heading home sweet home

I always get so excited to head home, to see my mum and dad, and andrew - my younger brother. and not to mention smell the unpolluted country air, to smell the hay (or silage), green grass and hopefully the smell of rain too!

Home feel's safe, warm and cozy. It's nice to know that Brad and I have our parent's farms to go to when we need to relax, unwind and get out of the city!

Georges Creek -

That’s where I’m heading tonight – home tp mum and dad’s farm. I haven’t been home for 7 weeks, and am going home for a belated birthday celebration for my dad (who’s birthday was actually on the 8th July!!)

I’m really looking forward to it, Brad and I are driving home tonight after work. I get to pick up my sewing machine (that I got for my birthday from Mum and Dad (late May)….we thought there was something wrong with it, so it stayed at home to be fixed….only to find out we put the bobbin in the wrong way! (so embarrassing)

Ill be watching my younger brother (yeah I can’t call him ‘little’ anymore, he is taller than me, and he’s 19)play footy, and hopefully heading into Albury to have tea with a good friend and her boyfriend – it’ll be awesome to catch up with them…

In other news:
-I started a ‘creative graphic design’ short course at RMIT on Wednesday night, it was exciting, I was motivated and felt so enthusiastic about learning again.
-I’m excited about the ATC’s I’m starting - Kate Bing and I are sharing ATC quotes across the pacific!!
-I am excited for Steph’s 21st in gtown (Geelong) next weekend!! Please give me some ideas on what to wear – it’s a hat party!!
-I cant wait to catch up with an old school friend, heading to her place for a girls weekend mid August – cocktails in the country (Ararat)
-I’m falling in love with my lovely boyfriend and coming to a few realisations… :)

Other than that it’ll be good weekend to relax, sleep in and unwind. Hope you all have a good weekend too!! :)

xxxooo

purple hair! WHAT??

My weekend's been pretty quite. Brad worked on Saturday. I slept in, I dropped into spotlight, got some papers for a cupcake recipe swap im doing over the forum, and some cool basic grey recess paper and bella bling. I also got my hair cut and coloured - I went in there wanted a fresh cut, and dark chocolate brown colour with sandy blonde foils- this is what it turned out like????!!! ( i hope it's not too 'extreme' for my corporate job!!)

The lady said my foils turned out 'strawberry blonde'.... the back ones are kind of apricot, the top almost look purple in some light!! :O

I prepared tea and scrapped a little in the afternoon. We had friends over for a BBQ and salad on Saturday night, and lots of red wine was drunk! :) yumm!! Today I slept in again, Brad and I went out for breaky in Yarraville with friends. We did some laundry, cleaned up and Brad packed! hes up in Sydney till Wednesday for work, i dropped him off at the airport at 2pm and I miss him already!!

Sunday arvo I didn't do much, bummed around, made a bday card, work on a CJ and not much else...lazy arvo. Oh I found out I didn't get through to the next round of Embellished Idol- BUGGER! I was so disappointed, I put so much work into my entries- obviously either i don't have enough friends to vote for me or I'm just crap and didn't cut it!!

Oh well....I've got an awesome idea for this round and will still give it a go for fun. xx

I'll leave you with a pic I took of the arts centre a couple of weekend's ago...i loved this quote and just had to photograph it!! This quote is on the side of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Charles Darwin's book on sexual selection, Descent of Man, has inspired Lyndal Jones' exhibition called 'Darwin With Tears'Which photo do you think is better?

I was elimiated

Firstly congrats to all those wonderful ladies out there who made it through to round 3! You all deserved it!!

'elminated' - it sounds so depressing...i was ELIMINATED from Embellished Idol. Oh well. Life goes on, Scrapbooking isn't about winning or losing its about (or to me it is) preserving memories for my family, and future generations to come...

I will have a longer post later this evening... its prepared but I can't upload the photo's yet (shhh I'm at work!) :)
xx

why is it so cold in melbourne? DUH coz its winter!!

My weekend was great overall. It started off not so fabulous however, with a large hangover from Friday night… I had my ‘end of year financial lunch’ at work…at Trunk in the city…it was great, and many wines turned into many more….and a 1.30pm lunch finished at 3am (Saturday morning) at home! Yep big session indeed- lots of fun, and mandarin cocktails too! YUM! My night included pizza and hot chips for tea, a bruised knee from falling over on the road, an awesome kebab on Sydney rd on the way home….and apparently lots of photos being taken! Eep…

So Saturday morning was nothing – sleep, shower and hasty pack for the SM forum crop afternoon. A freezing day, and no heating in the hall was terrible. But I had a grouse day, and glad I could spend Skye’s birthday with her!! Saturday night was left over casserole, tv, coziness and early bed. Even thought it was freezing...my cold is feeling much better, I think it was more of a "run down" sort of cold, you know??

Sunday – Slept in a little. Fantastic breakie of fried eggs and bacon down the road. Grocery shopping. Then a drive around- Brad and I were going to go to the art deco exhibition at the National Gallery, we parked, got in there, and it was WAY too packed! So we ditched it for another day. We decided to look a random apartments down St Kilda/Elwood way, and spent the arvo driving round the city. Home. Roast lamb and veg for tea. Shower and bed. A nice relaxing weekend indeed.

I’ve got pics from the weekend, I just haven’t got around to even downloading them onto my laptop!! I’ve also decided to pull out of the Scrapbooking Memories Masters comp…I {only} had 10 pages of the calendar to do, photograph some of it and send it in…I loved my layouts – but thought my OTP and calendar were crappy…and didn’t think it was worth me stressing over…Id rather send in an ACE entry I’m totally happy with, rather than one I’m ok about…

Here’s some pics of the double LO and the OTP (It’s a tiny keepsake that can fit in mine/my boyfriends pocket!)…I’ll share the rest when I get pics up!!

embellished idol- round one..

so i'm home sick today....i had a bad cough last night, and have had a sore throat the past few days. thought it might help to have a day at home, catch up on sleep!
here's the embellished Idol challenge - round one layout I finished off today....
Voting starts this Friday at 5pm- please vote for me so I can get through till the next round - Vote here



So I’ve been tagged…three times – thanks to Ali ‘miasmummy’, Skye and Renee for my tags/awards. It’s nice to know people read and ‘appreciate’ your blog – or at least find it interesting…..I have posted my 'winners' below!!

Hmm since I’ve been tagged/awared three times, I’m going to tag 5 people for the random facts tag (just coz it’s cool!) and another 5 for the ‘awesome’ blog award….

1. Skye – I’ve only known you a few months…but wow you’re a fab friend and I say thanks to the scrapbooking memories forum for that! Your blog rocks, as does your scrapping and photography!
2. Kate – You superstar!! From your newly opened etsy shop to those super cute, bright and funky scrap pages and journals you make – you rock and so does your blog!!
3. Lisa (aka Scrapwitch) – Your dedication to not only taking a photo every single day, but posting it on your blog is AMAZING Lisa!! P.S She is a master of painting on layouts!! :)
4. Nichole – I’ve loved your work since twopeas – you used to be a ‘favourite’ then, and now you are on SIS! Love your fresh and breezy approach to scrapping – and I love the pages you create of you and Nate – oh if that’s not enough you’re a super sweet lady!!
5. Maz – you’re work continues to amaze me – love your style, the clustering, bright colours and WOW your work RAWKS!!

My 5 random facts
1. I’m a flipper – I flip the pillow over to the cold side, even in winter!
2. I love crumpets and honey, most people I know eat jam on them…I love them with honey (trust me, its much nicer)
3. I love ears…..is that gross and I’m not some sicko….. I love the soft feel of them, and like my pillow - they’re better when they’re cold. I used to play with my brothers ears when he was a baby…and now I’ve turned on my boyfriend! 
4. I love oysters – yum! I could eat dozens of them – Kilpatrick, mornay, natural with a squeeze of lemon…..
5. I play tennis, I’m not ‘that good’ and I used to ‘coach’ primary school kids!  I was the laughing stock of my family – who knew really how good *crap* I was at it!!

p.s If you’ve won this award/tag already, consider yourself lucky!! :) I love your work, you rock and you’re cool! Ok??

no photoshoot, but still a (relatively) good weekend...

So I come back from my weekend with no photo shoot pics to share – sorry  - my boyfriend was SO NOT interested in being ‘embarrassed’ by his girlfriend carrying around a (small) tripod and camera in the city, trying to shoot some ‘okay’ pictures of them together….hmmph!!

I did have a great weekend. I went to old g-town (Geelong) for a visit on Saturday. I went to the Kaiser factory outlet (yep you read right) and WOWEE….I only *planned* on spending about $25 and ended up spending about $60! (although I did get some presents for a friends birthday also!!) I picked up some bling, rhinestones, paper, a lil mini book…and some cool stamps!

I had lunch with a uni friend and her boyfriend @ the bended elbow – yum $9 calamari salad! I caught up with a lady I used to work for who had little twins earlier this year – and it was fabulous to catch up with her and her little babies  she makes my heart smile! I caught up with a few ex-workmates from Gloria Jeans, and saw Tina my photographer friend who is DA BOMB!

I scrapbooked Saturday night till about 12.30… while the boy was watching tv downstairs. I’m happy with what I got done:
- 2x layouts for my SIL’s baby album:


- 1x layout of my mum and dad

- a cool 'childhood' memory layout id been planning- totally around the cute as sass lass papers too!

- I started work on my calendar for the SM masters entry (the basic part) – Now it’s time to decorate!!

the card i made for dad's birthday...see a few posts ago as to the reason of the sparkly '48'!!
Sunday was relax day, I finally got to watch “The Kite Runner” on DVD – I finished reading the book when it was out at the movies, but didn’t get there…and I loved it, I was happy they didn’t cut out the ‘important’ parts of the movie, and smiled all the way through it, and cried at the end….I’m so buying it on DVD. Brad and I also watched a funny telemovie – on ABC which was set near Brad’s parents place, a small town called Rushworth – the movie was called “Valentines Day” – and it was far from being about love- more about AFL footy! Was funny, thoughtful and a good aussie flick!!

I’ve been reading a few good books lately, here’s my top reads from late:
- A Memory Keepers Daughter,
- The Persimmon Tree, Bryce Courtenay
- The Dark room, rachel seiffert
- The dressmaker, rosalee ham
- The Secret River, Kate Grenville (I’m currently reading, and its awesome by the way!)

a dress, graffiti and birthdays

I found this…


Dress on etsy- it is so BEAUTIFUL! I lurve her- and she’s only about $85, I don’t have an occasion to wear her too, and the colour is gorgeous….. except I don’t have any money!  I think it can wait…..

On the up side, I got a txt from my mum yesterday, “have you got a scrapbooking memories subscription yet? If not, don’t worry about it..” I give her a call back, and she managed to get a deal- renew her subscription for 10 issues, plus 15 issues for me and a that massive pack of versa inks for only $150!! Wholy cow! I couldn’t believe it!! She made my day, and said I don’t even have to pay her back- its her treat! :)

I went to the gym last night, and I’m sore and tired today. I’m just so tired lately, I just want a rest….arghh. I’m glad I’m keeping up the gym though, trying to stick to at least 3 nights a week…

I need some *new* photo’s of Brad and I together, and I got an idea off mandi to do a self photo shoot of my boy and I this weekend. He loves alley ways and graffiti etc…So I’m hoping to drag him around the CBD (hosier lane, centre place, degrave st or union lane) or even down Brunswick st to a few lane ways for some photo action….(wish me luck in asking him!)
Oh and I need photoshoot ideas/poses – anyone got any ideas/blogs/inspiration??

In other news, I made a super duper quick birthday card (more lost postcard) for Dad’s birthday last night….I’ll post a pic up when I take one…. I even added a big glittery thicker ‘48’ to the front …let me tell you the story why…

When I was little, I used to write on Dad’s age on his birthday cards – not matter how old – 32, 35, 40 – whatever! So this year I decided to do that again- in a bolder fashion, just to keep our little joke running! :) I miss dad, of course mum too – but I talk to her a lot more on the phone, usually its just a ‘say hi to dad for me’…. I wish I could spend his birthday with him, maybe playing golf, having a beer somewhere, or even just feeding the cows…. You know that normal stuff…. I’m hoping to go home towards the end of July and hopefully surprise him then!!

That’s about it, no scrapping I’ve had this week off – I did a bit last weekend, and I’ve been relaxing, watching movies (Jumper – it’s good you should watch it) and tv, and of course going to the gym and doing washing the past few nights….But I do plan on finishing my scrapping ‘to do’ list…including my last entry for my Scrapbooking Memories Masters entry. I’ve done the double LO, single and the moment, only the calendar to do. I’ve had the materials for about 2 weeks - just no time to start….I’m also making a baby album for my (future?) sister-in-law – she’s due in October, I want to give it to her before then, and I’ve got about 12 pages to go…

Xox ali

extraction

Extract –v. /ek-strakt, uhk-/ 1.remove or take out, esp. by effort or force (extract a tooth)

I bet you are wondering why I’ve got the definition of ‘extract’ on my blog yes? Hmm well I visited the x-ray people on Saturday, to have an x-ray of my teeth (I’ve got 4 wisdom teeth coming through). Anyway, I get a call today from my dentist, “Hi Alison” she says in a chirpy voice – I instantly know this is not going to be a chirpy conversation….

She goes on to tell me she’s referring me to an oral surgeon (how yuk does that profession sound), to get my bottom wisdom teeth pulled out, or for a better word, extracted!! I replied, “yay” in an extremely sarcastic voice…..

I knew it was coming, I was just hoping deep down it didn’t have to happen – but it does! Bummer hey? It won’t be for a little while, and look on the bright side – at least I’m covered by private health cover! *queasy smile*

Peace out