my ramblings

no particular topic, just rambling

Thought I'd better get a second post up before the end of January.

The girls are back at school, all's quiet around the house. Emily has started at her new high school, is happy and excited about everything going on there. Phoebe has her new class already, and is pretty happy with that too.

Holidays were lovely and relaxing... I do love school holidays.

Here's a few photos and ramblings from the things that we did during the holidays.

We took Phoebe out to the Athletics Stadium out at Homebush to participate in the Little Diva Dash organised by Athletics NSW. She got to meet Jana Rawlinson and run a 400m 'fun-run' around the athletics track. In true diva-style, Phoebe adorned her hair with Ribbons Galore ribbons!

We went kayaking last weekend on Pittwater. We hired a couple of kayaks form Paddlecraft at Bayview, and paddled our way around to Church Point, enjoyed our coffees/milkshakes and bacon and egg rolls from the cafe there, then paddled back to Bayview. It was a beautiful morning and lots of fun.

We gave Emily a new bead for her bracelet the night before she started back to school. A little drum for the drummer girl of our family. It is very cute, the drum is silver with little gold drum sticks on the top. This one is a Pandora bead, but it still fits on her Bacio bracelet.

I took Phoebe to the Sydney Wildlife World at Darling Harbour one day. It's a great centre, the displays and exhibitions are informative and it is different from the zoo, so you do get a different experience. At the end of the centre you have the opportunity to walk through the butterfly display, which Phoebe loved. We stood for a long time as the butterflies fluttered around us. They loved her headband, as they were always landing on it. (We also discovered a Lindt Cafe at Cockle Bay Wharf, so guess where we went for afternoon tea).

One of Paul's friends has been making a guitar... from scratch... and he doesn't even play the guitar. He brought it over for Paul to "inspect". It was so beautifully made, with such lovely detail. You just had to admire it and all the work that went into making it.

And lastly, this is to show Mel, my very clever friend who also loves sewing and Japanese craft books. Phoebe and I had a day out in the city, and one of our stops was a huge Japanese book shop, Kinokuniya, in Galeries Victoria. I picked up the latest Cotton Time which was great as previously I had navigated my way through the Japanese Amazon site to purchase my Japanese books. Phoebe and I also picked out a couple other cute books. The good news is they get the magazines in about a week after the release date in Japan, so I can send Paul off in his lunchtime to pick up my books. And there are a couple of other magazines I like (all in Japanese) and I can just give them the codes from the magazines and they can get them in for me too. Now I just have to finish off my CHA projects so I can start work on some of these very cute things.

That's about all, back to a little more scrapping.

Thanks for visiting. I'll be back to more regular blog updates from now.

Cheers

Fiona

x

Christmas eve in Sydney

So school's out and we are finally on school holidays. Lots of end of school stuff went on last week, but it all seems a long time ago now, and we are finally getting into the Christmas spirit.

Today I was at the fish and fruit markets at 7.30am buying the salmon and prawns and salads and fruit for tomorrow. With that all finished by 8.30am, it left a pretty long day ahead of us. So the girls and I caught up with friends, jumped on a bus into the city with the main aim of visiting the David Jones Christmas display windows.

It became a fun festive adventure, wandering through the busy city. Here are some photos from our day.

Martin Place Christmas tree:

Martin Place is looking very festive with the stars and banners:

Pitt Street Mall had these groovy Christmas trees:

Bush firemen:

The bush fire service Santa was also found in Pitt Street Mall:

Free Hugs man.... (if you don't know about him, see HERE):

We did make it to David Jones. The window story this year was The Nutcracker:

Beer Bottle Busker (see him HERE, but today he was playing Christmas songs outside St James Station):

Lindt Cafe (a trip to the city is not complete without a stop here):

The girls decided to try their luck at busking in York Street while waiting for the bus home. They sang the same Christmas song over and over and collected $2.15 between them.

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I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous and healthy new year.

Thank you for visiting my blog this year. I look forward to bringing you more craft and scrapbooking ideas and classes in 2008.

Enjoy the holiday season.

Until 2008

Cheers

Fiona

x

very random ramblings

I feel the silly season is here. Not much spare time at the moment for blogging. There's lots going on in the Carter household and many end of year activities at the girls' school. Christmas shopping hasn't started yet, although I've seen a few Christmas "wish lists" around the house.

I'm busy making table decorations for Emily's graduation dinner coming up soon (will post photos when I have some). Emily has just over 2 weeks left of primary school. She is so excited about starting high school next year, which is great.

There have been quite a few "proud mummy moments" lately. Here's a few:

Yesterday we attended Presentation Day for the girls' school. Both girls received awards. First up was Phoebe who received the Academic Book Award for her class. After the ceremony she was allowed to choose a book and have her certificate placed on the inside cover.

And Emily received the Public Speaking Debating Award for the school. She was so excited. She speaks beautifully and can speak in front of an audience with ease, which is such a fantastic skill to have. We now lovingly refer to it at home as the Argument Award, something she's particularly good at, and obviously a requirement for debaters :-)

A few weeks back, Phoebe ran in the State Relay Carnival out at Homebush. She was part of the Under 10's 4 x 100m relay team for her Little Athletics club. They ran well, finished third in their heat, but missed going onto the final. She was happy to be out there and part of the action. That's her below just starting her run.

We were up at Hawks on the weekend. The weather wasn't great, but it was so nice to be away for a few days. Not much photographic evidence that we were there apart from these photos of the girls.

{mental note for next time, remind Phoebe to remove white socks before we take photos}

We've been visited by a few kookaburras in our back yard recently. There seems to be more around than in recent years. I took this photo while standing in my kitchen, looking through the shutters. He sat on our clothes line for ages (we think he was stalking the bunnies!). It's so nice to hear them too, laughing away so close to the city.

Are you still with me?

Paper Salon has released some new collections recently. Visit the Paper Salon blog to see lots of creations from the DT. I've created a few things with the new papers.

Above layout and the book cover below use the KN Sorbet papers. Some Maya Road products have also been used, the scalloped rick rack on the layout, and the chipboard letters painted with Ranger Distress Crackle paint. Paper Salon has also released Alphabet Rub-ons which are on the book below too. They are a really good quality and are easy to apply.

The next three layouts use papers and letter stickers from the Glad Rags collection.

I should mention that here in Australia, Paper Salon is distruted by Bumble Bee Crafts.

These are a few Christmas cards made as part of my latest on line class. The patterns and instructions are included in the class, and I've used Paper Salon papers again, this time it's the Christmas range, Ornamental Holiday.

 

And keep checking the Maya Road Design Team blog for lots of new projects.

That's about all for now. Thanks for visiting and reading my blog.

Hope you all have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona

x

Holiday catch up and a RAK

School holidays are over. All's quiet in the house today. We've seen several movies, caught up with friends, been out and about our beautiful Sydney and had a relaxing break up the coast last week to finish off.

We walked the Balmoral Beach to Chowder Bay track again. I've mentioned this before, but it is such a nice way to spend some time around Sydney (and you get some of the best views of Sydney Harbour too, in my opinion). The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is opening up some of the best land located around Sydney Harbour to the public. The photo below is taken from George's Heights looking across the harbour to South Head.

Since our last visit to this area, Ripples Cafe and AquaMine have opened. Ripples Cafe is a great cafe located just under the Sydney Harbour Bridge at North Sydney Pool which has been operating for several years now, and now they have opened up in one of the restored buildings at Chowder Bay.

And up the coast, this is the view we enjoyed for a few days. The girls and I went away with friends to Hawks Nest. It was so lovely up there.

Emily was in charge of breakfast one morning while we were away. She made a stack of her fabulous pancakes. She says she knows the recipe off by heart now, and in this case, how to double the mixture!

And there were several morning and afternoon tea opportunities. Nicole's Cafe over at Tea Gardens is a favourite, they have the best cakes and they serve real Chai Tea (with tea leaves in a tea pot - not the powdered variety). I love the presentation of their cakes, this one was almost too good to eat (almost!)...

Just thought I'd throw this photo below into the post. Phoebe loves getting hold of my camera and takes all sorts of photos. It's usually when I clear my memory card that I discover what she's taken. This was one that I really liked...

We started the holidays off a couple of weeks back with a weekend of music. Emily was one of 20 kids to be selected to play in the Primary division of the annual Billy Hyde Drummer's Playoff. It was such a fantastic experience for her (and very, very loud for us). She played on a fantastic kit up on stage at the Institute of Music in Surry Hills and had a great time.

She wanted to wear a t-shirt for her performance that said "girl drummers rock", which of course we couldn't find anywhere in the shops, so we made one. We screen printed the words onto a white t-shirt and she was very pleased with the result!

I've also been doing a little bit of sewing. I have several bags cut out ready to be made, which I'll be placing in the Ribbons Galore store as they are finished.

I think now it's time for a RAK. I haven't done one for a while, so if you've actually read (or just scrolled) to the bottom of this post, leave me a comment and tell me (if you want to) where you live (state and/or country is fine). {I love knowing where readers of my blog are coming from} You will have the opportunity to win a RAK from me.

I've been collecting all sorts of things lately. The latest find is a daisy lace runner which I think would look great cut up and used on some projects. I've also been collecting lots of old buttons. I'll pack in some ribbons, (maybe a few little bits and pieces from my DT companies). So I'll put a RAK pack together. It'll be a mixture of old and new things... leave a comment if you're interested in receiving one (I'll post worldwide too). I'll post a photo later, when I've put it together.

Thanks for visiting, and reading. Hope you have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

DCM card challenge

The challenge this week over at Daring Cardmakers is titled Photo Finish (to create a card for any occasion but it must include a photograph somewhere! The photo subject can be people, items, locations, flowers, absolutely anything so get snapping.)

Thanks for the challenge girls!

Here's my card this week.

I love catching up with friends for coffee. (And sadly, I had several photos of my coffees to choose from for this card - LOL).

I also used one of the new Maya Road journaling sheers on there. The colours of the sheers when perfectly with my coffee :-)

Thanks for visiting.

Fiona

x

weekly catch up

Really quick catch up, here while I'm having a cuppa tea :-)) Life just seems to be really busy with the girls at moment and time is flying by. Here's a few random ramblings:

I'll start with something completely different. DH has joined the blog world, but it's not about scrapbooking... You can see it here: GROW YOUR EGG. Not sure I totally understand all he's chatting about, but I'm sure he really doesn't always understand what I'm saying when I speak in scrapbooking-talk!

I have no printer... still. It's been almost a week. I'm hoping to have it back tomorrow, I think the daily {harassing} phone calls to my printer doctor have helped, or maybe not! Apparently my printer needed a huge number of major parts replaced. The fabulous people at Epson have apparently agreed to replace all the parts for me, which is a huge relief!

Soooo, no printer.... no photos.... not much scrapbooking to share!

Thought I'd share one of my favourite photos from the past week or so. It captures a few of my favourite things... my family, a sunny autumn Sunday in Sydney, a great cup of coffee, some relaxing time together.

This photo was taken Sunday week ago when we went down to Chowder Bay (Clifton Gardens) on Sydney Harbour. We'd heard one of our favourite coffee places had opened up somewhere amongst the old military buildings. Well we found it. BACINO BAR (famous in my opinion for it's "hole in the wall" cafe at beautiful Dee Why beach) has a tiny little kiosk in an old bunker over looking Chowder Bay. And it also has a cafe just up the hill over looking Sydney Harbour. After our coffee we then walked the headland round to Balmoral Beach and back, just beautiful...

Emily cooked this last night:

Absolutely delicious. The girls decided to host a 'surprise' birthday party for their dad last night (he's birthday is actually end of this week). They cooked dinner, hamburgers for our main and Emily's berry bread and butter pudding for dessert. A little tip, Emily used Tip Top's Golden Crumpet bread in this pudding and it was sooo yummy! (Thanks Donna Hay for the recipe)

And although it is only the beginning of May, my front garden thinks its spring. I was surprised to find these little rays of sunshine on the weekend.

We are growing strawberries! Highly recommend these for the kids to grow, nothing much seems to kill them (not even too much love and attention), they just need a little sunshine, and the kids love picking them from the plant and eating them right away!!! {and I think they look really pretty growing in a pot}

I had a lovely couple of hours with Tamar and Ngaire down at the Rocks after KiwiScraps a week ago. We discovered the button shop, Buttons Buttons, which I had heard of, but had never visited. Gorgeous... if you like buttons, which I do, they have a fantastic selection of new and vintage buttons. Was nice to sit and chat over cake and coffee with these girls too.

Well that's about all. Come back over the next day or so, as I'll be hosting another RAK.

Don't forget about the Page Maps sketch challenge over at the Paper Salon blog. Some lovely entries being linked over there.

Have a great week.

Thanks for visiting!

Fiona x

Just chatting

I have been downloading some photos this morning. Its been a while since I've cleared my photo card, I'm ashamed to say. I usually do it in a rush when I turn my camera on and see I only have room for a couple of photos left on my card. Considering I use two 512MB cards, that can be a lot of photos to sort through. So I'm trying to catch up this morning.

One thing I love about backing up my photos is that I get to review the photos I have taken, some I have even forgotten I'd taken. It's really is like going through a digital photo album.

Anyway, we spent the morning at Balmoral Beach last Sunday, one of my favorite places to visit in Sydney. The tide was high, really high, thanks for a full moon, and the girls love jumping from the boardwalk around the baths. As the tide was high, the drop wasn't so great, and therefore not so scary = happier girls!

Below was one of my favorite photos from the day. I sat my camera on the boardwalk and took the shot - I didn't even look through the viewer. I loved it when I opened it this morning. Phoebe with her blue goggles which are a permanent fixture to her face whenever she's near water and the bright red surf mats the girls received for Christmas, which again, are a permanent accompaniment whenever we are near water. Love the color of the bleached wood of the boardwalk and the green of the water.

We have spent sooo much time at Balmoral over the last 11 years. I'd hate to add up how many hours I've spent there sitting on the beach, under the trees, dipping my toes in the water with my two girls as they have grown up. When they were toddlers and pre-schoolers it was usually the first place we'd suggest to meet up with friends, have picnics with family or just go there and hang out, just the four of us. There have been days when we'd arrive in the morning intending to stay a couple of hours, and would end up buying fish and chips for dinner.

One place I love down there is the Balmoral Boatshed Cafe. You can see it behind Paul and Emily in the photo below. It's new, sparkly new and its fabulous.

The old Boatshed closed a while back and was pulled down. It was great too, had a lot of character (like you could see the sand and water through the floorboards of the cafe, type of character). But the new Cafe is great. People still wander in with sandy feet and towels wrapped around them, kids run in with their swimmers and wet hair, it still has all the atmosphere of a beach-side cafe. Love it, and I'm sooo glad its back and open and selling great coffee!

Anyway, thanks for reading my rambling on today.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Hope you have a great day.

Fiona

x

Happy New Year

I'm a few days late in posting a HAPPY NEW YEAR post, but we are in a very lazy, relaxed holiday mode here in the Carter house. I just love summer school holidays!

We spent a lovely evening down by the pool and Sydney Harbour on New Years eve. North Sydney pool held its family evening again, so the girls were able to swim the evening away until the 9.00pm fireworks.

New Years eve combines two of my favourite things... fireworks and Sydney Harbour. The fireworks were beautiful again. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is turning 75 years old this year and it was, as usual, part of the celebrations.

Photo taken early evening:

As it started getting dark, the red '?' appeared on the bridge...

As the fireworks got underway, the '?' changed to a red coat hanger image (the nickname for the Harbour Bridge is the coat hanger)...

And some fireworks photos...

I'd like to thank you for visiting my blog in 2006. I appreciate your comments and love hearing from you. I do hope you have a wonderful, safe and successful 2007.

Bye for now.

Fiona

x

A photo a day - half way through

A big box was delivered yesterday afternoon. Love these big boxes, I've had them occasionally before. It contained most gorgeous smelling, rich red, long stemmed red roses. The rose smell filled the house immediately.

The girls were intrigued by this mysterious delivery. "Do you think it was daddy who sent them?"

...... I wonder?

Anyway, it occurred to me as I was taking a few photos of my gorgeous roses that I was half way through my "a photo a day" challenge. What a way to mark the day!

A photo a day

The idea of the "photo a day" albums has always appealed. I do like to look around the blogs which have these albums. I'm not sure if there are any rules. If there were rules, I'd probably break them anyway.

I've also decided I'm going to do more things for me, rather than producing projects for specific purposes.

So the first of these "doing it for me" projects is to keep "A Photo A Day" album for February. I figure one month, and a short one at that, is achievable. At the end of the month I'd like to create a layout with all the "everyday" pictures I've (hopefully) taken. It will hopefully give a snapshot of "us" for the month.

I'm also using this album to make me practice using my camera. I am off to a good start. February 1's photo is in the album!

Have a good day everyone!

Fiona x