I'm back!

Just got back from Brisbane and can see I am going ot have to spend some time catching up on everyone's blogs! Thanks so much for the messages you all posted for me - I didn't get to use the computer much while I was away this time so couldn't thank you properly then :-)

We have a house in Bris but have not sold the one up here after all. The contract fell through :( So it's back on the market, and we have a bit longer to wait before all the changes take place. Will keep you posted!

And hopefully I will get some scrapping or card making done in the next week!!

No craft today

Well, there was no crafting done over here today. First I had a wonderful time at church. In the afternoon, DD and her boyfriend came over and they took some of DDs things back home with them - we were storing a lot of DDs 'stuff' and she will need it now we're moving so far away :-(

DH and I also spent some time looking at houses for sale on the 'Net. With the interest rate rise happening we are going to shoot a little lower than we had planned. We want to be able to afford to stay in a house once we commit to a mortgage.

I'm flying to Brisbane tomorrow to look for our new home - DH cannot get time off work to come with me so do think of me as I do this important task. I'll have the able help of a wonderful girlfriend though :-) and will post a pic of the new place as soon as I can!

I will be gone until late Saturday night so I may not get a chance to post in the next week. You will all be on my mind and I will look forward so much to seeing your posts when I come back! Take care!

Challenges rom Pearl and Bety

I was too restless to sleep right away tonight so decided to complete Bety's challenge to make a card using some or all of the following elements:

Make a card containing some of my favorite things:at least 1 Heart,ribbon,chipboard, at least one flower,glitter,buttons.

31 questions

I think I saw these questions answered first on Suzanne's blog, then on Lee's, and decided to have a crack at them myself :-) Feel free to answer these too and let me know if you did so I can come and get to know you a bit better.

1. If your doctor told you TODAY that you were pregnant, what would you say? I'd be stunned but joyful. And probably laugh a lot.

2. When was the last time you flew in a plane? Last month. We flew back from Brisbane after visiting dear feinds and family.

3. What did the last text message you sent say? We sold our house today!

4. What features do you find most attractive in the opposite sex? Kindness, humour, ability to listen and not always automatically give advice

5. What is a goal you would like to accomplish in the near future? To be financially independant and resettled in a comfortable home

6. Shoe size? 6 - 7, depending ont he width of the shoe

7. Been to Mexico? No

8. When is the last time you had a massage? Last year when my neck and shoulders refused to relax

9. What was the last TV show you watched? Ummm, I think it was...Home and Away?

10. What are your plans for the weekend? Visit friends, shop, go to church

11. If your significant other asked you to marry them TODAY what would you say? What, again?

12. What is in the back seat of your car right now? A large umbrella, a neck pillow, street maps, a water bottle

13. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Trying to get ready to drive to Cairns for a shopping/visiting friends trip

14. If you could marry any celebrity today who would it be? I don't have any celebrity fantasies, sorry

15. Have you ever been to a strip club? NO

16. What is the best ice cream flavor? Maple walnut or macadamia

17. What is the last sporting event you watched? It might have been my daughter's cross country race over four years ago

18. Ever go camping? Yes! A long, long time ago, when we had our three kids living with us

19. Last phone call? to my mother telling her we sold the house

20. Are you allergic to anything? Yes

21. What is one thing you have learned about life recently? That I am not invincible and I do have limits, and I had better learn what they are or may be checking out of life too soon

22. What do you do at work? I work hard

23. What is your mom's name? Louise

24. Ever cried for no reason? Yes

25. Can you do the Crank Dat dance? Never heard of it, so NO

26. What is your favorite color to wear? So far this year it's apple green. My preference varies...

27. What is the longest plane ride you have ever been on? 18hours from Sydney to Sanfransico

28. What is the longest road trip you have ever taken? In North America, from Fresno to Pine Point NWT. In Australia, from Cairns to Hobart.

29. What are your turn-offs? Crudity, filth, swearing, nastiness, bullying

30. What was your last alcoholic beverage? Umm, about four years ago I had ....ummmm...I forget.

31. What are you craving right now? A good night's sleep

Our house is sold :shock:

While I was out today, someone came to view the house. They have now put in an offer that we have verbally accepted, so our house is, for all intents and purposes, SOLD.

I am still in shock, and am pleased, and am sad, all at once!

We will have about a month from Monday (contract signing day) to move out. That means I have to start all the sorting and packing etc that goes with a major move. And then we need to find a new home to move in to, 1265kms (786 miles) away from here....

My craft work is bound to be a bit patchy over the next month or two, but I will do my best to post and let you know what is happening, and to get back to regularly crafting ASAP!!

I wonder how to keep track of all my craft gear in this phase of my life? Lol!

More later :-)

Scrapchat Circle Journal

Over at Scrapchat there's a Circle Journal (CJ) swap about to start. Everyone chooses a theme for a little (no bigger than A5 or half a sheet of A4 paper) album to send round in turn to a number of people in the swap. I've chosen "Dimensions of Life - What Matters Most". I completed the title page, instruction page and sign in page tonight and thought I'd show you what it's like here. I need to finish a double page layout on what matters most to ME before I send it on to others. And I still don't know how I'm going to bind it, given that others may choose thicker than paper items to do their layouts. Any suggestions? I thought of a nice round shoe lace and punched holes....

All the papers, inks, ribbons and stamps are from Stampin' Up! and the brads are from lots of other sources - mainly lovely blogging friends! The large 'W' on the title page is from Creative Memories.

My Paper World Challenge Sketch #3

After the sad news that my blog apparently isn't worth anything, I was so cheered to receive some comments from people who assured me they valued it! Thank you so much! It means a lot!

I was cheered enough to sneak out some craft materials to make Nicola's challenge card Sketch #3! I was thinking of you all who said such nice things when I made it, so it's really a Valentine's card for all of you :-)

Thanks again!

Oh - and I think this card also qualifies for Pearl's challenge to make a card with some hearts on it too :-)

CORRECTION: Since I first posted this, I have been advised by Pearl that the heart card challenge was not really hers in the first place, but that now the idea has been suggested, she will be posting challenges in future herself! Hooray!

My blog isn't worth anything :-(

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

I am not sure why, but apparently my blog isn't worth anything :-( Has anyone else tried this test? What makes a blog worth something? If you know, please post me a comment! It would cheer me up! Lee, so glad to know your blog is worth a LOT!

Tagged again!

This time by Andrea. As I have been tagged twice in a short time, I am not going to tag anybody this time. I will, however, follow the other instructions fro you, Andrea :-) Here are the instructions (feel free to consider yourself tagged if you would like to be, by the way!)

1. You must post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
3. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers.
4. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

OK - here is my answer: I

Like to go birdwatching
Yearn for chocolate
Never want to go swimming in public
Never want to go bungy jumping
Eat too much
Take a long time to get ready in the morning
Try to leave people smiling, and
Enjoy blogging!

Hey - that's not a bad tag to do! Thanks for thinking of me, Andrea.

Repetition...

Scrapchat has issued a photo challenge for the week called 'Repetition'. The only thing that immediately came to my mind was the infinity picture you can do with two mirrors - endless reflections can be seen when two mirrors face each other at the right angles. Then I started noticing that there is repetition all around us - and this was reinforced by some of the early entries for this challenge. Other challengers took photos of brick walls, stone pathways, people dressed the same and standing in a line, rows of palm trees and street lights - so I just looked around my desk and voila - there was my repetition shot! Hope you like it.

7 more random facts for Lisa

I visited Lisa's blog today and got tagged to list seven random fatcs about myself. If you haven't been tagged before, try it! It's a way to get to know people a little better :-) I have played tag a few times and always learn new things about other blogging friends.

Here's seven random facts about me for today:

1. My three kids have all grown up and left home
2. I'm going to become a grandmother in a few months
3. I have a foxie-chihuahua cross dog who is 14 years old
4. I love quiet and peaceful surroundings and enjoy being out of doors a lot
5. I have two tabby cats, aged 16 and 12
6. Strangers often start talking to me without any invitation and tell me their troubles
7. I am often mistaken for other people (maybe that's why complete strangers tell me their troubles???)

Dolls

Did you know that if you put a 50+ year old doll in warm water and bleach, she might crack and splinter to pieces? That's what I found out today. As I cannot get my craft supplies out because I need to keep the house presentable for potential buyers, I am going to use my camera more for the next little while and post some pictures of things that happen in my life. Suzane inspired me to think about taking more photos as she is completing a 365 day photo challenge where she takes a photo of something and posts it EVERY DAY. Today I had a great opportunity to photograph something different as I enjoyed restoring some of my old dolls to a bit of their former glory (well, some got resotred and three were beyond saving or cracked when water touched them). I did not get up this morning thinking that I would be washing dolls, doll's clothes and doing their hair, and being a source of amusement to DH in the process, mind you! Here's how it happened: DH and I decided to clear out the room at the back of the garage. We spent most of today tossing old papers, sorting books, finding photos (!!they should not have been in the garage!!) and one box we found held my sorry little dolls. I brought them all into the house where the laundry tub is and started to scrub. I should have taken a 'before' picture. But I didn't.

Rooster Attack!!

I used to like chickens. When I was a kid, I even had some as pets. Today I revised my fond childhood memories of sweet chickens allowing you to pick them up and cuddle them as you whipped away their still-warm eggs. There I was in my friend's yard, camera slung round my neck but sadly out of battery power, feeding the chooks for my friend. There were only 8 chickens and all of them were supposed to be locked up in a pen, but four had escaped into the fenced yard, including the protecitve Mr Rooster. Well, I casually walked up to said Rooster and hens with the full feed pan and flash! Crash! Scratch! I was ....ATTACKED!! :shock: Mr Rooster scratched me on my bare legs and knocked the feed pan out of my hand. It took me a moment to realise I had been attacked, mind you, as I just did not expect it. I stood there, staring the rooster down, and he did eventually walk away first.

His retreat didn't make me trust him or stop me grabbing a handy piece of timber leaning on the fence to make sure I had a way of warding him off 'just in case'. Just as well I grabbed that timber - he tried to attack several more times before I got him penned! Each time I approached him, board first, he thought the board was a threat and scratched it instead of me, so my ruse worked.

Mr Rooster's back claws were short and not too sharp, so he didn't break my skin, but my old legs would have been better off without the new decorations he left behind.

And I didn't get one photo of the villain to show you....so here's a platypus instead. They have sharp claws, too. And no, I have never been attacked by one! Lol!

Serenity

Do you like photography? I'm part of a 52 week photo challenge over at Scrapchat. Since I know very little about my lovely new camera, I thought this would be one a good way for me to learn something. I'm not sure it's working (the 'learn about photography by doing challenges part), but I did take a picture of the moon the other night to submit for the 'Serenity' theme. I think the moon looked much more serene in real life. I obviously don't know how to adjust the camera to show a nice moon shot. Any suggestions will be gratefully received! Oh - this was shot taken from my back door so is technically a 'What's In My Back Yard' shot as well.

'Technical' details. I have a digital SLR camera. I put the camera on a night time setting. I didn't have a tripod (my daughter has borrowed it) so held my breath while the camera did it's thing, slowly. The I put the photo through a photo enhancing program where I adjusted the contrast and shadow components. The picture still doesn't look like the moon I saw, though it's better this way than it was in the original version. And it was windy which is part of the reason for the fuzzy shrubbery. The other reason for the fuzz is because even holding my breath and leaning on a wall, I know I move more than a tripod would!

Praise the Lord!

Just had word that little Rachel's platelet count has suddenly jumped from 2 to 67!! Thank you, anyone who prayed for the healing of the little girl I mentioned in my last post. She is coming home! She will no doubt need some extra care and testing for a while but things are looking so much brighter for her and her family.

Thank you again. And praise the Lord!

Thinking of Robyn

Friends have their youngest (about 7) in hospital with an undiagnosed and serious condition. I wanted to make them all smile, if even for a minute, and so did a 'portrait' of their family with the SU! 'All in the Family' and 'Simple sketches' stamps. I used SU! cs - Whisper White, Almost Amethyst, Lavendar Lace, Pixie Pink, and ran a felt pen round the edge of the main image. I punched the flowers with a CM punch and decorated them (and the image) with silver gel pen. I made tags with a ribbon I received from a friend so am not sure of its origin. I used SU! Stampin' Pastels with a blender pen to colour the main images and then chalked everyone's cheeks. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig a LOT with this card - for every placement of each little person - am not sure how I managed to give the littlest one such a long neck, but she is special.

Oh - and this card is also for Fiona's sketch challenge to use an SU! stamp set beginning with 'A' this fortnight. Oh - Fiona says to come and join the Alphabet Challenge!

I'm back!

We arrived home late last night from our trip away! We had a marvelous time away from home and it is also good to return. I spent today catching up on the things you normally have to do when you've been on a trip - the washing, sorting, cleaning etc - but I also needed to make a birthday card for my DDs boyfriend to have afternoon tea with, and here it is!



I used my SU! 'Lovely as a Tree' stampset for the main image and a retired SU! sentiment. The cs is also SU! - Ruby Red, Not Quite Navy and Whisper White. I embossed the sentiment with gold, blender-penned the tree, and used a cute tree brad sent to me by a Secret Santa friend this Christmas. I CASEd the idea from Chrissie - thanks, Chrissie!

It was so good to have an excuse to make a card as soon as I got home!

You Made My Day Award

I was delighted and amazed to receive this award from Suzanne - what a wonderful thing to do for someone!! Thank you, Suzanne, for being a great blogging buddy and crafter, and for being so generous as to take time to write something so lovely about me (blush!) I look forward to reading your comments on my blog and do you know what? I think you were my first blogging friend too!

It made me feel so good to receive this award, I have to pass it on to others. Today I choose

Andrea at Andrea's Card Creations and Events who has made my day many times with her lovely comments and friendliness

Andrea at Andrea's World who has the most lovely cards on her blog and who pops in to encourage and support

Lee who has been so wonderful leaving comments on my blog that are so warm and who inspires me with her own blog and crafting skills.

Nicola who has made me think about different ways of making cards with her great sketch challenges and who has also left comments that make my day

All of you are so wonderful and it is hard to stop here! I appreciate everyone who stops by here and leaves comments. Have a great day, everyone!

Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I was looking at Gypsyangel's blog this evening (yep - jumped on the computer again for a few minutes after everyone else went to bed!) and she said the following: "As most of you would know that I have been tracing my family tree, well I just found out that I am someone of importance. My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Royal Highness Gypsyangel the Innocent of Walk upon Water"

Well, I couldn't resist finding out what my own title would be, of course, and maybe you would also like one of your own. Here's what I found out:

My own Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Exalted Highness Duchess Susan the Superficial of Greater Sodbury Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Thanks for your warm wishes!

I got a chance to check out the comments on my last post tonight and was so touched by everyone's good wishes! Thanks so much for taking the time to say what you did!

I will be back home again this Friday night (LATE) and will be getting back to crafting some new things soon, I trust, so will have something to show you all before too long :-)

Sure hope you are all well and I will look forward to checking out everyone's blogs ASAP when I get home - I don't want to tie up my friend's computer too long while I am away as three of us are vying for time on it....!!!

Take care, all you lovely people.