Spring fling!

Even though it is autumn here I am having a "spring fling" with Carol Wingert. I am very excited to have one of her kits on order. I fell in love with "Birds of a Feather" that the lovely Sarah ordered. I have bought all manner of bits and pieces to make my own version but haven't got around to atually making it yet!

Carol is on her way to Sydney as I write this - she is coming to SIA. I told her to seek out JVO and perhaps incorporate some of her products in an one of her future kits! Her reply was

I have always loved Julie's work...I'm looking forward to meeting her and who knows, maybe some of her product will end up in the kits! Carol Wingert

Who wants to come to Paris with me?

Well I am thinking very seriously about it...

And the last time I was there was 10 years ago!

It all started with this email......(passed on from a friend)

Dear Colin,

During our absence from Paris in August and September, our flat in the centre of Paris is available for rental.Location: Ile St Louis (200m from Notre Dame cathedral). Close to everything.Detail: 70m2, all facilities, 5th floor, in an old traditional building, dating from the 17th century. 2 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, 2bathrooms, 1 large (for Paris) lounge/dining room. Terrace with viewover Paris roofs, view of Parthenon and the Seine. Shops and restaurants less than 1 minute from front door. Easy access to rail line to airports.Rental: $1400/week. Sheets/linen provided but tenants will do own laundry. Contact for further information.....

So who wants to share the flat with me for 2 weeks? Probably September... Then I'll be staying with a friend (I hope) in the South for a couple of weeks......

I priced airfares and malaysian has one for around $1200 + tax... I'm sure I paid more than that 10 years ago!

Edit: I knew it was to good to be true - add $700 or so tax onto that price!

Bernies ring

Isn't it a beauty! All 2.something carats! Oh my god I don't think I have seen a diamond as big as this one!

Bernie (Berlin) was such a good sport letting me "borrow" it! I don't know if I would have let me borrow it ;-)

Art Retreat

Above is my interpretation of the class design.

Left is one of the canvases that DJ used to show us techniques in class. I bought it from her after the class.

What a FANTASTIC weekend! It's taken me 2 days to get over it. The Tutors were senational - YAHHHHH to Stephanie Lee, DJ Pettit and Bernie Berlin.

I just LOVED the face painting. DJ is such a gifted teacher. It certainly showed when 23 out of 24 pupils finished the class with stunning pieces. As for the 24th student - she decided to stick with her 'style'. I don't know why she bothers spending all this money on classes - she never listens to the teachers or seems open to learning!

I did a face painting class with a different American tutor last year. She was a FANTASTIC artist but in my opinion a crap teacher!

Still No Internet

It'll be at least a couple of weeks until my broadband is connected :-(

I tried unsuccessfully to get my printer to print wirelessly... I was hoping to get one of the guys at work to have a look this week, but I have been SO busy at work - put in about 50 hours this week. I feel like I have been here more than home.

The exercise went down the gurgler this week too I was just too tired....

Almost Back...

Well I am slowly getting my laptop set up. FINALLY got my printer working - no thanks to Epson! They said the drivers come bundled with Vista - well NO not in my experience anyway. They had vista drivers for the scanner but none for the printer on their website. So at Dell's suggestion I downloaded the XP drivers and also ran a vista printer updater - what ever that was. So finally last night I got it working. (and yes I did have the CD that came with the printer but that didn't have vista drivers on it..)This weekends task is to buy a wireless print server and get it all that working again wirelessly!

Hopefully I will be internet enabled soon to!

I managed to salvage all my emails and address book too - no thanks to Microsoft - they are very hard to find! I borrowed a usb adapter from the helpdesk at work and was able to plug in my old hard drives to download files.

So if anyone is upgrading to Vista, I should be able to help ;-)

One of my work colleagues has given me photoshop 4! Woohoo can't wait to have a play.

I have been doing a LOT of exercise (about 40km's a week) so that doesn't leave a lot of time for much else and I am also VERY tired ;-) I am having a break from pilates as I have found that the exercise has made a big difference to my back.

No Computer!!!

My hard disk has died, so I am without a computer for a while :-(

SO I ahve probably lost all my email addresses so once I am back online I will ask you all to email me so that I can create a new address book :-(

Bird House

Well it's after midnight and I should be in bed! I can't believe I am still awake.. I have done 10km on he treadmill today (31 in the last 4 days) and also 2 hours of graft in the garden....

Anyway this is my LAST House page :-( And it's for Philippa. It's my 1st attempt at the wonderful Judy's bird cage....

Oh the wording in the cage says..

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Another one..

I'm addicted to these now...... but they are very time consuming......

Audrey Part 2

I decided to change a few tiles around ;-) And also add a scroll to the bottom of the piece as well.

Just finished it off don't you think?

I am loving UHU glues (I don't care what Timbo says about Uhu). I love their gluestick, I love their clear glue (although it is a bit wiffy and has that annoying stringy cobweb like strands when you are using it. And the super glue is fantastic too. I used it to glue the bottom scroll on :-)

Something for the Lovely Audrey Underwood

I am in a 1 for 1 swap using Collections chipboard on arty_oz hosted by Vanessa. I finished this tonight at a friends shop amd came home to find I had been matched up to Audrey Underwood - oh my goodness!!! I'm glad I have finished my object de art otherwise the pressure may have been too much ;-)

The bird still needs an eye and I do have to finish the back '-)

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my blog friends a very Merry Christmas!

Did you ever wonder

I have finally finished my Christmas cards. I really shouldn't leave them to the last minute!

And here is a joke I got this week... it made me chuckle..

Ponder on these imponderables for a minute:-

1. If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, doeshe become disoriented?2. If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Hollandcalled Holes?
3. Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
4. If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
5. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
6. Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
7. When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
8. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a racing car not called a racist?
9. Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
10. Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
11... Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety one?
12. 'I am' is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language.Could it be that 'I do' is the longest sentence?
13. If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it followthat electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged,models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?
14. What hair colour do they put on the driver's licences of bald men?
15. I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoonsand forks so I wondered what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?
16. Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What arewe supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures onthe postage stamps so the postmen can look for them while they deliver themail?
17. You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
18. No one ever says, 'It's only a game' when their team is winning.
19. Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 apiece on those littlebottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAIVE
20. Isn't making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?
21. If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhoea, does that mean that one enjoys it?
22. Why if you send something by road it is called a shipment, but when you send it by sea it is called cargo?
23. If a convenience store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 daysa year, why are there locks on the door?

Kris Kringle

This is the Kris Kringle gift for someone in arty_oz. I have spent way too many hours on it!

I hope she likes it ;-) You might recognose some of the page designs

House Collab Book - My Mother's House

This page is for Glenda

House Collab Book - Friendship

A page for Rhonda.....

Collab House Book - Family

House page for Kaeren Sutherland

Photoshop

I have been playing in photoshop again.This time it's for Kris Kringle.

The persons name that I drew out had just been to Thailand and had some of her photos on the network. Well by the time I drew her name out they had been deleted, but thankfullly I was able to get them restored (Without her knowing!) So I am going to turn them into a calendar for her.....

So anyway I thought these photos might look better sans other people!

what do YOU think???

Cream House Page from Ness

I received this stunning house page from Ness

This week. Next time Ness can you take a better picture LOL

2 more cream Houses

Two more Houses arrived today! Left Kaeren Sutherland - who added French Test ;-)

and Linda Schutt. Can't wait for my book to be finished!

Great Auntie Alice

This was my Great Aunt Alice. My mother's fathers spinster sister. She was such a sweet little lady. She had polio (I think) as a child which left her with one leg shorter than the other. She never wore a built up shoe, but rather had a partcular way of standing, as she is doing in the photo.

She had a little red mini. Poor little car, she was so deaf she couldn't hear the engine and used to rev the guts out of it!

Auntie Alice will have a page dedicated to her in my "Judy" book. I took the colour photo and made it sepia. but with some photoshop trickery I left the mini red ;-)

A Page from Sarah

Received this gorgous page from Sarah this weekend. Notice the white "Jasmine" cat... ;-)

Collab House Book - Cream Page 1

Page from Lucy Leatham. Isn't it gorgeous! Thanks Lucy....

Puzzle Piece - 4 of 16 or 25% complete

Puzzle Piece 3 of 16

Collab House Book Swap - Cream House Cover

My turn this month YAHHHHH!!! So I thought I better get my front cover made! The pages I have seen in Gail's book have been fantastic, can't wait for mine to start arriving

Puzzle Piece 2 of 16

Second Piece complete. Love the cream rubons!

Puzzle Piece 1 of 16

I bought this giant floor puzzle about 18 months ago at the Antique store in Mornington.

I have been collecting French themed bits for ages and have finally competed 1 piece!

Collab House Book - Asian

Asian really isn't my "thing" but that is the great thing about this swap - not everyones theme is your cup of tea, so it stretches your creativity. I think the dragon page was my biggest test yet. Dragons CERTAINLY ARE NOT my thing! Still once I found an image I could work with.....

As you know I received my Kelly Rae Roberts book this week and have been itching to try out some of the techniques. Yesterday I bought some more golden fluids -for my classes next year, and also bought a couple of shriva sticks. The latter are just divine - will have to get me more of those!

Anyway the top photo is my Asian collage completed. The background paper was very bright greens and I also added some text collage and other collage papers. Covered them in golden fluids and shriva sticks and you have the image to the left. After I scanned it I thought it looked a little unfinished, so I added a metal corner to the roof peak, and went around the children with while gel pen. I just thought that they were blending a little too much with the background...

Collab House Book - Lace

A Page for Joanne.

Taking Flight

I received this book today from Kelly Rae Roberts.

Just love it. Can't wait to play!

Lots of photos and step by step instructions!

Collab Book - Architecture

A page for Lucy's book

Collab Book - French Theme

A page for the lovely Sarah!

Sleeping Beauty

This was taken last night. It was quite warm and Missy made herself very comfy on the couch!

Yippee Summer is coming

Oh it's starting to warm up at last.

Look at my wisteria, isn't it divine! And the perfume is heavenly. I wish I could share it with you too!

It has never flowered like this before!

arty_oz Collab Book

Well it's over for another year... 31 pages. Had a busy but fun day at Teresa's yesterday. She had designed a fabulous fabric cover and there were 6 of us working in various shifts creating 62 covers (31 sets).

Well done everyone, especially Teresa for pulling it all together! Teresa is a working Mum with 3 young children, where she finds the time!

My favourite Page from the talented Sarah! Apparently it took her 3 weeks to make these. I could believe it - so many "bits". Absolutely stunning!

Win a handbag!

I visited my friend Gail's blog and found this link! YAhhh they are giving away a handbag an hour!

House Collab book

Another page done, and again not the theme for the month!

Dragons Den

HAve just completed this page (Thanks Liz for your artistic input!) I found this page a real challenge - having to work with a dragon! And No I don't mean Liz LOL. Took me ages to find an image I could work with. And the sad thing - it isn't even one of the pages I should be doing this month- ops! ANyway I know the next 9 months will be busy at work so I am just trying to get all my pages done early ;-)

HAd a great day at Liz's yesterday with Kathy and Debbie - not that I got a great deal done! But still I made a start to my calendar swap and I got this page started as well.

Next week I am off to Uni to learn SAP - not happy jan - but what can you do? At least it will be nice to be out of the office...........

Spring is here!

It is a gorgeous weekend here - yesterday mid 20's - but I am not kidding myself that winter is over. It is nice to have summer poking her nose in to Spring though!

My irises are out! They are such a beautiful rich colour.

I am hoping this week might be a bit easier at work, I have no helpdesk calls outstanding and I am hoping the new Payroll/HR project wont be to the forefront this week, so I can catch up on a few other things!

I managed to get away from work at 3:30 on Friday and went down into the city. It was so warm and NICE to be away from the office early....

House Collab Book

Kylie Mell is running a House Collab Book. I have finished Gails page this morning - her theme Vintage Men....

And this afternoon I have finished the page for Nikki Blowers - whose theme was glass house. I took the clear from glass and constructed my page from transparencies and used some of the "thick" transparency that craft items come packed in. I have been collecting these packs for ages as I knew I would eventually use it! The brown pattern down the bottom is like stickytape, but it has bubbled a bit despite my best endeavours :-( I had to use the photo turns so that I could add my details ;-)

Happy Birthday Friend....

I made this on the weekend for a friend who is having a birthday soon......