a few things to share...

I know we are all super busy at the moment - school going back and just settling back into routine after Xmas and the usual January holiday mode.

Sandra sent me this image for us to laugh at - she says:

Just thought I would share this photo I took at Monarto while we were in Adelaide.
I have it on my desktop and it always makes me smile....
You would almost swear that he's trying to hide, wondering to himself... (well it HAS to be of the male gender, surely!)
Can they see me???

hopefully it will bring a smile to others too

What a cute photo Sandra! And i agree ... it must be a male!

Next thing to share was a page from Janice for the current ric rac challenge. She said:

This is a layout that I did earlier for your December
Challenge (7 Flowers)... it also includes some
Ric Rac so thought I would send it to you for the Ric Rac challenge

What gorgeous hair she has! Love the little flowers and the ric rac. Perfect layering too with the main photo and the papers. Super clever stitching in that circle also!

Janice also sent two amazing pages that she finished for the Xmas challenge i set about a month ago - the one based on the 25 days of Xmas carol. She says:

This is a couple more from your December challenge.Daughter of mine... (6 staples).Matt... (2 hearts).Ive done a few more but thought I would share these 2 with you

WOW WOW WOW Janice, these are stunning! Thanks for taking that mammoth challenge on - not many did so hold your head proud! Fantastic page - i love the green in the daughter page and the red, black and white in Matt's page.... both so striking!

The final thing to share is some great news. Congratulations in fact! I got my hot little hands on an ABB 2009 calendar yesterday and the first thing i noticed was KYLIE SHEPPERD'S children in a massive photo for the month of October. It seems she has won a competition by ABB which was Australia wide in it's entrants and of course only 12 could win. I will also mention here that Jenelle Whelan was also a winner and is a RN at the Cummins Hospital!

Congratulations girls - this is a really incredible acheivement! Both of the photos are totally awesome.

Here is Kylie's photo and month!

I hope everyone has a smooth transition back into school/kindy tomorrow and with any luck our scrapping mojo will come flooding in!

phew.

Well it seems i am NOT talking to myself in here!

woohoo!

Sandra has sent in a fantastic layout - not a ric rac one (she promises us that is still to come!) but one she prepared earlier. I really love the title in this - so catchy!

I think that Sandra has come so far in her scrapping confidence and abilities! I also love how this girl just seems to make circles work for her on her pages - this is a real gift!!!

brilliant stuff.

And Maryanne has sent in two pages.

She says "I have done these 2 last night, ric rac along the bottom.Both pretty boring and a bit "same old",but havent scrapped lately [thats my excuse anyway].all my pages seem "same old "lately, so looking forward to the retreat, and "scrapping outside my box"."

and i say ' pffffffffffft'

Your work is always awesome Maryanne. You doubt yourself too much! I love the photos - brilliant and how you chose the papers - they look so NT with the colours! I also think in the second page that your journaling is a great example of how you can say so much without going ott with words or mushy stuff. Brilliant!

I look forward to some more ric rac pages coming my way!

and

starting to worry here....

Ok.

I am starting to worry myself. It seems i am in here talking to myself the vast majority of the time.... and we all know that is only a hop, skip and jump away from 'hearing voices' or 'talking to yourself'.

well i guess you can book me into Hillcrest right this minute in that case!

Here is another ric rac page WITH IS AN ABSOLUTE DIRECT LIFT FROM THE LINK I SHOWED EARLIER by Wendy Bretz. I can take absolutely NO credit at all here as i loved her page so much i really wanted to make mine exactly the same (well i did put my own photo, title and journalling in cause lets face it.......that would be a little crazy if i copied those bits too!)

I am hoping like mad that Sue didn't want to do the same as i got an email asking me if i had any yellow ric rac. Ummmmmmmm yep Sue - i sure do!

hiya Tanya

Welcome aboard Tanya S.

Tanya is from Alice Springs. I met her at the weekly Thursday scrap nites at Scrapworkz (Hi Leonie) in Port Lincoln.

Tanya is also Tracey W sister in law (I think I have that right).

Tanya has been bitten by the scrap bug. For her first ever scrapping project she created a 50th wedding anniversary album for her inlaws. That's a big project anytime let alone being the first one ever

CONGRATULATIONS Tanya.

You have done a terrific job. I am sure your inlaws will appreciate all the time and love you have poured into it.

Tanya says:

I am SO proud! I completed my first scrap project. An album for my in-laws 5oth Anniversary.
Gee I had fun!
Loads of procrastination + chardonnay!

a little bit of ric rac

it scanned a bit crooked but here is mine.

click on the image to see the journaling

hmmmmmmmmm

hello?

testing testing...

*echo*

well it has been very very quiet in here... too quiet.

I would love all our lurkers to come out of the woodwork and to say hi - particularly if you are coming on our retreat which by the way, in case nobody had noticed is only 54 DAYS AWAY!!!!!!! omg so exciting!!

I thought perhaps we might need a new challenge to get our creative juices flowing again (gawd knows i feel a bit scrappy blah atm).

So this challenge (25) is for ...........ric rac. You know that zig zag type of ribbon trim stuff? Well in case you dont know here is what i mean -

Let's see how we can incorperate some of that on our pages!

I have found some inspiration here but I haven't really found much else with my online search for inspiration. It is something that comes and goes in the scrapping trends but let's see if we can make our pages rock with ric rac!

my summertime photo

Hi girls.... we are home.

Lots of blog activity since i have been away! Thanks so much to Meredith who kept things rolling along. Many fab photos and layouts! I forgot to turn off my email notification so had 83 emails when i logged on today for the first time in 3 or so weeks..... i think about 76 were messages were comments from this blog! Great to see LOL.

I have done the summer photo challenge by picking one of my many that i took while i was away. Nothing says summer time like a runny icecream and messy kid.

Our week ...

Well I'm feeling a bit slack in that I haven't put any shots up so here are two from today.

Jack & Lachlan have done both lots of "learn to swim" these holidays and we can see a definite improvement in their swimming.

Here is Jack today ...

PS: Sue recognise your nephew!!

Lisa's Summer snaps

"Hi Meredith,
Hello to you and your family - I hope you had a great Xmas and New Year. It's been flat out for us - good to be home for a rest! LOL!!
I've attached a few pics for the Summer Photos Challenge- was really hard to narrow it down..................
Summer to us is always at Arno Bay (one of these years we might head somewhere else................) We always end up playing croquet on the lawns out the front of the house, so some shots from that too.
And also Fireworks at Cowell between Xmas and New Year. My first time photographing fireworks and pretty happy with how they turned out.

Mmmm, 7 photos!! Sorry, as I said, was hard to narrow it down! I won't be offended if you don't post them all! LOL!
Will hopefully get my scraproom sorted this week and have some scrapping to share soon too!

Hugs,Lisa"

Love the fireworks shots Lisa and the jetty looks beautiful too! Looks like you would have had a relaxing holiday!!

Thanks for sending in the photos!

Marika has some marvelous shots & a couple of layouts!!

Hi again!! Gosh this is a busy job when there are lots of "entries" in the challenges!!

After a small technical glitch I can now bring you Marika's photos for the challenge and then 2 new layouts.

Marika said ...
"Hi Meredith,
I have attached a couple of photos as well as a couple of layouts. The double page is inspired by a Backy Higgins sketch and the single page is a scraplift from the December Scrapbooking Trends magazine. I hope you had a great Christmas and new year.
Thanks Marika"

What a delightful face!! Makes me feel so happy looking at it!

And this looks like so much fun!! A great action shot Marika!

And now the layouts ...

Love this one ... the tag ... does it have journaling on it?

A great record of fun times at Port Neill ... good to see a double page with lots of photos! I haven't done a double for ages ... maybe that could be a challenge soon.

Thank you Marika ... glad I could get the photos up for everyone to see.

Sandra's been scrapping

"Hi Meredith

Here is another layout that I have just finished. I hope you don't mind me sharing. Not really part of any challenge.its based on a sketch from Page Maps... just love that site!

bye for now Sandra"

Sandra it so doesn't matter that it isn't part of any challenge!! It's great to have so much blog activity!!

Love the red on your LO and what great photos!! And of course the reverse scallop is fabo!!

And a link to Page Maps ... click here!!

Karen's cooling off!

Just had this one pop into the in box!!

Karen said

"Hi Meredith,
Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year. Just emailing my summer photo challenge, usually summer means BBQs by the pool, but so far this summer our pool has been out of action waiting for a new liner. So Sunday we got cracking, probably not the best place to have the camera and it was really glary (?) and secondly I thought Id attach a LO I managed to do last night. Its of Mitchell getting his Christmas lunch, I thought it could nearly double up as the photo challenge - summer means seafood!!!!
Cheers
Karen D"

Looks lovely hey! I'm just wondering how you took the photo??!! The colours look amazing!

EDITED TO ADD: Apparently Jane Pearce's husband, Paul, took the photo!! Great work!

And now Karen's fab layout!

This is fantastic - love the patterned papers, the 'U' (those rubons I still haven't used!!), the journaling strips and the little black flowers! Wow! Makes me feel inspired to scrap!!

Keep those photos coming girls!!

Challenge 24 entry ... very impressive!!

Well Sandra has been a busy little scrapper ... remember Amanda's challenge of the 12 days of Christmas for a scrapper ...

Tah dah ... !!!

Sandra's words now ...

"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
REALLY BAD LAYOUT!!!!!

LOL

Hi Meredith
Here is my entry for the 13th day of Christmas challenge
I have included ALL the elements on one page!
just for a bit of fun :)
Isn't it just awful???
But they are all there... bit of challenge just to find them all!
(The photo was googled)
Have a great night
Sandra"

I'm not so sure about it being a really bad layout ... it looks delicious to me!!!

Bring on the cricket ...

Sandra is back ...

She said ...
"Hi Meredith
another summer photo from me
Look over our front fence, over to the oval, and spot the cricketers!
During summer its cricket
and in winter its the footy!
I don't know how many times I have looked over from the comfort of our air conditioned house on a stinking hot day and thought to myself....
"silly buggers, playing in this heat!"

cheers for now
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather at last!
sandra"

Flip flops, jandals, thongs ... whatever you call them!!

Janice has sent in a photo ...

She said

" Hello Meredith, Hope you are enjoying the school holidays.
Since I am at home I thought I would do Tiff's next challenge and send in a photo.
Summer to me means spending time at the beach… we all look forward to heading to the beach
and usually make a day of it either swimming, fishing or just mucking around in the sand.
One of our favourite spots is Point Drummond….(so many places to go out there …Greens Bay, Hall Bay, The Caves)".

Great photo!!

This might be hard to believe but I bought my first ever pair of thongs last Summer!! I grew up with a Dad who disliked them and called them 'Japanese riding boots"!!! They are a great shoe though aren't they!!

summer days

We are finishing Harvest today.

wahu.


just as well as we are off tomorrow for our annual beach stay.


so another Summer pic for me is my DH in his favourite toy (ehem) machine. Sean just had his last ride for this season and Annie is out there now. Sean took out a banana paddle pop for his Dad and Annie has taken out jelly beans.

Bribery weapons. LOL

Now back to Cummins!!

Sandra is next with her mouth watering photos!!

Sandra said
"Hi Meredith
When I think of summer I think of barbies!
The kids just love them!
Trish and Fletch came round tonight for a quick impromptu barbie ... which are the best kinds! Didn't think to get the camera out when the prawns went on ... would of been great to have the iconic 'shrimp on the barbie' shot!
Happy New Year to you and the family.
cheers
Sandra

Looks so good Sandra.

Thanks so much girls for being so hot off the block with your photos ... gives us a bit of action on the blog!

Next up we have ...

Maryanne has sent some photos from up north.

She said
"hi meredith have sent 3 photos, but you dont have to put all on blog.Have been fiddling in photoshop with these. summer for me atm is a holiday, and these are some shots from our trip so far.
1.swimming pool at katherine,
2.boys at simpsons gap at Alice Springs
3.loved this bus in coober pedy, an advertisement for an art gallery!

hope you had a great christmas.[and hope I havnt overloaded your internet].
cheersmaryanne

Firstly we have Coober Pedy ...

And then swimming at Katherine ...

Wow that pool looks inviting!!

Thanks Maryanne!

First Summer is ...

Trish has been extremely quick off the mark with her photo ...

Trish said ... "Hi Meredith. Nothing means summer more than stewing home grown apricots. Yummo.
Cheers Trish"

Wow ...

Coincidentally, I have just been having a chat with some friends about making jam and one, Ingrid, said that her Dad puts a whole lot of marbles in the pot (like 20 or so) when he makes jam to stop it sticking on the bottom!! Then Ingrid went on to say that she had also tried forks!! Yes folks you read correctly ... forks!! Any one else heard of marbles or forks??? Ingrid was a bit worried as she had less marbles than she started with in a recent batch of mulberry jam ;-)

summer mini challenge

lets get some action happening here.

over the next week or so take a pic of what summer means to you. try some artisitic type shots, try manual settings, try anything different to what you normally do.

it could be the header in the paddock, the kids on the beach, a jetty, holidays, road trips, bbqs, glass of wine sitting in the sand.

the list is endless.

for me right now it happens to be flanny pjs. how wierd is it to still be in flanette pyjamas in January. is it climiate change. I reckon it must be so.

so my pic, as wierd as it is, is the kids in pjs.

send your pics to Meredith as Amanda is away and I will be soon. Her addy is on the right hand side of screen.

dont forget to send them as small files so you dont overload her internet quota

;)