Only a few hours of the year to go, so many things left undone, atleast it feels that way. Lots of I wish i had done that, or how did i forget to do that.

it has been a good year though, Alec completed pre-primary getting two honour certificates on the way and finished up his 2 years of early intervention at the autism association, what has made my year has been his accomplishments. It was a good year.

well I have done my Christmas layouts, I cheated and did the pages in Hyden so they were all ready for photos, which did and didn't work as well as I would have liked. Sadly this is all I have done for the whole month of December.

Once again my Christmas photos look the same as last year, for some reason a 40 degree day lacks the ambiance of twinkling lights by the fireside.

Well here it is a 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer wagon, not very sexy I'm afraid, very boxy and practical, so strange but I'm a tiny bit disappointed. It is brand new and when we got in to drive home it had 14 kilometres on it.

We had to borrow a little bit and trade in our old car, I've never had a new car before, I don't like the colour but we had no choice, it was that or white and I like white even less. It will grow on me, but it is just like a box on wheels LOL it does drive very nicely though and as the old one drove like a tank this one will be a pleasure to drive, once I get used to the weird mirrors.

Dreadfully hot day here, at 8pm we headed for the beach, it was such a wonderful idea. Someone had a lot of fun

What a day, Christmas eve we had the power out for 4 hours and we sat and did jigsaws or had a lay down, thankfully all the preparation for Christmas lunch had been done in the morning.

Christmas morning the boys were just so excited, as Alec opened a present he would yell out... Oh my gosh I ordered this!! Riley is a little harder to gage but I know they both loved the fireman water shooters they got.

Getting lunch together was easy, everything was prepared, only negative was the rubbery pale looking yorkshire puds. We finished off with a rather boozy plum pudding with double cream and custard. It was lots of work but everyone enjoyed it.

like all of you, I have been busy with the lead up to Christmas, organising gifts, planning chrissy lunch, collecting rellies and such.

We collected our tree and did the decorating, Lis sent me flowers, you don't think that didn't bring a huge smile to my face.
This is a 16x8 canvas I did with some vintage christmas images I picked up from etsy, so cute and it looks great on a canvas.
Some of my chrissy ornaments, the boys love playing the jingle bell rock santa.
This is my tree, once again the photos are pretty average, I will keep working on them
I think this is my favourite ornament, it just makes me smile.
And this is my woodlands santa, he is so cool, I think he looks like what a Santa should look like.
Right this moment on the eve of Christmas eve I would love to just hand responsibility for Christmas lunch to someone else, it all seems a little too much right now but I know tomorrow when I start to prepare I will get in the mood more.

Here is my menu..

mum is bring smoked salmon and egg salad and some other anti pasta type things for starters, then we are having -

t-bone roast with gravy and Yorkshire puddings
cauliflower cheese
roast potatoes, pumpkin and glazed onions
brocolini with red peppers

plum pudding!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas day!

I found this on CathyZ's blog... I really needed an awwwww moment today

I adore mini books/albums! So when I saw the new Buzz and Bloom chipboard tabbed books and albums I was very excited, sad I know but I love them!

So our project was do your favourite event/day/week, mine funnily enough were both about Christmas. Wish me luck for Monday, they announce the 2008 Buzz and Bloom design team and I am hoping they keep me on for another year!

I am so not a keeper up with what is new.. this isn't to say I don't sit and drool over all the CHA releases, but being here in the backwaters of Australia, ok anywhere in Australia is a backwater when you talk scrapbooking product, we love and lust after and maybe a year after it is released we see a 10th of a range here.

That aside, this is what I have loved this year and what I have used.. again and again.. leave a comment, let me know your favourites or do your own blog post and leave me the link..

• Basic Grey rub ones, especially the flourish outlines, love those, top of my list for style and for quality
• Scenic route chipboard circles - save the date, out of town, everyday moment. Some are slightly off centre so I check the packages carefully but they are great.
• Thickers!! these are great! I love the foam and the felt ones, they stick, there are loads of them, just a gorgeous product.
• Hambly screen prints, love the sonata overlay and the circles, lovely and thick, just a great fun product.
• Buzz and bloom chipboard albums! I love chipboard and I usually make my own, but I did THIS album for our most special day project using the 3 1/4" x 7" Book Kit and it was so much fun and so quick to make, I'm going to finish my Christmas album today
• Queen & Co felt, first the flowers, because they did blue! then their stick on felt is just as cool, I like to personalise it, cut it up and put it back together so it fits what I'm doing, again, lovely quality and great colours and design.

Things I can't wait to try!!

• grungeboard!! I have some waiting for me at Scraptivate I pre-ordered a few weeks back and now it is in, I also want to have more of a play with the Tim Holtz crackle paint, all I need now is bigger bottles!
• I'm seriously thinking of a quick cutz, still not sure those alphabets are pretty pricey and I would hate to get bored of it, something to think about for another 6 months.
  

about me!!

It's the weekend, there are a few things that need doing, painting in the spare room so it is ready for grandma, washing, washing, washing, general stuff. I decide to blow most of this off so I basically have a whole day free, do I scrap photos I have screaming to be scrapped, do I work on the canvas's I have started and need to finish...

no... I don't, I read a book!

Now while this isn't such a bad thing right at this moment in time, I feel as though I have let precious scrapping time slip through my fingers. I'm not getting more than a run of three layouts at a time done, I'm coming up against walls, wrong colour, not what I really want or worst of all it just doesn't GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! according to who.. well me!! I get as much pleasure from the record keeping as I do from the aesthetic nature of my creations, I like them to flow. If they don't my balance is put off, my ying and yang chafe against each other a little instead of fitting smoothly together...

What bullshit you say LOL yes it is one of those days, I have again let myself be overwhelmed by my holiday season expectations.

I need to make a list.. and check it twice!

yes, we are chock a block of it at the moment.. lol

Here is what I have been doing this morning, these are for teachers gifts and work gifts, I need to make 120, 50 done and 70 to go!

and this is our present to one and other.. 500 gigabytes of glorious space!!! The dark tower (the name of out computer LOL) had one lonely gigabyte left and no one was happy... now we are very happy!

And today I learnt I truly know nothing about stamps and ink. Tim Holtz is doing a tag a day for the 12 days of Chrissy, they are amazing. Now I just have to chase down the supplies.

edited after reading a comment by Nicole... I back up all my photo's to disc, I don't know what I would do if I lost them, I do it month by month and usually have enough to fill a DVD by then.

Sorry you lost your photo's Nicole :(

So many photos and not enough time! I can see myself going back and doing a few more Donna Downey sketches after this weekend. It has been chock a block.

Friday we brick paved the rest of the patio, Saturday we had the variety club Christmas party and then we went and picked our Christmas tree and today they are having snow machines at the park, add to that we have had Michael's dad and his wife visiting from Sydney it has been a very busy time.

Atleast i can't complain about not having good photos to scrap! I just have to wait until I have made all the gifts for teachers and therapists.