Daisy had a playmate

We couldn't let her go home with out at least one photo shoot,lol. Joseph and Pixie
Joseph and the two dogs
Our own cute but slothful dog Daisy (in her defense I will say that when she does start to run there is no stopping her, she can run for miles)
Food, did someone say food

Over the weekend we minded Kathryn's dog Pixie. She's a lively little bundle of energy compared to our fat Daisy, that's until she finds a lap or warm spot by the fire. the photos don't show just how tiny she is or just how fat Daisy is,lol. Daisy has been advised by the vet that she needs to go on a weight loss program, just a couple of kilos but for a dog that adores food as much as she does it's not going to be easy, sadly I can relate so well to her,lol. Pixie on the other hand ate up a storm and never seemed to change, lucky girl.

Cool

I was wrapped today to receive this award from the uber talented Beck Spicer. It means so much when someone whose work you really admire does something like this. Check out her blog
here and the links she has to some awesome talent from this district. I am meant to pass this on but as with the one Donna gave me I am going to leave it up to you to put on your blog. Just check out my sidebar for some of the talented people around, both near and far, they all dererve awards in my opinion.

Page one, workshops at home

I am doing one of Kim Archers workshopsathome classes. it started on the 20th but I have only just started mking it, luckily her workshops are left up for ages.. The litttle album is one of Maya roads and is really cute. It's a little hard to tell because it is laying down on a piece of card but it's a gorgeous sheer not clear plastic so you can still see through it but not as clearly as acetate, it makes it a lot easier to adhere the parts because although the adhesive might show a little it is certainly not as bad as the clear albums. I have used papers and ribbons by WR memory keepers. there was a kit you could buy from Tarisota but unfortunaly it had sold out by the time I went to purchase mine. I have added a few extra elements to mine like the extra buttons and bird and also made my own pin from a hat pin and beads. I get more satisfaction from making my embellishments than I do buying them, although sometimes if time is a factor the premade stuff might be hauled out. I will share the rest when I'm done. It's going to contain photos of Bren and I from the 20 plus years we have been together. It's a little sad that I can only fill a mini album with them as we seldom ever seem to have photos taken of just the two of us.
cheers for now.

Just boppin' along to Rob Thomas

Journaling to come, my hand writing is horrid so I will get Brendy to do it, or maybe even Seamus himself.

Paper is cogsmo by cosmo cricket Coloured the live out loud rubon with coloured pencils, the white letters were to stark for my liking

PP basic grey

The blue @ symbol is not meant to be there, I wasn't sure which colour I liked better and sat them both there, obviously there was a bit of tack on the side of one of the letters because it stayed there and I forgot to take it off before photographing it, so typical,lol.

PP K and co

while I upload a few quick layouts I have done recently. gone are the days when I
would spend hours agonising over the placement of an item, now I just tend to stick, if I like it good and well, if I don't and it can't be moved, well that's bad luck and I either try to add something over or around it or just deal with it. Like the bottom layout above. I dropped a letter while sticking with some super strong adhesive on it and it landed crooked, me being quite a linear scrapper tried to move it and all it did was started to tear the paper so I just had to go with the flow and put everything on scew whiff (so what's the real spelling?) I'm still not sure if I really like it or not but here I am sharing it anyway. the cat in the hat layout, which yes I know still needs the journaling done on it, was done after sketching a layout of Nichol Magourik's on the hero arts website here , I really love her style of scrappin and card making. anyway I had the photos and me being usually a one photo girl was a bit flummoxed as to what to do with them, as soon as I saw Nichol's layout I knew it would work for what I wanted to do.

I'm off to go and watch a game of basketball, hooroo.

Book week and thank you Donna

Cat In The hat AKA Seamus

Robin (Joseph) Hood high fiving the crowd.

Princess (Sandie) Witchiepoo


Firstly a big thank you to Donna for my little award, I'm meant to pass it on but you all rock so how can I choose. So if you read my blog and you think you are deserving (you know you are) just give yourself one of these.

This week has been book week and today the school celebrated with a dress up day, oh what fun. Seamus went as cat in a hat and won the over all competition, a gift voucher from Angus and Robinson book store. It is amazing what you can do with cardboard and a bit of imagination ( a few scrapbook tools help too,lol) Joseph first started out as Specky McGee but changed his mind at the last minute and went as Robin Hood which won him his class prize, cool hey(again cardboard and imagination thrown together in literally 3 minutes). My younger boys are like me and love to dress up for these sort of things. I remember at when I was at school relishing the time for school plays and dress up days and going all out to create a costume from whatever materials I could find around the house, usually in Mum's sewing basket or big sisters wardrobe.

My Mum was a whiz at whipping up a costume at the last minute, still does it occasionally for her great grand kids. Almost the whole school got into it even the teachers. The gorgeous Sandie came as the wicked witch from snow white but still had her princess fairy wand, just so we wouldn't forget who she really is,lol.

that's all for now, oh and I did a layout this afternoon in around about 30 minutes using Seamus' photos from this morning, will share tomorrow, can't be bothered taking photos tonight, gee I'd like a 12 inch scanner.

Hooroo.

More of the good stuff

I forgot to mention that I also won this gorgeous little set of stamps from the awesome hero arts company just by leaving a comment on their blog. They are a little inchie set and I can't wait for them to arrive so I can have a play. I don't know what is more exciting with this kind of thing, the winning or the being contacted by the big guns of the paper crafts world. I received an email from Jennifer McGuire this morning and was so excited.
I guess now I will stop the commenting on blog candy for a while as I really think I have had my share of good stamp winning fortune and one less person commenting leaves one more chance for somebody else to win. I am having a bit of a clean out of my scrap stuff over the next week or two so may even do a little giving away myself, I had panned to do this some time ago but didn't get the opportunity, stay tuned...

Flippin' awesome

O.K. you are going to have to forgive me all the flip puns. This is my first ever play with the flip. Nobody was at home to shoot footage of so it's a half completed layout. I do tend to babble a bit when I'm on video (and I hate the fake voice that comes out), I think it the talking when there is no one around thing, like leaving a message on an answering service. I chat to myself quite a bit at home but that's a whole other story,lol.
Here goes, I hope this works.


Untitled from Sue FitzGerald on Vimeo.

I'm excited

Woo hoo what a day. Firstly when checking out google reader the link came up that the delightful
JenniferMcGuire had announced the prize winner of the card drive she did, and guess what, my name was on it. there was a special draw for us down under folk (aussies and NZer). I'm so excited, some of the cards are pictured below. For some reason I did not write just what they were for on them when I posted , that's just my scatter brain sometimes I guess. any how I'm just so excited, can hardly sit still to type . The other thing that has made my day brilliant is the arrival of my little flip camera in the mail, super fast shipping from the States amazed me. watch out, videos everywhere from now on, this little thing is amazing.
O.K. I'm off, wish it was to go and do something super exciting like the beginning of the day was but now I have a load of washing to hang out and then I have to take Daisy to the vet. she has a really irritated eye and with Cav's being such big eyed dogs I don't want it to get any worse.
I hope all this makes sense, I'm typing too fast cause I'm still excited.

Nothing to share from me at the moment

The Moyne river Port Fairy, one of my favourite spots in the whole world and my old home town. I remember as kids rowing the dingy around underneath the wharf and around the river. Isn't the rainbow spectalcular.
The road home, love the moody look of this shot and the sweep of late afternoon light across the road.


Just busy with the usual swirl of kids, sport, school, upcoming footy finals, homestuff, work and play. I haven't picked my camera up, other than for football shots, for ages so I thought I'd share a couple of Brendan's photos taken while he was on holidays last month. these are only two of many he has taken. He is really developing an interest in this hobby, pushed a little by me of course, and I love it. If he sees a nice sunset or view now he will stop the car get out and photograph it or as is the case with the second shot take it while he is driving. So glad the camera I gave him for Christmas turned out to be a hit not a fizzer.

Another stuff up

OK, the word was meant to be unspectacular not unremarkable, sorry.

Yeah, yeah, I've been tagged.

Thanks Donna, (imagine this said with a hint of sarcasm in my voice,lol)
My dear friend Donna (and no I don't really mind, I was only joking Don) has tagged me to share 6 unremarkable things about myself. Only six, I could probably write an entire book on being unremarkable, so here goes
1) I have a thing for antibacterial solution, and have to soak things like toothbrushes, cutlery holders, toys etc in it regularly, even though I have not had a baby in the house for years, it's just one of those things.
2)I can't bear to wear socks to bed, no matter how cold my feet get, I even get cramps in them sometimes but the feeling of socks in bed just creeps me out.
3)When I type the word scallop on my computer I almost always type scallpop and regards as regrads, not sure why, I really have to slow it down to write those words.
4)My second toes are quite a bit longer than my big toes.
5)I will eat almost anything other that tin asparagus, love it fresh but the canned stuff reminds me of snot,ewww(sorry if that just grossed you out and has put you off canned asparagus for life).
6)I love cotton underwear, I hate the feeling of wearing man made materials next to my skin, so no frilly little nylon knickers for this girl.

So six very unremarkable things and as I said the list could go on and on.
Now I am meant to tag 6 other people but as Donna has already tagged a few of the people I would of I'll leave it to you to tag yourself if you read this.
O.K. I've changed my mind, I am going to tag one person Tanya the unblogging blogger, just because it is so long since she has done anything on hers, update now girl.

Bring Donna down under

OK for all of you Aussie scrappers out there my friend Kathryn and I have devised a plan to try and get the very talented Donna Downey to come to Australia and do some classes. We are going to use good old fashioned nagging (works for the kids) We thought if those of you who are out there who would be as excited as us to do a class with 'her miss scrappiness' herself could leave a comment on her blog ( weekly if possible) she might just feeled loved enough to want to travel down her and see us all. It's worth a try hey?

Back to basics

Anyone who looked at my blog yesterday may have noticed I changed my template then ditched it. I have decided I like my plain old blog. I did put in a hew header though but I'm still not sure if I completely like it, it was one I picked up off the net. I think I prefer to do my own but I can't remember the size ratio and pixels I am supposed to size it to, any one want to fill me in or do I actually have to look it up myself, lol. You can ignore the last post at least, I found my poor little lost links, now they are happily right back where they are meant to be.
Have a big footy weekend coming up this weekend. Seamus has his school boys grand final tonight out at Kyby under lights and that will not finish until 9pm, bettter pack my blankie, then the boys play at Penola tomorrow. Hopefully Saturday afternoon will be fairly free.
hooroo for now.

And also

My little link thingy that normally sits up on the right top corner seems to have gone astray, you know, the thing that lets you sign in to your blog etc. Help pleeeeeaaaase, anyone more computer savvy than me (and that's a huge percentage of the population) please help me find it.......It's sad and lonely lost out there in cyber space somewhere.

Lost

When I changed my blog template I lost the links to the blogs I read. If you know I read your blog regularly please leave a comment and link so I can reattach them, thanks.

Catching up

Stamps-Hero arts
Stamps-Inkadinkadoo and papertreyink The inside of this card is actually navy not black as it looks here
Stamps-PTI Flowers-Hero arts

Stamps-Bella
Stamps-Billy by pink cat studio(they now have a dress up billy range which is adorable and I can't wait to get, perfect for all the boy birthdays we have around here)
Layout on an odd angle. Papers-kaisercraft Kraft Cardstock-Aussiescrapsource (there abbreviated initials are A.S.S. which always makes me giggle, I wonder did they think of this when they started the company) Stamp-Stampit
the stamped quote reads 'go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined' and is so appropriate for Paddy, he is looking out to sea and the ocean is were this boys dreams and heart lie.
Stamp-rubber necker Ribbon-pti
Stamp-Bella Ribbon-vandoras



just thought I'd post a few things I have worked on over the last few weeks (thanks for the push Em,lol) As I have mentioned before Brendan has had a months holidays and so have been hanging out more with him and less time attending blogs and such. He started back last week on the coldest day we've had in ten years, poor thing. His last day off was a lovely one and even though the temperature didn't get very high the sun was gorgeous which made it feel much warmer than it actually was. We spent the day cleaning out the shed and I finished off the kitchen cabinet that Brendan started restoring for me a few holidays ago. I just had to paint the inside and oil the exterior, I love it. It's an old dresser from I think around the 1930s or 40s, will post a photo of it later.

Baby Xavier and a layout

Who says you can't use bling, flowers and ribbon for boys, not me that's for sure.

It reads, love laugh always on the flowers, it's a little hard to read on here. All the elements are raised on pop dots, including the photo mat.

Wowsers, I just noticed what a rotten job I did cropping this and the sun glare is not too nice on the photo either, you will just have to use your imagination

ETA. BTW this is Jackson when he was around four years old in his favourite jumper that my Mum knitted for him, he and Paddy had matching ones. they were gorgeous and so super soft and the colour reminded me of the ocean. Taken on Grifiths island, Port Fairy, on one of our many walks we used to do.
I must add some journaling somewhere on here, or maybe the back.

This week we have had Bren's sister Rachel, baby Xavier and his other sister's daughter Eloise
staying. No pictures of the others,lol, but had to put on pics of the baby, isn't he the cutest? Eight months is such a cute age, lots of giggles and fun.
Brendan and Seamus left the same day as Rach and Paddy is already down in Port Fairy. I drove Jackson, well he drove me, up to bordertown to visit Lucy and so it is only Joseph and I at home, a great excuse to stay up late and scrapbook, hence the layout above, and also catch up on some neglected blogging. Joseph does not think so and is missing all the activity that normaly goes on in our house, me on the other hand am loving the quiet.

And I'd like to thank...

Wow while I was away I received this award, not from one but three people. Big thanks goes out to Donna , Sandie and Em for thinking of me, it's really the coolest.
Now I have to narrow down my list of blogs I love to only 5, I think this will take some thinking.
tick tick tick tick
OK, thinking done, it's going back to the wonderful girls who sent me mine, I know you have already received them but a creative girl can never have too many awards now can she and you girls really do rock!
The other two I will send to the very talented and still only in her teens, Lucy and last but not least the heroartsblog, they will possibly never know that I have presented them this award but it is a truly inspiring website and I love that each week they have different designers all with different styles to keep the creative inspiration flowing. There are also so many other inspiring websites I visit on a regular basic (Google reader has 63 articles for me to catch up on) which all deserve an award, so maybe I can send this out to every person out there who has ever picked up scissors and paper or paint brush and paint or fabric or wool or whatever medium it is you happen to work in because the whole world of creating is such a wonderful one that every one who has ever created deserves to get an award .

Love those holidays

The boys were fascinated but a little creeped out by the Egyptian mummies, lucky they did not see the unbandaged ones under this display case

The boys being very dorky outside the Adelaide uni, this was the same face Paddy pulled in almost every photo.
Adelaide is known as the city of churches and this is just one of them, St Peter's, I think it was Anglican.
The Kiss, I actually was told off bythe security guard at the art gallery for taking this, apparently I missed the huge no photographs sign, the boys thought it was hysterical

One of around two hundred plus shots of giraffes, and that's after deleting some, how could you not love them and their beautiful eyelashesA lion cub
A tired rhino, the guide had just finished telling us how they can be dangerous and charge when the old fella plonked himself down for a rest.
Daddy lions. I love viewing the animals without small cages around them, we were able to drive the bus right past these two big boys, they had a large area to rome about.

We're back from a week exploring the city and loved every minute of it.

Every trip to Adelaide we have had has been a rushed trip for a work function for either Bren or I or sport related so we have never really had time to simply enjoy the city but this time we made up for it and could have easily spent another week there. We did the Monarto zoo(a large free range zoo just before Adelaide) the museum twice, the art gallery, aquatics centre, Marion , the movies, city strolling and people watching as well as just relaxing in our lovely apartment. we stayed at the sunset view apartments at West beach if anyone needs great accommodation in Adelaide. The owners were lovely the apartment really comfortable and for $130 per night for the six of us quite reasonable. we find it hard to get accommodation in a world were a family is considered to be 2 adults 2 kids, to me a family is however many children you have, whether it be one or 18 ( and yes I do know a family of 18, no twins,lol) It was a 15 minute drive into the hub of the city but we were right on the beach and able to enjoy the wonderful sound of the roaring ocean to settle us off to sleep. I could probably go on all night about how lovely the week was but Joseph and I have a dvd to watch so now I'm going to relax a little.

Off to the big smoke

See you in a week when I'm back.
Cheers,
Sue.

I'm back

Card using video tut on the hero arts site, a thank you to Paddy's basketball coach, I was rapt that he realised it was handmade and thanked me for making it, not something all males do, most would not even notice. A spinner card for Seamus' friends birthday, very simple but fun to play with, even for big kids,lol.
This layout and the so sweet one were done in a class, not something I often get to do. It was fun because we were given a basic sketch to follow and everything else was up to us, we were allowed to choose our own cardstock, papers and embellishments, much more up my alley than someone telling me what to put and where.
Not sure if I have put this up here before but I did a little finishing off, just added a couple of little bits here and there, I had never felt like it was fully finished.
Just a closer view of some of the elements on the page, all the shapes were stamped on and as I seem to be on a butterfly roll lately I had to add one of those. It was punched form transparency inked with alcohol inks and then ran through a cuttle bug embossing folder.

A card I did for a class, the base was made using instructions form someones blog (I can't remember whose but I think it was one of the pti girls, can try to find it if anyone really wants to know) I then decorated it using pattern papers and a flower from Kaiser and a butterfly cut and embossed with the cuttlebug machine, then again inked using alcohol inks and finished with a tag cut with the cuttlebug (love that little green machine) and stamped using a hero arts sentiment

I've had a bit of a break from blogging over the last few days, Bren is on holidays and so I'm not getting the usual time that I'm used to while he is at work and the boys are at school.

Jackson had his formal last Friday night and I will put a shot up soon even though I am totally disappointed in the few photos I took. I had envisioned gorgeous shots in different setting with a very cooperative son striking model like poses. Did I get that? Nothing even close. for starters by the time we did a few things down the street and arrived home, he showered and dressed and was ready to go it was already dark, wrong time of year to start with when it's dark at around 5.30ish, then we went down to the town hall where it was being held and I thought maybe a few cool pics under some of the store light, kind of a bit of urban grunge type thing, no way was he going to cooperate. All I ended up with was him standing stiff and awkward and me having to use the on board flash, yuk. There was a photographer there going around taking photos of the kids through out the night so hopefully he will have a few shots of him acting more naturally instead of the nervous wreck standing waiting for his date (friend Lucy not girl friend Lucy), who after having to catch a bus all the way from Adelaide and then drive the 70 km into town was a little late. He had a great night though so that was the main thing and he did look rather dashing in his suit.

I received this little email the other day, quite cute. Hope it comes up large enough to read, click on it if it doesn't.

A few bits and pieces

A sympathy card I made for an elderly neighbour whose husband passed away a couple of days ago. The brown background has been stamped tone on tone with butterflies but they didn't photograph well, neither did the embossed white buttterflies inside the card..

Stamps-Lucy's and Hero arts(sentiment) Ribbon and pink and white cardstock-PTI Bling-Hero arts Brown cardstock-unknown unfortunately because it is gorgeous. Markers-copic

A little altered chalkboard that hangs in my nook
A little matchbook album my photos came in that I covered. It holds photos taken with a disposable waterproof camera over summer. The letters were first painted white then a coat of JoSonja's opal dust was applied after this dried, it gives a really cool pearly, glittery effect. The papers and flowers are from Kaiser
This cute little flower was a thank you gift from my friend http://kathryn-timeforachat.blogspot.com/ , the pattern is here . Excuse the sad little plant
Joseph decided he would make me one too, all he needs to do is add the stick and finish stitching, my favourite mothers day gift.

Over the long weekend I managed to finish off a few projects that have been hanging around bugging me for ages. The weather was cold and damp and I had a yucky head cold so it was the ideal chance to just hang at home.

No excuses

Coco's birthday card I made her, the mirror looks white but the card is actually done on a transparency base so it is clear.Jackson, the birthday boy.
Jackson and his sweet girlfriend Lucy, she really is the sweetest kid and an added bonus(for me) loves scrapbooking.
Jacko running down the oval
Joseph at the footy playing with two of his mates puppies

I haven't blogged in some time (again) no excuses really just busy with life I guess, that and the fact that I couldn't find my memory card reader. Last week we celebrated my first born's 17th birthday, I can't believe how much time has flown, how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. I still clearly remember going into labour, driving along the top of Tower Hill ringing Mum and one of my big brother's to tell them I was going into hospital and to pass it on to the rest of the family, realising I had no cash on me so stopping at the ATM in town to get money out and the woman who kept giving me strange looks as I gripped the edge of the teller machine when a contraction hit, the hospital, the midwives, the stream of young doctors who lined up on the back wall to observe a standard text book labour and birth(they did ask and by then I didn't really care, all humility goes out the door during birth) and I remember my sweet baby boy when they placed a healthy 9lbs of him in my arms. It only seems like yesterday and yet sometimes I scarcely remember what life was like before the boys were born, I think most Mothers know what it's like.
Jackson really enjoyed his birthday even though he didn't do anything really big, he played a good game of football in the morning (that is always enough to put him in a good mood) and then had his girlfriend over to have a quiet family party and video night. I'm so glad he decided against a party, it's a difficult age to know how far to let them go, we were so much happier with this arrangement and it was all his own choice.