Six on Sunday

1. It is so cold

I don't know whether I am the only one to think so, but this winter really does feel much colder than last winter. My knees and other joints ache (on account of the osteoarthritis from too many years of dancing), and I can't remember them aching last year.  We bought the girls these wheat bags to heat up for their beds (I am not a fan of electric blankets). I'm thinking we should buy a couple for our bed as well.

2.  Saturday Pancakes

Seem to be creating another little regular occurrence in the Turner household. Saturday mornings the girls normally want pancakes for breakfast. I think I've done this every week now for the last two months, so I think it's here to stay.

Got this cool non-stick pancake pan from Cost Co which does smiley faces!

3.   Fasting Diet

Dave has completed his first eight weeks on the fasting diet he is trying out with his mate. This, in combination with, swimming about three times a week seems to be working for his weight. The fasting diet involves eating only 600 calories on two days of the week rather than the normal 2,500+ calories. As a result I have also lost a little weight as we all eat the low calorie dinner on the days he fasts - except we get to eat normally for the rest of the day, and top up on extra carbs with the meal!  Looks like we are going to keep going with the diet - after eight weeks Dave got his blood tests re-done and his sugar levels have moved out of the diabetic range.

4.  Reading

5. 

I have read an interesting mix of books over the last month or so - science fiction, fantasy, romance, thriller, urban fantasy, dystopia and more. Some have been disappointing, some just average, with a couple of surprises in between.  My picks would have to be "Alas Babylon" which I didn't realise was written in the 1950's until I was part way through the book. It certainly for me has stood the test of time, and although not as fast paced as many books of today - it was an enjoyable read. My other pick is "Drums of Autumn" - another great book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I can always rely on Diana to write an engaging book, where you grow to love the characters.  The only thing with the Outlander books is that they are soooooo big - about 48 hours of reading in this one, but worth it. So hoping they make it into a series -as the right have been purchased by a studio (doesn't necessarily mean it will get made though).

5.  Project Life - June

I'm still keeping up with my project life layouts.  I love how Project Life is just like a visual diary.  I can keep the journalling as brief or as long as I want - but the pictures often are worth a thousand words anyway.  I love how I am capturing the everyday parts of our lives which probably would not get a mention, or a special layout, but they are still important. I think they will be interesting to look back on in the future as well.  I also got some Becky Higgins month dividers - which make it way easier to locate the different months in the album.

6.  Other Layouts

Apart from the Project Life Layouts - I've only managed to do about 5 layouts! End of Financial Year, spending time with the girls, business stuff and reading have all managed to take priority.

This layout was about Eliza's 100 Years of Canberra Day at school - as well as the project she built - the Lanyon Homestead. I am so proud of her, as she built it all by herself, and only had to get help from Uncle Jeff with the roof - he cut her some foam roof struts to hold the roof at the angle. She used couscous for the dirt on the driveway, a collection of painted boxes for the homestead, painted foam and glitter for the grass, matchsticks for the wooden verandah floor and trellis at the front. and she even glued on little rocks to edge the grass (which we picked up from Lanyon Homestead).

A simple page I did of Dad and Barbara's birthday. Changed the picture to black and white as there were too many conflicting colours in the photograph - and I wanted the layout to be bright. Punched stars in the page and card and backed with patterned papers, also stitched around the stars on the layout, but just used a marker on the card for faux stitches. I also noticed that Two Peas in a Bucket pinned this layout on one of their inspiration boards. YAY for me!

Had a lot of fun using glimmer mist and mists on this layout.  I misted the background page and then added a Hambly transparency over the top, framing the layout with some washi tape and cardstock.  I layered tags including some tags from clothes on the bottom, adding the photographs on top. Pictures are of my sister-in-law's birthday at the beginning of the month.

A fairly simple layout of Jazz running in her athletics carnival at school - managed to sneak down and take a couple of shots.  She did so well - coming first in her heats of 100 metres and 200 metres.  I am also going to do a layout for Eliza's album as well.

My layout of the 1/2 day we spent at Lanyon Homestead taking pictures so that Eliza could build her 3D model.

Well thanks it for this week!
xxx