Catch up post

I can't believe how busy I have been lately. I have badly neglected my blog, so I am going to do a quick catch up. So it's not too long and boring, I'll do the dot point thing.

* Baby Cooper is doing well, although he has a little bit of jaundice. They should be hom in a couple of days. Still no middle name yet.

* My brother-in-law has become engaged to the lovely Leanne.

* Marcel and Belinda were here for Christmas which was nice, and they brought Tim Tams with them. We tried to make lunch as close to home as possible. We had a ham, although we had to cook it first. No ready to go hams over here. Lucky I read the lable. Could have turned out badly. It certainly looked cooked.

*Kyan loved his presents. He now has enough train pieces to fill up his entire bedroom.

* I went to my first real life crop yesterday with my new Scrappy Giraffe friends. I met Molly and Kat from the SGK DT and the lovely Rosa, as customer of Kat's. Was lots of fun, although we got lost coming home. We made it safely, albeit very late. Poor Kat still had to drive all the way out to Long Island once she dropped me off.

* We cropped at Molly's house. She is so so sweet, and has the best accent.

* I have a new online class being announced at Scrapbook City in the next day or so. It is a BTP class. Would like to see lots of people there.

* Sara and I have been working on another project for Scrapbook City. More clues coming to your email box very soon.

* Still no snow. It's cold but certainly not freezing.

Here are some pics:





And this is from the crop. These lovely ladies are Molly and Kat.

Cooper Barnicoat.

This is my brand new nephew Cooper. He was born at 5:00pm QLD time yesterday, by c-section. He is 9lb, 8.
Apparently he is feeding well and is very quiet. Probably still the epi wearing off.

Will be back with more later.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

My sister is 4 days over due to have her baby. They are inducing her at the moment, as it didn't look like she will go into labour by herself. She is having contractions now, but it looks like it will be a long wait.

No idea if it is a boy or girl. I am scrapping at the moment, so I have both pink and blue cardstock at the ready.

I'll do a proper update about Christmas and everything a bit later on. In a scrapping mood.

Tagged by Erica,

A - Available/Single? Married
B- Best Friend? Sara
C- Cake or Pie? Cake, although I have found a renewed liking for meat pies since moving over here.
D - Drink Of Choice? Coke
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? Laptop
F - Favorite Color? Purple.
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? I think in Asutralian terms this would be snakes alive or jelly babies, so I'll go jelly babies.
H - Home or Homesick? Hmmm, not sure what to make of this one.
I - Indulgence? Chocolate.
J - January Or February? I'll have to reserve judegement till I check out the weather here. Usually Januaury though, because I am still on holidays.
K - Kids & Their Names? Kyan (2)
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Michael, Kyan and scrapping.
M - Marriage date? Nov 3rd, 2001
N - Number Of Siblings? 2 sisters, 2 step brothers and a step sister.
O - Oranges Or Apples? Apples, nie crunchy green ones.
P - Phobias/Fears? Heights
Q - Favorite Quote: Everything happens for a reason.
R-Real Hair Color? Boring brown.
S - Season? Spring.
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? Sara, Jess and Gigi.
U - Unknown Fact About Me? I used to be an irish dancer.
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Fennel. It is discusting.
W - Worst Habit? Not getting a hair cut.
X - X-rays You’ve Had? knees, teeth.
Y - Your Favorite Food? Prawns, chicken, christmas ham, Nan's chocolate cake.
Z - Zodiac Sign? Sagitarius.

Thanks Erica.

Forum back...again.

The Scrapbook City forum is back up again. Should be for good this time. We are slowly but surely gettign everything back to normal. For those of you who patricipate in the weekly challenge, I need you to check into the forum for some important messages so we can finalise the round.

The last week of the challenge was to use one of my sketches. Some of the ladies have been kind enough to let me post their layouts as examples of those sketches.

This on is by Tam. I love the colours she has used. The monogram looks awesome.


Here is another one by Brenda.

I love the starts. Such a cute photo too.


And here is Leone's version.

I love the colours and the fabric strips. I'll post some more as I get them.

We had Michael's work Christams party last night. I got to meet all the people he has been working with. Here are a couple of pics.

Forum back up.

The good news is that the Scrapbook City forum is back up.

The bad news is that Sara and I have a lot of work aheasd of us to try to restore everythign back to normal. Unfortunately we seem to have lost our member list, so please please please, head over and re-register on the board so we can get our little community back up and running. If you haven't been there for a while, or maybe not at all, this would be a great time to get onboard. Cant say too much yet, but this would be a very good time to get involved and ready for some very excitign news things coming up next year. You are going to want to be be a part of it all believe me.

Thanks everyone for your patience so far. See you over there.

***edited to add***
We have been working on the site and will continue to do so. In the meanwhile we have taken it "off the air" to make that job a little easier. Will keep you posted.

Sara Won.

I was waiting for Sara to post first, but she was the final winner of Scrap Survivor that we have been playing. It was a great competition. Sara was a deserving winner.

It was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad that one of us won. It's a great prize too. The best part is that we have made some new and very cool friends. Jess is just lovely, as is Erica, and Carla and Chara. The same ladies are all part of SGK too, which is really nice. I can't wait to meet some of them in real life. I know that Chara is bursting to hear my accent.

Not too much else going on at the moment. We have Michael's work Christmas function on Thursday night. It will be the first time ever we leave Kyan with a baby sitter. Suzi is lovely though, and Australian, so I'm sure that Kyan will have a great time. Have been busy trying to find something to wear. I got a shirt today that is quite nice, so that should be good.

I haven't been scrapping a huge amount. I want to though. Plan to do some tonight. I do have a finished layout, but I haven't taken a photo yet. Hopefully I'll have some to show tomorrow.

No smile Daddy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YT2vlvAfG4

I have nothing else to say.

Happy Day!!! Chocolate and DT's.

The announcement has gone up at Scrappy Giraffe Kits and I have been selected as one of the new Designers. I am very very happy to be there. Kat and the girls are awesome. Congrats to everyone else who made the team as well. I can't wait to get started working with everyone there, including the very lovely Cathy, Erica and my new good friend Jess. The kits are excellent. This DT selection has been the best process I have seen so far. Kat has some very cool ideas.

The other exciting news is that Cathy sent me a package of Mars bars all the way from Canada where they sell them, as opposed to here in the states. Anyone from home will understand how comforting it was to see that black packet. Even Michael enjoyed his litle nibble.

Here's a little story for everyone at home.
I went to get a burger for lunch today. I couldn't quite find what I wanted on the menu board so I asked for a cheeseburger, and asked for a friend egg to be added, as you do in Australia. The guy was most confused, so I repeated it to be answered with "An egg, are you sure?" I really didn;t realise how much of an Australian thing that was. Good thing I didn;t ask for beetroot. I might have gotten kicked out. Meanwhile, he proceeded to take out a pre-packed burger from a plastic packet. You know the kind you get at home in the servos that you have to heat up yourself. He pulled it apart and cooked up the "meat" and the bun, and cooked me up an egg. By the way, that's all there was, no lettuce and tomato even. Very very strange.

So the moral of the story, go to the shop right now. Order a burger with the lot with out repecusion and enjoy every little bit of it. Maybe you could think of me while you are doing it.

Scrapbook City website down.

As you would have noticed by now there are spme technical difficulties going on over at the website, so I thought I would use my blog to get out a message.

The weekly challenge and make up challenges are supposed to be on Sunday night. Obviously with the website down, this may not happen, so lucky you, all get anextension. Once the website is up, I'll give an updated deadline. I hope it wont be too long, I know you are all waiting to see who the overall winner is.

Meanwhile with the website down, everyone must have lots of extra time for scrapping, so I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Thanks for your patience everyone.

A finished page

I have been a bit unmotivated since finishing survivor, but I think I have gotten back into it in the last few days. Here is one I have just one for the 3 bugs call.



I want to set up bloglines or something. Can anyone recommend a good one for me?

Exciting news

I know this is my second post today, but I thought I would share some exciting news. I have just had my first 2 layouts accepted to the Basic Grey gallery. I've been meaning to submit for ages, and finally got around to it today. Glad I did.
Here's the link: www.basicgrey.com/catalog/idea_gallery.php

This is one of the layouts. It is also for the DT gallery at Scrapbook City. It used the brand new Fruitcake range by Basic Grey.

Another layout done!

I decided to stay up late last night to keep aneye on Kyan, so what better to do thatn scrap. This is the second one from last night. I just finished it off. I have also done this up as a sketch, which I am about to add to my sketch blog. Has anyone had a chance to have a go at any of them. I would love to have some examples to go with each one. I also love to see how other people interpret them.




Michael is on hos way to LA at the moment, but is only for one night this week. I'm glad he was home while Kyan was sick.

An actual layout

For one reason or another, I haven;t scrapped for over a week. Very unlike me. I sat down and did a layout for Scrapbook City tonight. It is using the new WRMK papers. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I know Carla has been waiting to see what I achieved tonight, so her it is. Sorry it's so late.


Kyan is still a bit sick unfortunatley. He has coughed himself to the point of throwing up tonight, the poor little thing. It's very cute when he says "poor baby"

Welcome back to my new friend Kat. She has been a bit sick in hospital, but we heard from her today and she seems to be doing better.

I think that's it for the moment.

A catch up

It's been a big week. Lots has happened. Might do the dot point thing tonight.

* I got voted out of survivor last week, much to my disappointment. The worst part was that the layout I did for it last week was one of my favourites so far. Sadly I think the voting has become strategic rather than on merit. Oh well.

*It was my birthday last week, but Michael was in Chicago and only got back late in the night, so my birthday was pretty much a non event. We had issues with the gas supply to our apartment the same day, so I spent most of it sorting that out.

*I taught my first online class at Scrapbook city last night. I thought it went really well. Lots of people came to scrap with me. I'll have some fnished layouts to show you soon. This was my layout.


* We bought our first ever real Christmas tree on the weekend. It's decorated nicely and looks great. I'll take some decent photos of it soon, but meanhile he is Kyan when I asked him to pose for me. He is such a goose.


*Kyan is sick. We went to the doctor today for our first visit. he just has a cough and a bit of a runny nose. Not unusual with the weather fluctuations at the moment, but a good excuse to actually find a doctor.

*That's all I can think of for now. Thanks to everyone who left lovely messages about my masters stuff. It was disappointing not to get further. I just hope that my move to the states didn't their decision. They said it wouldn't, but who knows.

A reminder that Sara is running online classes at Scrapbook City this week. Log on to find out the details and show her some support.

Masters is out.

I had lots of emails this morning to say that the masters book is out. Congratulations to my friends Sandra Gerdes and Carole Jansen for making it as Masters this year. I knew they both would. A double congrats for Sandra, who also got the front cover.

Apparently I got 2 honourable mentions for my beyond the page and my monogram. I'm assuming we are allowed to share now that the book is out, so excuse the bucketload of ohotos today.











I can't say I'm not a bit disappointed about my layouts not getting anywhere. I really liked them this year. Oh well.

I can't wait to get the book and have a good look at everyone's entries. It will be ages beforeI can get my hands on a copy though. Does anyone know if contributors get a copy?

Tagged

I've been tagged by Chelle.
1. NAME: Alicia
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes, a character on the Waltons.
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Not telling.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Usually.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Ham
6. KIDS? 1, Kyan 2 years.
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Who knows. I hope so.
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? I have a blog
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? A little bit
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Hell no.
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I don;t really like cereal.
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yep.
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY? Physically.
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Caramel.
16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? I don't know.
17. RED OR PINK? I like both. Pink.
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? Not being able to accept compliments.
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Everyone.
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Yes please.
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Black pants, pink shirt.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Purple.
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Michael's aftershave.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My landlord, trying to fix my lack of gas.
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yeah!!! It;s a shame I left before I got to know Chelle better.
26. FAVORITE DRINK? Coke.
27. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? I don't like to watch sport.
28. HAIR COLOR? Boring brown.
29. EYE COLOR? Hazel.
30. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No
31. FAVORITE FOOD? Prawns, chocolate, chicken.
32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Hhappy ending!
33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Some midday movie with Julie Andrews.
34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Pink
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate mud cake
38. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Jess
39. MOST LIKELY NOT TO RESPOND? Not sure.
40. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? No book. Reading a local Brooklyn newspaper.
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? No mousepad, using the laptop.
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV LAST NIGHT? Still Standing.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Kyan giggling.
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Either.
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? New York.
46. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Nope.
47. WHEN WERE YOU BORN? 31 years ago today.
48. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Sydney
49. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? Scrap!!!:)

I tag Jess, Ang and Brendy.

Free online class and more.

Sara and I have been busy working on setting up brand new online classes over at Scrapbook City.

To celebreate and since it is Christmas, I will be running the first class completely FREE!!!!!

Here's sneak peek.
All you have to do is head over to the message board and sign in to the class thread. Obviously you will also need to register with the board if you are not already. The class will be held on:
Monday the 11th of December from 10:30am.
The class uses the brand new Basic Grey Fruitcake range. Kits are available from the shop.

Sara's class starts on the 15th of December. You can purchase this class as well as class kits either online or in the shop. The class is just $15. Here's a little look. Looks good doesn't it.

Even more layouts

We are having a fairly quiet week here. Michael is in Chicago again, so it is just Kyan and I. We have a few things planned for the weekend though once Michael is home. Hopefully some more ice skating, and we have a Christmas party with Michael's work.

Sara and I made it through another round of survivor. We are into week 9 now which is a pretty good feeling. Only a few weeks left to go. I'll love for it to be a tie between Sara and I. I don;t want to have to come head to head. Erica is still in too, and she does lovely work, so she will probably beat us both.

Here's a layout I did last night for Scrapbook City with the brand new Crate Paper products.
The hat, scarf and gloves set were a gift from Leisa and Kerri when I left, so I did this layout for them. It came together really quickly, but I'm really happy with it.

This one is for another comp at the Scrapbook Supply Company. It's the second layout I did for this entry as I wasn't happy with the first one.


I have another couple of things that are due this week, so I'll work on them tonight while Michael is still away.

My new friend kat from Scrappy Giraffe is sick in hospital at the moment. I'm sure she'll be fine, but spare a thought for her.

No movement on Melissa's baby yet. She's hoping it will come before Christmas. The doctor doesn't seem to think that anything will happen for a while yet, but we are still waiting all day and night for a phone call.

I think that's it for now.

A few things to share

When we left to move overseas, I had to give up my DT position with BumbleBee Crafts. I have still had work in the ads til now though because of the turnaround time. Sara has been kind enough to email me some of the ads since I have left, so I thought I would share some here.



They always do a really good job with the ads I really enjoyed working with Dorlene and Joy at Bumblebee. I hope I get another chance to work with them some time in the future.

I have put the new challenge up at Scrapbook City. It is a friends challenge this week. here's my sample layout.


I'd love to see some more people joining in the challenge.

If you haven't read Michael's blog layout, check it out. He has a very interesting way of recounting our adventures. Plus you can find out about the possible weather we might be facing this week. Spare us a thought, while you are all sweltering at home.

A few layouts to share

Because of Thanksfgiving over here, we are in the middle of havig Michael home with us for 4 days in a row. It's been good. We've been tryign to get out and do things, but at the same time, we have been a bit lazy since Michael has been working so hard. We finally got Michael a pair of ice skates today, so of course, we heading straight to the rink to try them out. We both went well. We have Kyan with us of course, who is too small to skate just yet, so it means one of ius has to wait with him, so we can't actually skate together, but it was still good. I'd love to be able to have some lessons, so I can something mmore exciting than just skate around in a big corcle. I'd like to learn to skate backwards.

I've been busy doing layouts for challenges. Two fo these are for Scrap Survivor. It is getting close to the end now, so the comp is getting quite tough. Not sure that I am happy with mine this week,(Wisdom Path) but I did my best within the challenge guidleines, so we'll see what happens. With any luck, I might get immunity.



This one is for the blog challenge at Scrappy Giraffe. Don;t bother asking though, I can't tell you what the secret is. Yes Mum, this means you.


That's it for now. I'm off to think of a challenge for the weekly challenge at Scrapbook City. The retreat has just finished, and from I have heard so far it went really well. Still a bit sad that I wasn't there, but we are hoping to be back in April for a week, so maybe we can organise a crop while I am home.

Turducken and rain

Well, we have had our first Thanksgiving, but it wasn't all that eventful. It has been raining since last night, so unfortunately we didn't get to go and watch the balloons being inflated. Michael had a quick look after work, and decided it wasn't worth taking Kyan in. We also missed out on the parade, since it was still miserable. It wasn't even certain that the balloons woud fly until the last minute and they flew quite a bit lower than usual It was quite sad watching it on Tv and not actually being there. The rain did make it look pretty unpleasant, so I'm sure it was the right choice.

I cooked my first turkey. It turned out surprisingly well. We had a nice dinner. Kyan once again refered to the turkey as dinosaur. I have no idea where he got it from. He has taken a bit of a liking to Dorothy the Dinosaur, but that has nothing to do with food.

We were watching some show last night and we found out about something called a Turducken. It is a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey, all deboned. Strange!!! We also learned that in the south they deep fry whole turkeys in enormous buckets of fat over an open BBQ flame. Seems extremely dangerous to me, not to mention very unhealthy.

Tomorrow is called Black Friday. It is when all the shops have their major sales like our boxing day sales at home. Some of them have actually started tonight, and some of them start at 5 in the morning. Most of them only go til lunch time. We probably wont go. There isn't really anything we need, and it doesn't sound like a good place to take a baby.

Let's hope that the weather is a bit better by tomorrow. Not sure what the plan is yet.

More layouts

Here are some more layouts that I am about to add to my gallery.





I went for a long walk around Parkl Slope yesterday. All of park Slope is quite pretty, except for the part where we live. Oh well, after a year, we will move to a betetr spot. I walked the long way past the bank and then to the park so Kyan could have a play, and by the time we got there, Kyan was fast asleep.

I'm going to take him to Central Park this afternoon and then we'll meet Michael and watch them inflate the enormous balloons for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Apparently it is a bit of a tradition, so it should be good. The weather forecast is for wind which could be a problem though. I hope the parade doesn't get cancelled.

I took some photos yesterday for a challenge at SGK. Here's what I came up with:


I better get going. I have somee things to do before we head in to Manhattan.

Dinosaur Wings

We went for dinner the other night at a Thai restaurant. I ordered some chicken wings as an entree. When they come out the lady asked Kyan if he knew what they were. He piped up with "Dinosaur Wings". Very cute and funny.

My Mum has finally got broadband on, and a webcam, so now she gets to see Kyan almost whenever she wants. My sister also got hers connected which is good. I'll get to see her baby nearly straight away when it is born, rather than having to wait til next year when we come home.

I have been busily uploaded layouts into my galleries on my siodebar if anyone is interested. It's nice to have them in one place.

I think that is all I have. I have some new layouts, but I am too slack to get them onto the computer just at the moment.

A Very Lazy Day

We have had a very lazt day despite good intentions. We have pretty much just stayed home and napped, read the paper and make a train track.

Kyan is being a bit funny. He wants the train track built, but only wants to push the trains. He doesn't want to turn them on. He was a bit odd last night too. He woke up about 10 and wandered out. Somehow (Daddy) Sesame St ended up on TV. Kyan stopped mid cry to watch it. Literally. He still had his hand up to his eye. It only had about 5 mins to go. As soon as the credits rolld, he lost the plot. He screamed. Not just upset because it was finished. It was as if he had just seen a car crash. It was awful, but a bit funny. I've never seen him so devestated before.

Have done a few more pages this week. I'm really happy with them too. I'll upload them here and into my gallery.






The Life of Kyan one is my favourite at the moment. I'll admit that there is a lot of Julie Love influence in there. These are both for survivor. The competition is getting very tough.

Blog makeover

I decided to have a little play with the new blogger and managed to delete most of my settings, so I have spent the morning completely red-doing my blog. I have added a gallery so I can have one plce for all my work.

Let me know what you think.

Miserable weather

We had plans to do all sorts of things today but the weather is awful outside. We did manage to make it to an "Aussie" pie shop this morning. The pies were good.

I got myself a pair of ice skates yesterday. They cost almost $10 to hire, and I got my own pair for $50. Should save us a bit of money. The rink right near Michael's work is free too.

I took Kyan to the Brooklyn Children's Museum. We haven't seen the whole place yet, but they have a toddlers room with toys, a water trough, sand box, etc, plus they do classes there. Kyan seemed to have a good time, although he didn't stick to any one activity for more than a minute at a time. He seemed to like the sandbox the best. The sand was blue and glittery. Will probably go again this Wednesday for story telling.

We have a couple of things planned this week with Rachel (from Australia). One of which is the Butterfly conservatory. No idea what that is really, but I like butterflies.

I have started a new forum over at Scrapbook City for all the new stuff that came out of CHA. Here are a couple of the layouts.




















Better go. I need to do my sample project for this week's challenge.

Please sponsor Shaun

If you have a look on my sidebar, you will see a link under Michael to our friend Shun's blog. Shaun is one of Michael's best friend and best man. Along with his wife, the 4 of us have been friends for about 12 years (wow!)

Anyway, Shaun is taking on the "Movember" challenge. Basically it involves getting sponsorship to grow a mo. The proceeds go towards caner research. Michael found out about it last year, but late. He grew the mo, but didn't do the sponsorship. It certainly spread the word about the cause though.I have a photo somewhere, but I can;t find it just at the moment. The moral of the story, head over to Shaun's blog, leave him some encouragement,and maybe even a donation.

Nothing much going on. The weather was absolutely miserable today. It's a shame we couldn't send some of it home. For those of you reading this in America, it is now level 4 water restrictions at home, because the drought is getting so bad.

Michael and I had a cultural training session last weekend through his work. They had an ex-pat come to speak to us. She (Rachel) has since sent me a heap of links for playgroups and so forth. Today I looked up the Brooklyn Children's Museum and found that they have some classes for toddlers, so I'm planning to head there tomorrow to check it out. I think it's an art class on Thursday's.


A few layouts, then I am off to bed.

Some more layouts.

Here are a few more layouts that I haven't gotten around to scrapping yet. Sorry if I am repeating any, I am starting to lose track.




Absolutely nothing else to say today. Just sitting at home doing the washing and the cleaning.

I have had a few new people drop by my blog later. I'd like to update my sidebar, so please speak up if you come here so I can add you and return the favour.