Introducing.....

Mila! My gorgeous little new neice. My brother and partner look so happy - and why not? How wonderful!

Dad is going over next week to visit - oh how I wish I could be going to.... but such a long way to Hanoi and unfortunately not within our budget.

I have told Pete that he has to send loads of photos, I have already started an album for her!! Acutally, it is going over as part of her pressie pile from one very proud Auntie Mandy!!

Welcome to the world Mila. It is now a much nicer place now you're in it! Though you are very far away, you will never be far from our thoughts. Happy days and adventures await - enjoy!

Cybercrop Madness!!

Why did we do it??? Sign up for two cybercrops on the same weekend ~ utter madness!!
Lisa & I need our heads read!!
Anyway, managed to get all bar one challenge completed - here they are. I even went away one night and took stuff with me - what's that psych's number again!!!



This double layout was an on-line class with Angel Creations through the Scrappers Hub.

Surprise, Surprise!!!

Happy Birthday Lisa!!!! What a shame you had to work all day - but that's okay, because friends are for remembering regardless of what you are doing!!!

So.....I bought a little mini cake from Buddy across the road, stuffed as many candles I as I could in it, lit them and walked into Lisa's work singing "Happy Birthday"! Her workmate joined in and so did the customer!!!!

Hope you have had a great BD today.

Lots of love

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!!

Happy Birthday, my friend!!! Hope you had a lovely day. Really enjoyed morning tea at the Palais - yummiest banana caramel cream pie I have had in years (the only piece I have had in years - but that's beside the point!) Nice to spend some relaxing time with friends on your birthday, isn't it?

As luck would have it, Jo had been admiring Lisa & my little organiser bags when we all went to Scrapbooking Australia's Story Time launch. "Must get one" she said - boing!!!! my little bell went off....and off I went to buy one for her birthday! Ahhh - the subterfuge of talking Jo out of going to grab one for herself....and I had to give it to her a day early, as I knew she would zoom into the shops and grab one as they were on sale in the catalogue!!! I also knew she would come to class, see it and then want to use it straight away, so just did it up with the gerbera & ribbon - looked so cute on the table, and... everything went in!

Happy Birthday Jo - hugs - from Mandy

My Baby turns 7!

It doesn't seem that long ago....but 7 years have passed since Jennifer Rose came into the world!

All Jennifer wanted for her birthday was a pixel chic house, so I hunted high and low and managed to find the only one within my shopping areas... whew!!! She loved her other pressies as well, Daniel gave her 'The Emperor's New Groove 2' and the two of them have watched it every day since!

As the weather has been so great here in Adelaide, Jennifer opted for a pool party - and had an absolutely fabulous time. Jennifer, her little friends & I all hopped in the pool and for over an hour they jumped, splashed, floated and had a great wet time! They all wanted to stay in the water - as kids do, but I managed to get them out with the lure of birthday cake!

After the children had gone home, quick clean up and then rush to get ready for the family/friends BBQ.

Jennifer had a great day - we all did, it is nice to have lovely times and great memories on special days.

Happy Birthday my darling Jennifer Rosie, love you so much!

Forever Always Cybercrop

Lisa & I took part in the first Forever Always Cyber Crop, which happen to coincide with my monthly Scrap'n'Soup Night....so we downloaded the challenges and set about finding photos, papers, embellishments and everything else we needed!

Challenge number 1 was to find an ad in a magazine that appealed to you - by layout, colour, wording, etc...

So here is the ad I found that just screamed to me make me into a layout!! Just love the flowers on flowers in the corner!

Enter Meg, in a pot plant, in the nice warm dirt and sunshine..... How to Grow a Cat!

Love the new Scapbooking Australia Story time papers....mmmmm...... they worked so well for this layout - I was really pleased with how it all came together.

Challenge number 2 - back to school and the 3 r's. The layout had to contain the title of a book - either in the title or in the journaling. It also had to contain 1 ring, 2 ribbons & 3 rubons.

So I get on the web to find the cover of the last book I had read from Clive Cussler and out of interest thought how many books has he written and how many have I read? Well, out of the 32 published, I have read 31!! I got carried away and my whole layout is book titles - the ones I have read (actually not all of them - they wouldn't all fit!!! lol!) Popped my journaling onto a library card which I thought was appropriate as that is where I borrow them all from.

Just love the way the Basic Grey Black Tie range provided the perfect background for all the colourful book covers.

Challenge number 3!! Using a Page Maps sketch we had to create a page that was predominately pink and orange!!!

Here i used some Alison Ellis papers I had in my stash - and boy are they pink & orange!!!! Actually, it turned out quite nicely, even it is a lot brighter than I usually use!!

The last challenge - to make a card from your scraps before you pack up!!!

Jennifer's birthday was the next day and she had 'ordered' a pink birthday card. So using the leftover solid pink and a gorgeous orange Gerbera it all came together - and she loved it, which when it comes down to it, is all that matters to a (now) 7 year old!

Lisa & I had great fun! They are all in the gallery, so go and visit to see what everyone did - it is fun to see how everyone interprets written instructions in a different way! There are some fantastic layouts there - you never know, you might get some ideas!

Ciao for now & happy scrapping,

Mandy