Arte Y Pico Award....

was bestowed on me by Jolene my bud from the U.S and because I'm having a VERY slow week, I've just realised that I should have nominated some recipients by now. SORRY !!!! SO, here we go....I nominate.....
Renee
Karen
Kerryn
Wendy
Sara
Check out their stuff.....it's awesome!!!

Scream "OW"

I've worked out a major issue in my life....I have a pre-loved spinal cord. It's the only possible explanation. While the rest of me is in pretty good working order for a not terribly athletic nearly 40, my spine is worthy of displaying in the museum of gruesome human artifacts, between the elephant man and the brain tumor with teeth. Which can only lead to one conclusion...someone else had it before me. ATM I am not capable of moving without giving my back muscles 10 minutes prior warning. And I blame whoever used my spine before I got it. I just know that they went happy-assing about, toting barges and lifting bales without a seconds thought about the next poor slob in line. Some people have no respect.

Visiting Hours

are hereby cancelled at Casa Hartwell because everyone who isn't Sebi is sick. Kit and I got it last night, BIG TIME and Bruce started this morning. I'm still feeling like death, but because men apparantly get MUCH sicker than women ?????? I'm the lucky one who gets to look after everyone else. Which so far means emptying buckets and listening to complaints. Florence Nightingale eat your heart out.

Inkurable April Layout

April challenge for the inkurable stampers blog is to use wings....so here's my youngest threatening GBH on the tooth fairy. Sweet child.

April 123 challenge

Tah dah!! My entry for the 123 challenge....using a household item as a stamp (i used a sponge) plus hand making an embellishment (chippie tag) and using the word April (self explanatory).

Layouts

Yes, believe it or not, I actually got some scrapping done, although first I had to clean my space BIG TIME, I now have everything labelled and in it's own spot, at least until the next time I do any work.
so....this is a double layout that I did using the new Cosmo Get Happy papers, plus a piece of MM bordered paper that I've had forever, and the new Adornit stickers, love them. I apologise for the gap, I'm feeling rather technically challenged ATM.


Also another featuring Seb...can you tell we're in Soccer season???? He's SO into his soccer this year, and my garage door bears the bruises of many hours of kicking practice.

All through the night

I'm sitting here typing with my eyeballs banging off my kneecaps because Sebi was sick last night. Mind-blowingly sick. Think exorcist without the head spinning. I don't know what caused it, or where it came from, I just never want to do it again. He's fine this morning which makes me think it might have been a touch of food poisoning, although we all ate the same stuff, so I hope no one else gets it. I only shovel vomit once a week....union rules. We have Grandma and Grandad coming for a visit this afternoon, then a trip to O'Reilly's to feed the parrots tomorrow, providing no one else gets crook....I tend to lose my famously sweet disposition when people hurl in my car. It's a Leo thing.

Multi Talented

Sebi can now swear in English, German and Japanese. We're SO proud.

Out of the blue

I received an email today from Scrapbook Creations telling me that the rainbow gallery has been shifted to issue 59 so i don't have to send them my layout till June 10th. Which would be fine if I knew what they were talking about....I haven't ever had an acceptance from Scrapbook Creations, although I have subbed things fairly regularly. So, one phone call to Sydney and a chat with a lovely girl called Haidi, and she tells me that my "Good Vibrations" layout is being published, and I've already sent them the list of materials. ?????? Mystery solved when I told her that I always list my materials when I sub to magazines....that's why she though I'd already been notified that they wanted to publish. So, a nice bonus for me!!! That's one layout for each kid.....works for me!!

A Tudor Tale

For my first swap on the Ausie Book Karma Blog, I was lucky enough to get a copy of "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gergory, which I have been trying to get from the library FOREVER, but with the release of the movie, it's as scarce as hens teeth, so I was a happy camper when it arrived on my doorstep. There's something about that period in history that really appeals to me....the clothes, the pageantry, the feasting and dancing. Then again, some of the other bits I could seriously leave out....the nightly lice inspections, ye olde medieval tampons, (say OUCH) and the connstant plotting and counter plotting. How anyone knew what was going on from one day to the next beats me. I found Gregory's portrait of Anne Boleyn totally fascinating, especially as she's the first author I've come across who really looked into Anne's relationship with her brother George. Other books make veiled references to "ungodly relations" but this book gives you a real insight into the lengths Anne was prepared to go to in order to secure her place on the throne. I always considered her to be a bit of a slapper, who used her body to get what she wanted, but there's considerably more to her character. I don't like her any more than I did (I was kind of glad she got her come uppance) but I feel like I understand her better. To check what books are available on the Aussie Book Karma Blog go here...

Agatha, Sherlock, Hercule and me....

here's a rule to live by....don't ever play board games with men. Even little ones.
(men that is, not games). I have just survived a game of cluedo that made the texas chainsaw massacre look like romper room, because the men in my life all need sensitivity training (and possibly long term psychotherapy, but that's another story)
For those of you who haven't played Cluedo, it's a murder mystery whodunnit board game, with six suspects, one body and a range of possible locations and weapons. Unless you play it at my house. Cluedo a la Hartwell involves grown men insisting on being Miss Marple, while Colonel Mustard and Reverend Green run an illegal casino in the library and Miss Scarlett gets up to no good on the dining room table. Mrs White, meanwhile, has poisoned the spaghetti and Professor Plum is growing dodgy herbs in the secret passage that links the kitchen and the conservatory. No wonder my head hurts. Fortunately Mrs Peacock confessed before the clock struck 12 and the boys are now happily playing commandoes on the deck while I have a panadol sandwich and a nervous breakdown. Monopoly anyone???

Perfection in all its flaws

How do they do it???? You know who i'm talking about....the perfect people. @#*%$ !!
The ones with 4 kids and spotless white furniture and well behaved pets and pollution free organic cars. Do they go somewhere to learn perfect, or are they some sort of organic free range mutant human from over the hills in far far away???
Whoever they are, I think they're planning a takeover and I intend to be ready for them. I've noticed a small but steady increase in the number of perfects I encounter on any given day and I'm sure that they're feeding off my many and varied imperfections like cutsie little disney inspired vampires while they grow stronger and more immune to daily disaster until one day I'll be dropping my kids to school in my pajamas while eating a Milo sandwich and they'll be lying in wait behind the healthy eating menu at the tuckshop. And they're so sneaky, dammit. One day you're yipping harmlessly to your friend about important world events and whether a cherry ripe counts as one of your 2 portions of fruit, and the next time you see her she's knitting organic bread and recycling cobwebs for habitat for humanity. I'd start a counter revolution but I've got to finish quilting banana skins before the next full moon......

A piece of quiet / got-no-mojo

is what i am enjoying at the moment, as I am temporarily sans husband and kids, who have gone off to wreak havoc in another dimension. I am mostly up to date house wise, which leaves me looking at my scrap room and procrastinating. It seems like forever since I scrapped anything, or even picked up my camera. My mojo is on a go slow. Try saying that without swallowing your dentures. So, in desperation, I have invaded the sacred domain of the mother of all mothers and stolen the goose that lays the golden eggs. Actually I have borrowed the sewing machine that hemmed the curtains, but it pretty much amounts to the same thing.... With my usual good sense and logic I have come to the conclusion that in order to get my scrapping mojo back, the obvious thing to do is to is to immerse myself in something else, so with the weather cooling off, I have decided to make a single quilt to match the double one I made last winter (which is still in one piece and looking rather fetching if I do say so myself). I'm sure that by the time I've sized and cut all the pieces, I'll be itching to scrap again.

What makes me feel good....
my mum
cable tv
sticking to my budget
good books
Sebi's bedtime snuggles

Milestones

I am actually getting a few things done ATM, believe it or not, including finishing a 50th Anniversary Album for a friend's parents, who will be celebrating this weekend. 50 years is a rare milestone to reach, when you consider the divorce statistics, I realised the other day that Kit is the only one of his friends whose parents are on their original marriage!! So all things considered, Bruce and I are not doing too badly to get to 17 years and counting!! Maybe we'll make that milestone ourselves one day!!!

I am grateful for
A loving and supportive husband
enough milk in the fridge to make coffee
good health
tim tams
sandalwood incense
xox

Looking forward

Well I'm still here....are you surprised?? No more than I am, and that's the truth!! After a few weeks of stuff that would make me an instant winner on "Stress Factor", I am slowly getting my life back to a point where I can deal with it one day at a time without freaking out when the phone rings or wondering when the next bombshell is going to drop. I always thought that I dealt with stress pretty well, so it kind of caught me by surprise when I found myself refusing to answer the phone because I was so sure it would be something else I didn't want to hear. In fact, between you and me and anyone else in the universe who reads this, I had a total panic attack at the shops when my mobile rang, because I KNEW who it was and what they were going to tell me and I just didn't want to hear it. (I actually had no idea who it was, cos I refused to answer it, but who argues with a hyperventilating crazy woman??) So, time for some changes, before the men in the white coats come knocking. I have finally realised that I cannot keep functioning on adrenaline and fresh air, so I have set myself some daily targets.
1. Eat at least one complete meal per day (the kids leftovers DO NOT COUNT)
2. Set aside 30 minutes to just sit and be quiet.
3. Use the answering machine instead of freaking out....saves brain cells
4. List your positives every day.

So, to get me started......
Today I am thankful for.....
people who help me
sleeping in on a weekday
happy children
cooler weather
rain on the roof

xox