So little time.....

This week I have been a busy little bee crocheting beanies for Rhyley's school team
for Relay for Life! I am busy making up to 20 beanies for next weekend!
If time permits there will be aliens (to go with the team's space theme) or daffodils on each one!

There has been little time to scrap!
So here are the pages I have completed since the last time I shared.


This first one is one of my Dad and his brother when they played Rugby League
together, a very LONG time ago.

 Check the credits: here,here & here

This one is of my little monkey when he was in hospital last year.

 Credits: here, here & here

This one is from the KISS concert in Mackay!
I won the tickets and took Jason with me and his sister and brother in-law got
tickets too and came up for the weekend to attend.
It was an AMAZING night!

Rockin' the credits here, here & here

This one is of my boys being silly  (as per usual)

For credits go here, here or here

 
Here is a rare one containing photos of me!
I love how it turned out.

 Credits are here, here & here

This one is from Rhyley's school camp last year!

 Credits: here, here & here

This is a layout was made after my uncle's passing and is of my
Dad with his 3 siblings.

 Credits: here & here

For Easter I made Rhyley this bunny basket!
I loved how it turned out so I did a layout!

 Credits: here, here & here

Seriously I LOVE Rise of the Guardians and I LOVE Jack Frost!
I also LOVE the quote I used for the title on this layout!

 Credits: here

This layout is all about play!
We headed to the park and Daddy and Rhyley played it up for the camera!

 Credits: here, here & here

The other weekend we took Rhyley to the Circus for the first time!
Here is a layout of Rhyley with the Lennon Bros. Circus Ringmaster!

 

 Credits: here

I scrapped this photo years ago when I began digi-scrap but I only used
a quick page.
I now prefer to make my own pages so I rescrapped it and came up with this:

 Credits here & here

Lately I have applied and been knocked back from many Creative Teams.
At first it upset me, especially when I was knocked back from a few of my favourite
designers.
Instead of not applying I have decided to apply more often.

When I saw a call for a smaller designer Crescent Moon Designs,
I decided to throw my hat in the ring, seriously the worst that can happen is
I'd get told NO! (and well lately I am getting used to it :-P)
But.... I was accepted and here are my first layouts: 

 Credits are here

An invite to a camp out party:

 Here are the credits

Well that is all for now.

Until next time,

Oops....

Wow life has been full on here in our house and well I have been extremely
LAZY when it comes to updating my blog. Seriously  I actually wonder if
I will ever devote proper time to this - I am sure the answer is YES but when
I am not completely sure?!
So I will update quickly since my last post:
We got through Christmas, which was SO busy and full on I never got around
to posting all of our Elf on the Shelf photos, which I am so bummed about
but I will get to it (maybe I'll post them for Christmas in July!).

We had New Years and school holidays, which was spent spending lots
of family time together with little internet time which was great and really
what was needed for our family.
We shopped and prepared for the new school year - Rhylez is in Grade Six this
year which completely blows my mind everyday I can't believe my little baby
boy is in his second last year of primary school and it won't be long until he's
a high schooler.
Which in all honest scares the crap outta me, and I find myself wishing I could
turn back time to enjoy his babyhood more - I had PND (Post Natal Depression)
and it wasn't diagnosed until he was about 2 years old and now looking back
I realise that I wasn't a great mum because I was in a seriously black cloud
of depression and despair.

Wow, I have never admitted that out loud (let alone in writing) before but it feels
really good to get it off my chest.

My uncle passed away in January and I guess that has shown me that pretending
the mistakes we made in the past don't or didn't matter is not the way to go
and that holding on to that stuff really does eat away at you!

I have been searching alot lately too.
About what I want to do - job wise I love my job as a Mum and wouldn't change
that for the world but I need something more so I am looking at studying Business
and HR Management.
Because I really want to help others get work they will love!
I have also been thinking about opening my own Etsy store and selling my crocheted
items and vinyl wall stickers but to that I need to devote more time to making things.
Just need to work a on schedule! and overcome ALOT of self doubt I have when it
comes to putting myself out there to sell my own stuff!

Lots of other little things have been happening but those can wait for another day....
I have been scrapbooking a bit lately too but this post is already SO long  I will
share them later.

Until next time,










 

Elf on the Shelf - Countdown to Christmas

This year Bumble (aka SuperElf) our Elf on the Shelf arrived a
little late due to Rhyley having ALOT of work to catch on for
school.
So Bumble sent Rhyley a letter to explain that he wouldn't arrive
until all his work was caught up.

Here is a scrapbook page of the letter he sent to Rhyley:

Check here, here or here for the credits

So Bumble arrived at our house on December 1st!

Rhyley was so glad he finally showed up after making him wait all week

for him to arrive.

This is where we found him - sitting on our JOY blocks:

This year I am hoping to scrap a page documenting each day Bumble comes to visit.
Here is today's page:

Credits are here, here & here

I hope you will follow along & check out what Bumble is up to at our house

each day. You can follow along on Instagram too if you like just follow the link

on the side.

Until next time,

                  

Scrap Happy

So for the past month I have been a guest on Sara Gleason's creative team
over at The Lily-Pad. It has been a great experience so far and I have been
getting a far bit of scrapbooking done as a result!
September is my last month guesting which is a little sad but this experience really
has inspired me to apply for more Creative Team calls in the future.
The worst that can possibly happen is I get knocked back, right?!

So here are some of the pages I have made recently:

This layout documents Rhyley starting at his new school last year.
I used Sara Gleason's Apple Tree kit and Apple Tree Template (former freebie)

Credits are here & here

This photo was taken when we went to Finch Hatton Show on Rhyley's 10th 

birthday. I used the Summer Bucket List Kit and Sara Gleason's template 

from the kit. 

Credits here & here

Unless you have been living under a rock, you've heard of the 50 Shades of Grey.
I devoured the 3 books in 4 days!
I loved them SO much I decided to scrap a page in a Shades of Grey theme.
I used Sara Gleason's Phlox templates for this page

Credits here, here & here

So lately other than scrapbooking - I have been learning how to crochet.
Here is a page done using Sara Gleason's Repotted.

Credits here, here & here

This layout I decided to use Sara Gleason's Happy Stripey Alpha to describe
Rhyley with words that start with his initial. So R is for.... was created.

Check the credits here, here & here

This layout was made using Sara Gleason's Learning Garden templates. 

It was the perfect template for scrapping about Rhyley's Maths tutoring!

Credits are here, here & here

The last layout I used Sara Gleason's Elmwood templates.
I also used MissMint's Grill Master Elements and Papers which fit perfectly
with the photos of Jason cooking a roast on the spit!

Check out the credits:

here, here & here

Until next time,

Celebrating Daddy

Well, this past weekend we celebrated Father's Day!
Due to the finances being a little tighter than normal we decided that a day at home
was the best way to celebrate Daddy.

Hubby got spoilt - he got a wireless keyboard to use with his iPad, a coffee machine and spit roaster both of which he got early and Rhyley made him a stubbie cooler and voucher booklet full of things he will do for Daddy when he redeems the voucher. Honestly I doubt he will keep his end of the bargain but we'll see....

So we decided to cook a roast pork on the spit which we served with Crash Hot Potatoes, broccoli, zucchini & carrots. Hubby cooked the roast while I prepared the veggies & made dessert. 
Dessert was a delicious take on a recipe I found for Pecan Pie Cheesecake the recipe sounded really good but I HATE baked cheesecake so I decided to make it with a chilled cheesecake and a different Pecan Pie recipe since I didn't have corn syrup, I also altered the pecan pie recipe by adding less sugar so here is my take on this yummy dessert!

Pecan Pie Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base 

250 grams Arnotts Butternut Biscuits (use whatever biscuit you like)
100 grams of butter (melted)

Pecan Pie Filling 

1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

Cheesecake Filling

250 grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
395 grams Nestle Condensed Milk
1-2 tsp Vanilla Extract (depending on taste)
1 Tsp gelatine dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (reduce temperature by 20 degrees if using a fan forced oven)


Base 

Place biscuits in a food processor to crush the biscuits finely
Add melted butter to the crumbs and mix together
Press firmly and evenly into a 20cm round cake pan working up the sides if desired.
Put base aside or in the fridge.

Pecan Filling

In a bowl mix the sugar and eggs together
Add the melted butter, flour, milk and vanilla and mix then add the pecan.
Pour mixture over the base and bake for 30-40 minutes or until done.
Cool completely before adding the Cheesecake filling (to speed this up place in the fridge)

Cheesecake Filling

In a bowl add the cream cheese and using an electric mixer mix until smooth and lump free,
mix in the condensed milk and vanilla.
In a small cup/bowl add the gelatine and water mix together to dissolve the gelatine completely
before adding to the cream cheese mixture.
Mix together then pour over the cooled Pecan Pie filling.
Place in the fridge to set for 3-4 hours or overnight.

 Enjoy!
This dessert was a HUGE hit with hubby, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

Until next time,


 

When It Rains....

It pours..... Well that is how it feels at the moment anyway.

Hubby was recently working as a fencer. It was a great job,the pay was good, they trained him, paid for a coal board medical, Standard 11 mining induction, BMA Core Induction and several mine site inductions.
Seriously they spent $1000's on him but last time he worked over 3 weeks ago he was told that worked had dried up for them and that they were going to have to let him go.

So since then he has had a full time job looking for work.
And it seems there are no decent paying jobs here in Mackay.
But you would think with all the inductions you could get a job in mining fairly easily but NO that is definitely NOT the case.

Even some mining companies tell people that having the inductions I mentioned help you get a foot in the door but that is simply not true!
Basically hubby has approximately $15,000 worth of inductions sitting in his wallet collecting dust and going to waste. Why is it going to waste well simply put unless you have years of experience or heavy machinery experience you have almost no chance of getting a job in mining.

In the very rare circumstances where you find a trainee/ entry level position, you are up against hundreds of other applicants who are either more qualified or younger!
There is no other way to put it but it's a seriously fucked up situation.
How is the average person trying to get into this industry supposed to get a job when these companies are unwilling to train people for these roles or provide feedback on an application so you can improve your chances of getting a job!

Tonight hubby counted the number of current job applications he has made in the past 3 weeks and the total currently stands at a whopping 50 and that doesn't include the 10 or so rejection emails he has received.
Not all the jobs are in the mining industry, some are industrial cleaning but most are in warehousing.

Anyway rant over and fingers crossed this downpour dries up soon.

Until next time,

Sharing Is Caring

You know the saying Sharing is Caring, right?
Right!
Of course you do... well guess what I am about to share with you an awesome blog I found recently.
It's a cooking blog - specialising in Baking & Vegetarian food.
I am not vegetarian but most of the recipes on this blog I would at least try once & well if all else fails there are the sweet recipes lots & lots of delicious looking treats to bake.
The blog is Delicieux & is owned by Jennifer who's an author, baker, cook & photographer
from Brisbane, Australia.

So how did I find this little gem of a blog?
Well Kitchenware Direct posted a link to the site telling their Facebook fans about a little
competition they are sponsoring.
Normally I don't share about competitions I enter but this time it's for good cause!
The good cause being that it may just help me win the awesome prize that is been
given away by Jennifer & Kitchenware Direct a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer valued at $749.

Seriously I have been hinting, nagging, crying to Jason for about 3 years now that
I want, need, must have a KitchenAid but it's just NOT getting through so I see that
winning one maybe the only chance I have of getting one at this rate! ;)
So jump on over to the blog and check out the competition, enter & if you win remember me *wink, wink* & if you don't win at least you can make these yummy looking Milk Chocolate Sandwich Cookies!

 

(the competition is open to Australian residents only).

So this competition totally inspired the colour palette I chose for my latest layout.

I have always wanted an KitchenAid in Ice (the pale blue one in the middle row, third from the right)

I decided to use the colour to create this page:

 Credits are here

Until next time,