Yeehaw!

There's no journalling on this layout as I felt it was one of those pictures that speaks 1000 words :)

And really, what can you write about a bloke standing in the middle of times square in his tighty-whities?

The black alphas are Heidi Swapp, the Cowboy is Basic Grey, painted and NYC is also Basic Grey covered with BG Blush paper. The background is BG Blush too. The star is Heidi Swapp covered with silver glitter. Times Square is BG letter stickers and the brackets are BG chipboard painted.

Finding Dory

I would like to apologise to the aquatic community. I just ate Dory for dinner. That's right, I had Dory and chips for dinner (bloody yummy it was too!)

I did my attempted run thing again today. Still only managed 3 mins worth of running but I think I ran faster or better or something because my calves were screeeaming in pain. They were even more sore than my tendonitis which is saying something!

CHA is happening in Anaheim at the moment (disneyland and scrapping all in the one suburb!) Usually a lot of stuff appears that I absolutely love. This time there's only a few things but that's a very good thing as I'm trying to cut down on my scrapping spending.

The new stuff that I totally fell head over heels for is the new line by Elsie Flannigan called 'Love Elsie'. She's got 3 lines but the one I love the mostest is the one called 'Toby' It's a travel themed line and it's sooo freakin cool! A lot of companies assume that you want to do all your travel stuff using Parisian type colours and designs. Which would be fine if all you did was travel to Paris! Elsie's new travel line is bright and funky with lots of green and blue. Check out her blog!

I also love Basic Grey's new Precision File Set. Fabulous for when you're doing stuff with chipboard! Definitely getting one of those! I'm not drooling over any of their new paper lines, though I like most of the plain colours. Some of the patterns are ok but most are too flowery for me. More elephants and rockets I say!

Bazzil has some new bling cardstock which looks good, as well as some new shaped cardstock! I also liked Heidi Swapp's bling crowns! Very cute.

Today's Two Peas Challenge:

Inspiration. What kinds of things inspire you lately? Blog about it.

Well I'm totally inspired by that new Love Elsie line at the moment! Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Generally speaking though the thing that inspires me most is probably....colour. I sometimes go through phases of like one colour and trying to use it, wear it and just generally look at it. These days I'm going through a bit of a red and turquoise/aquamarine phase. I love retro colours too...it's amazing how colours that used to look so bad together can be altered and made funky!

Also my photos inspire me. I'm not saying they're all fabulous, but there are some that are really great. And when I sit down to scrap, I usually like to make sure I showcase the photos rather than make it all about the embellishments. Although sometimes it's just good to have fun and play and chuck whatever on a page! :)

Running!

I think I've tried to post this about 5 times already today! Silly Blogger!

I've started trying to run, using a program called Couch to 5k. It is a program that takes you from being a walker only through a 3 sessions per week, 9 week program (repeat weeks as necessary) that gradually increases your intervals of running until you are running continuously for 5km. Day 1, week 1 is 8mins running, 12 mins walking. I managed 3 mins running, 4.5 mins walking plus the 10minute warm up/cool down. Plus I staggered up a hill to get home.

It's tough, but I'm determined to keep at it because I felt so good after all the aches and pains went away. There's podcasts that you can download and it tells you when to run and when to walk.

I've decided to get myself an armband for my ipod if I'm still attempting this running thing by Mid-February, as my Valentine's Day present. Something similar to the one below. I keep worrying my ipod will fall out of my pocket.


Aren't I romantic?! :)

Happy Australia Day!

It's Australia Day today! Which means a day off work and a family BBQ. It's my uncle's birthday today too so every Australia Day we have a family get together. I just got home from the BBQ and I'm exhausted!


Despite the fact that it's a public holiday a lot of the shops were open so I went to Target and Kmart and Best & Less to pick up some homewares type stuff. I did pretty well. I got a beach towel (in case I move to the Gold Coast!), salt n pepper shakers, a nice serving bowl, a frying pan, tea towels, baking trays, a cake tin and lots of other things.


I made a couple of cards this afternoon as we actually celebrated 3 birthdays at the family BBQ. I totally left it to the last minute so they were a bit rushed.

This one was for my cousin's girlfriend who ended up not being able to make it to the party.
The papers are SEI and came from a Jenni Bowlin kit, as did the scalloped oval thing.

This is the inside of the card, using an SEI rubon that came with the Jenni Bowlin kit.

And this was for my uncle. I used Basic Grey paper, MM tiny alphas and some ribbon.

Raining, walking, scrapping..

It's raining!!! This is a very good thing, as pretty much all of Oz is currently in the throes of a very severe drought. It's been really muggy all day and so hopefully the rain will cool things down a bit. I hope some rain ends up in the dams. Probably won't though!



I am also glad the rain held off til after I got back from my walk. I had a go at doing some intensity training. I heard about this new study that's been done where they found people burned 3 times as much fat by cycling for 8 seconds really fast then cycling normally for 12 seconds then going back to the fast 8 seconds etc. for 20 minutes. My fitness level is a bit crap (er...understatement of the year??) at the moment so I did some walk/jogging for about 10mins. It almost bloody killed me! I then had to stagger up a hill to get home. Hopefully I can increase my walk/jogs as time goes by.


The sneekie peekie of the Feb Poppy Ink kit is up.

Finally some bright happy colours! The kit is named 'Funky Town'!! I love the stripes and the birdies! And the ric rac!!!

Other fabulous news... Friday is Australia Day, meaning I don't have to go to work!! Tomorrow is the end of the working week!

The Flamingo!

I finally got my latest layout finished.

The Flamingo hotel in Vegas. Products used are Bazzil Bling cardstock, Heidi Swapp chipboard circle letters, Basic Grey ribbon, chipboard swirls covered in pink glitter.

Go the Roar!

Last night I went to the soccer with a friend. Queensland Roar played Sydney FC. Unfortunately it ended 1-1 which meant that Sydney went into the finals! We was robbed!!

It was a great game though and there were over 32,000 people there! We went to a game this time last year and there were only 13,000 so there's been a massive increase, probably thanks to the World Cup last year. I actually ran into a friend who I haven't seen in ages on our way out. 32,000 people and I run into someone I know. It's such a typical Brisbane thing. There may be 1million people here but it's still very common to run into people you know wherever you go!

I've had some biggish news work wise. There's a very strong possbility that the office is going to move from Brisbane to the Gold Coast. That's about an hours drive from here. I found out on Friday. Hardly anyone at work knows, it's very hush hush. So I'm posting it on the internet ;) I'll find out in about a month whether or not it will actually happen. Our office lease expires at the end of March so they will either move the office then or stay put for another year.

I was suprised by the news, but not overly upset. If the relocation happens, I will move down to the Gold Coast. It's very nice down there - there's lovely beaches. I'm kinda looking forward to it.

I've been working on a scrapbook layout for about a week now. It's almost done, I'm just waiting for some chipboard to dry. It would have been finished earlier but I was having glitter issues. Hopefully I'll get it finished and scanned later today!

Vegas layout

I managed to survive my first week back at work. It was tiring but I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things soon.

I finally finished a 2 page layout last night that I've been working on for about a week.

This is page 1:

The title was done using Basic Grey mini mono chipboard, which I painted red and then covered with modge podge and poured glitter all over it (and all over me, the table, the floor etc..). Then once that dried I put more modge podge on top to seal it. It turned out really well.

Page 2:

The heart is fabric and puffy, it came in the Janurary Poppy Ink Kit. I can't remember who makes the 'fabulous' rhinestone word. Isn't it fabulous!? :)

Funny story about getting these layouts digitally stitched together....for ages I've been trying to find a freeware stitching program, because I'm a cheapskate and won't pay for something I hardly ever use. Anyway over the past couple of years I've downloaded various 30 day trials of software. So today after searching the net and reading that most people had some sort of panoramic stitching software that came with their scanner or digi cam, I had a search on my software at some of the programs I never use and lo and behold there's one called Photo Stitch by Canon. Only took me about 4 years to figure out it was there! And it's such an easy program to use too!

I've uploaded the Vegas layouts onto Two Peas and I must say I love the increased size gallery piccies. They used to be large then got reduced so you could hardly see anything, now I can actually sit back in my chair and look comfortably. I don't know what's happened but in the past day or so there's been some bloody great layouts. They're usually pretty good, but it seems the Peas have upped the ante a bit recently. Or it could be that I can now actually see the layouts and therefore realise how good they actually are!

Friday's Two Peas blog challenge:

Challenge: What are you listening to lately? What are some of your fave songs/artists? What's on your playlist right now? Blog about your fave music.. right now.

Grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfy, this could take awhile.

Music I am listening to lately: a lot of Robbie Williams, various Top 40 songs byFergie, Pussycat Dolls, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Scissor Sisters and a few older top 40 hits by Britney, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Ricky Martin. Oh and some Wham/George Michael stuff!That's just the stuff in my Pop playlist.

My ipod has almost 6gig worth of music on it (only another 24gig to go!) and I listen to a very wide range of music and it's sorted into specific categories. Sometimes I prefer to listen to just one artist - Robbie, Elvis, the Beatles, Cliff Richard and Michael Jackson have their own playlists.

I then have a country music playlist with artists like Toby Keith, Terri Clark, Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson, Shania Twain, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Dixie Chicks, Clay Walker and may more.

I also have quite a few movie and musical soundtracks which have their own playlist. I also have a Broadway playlist of select songs from various Broadway shows, a soundtrack playlist for songs from movies.

I have an Oldies playlist with songs by the BeeGees (love them!), Abba, Blondie, the Eagles, Don MacLean (American Pie!!), John Denver, Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, Roy Orbison etc.

My Rock playlist has artists like Bon Jovi, AC/DC, Kiss, the Doors, Guns n Roses, Sex Pistols and the Who.

I have an Xmas playlist and also a Workin for the Man playlist which has a lot of songs about how work sucks! Great for when you really dont feel like going to work.

2 Peas Blog Challenge

I just had a look at the Tuesday 2 Peas Blog challenge and thought I'd weigh in on the topic.

Challenge: Valentines day is right around the corner. What are you gonna be doing for your valentine this year??? blog about it.. or what do you hope to get from your valentine??? anything? Share your valentine wishes.

As per my post below, I'm single and therefore expect to get BUGGER ALL on Valentine's Day. I usually hate Valentine's Day, although the older I get, the less I care about it.

Almost every year I buy myself something for Valentine's Day. I started this in 1998. I felt sad and pathetic about not having anyone to celebrate V-Day with so I bought myself 2 CDs. Ever since then I've tried to buy myself a present, if finances allowed it. Last year was by far and away the best Valentine's Day I ever had. A couple of days before I booked an open jaw flight to America (Into Vegas, out from New York for September). I paid for my plane ticket on February 14 and I was so excited. I have no idea how I'm ever going to top that!

Other things I have bought myself for Valentine's Day include CDs, a Fish and Chip dinner and books.

You may correctly assume from the above ramblings that I have NEVER received anything on Valentine's Day. Not even a card.

If anyone has any ideas on what I should buy myself for Valentine's Day this year, let me know! :)

So tired!

Work is exhausting! Actually the work part isn't so bad, I'm busy but not frantic, it's the getting up at 5:20am in the morning part that's doing me in. Thank god I only do the 7:30 shift every 2nd week. I get to leave work at 1pm every second Friday and thank goodness it's this Friday! Only a day and a half til the weekend!



I had a good and unexpected mail day today....my Poppy Ink kit arrived, along with another order I placed from Blue Bazaar. The kits only come out today so I wasn't really expecting it til Friday. I ain't complaining!

It's Valentine's/Love themed this month. There's quite a few Basic Grey Blush papers, some other funky papers I've never seen before, lovely cardstock (the bright pink is gorgeous!), a 7 gypsies word stamp, funky ribbon and bits of fabric and loads more. I don't really have a use for Valentine's day stuff, being single and all, so I guess I'll just have to be creative and find another use for all the lovey-dovey romance stuff!

I really enjoyed Night at the Museum on Sunday night. It was funny and had a twist or two in it that I wasn't expecting! Makes me wish I had gone to the Museum of Natural History when I was in New York.

Happy Birthday Elvis!

Ok so Elvis Presley's birthday isn't until tomorrow but I doubt I'll have the energy to post tomorrow as I'm going back to work so he gets an early birthday greeting from me.

If he was still alive, Elvis would be 72 on 8 January 2007. So Happy Birthday to the King!

Today is my last day of freedom, I've had 3 weeks of staying up late, sleeping in, too much food and too much shopping! I'm kinda glad to be going back, but also sad that I won't be able to sleep in anymore!

I found this link to the most hilarious YouTube video on Two Peas today. Go here I haven't laughed that much in ages, I had tears rolling down my cheeks and my stomach hurt from laughing so much. Do yourself a favour...check it out.

This afternoon I am going to the movies, yet again. I'm going to see Night at the Museum.

I can hear music..

I accidentally deleted a large chunk of my music from my computer, which meant that the songs wouldn't play in iTunes, so I've spent most of this afternoon trying to add back as many of the songs as possible. Not a fun job. I've still got a lot to download but at least it's been good to clean up and clean out my songs.

I've also managed to finish a 2 page layout this afternoon of the John Lennon Imagine tribute in Central Park, using some of my newer and older supplies. Now I have to decide which layout to do next...always a struggle for me. Am I in the mood for pictures of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, or something else?

Tomorrow I am having lunch with a friend in town. Not sure what else I'll do. She and I are going to see the Brisbane Roar (soccer team) in a couple of weeks, which I'm very excited about. It's something to look forward to!

Oops I did it again!

I went shopping again. Scrap book shopping, naturally. In my defence I had a full punch card thing to the store I went to, which gave me $25 off my purchase, plus I used the $27.55 I got from winning lotto on Saturday night. We actually won lotto twice, two 5th divisions. I got one and mum got the other. So I technically had over $50 in free money t0 spend!

I bought some card stock - black, chocolate and cream. I totally forgot to get paperbag cardstock as I've run out and I prefer it to kraft. Doh! I bought some lovely alphas - the Making Memories cheeky shimmer alpha stickers in red, K-ology Addison chipboard which is a lovely blue & green mixture with lots of glitter, that is currently all over my hands, and chip chatter upper case in brown.

I also bought some of the new Basic Grey Blush papers. Beeautiful! I just love the pinks and reds and aqua colours. I have no idea what I'll use them for but they are soo pretty!

I actually finished a layout yesterday. I haven't scanned it because it's not all that fabulous. It's a photo of a chocolate crepe I ate for breakfast in Las Vegas!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2007! I remember when the year 2000 seemed a long way off!

I feel sorry for all the poor souls in Scotland. Edinburgh's famous Hogmanay was cancelled due to gale force winds, as were the celebrations in Glasgow. I was a part of the 2004-2005 Hogmanay celebrations - me, an English friend and 100,000 strangers. It's a lot of fun, though very squishy.
I spent my 2006-2007 New Years Eve at home, watching a few movies - Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire and I watched most of Chicago, did a spot of scrapbooking and ended up in bed at 11:30. I was awake til 12:30 so I did see the New Year in, even though I really just wanted to be asleep. The neighbours dog had other ideas apparently.

I saw Flushed Away at the movies this afternoon! It was really funny. One of my favourite parts was when the bad guys were chasing Roddy and Rita and one of them says 'Danger is my middle name' and the other bad guy says 'I thought your middle name was Leslie'. I think I was the only person in the cinema who laughed at that joke. :)

This picture is one taken last night in London, fireworks near the London Eye! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!