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,

Life, Fairytales & Scrapping

Well life has been in full swing here.

Rhyley is doing well with his tutoring in the short time he has 

been attending he has already improved & I fully credit his wonderful tutor. 

She is a ex-teacher & she is wonderful with him, honestly he really seems 

to understand everything she is teaching him & he's enjoying it too! 

He actually looks forward to Thursday - as it's the day we go to the tutor, 

I am SO glad we have found her & I am hoping Rhyley's report card for 

Maths shows this improvement too.

Jason is enjoying his new job which is fantastic - he gets on well with 

his bosses & his workmate so hopefully there will be NO job changes for 

quiet awhile!

Rhyley & I have settled into a nice little routine since Jason has been away 

working & I have to say Rhyley is better behaved for me during the week

 than he is on weekends when Dad's home- much to his father's dismay lol.

So 3 weeks ago after months of teaser trailers (I kid you not!) 

Channel 7 started showing Once Upon A Time (of course if you live in the US you 

know season 1 has already finished), but here we are up to episode 3 & honestly 

after the first episode I couldn't wait it out 22 weeks to see what was going to 

happen - so I jumped online & found somewhere I could watch the whole series!

If you don't know what Once Upon A Time is I suggest you jump online 

& find it,watch it, cause I am sure you'll LOVE it!, if you love a good fairytale 

you'll love this show.  

So for the last 3 weeks I have been obsessively watching it! 

I found it really hard NOT to stay up all night watching episode after episode,

& I somehow managed to drag myself to bed without losing too much sleep,

now that I have finished the first season I seriously can't wait to see what is 

in store for the fairytale characters of Storybrooke.

There are SO many questions I want answered & theories I have that I want to 

see if I'm right about & hopefully Channel 7 will fast track season 2 here so we 

aren't so far behind the States!

Now that I have finished watching Once Upon A Time I have had sometime to

scrapbook & I will share with you what I have done.

Over at Peppermint Creative the Minty Mixed Bag Challenge was an Ad Challenge 

& this is what I came up with.

Here are the credits

 

The next one is a Facebook cover photo I made using MissMint's awesome new

freebie that is available on the Peppermint Creative fanpage! Just head on over, 

like the page, download the freebie, create a Cover photo & comment on the page 

so MissMint can check out your creation & you could win one of 3 prizes! 

 All products used are 

from Peppermint Creative

Last but not least!

Rhyley is Almost 10 so I wanted to do a countdown page of sorts to the big milestone

& this is it: 

 Here are the credits

Well that is all for now folks I am off to finish up a page I have in the works you

never know I may post it tomorrow ;)

Until next time,

Post iNSD....

Well, if you are a scrapbooker then you know this past weekend scrapbookers around 

world celebrated interNational Scrapbook Day with scrap parties, blog/facebook hops, 

freebies and sales, sales and more SALES!

Seriously how do you manage your scrap budget when the bargains are just TOO 

good to pass up? 

It is a problem and I am sure I am not the only one faced with this problem. 

For me it's about not impulse shopping the hype of a big sale can be very much 

like a drug, you get that heart pounding rush from the excitement and this is 

what can lead to problems and overspending! 

So I thought I'd share what I do when there is a digital scrapbook sale.

1. Set a budget - if I can only spend $30, I stick to it! It's hard but at least I won't be 

kicking myself later.

2. Shop around and make note of when the sites sale finishes - finding the best bargains, biggest discounts, longer sale time = more for my money.

3. I go shopping but I DON'T checkout straight away! - I close the site, walk away 
and come back later (this way I can think about if I REALLY want to buy the items).


4. I go back to the site where I know I REALLY want to buy from first and 
I go through my shopping cart and decide if I REALLY want/will use the 
items in my cart or am I buying because it's on sale?! 


5. Then I trim the stuff I don't really want (if I feel I may want to buy it later or 
at the next sale I add it to my Wishlist, for the next time there's a sale.)

6. I complete my purchases and download the files (sometimes I wait until later do 
this since the sites can lag on downloads during sale times). 


7. Lastly I use my new goodies - I definitely create more AFTER a sale than normal 
and it's simply because I want to try out my new stuff!

I hope my tips are useful and help you get the most out of your next digital 
scrapbooking sale experience!
Obviously I have been shopping for new scrap supplies and I got lots of great 
bargains and was able to afford some things from my wishlists because of the great 
sales.

So here are some of the new pages I have made this weekend:

This page was made using MissMint's PB&J Kit which is FREE with any purchase from Peppermint Creative of just $1.00 or you can purchase the kit for $4.50 and I used 
one of the templates from Sara Gleason & Crystal Livesay's 3rd {i}NSD 2012 Grab Bag

Credits Here & Here

This page was made using Sara Gleason's Ambrosia {album} & MissMint's Artsy Fartsy Kit and I actually already had both these in my stash but I was inspired :)

  Credits Here & Here
 

Anyway I'm off to scrap some more with my new goodies.
Until next time,

Change....

Well hello there...

I know, I know yet again I have neglected my poor, poor blog.

I swear if my blog was a friend it would probably never want to speak with me again 

(or at least not for a very long time lol.)

Well they say change is as good as a holiday but I beg to differ. 
In the last few months we have had so much change, we've changed address (a nightmare in itself there especially trying to find rentals in Mackay), Jason change jobs 3 times (he just started a new and better job 2 weeks ago so hopefully there will be NO more for a while), our family dynamics are changing too - Jason's new job will take him away from home during the week which means it'll just be me and the boy (a big change but we've done it before, so I'm confident it won't be a problem).


Other than these changes in the last few months I have completed my Certificate II in Retail, been looking and applying for part-time work, looking for a new rental property, packing up our stuff, moving out of our old house/into our new house, taking Rhyley to Maths tutoring, Easter, school holidays, a return train trip to Bundaberg (10 loooonnnnng hours each way) to celebrate my Pop's 90th (yes, it's quiet a milestone!), watching Rhyley march at the ANZAC day parade and so much more it is actually making me sleepy just thinking about it all.

So as you can imagine blogging has been the last thing I've had time for, I haven't really 
had the time to scrap either or the desire.
But I managed to put the following pages together over the past few months:

This one was for a Mixed Bag Monday Challenge over at Peppermint Creative

Credits

The next ones are layouts from my Pop's 90th birthday lunch. 

I used MissMint's funky new Celebration Station Collection and Basil by Sara Gleason

Credits

 Credits

This one was made using the free Pimp My Page Template from Peppermint Creative head over there to grab your copy

  Credits

 Anyway it's time to wrap this up. I'm off to do some more scrapping.

So until next time,

What A Week, I'm Exhuasted

What a week it was this last week....
Back to school has been full on, Rhyley's teacher got them right in the swing of things &
sent homework home the first day back, much to my horror!
We usually have a week before the dreaded homework starts but not this year!, oh well
you can't win them all.

So Thursday was a public holiday. We spent a lovely relaxing day at home together since it was Australia Day, in all honestly it was too hot to go out & join the festivities of the day.
On Friday at school they had a fun filled day celebrating Australia Day with Lamington
making, thong throwing & watching the movie Red Dog, Rhyley had a great day & really enjoyed the day with his school friends.

This weekend we decided to get Rhyley a new bed; a double bed - so it can used as a guest bed when we have family visit, after Jason put it together we wrapped the lights we used on the Christmas tree around the bedhead & across the window.
Rhyley loves it! - which what really matters I plan on getting a couple of thin bookcases to put on either side of the bed for storage of books, clock, toys & other knick knacks.

This weekend I also went shopping for a Closet Cupid gift for one of the ladies on a parenting site I'm apart of.
What is a Closet Cupid?
Well it's the same as a Secret Santa but we are sending each other a little Valentine's Day gift.
If you don't know how a Secret Santa works it's where you are given a name & you go out & buy a little gift for that person & give it to them.
The thing is we are all over the world so we send our gifts then post a photo of our gift.
So we all get to see what the others have received.
It's alot of fun & really exciting to get a gift & not know exactly who it's from until you open it.

So I decided to make a little handmade goodie for my Closet Cupid gift & when I saw the awesome Commercial Vectors Miss Mint had just released over at Peppermint Creative I knew exactly what I was going to do.

So here's what you'll need for this craft.

Materials:

Firstly I purchased Treats & Friends Word Art by Tay Silver for only $0.99!
or grab the Valentine XO BlockART  freebie also by Tay Silver (hurry it won't be free for long!)
Photoshop Elements or similar
Printer
A Ceramic Mug
Ceramic Paints I used Mont Marte brand
Paintbrush
Scissors
Sticky Tape
Tape Measure/Ruler
Pencil

Method:

1. Measure your mug so you can resize the vectors so they will fit nicely on the mug.
2. Open up you vector (I used the PNG file) in your editing software.
3. Resize the images & arrange them on an A4 page for printing (I cut the cake off so I could place it above the text.
4. When you have all your images on your A4 page you are ready to print.

 

 5. After printing, cut out your image & turn it over to white side, take your pencil & rub all over the piece of paper (doing it like this is easier than trying to cut everything out) 

 

 

6. Position the paper on the mug & tape it in place so it doesn't move. 

7. Then carefully trace around the image onto the mug, remove the paper. 

8. Using your paints - paint over the image on your mug when you are happy with it follow the directions on the pack of your paints - mine required me either to coat with a gloss & bake at 150°C for 30 minutes OR to bake at 150°C for 30 minutes, let mug cool then coat with gloss & rebake at 150°C for another 30 minutes. If your paints have similar instructions I highly recommend painting, baking, glossing & rebaking! 

 

9. Enjoy your new, spiffy custom made mug - give it as a gift or keep it for yourself!

In the last couple of weeks I also got a couple of new pages done.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to do more because I have been battling some major unexplained fatigue lately so I'm off to the doctor's next week.

But in the meantime here are my latest pages:

The first one is of Rhyley & Coop opening their joint Christmas present I used Miss Mint's beautiful kit Christmas Past

 Credits are here

This one I made for Peppermint Creative's Pimp My Page Challenge for January. I decided to scrap about our very unwelcome snake visitor earlier this month.
 

Credits are here

It's time to get some sleep.

Until next time,