The highs, the lows, the excitement

Well last post I mentioned that another chance to get back into Reality Scraps had been announced. How exciting but OMG what terrible timing!! I have soooo much uni work to do I really didn't think I would get a chance to get it and the other layout for the week done but somehow managed to get it done (still to finish the other layout before midnight tonight ARGH!!) but anyway...here is the WILDCARD challenge:

I promised you another twist this week and here it is. This is a WILDCARD challenge for members of "The Others" team only. This is an ADDITIONAL challenge for "The Others" this week and is OPTIONAL. Players who choose to complete this challenge are playing for a spot BACK into the Reality Scrap team.

The Challenge: You CANNOT use anything from the Survival Kit and the challenge will be using the basics only. Requirements:

* Your layout CANNOT have any photos, however it can journaling and memorabilia.

* You must use glue only to compile your page. No other fastening methods of any kind may be used.

* You may use any patterned paper not included in the kit., Good luck, Survivors!

Please note that we will be choosing this person not only on their layout, but also based on board participation. There is more to being on a Design Team than just great layouts, we will choose someone who we would believe would work well in our particular Design Team.

So here is my layout for the Wildcard Challenge using one of Matthew's Student of the Week Awards from last year and telling the story behind why he got it:

The story was - he was left behind at school when going to swimming one day and his teacher was impressed that he sorted it out and went to the office straight away, so he got this award for being a responsible Yr 1 and a great problem solver. But then that is Matthew, Mr Careful! Mr 5 going on 50!!!

Anyway, it wasn't enough to get back into the game but regardless it is something that I really wanted to scrap because the whole thing is just so...MATTHEW! LOL! I am still working on the other layout for the week. Still in the game as an other so still earning points towards guest design team spots, prizes etc and it keeps me getting one page a week done at least! LOL!

I got the idea for this weeks layout this week when I went to get my eyes tested and got some glasses (only for reading - all the study is taking its toll!!) I'm thinking of using this pic...

I arty farty'd up the pic. Has to be a Black and White photo and a self portrait so I'll see how it prints up. Hope it matches what I have in mind LOL I'll expain it all when I finish the layout (got 5 hours argh!!!)

Anyway, Steve and Matthew have gone to the Brisbane Lions vs Hawthorn game tonight so Emily Sarah and I are going to get some Thai food in a second...yum! So I better go get it organised and then we'll settle in to watch the footy too (well Emily will, I'll be madly scrapping and then studying!!!)

Keep Smiling!

Trish xoxo

OMG

Scrapbook City Wildcard Challenge for the Others has just been posted! Another chance to get back in to the game. these girls ROCK! Will update more later!!

I'm smiling!!!
Trish xoxo

And I was doing so well....

Well I was on a roll there for oooh, about a week LOL! But here we go -

Scrapbook City Reality Scraps Competition Update:

Still plodding along as an "Other". This week will be the last week of FNG and last chance for an other to make it back in (I think! They are always coming up with Twists and Turns..lots of fun!!!) Anyway, here's what I have been up to with the competition since I last posted.

Friday Night Games - Week Six
Tonight's challenge is to make a THANK YOU card.For the girls who had team mates, the card is to thank your team mate.For the Others (who never had team mates), the card is to thank the most recent person who did something nice for you.... even it was your husband for bringing you a cup of coffee!

Your card must have:
* at least two folds (as apposed to the conventional single fold card)
* three buttons
* stitching - whether by hand or machine (any amount, needs to be visible)
Here's the hard part (mwahahaha!)....Your card must CLEARLY be to thank someone, but it must NOT have the phrase "Thank You" on it!!! (NB. I didn't say it can't use those words, it just can't use the phrase!!) ;)
I made my card for Michelle. I wish my sewing machine was working (or I had the sewing brain to work out what is wrong with it!) as I would have loved to sew around the edge. Anyway, I am NOT a sewer so this is the best I could do....

Winner was Tracey (Sharnook)- immunity from voting

Week 6 Challenge
-Provided by Alicia-
This week you need to off the page and create a project, not a layout. You are to use Chatterbox papers. Some are included in your kit. You may use ANY other additional products for this challenge.
Your task is to create an item that you would display on your fridge. It could either go on the front or the top of your fridge, your choice.There are no additional requirements this week, but we are now half way through the contest and the competition is getting tough. You need to show innovation and originality in your project to shine above the other contestants. Let your imagination go wild.You may need to provide additional photos for this challenge to show off your work. If possible, please combine your photos into one file. If you don't know how to do that, it's OK.

I made a bill and mail holder although not sure I am going to actually put it on my fridge. May hang it on the wall next to the calendar. I am hopeless at grabbing the mail and then putting it somewhere so I thought this is something that would be very helpful in our house. I am really happy with it but the photo has made the painted chipboard look heaps darker than they are in real life. They are slightly different colour but not as different as it looks here:


The clips on the bottom have been painted and covered in the patterned paper to match and then ribbon tied to them. Notebook in the middle section for notes has been altered.





Double Eviction this week - 2 people. Sarahv and Beth. Unfortunately Beth has had to pull out. She is pregnant and unable to continue with the competition. I thought Sarah's was lovely too so quite suprised that she was eliminated but the game continues!


Friday Night Games - Week Seven
Week 7 - from Tanya.
Hidden in this verse are 8 generic scrapbooking products. Your mission should you choose to accept it is to find these products and then use them to create a layout about scrapbooking. The names may be hidden in other words or have another letter or character between words.
"I was invited to a party with many guests whose names were hard to remember. I made a mental note. Who was Chip? Board stiff guy sitting in the corner. Brad had hair gel. penny ribbon in her hair. Leisa wore a shirt patterned, paper cup in her hand. Kerri wore a pink dress, but Tony stamped his feet to the music."

How cool is this challenge!!!! Steve was doing some work on the computer all night and I was organising the kids and getting us ready to go away for the weekend so I didn't really get as much time as I would have liked to do it but it's only a game!!! Tam had to read out the verse to me over the phone. She wasn't sure of one of her answers and when she read it out I got button (would never have got it by reading it LOL!)

So we had to use - Chipboard, Brad, Gel Pen, Ribbon, Patterned Paper, Ink, Button & Stamp

Journalling reads:
Hobby or Addiction?
Scrapbooking! A hobby, right??? How on earth is it possible for a hobby to bacome an addiciton? I started scrapbooking in 2002. I went to a Creative Memories party so tammie could get the free album and left thinking it was nice but not something I would do. Well I lay in bed that night thinking I could just do a few pages on the kids "firsts". Nearly 5 years later, I love it! I mostly love the fact that if anything happens to me my family will have my pages telling them how much they mean to me.

Alas, no chance to get back in to the game! Annette won immunity! Well deserved though, especially as she is away with limited supplies with her!

Week 7 Challenge
This week your challenge is supplied by Tanya.
You may use any of the Fancy Pants papers for the Week 7 Challenge.
Requirements:
* Create a single LO with the title "DREAMED OF REALITY / MY REALITY".
* Must have 5 journalled points under each heading. The points must rebut each other eg: 1. To have no ironing ever 1. Having 2 big piles of ironing in baskets collecting dust.
* The title must be made using a random style.
**Random means that your letters are NOT matching. Each letter could be a different style, font, material size.

Took me a while to understand what I had to do as I was thinking we had to choose between dreamed of reality OR my reality. But we had to title it exactly as it appears above and basically do a layout comparing our dreams of what we wanted out reality to be compared to our actual reality. I thought about doing something about me but could only really think of the cleanliness of the house and how I wished my dream was my reality but then I realised that a layout I have had in mind for ages would fit this perfectly:

Journalling reads:
"DREAMS
* No needles
* No finger pricks
* Eat whatever I want, whenever I want
* Uninterrupted sleep
* A cure for Type 1 Diabetes
REALITY
* 3 insulin injections/day (1095/yr)
* up to 10 finger pricks/day (3650/yr)
* eat what I want if blood sugar is good, may need extra injection
* Late night injection & middle of the night BSL testing
* No cure....YET!!
Matthew, we are so proud of you. We know Diabetes isn't nice to live with but you handle it so well. Mar '07"

How sad is it though that the only photo I had of Matthew and I together was when he started school last year. There are 100000's of pics of Steve and the kids but virtually none of me. The kids are going to look back one day and ask where I was ....behind the camera, capturing it all. So I mentioned it to Steve and I think he is going to take more of an effort in getting pics of me with the kids (he even took some on the weekend...woohoo!!!)

4 (yes 4!!!) eliminated this week - Louise (Loulou), Will, Linda and Tracey (Sharnook).

Only 6 ladies left - Tam, Brenda, Trudi, Annette, Jo, Kerryn

Apparently this is the last week of normal challenges??? Hmmm...wonder what that means?

Anyway....in other news, we spent the weekend at the coast with Mitch, Leo and Nikki. They are such amazing friends and we always have such a good time with them. They are so sweet to our kids and Nikki is amazing with Matthew and Emily (who must drive her insane LOL!) We were talking on the weekend about how much Nikki has grown up. She will be 13 this year!! OMG she was only 4 when we got married and she was our flowergirl. Their unit is gorgeous, opposite Noosa River....they have been toying with the idea of selling it but I think this holiday has further convinced them to definitely keep it. It would be brilliant to have a unit to get away to.

Anyway, better go pick Matthew up. We have Matthew and Mummy afternoon (don't know why it is Mummy when he NEVER calls me that!) We go to McDonald's and do our homework together. Then he gets to play and I get to work on my uni stuff with just the relaxing and soothing sounds in the background of kids screaming like they are being murdered! LOL! Its nice to have the one-on-one time with him and he really looks forward to it (as do I! Just me and my boy!!)

Keep smiling!
Trish xxoo

Milly Milly, my pretty ballerina...well kinda!

After months (nearly a year) of talking about ballet, Emily had her first lesson today. I am soooo incredibly proud of my girl. She is such an amazing little thing. She was so excited and apparently told her pre-school teachers ALL day that she was going to ballet this afternoon! I knew she was excited but I thought she may be a little shy, unsure of herself and maybe a little apprehensive to join in. But I should have thought about it...this is Em....my give it a go girl! In true Emily fashion she jumped right in and gave it a go. As luck would have it, today was an open classroom day and parents could sit in on the class and watch. I would love to have taken a photo of her. She joined in and tried her best and you know what, she wasn't too bad!!! Having taught little kids when I used to dance, I was really expecting to see those gorgeous sickle feet that little kids do, or the little bottoms that they have to poke out as they do everything but she is really quite co-ordinated and I think she will be OK at it! Most importantly though, SHE LOVED IT! She came home and proceeded to set up the kids area as her ballet classroom and taught her pretend class everything she had learnt. The class goes for an hour and they get to experience a little bit of all types of dance. Today they did Ballet to start, then some Jazz (Hi-5 Jazz they call it) and then some acrobatics. So the chaos of picking Matthew up, picking her up, getting her changed and there by 3.30pm through the current ridiculous Eatons Hill roadworks nightmare, was completely worth it. So she is going again next week (I can already tell it is going to be a LONG week with her asking me everyday is today ballet day LOL)

Got a nice suprise tonight too when Stephen phoned telling me he was at Chermside! Back from his trip a day early, Yeah!!!! He had parked his car at his Mum's and went on this trip with a work collegue who had picked him up and dropped him off. His Mum wasn't home though so he was stranded at Chermside with no keys to his car (which were inside his mum's house .....why is it the male mind works like that...wouldn't you keep your car keys with you, or is that just me?! LOL!) Anyway, told the kids to get into the car, that I had to go over to Chermside to pick something up. Grumble, grumble from Matthew of course, life is so unfair when you are 6 and have no time to yourself! LOL! Of course they all got a great suprise when we drove in to Chermside and Matthew says, that looks like Dad, OMG it IS Dad! Haha! Told you we had to pick something up!

Anyway, thats about all I have to share. Just wanted to say how proud I am of Emily for giving things a go and not being shy about anything. She is one amazing little girl and seeing that smile on her face today was amazing! I felt like a genie who had granted her every wish! I was going to go in to the Papercrafts Festival tomorrow but I really should spend the day studying. Cath is having the girls for the day and whiel I really want to go, I really should use the day to study so I'm going to see how I feel in the morning although I think the guilt of uni work to be done may win! How sad is THAT!!! PMSL! It's not like I need anything scrapbooking wise and its $20 before I even walk in the door with parking and admission and I still have to finish my stuff for Reality Scraps...I think I've just convinced myself that I am not going! :( Doesn't matter, 2.5 years and I'll be at every one buying up BIG! LOL!

Anyway, keep smiling!
Trish xo

:( A Bit sad! But I'm still smiling!

"Posted by Sara Pearcy on the Reality Scrap Blog:

"I'm So Sad to Say.....

.....it's time to go...

Chelle & Tish.

Thanks for playing with us and good luck in the Others. Make sure you keep playing along! ;)"
:( We're out! I must admit I am pretty disappointed to be out of the main part of the comp, although I do plan on continuing to play along as one of the "Others" I'd love to think that there will be a twist giving someone the opportunity to get back in the game but being in week 6 of a 10 week comp, I can't see it happening, we've already had intruders so I don't think so.....but then we never know what they have up their sleeves!

This was the Week 5 Challenge:

A road block is where both players complete the task and receive personal points, but only one of them uses their entry to compete with the other players. You must nominate this person before the challenge is announced.

The nominated players will be those who didn't play at the last Road Block:

Bethroid
Chellejamo
Annettel
Will
Loulou
Trudi
Tracey.

BASIC GREY:

The Reality Scrap Survival Kit contains two Basic Grey 'Blush' patterned papers. These are preferable for this challenge.

Use this advertisement as inspiration:


















Your layout:

* must draw from this advertisement for inspiration.
* must have journaling on the photograph/s.
* must use two Basic Grey Blush papers.
* must have at least two other Basic Grey items on your layout. These can be anything from Basic Grey, including rub ons, ribbons, chipboard, tags, monograms, fibres or other papers.

All previous rules still apply. Layouts are due by 11.59pm Saturday 10 March 2007. Please email your layout to realityscrap@gmail.com as well as upload it to the Scrapbook City gallery, when it is online again.

Good luck and have fun!
Thanks again for your patience.
Alicia & Sara.

WEEK 5: Being A Mum


I was really happy with this layout. I had planned to do it Saturday but then Dale phoned about going up to the Bunya Mountains so I really had to get a wriggle on with it. Steve was honking the horn from the car as I was trying to email it through and I stupidly emailed through the wrong picture - one that had heaps of glare on the pic! Grrr stupid me and grrr to the impatient male species!! LOL! Journalling on the photo follows on from the title. Being a Mum..is the greatest thing I have ever done. Love Mum x"

I love this photo of Matthew and I. One of the kids commented that I looked so young!

So as of this week, all teams are dissolved and every one is now in it for themselves! This week is an OTP (Off The Page) item. Not something I do a lot of but this one sounds like a fun idea...something for your fridge - either to sit on top or on the front...Hmmm.... I think I have an idea but not sure if it will work yet! Have to use Chatterbox papers too (I lurve Chatterbox) Now I've just got to find the time to get that done this week too, an OTP in a day hmm...

Well uni has hit FULL ON! I have 2 teaching units to plan, one for my Science Curriculum subject and one for my English Curriculum subject - a multi-literacy project...urgh! I also have a presentation to do in 2 weeks, portfloio tasks for 2 subjects that need to be done each week, and I haven't even started looking beyond what is due by week 5! ARGH!!! I am really enjoying it though. My subjects are (in layman terms, not wanky uni try hard talk): English Curriculum, Science Curriculum, Educating Students with Learning Difficulties and Human Sexuality and Education. Very cool subjects all of them!

I am really loving the Learning Difficulties subject. This is where my interest lies, in particular helping children with learning, language and reading difficulties/disabilities. We've been doing activities and watching programs to make us realise how a child with LD feels. Amazing! One of the activities was brilliant! Our tutor started a story then randomly pointed to someone in the group to continue the story, had to be quick, had to be interesting! After a while she changed the rules, we had to continue adding to the story, quickly and making it interesting but we couldn't use the letter 's' anywhere in the words we were using! Interesting.... She was role playing and hurrying each person along, saying things like "Think about it", "Oh come on, I know you can do this", "Are you thinking?" etc etc..Then she changed the rules again...we had to continue along without using the letter "s" OR the letter "n" in our words. OMG Do you realise how hard that is? When most people talk, speaking is an associative task, meaning we can do it without having to concentrate too hard and we can do other things at the same time. In comparison we also have Cognitive tasks that require our concentration and usually can only be done by themselves (you know how you turn to your kids and say shhh! when you are driving and it suddenly starts pouring with rain?!?!) This activity makes talking a cognitive task for us which is how some students with LDs function. It was amazing to feel like it must feel, to have to really think about trying to get the answers and right words out. Added to that you don't want people to think you are stupid so anxiety rises too which makes it even harder. I am really enjoying the subject! And then there is the Sexuality subject....we might leave that to another time though ;) LOL!

Anyway, Sarah is at Kindy today, Em is at Pre-school, Matthew at school and I am meant to be studying so I had better be off and study!

Stay happy and never stop smiling..there is ALWAYS something to smile about!

Love Trish xoxo

Bunya Mountains

We had the best weekend. Dale phoned on Friday to let us know that he was spending a few days away at the Bunya Mountains and asked if we would like to come up over the weekend sometime. He is staying in a place that can accomodate 10 people so plenty of room.

So we went up there yesterday, stayed the night and came home this afternoon. It was such a gorgeous place and sooo peaceful. Wallabies and rabbits hopping around everywhere, so relaxing and pretty!

Dale had booked the restaurant up there for Steve and I and had everything planned to look after the kids, cook them dinner etc while Steve and I had dinner together, had a few drinks and then could walk back home when we felt like it! How nice is that!! So we did what we were told and went to dinner, had 2 bottles of bubbles and then walked home in the dark (or as the waitress suggested to a rather giggly Stevie John...stagger back home!!) I love when Steve has a few drinks and unwinds. He gets what I call his "pissy hand" happening. He gets a limp wrist and holds his arm at right angles from his elbow...very funny....I'm serious though, next time you're having a few drinks with him, look out for it! Of course he is also a very funny drunk so we always have lots of giggles! It was such a magnificent night too and being in the country, the night sky is just majestic! All of those stars, WOW! I just love the night sky in the country....you just don't see it like that in the city.

We got home just as the kids were going to bed, yes Uncle Dale spoilt them with a late night although it wasn't ridiculously late, little country restaurant and we were the last guests leaving the restaurant...at 9pm! PMSL! Watched "What Women Want" on TV. Steve went to bed after losing the last Cruiser (we later found it right beside his chair LOL!), then Dale went to bed and I sat up for a while enjoying the amazing silence!

As if we weren't spoilt enough last night, Dale had also told the kids not to wake us this morning and let us have a sleep in and instead come and wake him up. So the little gems got up, went downstairs and watched TV until Dale woke up, he got them breakfast and then they went for a walk through the rainforest for about an hour! When they got back, the kids brought us up a cup of coffee in bed. 8.45am...what a sleepin...THANKYOU THANYOU THANKYOU Dale, I don't think you realise how much it meant to us!!

We pottered around the house for a while (poor Dale got roped in to playing card games with the kids, games they had made up LOL!) then we went down to the restaurant for breakfast together.

Dale had also found out the other day that they have a horse and carriage ride available. They had one ride left for the day (Booked out from 11am onwards) so Matthew, Emily and I went for a ride. Only a short 10min ride up the street and then back down again but it was really nice. The "driver" had heaps of information about the area, stopped to collect a Bunya Nut and explained how to pull it apart to get the nut, and the kids got to sit in the front with the driver on the way back down the hill, it was good fun. When we got back, the kids were allowed to have a sit on Harry or Sampson if they wanted.

Of course Emily being the thrill seeker, adventurer, give it a try kinda girl she is wanted to while Mr Play-it-safe, cautious, ooo I don't think so, decided that he would pass on sitting on the horses!

Had breakfast and then Matthew, Emily, Steve and I went for a short walk through the rainforest together. Was really nice until a Bunya Nut fell from the trees missing Matthew, Em and Steve by about 30cms!!!!

Freaked them out a little bit so we left and headed back to the house. I lagged behind mucking around with my camera taking heaps of photos. We used to camp there when we were kids so I got heaps of pics to show Mum, Michael and Tammie how it has changed (and how it also hasn't). It was great to be back there. So many memories there. I must admit I got a little sad when we were walking. I don't have many times when I get compeltely overwhelmed with memories of Dad and saddness that he is no longer with us, but I did today. Maybe he was protecting me from that falling Bunya Nut as I had lagged behind when it fell but I was just looking around and watching my family walking the same track I had walked as a kid with my parents and I was overwhelmed with how much Dad would have loved seeing the next generation enjoying this. Then my thoughts turned to how much he just would have loved being a grandfather and how unfair it is that he isn't here to see these amazing children that Tammie and I have. The whole place was quite emotional for me today. But I loved it. Funny what silly memries the mind holds onto but for some reason I was vividly recalling eating dried fruit! Must ask Mum about that LOL!

Anyway, I lagged behind with my memories and dawdled home. Took this gorgeous photo of a joey in her Mum's pouch. Then played with my camera trying to take photos of the butterflies (that could send you insane!!!) They are so beautiful but so erratic!

Once I had finished trying to be Steve Parish, got back to the house, hung out for a while then got ourselves packed up and headed off. Went to Yarraman so Dale could see where the block of land is, spent a little while there and then we headed back home and Dale headed back up to his sanctuary (probably glad to see the back of us LOL!)

I feel like I have been away for days not just 24hrs!

Better get to bed, have uni tomorrow and Matthew has given me his cold so I really should have been in bed hours ago. Too busy to be sick! LOL!

Stay happy!

Trish

More layouts

Some of the layouts that I have done over the past few months.

I have been soooo slack!!!

It's been soooo long since I posted. I started to update a few times, they are still in my drafts actually. Then I left it so long, I couldn't remember my password, but today I rediscovered my poor neglected blog and decided I really needed to start it up again! So here we go....

Another reason I lost interest in it last year was that I lost all desire and motivation to scrap. I was part of a competition online and what should have been fun and light-hearted got a bit nasty with accusations of some of the contestants cheating, multiple accounts being started etc etc. Then an online blog was started for people to post their thoughts and criticisms. I think it was intended for people to express disappointment, problems etc with certain products but unfortunately it ended up becoming really nasty and very personal attacks on some of the who's who in Australian scrapping. I'm not sure why I let it all get to me. i should have ignored the lot and just kept on merrily scrapping but I think I got caught up in the buzz of wanting other people to appreciate and love my work, to view it as up to the standard of others etc etc. So so silly! I am not someone who worries about others opinions normally (unless I have personally done something to make someone unhappy etc) but I stupidly let it all effect me and my scrapping. I lost sight of the fact that I scrap for me, for my kids to have details and stories about their childhood and family and it only has to be good enough for me, no-one else. So it took me taking a step back and not really scrapping to get back to the place of loving it again! AND I DO LOVE IT!!!

I joined a competition called Reality Scraps on Scrapbook City which is based around all of the reality shows. it has been sooooo clever, I think they have thought of everything! There are Friday Night games (ala Big Brother), immunity can be won, we vote and those with the lowest tally per week get moved to the Others. I purchased a Survival Kit at the start of the comp and each week we've been set challenges...and some of them have definitely been challenges. Had to do a layout at the start to qualify. The layout had to include our name somewhere on the layout and be about why we wanted to join Reality Scraps comp. After last year (as I explained above) I am in this for fun. The prize is a position on the Scrapbook City Design Team which I would love but I am mainly in this to have a little fun and get at least a layout done a week so my Qualifying Challenge layout was called "Fun". I was at Tammie's doing this layout and put the pic down to work out sizes etc. planning to get another pic prionted for this layout then Tammie took one look at this picture and said "that is so you!" And she was right, I look like an idiot but I was laughing and having fun and that is me!

QUALIFYING CHALLENGE: "Fun"

Made it through the qualfying round and got partnered up with Michelle Jamieson (Chelle)..woohoo!!!

Week 1 Challenge was to scrap our passion. OMG WHAT??? Kinda scary really as I don't think I really have anything in particular that is my passion. I mean I have lots of things that I am passionate about but I had no idea what to do for this. We were encouraged to use the 3 Bugs papers in our Survivial Kit and we had to have an embellishment cluster of at least 3 items (mine is the clip, the HS hearts, the HS file tab and ribbon) I think it might have had to have had handwriting on it too?? Not sure will get back to you on that one LOL

I wanted to do a layout that will mean something to me in years to come, not something that I or my family would look at in 10 years time and think why did she scrap that?!? So I decided to take this layout from a slightly different angle and used a pic of Stephen and I taken by our wedding photographer for our engagement portrait. I journalled about the changes that have occurred since then higlighting the fact that our passion for each other and love is still as strong now as it was back then!

WEEK 1: CHANGES

Week 2 Challenge was a Road Block. "A road block is where both players complete the task and receive personal points, but only one of them uses their entry to compete with the other players. You must nominate this person before the challenge is announced."

So I got names from a hat and placed them against numbers 1-10 and asked Chelle to pick a number and I was up for this week. I prayed that it wouldn't be that horrible MM Cheeky floral paper that I would have to use. Ewww! And then later that day up came the challenge:

"Challenge by DT member Pauline.

MAKING MEMORIES

The Reality Scrap Survival Kit contains two Making Memories Cheeky range papers and 8" chipboard piece/s. These are preferable for this challenge.Use Patterned Paper ONLY! (Wow, I know this is exciting isn't it - LOL)You can use cardstock as a basis to start your LO, but it must be completely covered with PP.You must use at least TWO different PP's but from there you can use as much or as little as you like.The layout must include at least ONE chipboard feature/accent. Your journaling MUST be on your chipboard accent.Chipboard used does not HAVE to be covered with patterned paper, including titles."

OMG Are you kidding me...the one lot of paper that makes me shudder and not only do I have to use it, I'm the only one getting voted for AND I have to have a whole page of MM Cheeky PP (preferably!) Anyway, I played around with this for sooo long, I even went and bought extra pp from that range...the pressure was terrible! In the end I absolutely LOVE this layout! The photo does not do it justice (if I can say so LOL!) as it is so shiny and pretty in real life. Photo is of Sarah's divine curls and the journalling on the brackets is in rubons and says: "All of our babies have had curls will you get to keep yours"

WEEK 2 : CURLS

Thankfully I didn't get Chelle and I booted out this week and the week 3 challenge was announced:

"The challenge this week is supplied by Katie.

BACK TO BASICS WITH BAZZILL!

Create a LO using at least 3 different sheets of Bazzill, at least one of these must be a Bazzill Bling or Fancy edge. One of each is included in the Survival Kit. If you do not have either, you may create your own 'fancy' edge using Bazzill.The other two Bazzill may be different textures or different colours.The LO must contain at least one photo, journalling, a hand cut title, and a handmade embellishment.There is to be no pp used nor other embellishments.You must use Bazzill as the basis for your handmade embellishment and you may use rub-ons/stickers, paint or ink on it as well (incl stamping).You may also use brads, stitching or staples to secure your items to the page, and of course you may use a pen for doodling and journalling."

When I first started scrapping, I desperately wanted a Shape Boss...put it off for ages and then finally bought myself one. Well it proudly sits down the side of my desk and had been used exactly once up until this point. My darling (grrr!) sewing machine isn't working (and I am NOT touching it, would probably sew my fingers to it or something stoopid!! LOL!) so I was trying to think of a way to make it interesting and the Shape Boss sprung to mind. I adore this photo of Emily and have wanted to scrap it for ages. I love how Steve's hand is on her head and she is having a nice quiet moment with Daddy. Awesome photo taken by Tammie. The red dot paper is plain red cardsotck with white pen dots. My embellishment is very simple with a red gem brad. The Bazzill Bling is soooo pretty to work with but sadly does not photograph well so here is a really bad pic of my layout for week 3.



















WEEK 3 - A MOMENT

Woohoo...Chelle and I are through again! Well I won Friday Night Games so we went through automatically LOL! Also got a gorgeous prize for winning, Scrapworks glittery chipboard flowers. They are divine. Can't even thank anyone on the forum as it has been down but they made my day! They are so pretty!

So week 4... This week should have been titled "Get so far out of your comfort zone, you are almost in another country"...FREESTYLE...Hmmm....I even posted a post on Scrapboxx asking for some advice on what freestyle is exaclty! Aparently it is breaking the rules. Your rules, scrapping with reckless abandon...hmmm yep this little Virgo is competely comfortable with that...NOT!!!!!!!!

This week was a Detour: "A Detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons" says Phil Keoghan. In Reality Scrap, when you see this sign you will be given a choice of two tasks. One is a difficult challenge that will take additional time and effort to complete well. The second is an easy task that will be quick to complete however only a maximum of 7 points will be available instead of the usual 10.

Week 4 Challenge - Sara (DETOUR)

PINK MARTINI

The Reality Scrap Survival Kit contains two Pink Martini papers. These are the preferred papers for this challenge.Requirements: ABC-123 (Challenge inspired by Nancy Kupec, USA)EASY OPTION
The following are your required inclusions. You may also add other items to the layout, but are restricted to the clauses below (meaning that if it says two patterned papers, you may only use two patterned papers, for example).

* A - Adults, topic of layout must be concerning adults - siblings, parents, friends, etc (NOT children, animals, etc)
* B - Bling, use some bling on your layout - gems, rhinestones, glitter, etc (unlimited amount, it just has to be there)
* C - Chipboard, use THREE (3) pieces only
* 1 - ONE Photo, any size
* 2 - TWO Patterned papers, preferably from the Pink Martini Range.
* 3 - THREE x 6" lengths of ribbon (hint: they do not have to remain in three lengths, you may cut them, but ALL pieces have to be on the layout; they do not have to be from the kit)

DIFFICULT OPTION

* ABC-123 as above PLUS...
* Go "Freestyle" - Make it artsy, lots of doodling and interesting journaling style.
* Add some random machine stitching.
* Finally, NO paper or photograph can be 'square on' on the page. 'Square on' meaning parallel to the edges of the layout.

I used the Bazzill Bling again for this round...I love the stuff and it really suited this photo. Yes we were just a little intoxicated when this photo was taken ...don't you love how even when Elle is trying to pull a funny face she still looks stunning! So this is it...as freesyle as I get. I cut haphazzardly around the flowers, cut the journalling bits haphazardly, let it fall wherever, bit of doodling (hard to see in the pic), gems, random hand stitiching as sewing machine isn't healthy (only a little bit though, if Steve sees me stitching he'll make me sew buttons onto all of his pants that have buttons missing, so none of that thanks very much!!) Anyway, here it is. Looks better irl as the doodling can be seen better and the bling adds something to the layout.



















WEEK 4 : NINETEEN YEARS

And now we are up to week 5. It is another road block and this time it is Michelle's turn to play (so only her layout will be voted on, pressure is off me, phew!). Her layout is lovely too...Using BG Blush pp. and very pretty. I've still to do mine...its planned it though which is further than I have been at this stage each week. PMSL! I had an 11.59pm upload one week...due time 11.59pm! Talk about cutting it fine! Phew!

Anyway, thought I'd also add some other layouts that I have done since I last update:




















You Colour His World...Steve and Emily, we went in to New Farm Park for a picnic with Steve's mum and Steve came and suprised us! Van you tell who was very happy to see Daddy!!!
Random Challenge by Sares on Embellished, sketch provided and insturctions were to use bright coloured paper





















Four... Layout about Emily and different likes and sayings etc





















Perfectly You.... Christmas photo shoot 2005. This photo sums our kids up completely -
Matthew is trying to do the right thing and get the girls to behave, Emily is being funny and playing silly, entertaining Sarah and Sarah is into everything, finding out how it all works!




















Slow Down... Layout about Sarah and how she is my last baby and it is all passing so quickly and how I want her to slow down!




















Christmas: Online Class with Alicia Barry on Scrapbook City. I am hopeless with classes they never look like the example and this was no exception. I couldn't get the paper used so used other BG ones but still happy with how it turned out and it was my first online class..will have to do another some time!
















Close up of the title.

What a post hey!!! I really should keep this updated better. I am back to uni now too which is going great so far. I should keep this blog updated so I can read back through it in 2-3 years when uni is finished and remind myself of what happened in that blur!

Better go get the layout for Week 5 done.

Stay Happy!
Trish

Wow...2 months later!!! Ooops!

Wow, it's been a pretty long time since I last blogged. I have started 2 posts in that time but got interupted and saved them as drafts with every intention of finishing them and never did. I'll copy part of it in here for future reference.

So what has been happening...heaps and not much!! LOL! Had a girls night away with Elle, Vicki and Ange 2 weekends ago which was great! As usual we chatted and laughed heaps. I love these girls to death - how lucky am I to call them my best friends!!! Then last weekend we went up the coast with BP, Vanessa, Jake and Beau. Steve and Matthew went up on Friday night. Emily had Meggie's party on Saturday morning so we went up Saturday afternoon. It was a fairy party and Emily looked gorgeous. Sarah got to go along and even dressed as a fairy too. They looked soooo cute!!! I'll have to download my pics and pop a photo in here. Stayed up the coast until Monday. Steve had to work Monday and unfortunately had training that he couldn't move (we only decided to definitely go Friday morning, nothing like planning hey? LOL!) but the kids and I spent the day doing the touristy thing. Matthew loved the fact that he was having the day off school and made me a deal. In his words "I won't annoy you all day if I can have the day off and we go look at things" LOL So we got up early Monday morning and lazed around the unit then went for a swim in the pool there. Went back to the room to change, checked out then headed into Maroochydore to find a tourist info centre to find out what we could do. I picked up a heap of brouchures and let the kids decide. We were going to go to Underwater World but decided we'd leave it until a time when Steve could come too. So the kids set the itinery - Bli Bli Castle (or I think it is called Sunshine Castle now) then The Big Pineapple, then some Maze place can't remember the name of it then Emily pleaded to go to the Strawberry Fields so they could pick strawberries. All day she kept saying "when are we going to Strawberry Land?"...too funny!

Had a great day. Stupid me forgot my camera though. I put it on charge after the party and left without it. As Kelley said..And I call myself a scrapper!!! Bli Bli Castle was good, lots of stairs and turrets to carry Sarah up (OMG I need to get fitter!!!) Matthew was a bit freaked out, it was very quiet and in the first room there were swords and knives and other weapons on the walls so he was a little scared. Emily on the other hand, the big thrill seeker, wasn't scared at all and when I pointed out where the dungeon was, she decided that she wanted to go down and have a look (even after I explained what a dungeon was!!) Matthew didn't want to look but Emily said "Oh come on Matty, it's good" I had to pre-warn him of the manequin in the corner with fake blood etc. I think he still enjoyed it although he just wasn't comfortable. Lots of hallways, lots of rooms, very quiet and a little dark in places for him...Heaps of doll displays too so Emily loved it all!

Then we went to The Big Pineapple. Its only been 20 something years since I was last there and from what I can remember it hasn't really changed much. Went on the plantation train and got off to see the animal farm. Ended up waiting forever for a return train back to the entrance. Because it was so quiet the staff were only sending the train around if they saw people. Meanwhile I was busy trying to entertain the kids in the koala area just behind the train stop(while listening out for the train and willing it to appear).

We had wanted to go to the maze place but ran out of time (all that time wasted at the train stop..grr!) We were all getting a little tired too so decided to go find Strawberry Land :) It's close to the Ettamogah pub and wow, I can't believe how much fun we had and how much the kids enjoyed it! To think that when we were kids Jack and Mrs James had so many strawberry plants next door that we were always over there picking our own and now my kids were seeing it as an exciting treat!!! I gotta get them out more!!! PMSL! They loved it. Sarah walked along picking and eating. I kept stopping her then I'd turn my back and she'd be munching on another one! That child will have the most amazing immune system!!! Emily was in heaven and couldn't wait to eat them. Even Matthew who doesn't like strawberries (he'd like to try one if I could take all that bumpy stuff (ie the seeds) off the outside so Matthew!!) But he had heaps of fun picking them too. They literally give you containers and point you to the field and away you go! We were lucky though, the season is usually finished by now but the season had gone late this year so there was still plenty of great strawberries there. The lady said they probably have 2 weeks max left! Lucky, I would have hated Emily to have missed out on Strawberry Land, she was looking forward to it all day! Good cheap, healthy fun! It was about $7 for 2 huge containers. The girls ate nearly a whole container on the way home before falling asleep! I stopped and picked up something for Matthew to eat also and put them straight to bed when I got home. Steve was a bit disappointed that he missed such a fabulous day, and it was a shame he wasn't there too but it was still really nice to spend a day with my kiddies and for once be the exciting parent LOL!!! I just wish I had had my camera! They were so, so good, they always make me so proud with their behaviour and manners etc. Gee I love my kids!!!

Well, I found this in my drafts and that is all that I had written. Not sure what else was going on at the time, but I'll post this now....

Stay happy,
Trish