Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Christmas Is Coming....

Hello to everyone. I can't believe it is less than a month now til Christmas. I think it is really important in this crazy time of year to stop and pause for a minute and see what God has done this year in our lives. We started the year with high hopes of one of the best years of our lives, so many great things were going to happen this year.....well, they just didn't. The highlights though have been great.....the arrival of our granddaughter Alexia Laine, and some relationships restored that had been a long time broken. As for the rest if you can scroll through the blogs and get a bit of an idea.

We have been really blest in our new home.....it was a horrendous experience moving, especially as Shaun's been affected more with this 2nd bleed than he was with the first. We have been blest too with the friendships we have and the help we got from them during this very stressful time. I would especially like to thank our dear friends Denis & Marilyn & our other dear friend Keely for all the help we got, they are very special people.

It was exciting and sad travelling via skype with Shaun's mum & sister instead of travelling physically with them as planned as they journeyed around the world. They had an absolute fabulous time and I am sure it is something neither of them will forget.

As the year draws to a close and we prepare for our first Christmas in our new home, we hope that you too will have a wonderful Christmas. We thank God for being with us through everything, and we look forward to sharing his generosity to us with others not just this season but all year round. I pray that you will be blest and be a blessing to others. Enjoy creating wonderful memories with family and friends. Check out my recipe on the side bar.....it has become traditional to have it now every year. One of the physiotherapists I worked with a couple of years ago is Canadian and this was his families Christmas recipe. It is really Yummy!!

Enjoy this wonderful time of year. May you have peace and joy & a thankful heart this holiday season.

Love Debby & Family

Monday, November 28, 2011

TTT that got up but I forgot to blog!!

So this was a page I did for Triple T that did get up on the site.....it was a layout / colour / & theme. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our little granddaughter. She was only new born here, still in hospital. The colour was bright pink / black / gold, the theme was art deco kind of....

I used plain black card stock for the background inking on it in gold using the Layers of Color, Belle Brocade Art Stencil which you can purchase from Lovely Linda who is Layers of Color Australia. I really like the subtle, softness of this technique. I have used some double sided paper as a layer of the background but on only half, and then coloured the lace and flowers using copic markers that I purchased from Kim at PaperArtsy, where I also bought the flourish die cut. A bit of bling using pearls and it was done. Hope it inspires you to perhaps use stencils, or colors outside the box for baby pics!!




Some challenges I have entered into with this page is:

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Birthday Shaun....

Today was Shaun's 53rd birthday. He didn't have a great start....getting up at 6am to get over to the medical centre for some blood to be taken.....very early start for him. Then on to work....which is a bummer as he only works 2 days a week now, and today was a work day.

The family all came over for dinner tonight. I made the Thai Salmon parcels (cooked on the new barbecue) and a warm potato salad, and another salad which had fresh beetroot, roast pumpkin, cucumber, baby spinach and baby rocket, goat feta, finely sliced red onion, sliced cucumber & roasted pecans in it. The dressing was vinegar, oil & Maple syrup. It was yummy, although the boys had the BBQ set at 180 degree F instead of C....so it just wasn't cooking....so we finally got to eat about 7.30pm!!

Our son, Caleb came over with his daughter Lexi, as well as his partner. Our younger son, Tristan with his wife Carissa, and of course, our daughter who lives here with us, Tamazin. It was lovely. Because we are still unpacking I was unsure if we had some candles, but Shaun said he'd seen some so he went to look. The only ones he found as you will see were number ones....but funny enough, they actually added to 53!!m I had made a gluten free, dairy free Lumberjack cake. Here are a few photos I managed to get on my phone.




 Tristan & Lexi

Lexi with her Poppa

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Time for a New Post....another page for Triple T not used!!

Once again, I have a page I completed for the Triplicate Trials Tuesday DT but sadly we closed before use. I had this photo in mind when coming up with the Layout design and colours. So here it is










The photos is of my mother & myself enjoy a 'cuppa' with my brother Paul in the foreground. This was taken not long after our arrival in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. My mother had just married my step-father, Peter Longrigg who was teaching there and we had moved there. This was his house at Korobosea, a suburb of Pt Moresby.



So I have used Stampin' Up double sided paper as the background over their plain card stock. Sadly, they did not have the right mint green so I had to find something at Bernadette's Scrap n' Stuff at the Richardson shops to cut out my circle. All other card stock was either SU or my own scraps. I made the flowers myself and the leafy flourish is from Kim at PaperArtsy....I just had to own that one!! The letters I have coloured but are from an old game that had belonged to my mother. The vellum butterfly comes from a SU punch as well with the pearls added.
Some other challenges I have entered this into are:
Get Hippity with Ippity - Embossing
Hooked on Craft - punches / diecuts
Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes
My craft spot - Hand made flowers
The Ribbon Reel - butterflies
Lollipop Crafts - Anything Goes
The Squirrel & The Fox - Summer
Craft your days Away - Embellishment Bingo
Squiggles & Giggles - Anything but a card

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Sorry it's been so quiet....

Sorry things have been a bit quiet this end....I have had an interesting year, and kept going as long as I could with blogging, but I haven't done much crafting or anything for the last month or so, but thought I would put up some work I had done for Triple T which sadly has ended now. So here goes:


So this page was a layout I had designed for Triple T but it never got used as we closed down before it went ahead. The bird is from Stampin' Up, (see Ann Craig's blog if you want to see the catalogue) and the leaf die cut is from my friend Kim, at PaperArtsy, one of her many gorgeous dies she has in stock. Here is the original layout from Triple T. You can see once again I have used a favourite technique of sponging....I sponge everything!!

The photo is of our family out having a barbecue at Black Mountain Peninsula with Black Mountain in the background with Telstra tower on it. This was taken quite some time ago....the kids are all grown up now!

Some challenges I have entered this into are:

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Time of my Life

I managed to get ahead in my DT projects before we moved and went on holidays, so I didn't have to worry about it, however, I have only just managed to get into my blog since we have come back from holidays and our old house was settled today!! So here is my effort for Triplicate Trials Challenge #12.


So the time of our life was to be a trip to Europe, however, we were unable to but my Mother-in-law, Pat and Sister-in-law, Tippa were able to go on without us! This was my inspiration for the card.






Here are some challenges this card fitted and so I entered it: