Happy Birthday Mum!!!

Long Weekend = Lots Of Scrapping!

Yep I've been busy doing lots of scrapbooking this Australia Day long weekend. This first layout is me with my friends Amy, Sarah & Heidi
This is Heidi & I at our friend's wedding
She Loves Ponies- Jhorjie with one of her many ponies
Ellen & Dominic dancing

Dad & Jack playing foose ball
Dad & Ros
Lucca & I. I made this layout yesterday while watching 10 Things I Hate About You. I was having my own Heath Ledger tribute. I had forgotten how good this movie is & how hot Heath is in it. Next I'm going to watch A Knight's Tale, but that will have to be the end of my Heath tribute, as I don't own anymore of is movies.
Feeny jumping onto my bed when I'm trying to make it, photos from 2007 & 2005
Ian & Emily's wedding.

Celebrate The Everyday

I'm reading Ali Edwards' Life Artist book at the moment, and I really love the chapter Celebrate The Everyday, which highlights the importance of scrapbooking about our ordinary, everyday stories. This has inspired me to put a lot more focus into what is going on around me everyday, and how I could incorporate that into a scrapbooking layout. So to get started I have been running around with my camera for the last couple of days taking photos of anything and everything. Here are a few examples:

What has amazed me is all the stories I have discovered that are waiting to be told. Things that may have seemed insginificant before now seem to be just as important as the photos of people and events that I usually scrapbook about. Below are some stories that I thought needed a voice as well as pictures:

This is my desk. What I love about it is that you really do learn all about my life just from looking at my desk. There's a scrapbooking layout, a pile of photos, a Neighbours book, a photo of my India sponsor child, an xray & referral to get my wisdom teeth removed, devotional books, lots of jewellery, mostly earrings, a framed photo of my gorgeous cat Feeny and a few home gifts I have received from people.

Meagan & Ziggy were playing a little tugging game with Winnie The Pooh, but look at poor Winnie afterwards!

This is Tiffy's I Want Something walk. She arches the back, waves her tail excitedly and meows as she walks around you. Here she wanted to go outside, which she wasn't allowed as she had already had dinner.
Minutes after this photo was taken this glass of wine was no more. Feeny and Ziggy came rumbling into the room and hurtled straight into the coffee table, sending the wine all over the floor. Dad hit the roof, but we did manage to clean it up pretty well.

So those are my everyday photos, now I just need to scrapbook them.

Random Musings

* Isn't broadband meant to make life easier? Because our computer has been driving me crazy lately. Some days it is really slow, other days the net keeps cutting out and other days I just can't connect at all and I have had enough!
* What is the point of wisdom teeth? They are more trouble than they are worth! I saw the dentist yesterday and he said that I have one wisdom tooth with a hole in it and one that is growing awkwardly and will cause me problems, so I need to get them taken out, eeek!
* Lovin Ali Edwards' book Life Artist! I have wanted to get it ever since it was released last year, but it is so hard to find in Australia, but I finally found it on the Blue Bazaar website, so I ordered it and it arrived yesterday. I LOVE it! I haven't even had a chance to read it yet! I have only flicked through it, but I have already found HEAPS of inspiration!
* Is it summer or winter? I don't think the weather knows, because it has been so cold, wet and miserable, when all I want to do is go swimming and take the dog for walks.
* New Zealand is definitely the hot spot at the moment. I know so many people who have been there over the last couple of months. It really is a beautiful country. I went there with a group from school 6 years ago, but I would love to go again so I can check out all the places with family significance.
* Why is That 70s Show only on during the non ratings period? It os one of the funniest shows ever. I love it! But it only comes on at the end of the year, when Home & Away finishes for the year. And I think Home & Away starts again next week, which means no more That 70s show. Sob!
* I am loving 90's music at the moment. I am being quite reflective, and listening to all the music I loved when I was growing up. At the moment I am loving Fairground by Simply Red, The Boy Is Mine by Brandy & Monica, She Don't Use Jelly by Flaming Lips and Ain't No Doubt by Jimmy Nail. And I can't believe I'm admitting to this, but I am playing my Hanson album over and over! I'm especially loving Where's The Love and I Will Come To You, and of course I can't forget MmmBop!
* I am still in shock over Heath Ledger's passing. I'm not even really a fan of his, but I just can't think about anything else.
* I think I will try to invent a non staining red wine. About an hour ago Feeny and Ziggy came rumbling into the lounge room and knocked over Dad's glass of wine. Dad hit the roof. We tried to clean it up as best we can, but I'm sure there is still going to be quite a stain.
* Looking forward to the long weekend. Don't have much planned, probably will just chill, and get some scrapping done!

Happy Australia Day! Enjoy going to the beach, having a bbq, playing lots of Cold Chisel and AC/DC, or however it is that you celebrate Australia day!

New Zealand

Here are some more photos I found in Nan & Pop's suitcase of photos. These are photos that have come from Pop's family in New Zealand. Apart from the top photo they are photos of New Zealand scenery. I love them, I think they are just beautiful and I am so glad that I found them. Reading Cathy's posts about New Zealand and finding out some family history has got me even more excited about our New Zealand heritage, so I wanted to share these beautiful photos with you.



Happy Birthday Uncle Tony!!! Hope you guys enjoy your last days in New Zealand. Can't wait to hear all about it!

Family History

Over the last couple of weeks I have been going through a suitcase of photos that belonged to my Nan & Pop. It was so much fun looking at all the photos, seeing how many people I recognised. I've already made lots of plans for scrapbooking pages using these photos! This first photo is of my Nan & Pop's wedding.
This is a cute little photo of my uncles Tony, Stuart & Phillip when they were little.
I love this photo of Pop with Phillip, Stuart, Tony & Davina on Christmas day. Even though you can't see anyones faces clearly, I just think it is a great photo.
A lovely pic of my nan & pop with two friends. It doesn't say who they are on the back, usually Nan labels on the back of the photos, which I have found really good for working out the who, when & what of each photo, and it will make journalling easier!
This is the prized photo of the Lucas family! It is my mum with her brothers Phillip, Tony & Stuart and her sisters Jeneen & Davina. Mum always describes this photo as faces only a mother could love! But I really love it!

Back To Work

Yep I'm back to work tomorrow. That week went way too fast! But it was a good week. I spent my time shopping, scrapping and swimming.
My mum's friend Andrea got a new puppy Remy, so they brought him out to meet us. He is so cute & so little! Ziggy just loved him!
Dominic turned one yesterday. I can't believe he is one already! He is growing up so fast.
Here he is with his presents & his cake.
On Thursday I spent the day with Bella and Camille (and Remy and Lucca as well) At one point we were playing outside & the girls were having a little rumble. I decided to lie on the ground & slide underneath them & take a photo, and this is the result.
In between shopping, swimming, parties & hanging out with the girls, I did manage to fit some scrapping in.
Here are some of the layouts I completed:

And one last photo of Remy. He is soooo cute!

Christmas Album

I've been working on my Christmas album for the last week or so & it is finally finished. Here are some of the layouts.
I was trying to get a pic of Tasha, Jhorjie & Dominic in front of the Christmas tree, but Dominic kept pulling the Santa hat off Jhorjie's head! But that was so funny that it just needed to be put on a scrapbook page!
Me with some work friends at the Southern Pathology Christmas party.

Bella & Camille
Tiffy wasn't very happy that I put reindeer ears on her, so I named her the reluctant reindeer!
Jhorjie & I
Erin, Meagan, Royce & I on Christmas Day
The family on Christmas day.

On Holidays!!!

Yep I'm on holidays for the next week. I'm not going to do much, just hang out and relax for the week, and I'll probably do some scrapbooking, Okay, I'll probably spend 80% of the time scrapping! Hey, I do have heaps of photos from Christmas and December to scrap!
My holiday started by going to my cousin's 21st birthday. It was a dress up party, where you had to dress crazy, but all I did was put a shiny disco jacket over my normal clothes, I'm boring I know! There were some pretty outrageous outfits there! There were fairies, princesses, a viking, a guru, a construction worker and guys dressed as girls, to name a few. The above photo is of me with Erin (the birthday girl) and her friend Luke. Looking at this photo made me remember when Erin, Luke & I went to preschool together. I can't believe that was 17 years ago! We have grown so much and are so different now, but I still remember how we were in pre school! And I can't believe I finished school 4 years ago, it seriously feels like I only just finished! Time is going so fast, it's scaring me!

One Little Word

I'm a huge fan of Ali Edwards. I love checking out her scrapbooking projects & reading her column in Creating Keepsakes magazine, and I love reading her ideas, thoughts and inspirations on her blog.
One thing that really jumped out at me on her blog was the One Little Word challenge, where you pick a word to focus on throughout the year. I couldn't come up with a word last year, but this year one came to straight away, and that was the word POSITIVE, because that is my focus for this year, I want to be more focused on the positive rather than the negative. I had a really bad year last year, and a lot of it has to do with how I always dwell on the negative, so this year it is all about the POSITIVE.
Here are a few projects to get me started on focusing on my word.

The heading on this layout ( Which is hard to read in this photo) is Think Positive Be Positive. I talk about why Positive is my word for the year and what that means for the year ahead.
I have a book which is full of quotes related to positive thinking, and this is one of my favs, it's called Motto For A Positive Outlook and it highlights what to do and what not to do when trying to think positively.
This layout titled The Future Is Bright features one of my favourite bible verses Jeremiah 29:11, which says "For I know the plans I have you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
This page titled Positive Thinking features a bunch of different quotes and bible verses related to being positive.
This is a canvas with a quote that I really love, which says "Think about what you want, not what you don't want- that is Positive Thinking." I felt I really needed to put this quote on a canvas, because that is exactly what I need to do, stop focusing on all the bad things in my life and instead focus on all the good things, all the many things I am blessed with.
Now I know this says Smile, not Positive, but it is still a little reminder to me. I have put it on my bookshelf, which means it is the first thing I see when I walk into my room. So I will always see it, and it will be remind me to smile and forget about my problems, fears, stresses, etc.
Here is to a POSITIVE year.