Looking Back on 2008

I know that it is New Years Eve tomorrow however I will be going away so I thought I would post here tonight.

This year has certainly been full on. I have learnt so much and made so many new friends.
Some of these friends I would like to thank - they are in no particular order:

• Ruth - for sticking by me even though you are half a world away.
• Donia - You may not know it but the emails that I have sent you have also helped me in so many ways.
• Betty - For your ongoing love and friendship even though I am terrible at keeping in touch
• Vivian - for teaching me so much and opening me up to new crafty options (and therefore lowering my bank balance). :)
• The Journal Junkies - for being a top group of ladies who are all very skilled. May 2009 bring more exciting new skills and creations.
• Carmen - for agreeing to be my diet buddy next year
• Sulea and the guys on L 3 for welcoming me with open arms
• The girls at Scraptivate - for creating a store that is like a art gallery where I can go and just breath (and spend) on my lunch break.
• Kelsey - for being friendly and willing to give out information on techniques when I can't make a class and for teaching me how to do ATCs.
• Jackie and Tim - for being great friends
• Mandy WA - for keeping in touch
• Mandy Tassie - for finding me so that we can be friends again
• Nicole - also for finding me.
• Blogger world in general as it has opened me up to knew friends and ideas.

Now I know that not everyone mentioned is going to read my blog and find the thankyous as they are way too busy however it is here in print for the world to see and know how special these people are to me.

On a side note, today I had my cousins daughter here for some craft time this afternoon. We made a lovely album from the Christmas photo's. I would love to show you photos of the finished product but for some reason blogger has decided to post them sideways (I think blogger is on strike at the moment). Anyway we had lots of fun and despite the major tidy up of the studio yesterday it is now a big mess again. It will be tidied when I get back from my trip to sunny humid hot Queensland.

Have a great new year everyone and see you in 2009.

Santa won't go home

Well it appears that Santa has no control over the 6 white boomers (kangaroos) in my title and they have decided to stay indefinitely. I know how to add and remove an image from the title but for some reason this one insists on staying. Any suggestions on how to give Santa the boot will be greatly appreciated as the Easter Bunny will be here soon! :)

For some reason I have not been notified of every ones comments and therefore some are missing. I have had a quick look in blogger issues and apparently this is a known error and was fixed on Dec 6.

Christmas Part 2

Instead of loading a whole heap of photo's I decided to put them in a slide show (Below post). We had 8 kids and 8 adults for christmas all up. Of those kids 6 were boys and talk about rowdy (sweet revenge on the noisy neighbours). Ashtyn is the daughter of the cousins that have moved to Melbourne (came over for Christmas). She is a gorgeous thing and I wish I could see her more often. She is in love with my craft studio so she and Kiara came to me halfway through the day and asked if they could do some crafts. I obliged even though everything from inside the house had been thrown in the studio and I had no idea where anything was. We managed to find something and by this stage Kiara's hyperactive little brother wanted to join in. Luckily I had three chipboard stars. They chose their paper (the expensive stuff with the embossed glitter on it) and we sat on the floor for the next hour or so cutting and taping and chalking edges then putting stickers on. When it came to tying on the charms we had to cut grooves so that they didn't fall off. I handed each kid a stanley knife and instructed them to find one of the men and tell them to do some work! In the middle of all this Tayne decided he wanted to do something so luckily I had a little chipboard christmas tree. He grabbed some paint and glitter and went outside with mum to paint it. They all did a good job.

You will also notice in the photo's the state of the floor when we started to open the pressies and the state of the floor towards the end. I am surprised that the kids could even find their things. There is also a photo taken outside of the 5 women in the family. I am the fat one standing at the back but Carmen and I are going to be diet buddies when I get back from another cousins wedding in Qld.

Well the family arrived at 12pm and left 9 hours later. The dogs were locked in my room for the better part of the day because the youngest boy is dead scared of them. Eventually we let them out (poor things).

So that is another christmas done and dusted. It just seems to come around so fast. Enjoy the photo's.

Christmas Day

Holidays

You can tell I am on holidays. I seem to be doing about two posts a day. I am not sure why but I think my Christmas Spirit missed the post this year. Even putting up the tree and listening to carols hasn't made much of a difference. This is not me. I love Christmas. Maybe it is because my cousins kids are all growing up to fast and the fun of hiding presents and planning little things for the day has gone.

Yesterday I had Carmen from my JJ group come down for a visit. It was nice to have her here and show her around. We are both around the same weight so after Christmas I am joining her in a diet. We are going to be diet buddies. Yeah I know you have heard this all before but I am really hating myself and I am sick of hiding away from society. I can't say I will be successful but I will give it a good try. Carmen has already started hers but I have a big family Christmas and a wedding in my near future. Starting a diet is immediate diet suicide. I don't gorge myself which is a good thing and I think God has blessed me with a cavity which means no overly sweet stuff either.

Mum and I will be up way past midnight tonight as some friends of hers have invited us back to their place once they get back from mass. That means around 1am. Luckily our family Christmas is on boxing day this year which means I can sleep all day tomorrow (that of course depends on the noisiest neighbours in the world who live next door - the second noisiest are on the other side). Ruth has asked that I take photos of my Christmas decorations. I think it is because her daughter is very mobile now and loves shiny things, hence not many decorations up.

Back on the subject of Christmas I have posted pictures of one last gift I made. This is for my cousin who is a chef. I doubt he is interested enough to read this blog but just in case I have waited till now to put his gift on. He flew in today with his family and most likely will not get onto the Internet in the next 48 hours.

The ingredients for this masterpiece were:

• 2 flat canvas boards - one as the main and a small square one in the centre to raise up
• Modelling paste that I textured with a palette knife and Making memories sponge stamps
• The cutlery and the coat hanger I got from scraptivate (where else)
• The ivy leaves and the black border at the top are from the German Scrap Collection. I used luminart paint on the ivy leaves to make them shine.
• Last but not least Tim Holtz alcohol inks. I just love how they look on the modelling paste.