why I had to photograph them before they all disappeared.
P.S. Amazingly they did taste as good as they looked

Hands up

those who ate too much chocolate over Easter, I know I certainly did. Not only chocolate but all the other good things in life. Friday night we went to a friends house for the yummiest seafood feast of crayfish(lobster) prawns and freshly caught calamari, along with a great selection of yummy salads, my poor tummy had had enough by the end but my mouth just kept wanting to eat, it all tasted too good. The rest of the weekend was mostly spent around the house with just the odd venture out to get videos or attend an Easter service. All in all a great battery recharger.
The loveliest thing this morning was to wake to rain,nothing to heavy at the moment but it is meant to last for a couple of days and the veggie patch is loving it. It's the first rain we've had in months and it's delicious.
Have just heard the posties squeaky brakes so better go and see whether he has bought any thing other than bills.
Cheers.
ETA Thanks to those of you who left a comment and said hi, it's nice to hear from you.

So who are you???

My counter keeps going up but no one is saying hello, so if you have time leave a comment and say gidday.

Poor neglected blog

Paper crafts-not just for indoors.Monkey in the pumpkin patch
Sally and Paul's wedding gift box(don't look Sal) I also have a matching card. This is my favourite

paper at the moment from the new Kaiser range

An Easter card for Joseph's girl friend

Just a little pop up card

I love these new tree stamps from hero arts and the curlicue background stamp from stampit

Egg boxes for the primary school boys teachers

I haven't tended to my little blog for ages. Not a lot has been happening here, just the routine of school, work, sport and the always present household duties.

I have been playing with my toys though and especially my new nestability dies, I really love the scallop circles and have even used it to make stakes for my herb garden. I bought the new Penny Black fresh new day stamp set thinking that it would be a good one for the kids to make their Easter cards with but have ended up using them more myself.

The family is looking forward to the long weekend over Easter, the down time will be nice. We head off in a couple of weeks to my nieces wedding on the Saturday (hence the wedding box, Sal, if you are looking at this close your eyes now) and baby Xavier's Baptism on the Sunday and a family catch up. I'm really looking forward to seeing my big brother too, he is down from Darwin and will get to stay for the wedding., we haven't caught up other than the phone since the beginning of last year.

I hope everyone has a great and safe Easter, cheers.

Dad's album

Unfortunately the crackle medium did not work as well under the blue paint as the brown but it still has a slightly distressed look.

My Dad died a few days after my 14th birthday but I have never in all this time made an album for him, I have done pages but never an actual album until now. When I was in Adelaide at the stamping and scrapping fair a few weeks back I came across this little album and these papers that remind me so much of my Dad. I think his favourite shirt was similar in colours, very 70s, the era I remember him in best. I had Saturday night with only the two older boys so while I watched the vicar of dibley I managed to get this done with my stable table balanced on my lap, one of those things I had bought and rarely used but now have discovered it great for small projects while I'm watching tv in the lounge. All I have to do now is get some photos printed off, going down to pick out my new printer today, my other one no longer wants to print properly, add some journaling and it's all done.

I love a sunburnt country

Bren after the big trip in the very little plane Over lake torrens
Cattle on Mulgaria station

I don't think I'll ever complain about it being dry here again
The Murray river near Murray Bridge

Salt plains on lake Torrens
Ocean near Port Pirie





More of the salt plains

I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of drought and flooding rains, I love her far horizons, I love her jewel sea, Her beauty and her terror - The wide brown land for me.

These photos remind me so much of this poem.

Brendan just returned from a quick trip up to Mulgaria (above Lake Torrens in South Australia) to check over a drought affected property up there. It is amazing to see the diverse type of country from the air and I loved seeing his photos and thought I'd put a few on here to share. He took 137 so I won't put all of them on. I was so relieved to see him arrive home safe and sound as three of them flew up in a single engine plane, it seemed so small sitting on the tarmac but they said the flight was great and passed really quickly, and no wonder with all the lovely scenery.

Not a post about a pretty cobweb

But more about the fact that Joseph made me run inside and grab the camera when he spotted it. I love that they see beauty in the everyday things like cobwebs and sunsets and are starting to appreciate what the camera can do to record it.

Woo hoo

In five hours time I get up to leave for a day in the city. A car load of us are heading up to Adelaide for the scrapbooking and stamping fair being held at the Morphetville race course.
Shame about the 3 1/2 hour drive though, still lots of girl chat and giggles should speed up the trip, goodnight...

A tiny little praying mantis and me in my space.

I found this tiny little praying mantis while I was watering last night, I haven't seen one around here for quite a while, it was tiny not even an inch long. Seamus had a ball playing with it, it kept wanting to run up on his head. He was very hard to photograph because he wouldn't keep still, even when he didn't run he kept swaying from side to side. Happily Seamus let him go in the garden again, I'm glad the bpys are past the stage of having to keep bugs captive, even though they are only insects I still hated finding then dead in the bug catcher days later, guess I'm just soft. The last one is me in my nook, where I'm always happy.

Blogging in my undies

HaHa. Have just come in from gardening and window washing and discovered that the bottoms of my tracky dacks are covered in mud so I dumped them in the laundry basket. It's hot here today, there is no one else home and the doors are locked so why not, I have a tshirt on as well so as not to scare you too much with unpleasant mental pictures. Not too much to report at the moment, as I said in my last post the boys seem to have settled into school again quite well and are even doing homework when asked with out me having to tackle them to the ground and force them to do it. It has helped that I am not doing as many hours at work and am here to supervise their after school goings on. Over the weekend we did a little reorganising in my scrapnook so I thought I might do a little guided tour a bit later just for fun and before it becomes totaly messy again, not that there isn't way too much clutter in here now but for the moment it's organised clutter. I tried yesterday using the video format on Brendan's fuji s5800 but the sound finished up way before the pictures did when I put it on the computer and viewed it back, not sure why, but it may just be something I have to put up with. It's really weird hearing your own voice and I tend to get a little bit over chirpy but that's ok, I'm sure your brave enough to deal with it.