HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

it's the last day of 2009. Where has the year gone? So much has happened this year, some happy memories, some sad, some that make me laugh still, others that bring a tear to my eye but overall it was a good year.

Now on to 2010. I haven't made any new year resolutions as I know I can't keep them. So for 2010 I have taken an idea from Elise who makes a list of things that she wants to do before her next birthday comes around, so I have created a list of 26 things I would like to do before the end of 2010.

I have included my list in my side bar and each time I complete one I will date it and mark it off. I also have a hard copy stuck up on the wall in front of my desk to help keep me on track.

Also for 2010 (which Jason says he will believe it when he sees it and probably all you scrap-bookers out there will say the same thing) I am not allowed to buy any new scrap booking supplies until 2011. Apart from adhesive, ink cart's and paper for printing my photos onto I am not buying anything new.

The reason for this you ask? See my last post about recycling stuff and having too much Stuff.
I know people out there will say you can't have to much stuff but I do. I have stuff I don't even remember when I purchased, which is not good. So until 2010 I will not be buying anything new.

I finally Finished My Summer Cleaning. The house looks now like some one lives in it full time and cares about the place. Jason glad as it has been over a week since we have been able to walk in the front door with out having to step over boxes and tables. I just about have my new scrap booking corner set up with everything I need in reach and easy to access which will help me use my stuff up next year.

Two things before I sign off for 2009. Our beautiful Darling River Finally has water back in it and flowing water (one metre so far) as well. Shame the water hadn't come from local rains but it is still here. (For those of you who don't know you could have walked across the river in many places before this flow came down in the early hours of the morning)

And lastly I have chosen one little word for 2010. It's something that I found a few years ago about choosing one little word and using it to help you through the year. This year my word was Halcyon (which means to relax and take things slow). This year I have chose "BE". Why Be? It can mean so many things, Be Happy, Be patient, Be strong, Be sad, Be content and the list goes on. So throughout 2010 you will see my word appear ever now and then in my works.

That's it for me for 2009. I am going away with Jason for nearly the whole of January so will blog when I return home.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Everyone

I Hope everyone has an enjoyable

Night.

See you all in 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Creative Everyday, New Scrap Corner

Firstly

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to everyone.

I hope you all had a great day where ever you were. We were lucky enough to have some rain on Christmas Eve and a little bit on Christmas Day. Only 65points but it's a start. It is still over cast today and has the feeling that it could come in and storm. I have hung washing on the line to dry so knowing my luck it will come in and rain.

Jason and I had to go and check the animals at the place we are care taking and due to the rain had to go on the bike. This was the result ............

Ingore the date on the photo. Jason's mum took the photos for us on her camera and she hasn't reset the date since changing the batteries. It was a long trip but it was also lots of fun.

Didn't have a Christmas tree this year. We were going to have a real one but time got away from us so in the end I decorated the wall above where I put the presents. I think it looks very effictive and the best bit it is doesn't take long to take down afterwards.

This is the photo opportunity that I was greeted with this morning when I went out the back door. They look so sweet and innocent looking over the top of the outside lounge seat but in reality they were chasing each other around like puppies do jumping and playing on the lounge. As long as they don't chew the seat covers I don't mind :-)

It's not clean by any means and I still have lots to do but here is my new scrap corner. As you can see from the pictures I have a lot of natural light on my desk (which I am loving) where before I had my back to the windows.

This months Creative Everyday theme was Recycle. For this theme I am recycling all my old scrap booking stuff and giving them new life and using them in my scrap journal.

I have also recycled my scrap journal by using an old diary I was given that I didn't use.

The Diary is sitting in the middle of my desk and the "mess" around the diary is the first lot of scrapbooking stuff I am using.

I am liking using my old supplies and giving them a new life that I think for my January scrap journal I will again use an old diary that I was given and contiune to recycle my supplies.

The following is a picture of the drawers taken out of the chest of drawers in the corner of the room. When I took these out I didn't realise I had so much "stuff" that I have bought and not used so one of my new years resolutions is to not buy any more "stuff" for my scrap journals until I have used what I have already got.

As Lorraine Bate says on the Scrapbook Creations DVD No. 4 - we have bought the items because we like them, we now need to use them instead of keeping them in the drawers.

These may look like buttons staked on top of each other - which they are - but I have stuck magnet strips on the back of them and now have funky new fridge magnets.

In my last blog entry I said I would scan some of my pictures in that I had drawn/sketeched while on the motor bike working with Jason.

Well here they are.

Some aren't very clear, this is due to the diary being very bulky and the scanner lid not being able to close properly.

Well that's it for this entry. Hope everyone is having a relaxing creative break. Hopefully I will have more photos before New Years Eve.

Till Then

HAPPY CREATING

Two days till Santa Comes

Where has the time gone? It has been nearly a month since I have written and I haven't completed anything on my list that I want to complete before Christmas.
Most recent things I have been doing: -

Playing with my camera setting while checking waters on the property we are looking after over Christmas
Swimming in the river keeping cool on the hots days we have been having.
The cows on the place we are looking after didn't like Milo (Jason's dog) so they came closer to scare him away, They scared me more then they scared Milo.

The cool colours in the high tops that have been building up for the last two days. They are predicting rain for us over Christmas so lets hope they are right.

Onto other things

It's a bit hard to do things on my list when I am out helping Jason on the property that he works. We were leaving at 4 in the morning so that we could be out int the paddocks ready to muster the sheep as soon as it was day break and Jason's boss could see in the plane. The only good thing about being up this early is that I saw some beautiful sun rises and a beautiful moon set. I wasn't going to take my good camera on the bike with me and my old smaller camera didn't have any batteries. So I was unable to record any of the sunrises on film. I did manage to sketch some of the views in my little pocket note book that I had on the bike with me. Hopefully when my new scanner arrives today – old one doesn't like my new laptop – I will be able to scan the pictures in and show you.

Now onto some random photos from while we have been away picking up Jason's new ute and from my Family Christmas dinner that we had early due to Jason and I spending Christmas in Louth with his Mum.

Jason and My Dad cooking the BBQ

Trudy had some fun with the table decorations - Ho Ho Ho - My Christmas Drink...

Hasn't my niece Amy grown. I can't believe that she is now eight months old – where does the time go?

Ryan (my nephew) loves to read books and he loves his Uncle Jason so while we were cleaning the mess up Ryan read books to Jason.

I gave Ryan two little plastic frogs that when you push down on them they jump. Well come dessert time the frogs appeared on the table and I don't know who had more fun with them Ryan or the rest of us. The frogs some how kept landing in the dessert bowls....... Lots of Laughs. On returning from Narromine Mum and Dad cleaned out their storage container and we brought home my crystal cabinet and a desk. As well as five boxes of memories for me to sort through, and a box of novels.

When we got home the desk didn't fit where I wanted it to fit so I have had to have a major clean up and move around in the my craft corner/spare room.

Before moving

During the moving

I still haven't finished moving things around hence there is no after photo. Hopefully today or tomorrow I will be able to finish organising the house as we will hopefully have visitors after Christmas and at the moment they have no where to sleep.

Well that's it for this entry. Might write again soon but am not promising anything.

Till Then

HAPPY CREATING

Totally Random Entry

Well this would have to be a surprise blog entry. I have been able to access my blog on the school computer so thought I would blog with what ever I had here at work. The following are a mixture of AEDM creativenss along with some totally random things. Sit back and enjoy. Lots of Photos. :-) :-)

Favourite photo at the Moment.

These two piglets were near the water trough that Jason was cleaning. The mother pig and two other piglets ran away but these two were quite happy staying in the water over flow. I like the colours, but Jason informs me they will grow out of that colour as they become older. Shame they look so cute.
Have wanted to try this stlye of book mark for a while now and the other day I finally did and I am very surprised at how easy it was to create. Will be making more of these in the near future I think.

Saw this Swan while helping Jason out on the place he works. Thye are such graceful birds. I could have watched him for hours.

These Rainbow Bee Eaters come in for a drink from the pool. This day I decided to see how good my camera is, and I have to say I am very happy with the results condersing that the birds were over 50 metres away.

The day I took these photos was very HOT 46 degrees C. The birds were all flying around with their beaks open that's how hot it was.

In these photos I was trying to capture the little headed birds which are called Crimson Chats. They are very hard to capture on camera as they fly away with the slightest sound/disturbance. In the end I managed to capture three of them and one near the puddle from the sprinkler.

Saw this idea in a craft magazine and thought I would give it a try. Me Mosaic. All the squares represent something about me at the moment. Wether it be colours I like, things I do, food I enjoy or flowers I like.

Rainbow of squares. This was created using coloured textured squares out of six different magazines, Food Ideas, Better Homes and Garden, Woman's Weekly, Scrapbooking Ideas, Country Living, Hats for the season.

This just came together while waiting for the girls to finish there work.
The writing reads - Show your true colours, Stand out and BE Yourself, Make a statement.

I finished my Wanted Poster. The girls thought it was very sweet.

Can't really see these but I went see through ATCs. One for each season - Signs of Spring, Let it snow, Colours of Autumn, The heat of Summer. How I created them was putting them through the laminator.

Finished Mount Oxley Painting.

Mount Oxley in Charcoal. I would have to say I don't like this one.

Mount Oxley in Pastels. Favourite Mount Oxley picture.

While supervising the girls in the pool I heard frogs and this is the results of my doodling while supervising.

These next two art works where a challenge in a magazine. Which is more powerful - Black or White?

Well that's it for another blog entry.

Till Next Time

Happy Creating

Two weeks of CEDM creativeness

This morning when I went to go outside I was greated with this sight. The pups have grown so much over the last couple of days and they are now becoming quite adventures. Plus due to the hot hot weather we are having at the moment the pups are camping under the house with the other dogs and it is funny listening to them play and explore as we hear everything through the floor boards.

Two weeks of Creative Everyday Month is over and already my A5 display folder has a variety of creativeness. Here is a sample of some of the things I have started/finished/experimented with so far

November 1st – Erased Turtle Shell

I drew this on the back of a piece of card stock with a pen then sanded the opposite side to revel the shell. Not 100% happy with the way it turned out but I did complete it while sitting on the edge of a river.

November 2nd – Colourful Garden

This was some fun I had with gel pens. I had been in the garden most of the day so the garden theme was on my mind.

November 3rd – Sewing Flower Display and start of Down on the Farm

Don't know how this one came about but something different for me to do while I watch TV. Am hoping to finish Down on the Farm next week at work.

November 4th and November 5th – Didn't do anything on either of these two days as I was working for one of the and didn't feel like doing anything after work and the other day I just ran out of time after doing paper work and house work for most of the day.

Did this doodle picture which has no theme or anything just doodle while on the phone.

November 6th – ICE Penguin and Mount Oxley in Pencil

I was watching Ice Age 2 and this is the picture that turned up on my page while I was doodling. I love the penguin which is funny as there are no penguins in Ice Age 2.

The Mount Oxley picture is part of the girls school work. We have four different tasks to do over the next couple of weeks so will be including them all.

November 7th – Mount Oxley in Paint and the start of a Wanted Poster.

Haven't finished this Mount Oxley painting yet as I will finish it with the girls when we go back to the school room.

One of the girls has a unit on Bushrangers this term and one of the activities she has chosen to do is a wanted poster. So we experimented today with tea and coffee stained pages to make the background. This page was created by fully dunking the page in a coffee and tea mix then adding coffee on the back to create the darker spots for a more aged look. Will be finishing this poster when I return to the school room.

November 8th - Nothing to record on this day due to drafting goats all day in the heat and not having any energy left when I got home.

Novemebr 9th - Plant Sketch

You can't really see the plant but I found it while we were down at the river fishing and thought I would try and sketch it as I have never seen it before.

November 10th - Owl drawing

I found an art book for children while I was on camp this week and I really liked the way they drew the owls so while having my morning coffee while the childen at the camp all slept I started to draw this picture. Hopefully I will add more to it over the next few weeks.

November 11th and 12th - Dots and Lines

One of the sessions the children did while on the camp this week was Aborignial Art works. I started this canvas to help show the children some of the different techniques that was used. There are four different areas in this picture - where I live - the swirls painted with dots, what I can here - the river and the fish swimming, what I can touch - the flowers in the neighbours garden and what I can see - which is the big purple area one as I haven't finished it yet - it will be the dogs in the back yard.

This is a close up of the flowers. This technique would have to be my favourite on the canvas so far. draw the pattern into the wet paint then add the dots when it is dry.

This was the storm front that appeared on Thursday night. We had gale force winds that blew a few trees over in the neighbours yard and well as blowing my strawberry patch guard to the tennis courts three house blocks away. Even though the wind scared me I quite enjoyed watching the sunset.

Well That's it for this entry

Until next time

Happy Creating