Babies Babies Babies

It was a big weekend for seeing babies. First we finally got to meet our friend's Susie and Simon's latest edition to their family - Luke. He was sound asleep for most of the visit, as they had had a professional photo shoot that morning, so he was a little tired and didn't want to wake up. The girls had a great time running around with the girls, and Jas got to have a hold of Luke so she was really impressed:

The next stop was a Baby Naming - Benjamin's. He is now nine months old. I got some really nice shots of Jas and Eliza at the event.



She cracks me up all the time - she's such a poser - here is her Dr Evil impersonation.

Yes, I have changed my hair colour once again. Dave got this snap of me sitting with our friend Dal and her daughter Mia.

The next day we drove to Goulburn for a Birthday, as well as a visit to Nan and Pop's to catch up with them, and my sis Hellie and baby Chloe. I got a picture of the two blue-eyed babes together, which was lovely. Jas loves to cuddle her cousin:

This weeks late night scrappin

I've done a couple of double page layouts in the last week, during my late night scrappin sessions.

This first one is of our last trip to the local zoo - in September last year. Used some new Basic Grey papers on this and some matching chipboard embellishments:

This double layout is of a pizza night we had at one of Dave's work mates houses. They have an outdoor pizza oven which was fantastic, the girls really enjoyed making their own pizzas:

A very simple layout to feature a photo of a tulip I took at Tulip Top.

A page with photos of Eliza, in a cute hat and scarf we nough last winter, she wore it on a trip to Sydney to celebrate Nan's birthday:

Another layout of Eliza riding her bike on the bike paths outside our front door.

Some layouts and the weekend

Managed to do some late night scrapbooking over the last week. have tons of new products to play with, and still more to come over the next month or so - which is always the case after CHA in the US.

Couldn't resist buying some of these pre-sewn WeR Memory Keepers pages - they are fantastic if you don't like sewing (or your not particularly good at it. Kept the layout fairly simply with some Hero Arts Flowers, Jenni Bowlin Butterfly and Pearl pins and a little Hambly Screenprints transparency. Also love the glitter self adhesive ribbon - which I used for the flowers on the bottom right square.

This picture makes me giggle. We bought the picture they take of you on the roller coaster ride at Luna Park. It's the scariest ride I think I've ever been on (and Jas too). Felt like the cart was going to tip over every time we went around a corner. I used some older Sassafrase Lass papers and stickers, as well as a couple of newer Hero Arts flowers and basic Grey Fabric brads.


This one simply uses a plain piece of cardstock, some WeR Memory Keepers Self-adhesive ribbon, and some new Basic Grey flowers, mixed in with some Hero Arts Flowers. Loving flowers at the moment (in case you hadn't noticed). Have a whole heap of Prima flowers on order and cannot wait to get these too.


I have a few more layouts which I will post later this week.

We had a busy weekend. Went to visit Simon and Susie and their new baby Luke. He is very cute, but just wanted to sleep after a huge photo shoot in the morning. Then we went to a Baby Naming ceremony. Took a couple of cute pictures of the girls there:


On sunday we drove to Goulburn for Gen's birthday as well as a visit to Nan and Pops, where we also caught up with Hellie and Chloe. Hope to post some pics of these two tonight. Stay Tuned.

A Websters Layout

I did this layout the other night, whilst watching NCIS with the Hubbie. I love this range of Websters Pages - Seaside Retreat. Perfect for doing a couple of layout of our Queensland holiday.

Dubbo Zoo

We didn't exactly pick the right weekend to take the girls to Dubbo and to the Zoo, but we still had a great time. It was the first time that we went away for a whole weekend with Jeff and Fiona and the boys. Most of the weekend was wet and drizzly with fine patches in between.

We stayed in a caravan park in 2 cabins. The kids loved jumping on the Bouncing Pillow:

We had some fun playing Pictionary Man:

The kids at the zoo:

The girls and I fed the giraffes:

They had a great playground at the end of the zoo, including a flying fox:

This dinosaur is on the outskirts of Dubbo - couldn't resist taking this photo:

On the way home we stopped at Parkes and had a picnic at the Dish. We also watched one of the 3D movies while we were there:

All in all it was a great weekend. We will go back one day when the girls are older and do the bike ride around the park.

Some Layouts

A couple of layouts I've done late at night over the last couple of weeks:

Love this picture of Dave and I in August 2009:


A layout using some new Crate Paper products - a picture of Eliza playing schools with her Barbie dolls, just like I did as a child:

Philsophy on Shopping and Cooking #2

Well, here is another exciting instalment of what we had for dinner in the last week. Firstly though I wanted to talk about where we shop and why.

I sit down and do five weeks worth of menus at a time. When I shop I shop for the entire five weeks of non-perishable items, and the first week of perishable items - ie. fresh fruit and veg, bakery and diary products. First we go to Aldi and get as much as we can, then we go to either Coles or Woollies and pick up the rest. I normally get meat at Highlands Country Meats for the entire five weeks as well, picking up any good specials if I see them (which may get used in the following five week period). For the remaining four weeks I pick up the perishable items on a weekly basis normally from the local IGA. This will change after the 10th of this month, when I will get deliveries of dairy, bakery and fruit and veg directly from the farmers around this area. The fruit and veg is guaranteed to be picked within 10 hours of delivery, and they are cutting out the middle man. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

I used to just plan my meals and then pick the ingredients up on the way home, or shop a week at a time at Woollies or Coles. I used to spend about $400 a week on grocerries. Now I spend <$200 and we eat exactly the same meals.

Anyway - here are the meals from last week:

1. Stir-fried Beef and Asparagus with mushrooms (Neil Perry).
2. Pesto Chicken, Mediterraean Cous Cous and Salad (COOK)
3. Burritos
4. Crunchy Parmasen Fish (Modified No Time to Cook recipe)
5. Takeaway Chinese (Video Ordering Night with Julie and Leslie)
6. Restaurant Meal at I'm Angus, Cockle Bay Sydney (Yummy!)
7. Pesto Pasta when we got home late on Sunday Evening