I now have a new whizz bang computer. Dave has converted me to the dark side, and I now run a MacBook Pro with SSD - so it runs like the clappers. I have to run Windows in a VM though as my work is all windows based... loving the huge 27" monitor, and the lightest of the laptop itself.
July was a super busy month starting with a weekend in Sydney at the Food and Wine Show with Julie and Les. We even caught up with Jane and Evan for a compulsory dinner at I'm Angus to help celebrate Jane's birthday.
Lots of wine to be had at the food and wine show, which Julie and I happily sampled (even had to buy a granny trolley to put our wine stash in!)
The girls enjoyed huge lollipops - which Dave had to finish later on!
Both Jas and Eliza enjoyed bouncing on the Bungee trampoline the next day:
Two weekends later we were back in Sydney for the Disney on Ice show, which all the little kidlets enjoyed. My favourite part of the show was the Lion King part:
Ahhh.... then for some relaxing weekends at home. First stop Cockington Green to check out the minature villages and ride on the little steam train, after having lunch at Cafe Injoy.
They're all taking photos on their iPods/iPhones - so cute:
The following weekend we trekked out to the Bus Depot Markets and bought way too much stuff - flavoured oils, vinegars, nuts, herbs/spices, sauces etc etc. The girls had a great time tasting all the goodies, and $200 later we decided we had spent enough money.
Some of the loot we brought home:
The girls also got their faces painted:
After the markets we popped next door to check out the glass works for the first time as well.
In August we drove down to Sydney for Jasmin's followup appointment at the Sydney Development Centre. So excited that she is now testing within the average bounds for everything now - and the memory and concentration sections of her brain have greatly developed. The teacher is so proud of her at school, and she got an A, 3 B's and 4 C's in her last school report - so we are all stoked.
Whilst in Sydney we enjoyed a visit to Mark and Michelle for a couple of nights, and got to go out to their Gala Day - where they had rides and a fete. The next day we had Yum Cha at Castle Hill - it was a real challenge to get eliza to eat anything unusual, she is going through that fussy food stage at the moment!
The past month has been full of birthdays, Chloe, Dave, followed by Evan (his brother), Bailie (our great niece), and then Eliza's birthday which was this past weekend... and we have my nephew's birthday this weekend.
I couldn't resist making this lego cake for Dave on the day of his birthday:
Chloe couldn't resist eating the marshmallows off her cake as we were singing happy birthday!
Bailie had a dress-up birthday:
Eliza had a Barbie themed birthday so there was pink pink and pink everywhere - and I also organised a face painter for the occassion, who was terrific!
It was with much relief that Eliza requested an ice-cream cake for her birthday - easiest cake I've made yet. She also had a Barbie Pinata, and earlier in the party I got all the kids to decorate their own lolly boxes(noodle containers I bought in bulk).
So happy that Spring is upon us. I always feel so much happier in Spring - must be the thought that summer is around the corner. I much prefer the warmer weather! The girls and I enjoyed a walk around the suburb the other day, we just walked up random streets and down random paths taking pictures with our cameras (the girls use their iPods). We must of looked pretty funny - but who cares, we had a lovely walk.
I have also reached my goal of reading 52 books this year - that's one per week... pat on the back for me! I'm not one to set goals for myself - perhaps because I am afraid to fail.... so it's probably a good thing I succeeded! Next year I will set the bar a bit higher. I have enjoyed reading some Science Fiction Epics - along with the mix of vampire, romance, fantasy and supernatural books. I did this recent layout for a course I am doing which lists the first 51 - I will update it at the end of the year with the rest of the books that I have read:
I also made a Panna Cotta for the very first time. We had the pleasure of Gen and Dom, and Aunty Margaret for lunch the day before Eliza's birthday, as they couldn't make in on the Sunday. Not sure why I haven't tried making Panna Cotta before. Jeff and Fiona and the boys bought me some panna cotta moulds for my birthday, so I was all set to make them. I made a cinnamon and vanilla panna cotta with a rose wine granita. The granita didn't really set that well (in fact I'm not sure how it was meant to set given that most alcohol doesn't freeze)... so it was more a Panna Cotta with a rose slushy! But it did taste really good.
I have also been busy scrapbooking, doing layouts for beginners kits at work, as well as examples for course notes, and then doing my own layouts including some assignments for on-line courses I do - which provide a wealth of inspiration for my layouts. I have included a couple here, and will keep adding more over the next couple of weeks on my favourites.
These three layouts have been completed as part of the motherload course at Big Picture Classes. The idea of the course is to actually do a layout a day - which means scrapbooking a page in under an hour.
For this layout we had to take a self-portrait earlier in the course, so we had to scrapbook it. I used some Echo Park for the red background page and the camera element, Jillibean Soup Corrugated elements, Fancy Pants chipboard banner, Crate Paper brads and some Tattered Angels Glimmermist. Layout was completed in about 45 minutes.
Earlier in the course we had to put 6 small items into each of 4 little bags, the chellenge was to use one of the bags on this layout. My items included the frame, journalling sticker, fabric flower, bird, button and metal butterfly:
The prompt for this layout was "I need ...". Enjoyed cutting out the Crate Paper flowers and combining with echo park chipboard flower and other Crate paper bits and pieces. These days a layout is not complete without adding some Tattered Angels Glimmermist splotches:
So that about rounds things up - I will be more dilligent in updating my blog in future now I have my new computer in place ( I promise! ).
1 comment:
Lots of great photos (again!) - was looking forward to seeing some Hawai photos so I could be uber-jealous!
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