A devil of a time ....

The Australian Reptile Park which is located very close to where I live (literally 5 minutes up the road) along with a number of other zoos in Australia is fighting hard to save the Tasmanian devil from extinction. Due to the horrible effects of a virus named Devil Facial Tumour Disease more than 60% of Tasmania’s devils have disappeared from the island. The Australian Reptile Park at present holds the largest population of devils on the mainland and is successfully breeding and raising the joeys in captivity. The ultimate aim is to establish a facility that will hold some 500 individuals as an insurance policy against extinction.

And yes these little guys are the same as "The Tasmanian Devil" of Bugs Bunny fame - only so much cuter in real life. How can you resist these little babies?

Hey True Blue ...

You know there's nothing more fair dinkum than celebrating Australia Day with a few thousand people along Gosford waterfront. And there's nothing quite like seeing a good old fashioned dunny race, complete with mandatory child with knickers around ankles and a roll or two of paper for the loo. Top this off with a raft race, water cannon and screaming drenched children and the sounds of a didgeridoo and you have it made - Aussie Day true blue.

It's up ....

Well my first class of "The Street Where You Live" has gone up and I have people already downloading it. We have nearly 100 people who have stopped by in the forum to say "Hi" and probably countless others that have registered but not made a post. They are from all over the US and Canada, from South America and latin too. From Europe and the UK, from Scandinavia and Australia. It's just amazing and I so hope the journey we all take discovering where we call home is a happy and beneficial one for us all. It is going to be such fun to discover the differences and the similarities we all share across this globe of ours.

Two boys ...

Christopher has just had 5 bliss filled days with his best friend Ayden. He was in heaven as the family moved all the way to Melbourne last January and CJ was bereft. It has been a rough 12 months - with almost weekly phone calls of hours in duration. He's coped and I've been proud of him as they were (are) such great pals. So having Ayden here for a couple of days and then him joining the Cook family for a couple more at a caravan park an hour north of here was a dream come true. It was hard saying goodbye again and a few tears were shed. Hopefully we can make the trip down to Melbourne for a return visit sometime this year.

Oh and in case you are wondering ... they made themselve a "cubby" out of doonas and blankets. Appartently it makes playing the playstation all the better !!

So formal ...

This is my example layout for my sketch over on Get It Scrapped! today.  I'm really pleased with how it came out - love the colour combinations and of course the subject matter helps.  There's just "something" about a group of well dressed teens, sure makes a difference from the school uniforms I normally see them in.

This year I've decided to issue one (or two) challenges alongside of my own sketch in Week 4 of every month.  Everyone is welcome to come and play along with these for the next four weeks until my sketch is posted the following month.   They might be product based or prompt challenges and some times they might be both - lots of fun guaranteed. 

Some Paula inspiration ...

I posted this today over in Get Teased on Get It Scrapped!

Just wanted to share with you a bonus 6x8 template. Paula Gilarde first showed me how versatile using this technique can be in her hybrid challenges. She uses small templates quite frequently in her wonderful work. Now I use these styles of templates a lot in my own hybrid (and digi) layouts. It's a really quick and easy way of getting a layout together with minumum of fuss. I simply set up the template with my pictures and have it printed as a normal 6x8 photo at the lab. Then it is just a matter of placing it on your page. I also like using up strips of patterned paper - putting them across the page underneath the picture print is another simple technique that can cut down time and waste; just make some of them different widths. Add a title and a few extras and presto - a layout produced in record time. If you want to use the pictures individually and place them on your layout in a different manner, it is still an easy task to just cut them apart. You don't have to have them as 6x8 you can rotate the template to make it 8x6 or create them up to any size and combination that you like.

The Street Where You Live - MY 12 month class

I'm so happy to be teaching this class.  I think we are all going to have a wonderful time getting to know each other and discovering new and exciting things about our neighbourhoods and communities right across the world.  Prepare for a fantastic 12 months.  I am SO looking forward to this and am looking forward to meeting everyone on Get It Scrapped! on the 25th.


"The Street Where You Live"

In a free, year-long online class with Jane Howden, use sketch bundles, digital templates, prompts, inspiration pieces, and challenges to take a fresh look at your community and get your "neighborhood" scrapbooked. Whether you live in suburbia, a rural community, a large city, the southern or northern hemisphere, Jane wants to take you on a year-long journey of discovery and documentation of your daily life outside of home.

· Understand the wider picture of how you fit into the place where you live.

· Think about how you interact with the people sharing that common ground on a daily basis.

· Discover new ways to see familiar sights.

· Consider the history of "hometown" life.

· Share your thoughts, reactions, ideas and questions in the class forum.

· Share your pages and projects in the gallery.

· Make a 24-page album to treasure. how to participate in this free class

1. Register and log in to the Get It Scrapped Forums.
2. Scroll down to the "Current Classes" category of the forums. Select the "Street Where You Live Forum" and then, within that, the "Welcome" subforum and say "hi!" Tell us where you're from and see who else is participating.
3. On Monday, January 25th (and on the 25th of each month in 2010), log in to the forums and come to the "Street Where You Live/Blackboard" forum. Look for a post from Jane. Open it and you'll find her link to the lesson, which will be in a pdf file--you'll read this with Adobe Reader.
4. Talk about what you're doing. Share your layouts in the class gallery!

Here's to a year of getting your neighborhood and community onto the page and into an album to be treasured.

Workaholic ...

This is Rachel at work - yep she let me take a picture; still can't believe it. She normally runs a mile when I take out the camera but this time she smiled sweetly and let me have my way. She's been doing three shifts a week over the summer school holidays. It's been great as she's managed to built up her savings a bit more and has been paying for her own trips to the movies and out with friends. It will be back to two shifts once school goes back so make the most of it kid!

Random pieces ...

* I'm tired - didn't sleep well last night; tossed and turned and couldn't settle - now I just want to crawl into a corner somewhere and sleep ....yawn.....
* It's Day 7 of January and I am yet to do a single scrap layout - man that's slack. I even sat in my craft room the other night looking at a pile of scrap supplies willing myself to do something but just couldn't get the creative juices flowing.
* Got "Back to School" stuff in the junk mail yesterday. Heck - it's the first week of January people !! they don't go back until the 28th.
* Couldn't believe my eyes when I did grocery shopping last night. Hot cross buns for sale and in the confectionery aisle we have Easter eggs - OMG Easter is in APRIL.
* Rachel is "cleaning" out her room - sure she is! More like she sits on the computer and looks at the gathering pile of crud build up around her. It will take over the world soon.
* Christopher is in the kitchen making a packet cake on his own. He did one with Grandma last week and she basically only supervised him so he tells me today he can do it himself and so far he has.
* Rachel worked last night. She still hadn't rung to tell us to collect her by 11.30pm which was really unusual. It ended up about 11.50 when she got home; one of her longest nights I'd say.
* Hot and humid yet again; think I might just go for a dip in the pool. That might wake me up.

I nose it's too spoon ...

Party trick anyone?? And No - no superglue or other foreigh substance was used in the making of this picture.

Fishy tales ...

Christopher has embraced fishing. He's wanted to try his hand at it for ages and when our friend Marchello offerred to take him to Ettalong Beach one Saturday morning, he jumped at the chance. The added bonus for the morning was the reeling in of one fish - a whiting. Success all round I say.

One Little Word ....

Ali Edwards http://aliedwards.typepad.com/ has for the last couple of years introduced a special segment on her blog called "One Little word". In essence the idea is to choose a word that has the potential to make an impact on your life for the coming year.

As Ali says; "Maybe you want to invite something or maybe you are hoping to subtract something. Maybe your word will be practical or hopeful or creative or fanciful. Maybe you need a big word, something in-your-face that will challenge you everyday. Maybe you need something smaller and quieter that will whisper gentle tidings as you make your way throughout the year".

My word this year is "reduce". I need to not only reduce the personal clutter in my life and that of my family but to simplify the way I go about things, to learn to say "No" when I have too much on my current list of to-do's, to take stock of what is around me and enjoy what is there without the added pressure of feeling I need to perform in a certain way or stressing over things that are beyond my control. There's a great deal of things for me to reduce in 2010.

New Year ...

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

~Oprah Winfrey

A new year and so much promise ... 365 days to make it all happen. Bring it on I say !!!