We have been pretty busy since my last post. I had thought that 2013 might be a bit quieter than 2012 but it is starting off with a hell of a rush.

On Saturday 19th we went to Tanunda for their street party. We go just about every year and they always have a great band there, this year was the Sky Rockats and I really enjoyed their music. Of course Ray is in seventh heaven because there are cars, cars and more cars to look at.

We had Charli's birthday party on the 20th January. I made some of my sisters recipe chocolate mud-cake cupcakes, some jelly cups with half orange and half blue jelly with a lolly in the middle and my first batch of scones ever. I used my aunty's never-fail recipe and it worked a treat. The theme for the party was water and she had a water slide, pool, water pistols and all the kids were soaked. They loved it.
The birthday cake was an ice-cream cake with shards of white chocolate around the edges. Very delicious.

I was supposed to take Daisy to the vet on Wednesday but forgot all about it so had to take her on Thursday instead. She is having her 6 monthly course of 4 x weekly injections for her arthritis. So it off to the vet each Thursday for the next couple of weeks.

Thursday was Charli's actual birthday so Ray and I joined Cindy and Charli at Cafe Primo for a celebratory dinner.

Friday Ray and I drove to Stone Hut to stay with our friends for the night. We got there about lunch time and spent a very pleasant afternoon and night catching up. Anne made some very delicious food and we had a few drinks. Unfortunately when we woke on Saturday morning we got the news that one of our friends, who we stayed with from time to time while in Switzerland, had passed away during the night, put a bit of a dampener on the day.

Saturday we were in Wilmington by 8:30 for the Australia Day breakfast and the book launch of the book that Ray's cousin Lorraine Potts has been involved in putting together. The book is on the history of Wilmington and the families there. Ray was quite keen to buy one and see what it had to say about his family. We were going to stay the night with Lorraine and go to the Rodeo but changed our minds and after spending a pleasant afternoon with Ray's relatives we headed home. We arrived back here about 8:30 and Cindy invited us to her place for dinner so that worked out very nicely.

Yesterday we spent a couple of hour at two different pubs in Port Adelaide listening and dancing to a couple of local bands. Very relaxing and most enjoyable.

Today has been pretty laid back. We have actually had a bit of rain here today. I have done a bit of work on my current double page layout on the flowers I received for my birthday but it is not finished yet. I have spent a lot of time on the background so will be interesting to see how it finishes up.

Next week looks just as crazy as this past week. Time to go and watch some telly (I see that Scrap It TV is on for 1.5 hours this evening) and do the ironing so it is out of the way.

Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

A quick post to share a layout I did for the challenge at My Creative Sketches. As soon as I saw this sketch I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The green in the background is texture paste coloured with acrylic paint and applied through a Studio Cameo mask. I have splattered some Starfish Glimmermist on the background and wiped over the texture paste with a Cherry Pink Versa Craft ink pad. I have threaded seed beads onto embroidery cotton to create the frame. Inked around the outside of the layout with the Cherry Pink and Black.

That's it for this post
Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

I have finished Charli's Birthday Banner. I seem to have been working on this for ages but in reality the amount of time it has actually taken is not that great.

Anyway here it is. The colour scheme was decided by her invitations and the fact that it is a water themed party. The individual pennants will tie together using the blue spotter ribbon which has been put through eyelets at the top of each pennant. The rectangular pennants have a photo of her at each of her birthday parties, except 5 of course, which was taken at her Kindy concert in December.

The triangular pennants are fillers and have assorted decorations on them. So the sequins will be rectangular, triangular etc...

Thought I would also show you my magnificent tomato plant. I am very happy with the way it is going and you can see it has already got tomatoes on it. I have to drag it in under the verandah on these very hot days (like tomorrow. 42 degrees) but it seems to be happy at the moment. I do have a bit of a problem with the little white flying insects and even though I put tomato dust on them the little bugs keep coming back....grrrrr

Now that the banner is finished I seem to be at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. I guess I could do the ironing and clean the hand basins in the bathrooms if I get really desperate.

Perhaps I will share a few thoughts

outside my window...It is a beautiful evening and Ray has gone to take Daisy for a walk along the Torrens. Should have went with them.

I am thinking...I wish I wasn't so lazy and that I enjoyed exercise but unfortunately it is something I have to push myself to do and I don't push very often.

I am thankful for ...my life. I have a very charmed life and sometimes I forget that

I am wearing... 3/4 black slacks, burgundy, black and grey top and no shoes

I am going to....make some scones, mini chocolate mud cupcakes, and jelly cups with lollies in them  for Charli's birthday party

I am currently reading.... Scrapbooking magazines. I have not started a new book yet but that could be something I do tonight.

I am pondering...what my next scrapbooking/art project will be

I am hoping...that the weather stays good for the weekend

On my mind...not much at the moment

from the kitchen...passionfruit and mango yoghurt

around the house...all is well. Peaceful and relaxing

a few plans for the week... Tanunda street party, Charli's birthday party, dinner with Charli and Cindy.

one of my favourite thing.... at the moment..Crown Mints!!!!

Well this is a very long post so if you have got right down here thanks for sticking with me

Till next time

Thanks for dropping by

Cheers

Julie

Things are starting to settle down now after my birthday celebrations and Tuesday with Charli. I have got lots of photos to share today so get ready for a photo heavy post.

The celebrations actually began immediately I finished my last post and the front doorbell rang. When I answered the bell my Mother and 2 of my sisters were standing there. A complete surprise. We spent the afternoon having a foot massage and doing some shopping before heading out to Grumpy's at Verdun for dinner. I really appreciate the effort that they went to to get here. It was a long way to come for a small function but I am glad they came.

Sunday we had my party at the Adelaide Sailing Club. It was a lunchtime function and Ray supplied the music as most of us are dancers. I had a great time. Ray did such a great job of preparing everything. I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a great husband.

This is a photo of the table centres Ray chose. Very bright and colourful.

The birthday cake, once again chosen by Ray. Vanilla Strawberry Torte

Mum and my sister Helen

My sister Pam and Cindy. Cindy was helping Pam with her iPhone when I took this photo, so not the best shot of them.

 Carol, Charli, Wendy and I

After we finished at the Sailing Club we went to The Lighthouse Inn in Port Adelaide for some live music then back to our house for Chinese Takeaway for tea and some more drinks.
A great day.

On Tuesday we took Charli on the Port River Dolphin Cruise. She had not been on a boat before and was very excited. The Captain of the boat was kind enough to let her steer the boat for a minute.

Unfortunately we did not see a single dolphin.

Today I have been doing all sorts of odd jobs, just catching up.

That's it for this post

Till next time

Thanks for dropping by

Cheers

Julie

Today is my birthday and I turn 60.
Funnily enough when I was younger 60 seemed soooo old but now that I am here it doesn't seem that old after all.
I am happy to have made it this far really, there are a lot of people who have not.
So far I have had a great, relaxing day. I have been the lucky recipient of three beautiful floral arrangements, the first delivered while I had a face mask on so I wonder what that poor delivery man thought.

This arrangement is from Mick and Gay.

This one is from Anne

And this one is from Debra and Frank

Tonight we are going to Grumpy's for tea. I just love it out there and now that the weather has improved it may even be nice sitting outside to eat and enjoy some of their own brews.

Tomorrow we are having a relaxed lunch with about 30 of our friends to celebrate.

I'm going to do some work on Charli's birthday banner now so
Till next time
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie

So the beginning of a new year and as I turn 60 on Saturday, so the beginning of a new decade for me.
I thought I would take a photo of myself this morning and take one on new years eve at the end of the year and see how I have changed over the 12 months, so here is todays photo. God I hate photos of me, but what can you do!!!

Last night we put on a Rock and Roll show as a fundraiser for Deaf Can:Do. Ray, Sharyn and I have done this for about the last 5 years (except for last year when we all went to Sydney for NYE) We have a band and Ray does the DJ'ing in the breaks. It is a busy night for the three of us but people that comes always tells us how much they have enjoyed the night. Unfortunately the hall is up for sale so last night will be the last one we do.

I did not get a photo of either Ray, myself or Sharyn last night so I am going to have to ask others if they have a photo I can use. I really enjoyed the night though and the reason is the great friends that celebrated with us.

Wendy and Lindsay.

Carol and John.

We met both of the couples above when were started dancing lessons about 10 or so years ago and have been friends ever since

Jan and Frank. We were at Jan's birthday celebration on Sunday. It was a great day. She has a great garden and had about 60 people help her celebrate with bbq, singing and good company

Gay and Mick who travelled from Mildura and Eric came over from the Riverland

Anyway another great night spent with good friends

I have not set a new year's resolution this year. I usually do and I usually break them so this year I decided I will make some mini goals throughout the year, maybe one every couple of months and act on them straight away.

That's it for this post
Hope you all had a great NYE celebration and that 2013 brings all that you are hoping for
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Hi there.....Just a quick post to let you know that we had a great Christmas. Hope you all did too.

Cindy and Charli spent the night here Christmas Eve and Mum was here as well. Charli woke us all up at 6:06am so we opened our presents. I did very well in the present department I must admit.
At about 9ish we went to the street party that is held each christmas day by the residents of our street. It is a opportunity to catch up and see how everyone has made it through the year. Unfortunately one of our neighbours lost their 20 year old son in about October so it was not a happy time for them this Christmas.

Then we came home and had croissants for breakfast and a bit of a lazy sitting about with a glass of champagne or 2.

We packed a picnic lunch and headed over to Tusmore Park. It is a very large pretty park and has a wading pool in it. Charli put her bathers on and spent quite a bit of time in the pool while we had our lunch and a little more Champagne. It was absolutely beautiful there, the weather was perfect and just sitting in the sun with a nice drink, none of us wanted to leave but we were expecting visitors at Cindy's place at 2:30. Cindy sent them an sms and said we would not be there until 3:30 so we eventually had to move.

We spent the rest of the day until about 10:30pm at Cindy's place with friends and more food and drinks. A very pleasant and enjoyable day.

Mum and I have spent the last 3 days making and album to hold the photos I took at her 80th birthday party. I bought the directions from Kathy Orta on the internet and we started from scratch. It has taken us the full 3 days to make the album and it is still not finished. I think Mum is pretty happy with her's though and she plans on finishing it off during the heat wave that is due to hit Whyalla about Sunday for 3 or 4 days.

Mum flew home this afternoon and I have spent the night loading Photoshop CS6 onto my computer. It was my Christmas present from Cindy. So over the next week or so I will have a good look around it and see what is different than the previous version that I have been using.

Here are a few more photos from Mum's party
This one is Mum with her children

And this one is Mum with her grandchildren and great grandchildren

Any way I'm off to bed now.
Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

So much has happened since my last post. I will have a go at catching you up with what has been happening in my part of the world.

We have been taking Charli to piano lessons on a Monday afternoon so that she can catch up to a class she will be joining when the new school year starts. She starts school in the new year and we will be picking her up from school each Tuesday and taking her to her piano lessons. At this stage she is still very interested in playing so while the interest is there we will keep taking her.

I had lunch with a scrapbooking friend one day. I had not seen her face to face for sometime so it was good to catch up with her.

We spent 5 days in Whyalla with Mum. She turns 80 on Christmas Eve but we gave her a party on the 15th December at my sisters house in Whyalla. All of her family made it except one grand-daughter and her 3 children so it was a great catch up time for all of us. There were also quite a few of mum's life-long friends there so I think there would have been between 60 - 80 people there. We all helped out and with the 7 of us all doing a bit there was not too much to do for one person although Traci would have had to do a lot more than the rest of us as it was held at her place.
The important thing is that Mum loved it and had a great time.

One of my sisters and her family gave Mum a ticket to see Jersey Boys and a airfare from Adelaide to Whyalla. As we were coming back on the Sunday she came back with us. My sister and family also gave me a ticket to see Jersey Boys for my birthday so in Sunday evening Mum and I went to the Festival Theatre and watched the show. It was great and Mum was absolutely wrapped. She spent the day with us on Monday and most of Tuesday, flying home at 4pm Tuesday.

On the Monday while she was here I had Laser Surgery on my eyes to correct my long vision. I still have to have glasses for reading but my long distance vision is perfect. I was a bit tentative about having the surgery done but in the end it worked out well. I have had no pain and my vision is excellent.

While we were in Whyalla I had a call from the doctor who had taken a biopsy of a growth on my nose to say that it was a carcinoma and that I would need to see a plastic surgeon about getting it removed. I go and see the surgeon on the 29th January so have got my fingers crossed that it has not gone too deep.

We went to Sue Heinrich's Christmas breakup that she had for her dance students on Tuesday night. We had a great night. The people who go to Sue's lessons are very nice and it is always a pleasant time when we all catch up.

We had Charli for half the day on Thursday. It is school holidays so there is no kindy for her. Cindy usually works half a day on Wednesdays but she worked a full day Wednesday and half a day on Thursday so we only had her until 2pm.

Yesterday I got all the photos from Mum's party printed. I got 2 sets, one for me and one for Mum. I also bought some instructions off the internet for making an "Occasions Folio". I went to Camelot and bought all of the required materials to make 2 of them. Mum is coming to spend Christmas with us and staying until the following Friday so I thought it would be a good project for both of us to make the Album and put the photos from the party in it while she is here.

Today I have made a batch of Laundry powder and a batch of Miracle Spray. I have started making my own because I want to try to avoid as many chemicals as I can and it feel like I am doing something good for the environment. I have been using the Laundry powder for about 6 months and really like it. This is the first batch of miracle Spray I have made. It is used for cleaning just about everything so I will see how it goes.

A few photos from the party

This one is of my cousin, my brother-in-law, me and Cindy

Me and Cindy

Another Brother-In-Law (well ex really) and Ray

The birthday girl blowing out the candles

One of my sisters decorated the cake. It was the first one she had ever done and she did a great job.

Well this has been a very long post.
Thanks for getting to the bottom
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Christmas has arrived at our place.

I spent the day yesterday putting up the Christmas Tree

It took me an hour to get to this stage

Then four hours after that I had this

and with the lights turned on

Every year I say I am going to buy a new christmas tree that is easier to erect but once again I didn't

Last Sunday we went to the Uraidla Hot Rod Show. I am not really into cars but they had the Lincolns playing there and I really like this band so I was happy to go along and have a few dances.

A couple of the cars in a nice shady spot

The beautiful surrounds. What a great place to hold something like this. It was held at the Uraidla Oval. The cars were on the oval and spotted throughout the surrounding shady area.

Some of the guitars that Dave Gartland had on display. He makes these guitars. Fantastic workmanship

Well I got my christmas cards posted out today so I am on track with my Christmas tasks.

Till next time
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie

Just a quick post today to share some photos of layouts etc that I have done this week.

I have just come home from seeing about having laser surgery on my eyes to correct my long vision. I will still have to have glasses for reading. All I have to do now is decide whether I want to go ahead with it or not. Need to give this some serious thought for a day or so.

This layout was inspired by a sketch on Aussie Scrap Source. Just loved all the pennants.

This art journalling page is the next page in the Art of Wild Abandonment on-line course I am doing. It does not show it very well but there is a clear plastic pocket in the bottom right that hold leaves with word written on them. It is stitched shut

The layout above is the next class at Camelot. It shows how to use a grid in a layout.

That's it for today.
Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie