Random Thoughts of a Heard: July 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

New Month ........

Well it's almost the start of yet another month, so that means New Kit time at Embellished. And this months kit is a doozy - a great excuse to get a heap of layouts done for that special man/boy in your life. But will get to that in a sec.
Some exciting news to share ......the Heard family is hitting the road again!! Yep, we are travelling down to the Gold Coast this Friday for five days of action and fun at all the theme parks - man am I looking forward to it .........well we all are really LOL. I love our family getaways - a chance for us all to spend a heap of time together in a fun place. Yes, we're always buggered by the time we get home, but those days away together are just heaven - and I know we really just need some time together as a family - so stay tuned, I'm sure my next update is gonna be full of pix lol - what kind of scrapper would i be if it wasn't??
Have been out today with Ali and Luke for some play time at Crazy Jokers - an indoor playcentre here in Rocky - was a totally blast. Ry was so tired when we got home and he's crashed in his room for a nap at the moment. Thanks Al and Luke for a fantastic morning.

Other news .........today is the last day to register for IDOL at Embellished. This was a blast last year and the layouts were just amazing!!! So if you are thinking about it, or think it sounds like a great excuse to scrap then SIGN UP!! You have till midnight tonight and the comp kicks off tomorrow - WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? GO .....SIGN UP NOW .......IT WILL BE A BLAST - and there is a fantastic prize up for grabs. I'll even put a link to the sign up thread to help save you time LOL - SIGN UP HERE. There are already 64 sign ups for it - is going to be a blast for sure!!!!
Okie onto some layouts now:
So have had a play with this coming months kit, it was the perfect excuse to scrap up a storm for my little man Nicholas. I noticed a little while ago that sometimes Nick tends to be overlooked - hopefully I have now helped balance things out a little for him. The first layout was a bit of a girly spin to show that though it may seem really boyish, the kit can still be tweaked to be used for girl layouts.

looooove this layout - yes its pretty simple, but it's a little message to nicksta about the special place he has in our family as the middle child ........it's a pretty important spot to have don't ya think??

finally got round to scrapping the pix of Nick's first buzz cut - my gosh I nearly cried when I had to shave his head - I will never, I repeat ....NEVER..... attempt to cut his hair again.

So there are the Kit layouts - hope you like. I managed to do six layouts and there are still enough papers left over for me to do easily another three or four layouts - so definetly papers galore in this one.

The next couple of layouts are my samples for the Elsie challenges i run in the forum. First layout is for the 'ribbon cluster' challenge and the other is for the 'scrap your fav. food' challenge. How yummo do those scones look?? MMMMMMM.........scones.....

And this last layout was just a muck around/play layout. It started out totally different to how it ended up lol - but isn't that always the way? It was mainly a green and white background but then I suffered from a major case of the 'overdoits' and well, it ended up like this = still like it though, and am glad I finished it - was gonna pull the photo off and redo it at the start.

And this is just a super quick double I did the other night when Steven booted me off the computer for a game he wanted to play - the cheek of him LOL. Figured if we are heading to the coast again then I better scrap some of the pix from our last trip there at the end of 2005.

Well that's all for me this week. There's a stack of clothes to be organised and put away that is calling my name ....... where are some earmuffs when you need them? Thanks for dropping by and will catch up again soon.

till then, take care

Julie xx

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Little sports action.......

Well another week has come and gone - they are just whistling by arn't they?? I'm happy to share that this has been a great week for us here - definetly a turn around from last week for sure. Same as always though - have been flat out I know but now that I'm sitting here and trying to rethink the week I really can't seem to recall what exactly it is that I've been doing, lol I have such a terrible memory.

Have been working on next months kit for Embellished - so that was keeping me busy most nights. Have also almost done my projects for my first all day workshop next month - will share them as we get closer to the date.

The kiddo's had their first sports day yesterday. Nicholas was sooooo excited to take part in it. He is so full on into his sports and it's hard sometimes to reign him in a little and explain that sometimes its fun to just enjoy the games and not get so competitive over them .....lol, I don't think I'm exactly the best role model for him on this topic - I too tend to have a little bit of a competitve streak at times, but am working on it slowly. Maddy too was looking forward to the day - it's not so much the competition for her but more the perfect excuse to go flat out and burn some energy off. Both kiddo's were totally exhausted that evening - slept well for sure. Here are some pix from the day (HUGE THANKS to Ali for the lend of her camera ...much, much appreciated chicky!!!!)

Here's a couple of Nicholas - he won third place for his sprint race. Unfortunately I missed both the kiddo's sprint races as I didn't get there till about 10.30 with Ry, would of loved to have seen them run.

Don't you just love Nick's sprinkled little face. A little while back I was havin a chat with him, and as we finished I said 'love you kiddo', he turned around and asked me 'even if i have freckles mum??' All I could say was 'even more so because you have them kiddo'. He is just the most beautiful soul this little man of mine.

Here's a couple of pix of Maddy from the day. She was soooo intent on the game, her eyes were on that ball the whole game lol. But she had a ball and thoroughly enjoyed it. She too won third place for her sprints - having those long legs of hers has got to be an advantage. You can see just how tall she is compared to the other kids in her grade - she is easily a head height above most and she is still growing!!

And here's a cheeky little grin from my little man Rylan - isn't he just adorable ...... grubby face and all LOL. He loved going down to the school and watching the kids - was quite content to sit back in his pram and watch all the games going on. I gave him a hair cut about a week or so ago - a cute little mohawk - just trimmed the sides a little shorter than the strip along top and back ...... couldn't quite do the bald side look lol. It suits him to a tee - he really is such a little personality at the moment and I'm loving it.

Have some layouts to share - these first two are just some fun/for me layouts. First one is using some new KI papers - they are actually from their petshop range but you wouldn't know .....they are so cute!!! Second layout is using the new Basic Grey papers. Love both these layouts.

Here are my latest DT layouts for Scrapgenie. They were made using the Blue Cardigan Designs - Yesterdays - range of product. Can I just say that this range of papers and accessories is just GORGEOUS!!! Beautiful colours, very soft and aged, if your LSS doesn't have them in ask for them - yummy, yummy stuff and so very easy to use.

Since I loved them so much I used some of my favourite photos with them - really really happy with how these layouts turned out.

Okie well that's it for today, it's late and I need to hit the sack. Oooh forgot to mention ..........GOT MY CAMERA BACK TODAY!!! YAYYYYYYY!!! LOL, does feel good though to have it back in my eager hands.

take care and will chat soon

Julie xx

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Start the week over please......

Ever had one of those days when you wished you had of just stayed in bed and let the rest of the world go on around you? Yesterday was that day for me - seriously....I kind of wished I could of just buried myself under a tonne of doonas and not made an appearance at all.

Ry had a really crappy nights sleep so was pretty whiney all day, even when we just sat and played cars together he'd just walk off whining - really not sure what was up with him. He had his day nap - was a short one for him though, so I guess I'll just put it down to lack of sleep.

Then when I picked the other two kiddo's up from school I had to go to the supermarket, from the time we walked in all three were just mucking up, whining, crying, asking for things - whining again when told no, they rarely act like this and certainly not all three at once. So needless to say by the time I got home I was cranky and had a headache, only to deal with Harvey Norman and Cannon about my camera. Not going into this one a second time - seriously I could of headbutted someone for this. Then to round up with wanting to cook dinner and do something nice - so go to pull out the potatoes only to find two little itty-bitty ones in the tub - LOL not a big deal normally but after the day I'd had it was just the icing on the cake ..... no way was I heading back to the supermarket with the kiddo's again - I am not that much of a glutton for punishment LOL.

But that was yesterday and today is today - so far so good LOL .......pleeeease keep fingers crossed for me that it continues well. I guess we all need to experience a bad day now and then to really help us to appreciate the good days - okay, based on this theory I should have enough to fuel quite a good few days then lol.

Other than that it has been pretty quiet and uneventful here - dare I say a little boring?? Kiddo's are back into the swing of school again. Maddy though is pretty tired after school each day and her emotions are swing pretty widely at the moment, beginning to feel a little panicked about her teenage years - anyone else have a 7/8 year old child that seems hormonal at the moment?? really high highs and really low lows - within the space of minutes?? Please tell me you do, it might make it seem a little more normal.

Have been working on next months kit for Embellished - can't share just yet but am five layouts into it at the moment and there is still quite a bit of paper to go through. But I can share these layouts with you. These three were just for fun/me layouts - really like them

This layout was my sample for the latest Elsie challenge in the forum - to fill a background. Was fun to break out of my little 'white space' zone for a while, and was definetly challenging to fill the entire layout. But these circles are fun to draw up, still looked a little plain so jazzed some of the circles up with bits and pieces. Don't you just love the face my little man is pulling here - it's his 'cheese' face. He has a bit of an annoying, but cute, habit at the moment of jsut saying cheese everytime the camera is pointed in his direction. It is cute and kinda funny, but after a couple dozen of these kind of pics you kinda wish he'd change it up a bit .........maybe I'll teach him to say Coon LOL.This layout is for this months Colour Therapy challenge in the forum - the DT were given a triple colour combo this month - red, blue and white. These are my two sisters - Anne-marie and Lousie (younger one) - pic was taken up at the botanical gardens here in Rocky ....my fav place to hang out. You can check out the full article here:

Well thats about all for today, sorry its a bit of a misery post to start with - I have had a great week otherwise but i guess its easier to complain than smile sometimes, will work on fixing that sometime lol

take care and will chat again soon

Julie xx

Monday, July 09, 2007

Here comes Routine.....

Well it's the last day of school holidays today. Kiddo's are excited to be heading back to school tomorrow, and I ....well I must admit I'm really looking forward to getting our routine back. It's been a month since we've had a normal routine in the house and I think we're all a little tired from not doing things the way we would normally do them. I know that Ry's sleep patterns are just all over the place at the moment, so that will be the biggest bonus of getting back on track.

I think he's also going through some sort of growth stage at the moment. He normally only has the one bottle of milk when he goes down for his sleep at night, but lately he'll finish the first and ask for another one ...... lol, or as he'll say - "More, more?" And then he'll usually wake at about midnight and ask for another bottle - so three all up in a four hour period - seems a bit excessive for me but it's not like I can so No, you don't really need it. From memory they do have a growth spurt around 2 years old, so hopefully it's just that.

Well there's not alot else that's been happening in the Heard household. We've enjoyed the last week of school holidays. We've hit the parks enough to keep the kiddo's busy through the days. Maddy has been scrapping with me quite a bit as well, and her album is looking pretty full at the moment - might have to invest in another one for her. Can't get her into the bad habit of just storing layouts in pizza boxes like her mummy does lol, makes it too hard to catch up once you do finally invest in some albums. Anyone else like me or are you all organised as you scrap each layout? Seriously, I have like eight full pizza boxes at the moment just waiting to be sorted - thats a whole lotta albums I think. I think I'm done with the post bound albums, they don't really hold a whole heap extra and when you do put a couple of packs of inserts into them they don't hold together so well anymore. Ali had gotten some ringbound albums into shop and they look really great, seems like they would hold quite a few layouts and the price for them is just fantastic. LOL, they were so great they sold out in like TWO DAYS - gonna have to move quickly when the next load of them comes in i think.

So like I said, nothing really interesting happening round here, so will just share a few layouts I've done in the last week.This first layout was for one of my classes I recently taught up here. Love this pic of Mad and I.

This layout was for last week's Elsie challenge sample in the forum. This was me getting to meet my gorgeous little niece Brylie - really like the colour combo in this layout.

This is just a quick layout I did the other night at our Cyber crop get together at the Shoppe Saturday night. Love that spotted Crate paper I've used for the background, is a gorgeous colour.

And this was for this week's Elsie challenge sample - to create a mini album in a tin. I didn't so much go with the mini album idea, but included more a letter of things that I wanted to share with Maddison.

Well thats all for today guys, thanks for dropping by and I'll catch up again soon.

take care,

Julie xx

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Catch up time ..........

What a flat out couple of weeks it has been here. So much has been going on and now for the life of me I don't know what it is LOL.
First up, all our guests flew out Sunday week ago. It was absolutely fantastic to be able to catch up with everyone from back home. The house is heaps quieter for sure but I'm kinda missing all the company we had. Meeting and cuddling Brylie was definetly a highlight of the visit from my mother and sister. LOL, just wanted to add from my last entry that yes the first week had me feeling clucky, after two weeks though I'll just say that I'm very happy to be a mummy to slightly older kiddo's and am definetly comfortable in our decision of no more bubba's - you kinda forget over time just how much time little one's need, ours are a little more self sufficient now a days which is kinda great in a way.
So the guest flew home and school holidays begun. so whilst the house was a little quiter there was still the mayhem that comes with three young kiddo's in a house day after day. It has been great having them home though - the key is to definetly keep them busy!!! We've been out and about a bit and that is helping in all of us keeping our sanity LOL. They are back to school this coming Monday, and to be honest, I think Maddy and Nick are really looking forward to it. LOL - I think, they think, that I'm a little boring.
Other news - My Cannon suffered a mishap and has now been sent to Sydney for repairs that could take up to FIVE WEEKS!!! Not happy Jan!!! From what we could gather Maddison tried to stick the memory card in backwards and ended up bending some of the prongs that slide into the card. I could of attempted to straighten them myself, but better to be safe than sorry I thought, so off it was sent. Did not realise just how important my camera was to me. Not just for photos and such, but also in getting pix of work to share for DT posi's and such. The super sweet Ali lent me her little point and shoot though, so am starting to catch up on all the things I needed to do. So prepare for a bumper layout share LOL.
The July kit at Embellished is about to be released ......and it is GORGEOUS as always!!! The papers are just beautiful and the extra's the girls have included in this one are just awesome. Seriously, you have got to check it out. I think I managed eight layouts and a fairly large OTP plus there is still some bits of papers left over if I wanted to get a couple more out - so definetly some value for money there. Here are some of my layouts for the kit:

This is the OTP item that I made up using a sheet of the Jenni Bowlin shaped paper. Originally when I folded it in half it look like a file so was gonna go with that but then somehow I ended up with this photo holder. There is about a two inch gap from the back and front piece to sit the photos I want to scrap in there. I thought it was pretty cool, just need to add an extra sheet of chipboard to the back to brace the back a bit better and then its down to the shoppe to display there for a little while.

Finally got my hands on the new love, Elsie papers - well the Roxie range anyway. Total fun playing with these. But can be easily overdone if your not careful, the patterns are so bold and full and quickly make a page seem full. Really LOVE the embossed cardstocks in the range. Here are two of the three that I've done with them - keeping the last one back just for now.

This last layout was a just for fun layout. Headed down to the shoppe Sunday night for a scrap session with the girls - Ang, Jo and Al. Had been a little while since we'd gotten together so was really just a great night - full of chatting and scrapping with great friends........what more could a gal need!!!

Was tagged by Lali so will do that this entry as well - sorry it's a little late Lali.

Four of my favourite jobs -

1 - Scrapbook teacher (easily number one fav I think)
2- Nightfill for a supermarket (no-one to disturb me, do my job and go home ...great pay as well ;) )
3- Manager of a dine-in resturaunt ( ok this was stressful at times, but I like being my own boss to an extent LOL)
4- Macca's chick as a teenager - learnt a lot about the real world from this job

Four of my favourite local places

1 - Botanical gardens here in Rocky - heaven on earth seriously
2- Beach at Emu Park - very close second to the gardens
3- Stocklands shopping centre - great place to just sit back with a coffee and people watch
4- My scraproom ...... my own little retreat for sure

Four of my favourite foods

1- Lasagne - definetly has to be homestyle
2- Cheesy vege pasta - my own little recipe that I just adore
3- PIZZA!! great chill out food
4- snickers - another great chill out food LOL.

Four of my favourite places in Australia

1- Bright VIC - gorgeous little town set in the VIC alpine region
2- Apollo Bay VIC - another gorgeous little town in VIC - has both mountains and ocean, my two favs
3- Gold Coast - love the fast pace action there
4-Blue Mountains - absolutely stunning there.

Now for who I tag:
Hmm, might tag the Embellished DT girls for this one

Sares
Mickey
Melissa and
Tammy

Have fun girls,
and with that I'm bowing out for a shower. LOL, late morning here is all I'll say.
take care and will chat soon

Julie xx

Most often won't make SENSE, will sound alot like RAMBLING and will definetly be DISORGANISED..... but hey, that's me and you get what you get. Nothing more, nothing less.

: Name: Julie; Location: Rockhampton, Queensland

This blog will be a random collection of thoughts,ideas and encounters based on who I am. I am a Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Friend. But above all else, I am....... Just Me!

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