Grumps and grizzles

Today has been a terrible day. Ciara is teething, she is grizzly and grumpy, wont eat and has diarrhoea. Poor little possum. I wish there was something more I could do for her than paracetamol and nurofen. Hopefully they cut quickly and she gets back to normal.

When she isnt in pain she is playing the funniest game with herself. She pulls a cushion off the chair in the meals area and lies on it and pretends to be asleep. When you walk over to her she covers her eyes and giggles. Sweetie pie.

Aodhan has had a little bit of diarrhoea in sympathy. So I reckon his molars may be on their way too. His latest game is to grab a cloth nappy which I use as rags, and chase the flies around and try to squash them....like Mummy does. And if I say to him "Here comes Ciara wiggling her bottom" he just cacks himself, so funny!

The weather is going to be warm this weekend, looking forward to that!

OK, quick share.

This one is a quick one I did of Ciara eating sand, noice hey! Nice and simple again, loving glitter still, its on the flower.

And this one is this week's entry for the scrapapple 8 week challenge. This week was textures, and I have lots on there. These pics were taken shortly after Ciara was born. We had been out all day and Aodhan hadn't had a sleep. We got home and he wanted a snack, and fell asleep mid munch. I love how the chips are hanging out of his mouth. Poor little bugger must have been stuffed to fall asleep with a chip half in half out.

I have a weekly challenge and an Elsie challenge to do over at the boxx, so will be scrapping up a storm this week....hopefully!

Happy scrapping Ladies!!!!!

Sleep ins and black pudding

We had a sleep in this morning. I rolled over and looked at the clock thinking it would be 6, but it was 8, yep 8, and neither of the kidlets had made a sound. I had to get up then, my bladder lets me know when its time to get up, and as soon as Aodhan heard me he was calling out, and then Ciara was too. It was so nice to have a sleep in.

Does anyone like black pudding? I LOVE it, will eat it raw, cooked, YUM! I havent had any for years, havent even seen it for a long time. Was walking past the butchers this morning, and there it was a familiar blood red horseshoe. So I grabbed one, and ate half for lunch :), whilst Glenn made gagging noises. Yum yum, had forgeooten just how tasty black pud is. I have actually just thought of the last time I had some. In Ireland in 2003. Wish Aodhan would have at least tried it, but I think he is going to be like his daddy.

We went swimming yesterday. Crazy I know, but the pool water was actually warmer than the air temperature, so it was like jumping int a warm bath. Our pool cover is made of this stuff like bubble wrap, and it actually heats the water....a must down here in melb. And the shade sail does a wonderful job. I would post a pic, but cant find where Glenn has put it on the computer.

OK, quick LO share. This is my entry for week 1 in the 8 week challenge at scrapapple. LOVE IT!!!!! LOVE the autumn leaves stamps, love the basic grey blush papers. Crooked pic as usual.

Hope you are all having a fantastic Australia Day!!!!!

Last week of hols

Glenn goes back to work next Tuesday, NOT looking forward to it. And the weather is being terrible, its cool and overcast, so cant even swim under the new shade sail.....

Yes, it is finally up! After the poles being put in the wrong place and having to be dug up and moved, we put it up today, and it looks fab! Now we just need a hot day so we can use it. Hopefully next week.

Not much else has been happening here. Ciara is atarting to let go of whatever it is she has used to stand up, she just amazes me. So she's going to be walking soon. And Aodhan 9is just being his usual cute self.

I have been scrapping up a storm.

This one is for a challenge at scrapapple to scrap your space. I love the colours in the urban Lily papers, and I love my paper tolle flower, but I dont love how the ric-rac looks crooked :(

This one is another I did for the 123 challenge blog. You had to use fabric and chipboard, and make the journalling the focus of your page. I am very pleased with this one, especially the photo.This one is a quick one I did yesterday with my new stamps, had to try them out. LOVE how it turned out, simple, thats me! I will probably scrap this pic again in 12x12. I am loving 12x12 again for some reason, probably all the negative space I can leave. And I am also loving NOT using PP, and I'm liking it too.

And if anyone can tell me how to take a good pic of my LO's, any tips would be great. As you can see, they are either fabulous straight pics, or terrible crooked ones.

Well, thats it from me for today, have heaps of scrapping to get done. Glenn actually bought me a cigar box and a case...he saw them and said they would look nice if you played with them (was I shocked???? I nearly fell over!) Bye :)

Slackness personified

I am, but its been too hot and sticky, really muggy and it makes for not wanting to do much.

I have however done some scrapping over the last couple of days. Have taken pics of a couple, but can only share one as the other is DT work and a secret until Feb 1 :)

This is the LO I did for challenge 3 in the Elsie Flannigan 52 challenges over at the boxx. I love it, am very pleased it came out the way it did. This is also entered into another challenge, geez I love it when they can double up!

I am working on a couple more too, just have to finish them off.

We have had the sweet sound of jackhammering in our back yard for the last 2 days. My DH dug holes for the poles for the shade sail over the pool, and concreted them in...... without chacking to make sure they were in the right place. And yep, you guessed it, they weren't. But now that I have worked out where they need to go, they should be concreted in over the next few days. Hey the sail may even be up by the time summer is over. Pain in the BUM!

Nothing else has been happening. Hopefully I will have more LO's to share over the next few days.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

I was chatting (OK, whinging to Sharryn about how I suck and no-one likes my work, and she was yelling at me telling me thats crap, LOL) to Sharryn about her recent acceptances, and just happened to check my email. What a huge suprise it was to open it up and find an acceptance email from for keeps! I am stoked! And its a LO that I love, so that makes it even better!

And it has spurred me on. I was getting a little disillusioned with my style, that OK everyone likes it, I LOVE it, but why dont the experts? ( And Sharryns going to yell at me again for saying that). I dont care, I LOVE my work, but I was getting a little down about it, and was going to start trying different things. So, now I feel vindicated, that its OK to scrap my smple little way! (not that it wasn't OK, OH GOD Sharryns going to yell at me again)

Nothing much has been happening here. It was really windy last night, so much so that we had to take down the shade gazebo thingy we had only just put up. It was tied to the rail of the deck and a gutter, and the table, and the legs were screwed into the deck, but it was still lifting off. Just what I wanted to be doing at 11:30 pm last night....not LOL!

We have a creek behind us. Well the creek is dry, but we have a pool of water. There had been a sewerage blockage somewhere in the estate over the other side of the creek, and they were unblocking it. Anyway, something exploded, and the creek was running......with sewerage. Neighbourhood kids go to the pool to catch yabbies, had been there through the day. NO ONE had been informed that there was RAW sewerage in the pool of water. A man over the other dise, whose boy yabbies down there went troppo at the suck up poo guys. We rang the council and water dept. And I think they got into trouble, whichever one was not doing the right thing. GOOD! Could have been my kids playing down there, well no not really, cos I wouldnt let them down there by themselves anyway. It was a bit smelly though.

Quick LO share. This one is the second Elsie Flannigan challenge over at the boxx. You had to use the same word a few times in your journalling. I like it, and I got a chance to use my ribbons from ribbonsgalore.com.au, yummy aren't they?

And thats all, boring hey? Have a good one and try to stay cool!

Well, a doodler.....

I'm not. I can't. I suck!

The monthly challenge over at One Stop Scrapping this month is to doodle on your LO. Well I cant enter as I am on the DT, but I thought I would give it a go anyway. I am actually really pleased with the strong colours in the LO, but my doodling just sucks. But anyway, I gave it a go!

This one was the LO I created for the Elsie Flannigan 52 challenges going on at the Boxx. The first challenge was to create your own flower. So I used transperancy and cut some flowers with my sizzix, and used my old friend glitter around the edges. I love the simplicity of this page.

Whats been happening? Not much. Glenn went to a poker tournament today, to play, but didnt do any good. He cemented in the poles for the shade sail yesterday, Aodhan LOVED the cement truck!

Aodhan is a little dag. When he gets undressed for his bath, I wolf whistle at him and say "Spunky monkey." Well he obviously agrees, cos he has started running up to the bathroom door as I am running their bath and he goes...."whooo whoooo....spunky monkey" How cute is that. And then tonight as he was getting his PJ's on he says, "Mummy is a spunky monkey" What a sweetie, I nearly cried!

The 20/20 match is on and Gilly has just hit his hatrick of 6's. Glenn got a little excited....LOL! But I do enjoy the 20/20's. I love it when they smash em.

Well I need to go scrap, so will love and leave you. But finally, in regards to my last post, I know the anon commenters weren't any of my friends, they were gutless, kind of like the people who get threads deleted at the boxx because they take offence. But I'm over it, it was out decision, we are the ones living with it.

Have a good one, going to be a schorcher here tomorrow! 36C, then 38C.....but we wont say anything about the days after that...Typical Melbourne weather!!!!!

Boiling HOT!!!

Man has it been hot here. Hasn't dropped down below 25 degrees the past few days, even at night....thank god for the evap cooler! We also have a refrigerated unit in our bedroom, but I try not to use that unless its really yucky. Theres supposedly a change on the way??? And rain??? We wont see it though, we always miss the rain.

So thats about all that has been happening here, we have been living in the pool.

I haven't really managed to scrap over the last few days, too hot and sticky. But I have had some good news. I have been chosen as one of three winners over at the 1,2,3 challenge blog. Its hosted by Charmane Koch and Karlene Fahey, and I am really pleased that I won....some yummy BG blush papers comming my way as my prize....so thanks girls, if you ever read my blog! LOL!
I also found out today that I won a challenge over at scrapworld with my "this is why" LO. I love that LO so I am really happy that others thought it was good too.

Now on to something else. In regards to the controlled comforting technique. I have had some really positive and supportive comments, and some really mean and downright nasty ones (hopefully none of you were unfortunate enough to see them before I deleted them). I feel like I have to explain myself and the technique a little now.

We were getting really desperate. While Glenn is fab (he got up at night most of the time, because phisically and mentally I just couldnt, what with the PND and everything), it was all just getting a bit much. We were all stressed, Aodhan was tired too, and Ciara was grumpy cos she wasn't sleeping properly. So we decided to try the CC.

The controlled comforting technique IS NOT leaving your baby to cry. It is a technique that is used to teach baby to go to sleep by themselves. Most of the problem with babies is that they fall asleep and wake up in the pitch black, or somewhere else altogether. In our case Ciara was falling asleep on her night bottle. So she was put into her cot asleep. So when she went through the sleep cycle and woke after 60 minutes, she was startled because she wasnt where she fell asleep. I bet you'd get a shock if you woke up somewhere diff? So what you do is cry comfort. I really didnt think I would be able to do it, it was breaking my heart, but she really didnt cry that much. We only ever got to 6 mins, meaning that she had cried for 12 mins in total. And that does sound like a long time, even to me, but its really not, especially when I have heard of babies crying for hours on end.

I shouldn't have to justify myself, especially seeing as we have had such sucess and Ciara is a changed baby. She is happier through the day, more vocal, and exploring her surroundings alot more. And its all because she is getting a good nights sleep.

So to you arseholes who left an ANONYMOUS comment, bugger off and dont come back. We dont like your type round here. And secondly, if you dont like it dont read it, or at least have the guts to comment using your name!

So, if anyone wants the disc, either for themselves or you might know someone/s who will benefit, please leave me a comment, or PM me at whichever forum you know me from, or use the email me link over on the side bar...I think there is one? Is there? I think this is an extremely valuable resource, and it may turn someones life around for the better.

On that note I will love you and leave you, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

P.s. When is clueless on? hopefully not tonight. maybe I should just check the TV guide hey? bye!

BIG DAY

Well, we have had a HUGE day. At 8:30 am we decided to take the kids to the beach. So we got everything all packed up and left right on Ciara's sleep time. She slept all the way there.

We didnt last very long at the beach, Ciara got grumpy and wanted her bottle (how, after the big meal of sand she had, I dont know ;) ). But we were there long enough to bury Daddy, build some castles, and go for a quick swim.

Aodhan LOVED the waves. We were at Torquay surf beach, and it was just perfect. Not a breath of wind, so tiny little shorebreakers. Got some really cool pics.

This is my fave. Have just printed it out in A4, and I am going to scrap it....of course!

So after the beach we went and had some fish and chips for lunch, then went for a wander around the shops. Then it was time to come home, Ciara slept all the way, and Aodhan had a little snooze too.

In other news, for the last couple of nights we have been doing controlled comforting with Ciara. You let her cry for 2 mins, then settle for 2 mins, the cry for 4 mins, settle for 4, cry for 6, settle for 6, 8, then 10. We have had to go to 6 mins, and then she has settled......and we hear nothing from her until 6:30am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it appears to be working. We had both just had enough. I was existing on about 4-6 hrs/night, we were getting to the point where it was going to be divorce court. So I put my foot down ad said we have to do something. So we did. And so far so good!

And now for my DT layouts. This one was using sandylion papers, and the play was cut with the craft robo.

This one was also using sandylion papers, and the title was cut with the craft robo. Gin x rub ons and some ribbon.

And this last has a bit of glitter on the brads, and some hand stitching. Some bazzill blossums, the flowers were cut with the craft robo. My handwriting sucks, I am sooooo regretting writing on it, because it looks terrible and I have to send the LO's for display at One Stop Scrapping. Will I never learn?

Well, I am off to get the sand out of everything, LOL! Have a good one and see you soon!

WORD OF WARNING!!!!!

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PLACE AN ORDER AT ZIGZAGSCRAPBOOKING.COM.AU

IT SEEMS THAT THE OWNER OF THE SITE, WHICH INCLUDES THE ONLINE STORE HAS DISAPEARED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH. LEAVING CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE ORDERED AND PAID FOR ITEMS WITH OUT THEIR GOODIES.

So would probably be a good idea not to shop there! These poor girls are talking about going to consumer affairs due to the fact that they have had no replies to email etc....since NOVEMBER!!!!!

Not good hey?

See you all tomorrow when I can hopefully upload my DT LO'S.