NSD Day/Week

Have you seen my blinkie off to the left of this blog entry?
Digitals is not just having a National Scrapbooking Day - we've decided the party should last all week. And there is so much planned.
Every day for the week, there are two crops. At each crop there are games and competitions and the winners receive kits!!! (That's always a good thing).
For every chat/crop you attend, you will receive a balloon. When you have a bunch of balloons, you can redeem that for a Celebration Mega Kit put together by the Digitals Designers.
How good is this week going to be? So keep your eyes on the Digitals Forums or sign up for the Digitals Newsletter to find out all the latest news.


Well, I've got a little freebie for you just for reading my blog. It's not a part of a kit and I've created it just for this purpose.
You can download this for a very limited time only here


**Please do not share this file or link with anyone else. If you really think that someone you know would like this background, then send them the link to my blog so that they can download it themself. Passing files on is Digital Piracy.**

Simple Scrapbooks 5

By now those of you in the US should have Simple Scrapbooks Digital 5 on the shelves. )Those of us in Australia can either start searching for it or ask someone we know stateside to track it down for us).
Anyway, the point of this little bit is to let you know about the article they have done on Charity Kits.
As some of you are aware, Digitals raises money for various charities through sale of kits. The kit that is featured in this issue of Simple Scrapbooks is A Child's Love.
If you check out the blurb on the SS Website you will see a layout of a very handsome young man in the top right corner. He of course takes after his mother! ;)

I am really proud to be associated with Digitals and their charity work. Stacey has written a bit about our charity work here.
I'm really excited about the upcoming kit we are working on as it will benefit S.A.N.D.S. which has been a great support to me.

Speaking of SANDS - I got my newsletter today and there was my story. It covered 4 pages and wasn't edited at all. I truly hope that it helps someone somewhere.

Just had to share

Last night, my children were playing with dominoes at the kitchen table. They were setting them all up in rows to be knocked down.
I'm not sure exactly how it all came about but my son said to Miss Four "Don't make the same mistake twice".
Quick as a wink, Miss Four comes back with "I won't. I'll make them one at a time."
I laughed so hard, I had tears running down my cheeks.
I have no idea where she gets these from.

Then today, we were all lying on top of our bed and discussing going out for a drive and the point of discussion was where we should go. Daddy had his eyes closed and told Miss Four to be quiet because he was trying to think. Miss Four was insisting that Mummy sing songs with her (but Mummy didn't want to). So Daddy said, "If you don't be quiet, I won't be able to think of where we are going to go". Miss Four's reply.... "But you don't need Mummy to help you think".

Anzac Layout

Meet George Rose.
Up until a couple of years ago, I had only heard family mentions of George when my inlaws all got together. The only information that any of them had was that George was killed at Gallipoli.
Then a couple of years at my father-in-law's 70th birthday, one of his sisters bought along a tin of extremely old photos and this photo was amongst them. It seems that these photos were in the possession of an uncle of theirs and when he died, his widow just threw out everything that he owned. One day whilst this lady was visiting, there were children playing under the house and they came out with a lot of photos. The widow was going to just throw them away but they were rescued by my father-in-law's sister and bought along to show everyone. I begged her to entrust the photos to me for a week to give me the opportunity to scan them. Thankfully she did.
So I started to research what I could about George and the information that I found is in the journalling. What I haven't journalled about is the fact that his father was so grief stricken at his death, that he crafted a Roll of Honour and placed it inside the local School of Arts (community hall) that he had also built. But that is for another layout at another time.
Credit for layout: The kit is a freebie from the Newbie Crop at Digitals some time ago and is by the amazingly talented Glenda Ketcham. The brads are by me from my (soon to be released) Meyar Kit. Fonts are: Porcelain and Century Schoolbook.

ANZAC Day Freebie

Since it is only a week until ANZAC Day here in Australia, I am offering you a freebie quickpage to scrap your ANZAC Day Parade photos. (Please excuse the typos in the sample page I've got here - they're all fixed up now! LOL).
The page has the ANZAC Requiem by CEW Bean on the side with space on the RH side for your photos.
You can pick up this freebie

here

Edited to add: Since I have had numerous requests for an explanation of ANZAC Day... it is as follows. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. Anzac Day is held April 25th each year in commemoration of the landing of the Anzac forces during the Gallipoli Campaign in the First World War. Over the years, the day has become a day to remember all the service men and women who have served in defence of our countries.

Please don't share this link or this file with anyone else as that amounts to piracy. If someone would like to download this quickpage, send them to my blog page to do so.

Easter Break

Since my other half managed to get the whole of Easter off this year, we decided to pack up the children (and a mate of my son's) and head off to my SIL's block for an overnight campout. It was just what the doctor ordered.
We had a lovely evening meal cooked on the campfire by my SIL and surrounded by good company (another of my SIL's and her family and my in-laws were there for dinner as well). After they left, my little family just sat around and chatted, whilst the boys tended the fire and little Miss Four did 'rock painting'. *Rock painting is something my SIL has created a little area for at the base of one of her huge gum trees. Visiting nieces and friend's children can crush up some rocks, mix it with a little water and then paint pieces of bark or other rocks.*
We were entertained by the antics of a visiting possum who really enjoyed the marshmallows, apples and crackers we fed it - although the poor thing probably has a stomach ache today.
And we all trooped off to bed when the fire finally died down around 2am this morning.

Today, we had a late breakfast and instead of going bushwalking as we had originally planned, we went to Barney Creek (at the base of Mt Barney) and paddled in the water.
I don't really like this photo that was taken of myself but at least the angle doesn't show my big belly too badly. LOL But I do love the photo of my little girl that I've also included. I have no idea how I achieved the 'halo' around her but it looks really cool.

When does a children's book cross the line?

I am a prolific reader and we started reading to Miss Four when she could focus her eyes. We go to the library every week and last year we applied for her very own library card. She has almost 350 registered borrowings on her card already. (And we used mine for her borrowings for the first two years or so).
Each night we read two books from the library and then a chapter or two from another larger and more involved book. Then her Daddy comes in and reads her a couple more books from her own little home library (that I can't help adding to whenever I get the chance).
So I would have to say that I've become a pretty good judge of children's books over the past few years. The majority of books that we borrow fall into three categories - fun and silly, educational or those with an underlying moral message. But the other night we read a book and I have to really question just what the author (who also illustrated the book as well) was thinking?
I flick through all the books before borrowing for suitability - but obviously by flicking you don't see everything (as I discovered at Thursday bedtime). The book is called "Pinkerton, Behave" and is about a dog that does the wrong thing on commands and fails obedience school. I thought this was going to be a fun book - and it was for the first three quarters of it. Until the night a burglar broke into the home.... and the illustration shows a little girl in bed with a blanket up around her chin. She is shaking and a masked burglar is holding a gun to her head. The text is something along the lines of doing what they are told or being shot.
My mouth fell open (lucky I can read ahead slightly in my head as I'm reading out loud. I skipped the page, and then brushed over the following pages.... until "They all lived happily ever after".
But what really made me angry is that my daughter had nightmares that night about the 'Hamburglar' that caused her great stress and resulted in her sleeping with us. (Two days later she is still talking about it). That usually puts me in a bad mood anyway because then I can't get comfortable. Then I don't sleep properly and usually wake up with a bad back.
So I'm hopping mad. What possesses a children's author to include something like this in a fun book for children? Is it a perverted attempt to rob them of some of their childhood innocence? And how on earth did he get it published? I think there is enough bad stuff in the world without exposing children to these things in their bedtime stories.
And so that is my rant for today! LOL

I Finally Found the Courage

Not too many people know that I lost a baby @ 16 weeks gestation back in October 2004. When I started to fall apart really badly a couple of weeks later and realised that I needed help, I contacted SANDS (Still Birth and Neonatal Death Support Group). They also incorporate Miscarriage support. The woman on the other end of the telephone was simply amazing. I can't believe she actually understood what I said through all the blubbering I was doing but she did, and she really helped. I subscribed to their newsletters and started going to their coffee meetings. After a while I stopped going. But life kept throwing me curveballs. Anyway, my newsletter subscription lapsed and I haven't had the spare $$$ to renew it but someone has been sending me the newsletters anyway. When I noticed that next month they are planning on featuring miscarriage support, I decided to send them my story. I started writing it just after I lost our angel in 2004 and I've been meaning to send it to them for quite some time but the timing just didn't seem right iykwim? I think it was just that my story wasn't finished. Now that I've experienced 3 more miscarriages - and all of them different, I finished the story of my journey and I've sent it to SANDS (along with a layout that I did on the anniversary last year of the loss of my baby). I hope that if they decide to publish my story (they have to get through 5 pages of it and it will quite possibly have to be edited), then I can help someone who is going through/has gone through similar situations to mine.
I also noticed that they were asking for people to host coffee mornings in their areas (all training provided) and since there is none in my town, I have offered to host one for them.
I have been searching for meaning to all that has happened to me in the past and maybe this is my chance to find some meaning in it all and help others along the way. I certainly hope so.

Edited to add: I've just heard back from SANDS and they want to publish my story as they feel it will help a lot of people. They also want me to start a coffee morning as of next month. Now I'm worrying about whether or not I can do this and doubting my wisdom in volunteering. Then the other thing is that I will have to clean my house. LOL

It's Sale Time on my Designs

It's been quite a while since I last had a sale and since everybody else seems to be doing it, I thought I'd jump on the sale bandwagon too.
No - not really. But it makes good sense to have a sale from time to time.
It gives those who haven't used my kits before the chance to do so without hurting the hip pocket too much.

It also gives those of you who enjoy my kits (and you know who you are), the chance to SHOP, SHOP, SHOP. And lets face it - who of us doesn't like to shop? And then you can tell your husband just how much money you saved (well it works for me anyway ;) ).
The sale is running through from today until the end of the month.

Meet my Creative Team

I wish I could find to create layouts all the time but time is something that seems to slip through my fingers these days.
So to that end, I have a Creative Team. These ladies are all so different and have such wonderful scrapping styles.
So let me introduce you to them all.
Sharon
Sharon is the only member of my team that I have actually met. We met when she came to Queensland on holidays with her gorgeous family and we chatted whilst our children played together under the supervision of her wonderful husband. Sharon works full time so when she gets the chance to scrap she just enjoys every minute of it. You can see her layouts in the Digitals gallery under the user name sharonc .
Dorothy
I've never met Dorothy but I sure wish she lived close enough for me to visit with. Dorothy resides in the US and that is just a little far for this Aussie to travel. She strikes me as a bubbly person with a healthy zest for life even though life has been throwing her some curve balls over the past couple of years. I've loved seeing her scrapping style evolve and she creates the most incredible layouts with my kits. I love how she thinks 'outside the square' to create her own embellishments out of the kit elements. You can see Dorothy's layouts in the Digitals gallery under the user name dodo .
Karin
Karin lives in Melbourne, Australia but I have never met her. I love Karin's scrapping style. She loves to experiment with different effects and she is quite a talented designer herself. I'm so pleased to have Karin on my team as her style is so different to how I personally scrap. Since I love to read Karin's blog, I've included it in my blog links if you want to check it out. You can see Karin's layouts in the Digitals gallery under the user name kazadoodle .
Amy
Amy lives in Canada (I believe) and has been scrapping for quite some time. I discovered Amy's layouts in the gallery and was amazed at her journalling and how she uses scrapping as a way to deal with issues in life. Amy is another one who likes to experiment with different effects and this shows through in her scrapping. She also scraps in 8x11, so it's great to see how she adapts my kits to this size. You can see Amy's layouts in the Digitals gallery under the user name amysimages .

Welcome to my World

I'm probably not a very exciting person but I love a good chat.
I used to have a blog at Digitals but due some lowlife individuals who took great pleasure in spamming the blogs, it forced them to shut down. So although I'm not a frequent poster, I have been having 'blog withdrawals'.
Is there such a thing? I suppose there could be.

So a bit about me.
I am a partner to a wonderful man. A mother to 3 gorgeous children - with large age gaps between them. I am a SAHM (stay at home mum) and my days (when I don't have my youngest home) are filled with designing and scrapping - with a little bit of housework thrown in to keep the man of the house happy.
I sell my designs through Digitals which is full of wonderful designers and run by wonderful people.
So this is just a basic first post to jumpstart this new venture.