Master Yoda's new apprentice

More tinkering...

Here's a photo I started with and the finished product after I 'played' with it in photoshop...

Something a bit different...

My wonderful hubby bought me a graphics tablet for my birthday.... so I've been tinkering...

Another one for today

That's 2 in one day.... it truly is a holiday :)

Some layouts

I've just been cleaning out my email and I found a layout of Mum's I haven't posted.  This is another kit where we both did a layout to compare... I have reposted mine too.

Mum is currently working on a little Christmas project but when she's done I'll get her back into our little game ;)

Wooooohoooooooo!

School holidays are here at last!  It has been an incredibly busy couple of weeks but now it's all over!  Hooray!

Although, I'm a bit unsure how we are going to cope.... in the first two hours this morning the kids asked me if we could paint their faces, play the DS, play the computer, go to the playground, watch a movie, do some craft, make a paper plate animal, do some colouring.... These are all things we've talked about doing over the break.... but they wanted to do them ALL in one day!

Haven't had much chance to scrap lately but I squeezed in a page this morning:

My friend Paola has been working her butt off over the past few years completing her PhD and then giving no less then 6 presentations on her research.  She attended her graduation the other day and sent a photo of herself and her beautiful family...

Finally, here's a layout using one of Vicki's kits.... the one underneath is Mum's

Bombie Pool...

A fun weekend...

We've just had another chock-full weekend.  Yesterday we took the kids into the city to watch the Christmas pageant and then we went to a leisure centre/swimming pool for another work Christmas party.  Let me just say Santa delivered presents AND there was a bombie pool!  The kids AND Dave were in heaven!  I will absolutely be scrapping the photos of the boys doing bombies so keep an eye out.

Here are some photos I took of the family while we were at the pool....

Here's another layout I've done with a photo taken when Oma & Opa were here...

And I have some good news about Mum.... my friend Vicki saw Mum's layouts I had posted last week, and has asked her to join her Creative Team!  Mum was stoked!  She's since done this layout which is absolutley fantsatic... did I tell you... i taught her everything she knows! ;)

How clever am I?

I am feeling quite pleased with myself that I thought of this title!

Most of you know that my mum retired a few months back... so I took the opportunity to get her into scrapbooking.  She started out as a complete beginner, but trust me, she has come a long way since she started!

Anyhow, we have been playing a bit of a game where we both have to scrap with the same kit so we can compare layouts.  So, under my layout I will show you hers too...

Mum's layout

My layout

Mum's layout

It's bushfire season...

We had our first ever brush with a bushfire on Tuesday.  You may have heard on the news about the fires in the Golden Bay / Karnup area... well, that's just across the road from us.  It was close enough that I evacuated the kids over to mum's place then spent the entire afternoon perched on a hill watching how the fire was progressing to see if it was going to jump the road into the bush next to our house.  Thankfully, it didn't and we are safe.  It did, however, take the firefighters over 2 days to get the fire under control.

I took this photo standing in the bush next to our house.  See the houses on the left... follow that fence line back behind where I am standing and at the bottom of the hill, we are the second house in.  You can see why I was panicking about the fire getting onto our side of the road.  About a couple of hundres meteres down the road is a petrol station which the fire fighters defending furiously... and directly behind this wall of flames is a Wildlife Park which they also managed to save.... these people truly deserve a medal.

By the way... this little section of fire is just a very small part of the entire length of it 

For 2 days it felt like we were in the middle of a war zone.  There were helicopters and water bomber planes everywhere flying super fast and really quite low.  Aiden was actually getting a bit freaked out about the amount of air traffic above our house.

Some layouts...

A couple of weekends ago we went with some friends out to Serpentine. We introduced them to geocaching or 'Treasure Hunting' as we call it and we spent some time exploring the area and the dam.  Here's a pic of Megan playing on one of the playgrounds in a picnic area.

Megan...

Another one of Megan...

This photo of Hank & Vicki was taken when they were here visiting us about a month ago

We recently bought some clippers to cut Dave & Aiden's hair at home.  This was the first time we had done Aiden's so we left a mohawk which he spiked for the whole weekend....and yes, we cut it off before school on Monday!

On Sunday we went to the zoo for Dave's work Christmas party... the kids had a blast.  They got all sorts of treats and had their face painted.  I'm yet to scrap the cool dragon had on his face.

I'm on a roll...

I've scrapped two days in a row!

It's all in an effort to get well... I had an appointment with my ENT specialist yesterday and he spent five minutes congratulating himself for finally getting rid of my sinus infection after 3 1/2 months and then he informed me that my residual pain was all due to stress... he then spent the next half hour lecturing me about being a stress-head.  So, here I am... doing something I particularly enjoy in an effort to make me happy ;)

You know what else would make me happy?  I feel like I am talking to an empty audience.  If you're reading my blog then it would be nice to let me know you're there and leave a comment once in a while.... pleeeeeeaaaaase...

Hellooooo out there!

Yes, I'm still here!  Wondering where I've been?  In one word... sick.  The last few months haven't been much fun for me...

Anyhow, I have managed a couple of pages recently and thought you might like to see them...

This one was taken on my birthday back in November:

Last weekend we were trecking through the bush doing some treasure hunting (geocaching):

The Girls...

I LOVE this photo.... the girls are all sitting together in the water taxi in Rotterdam.

From left to right... Rachel, Michelle, Megan & Mariaan

Mandurah Quays

We headed over to Mandurah Quays this morning for a walk/ride/treasure hunt.  Dave and I worked out that we hadn't been there for several years... I had forgotten how nice a spot it is.  We also managed to find a local geocache adding to the adventure for the kids.

A whole lot of layouts...

It seems like every time I write on my blog it's to tell you about the million excuses why I haven't written more often!  Anyway, my excuse this time is that I have been really sick... as well as the chest flu thing that everyone else has had, I have also had a sinus infection for about 5 weeks now... I have been in a world of pain the last couple of weeks.  Poor Dave has had to deal with tired, cranky children as well as a tired, cranky and in tears wife...

On a positive note, Hank & Vicki are coming for a visit!  We're now on the countdown... 4 weeks to go...

Here are some scrapbook layouts I've done over the past few weeks...

These photos were taken last weekend at an open day for Dave's work

A photo from Father's Day at the beginning of September

This was our cabin we stayed in whilst in the Netherlands... it was perfect!

Megan in Rotterdam

Rachel & Michelle... gorgeous as ever

Our beautiful, generous, loving and much loved Uncle Chris & Aunty Willy

One of the rides at Disneland

On some steps out the front of St Paul's Cathedral in London

Our whirlwind tour of London... thanks to Rob

Some photo's of Megan on her birthday back in June

An old photo... taken last summer

He loves the water...

Some layouts

Croissants in France

When we drove from Holland down to Paris we stopped in Antwerp (Belgium) for morning tea then in Lille (France) for lunch...