Top 10 of 2010 ...

Thought it might be fun to show my top 10 favourite layouts from 2010.



Don't we all want a way to use those tiny little school portrait pictures?



Just really like how this one came together - even the sewing of the circle was fun.



Another digi layout I am particularly fond of - done for a challenge and very tongue in cheek.



Probably my favourite of the year - one where you just sigh when it's finished because the process was so satisfying.



Love the simplity of this layout and in particular the eyes of my children.  It was definitely a case of where I wanted the picture to be more meaningful than the design.



This was done back in April for my MIL's birthday - I just totally love it.

This was the case where the only picture of the event I had was not a great one but rather than let that get in the way of  doing a layout I worked with it - really happy with the result.

I don't usually work with paint but splattering on the background really worked with this.  Again a tiny portrait photo finds a home!

I find I'm doing more and more digital layouts especially when I am time poor - love this happy layout.

and yep 10 is missing - its for this months FS2S DT submission and hasn't been released yet.

and here it is ...

The challenge this month on From Screen 2 Scrap is a great one.  Check it out.



I'm late again ...

Nothing like submitting at the eleventh hour - well nearly - I guess technically I have til midnight but I hope to be doing other things by then :).

This layout is one for Kraft It Up - if I had time I would probably play with it a bit more but since I don't, I won't and it will have to do as is.  Love the Christmas thumbs up from my son.

This one is for the December challenge on Scrap the Boys.  The challenge was a little bit left of center this month asking us to scrap a layout about our boys strutting their stuff either in general or on the dance floor… and scrap whether he is a dancer or a prancer….  I had to think long and hard about this one as my boy isn't a dancer or a prancer but is rather musical so twisted this to show him performing with the drum circle from school.

A little bit of scrapping ...

I haven't done much scrapping this month - I think I'm in withdrawal.  Can't wait to get back into it once Christmas is all over.

I've done a couple of digital layouts.  The first is for Artastic.  This one really had me thinking outside the square.  How on earth was I going to get both a manger and angel into a layout and then I suddenly realised that Christopher had made both way back in Year 1 for Christmas craft.  I just had to use them.

The second is for Scrap the Girls where we were asked to create a layout using only ONE set of complementary colours - either red and green, blue and orange or yellow and violet and small amounts of neutral colours.

Mine is using red and green.

Road to Bethlehem ...

12 to 14 December saw the annual Road to Bethlehem held at the school.  Three nights of performances and food, markets and festive fun.  This year Christopher was fully involved in the pageant performance being part of the final scene.  It meant starting at 6.30pm and finishing at 10.45pm.  A performance every 10 minutes and not a lot of time to recoup between scenes.  He did  really well but by the end of the three nights he was totally exhausted.  In fact the morning after I sent an email to John saying "Mark one for the calendar - your son just woke up at 10 to 9 !!!!!!! He hasn't done that since he was 8 months old!!"

HSC results ...

Pleased and proud to say Rachel achieved outstanding results in her Higher School Certificate.

She did brilliantly – two band 6’s (Ancient History and Information Processes and Technology – only student at her school to get two), three band 5’s (Advanced English, Advanced Maths, Religion) and 1 x band 4 (Art – she was one mark off a Band 5 - Grrrrr!!). She has an ATAR (old UAI) of 86.7 so with the "local area" bonus 4 points they get applying to the local university she has a 90.7 entry to play with which basically means she can get into anything she wants - which is the BA in Visual Communications at Newcastle Uni.  She honestly thought she didn't have a chance of achieving the 73.3 cut off required for this course even accounting for the bonus points - she was totally stunned she had done so well.

She really deserves it as she put a lot of hard work and effort in and was very focused these past two years and in particular this one - did it all while working two nights a week and has had a steady boyfriend for the past seven months (he did exceptionally well too with a Band 6 in Biology and several Band 5's - he wants to do a Science degree). Can honestly say though that I don't wish to repeat this year again any time soon and am grateful we have a spacer of five years until we have to with ds, it's been stressful and challenging experience and both John and I have ridden every bump and every slide in the HSC journey with her, it's not been easy but the old saying of you get out what you put in rings very true!

She also achieved for the second year in a row the Information Technology Excellence Award at the school presentation night.  Again the stunned expression on her face said it all.

A dose of Ayden ...

Christopher got to spend some time with Ayden - pure joy.  The Cook family came to stay at Star of the Sea at Terrigal for a few days and Chris managed a sleep over there with them and Ayden came here for a night.  These two boys have not let distance come between a friendship - Ayden being in Melbourne.  They chat by phone every one to two weeks and co-ordinate the playing of online games with each other.  We have just set Chris up with Skype so he and Ayden can chat online next year.  These two are firm friends.

One way to aMUSE yourself ...

Rachel went with friend Quirky (Jasmine)  to see Muse in concert at Acer Arena last night.  Said it was fantastic, loved the show, took heaps and heaps of pictures.  I'll admit I don't even know who they are but hey, she doesn't know who Dire Straits is either!!

Design Team ...

Thrilled to announce that I have been selected to join the Design Team for From Screen to Scrap.

This delightful monthly challenge site takes inspiration from some of the most wonderful movie posters - old classics like Casablanca to modern graphically designed Sherlock Holmes.  Fantastic prizes to be had each month.

The December Inspiration  comes to you from The Nightmare Before Christmas - a little bit spooky and a tiny bit seasonal (we'll let's be honest - it's a LOT spooky!).

Added criteria for an extra 7 Bonus Points

use all items and receive a bonus 3 pts = 10 pts max

Note: Each item is worth 1pt

1. Pumpkin/s

2. Large moon

3. Jack - Skeleton

4. Spooky tree

5. Fence

6. Yellow/purple colors

7. Large Swirl

If you haven't been to From Screen to Scrap the please check us out.

and here is my layout for this challenge

What a week ...

Gosh - ever had a week where you have SO much on your plate you just don't know where to start or what to finish first?  I've just had one of those.  I got to the stage where I was almost paralysed with the inability to actually do anything!  So glad that this one is now behind me but the very long list of "things to do" just doesn't seem any smaller even though I have a lot of ticks marked against things.  Hopefully I can make a better fist of things this coming week.

Some layouts ...

Thought I'd share a few layouts I have completed for challenges recently.  Certainly haven't done as much as I would have liked due to any number of other commitments but have managed to sneak in a couple.




From Screen 2 Scrap



Artastic

Scrap Boutique

Scrap Happy Kat

Scrap the Boys

And the band played ...

Gosh I'm a week behind in scrap entries - I seriously need to do some updates but right now I thought I would post a few images from my daughters Year 12 school formal last night.

It was beautiful, she was beautiful as were all the other students.  It was a lovely night that went off without a hitch.  All the stress of dress shopping and shoe buying and hair style drama was put aside and a wonderful time was had by all.



The function room




Some of the girls (plus one guy who wouldn't get out of the photo!)




My daughter and her partner




Year 12 plus a few teachers



Songs as memories ...

Today's prompt is about looking around for inspiration in two ways - borrowing formats for your writing as well as finding topics that you might want to explore.

Today's projects include:

*Writing as a sportscaster describing an event in real time.

*Using your music collection set to play at random to help get your pen writing about lots of different memories.

*Describing a location as if you were writing for a travel guide rather than narrating a slide show.


I don't have a huge repertoire of music that "means" something to me - I think there are probably only a dozen or so songs that cast me back to specific times and events in my life - some of them intensely personal.  My husband and I don't even have a song that we specifically call "ours" like many couples do - sure there is music we both like and songs that we relate to but not one that was playing for a first dance or when he asked me to marry him or even one we used at our wedding (we used traditional wedding music) so music doesn't instantly open the floodgate of memories for me.

The few that do oddly bring back some vivid teenage moments - of frustrated love and heartfelt angst.  Of hot summers and back seats of cars and mushy kisses and sweaty hands.  Of tears and hurt, of girlfriends, gossip and notes passed across class.  Of rumours and breakups and furtive glances across rooms.  Of thick frothy milkshakes, and hot chips with chicken salt, kids piled into a cafe booth on a Saturday night.  Fogged up car windows at the drive in, birthday parties in backyards, bonfires and BBQ's and a time when it all felt so right.

Grandfather ...

Prompt 10 is a bit of Friday fun - instead of lengthy journaling, we're looking up words in the dictionary or the thesaurus!


Three ideas to try:

*Start with an existing layout and extend your writing on an additional page. Start by identifying a key word you used on the first page and adding its definition to the second page to link the two journaling sections.

*Start with one word to describe someone or something and write it in your notebook. Look it up in a thesaurus and write down all the other words that are suggested. Use them as a list or as a starter for descriptive writing about your subject.

*Start with a draft in your notebook and identify lazy word choices that could be improved. Look those up in a thesaurus and help boost your vocabulary and paint a more vivid picture of your memory.


My Grandfather was born in a small rural township in 1898; one of 8 children. He served in the 14th Light Horse Battalion during WW1, pitching his tent in sight of the Great Pyramid at Geiza and trudging his quarter horse through the hot desert sands. He farmed the land during the heartless depression, raising 3 daughters and a son. He loved to fish, often going for extended expeditions to remote inland waterways, camping in rough canvas tents and loving the land. In later life he was a well-known and well-liked barman at the local Returned Serviceman’s Club. He had a dry wit and a ready smile. A fascinating life – a Grandfather I wish I had known.

The Grandfather I knew was a frail old man, propped up with pillows, sitting in his worn leather chair, large oxygen tank by his side, clasping the clear mask in his thin hands. The Grandfather I knew couldn’t sit me on his lap; he didn’t have the breath to read me stories or the strength to play games in the yard. My Grandfather died of advanced emphysema in his hospital bed, canopied in plastic sheeting, gasping for every feeble, tortured breathe; he died before his time, the result of a lifetime of smoking his own cigarettes and breathing in the residual smoke of a thousand others. Smoking kills; my Grandfather would tell you that.

No Bees for me ...

Prompt 8 is all about collaborative writing and including the voices of others in your storytelling -include the words of you + another person taken straight from everyday life or write your perspectives of the same event with a friends (without comparing notes) and see what specifics you both remember!

In the car on the way home from school ....

Me:  So how was Inter-relate today? (gender seperated 4 part series of sex education classes)

Son  (just 12):  ..........GLARE........

Me:  That good huh???

Son (just 12):  .....Groan...

Me:  So what was the topic today??

Son (just 12):  (whispering) puberty - it was grose!

Me:  Oh

Son (just 12):  but the girls were even more grossed out than us

Me:  Hmmm (thinking that the prospect of 40+ years of monthly bleeding could do that!)

Me:  So what's the topic next week?

Son (just 12):  making babies ....... but I am NOT talking about it ........

Me:  OK sounds like fun .. so you don't want to ask me any questions now??? (joking)

Son (just 12):  .........GLARE........



If ...

Prompt 6 focuses on the word IF - Think of a milestone event then think back to the little moments that made the big event happen, write advice to someone in a format inspired by Rudyard Kipling's poem If or combine the idea of daydreams and do a "Once Upon a Time" starter.

The very first thing I thought of when I read the title of today's prompt was this song ....

ARTIST: Bread
TITLE: If

If a picture paints a thousand words
Then why can't I paint you
The words will never show
The you I've come to know

If a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go
There's no one home but you
You're all that's left me too

And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me

If a man could be two places at one time
I'd be with you
Tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way

If the world should stop revolving
Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you
And when the world was through

Then one by one the stars would all go out
And you and I would simply fly away



Then I decided on this:

If I had another second in today I would put another kiss upon your chubby baby cheek,
If I had another minute in today I would hold you closer for just a little longer,
If I had another hour in today I would sit and sing you lullaby's and stroke your tiny fingers and toes,
If ...

Slow and steady ...

I've done a few other layouts these past weeks, grabbing an hour here and there to scrap.  One of the things I find useful is to leave my "work in progress" layout out on my desk, as I go past and glance at it I often know that something else is required in a certain place or I need to move a picture or embellishment to another location.  I've long since learnt not to get frustrated with only having small snippets of scrapping time - it happens this way sometimes - now I just go with the flow and let it work for me in a positive way.

Here's just a couple more.  I actually did 16 layouts this month which totally stunned me when I counted them up.  I didn't attend any scrap days or closet myself away for hours on end.  Guess slow and steady really does win the race.