Lots and lots and lots ....

... of photos of my stay at Gwinganna Retreat.

This is where we would eat our meals and it overlooked some lovely herb gardens on one side,

as well as this on the other side - a beautiful infinity pool that looked out to some breathtaking scenery.
This was the Valencia Suite that I stayed in - there were 8 separate rooms in this home and quite a few more of these villas dotted around the property.


This was part of the verandah in the villa I stayed in.

The Day Spa was a beautiful new building only 1 year old - great modern Australian architecture. I indulged in a couple of massages while I was there.

I loved the mirrored front doors.

... and this is the back of the Day Spa where you would be taken into one of these villas to have your treatment.

No, that's not me but I did go into that room.

The bathrooms were pretty special,

... and so were the surrounds.

This is the view we all had,

when we woke at 5.30am for 6am Thai Chi - glorious!


Delicious organic fruit, vegetables and herbs grown on the property.

And to show you I was really there .... a bad timer photo of me lounging around

in one of those cute chairs.

This is the view from the other infinity pool that is part of an

amazing gymnasium on the property.

... and one of many huge copper pots scattered through the gardens that can be lit in winter time to keep you warm.

But back to reality now like everyone else.

A full day ...

of school drop off and then toddler gymnastics,

followed by a visit to the organic store and Coles,

lunch and a nap for Joshua,

a dash to school for pick up time,

prepare afternoon tea,

some baking with the boys (Carob and Banana Balls - a recipe from the Gwinganna cookbook),

shower them both and dress them in their PJ's,

heat up some home cooked pasta from my Grandmother for their dinner,

and then put them to bed at 7pm.

All in all,

an ordinary day in the Stamatellos home.

I'm back !

I had a great time at Gwinganna and feeling quite energized now.

I can't wait to look at my photos and share them here.

It's been a tough 4 days away .... rest, rest and more rest - LOL!

.... so off for an early night and I'll be posting tomorrow with all the gorey details.

Goodnight!

Time away!

I'm sneaking in a quick minute to say I'll be away from my blog for the next 4 days. This is where I'm going - woohoo!!

http://www.gwinganna.com/

Hopefully, I'll be relaxed and energized when I get home to my beautiful family.

Oh, and thank you all so much for leaving your 'threatening' comments to not touch that previous layout - I've tucked it into the album because I'm too nervous what one of you might end up doing if I change it ... but then Nicole did have the same idea that I did (maybe some Basic Grey red/orange paper)!!!

Uncertain!

I snuck in a bit of scrapping while Joshua was napping today and managed to complete this layout about the day I turned 40! I can't figure out if I'm happy with it or not - it started off being clean with crisp red edges and finished off a bit bohemian with all that gorgeous Basic Grey Ambrosia range. Not sure whether to redo this - I've never done a redo before but something doesn't feel right. All you girls out there that ink, can I rough up the vivid red cardstock with some ink or should I just rip it off and replace it with some Basic Grey red paper? Thoughts ... anyone?



Oh, and it's great to see so many friends adding their name to the list of 'followers' on my blog. I've been doing it too and it's so easy - just click on 'follow this blog' and fill in the blanks.

More details about Flourish!

Here are some more photos from the opening of Flourish.
I know some of my 'simple' friends (LOL) will be drooling at the wall of bazzill.

http://kathrynmarkrubymax.blogspot.com/

and the previous link on my last post has heaps of photos too.

Oh and Katherine, the opening night was by invitation - that's how I found out about it ... definately worth a visit. Both Ruth and Jan are 2 stylish girls - they are the owners of Flourish!

A fun night out!

Last night I went to the opening of a new scrapbooking store in Brisbane. I had a fun night with 'cover girl' Michelle Jamieson and 'photographer to the stars' Rachel Richter as well as saying hello to Mandy and Katherine who I knew from visiting my blog. There were quite a few 'big names' in the scrapping industry and everyone was suitably impressed.

Take a look at some sneak peeks of the store here:
It's located in Carina in a gorgeously fitted large store. It is a must see if you're in Brisbane or passing through. The 2 girls that own it are lovely and have a great sense of style and they scrap beautifully - I wish them all the best!

First week of school!

I'm about to collect Ethan from school in the next hour or so and he has had a lovely first week. There were no tears from either of us - just a kiss and a hug and off he went and sat at his desk and started colouring. He's such a big Grade One boy now!





Here is the layout I completely last night - not sure if you can officially call it a layout since there is barely any product on it - although I do love the xmas snowflake! So many photos taken on Christmas Day 08 and I wanted to remember it like that. Hope the close ups help with reading the journalling.







Enjoy the weekend!

A forgotten layout.

These last couple of days I've been thinking that I had something to share on my blog but I couldn't work out what. So today, I scrapped 2 cards, a single layout and a double layout (thinking that I should because I had been unproductive).

In fact, I did have something to share but I had forgotten it in the scanner - so here it is ... 'a visit to santa'.



I absolutely love the Pink Paislee alpha stickers - such a pretty font isn't it?

Speaking of fonts ... my husband told me this joke the other day ... 'for my blog' he said! I try not to encourage him!

A font walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a drink.
The bartender says 'no, we don't serve your type!'

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day everyone!

We took a drive to Mount Glorious today and it was lovely. The scenery was beautiful. We stopped for some lunch at a little cafe and saw these letter boxes all in a row - aren't they so adorable!



In the afternoon, the boys pushed each other up and down the footpath in their racing car - where do they get the energy?



After a quick bath, we all head down to our favourite fish and chips shop for dinner and then home. How did you spend your day?

A full day!

Well, it's getting closer to the first day of the new school year and today Ethan and I checked that all the books were ready and covered and had his name on them. He packed his bag and checked that his new lunchbox would fit.

We also started to grow SEA MONKEYS!
I'll upload some photos soon ... but today we had to sterilize the water in preparation for the Sea Monkey eggs to go in tomorrow ... then on day five we can start feeding them and watch them grow! I can't wait to see what they look like - maybe like a seahorse.

We watched Curious George on DVD and also took Ethan and Joshua for a visit to COLD ROCK - their first time. Choc Mint icecream with freckles for Ethan and Vanilla Icecream with Oreos for Joshua. They loved it but I'm more of a Baskin Robbins Fan.

I even snuck in a layout while Joshua napped using Heidi Swapp rub ons alphas - I think maybe one of my favourite alpha rubons.


So all in all a full day. I might try and start another page tonight if I can even though I have school uniforms waiting to be ironed and labelled with Ethan's name .... oh, that can wait!

The recipe !

I'm happy that I'm slowly but surely getting through my Xmas layouts. Before you know it I'll be doing '1st day of school' layouts and then 'Joshua's 3rd birthday' layouts. This layout is a very easy one to create but a good one to keep in your repetoire. It pieces together easily and looks timeless. Last year, I did a layout about us starting to make gingerbread at xmas time as a tradition so this yearI thought I'd include the recipe (courtesy of Nicole Southworth).

Oh, and I've added something to the sidebar of my blog - if you follow my blog you can click on that and I'll be able to see who you are and also other friends will too. They'll be able to click on you and go to your blog if you have one. Feel free to add your name to the list.

And, thank you to all the new friends that have been visiting my blog. I've seen quite a few new names commenting (and plenty of old ones too) and also I'm looking forward to some friends who have been trying to leave a message but haven't worked out how yet - can't wait to hear from you too. Just press COMMENT, then type your message in the box and tick the box ANONYMOUS. That should work ... but add your name to the end of the message so I know who you are.

Take care and have a good weekend!

A challenge!

Anita Meade set me a photo challenge - this is what I had to do.

Go to where you store you pictures on your computer.
Go to the SIXTH folder and pick the SIXTH picture.
Post that picture on your blog along with a SHORT story about it.
Tag SIX people and leave a comment on their blog or email them letting them know you chose them.

This photo was taken in January 2009 while holidaying at Broadbeach, Gold Coast.
I love it for a number of reasons ...

1. I used my new little compact Canon IXUS 90IS without a care in the world of getting sand in it like I would have if I'd taken my digital SLR.

2. It's got my 3 favourite boys in the photo.

3. And it's just how I saw it while I was relaxing on the beach towel.

4. Oh, and I love Joshua's little red swimming togs - quite french I think!

This day was like most of our days at the beach - wake up at 6.30/7.00am, breakfast, get ready, heaps of sunscreen and then 9.00am a visit to the beach, 10.00am up to the pool, 11.00am back to the unit for a clean up and lunch - it was great!

Anyway, I tag ..........

1. http://simply-s.blogspot.com/
2. http://www.belindasescape.blogspot.com/
3. http://helenkaranfilovski.blogspot.com/
4. http://whereiamat-amanda.blogspot.com/
5. http://melanie-notesfromhome.blogspot.com/

These girls are the first 5 names on the 'blogs I visit' list, except Melanie who is the 6th but my sweet friend Melissa who is actualy number 5, has just given birth to her 3rd son, Jackson - congratulations Melissa! It might just be a bit too much to expect her to do this challenge!

If you like the challenge, leave me a link to your blog and I'll add it here for everyone to see. Thanks for the challenge - you know I love them!

Farewell Simple!

I managed to scan another Christmas layout to share with you - mostly done on holidays except for the title. A really simple layout with clean lines, some pretty October Afternoon paper and a sparkly Making Memories embellishment.

Speaking of Simple, I heard some sad news a few days ago about SIMPLE SCRAPBOOKS.

This US scrapbook magazine will cease publication after the May/June 2009 issue.

Simple style is not generally showcased in a big way in many magazines and Simple Scrapbooks did it 100%. Of course, I'm a fan of Simple style but is that a sign that scrappers really want to be more technical in their creations?

I'd really love to hear what you think about this even if you're not a Simple scrapper - it's certainly been on my mind quite a bit.

Layout time !

Just before we went on holidays, I had heaps of photos processed and bundled together cardstock and patterned papers as well as some aplhas and rubons and embellishments - most of them xmas themed. I even journalled directly on the cardstock to prepare myself. I figured that with 2 weeks away, I would have plenty of time to relax and complete some layouts - so I packed 10 layouts with me to do!

I did a total of 2!
... and that didn't include the titles either - heehe!

SO, here's the first one - Merry Xmas - a collage I made of 2x2 inch photos in Photoshop and then had it printed as a single photo - makes for really precise margins.


I'll have more to share later in the week - I have heaps to finish!

Time for a change!

It's been ages since I've changed my blog header but I did it.

Not exactly sure what is going on with my creative juices - a fun photo with a bit of christmas swirl in the corner ... mmm ... maybe the change isn't such a good idea.

Here I am !

It's been a while - almost 2 weeks in fact and this is what I've been up to.

I've been here .....

doing alot of this ....

and alot of this ...

and loving every minute of it.

I have just arrived home today from 2 fantastic weeks at the Gold Coast. The weather was amazing - perfect in fact. We spent every day on the beach at 9am followed by a swim in the pool before heading back to the unit for an early lunch. It's amazing how the sun, surf and sea air can make you so hungry. Then, a nap for Joshua and off for an icecream or a game of tennis in the afternoon.

Saying all that, we're all glad to be home. Ethan ran to his bedroom to check that his Lego Star Wars AT-TE walker was still there and Joshua ran to check his Thomas trains and tracks. I ran straight to the computer .... needed a fix ... it has been 2 weeks even if I did check my emails a couple of times while I was away.

Anyway, look forward to scrapping some photos very soon!

Latest article

In this month's issue of Scrapbook Creations, the Keeping It Simple article is all about Special Occasions and how to scrap them. 'Under the sea' is my contribution to the article.
I generally find that most special occasions have heaps of photos to scrap. By cropping these photos taken at my nieces birthday party, to a 2x2 inch size, I was able to include 18 photos on a double layout (8.5x11). Of course if you scrap 12x12 size you could probably fit even more. I can't wait to see the issue - always so many different styles of scrapping on show.

Design Team Kit

Quite a few months ago I was asked by Tanyah Payne from scrap 'n' craft with T if I would be part of her DT and create a kit for her store and a layout using it. It was such a pleasure to do this and I loved all the bits and pieces that were in the kit.

Well this month, the kit goes up for sale and if you like the 2 layouts that I created there are step by step instructions available on Tanyah's blog. The kit is selling for $21.95. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

The best part for me was having a go at flocking - I know you're all probably laughing but it was a first for me and I managed to adhere both glitter and flock to that adorable butterfly.



Thanks for all the birthday wishes .... so many still coming through .... I really love reading them all and it's great to see some scrappers and non-scrappers leaving a comment.

I forgot to add that my counter says that just over 10 000 people have visited my blog since I first started it in May 2008 ! I can't believe it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a relaxing day at home today - all of us.
A bit of Hi5 on DVD, some Star Wars on DVD, a bit of paper matching with my photos ready to scrap ... a bit of whatever we all felt like.

Thought I'd share the collage I made with photos from my actual birthday. Hopefully the layout will be done using this and journalling about what I did that day - playing with the kids in the daytime and dinner at a restaurant as a family at night. That last shot in the collage was taken by Ethan (five and a half years old).

All photos were taken with my new Canon IXUS 90IS compact camera - a gift from Manuel's family for my birthday. So lovely and slim and discreet - makes my other Canon look like a monster!

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'.