Guess who is the blog of the week?

The DSD Newsletter is out and I am the Blog of the Week!!
I guess that means I should write something interesting for you all to read!
Sorry, I've got nothing at the moment! :)

I have a layout that I am working on with next month's DSD Mega Kit that should be finished in the next day or so. And I have plans for another layout too!
My CT call winds up tonight and then the hard work of choosing who to add to my team begins. I have received some fantastic applications and I can't believe the amazing talent out there. It truly rocks! Thankyou to everyone who has applied but unfortunately, I can't choose you all. My son was going to help me with this but it seems he has disappeared for the weekend. So it is his niece's birthday but really is that an excuse? He could have stayed home to help out his mother! (I'm really just kidding here. He adores his little niece and doesn't see her often so I don't blame him).

So yesterday, we took a drive out to Dalby to pick up The Man of the House's little sister and her girls to bring them down to stay with the in-laws for the second week of the school holidays. It's quite a drive out there. It took us just over 3 hours. I spent most of the trip with the camera in my lap taking shots out the window. I don't know how most of them will turn out but it was fun. We travelled through a variety of landscapes from rich farming country with rolling hills, to rainforest on the range and then to miles and miles of flat farming country with not a hill in site. The heat haze that is appearing on roads and landscapes already is amazing (and it's only early spring). I tried to get a photo of the road ahead with the heat haze on it but won't know how good it has turned out until I download the photos from my camera. It was nice to see a touch of green in the landscape after the storms that went through south east Queensland the other night but the rain wasn't enough to break the drought or ease the water restrictions.
It was interesting travelling through Toowoomba. The media was full of the news the other night that they had just started Level 5 water restrictions but driving through town, it was interesting to see signs everywhere proclaiming the fact.
Whilst we were driving back, I got a phone call from work to ask me to come back with more regular hours. It seems that one of the girls called in her resignation yesterday, so her shifts have been split between myself (who lost all my hours a couple of months ago) and another guy who lost the majority of his.
It will mean Miss Four going back into daycare one morning a week and she is not going to like it but the other shifts work in well and I can have her with me for a short time until her Daddy gets home from work and can pick her up from me.

Well that's about it from me. Now off to finish off that layout I started the other day..... and to get my ads out...... and to start on that kit idea I have!

Random Thoughts on my Week

Rather than try to catch up with everything since my last 'real' post (that doesn't include product announcements or CT call), I've decided to do random thoughts.

*Did you know that it is possible for a person to get the 'flu more than four times in a 4 month period?
* I am amazed at the strength of Terri Irwin.
* Always check the MYOB file you are working with to make sure it is the current one before you go to reconcile the accounts!
* Back up! Back up! Back up!!
* Having a 17 year old in the house is not really any different to having the same moody 16 year old.
* When you miss an appointment for something that was planned around your schedule (because you forgot to check the calendar), then you have to expect to be paid out on for it.
* How is it that I couldn't reserve a copy of 'Teach yourself Illustrator' at the local library because my card already held too many reservations - For books about FAIRIES????
* I don't miss workplace politics.
* I hate store change-room mirrors!
* Isn't it always the way when you buy clothes in a rush. You get home and the size that should fit you doesn't??
* I am incredibly blessed by wonderful online friends. I've only met one or two of you but I am blessed each day by the support you give me (and the gorgeous emails I receive).
* Some font makers in this world are wonderful and will even forgive you for tracking them down to their work email address to ask if you can use their fonts!
* I am beginning to doubt my designing talents after not having ONE sale at one of my stores in over 2 weeks.
* How is it that I can absolutely LOVE a kit that I have produced but it seems nobody else does?
* I enjoy wandering through old cemeteries looking for graves of family ancestors (or 'deadies' as a wonderful friend of mine calls them).
* That lovely noise I heard coming from our pond each night that I thought belonged to a frog turned out in fact to be from two cane toads! *ugh*
* Why do vets charge more than some doctors? And can you believe that GE now has line of credit for vet bills??
* Who stole my mojo??

New Products up in Stores

This is just a product post.
At DigiScrapDivas, I have released my Inner Spirit Kit.In hues of green and mauve, this is a bit grungy, a bit shabby... a bit like me! LOL



At Digitals, I have not long released two pretty different things.
First off is my 'Build-a-Card' Christmas templates and minikit. This contains everything you need to build your Christmas cards. The templates are saved in TIFF, PSD and PNG to suit all photo programs. And the great thing about these cards is that they can be used as generic greeting cards as well. You can delete the Christmas tree or snowflake and create another card altogether.



You know, I absolutely love doing wordart and believe that a wordart quote can be just the right touch for a layout.
I recently released the next in my 'Collections' Wordart Range - Hope Wordart Collection. With 12 wordart quotes to inspire you and give you a ray of hope on a cloudy day, this set is perfect for any layout.



Just click on the links to take you to them in the store.

Creative Team Call

I am looking to fill some vacant positions on my Creative Team so I've decided to bite the bullet and conduct a general call.
I'm looking for talented ladies (or gents) who would love to work with my designs (or who already love to work with my designs) and who meet the specified criteria.
I generally put out 2-3 kits/items per month so that would typically mean a commitment of around 4-6 layouts per month.
If this sounds like you, then please email me on the address in the graphic and include the words "CT Call" in the subject line.
Don't forget to include links to your galleries.

You can find my designs by following the links to the left to both the Digitals store and the DigiScrapDivas store.

Tagged

Well I just noticed I've been tagged by the gorgeous Susan (and I've got to say that she for a lady about to have her seventh baby, she looks absolutely fantastic)!.
The rules of the tag are: List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.
Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people.
Dont forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

1. I identify fonts when I'm watching tv commercials
2.I actually enjoy grocery shopping
3.I hang my sheets on the line in a way that they can be folded as I take them down
4.I have two teeth that never grew at the front, so my eye teeth look like fangs. bwahaha
5.I love to eat raw onion (soaked in a bit of vinegar is nice too. Got to thank my Granny for that one).

Now I tag ~
Karin
Sophia
Carrie
Lisa
Eugenia (that might get her to update her blog)!!

Update from me

Ever had one of those weeks that you just wish would go away? I'm having one of those now.
It started out so well. I was at the gym as soon as I had dropped Mister (omg he's 17 on Monday) to school and then I came home to do what housework I could.
Then we realised that our dog was getting sick - again.
Off to the gym on Tuesday then I took the dog to the vet afterwards. Only to find out that our dog (who is getting on a bit) requires surgery.
Funny how you can pinpoint when a headache actually starts hey? Well I took some panadol and put up with this one until about 5pm when it descended into excruciating agony. On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate the pain as an 11. Nothing I did could ease the pain. So I sat (I couldn't lie down because my head felt like it was going to explode) in my dark room sobbing from the pain. The Man of the House wanted to take me to the hospital but that would have meant going into a bright light and I couldn't cope with that. I finally remembered we had some stronger pain killers in the cabinet that were left over after DS's surgery in February. So I stumbled out and took them. Then went back to my darkened room and waited for them to work. They knocked me out (sitting up) for a bit and the pain receded enough that I could come out and continue on with life.
I woke up with my head still hurting yesterday so went to the dr. He was quite concerned and conferred with two other doctors and they decided to send me for a CT scan. Now that is an interesting experience. One of the side effects of the dye they inject is a feeling of warmth - sort of like a hot flush. Very strange.
Anyway, the CT scan found nothing - the peanut gallery can do with that information what they like! LOL
So here it is Thursday morning and my head is still pounding. I can't keep taking panadol all the time, so I'm going to try the chiropractor today in case it's my neck that's causing the headache.
I have been told that stress can cause these type of headaches. Well if that's the case, I'm certainly a candidate but honestly... I've had enough of carrying a watermelon (well that's what it feels like) on my shoulders.

I Can't Believe It

I've done three layouts in the past 24 hours. Okay, they're nothing special but I wanted to get these photos scrapped - and there are a lot of them.
So without further ado here they are. This first one is full of photos that Nada took whilst we were away. Some are blurry but I wanted to keep them because she took photos of stuff that was important to her. I've saved the ones she took of tv shows because they are going to be a whole other layout! For this layout, I've used my Summer Home Kit on this layout. The fonts are Garamond, CK Vegas Nights and Labtop. I've also used my Summer Home Kit on the companion page that I've created using photos that Brendan took. There are many more of the bird handler at Currumbin (he thought she was quite nice) but I thought one would suffice for this layout. The same can be said for the numerous photos of the beach and the view from the balcony of our unit. I've also used the Summer Home Kit for this one and the Summer Home Addons. Fonts on this layout are Batik, Mailart Rubberstamp and WM Dividers. I must confess to really loving my Summer Home Kit. I think I've done about 4 or 5 layouts with it now. I guess it means something if a designer enjoys using her own stuff - or it might not!
Okay, next layout is about 'The Emu'. I had to scrap him.

I've used my Capri Kit for this layout. Fonts are Mailart Rubberstamp and Garamond.
Wow! I've worked out that I've used close to 50 photos in these three layouts from our few days away. That only leaves about another 350 to go.

On a sad note, since I haven't been keeping up with my paper scrapping buddies as often as I'd like that I missed some heartbreaking news. Now that I've been blog cruising today, and caught up with things, I just want to take this opportunity to send my condolences to Mel Millar and her family on the loss of her precious baby Rani. "Princess" Rani, as she was known by her family touched many lives in her short and precious life but sadly at the age of One Year and One Week she lost her battle with liver problems and left the world a better place for those that knew and loved her.
For those of you who have ever considered organ donation, I urge you to go ahead and make sure that your family knows of your wishes. For every person that receives an organ donation, there are (sadly) many like Rani, who don't make it.
May Rani's family be blessed with peace and comfort at this sad time for them.

More Photos and a Layout (I Hope)

Here's the photo of The Man of the House and myself (taken by Miss Four).


And this is my all-time fave photo from our break away. It's a bit blurred but it is just so fun.


And now.... if blogger plays nice.... here is a layout using the gorgeous Karen Hunt's products. I've used her Huffy Papers, Kraft essentials, notepaper and PP's.
It's photos of Miss Four's last haircut. I have to take her again - and this time I might win the argument with the rellies about having it cut to her shoulders. Her hair is a good 4 inches longer now than it is in photos in the layout. She hates having her hair combed and brushed. (Thank goodness for Johnson & Johnson's detangler stuff. Not only smells nice - it stops screaming matches)!

Back from our Break Away

Four days is definitely not long enough to rest and relax. I felt like I was just starting to unwind and it was time to pack up the unit we were staying in to come home.
We stayed at a really nice place at Palm Beach. It was on the highway which was a bit of a bummer (because traffic noise is something we are not used to living in our little country town) but it was a hop and a skip from the beach - which was cool.
Although we only went to the beach once because the weather wasn't too terrific whilst we were away. It wasn't rainy but it wasn't beach weather iykwim?
We only did a couple of touristy things. We went to the Currumbin Sanctuary - again! We've been there a few times now but it is always a nice day out - and great for photography.
Here's one photo I took (oh, I love my zoom). He flew away a couple of seconds after I took the photo.
We took in the Bird Flight show again. That is probably the best show there. The Man of the House and I both have a thing for birds and this is just a great show. I still didn't get a good shot of the eagle in flight but there is always next time.
The kids favourite part of the park is always feeding the kangaroos. So they went down to feed the 'roos whilst we went up to the Subtropical aviary and wandered among the birds. It was awesome.
When we came back down to the kids, we stopped to wait for the train and have a snack and we were joined by this emu that thought we were there to give him our undivided attention - and our snacks. I so have to scrap all the photos I took of this.
He was quite the character this fellow. Unfortunately he turned his attention to a lady with her two young children, so the Man of the House went to their rescue with bag of feed in hand. He discovered that emu's have sharp beaks when they choose to eat out your outstretched hand!

One of the things I did this holiday, was give the children my old digital camera to take photos with. They filled the card (well Miss Four did. It's amazing what she took photos of), so I did a mass delete of a lot of photos so they could keep going. I'm really looking forward to scrapping some of the photos that were taken by them. One that isn't too bad is this one of The Man of the House and myself (note how I strategically positioned myself behind him?). I'm choosing to share this photo as it isn't too bad. Every other photo taken of me by the children needs some serious Photoshop treatment.

grrr Blogger isn't playing nice. I have a couple more photos I want to share so I'll put them in another post.

We took the children up the Q1 and they thought it was cool. They went mad with the camera as well. I took photos of them taking photos.
So, now I'm back and I have heaps of ideas for new kits and products. Now I have to find the time design!

September 1st is gonna Rock!

Well, it's already September 1st here in Australia, but in the US it is still a few hours away. But I've just gotta say, that DSD is gonna rock.



Join me in the chat room at 7pm EST (that's about 9am Queensland time) for an 'About Me' Challenge and scrap. I'll be giving away a crop kit there. Every person who posts a layout for the challenge will receive a posting bonus too. I'll also have two random draws at the crop for $5 GC's to my part of the DigiScrapDivas store!
And did I mention that for the whole of the weekend, everything in the store is 25% off!! Can't get much better than that!

See you at the crop ladies.

AND Don't forget that on September 1st, all of the challenges start off again at Digitals. This month we have several new challenges as well. The posting bonus for each challenge completed this month is a mini kit. I'm running my It's Only Words challenge again this month. Sign up in the thread and I will pm you the wordart to create a layout. Each layout must use at least 3 items from Digitals designers in it's creation. The posting bonus for this challenge is a mini kit designed by me.

Just after the chat, my family and I are heading off for a few days away down the Gold Coast. We've found a reasonably priced unit at Palm Beach and we're looking forward to just vegging out. It's been raining all week here and it looks like more rain but we're hoping for at least one - two days of sunshine so that we can take Miss Four to the beach. All she wants to do on our holiday is to go swimming at the beach and to go fishing. Daddy is buying her her own fishing rod tomorrow so she's really excited about that.
Well if I don't see you at the DSD chat, or in the Digitals challenge forums - then I'll catch you on my blog again in a few days!