A new sketch blog

I found this blog while surfing the other day, I think it was posted at 2peas. Anyway I'm a sucker for card sketches and I needed a break last night so made these two cards.

For Sketch #1 I have used all scraps from my brown tray, Hero Arts stamps and Stampin' Up stamps.

For Sketch #2 I used my new, just arrived yesterday, Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl papers. How nice are they?! I have them in stock, just not up on the website yet, lol, I was too busy cardmaking to load them ;) Oh and I've used a Catslife Press stamp on this card.

I am freezing!

YES! We finally have our airconditioner fixed! Oh gosh it is so nice! I have goosebumps, lol.

I had to take Mary to the doctor today as she has been complaining of a 'sore heart', we have a new doctor as our old one has decided to just do counselling. But this new guy was great! He was so good with Mary and very thorough, I was very happy. He even did a blood sugar test on her. Anyway it seems that she may have a little bit of reflux that we have to keep an eye on for a while.

While we were on that side of town, we popped into that really cool bookstore I mentioned a few posts ago and I got myself the last book of the Jamie & Claire series. I'm still on book 5 - The Fiery Cross and at the rate I'm going it could be a couple of weeks before I finish, lol. I go to bed each night and fall asleep with it open so then have to reread the next day! I also ran into Jo while we were there :)

I've also been filing paperwork like crazy this week, it had certainly built up to an obscene amount. Then I surfed for new papers for April kits. I've been getting some advice from the dt girls too. Lots of nice stuff out there, too hard to choose sometimes.

I got two lots of swap ATCs today in the mail. Very nice! Thanks Jo & Monique.

I also realised tonight that I haven't really shown any scrapping on here lately, lol, so here are some pages from our Christmas holiday album. I went back to basics so I at least got it finished.

Pikachu cake

Here's a pic of the cake that I made for Billy's party yesterday. He got a LOT of Pokemon cards as presents and we have a LOT of leftover cake, lol.

I know it's a cliche but how does time fly?! I think to myself that I don't have to blog as I only did it a couple of days ago and then when I check it's 9 days ago, lol.
So what have we been doing? Well the kids all started school. I didn't cry at Peggy's first day but I sobbed to hubby the night before. We got some great pics of her walking to school on her first day. She was off and running, leaving us well behind. Of course she fits in like a glove as she has spent so much time down there in past years. All the kids love their new teachers and class arrangements so that's all good.

I was contacted by Stamping and Papercraft six weeks ago to do a commission of ten cards for them, and guess when I started it? Last weekend, lol, they are finally finished and I overnighted them to the mag today. Nothing like working under pressure! Hey my excuse is that I was baking and covering school books.
Which brings me to my vent about covering school books and contact! How can different brands of contact vary so much?! Oh my gosh I struggled with the Pirates of the Caribbean contact that Billy selected. It just would NOT work. I wrecked one book and have to buy him a replacement. I was just about in tears on Sunday morning but was saved by the bell in a funny email from Gabbie, talk about the right timing. So on tossing out the Pirates contact that cost a small fortune, we pulled out the Creative Imaginations pirate paper and boy oh boy do these school books look good! I'm happy, Billy's happy, it took me longer to do as we had to gluestick them on, but cost wise was probably cheaper than the wasted contact!

Tony went to a friend's 40th birthday in Melbourne over the weekend. It was a real struggle to decide on a present for him, so I ended up making it. You can see it here at Buzz & Bloom. I got my next design team parcel from them today, with more rubber, woohoo, so now on to more creating. While hubby was away, I took the kids to the Egyptian exhibition at the National Gallery. I've always had a fascination with Ancient Egypt and Billy studied it at school last year, even making his own canopic jar with contents! So the exhibit was great, it was so unreal to be looking at artwork created 4000 years ago. We then went into the permanent exhibits and some of that artwork left a lot to be desired in my humble opinion, lol. There were two items that stood out in my mind. One being a plain white canvas, no shades of white, or textures, or even a tiny red dot in a corner, lol, just a plain white canvas that someone declared was art. The other was a box wrapped in hessian and tied with string, called art, in fact I think it's official title was 'box wrapped in hessian tied with string'. It all makes me feel not quite so bad in sometimes having the title of artist.
After the exhibition we went to a cafe called All Things Chocolate, and we walked out of there feeling very sick indeed. We had to walk off the food before hopping back in the car or I was afraid we may have had an accident on the way home, lol.
I also had coffee with Tammy last week, it was the first time that we had met, although she has met my husband before, lol. We got along really well, it was nice :)
Lime Tart gallery is up. Check out the newsletter and project sheets too! March kits have gone out to the designers, now to start thinking April ;)
I have just about finished Drums of Autumn. How are you going with it, Keri? I haven't heard of A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I must go google it, lol. Ahhhh okay another one to add to the wishlist. I won't read what it is about as I don't want to know, lol, I haven't even read the back cover of Fiery Cross. On the subject of these books, does anyone know why in book one a character was named Callum MacKenzie, but in book two, his name changed to Colum MacKenzie? I'm assuming Colum is perhaps more Scottish than Callum, but still....
Today I am baking cakes, I have promised a Pikachu cake for Billy. Even though it was his birthday in January, he is having the party this weekend. His current obsession is with Pokemon cards.
There, I think I have caught up, with blogging, not with life yet, lol.

Tagged, tiles, comets and books

Yes I've been tagged by Gabbie :)

A - Available or Single: LOL
B - Best Friend: I hope she knows who she is
C - Cake or Pie: Lime tart of course!
D - Drink of Choice: iced water
E - Essential item you use everyday: coffee
F - Favorite Color: atm I've been told it's green
H - Hometown: Launceston, Tas
I - Indulgence: new clothes
J - January or February: January I guess
K - Kids & Names: Billy, Mary, Peggy
L - Life is incomplete without? should I get soppy (friends) or funny (a brain)?
M - Marriage Date: Dec 31st 1996
N - Number of Siblings: 1, I think, lol
O - Oranges or Apples: green apples
P - Phobias or Fears: crowds
Q - Fave Quote: Happiness is the journey, not the destination
R - Reason to Smile: I'm alive!
S - Season: summer or winter - Spring! I hate the extremes, especially living without our aircon! T - Tag 3 or 4 People: If you haven't done it, consider yourself tagged
U - Unknown fact about me: I hate elevators after being stuck in a tiny one with my three children and an old lady who was threatening to vomit!
V - Vegetable you don’t like: brussel sprouts and my mum used to buy them by the bagful!
W - Worst Habit: procrastinating
X - X-rays: knee, chest
Y - Your Fav Food: chocolate, mango, fresh raspberries, roast chicken and gravy in winter
Z - Zodiac Sign: Gemini



Tiles - I have finished my Collections Tile swap that Tammy is hosting. Here's a pic, don't look at it closely if you are in it!

Comet - we went out last Saturday night, I think it was, to try and find the comet. We drove and drove and drove for a good spot but to no avail. Finally we came across a street with lots of cars parked and in the darkness we could see people with tripods. We still couldn't see the comet but decided to stop anyway. As soon as we got out of the car we could see it! It was amazing! So much better than Haley's Comet, lol. So after watching for a while, back in the car and home again. We parked out the front of the house, got out of the car and guess what?! There was the comet! Right over our house! So we were able to go out on our balcony and now knowing what we were actually looking for, we could see it really well.

I'm reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon now, continuing the Claire & Jaime series. We headed out to the library on Wednesday but arrived too early and it wasn't yet open. So we did a wander around the shops and I found a new little bookstore, well apparently it's been there for over 6 months, lol. In we went and I'm such a sucker for books that we all left with one or two books. I was lucky enough to find both of the Diana Gabaldon books that I needed to finish the series for $8 each! Yes brand new - $8 each, I'll be going back there again!

February Lime Tart sneaks are up, actually they aren't really sneaks at all, lol. I haven't used the 6x6 kit yet, but I have been playing with the 12x12 and I love it! I have done an 8.5x11 layout titled 'ten years wed' and now I've started on a 9x9 album of our holiday at the coast over Christmas.

Peggy starts kindergarten tomorrow :( Let's hope that I can contain the tears that my baby is growing up...