Last Post for 2008!

Well this is officially the last post for 2008!

We took the boys to see some 9pm fireworks tonight as well as an icecream and they loved it!
Hopefully this is the first of many New Years Eves out as a family. They had a great time and so did we.

Thank you to everyone who visits my blog. Thank you for stopping by and for leaving a comment, no matter how big or small. And for those that don't leave a comment that's Ok too - it's just lovely that you take some time to visit here every now and then.

Best wishes to you all for a Safe and Happy 2009!
Enjoy the New Year - 45 minutes to go here in Brisbane - just need to keep my eyes open a little longer - hehehe!

What's a post with a photo - here's my collage of Xmas Day 'opening presents'.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for all the lovely birthday wishes - it really meant alot to me!
And, I can't believe how many Capricorns there are amongst us - more birthdays to come.

I've been processing photos galore and getting ready to print them off tomorrow. I like to crop them sometimes in Photoshop and make a collage so I can use on my layouts, so I've been spending time on that tonight. Here are a heap of photos from Christmas Day - spent at my parent's home. It was a huge family affair and we all had a great time. I can't wait to do this layout!


Best wishes to everyone for a Happy New Year in case I don't get time to post tomorrow night.
Here's to a wonderful 2009!

Happy Birthday .... to me!

Today I'm celebrating my Birthday and not just any birthday ... the BIG 40!

I'm having a fun day with Ethan and Joshua playing trains and building Neo, gingerbread for morning tea and heaps of kisses and hugs from them. Looking forward to when Manuel gets home from work too.


Hopefully I'll have some photos to share soon!

GIngerbread Recipe

Thanks go to Nicole Southworth who shared this recipe with me last year.

It's easy to make but the trick is to let it sit the mixture sit in the refrigerator until it firms up before you go rolling it out and cutting shapes.

Gingerbread

3/4 cup margarine

1 cup brown sugar (I use Black sugar fromt he health food store)

1 egg

1/4 cup molases

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate soda

2 1/4 cups plain flour sifted

Beat the wet ingredients together until creamy.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir until well combined.

Allow to firm up in the fridge.

Roll out to approx. 1/4 inch thick and cut your shapes.

Bake on baking paper in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees celisius for about 8-10 minutes.

Royal Icing

1 egg white

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar sifted

Gently beat the egg white and then slowly add icing sugar one teaspoon at a time.

I use a small plastic sandwich bag and simply cut off a small amount of one corner. I use that as my piping bag. But .... I really must grab myself a proper nozzle to decorate these because they would probably look even lovelier with one of those.

Happy Baking!

The Best Christmas ever!

We celebrated Christmas lunch and dinner with cousins and aunties and uncles and grandparents and greatgrandparents and nieces and .... well it was fantastic! The boys had a great time, not just with the endless supply of presents but playing with their cousins and also a visit from Santa Claus on the day. I'll share some photos next week. Oh and some of those cousins and aunties are visitors to my blog .... time to leave a comment girls!!!!

Earlier in the week, the boys were excited to bake some gingerbread. We started the tradition last year and they loved it. This year though we baked them and then decorated them, ate a few and then packaged them into a biscuit tin as a gift for their 95 year old GreatGrandmother. They decided that since she couldn't bake her Greek biscuits anymore they would bake something for her - I'm lucky to have such good little boys. Of course, they kept a container for themselves too - hehehe!

If you'd like the recipe, let me know and I'll post it here next time. It's not tricky at all and they taste delicious. The recipe was given to me by Nicole Southworth - some of you may know her name as a fellow aussie scrapbooker.

'Twas the night before Christmas ...

The boys are so excited that Santa is coming tonight - Ethan reminded me that we took photos last year in front of the tree before bedtime, so I was more than happy to carry on the tradition.

Of course, they also got some homemade gingerbread for Santa, an apple for the reindeer to share and a glass of water in case anyone was thirsty. Ethan included a special note for Santa as well.

Here's hoping that tomorrow morning doesn't start too early - but then again, it is Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas to everyone - wishing you all good health and happiness in the new year!

Santa Cupcake

Isn't this the cutest Santa cupcake?!
Our local bakery is making these in mini versions as well as normal cupcakes. They taste delicious too!

Only 4 sleeps to go!

This is how it goes!

So we have to strike a deal in our house for a mini photo session - one crazy photo then one 'normal' photo. In fact the 'normal' ones are hardly normal most of the time. I'm loving my new camera and I just collected my second new lens - a 50mm f1.4 - and had to have a play. Here are some shots - gotta love my model!

Five sleeps to go!

Another layout

... 2 in fact,

although I can only share one since I'm thinking that I can use the other for the Keeping it Simple article in Scrapbook Creations.

The weather in Brisbane was forecast to be 35 degrees celcius today so I stayed inside with the boys most of the time. We baked gingerbread and hopefully we can decorate them tomorrow. I also completed 2 layouts and went for a swim. We should all sleep well tonight.

Here's my Finding Diesel layout - I kept thinking it needed some patterned paper but I just couldn't get it to feel right with it on. That gorgeous arrow is a sticker from the American Crafts range - a gift from Severine a while ago - isn't is so cool!

Six sleeps to go!

In the Groove

All I needed were a few new photos and some goodies from the scrap store and I felt inspired to scrap again. I'm sure it's been a couple of weeks but I'm in the groove now and I'm about to complete another layout once I share this on my blog.

These photos were practice shots with my new camera and lens - I'm really loving it and I was pleased with how these photos turned out of Joshua and his trains.


Thanks for dropping by - only 7 sleeps to go!

Blog Award x 2

Thanks to Tiff for nominating me for this blog award - 2 awards in 2 days - how cool is that! She's a really fun girl and a great scrapper - go check her out.

Thank you to Tanyah ( http://tanyahpayne.blogspot.com/ ) for nominating me for this award. Tanyah owns Scrap 'n' Craft with T and has a great range of online scrap goodies. This is what I need to do:

1.You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs.

2.You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions.

3.On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link back to their blog.

So, I nominate, in no particular order, some of my most visited photography blogs,

1. Whitebox Weddings

2. Andrea Joki

3. Kerrianne Brown

4. Rachel Richter

5. Audrey Woulard

5 addictions

1. cold, milk chocolate

2. an inspiring blog

3. a beautiful photographic image

4. my family's laughter

5. checking for new emails - more than once a day!

A visit to Santa!

Yes, we made it in time before Xmas day - to see Santa of course!
It was very exciting for the boys and they told Santa all about their wish list.

Now, just 10 more sleeps to go!

oh Xmas tree ....

The tree is up and the presents are wrapped - except of course the ones Santa will bring.
We've had the tree up since mid November - the boys put it up one stormy afternoon to stop them feeling scared. I love having the tree up early - it feels like Xmas doesn't it!

Back In Action

Finally, my new camera arrived at the camera store and I love it!

I'm so happy to have the Canon 40D as well as a beautiful new lens - the 24-70L.
The 50mm f1.2 is on it's way but I'm loving the other one.

Here are a couple of the very first images I took on the weekend.

Oh and Kate B. asked me about a previous layout I posted on my blog - a Xmas layout. She asked what inspired me to use black aplhas against a black background.

Well, I had seen my friend Severine do it over a year ago (just before I created the Xmas layout). She had used White letters on a white background and I loved it. When I was creating mine I wanted the emphasis to be on the Xmas list and I remembered how she had done hers. I felt it didn't dominate the layout. Hope this helps Kate - thanks for asking.

Xmas Bookmarks

Ethan came home last week and announced that he needed some cards for his 27 school friends. So this is what we made - Xmas Bookmarks. Some of the designs were inspired (in a big way) by my friend, Melanie Louette - her cards are beautiful - go check them out if you have a moment.

On the reverse side he wrote his To's and From's - the kids loved them!

SIMPLE SCRAPBOOK news

I'm so excited.

I received an email today from Jennifer Wozab (Simple Scrapbooks - USA) requesting a layout from me for the MAY edition.

I am so excited - this will be 2 editions in a row.

And to make it even more wonderful, my dear friend Severine DiGiacomo (from Switzerland) will be in the same issue as me - she has a layout accepted also. I'm very happy for her.

I'm really really excited - did I say that already?

Lucky last - xmas Layout no.5

It's that time of the year where I need to gather all my ingredients together to bake some gingerbread with the boys. A friend of mine, Nicole Southworth, shared a layout of hers last year with her daughters baking gingerbread and it inspired me immediately to go out and grab all the gear I needed to do this with my own children. They loved it and so did I and the best part was that it was pretty simple to do. What more could you want? I'd love to hear if you follow any xmas traditions - such a great time of the year, isn't it!

Xmas Layout no.4

I forgot to upload my 4th layout last night. I was so busy completing a layout for Scrapbooking Memories for the Xyron Challenge they have coming up in the new year. Wow, I've never used one before and I loved it. So easy to use and sticks everything down so well. I bet you all have one in your scrap stash - don't you ?

This layout is a favourite of mine - not sure why the design grabs me but it does - I think it's the American Crafts rubon arrow - not sure exactly.

Xmas Layout no.3

Here is the third layout that is featured in this month's Scrapbook Creation's Xmas Article - not difficult at all to replicate and really nice to look back on in years to come at how the house looked at Xmas time. That reminds me, time to get the Xmas wreath out and onto the door.

Check this out !

I have some exciting news to share ... a little while ago, Tanyah Payne from Scrap 'n Craft with T (online scrapbooking store) invited me to put together a kit for her along with a layout using the products that I chose. Myself, along with Michelle Jamieson and Tracey Thorne will be taking turns each month to do this and they will be for sale along with 'step-by-step' instructions.

My kit will be available from the 1st January and I can't wait to share what I've done.

In the meantime, Michelle Jamieson has the very first kit available for sale and it's gorgeous!



Oh, and Tanyah is a great scrapper herself - having received an Honorable Mention last year in Scrapbooking Memories Masters.

The kits are available for sale throughout Australia.

xmas day 07 - layout no.2

Here is another layout I have featured in the Xmas Article this month in Scrapbook Creations - I love the papers that I used on this layout - American Crafts (what else? hehe)