Scrap Of Faith Album

Here are some of the layouts I have created for my Scrap Of Faith Retreat album. This first layout is of Ingeborg, Bev & I with our mocktails at Hogs Breath Cafe

My favourite singing partner Lou

Random pics from the retreat

I love this pic of Nat, Amanda & Sarah

Sal- she is just amazing & did such an awesome job organising the retreat. Love ya Sal!

This layout didn't photograph very well, I was a bit rushed as Mum was yelling at me that dinner was ready!

Bev & I. Miss ya Bev! It was so much fun hanging out with you at the retreat.

The Mess!

I love this Mothers & Daughters pic

Dessert at Hogs Breath. Mmmm, that was some good dessert!

I have a heap more photos from the retreat to scrap. I am having trouble printing the group photos though. The ones I have saved have all turned out fuzzy. Does someone have the original pics that they could email me??

Christmas

Well Christmas is all over just as quickly as it snuck up on us all this year!

We had such a lovely day yesterday. Mum, Dad, Royce & I headed out to Greenwell Point for a lovely picnic lunch, then we headed to Davina's for a Lucas family Christmas dinner. It was all so lovely. Most of all I just love all the time I get to spend with family.
We finally get an updated family photo!

I love this pic of Davina, Mark & Mum relaxing towards the end of the night.

Hope you have all had a lovely Christmas as we all celebrate the birth of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, definitely a special thing to celebrate!

One Month To Go!

That's right, this time next month I will be in Kenya. I can't believe it is so close, it feels like we had only just started talking about it & now it is almost here!
Pete & Catherine are heading off this week, so that they can spend some extra time with Pete's family & do some last minute organising from Kenya.
So now I'm trying to make sure that I am organised. I've bought a few little things such as toiletries, shorts, thongs & other little bits & pieces that I want to take with me. There are still a few little things that I need to get, but apart from that I'm pretty well organised.
We had our very last Kenya team meeting last night. The only thing that is still a problem for us is our budget. With the financial situation at the moment our budget is short. So we are all going to have to put in an extra two hundred dollars each, which is going to be hard for a few people. If the exchange rate goes up by two shillings, then the budget works, but at the moment it is at 50 shillings to the Australian dollar. So we are praying that it will go up at least 2 shillings for us.
So apart from that things are pretty organised, though we know that it's not all going to go just as we have planned, but we are prepared for that.
So I'm getting really excited about the trip, a bit scared, but yeah mostly excited. Not long to go now!

Saturday

Today is a wet, miserable day. So I spent the morning putting up the Christmas tree & decorating the house, to make it look all Christmasy.

We've got a brand new Christmas tree this year, so we decided to buy all new decorations for the tree as well, so we went with some pretty purple, white, silver & a splash of blue & pink.
Feeny wouldn't stop bugging me as I was fixing up the tree! He loves getting into everything! Last year he knocked over the tree three times! But that was when it was a smaller tree sitting on a table & he pulled the tablecloth off! So he shouldn't be able to pull the tree over this year! But he could still cause some trouble, so I kept shooing him away, but he kept coming back! We'll have to keep our eyes on that one!

We had so many decorations, both hand made & bought, that I distributed throughout the house.

Then my friend Jenny came over this arvo & she made Christmas cards while I made some more Christmas decorations. I didn't actually get anything finished, but I had a lot of fun catching up with Jen & we put some Christmas music on, getting fully into the Christmas spirit!

I don't know what I'm going to do with this J! Probably find a nice bible verse or something to put on it.

I was also making Christmas decorations on Thursday when my friend Jess came over for the day. I'm really happy with how this star turned out.

Made some Christmas tins as well.

I started this one last year & never got around to finishing it, so hoping to finish it this year!

One last pic, just cause I think he is sooo cute!

More Layouts

Here are some of the layouts I have made over the last two weeks, since getting back from Queensland. This first layout is of our last day in Berry before Erin moved to Mackay.

Simone with her beautiful twins Isabella & Jackson. Mum & I had our first gig babysitting the twins last night. They were asleep for the first couple of hours so I spent the time playing ponies with Jhorjie & cars with Dominic. Then the twins did wake up twice & they were still awake when Simone & Greg got home. I was hoping they would be asleep for them, but no it was too exciting having Aunty Gail & Haylee over!

Royce & Meagan at their year 12 formal. Can't believe that was two years ago!

Remy- such a cute puppy, but very naughty too!

I really love this song & wanted to use it as a heading on a layout of how precious God's creation is & how I often take it for granted, but I do hope that we never lose all the beauty of His creation with all our developments & technology.

After Bev's class at the retreat I have been inspired to create my own backgrounds for my layouts. This is my first attempt. I created this whole layout using only pens. It didn't turn out quite as I had imagined, but I'm happy with it. It was an experiment, and hey I had fun creating it!

This last layout is about the Thursday scrapping days we have with Esther & Jess, which are always a lot of fun.

We have the Scrapping With Soul day today. This is the least I have ever been organised for it! I usaully am packed ready to go a few days ahead of time, but I've been so busy this week that I only just packed today! I haven't really organised anything, just threw everything in! So hopefully I'll still get some things done!

Lastly I just want to share I bible verse that I found on Thursday. I was reading the princess book we got at the Scrap of Faith retreat & discovered this verse:

"I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go."

~ Isaiah 48:17

I found this verse so encouraging as I struggle to know what I should do next year, but I am encouarged by knowing that God knows exactly what it best for me & He will lead me in the right direction. I just need to continue to trust in Him & never doubt His ways ;)

Farewell Dani

I got back to work this week after 1 and a half weeks off to discover that it is Danielle's last week. That came as a bit of a shock! I knew she was leaving, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I am going to miss her sooo much.
We had a farewell dinner for her at Kohli's Indian Restaurant, so that was quite lovely. Eight of us girls went & it was really nice just chatting & hanging out outside of work.

Bel & I. I straightened my hair for the occaision.

My dinner. Tandoori chicken. It was really nice, but i couldn't eat it all, it was so big! (I had rice & naan as well)

Dani opening her present. I love this rubber ducky, it is just so cute! I want one!

The girls.

Still trying to get back into work mode. I am so over my job & after such a lovely break, it just hit me so hard when I got back to work. Still praying that God will lead me to what I should do next year. I'm so torn as to whether to stay where I am, where it is familiar & safe, or whether I should venture into something else.

Layouts From The Scrap Of Faith Retreat

Here are the layouts I completed at the retreat last weekend. I won the award for Scrapping Machine, meaning I got the most layouts complete. I completed 15 layouts during the retreat.
The theme of the weekend was "His Princess." It was all about celebrating the fact that we are God's princesses. Our father is the most high king. The layout above is my reflection on being His Princess.

This is my fav layout that I got done during the weekend. It is of my two very beautiful friends Jenny & Erin.

Christmas is quickly approaching, so to kick off my Christmas spirit I created this page about how much I love family Christmases.

The first layout I have ever done of Isabella & Jackson. I'm not a big fan of pastels, but thought it was very fitting for the baby theme.

Lusi had done a layout with this title & I thought it was very cool, so I decided to borrow it!

The Kenya Team. What a wonderful bunch of people. So looking forward to going to Kenya with them.

I never have a boring time with Melinda, Heidi & Amy around! We are always laughing!

Sarah & Kyle at Sarah's 21st Pirate Party. I was working on this layout at 1:30 Saturday night (Sunday morning), so my heart wasn't quite in it as much as it could have been.

Another one from Sarah's party. This layout is of Tranye, Dani & I & is about how we used to all be in a choir together & were reminiscing about the good ol' choir days.

Tasha took this photo of me shoving an easter egg into my mouth at Easter & so i did a layout about it. A bit weird I know, but I liked the humour behind the photo!

Davina, Mark & Erin, I created this layout using items out of my goody bag.

My friend Heidi. She is such a free spirit

Me & my cuz Tash

The first couple of days in Queensland I was having a few personal struggles. I was very self conscious of my little quirks & was feeling really embarrassed about them, so was very stand-offish at first. But during the day on Saturday I decided to embrace my quirks & enjoy the weekend. So I created this layout as a way to set myself free from those feelings of self consiousness & self resentment.

This is the layout I made at Bev's class. It was so much fun. You did such an awesome job Bev. I really love how my layout turned out & I love how they all look so different. Everyone put their own spin on them & they all looked really cool.