I've moved my blog!

I have me a new place for my blog. I've moved all the posts, and it looks much the same, cos I'm a simple kinda gal. It isn't all prettified yet (I'm learning all this as I go along LOL), but I'm working on it.

Please change your bookmarks -

Deb's Mutterings < --- click for the new blog

not missing

. . . not hurt, not sick, not affected by the cyclone, not on holidays. Just slack at keeping up with this when I get busy. And yet, there isn't really much to tell.

While the rest of Victoria is still on school holidays, we only took one week, and went back to school work this week - score one for the flexibility of homeschooling LOL. Due to the Commonwealth Games our [insert very bad word] state government changed the school year to fit in with the Games. So first term was just six weeks long. Then two weeks holiday. And no Easter break. The other terms will be twelve or thirteen weeks each. I can only imagine how browned off everyone is going to be by June. So we will have another week at Easter, which will help us get through the long term better, and give us time to do some visiting.

So just school, and errands, and fitting in a few afternoons with friends who are still on school holiday. I am working on setting up a new blog, so I won't be so concerned about where my photos are stored if I am more in control, after the changes to the photobucket in the past few weeks.

Last night was scrapbooking in town, I almost got a page scrapped. There were eight of us, so lots of fun and chatting, and a little bit of scrapping. It's about the only time I manage to catch up on the local news (no, of course not, not gossip).

Laura is staying over tonight, she brought her little guinea pig to visit too, so the girls had a lot of fun playing with them in the playroom this afternoon. Yes, that is pinny-gigs in the dolls house. Pinny-gigs is one of the little kid words that got introduced to our familiy some time in the past few years.

Tomorrow we are heading to Dad's to catch up with family, and some birthdays. My sister and brother-in-law and neice all have birthdays this week - convenient, eh?

That's my ho-hum week. But thanks to the people who checked up on me. It's nice to be missed. Smooches and warm fuzzies all round.

May the checkout lines at the supermarket all be short, may the phone never ring at dinner time, may your favourite movie be available for rent at the video store, may there be enough icecream in the bottom of the tub to go around, and may your weekend be restful and sunshiney.

full day

I didn't get through my to-do list. I'll have to tackle the stuff for Jude tomorrow.

I got the Sunday School kids to do a mural to go on the wall (on paper, we didn't paint on the walls LOL). I'll have to take my camera next week and get a photo, it looked great. And the only people who got paint on themselves were me and Kate - red paint, no less. But some sard wonder spray and a soft nail brush got it out.

I managed to scrap a couple of layouts for Ash's cd launch, this is my favourite. Josiah has the funnest laugh, he has always made us all laugh with his laughter, even as a baby. And I'm trying to get back to being comfortable with a simple page style (I just feel a bit of pressure to use all the bits and bobs for my DT commitments).



papers and elements from Ashley Olson's Fruits of the Spirit cd, joy kit.

And feeling very inspired by Gail Meaks' oh-so-stunning-and-sylish minimalist layouts - check out her amazing gallery at 2Peas. And I even managed to scrap with my Laura's Pocket kit (it's on my freebies blog, click on the button in the top of the sidebar on the left).



Heading for bed, and it's only 10pm. Beyond tired today, dunno why.

I scrapped

cue choirs of angels singing hallelujah!! OK, it's a very simple page, but this kit on Ash's upcoming cd is just so pretty, it didn't need much! Love this photo of Kate from our Christmas photo-shoot-for-Grandpa's-present (2 days before Christmas 2004, no less. nothing like leaving it till the last minute).



Peace kit from Ashley Olson's cd, to be released this weekend; stitching by me

Lots to do tomorrow. I'm supposed to organise some activities for the kids in the morning (no Sunday School during school holidays), and there is a meeting after (I have to scribble the minutes). I have some blinkies and banners to make for Jude, and an invoice to create (the good part LOL). Ray needs me to help move the cattle around. And I need to be at Ash's CD release crop, which is 2pm for me.

oh yeah, you so don't want to miss Ash's cd launch! check her blog for a sampler of papers that she made to show what's on the cd, it's sweeeeeet.

I've been had

Ray went to the local cattle sale yesterday, and came home with two little black heifers. (Well, actually, they came about 11 pm last night, but you know what I mean). Prices are still pretty high, but he saw heifers listed in the newspaper ad for this sale, and wanted to check them out. They are pretty small, and a bit out of condition, but they will do nicely, and should be ready to join this time next year. Nice looking cows, with calves at foot (and Ray said they were big calves), and preg-tested to calve late autumn went for $1400 each!

So, 9.30 this morning, he says, come down and see the new cattle, and take a photo for me. OK. Two hours later I get back to the house. hhhhm. While I was there, we might as well tag them and drench them. They were a bit flighty, and one escaped (she burst right through the head-bail - we really need to do something about the yards, eh?). So we had to go round up the herd, bring them all down (she joined up with the herd, fortunately it was in the next paddock), sort them in the yard. Run a few other little fellas into the race with the two new heifers, and we get them tagged and drenched.

Almost ready to let the other cattle out again, and I noticed the last little calf that was born - it hasn't been tagged yet. While we have them yarded, we might as well . . . So, back to the house to get the eartag, grab it and tag it (while mamma cow went slightly balistic in the background). Then we can let them out again and run them back to the paddock.

Yeah, conned big time. Just come and take a photo - right!

The boys are staying over at Michael's tonight, so I'm making pizzas for dinner for the rest of us (the other kids like a treat to make up for not getting a sleepover LOL). Ray will probably be watching the Commonwealth Games again on TV tonight, so I should get some scrapping done.

I need to get some scrapping done, as I'm really falling down on my CT duties. But I haven't been able to scrap at all this week! Yikes! You can see what I spent way too much time on yesterday, changing up my blog! LOL And I had almost finished messing about with it, and blogger went buggy, so mild panic-attack while I thought I might have lost the whole blog. (ps - if anyone knows a quick and easy method to backup the blog entries, I'd love to hear it. I plan to use some of this for ready-made journalling!) But I have an idea for using Gina's latest sketch with Sandra's latest kit, so stay tuned for some scrapbook layouts!

blah days

Today was a Jonah day. I'm going through another bad-sleeping patch, and last night was a horror. I got to bed about 11pm, a bit ticked off after watching a short bit of the Commonwealth Games (my Mum always taught me, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all). Tossed and turned till after 1am, then awake a couple of times when Ray was unsettled (he got a ticklish cough at bedtime). Finally slumbering after 3am, and rudely awoken before daybreak by three boys playing gameboy in the loungeroom (ie. barely 5.30am).

So one cranky Mum this morning. You know that slightly queasy, headachy yuck feeling when you haven't slept enough - well I had it times 7 this morning. The kids divided the day between computer games, gameboy, and tearing up and down the driveway on their bikes. It turned cold, and even rained a bit, so they settled in to watch the Incredibles with Michael before we took him home this afternoon.

At least I'm not alone in my opinion on the Opening Ceremony - msn was polling opinion on it, and it seems that opinion was pretty evenly divided (slightly more actually thinking that it was a stinker, last time I looked almost 30,000 votes for the "it sucked" view). I found some of it quite cringeworthy (eg the flying tram, and the mangy possums and koalas, particularly the ones flying around on the giant thong of the footware variety). And without Ray Martin's commentary, it would have been totally incomprehensible. We had taped it for Kate to watch, but she fast-forwarded through most of it, it was just boring. Her comment was, "It looks like they're just trying to do better than the last Olympic Opening Ceremony". Yup, one big ole (very expensive) pissing contest. End of rant (for now).

I went shopping and I bought

. . . a ceramic water filter unit. (giggle) Not super exciting, but nice. I was just so sick of the 2 litre jug never getting filled up, or put in the fridge, and if I have to have another something sitting on the bench, it might as well be good-looking and functional (which an empty plastic water jug is not.) Now to see if my plot to get the kids to drink more water will work. Noah is just the worst about drinking cordial, he drinks gallons of it. But maybe the novelty of the water cooler with the dinky little tap will get them all into the habit of drinking just water. I kinda think it tastes a bit odd, but while we are still on town water, at least it is filtering out some of the chlorine and other chemicals they add to it.

So apart from shopping in the morning yesterday, we totally did nothing at all. The kids just played around the place, they've got their bikes out again and have been tearing up and down the driveway like mad things. I spent most of the afternoon finishing off a little kit I've had on the board for the longest time - I had a really hard time coming up with papers for this one, so it is just a mini-kit (so I didn't have to make too many elements neither LOL). I posted it last night on my freebie blog (link on the sidebar) and posted a message on the 2peas board (shameless self-promotion, I know), and was completely stunned to get over 20 replies to the 2Peas thread (I set it to get email notification on the thread), and almost 50 comments on the blog post! They like me, they really like me! (giggle) I always feel very diffident about offering up my creatings, always always always uncertain if it is good enough, so I am starting to think that maybe I am doing ok at this.

Another school holiday day, and we have arranged for Michael to some stay over tonight, so a bit of housework and we'll go pick him up after lunch. Oh, and the Commonwealth Games start tonight (totally underwhelmed about the whole thing, don't get me started on the appalling waste of money it is, and the religion of sport in Australia).

nothing much kinda weekend

I'm just so tired, I can't get at anything. Did a heap of washing over the weekend, but crashed Sunday afternoon - it was too hot and horrible to feel like doing anything anyway. Hopefully that will be the last of the stinking north wind, total fire ban days for this summer. At about 10 o'clock last night I got the urge to scrap, and lifted the layout on the cover of Designing with Paper (a layout by Leslie Lightfoot). In between sending silly emails to Trish and Gemma, I actually was quite pleased with this one.



credits: Trish Jones Scrap Circuit Papers (Pivot), alpha from TJD Natural Vision 01, stitching from TJ Little Stitches, quote from Nancie at Scrapartist, my date stamp

So today, Haymsie is here with his tractor to help Ray get the pipes in the drain for the crossing. He brought his mate Dave too, who has now come back with his truck, and they are moving earth onto the pipes. We have amazing neighbours.



update: this is such a great feeling! I can't believe it's done - Ray would never have got this finished without the big machinery. It feels so good to have this project so well on the way to being complete.