A little story - The hunt

Being the candy cane/peppermint = red and white nut that she is...

(American Crafts Hollyday line)

(October Afternoon Holiday Style) 

(American Crafts Elf stickers - I want these!)

Goldilocks (that's me) was immediately drawn to these decorations when she saw them in the catalogue...

Oooo, look at the red and white striped balls, she thought.

And the candy canes.

And the red Ho Ho decs - cute.

She poured over the page looking at all the fun things.

"I'm going to check them out," she said and ripped the page out of the catalogue and put it on her handbag so she'd see it when she left the house next time.

A couple of days later she made her way to Target to check out the decs.

She could feel the anticipation building and was hopeful they had what she wanted.

She found the Christmas section...

....and looked around...

...and looked around again...

She was disappointed.

There was nothing.

They had nothing from the catalogue.

Why don't they have anything? she thought.

Big sigh.

She left.

She ate chicken.

She mentioned the dilemma to Prince Charming, but he had no advice. She even saw the head of Target on  telly and silently asked her why she didn't have the decs in her stores when they were in the catalogue.

She checked online, but nothing.

Far out.

Meanwhile Goldilocks went to Myer to check out their Christmas section.

She discovered that if she bought three or more things, they were 30% off. She bought three or more things and was happy.

She even got some red and white striped balls!

The horizontal ones.

At 30% off.

Happy.

Still though, she liked the wavy red and white striped balls in the catalogue and wanted to check them out in real life.

Four days later she was at the shops again doing errands and she decided to run (not run, get serious, go... go) into Target again to see if any new stuff had come in.

Again, she looked.

Again, she found nothing.

On a whim, she decided to go to Big W to check out their stuff.

Off she went. She drove.

She found the Christmas section.

She was intrigued.

She looked.

She found the candy canes from the picture....

....then it dawned on her.

She'd ripped the page out of the Big W catalogue, not the Target catalogue. 

She rolled her eyes at herself.

She looked left.

She looked right.

She shrugged.

I'm here now, she thought, good for me.

She didn't get the candy canes from the catalogue - they were a bit chunky for her liking.

She didn't find any wavy striped candy cane balls either.

Or horizontal striped ones.

All the other savvy Christmas shoppers beat her to them...

She didn't find any red Ho decorations - only a lonely white one that was a bit beat up.

She did find some other plastic candy canes that she liked though.

And some red jingle bells, a bear and a Joy word.

Nice.

And as she left the store, she silently apologised to Mrs Target for thinking she'd been false advertising.

:o)

A little story - Christmas lists

A little story...and a long running one.

My grandma was a huge list maker.

And a huge list keeper.

She kept all of her lists in a book rather than on bits of paper and they added up to quite the...well...list, in the end.

In that book she recorded what she served at her son's 21st birthday party in the late 60s.

She also recorded what she took on holidays in the 1970s.

There were wedding lists, Christmas food lists, and the reason for this post, Christmas present lists.

Here's Grandma.

That's her on the right there.

Granny and Pappa are on the left (it was my 17th birthday). Grandpa was there too, as well as the rest of the family.

Mum showed me Grandma's lists book last year - I borrowed it and wrote down some of the Christmas gifts she gave me over the years (I was born in 1973).

1973 - Child's cutlery $4.25
1977 - Jewel box $5.98
1979 - Bed dog (that you put your pyjamas in during the day - I remember that dog) $6.56
1983 - Cluedo $16.69
1984 - Gold watch with safety chain $4.99, Basket $4
1985 - Hair dryer $14.95
1986 - Two silver bracelets $4.99 $4.99, Silver sleeper earrings $2
1987 - Bracelet KMart $4.98, Casette case $10.99
1988 - Night shirt from Venture $15, Pendant - Korean Pavilion - Expo $10, Earrings $12
1989 - Perfume $17.98
1990 - Tape Petra Praise $15.25
1991 - Key ring $3, Crochet (that she made), Book - A Woman Named Damaris $7.95
1992 - UBD KMart $15
1993 - 2 Laser Knives large $9.93, small $6.93, Crisper $4.77

How many people have this sort of list??

How lucky am I?

It's just a little thing, but it's a good thing because it's a collective memory, but it also brings back other memories of the Christmas parties we had with her and Grandpa over the years and all the wonderful times we shared together.

And I remember her showing me the list book probably about ten years ago. I chuckled then because it was so her. I chuckle now because it's still so her, and a bit of me too. Not to that extreme, but definitely me.

This year is the first year we won't have Grandma around at Christmas. She passed away in August. It's sad, but she's in heaven, so she's all good.

I miss her, but I'm glad she's there. It's where she belongs.

Merry Christmas, Grandma, Grandpa, Granny and Pappa - miss you all...so much - thanks for all the gifts you bestowed on all of us over the years, but thanks most of all for the love.

A little story...about photos

So the other night it was around dinner time and I wasn't doing very well. 

I had a headache, dinner was taking ages, I was frustrated about stuff, upset about stuff and just plain tired of stuff. 

Anyway, I wasn't doing great and I was about to lose it.

Then I did lose it.  

"That's it, I'm done", I said.

I dropped the utensils and walked to the other side of the bench. That was code for 'you're on duty, Andrew'. He took over and started dealing with dinner. 

"Go on," he said, "Go and have some time." 

"Where?" I said. 

"In the other room. In the snug." 

I breathed a big sigh of relief and took myself to the other room. I was going to flick the telly on for a bit, but decided to pull out a photo album to look at instead. I'd been wanting to do it for a while, so I took the opportunity and pulled a recent one off the shelf. 

I sat here. 

Right in this spot. 

I was still upset, but could feel myself calming down after a bit because of the time out of the kitchen and the time with the photos.

After about 10 mins (even less, I think) I felt a lot better.

I love photos and the time spent with them did me good.

I smiled at Cody's antics and he and Andrew wrestling on the floor.

I saw my mother as a young girl on the beach in the 1950s.

I saw myself on a family outing in the 1980s when I was about 10 or 11.

I saw Andrew with his grandmother at her 100th birthday celebration.

I saw my own grandmother with her three youngest nephews.

I saw me doing stuff around the house.

I saw us.

I saw life.

I saw good things.

Andrew came back in 10 mins and asked if I was ready to eat my tea.

I was because he gave me the time I needed and because I chose the photos over the telly.

I love photos, they do their job well....

...if you let 'em.

PS. That album is still sitting there on the floor waiting for me to come back to it. I will. Soon.

A little story - custard

I realised the other day that I take weird photos sometimes. 

They're not weird to me because of course I took them for a reason, but still, weird to others that might see them on my camera. 

One of the weird ones is this one...

Yes, that's a custard powder box and container.

The back story?

When I make custard for us, I make it from the packet. I do not like the stuff that comes ready made from the supermarket - never have.

Thus the custard powder.

I've never stored it in anything except for the box until just over a week ago.

We were cleaning out the Tupperware (it's been a year since I moved it all out from the big drawers in the kitchen in an effort to sort it out and it was time to say yes or no once and for all) and I came across this jug, so aptly labelled for my needs.

It's my grandma's container.

I mentioned recently that she passed away over a month ago.

After 16 years of having custard powder in the box, I now have it in the container, thanks to my grandma.

I just wanted to take a photo of it is all.

And I'll put the photo in my album when I get it printed, so when I see it I can:

~ Be grateful for her for just being her.

~ Remember her whistling in her kitchen.

~ Smile.

Again I'm reminded of how good photos are. Printed photos, that is. I like 'em when they're printed, in an album and tell a story as a whole.

Love you, Grandma, love, love, love you. Thought of you the other day when I saw some jelly beans too...ah, the memories. So good.

A little story

Andrew and I did a divide and conquer at the supermarket recently and when we got back home I pulled out a tin of dog food.

We don't buy tinned dog food and then I saw what was on the tin.

"Did you buy this because the dog on there looks like Cody?"

"Yep"

:o)

Papers + Vegemite

Hi there,

Just wondering - do you pick and choose from lines, or do you buy the whole thing?

I do a bit of both.

Most lines I pick and choose from, but if it's Oct Arvo, I tend to buy the whole thing. By that I mean the paper bits - labels, stickers, patterned papers etc. I don't buy the stamps and buttons and all those bits.

I also like that Oct Arvo has 8 x 8 pads, which means I can get the whole line without having to buy all the big sheets. I did that with Rocket Age because it was more of a boy line, but I still liked the papers and wanted a few.

Anyway, just thought I'd do a pick and choose from the new Crate Paper lines. They have three called Farmhouse, Random and Peppermint.

Here's what I'd buy...and why.

Peppermint Collection



Love the red and white - I do like that colour combo for Christmas. Might be good in a Dec Daily (don't know if I'm doing one).

Like all the little To and From tags on this one. 

I'd cut 'em up and use them as embellishments. 

Again with the red and white.

Oct Arvo had a peppermint paper similar to this a couple of years ago and I liked it a lot.

Sometimes I love papers when I see them and then have a hard time using them.

And sometimes I'm a bit take-it-or-leave-it with another paper and then it becomes one of my favs because it works with everything when I'm actually scrapping.

Happen to you?



Like the label stickers on the right there.

They'd be used in scrapping. I'm thinking scrapping for all these papers and bits.



Fab letters.

The little word labels are cute too.

Farmhouse Collection



Hello? Cute labels. I'd cut them up and use a couple together.



Measuring tapes - well, that's just cool.

And red and white again - nice.

None of these papers I'm showing you would be used as a 12 x 12.

Two words...

Cut up.



Like the apples, not so sure about the scallops around them.

Lined paper would be used for journalling - prob on top of the apple paper.



Fabbo.

Since I use Becky's page protectors from Project Life - these would be great to slip into the pockets for decoration and journalling (all my scrapping is done in divided page protectors - I use all brands).



Cool - the flowers remind me of my granny.

And talking about my granny reminds me of the dates I've been eating because the dates remind me of my granny and pappa.

They used to have peanuts, boiled lollies, dates and things like that as eat treats at their house - they weren't your typical chips and lollies type people like my other grandparents were. Anyway, I bought some dates and my first taste of one in years took me straight back to their house...I miss them so.



Again for the pockets.

Granny and I used to have Girl Talk...I remember talking to her about boys. She was such a sweetie. Sweet memories...another reason I scrapbook.

My books are a place to put their photos, their Scrabble score sheet that I found in their Scrabble box and little stories like how eating dates takes me back and how Pappa was before his time...

He was...We were eating lunch with Andrew's aunty and uncle from New Zealand and we had the Vegemite on the table as you do.

Who doesn't have Vegemite on the table...seriously...

Bread, butter and Vegemite - nothing else cuts it, except maybe toast, butter and Vegemite...

...anyway, I was telling them how Pappa introduced me to Vegemite + avocado.

It sounds weird, but it works because the avo needs salt and the Vegemite has it in spades.

Andrew then found that the actual bottle suggested pairing avo with it. "He was before his time!" Good old Pappa.

It was over 15 years ago that I sat at his kitchen table (Granny was gone at the time) and I tried that new taste. It's been one of my favourites ever since.

Going to try it?

Jatz, butter, Vegemite, avo, salt and papper.

Toast/bread, butter, Vegemite, avo, salt and pepper.

Yum.

And when I make pea and ham soup I don't eat toast with it, I eat bread with Vegemite and avo - double yum.

I must stress that the butter is imperative with the pairing of Vegemite.

Imperative. 

You've gotta have enough butter, so your eye doesn't twitch with the Vege. I don't like the eye twitch, but Andrew does.

Anyway, I scrap so I can put my photos somewhere and so I can record little stories like that.

Would I do a page with that one photo of the Vegemite bottle on it?? Noooo way.

I'm going to stick it in a divided page protector and put the story behind it on a tab. Simple stuff.

And the story will be printed out of Word and just printed on white copy paper. Even simpler stuff.

Back to the papers we were talking about before...

Click here to see the rest of the bits in the Crate Paper lines above. They have their other collections there too.

Pick and choose or buy the whole lot??

I love that we have choices in paper...and food!

:o)

A little story...

So, the fella and I were having dinner the other night as we do.

He surveyed his meal (as he does) and poked at the potato in particular.

"I've gotta say," he said, "I'm not really a fan of putting onion in the mashed potato."

"I didn't," I replied.

His head came up in surprise and he said, "Oh, so it's just lumpy?"

Huge laughter aaaand a big sigh from me at the same time...

:o)

Inspired by Andrew - A little story

Good morning, howdy and fancy seeing you here!

You know, my husband doesn't craft. He has, but he doesn't as a regular thing at all. He'll give his opinion when asked (and sometimes not when asked), he'll let me bounce things off him and yabber on about stuff, but generally no, the man doesn't craft.

BUT one day I walked into my room and found this card on my desk. He said earlier he'd left me a little sample in there.

Here it is. What do you think?

It's a one layer job (just a sample as he said) and it's quite good actually. You sound surprised?

Here's why I think it's good...

1. He made it.

2. He stuck to his guns. He reckons all the cards I make don't need to be cards, but just card fronts to save paper. His is a card front. Gotta give him props for just doing his thing. That, or he couldn't be bothered to fold the card...

3. He used a few different tools - punches, scissors, pen. Good one.

4. He did two borders - scissors up the top, punch down the bottom. All were within easy reach on the desk. Nearest is best I think he was going for.

5. He lined up the Martha border at the bottom. Big props there!

6. He added the love bit to me. Gotta love that.

7. He layered the punches. This is a skill, people, a real skill. Those Starburst frond things are right in the valleys of the petals...again, big props.

8. He suggested it could be used as a layer on a card too. He knows how this card making bizo works.

9. He surprised me. We were chatting about a card I had to make (just a little sample I needed to do) and I had no ideas at the time. He decided to help me and do a sample that I could copy to save my brain. How fab is that? Man, I love my husband, he is a true gem sometimes. Note I didn't say all the time because, well, that would be lying. I'm a shocker sometimes too and I'm willing to admit it.

Anyway, back to the card...He was leaving for work and he told me he left a sample on my desk (with a proud and cute smile on his face). I went in and checked it out and broke out in a huge grin.

Just the fact that he did it made me smile.

And the fact that I was inspired by it, well, that made my day. And my job a whole lot easier.

This is my card - there's a lot of similarities, I think.

- Layer on a card.
- Feature in the middle.
- Border at the bottom.
- Border at the top, but I kept it straight.

10. The tenth reason why I think his card is good?

(Oh wait, he just walked by and I asked him to come in here when he was ready...I'll ask him to give me number ten after I read the blog post to him...let's see what he says, shall we?)

Just waitin'...

Still waitin'...

I'm going to read a blog or something while I wait...

Okay, we're back.

So, Andrew why is your card so good? (microphone over to you)

"Because I did it"

and

"It has elements which I put there to help Deb think. And it worked. Still developing my style at present. Well, actually, probably won't do anymore cards, so that is my style. Check ya's."

He's gone now and the whole time I said to his retreating back, "Check ya's? Check ya's??"

I've never heard the man utter that in my entire life.

That's the thing about blogging, you never know what you're gonna get!

Toodles! (told ya!)

:o)

Tina! Tina!

A little story

Don't you love old photos?

I've just scrapbooked this one. Photo in one pocket. Patterned paper (with a label layer) and some typewriter-typed thoughts on a journalling card in the pocket next to it. Done. Amongst other things, I talked about Barbie watching herself on the hammock - that's a broken leg waiting to happen.   

I'm loving my Project Life/scrapbooking right now, but that's a story for another day.

Today's story is this.

This is my brother. Look how cute. He's not cute anymore, he's handsome and hilarious.

When Pete was young he was full of energy. He never walked, he ran. He played sport, he climbed the walls (literally - I'd find him up at the ceiling in the hallway with one leg on each wall. It was a challenge to him. It never entered my head to try and climb to the ceiling!) - he had a lot of energy, did I say that?

One thing he used to do to me (us) was pin me to the floor on my stomach by sitting on my back. He'd then jam his chin into my spine and roll it around a bit! It killed! You know what kids are like...

Anyway, one day (I don't know why) I told my Year 3 class this story. We must've been talking about siblings or something. They all laughed and we had a chuckle together. Later in the day I took the whole class out to the oval for some run around time. I was distracted for a second and when I turned around, here were some boys sitting on each other's backs jamming their chins into their spines and cracking up the whole time!!!

Oh man!

Big eye roll from me.

BOYS!

:o)

A little story...

About a month ago we were having dinner and all of a sudden I noticed the whole backyard was pink. 

I looked to the west and exclaimed, "Look at the sky!" 

We both flew outside to have a look while I grabbed my camera on the way. We've seen these pink skies before and they don't last long! 

Look how gorgeous.

Simply breathtaking - I love it when my backyard is pink.

A minute or so later the sky had turned to this...



He stood there and watched it all happen.

Another minute later it was all gone.

They're over so quickly, but I'm glad I was able to capture this one. They're very special.  

A little story

I think it's the same the world over. You send food with him and he brings it home...well, bits and pieces of it a few weeks later.

Saw this mass of food in his bag and had to take a photo.

At other times I've seen him sneak the fruit back into the fridge when he comes home. He just quietly takes it out of his bag and puts it back in there...funny. 



Here's the little journalling card I did for the photo - journalling reads:

"Ah, this was telling. I send fruit with Andrew each day, but whether he eats it is another story. Then I saw his bag. Gotcha! He also had a tin of fish and two cup-a-soups (as we call them) in there. No time!"

It's little stories like this that make me smile. It's him. It's us.

(Full disclosure - I don't send lunch with Andrew every day of the week. He's a big boy, he sorts his own lunch sometimes.)

How do the journalling card and the photo sit together in my scrapbook?

Very easily, in fact. I use Project Life from Becky Higgins and the journalling card sits above the photo in the divided photo protector. 

If you click on the link above, it'll take you to Becky's products page where she has a video that walks you through the Project Life kit. You'll also see regular photos of what's in the kit too.

More on all this soon!

PS. Other dog/happy cards are Wild Cards from October Afternoon.