SOME EXCITING NEWS!

Calling all Digital Designers
We are looking for New or Established digital designers to join our team
at a fun and exciting NEW digi scrapping site
OPENING SOON
We are looking for Full, CU, PU, S4H/O, template and QP designers

What Do You Get?
#A new fun site with a great team to
work with
#Site advertising and promotion of your
products
#Site CT
#X Cart for full store control
#Personal forum set up for you and your
team if required
#Full shop access to all products
#18% commission Exclusive
#25% commission Non Exclusive
#Choice of PayPal or direct payment to
your bank account

What We Need:
#Fun, energetic, pro active designers who are
committed and willing to be part of a dynamic
team
#Maintain products and pricing in your store
#Participate in Mega Kits/Participation Prizes when
required
#Active on site forum and gallery
#Maintain self promotion and participate in store
wide events
#Samples of your work
#Links to your shops (if any)
#Link to your blog (if you have one)
#A short bio
#Why you want to join our team

If this sounds like a place you would like to call home then we can’t wait to hear from you
Contact us at designers@digiridooscraps.com
Calls Close: 19th April 2009
We can give you lots of help and full instruction if you have never had a shop or used X Cart before, so please don’t let this put you off applying for a position with us Calling all Digital Scrappers
We are looking for talented digi scrappers to join our team
at a fun and exciting NEW digi scrapping site
OPENING SOON

What We Need:
#Fun, energetic, pro active scrappers who are committed and willing to be part of a dynamic team
#Complete a minimum of 4 layouts per month

#Active in site forum, gallery and challenges
#Post layouts in Digi_ridoo, DST, and at least 4 other galleries
#Participate in site blog updates and CT enabling
#Commit to a 6 month contract
#Link to your most complete gallery
#List of current CT’s and commitments
#Link to your blog (if you have one)
#a short bio
#Why you would like to join our team


What Do You Get?
#A fun new site with a great team to work with
##Full shop access to all products##

If this sounds like a place you would like to call home then we can’t wait
to hear from you.
Contact us at: creative@digiridooscraps.com
Calls close: 19th April 2009

You all know by now that Snap and Scrap is closing down at the end of the month which has left Bree with no shop to sell her digi kits in???

Bruce and I have talked for a long time about starting an online business, especially a digi scrapping site, as we thought this would employ Bruce from home, whilst giving us a small income in the future. Of course I HATED the idea ROFL!!!! With the demise of Snap and Scrap Bree and I got talking, and before you could blink an eye Bruce, Bree and myself seem to have landed ourselves a NEW BUSINESS VENTURE!

We have finally taken the plunge and will be opening our new online store SOON! As you can see our name had to be a take on something Australian, but we hope we will have nationwide appeal. We have some really fun and exciting things lined up for our Grand Opening and lots of idea's for ongoing challenges and fun things to do on the site. I hope those of you who digi scrap will come and join us and take part in our online community. We would love to see you there.

Bree is extremely busy at the moment getting the site set up....I'm not much help to her at the moment, but I will be learning in the near future, and so will Bruce! We all aim on becoming tech savvy as quickly as possible. We have had a lot of help from a lovely lady who knows exactly what she is doing when it comes to tech stuff.......thank-you so much Szilvia.

This last week has just flown by in a blur, we have been really busy getting things finalised, having meetings to agree on where we go next, putting idea's together and deciding who does what. As you can see above, we are putting out designer and CT calls. We have a small band of wonderful girls on board already from Snap and Scrap, but hope to be able to attract lots more designers, and to add a few more girls to make up a really great CT. I'll keep you posted!

I 've had a weeks holiday, mainly to attend my neices wedding last weekend, but have to go back to work on Monday.......Eeeeewwww!!!

My neices wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was a relaxed affair, with the bride looking stunning (of course I am a little biased), and the surroundings and scenery just breathtaking. We stayed at a very nice place while we were in the Dandenongs...just happened to be the same place the bride stayed on Friday night and the bride and groom on Saturday night. It made it very easy to take lots of pics of the girls getting ready...and we had a blast with the girls on Friday night, gourmet pizza's and wine, yum. Actually Bruce had the best time...surrounded by 3 young beauties who all loved him...he was in seventh heaven lol!!!!

Here are some of the pics I took:

The beautiful bride and her friends

My gorgeous sister and her husband with the bride and flower girl and ring bearer......the brides little neice and nephew, and 2 of my sisters grandchildren. How do you like the look on poor Baileys face? He had just gotten a glimpse of all the people looking at him, and being an extremely shy young man, his little bottom lip was quivering, and he looked terrified..poor kid!
My neice chose to have both her mother and father give her away....what a beautiful thought.
The bride and groom after the nuptials. They did a lot of this sort of thing during the photo's...LOL!!!!

A very relaxed bride and groom
A beautiful moment with a beautiful backdropThe first dance

I so love this photo, but need to get rid of that speaker between their heads!!!!
This was a group photo....about 1/4 of the people got cut off....ah well! The week before the wedding, Bruce and I went to the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo for Yum Cha. They only hold it one Sunday every month, and it was very nice to share this meal with some very good friends. We had been told that if it was authentic Yum Cha they would serve chickens feet. We didn't believe it.....but lo and behold what was one of the very first dishes after the soup??? Yes! Chicken feet!!! I have to say, I will always try anything once, and I'm so glad I did this time, because the chicken feet were actually very tasty......mostly skin and bone.....but tasty! LOL! We all had a wonderful time and have promised to go back agian some time. Here are some pics:

Zinnia enjoying some snacks before lunch

Lots of chatting took place during lunch

The guys between courses

I just had to get a photo of the shop, it intrigued me

The entrance to the walkway that leads to the Museum and the Chinese Gardens

Well, I think I've caught you up to date with what's been happening around here for the last 2 weeks. I'm now off to bed for a little shut eye....BLISS! Night night and see you again soon.

I'm BAAAAAAACK!

What a wonderful surprise to come back to this award from my beautiful friend Jane. Thank you so much Jane, I am really honoured, and right back atcha girl!!!



I am going to share this with some amazing friends (in alphabetical order):

Helen

Lenore

Vicki

Thanks for being such a great bunch of gals, and thanks for being my friends!!!

Ok, Ok, I know I have been extremely slack lately, but I do have a good excuse, honest! Well sort of anyway!
LIFE! Yep, life got in the way of blogging, phot challenges, scrapping, and just about everything else. Life can be such a pain, but it can also lead us into doing the things that are so important in our lives....spending time with and for family and friends.
Work has been extremely busy, and weekends have been taken up with friends, family, chores and just STUFF! I just don't know where the last few weeks have gone.
Bruce spent a bit of time in hospital and will be going back for some more surgery later this year. He has made such a huge amount of progress recently. It probably doesn't sound like much to most people, but for us it is a gigantic milestone. Bruce has morning personal care, which means he has a worker who comes in for 1/2 hour 4 mornings a week on the days I work. These wonderful workers help get Bruce out of bed, dressed and into his wheelchair for the day.
Bruce informed me this morning that he put them on hold a week ago and has been managing to get himself up and ready in the mornings. He is going to continue for another week and then if everything is still going well he will cancel the service completely. This is such an enormous breakthrough for someone who cannot stand at all, and who has trouble balancing properly when sitting. Of course it means less work for me on days when I don't work, so that is an added bonus. I am mighty proud!
Bree is still offline after her move, but hopes to be up and running again by mid next week. She is now 'out of work' as she gave up designing at Scrapmatters because designing for 2 shops became too much while trying to look after the girls etc, and now Snap and Scrap is closing its doors at the end of the month. Poor Bree, sometimes she just can't take a trick!
Bruce and I are heading off to Melbourne next Friday to stay in the Dandenong Ranges for a few days. We are booked into rather luxurious accommodation which will be a real treat for us. I will post pics later! We are attending our nieces wedding, my sisters daughter, on the Saturday. I am going to be taking lots of pics as I am doing her album for her. I am not the official photographer, I wouldn't even contemplate that, but I want 'scrapping' photo's, which all you scrappers out there will fully understand. I am even being allowed to go and take some candid shots of the bride before, during and after she gets ready, so it should be lots of fun.
This weekend is another busy weekend for us. Today, Friday, we have had the guys in laying the new bathroom floor. After months of walking on 3 different types of flooring in the one room, it looks amazing with the new flooring down.
I had to go for a field test at the optometrist today. I had my regular eye test for my glasses last week and the optometrist found that I have abnormal blood vessels in my eyes....they are enlarged, which most often is a sign of Glaucoma. My Field test results for my right eye were atrocious. I don't seem to have any peripheral vision in the bottom/bottom right of that eye. So now I am being referred on to the eye specialist for more tests and a better look at my eyes. At this point I'm not too worried, as enlarged blood vessels can sometimes also be genetic. I went down this road once before some years ago, but the specialist although originally concerned, decided that there wasn't any sign of Glaucoma, but also didn't know what WAS wrong with my eyes IF anything. So off we go on the roundabout of appointments again, as my tests seem to be quite worrisome to the optometrist again.
Tomorrow night we are going to friends for dinner, then Sunday we are going for Yum Cha with other friends at the Chinese Dragon Museum.
I will post pics later. I think I have brought you all up to date. I'll be back soon.

Bruce and I went to the 'Puddler' Restaurant last night for dinner. It was my birthday, so we decided to go all out and have one of the more expensive items on the menu, which was an ocean platter. It was the most delicious meal we have had out in a long time......a platter for 2 which consisted of a fresh whole lobster, crab, Moreton Bay bugs, oysters and king prawns. There was a seperate bowl on the platter which held a cream, wine and garlic sauce with mussels, scallops and calamari strips in it. This all came on a bed of salad with home made tartare sauce, limes and lemons. Fizzy finger bowls, excellent service, and the best palate cleanser I've tasted in a long time....fresh passionfruit, pulped mango, and champagne in a shot glass, just added the final touch. I could become quite addicted to the palate cleansers...YUM!!!
We were totally decadent with a home made liqueur chocolate pudding with melted chocolate sauce and ice cream for dessert, followed by very good coffee.
The waiter and waitress must have thought I was a total idiot because I took so many photo's while we were there. My excuse was that the photo challenge this week is titled 'dinner time', so I was snapping away trying all sorts of different shots. LOL!!!!
Here are some of those pics.....
Bruce having a wonderful time.

Sorry, I ate it before taking pics........
ooops, and again......
All I can say is it was too good to spend time taking pics when the plates, bowls and cups were full......

Today was a terribly hot day - 46C . There has been a lot of dust in the sky today, so much in fact that at around 3.30 today it looked like a grey overcast day. We have had quite a few grass fires around our area, and at 6pm tonight the big water helicopter flew very low over our house and filled up at the lake. I didn't have time to go and grab my camera, it all happened so quickly. Boy those guys are BIG.

Here are some pics of the sky full of dust........

At about 6.30 tonight the wind turned and brought with it lots of smoke from the fires. The smell was quite overpowering and made our eyes sting. It was so bad at one stage that while I was cooking dinner I got these photo's from our back door. You have to remember that even though this is 6.30pm, it is summer here and we have daylight saving, which means it doesn't get dark until around 9 to 9.30pm. The red ball is the sun poking through very thick smoke. The photo's are a bit darker than it actually was, but if I try to lighten them they lose clarity. This is how they came off the camera on a normal scenic setting.

This lasted for less than an hour, then we got the dusty, light, sky back again thankfully. It is now after 11 pm, and the air is still slightly smokey, but nothing like earlier today.

I just keep thinking about all of those poor, poor people who are experiencing devastating bush fires at the moment. Just horrendous! Our thoughts are with them, and those very brave souls who fight these awful fires......most on a voluntary basis. They really do the most amazing job.

We are hoping there may be a cool change tomorrow, but at this stage they are saying it will still be around 30C, but with cooler weather Monday and Tuesday....we sure do hope!!!!!

ADSR Challenge #9

This week’s challenge is: Generations.
Your scrapbook page completed for this challenge must include:
Photos of at least two generations of family members (the more generations, the better). KB and Friends specializes in vintage and retro-style digital scrapbooking kits, so we encourage you to dig out those old family photos and scan them, if you have any.
Lace.
Something metal, preferably, old metal.
At least one flower.
At least one vintage or retro-style element. It can be ephemera, an old book, an old clock, and so on.
Credits

Photo Challenge #5 Dinner Time

Bruce and I went out for dinner tonight, so this was the perfect opportunity to get some pics for this challenge.

Photo Challenge #4 - The Elements

I chose earth as my element. Because we are going throught the worst heatwave in over 100 years, and are still in the grip of a drought, that in the country regions, has been going on for a few years now, I thought I would portray the heat and drought in a picture of a dried up creek bed.

Its Been Over a Week!

My goodness, I couldn't believe it had been over a week since I last updated my blog........more than just a pic for the photo challenge. anyway!

On Sunday 25th January we finally got
to meet 2 of the wonderful girls from Bree's CT. We met as planned in the Botanical Gardens in Bendigo, with Pene and Sharon driving up from Melbourne on a very hot day. It was very nice under the shade of the trees in the park, so much so that we didn't realise quite how hot it was until we went to get some ice creams, and spent some time in the hot sun with no shade. We had an amazing day.

The girls were every bit as nice in real life as they've always seemed on-line, the kids all got along well, and we whiled away the afternoon with talking, cold drinks, picnic food........and LOTS of photo's. The kids had a huge playground to play in and lots of room to run around in the gardens, so most of the time they were happy to go off and do their own thing. I was really sorry when Pene had to leave, her children are gorgeous and she is a delight to be around.
We spent an extra couple of hours with Sharon and Toby, but finally had to pack up and leave, as we were taking Bree out for her birthday dinner. It was sad to see Sharon go. We had such a great day. I really hope we get to catch up again some time real soon.

Here are some more pics of our day.

We took Bree out to one of her favourite restaurants for her birthday dinner in the evening. We were able to get one of Bree's favourite meals, which is crayfish meal. 1/2 a cray, a couple of fresh oysters, prawns, king prawns done in filo pastry, salt and pepper calamari, salad and chips. YUM! Mick tried the duck in plum sauce, which was nice but very small. The girls had fettucine and another noodle dish....the girls LOVE noodles. We had a lovely night, but eventually had to get on home.

Monday 26th January is 'Australia Day' and therefore a public holiday. We went to a barby at Micks place in the afternoon.....another extremely hot day. Bree and the girls came, and Mick put on a fabulous meal for us all. I tried to get pics, but the girls were all tired and a bit grumpy, and it was so hot it left me feeling rather lethargic and unmotivated to keep chasing around trying to get that perfect shot.

In the end I only managed to get a couple of blurry shots of Ashlee who every time I pointed the camera her way pulled her T-shirt over her head....as in the pic posted, or poked her tongue out....charming!

I did get a shot of Mick cooking the barby and the dog was very accomodating, but that was mainly because she was so hot she didn't want to move lol!!!! I used one of the dog pics for my photo challenge photo last week.

These are my lo's for the ADSR - Challenge #7

For the challenge instructions for both of these challenges you can go to our ADSR site ozziegirlz

Credits

And Challenge #8 - the lo I scraplifted by Mru can be found at ozziegirlz. Go and check out Mru's gallery , she is a very talented digi scrapper.

Credits
And finally, last weekend, Bruce and I went out for a drive on Saturday afternoon. We went out to a beautiful spot that Bree and Sabby take the girls quite often. There are lots of rock pools, big trees.......and the afternoon we went there were LOTS of teenagers and family's there. My aim had been to get some photo's of the water flowing over the rocks, but there were so many people there that it was difficult to find a bit of water that didn't have a body in it lol!!! Hmmm, wonder if that is where the saying a 'body of water' came from??????

Anyway, here are some of the pics I did manage to get -

This tree caught my eye
firstly because of this huge hole in the trunk,
and secondly, because of the amazing texture of the trunk of the tree, which wasvery knobbly and rough, almost like
thorns. It was really something quite unique.
Well, thanks for staying with me to the end. Sorry it was such a long post this time, I will try to be more regular with my posts in future.