Busy Day

Whew!! What a busy day!! We have visitors coming tomorrow and what an incentive to vaccum, mop and generally have a tidy up!! I also did a little baking (anyone care for a slice of fruitcake?) and mowed the lawn.

After a busy morning, I treated myself to a little playing and started the challenges at the Scrap with V cybercrop.

Challenge 1 "Summer Fun Colour Challenge" was to use turquoise, pink and pale yellow on a layout. I had to go pouring through some photos of mu little ganddaughter Zhia to find something suitable for this challenge. Here is the end result:


Challenge 2 "A Place in the Sun" had the following criteria - use paint, no cardstock only patterned paper, handmade embellishment, a journalling block and to feature at least 3 of the following colours: red, blue, orange, green and white.

Tomorrow our split system air-conditioner will be installed...YAY!!!! I can't complain, as we haven't been waiting too long. We also have not been having the heatwave currently experienced by those in the southern states.

Our Schoolroom

Yesterday at 8am I sat down to listen to morning notices from LSODE, for the first time in many years! But how odd it was to dial in and not just turn the radio on! We have to dial in, put in a password and then put in a pin for the studio we are connecting to. The children use headphones during their phone lesson and when they want to call in, they push a little button (push to talk button). Nathan has practised this a few times and handles it well. The greatest advantage is that I can also hear what the teacher and other children say as the speakerphone is on too.

This is our schoolroom. It was once pink, but we soon painted it 2 beautiful shades of blue. You can see Nathan's desk and some canvases he helped to create to brighten the walls.

This is another corner of his room. The big cupboard stores alot of art and craft items as well as a massive collection of boxes and containers for construction activities. You can also see where I do my scrapbooking. It's a well lit, airy little area with everything close at hand. Another large cupboard in the other corner, is home to all of my scrapping stash.


This room has been a hive of activity this week as Nathan has been so keen to do school and write.

Another Layout

I have been scrapping my little heart out lately and having sooo much fun!! Here is my layout for the week 3 photographic challenge at Scrap Boutique.


Week 4, the final challenge was posted yesterday.

My child has developed a "photo smile". Not the best looks let me tell you and obviously not real.

I am not a big fan of the "look at mummy and smile" photos. I prefer to capture children (or adults) when they don't realise I'm taking a photo of them. I feel that you can capture more of their personality that way.

The trick to do this is to move away from the subject you want to take a photo of. If you have a telelens use it, if not, just use your normal lens, move far away from your subject and zoom in. It works best when there is plenty of light (outside) and you don't have to use the flash (for obvious reasons).

Have a go at it and see if you can capture some of your child's, friends or relative's personality.

Sketch Challenge

A2Z Scraplets have a posted a sketch challenge for January. It's a simple but very nice sketch.

Here is my entry:

This photo of Nathan and Sami was taken in November, just after Nathan's cast was removed.

Don't forget the cybercrop at Scrap with V this weekend. It will be loads of fun, as always!

Started Prep

Today my littlest man started Prep. Distance Education papers are worked on 5 day weeks, so when there's a public holiday or a day in town, that schoolwork needs to be made up. Nathan is going to school in town on Friday so we started today, knowing we had to make up a day. He was so keen to 'do school' that we did 2 days today!! We collected, coloured, counted, read and wrote. He wrote his name beautifully and afterwards commented that it was 'splendid writing'! How could I not agree!!



Then this afternoon he had a little accident and required a couple of stitches to the back of his head. They should come out next Monday. We came through a storm coming home and slipped and slithered most of the way to discover the storm had come this far...we measure 45pts making our total for the day 54pts! Almost an inch and a half up at our cattleyards though, which we are very excited about!

Tonight I was able to complete the last challenge for the Scrap Boutique cybercrop...the Sunday Roast. Once I selected my photos, choosing the right papers was easy!

Thanks Manon for agreat challenge.

Happy Australia Day!

On Australia Day we come together as a nation to celebrate what’s great about Australia and being Australian - the people, the land, the diversity, our culture, our laid back lifestyle. We can also reflect on where we have come from. It's the probably one of the biggest celebrations of our nation.

Trucking delayed

Trucking the wether weaners was delayed. On Thursday afternoon it rained, so Martin thought it wise to delay trucking until Sunday. The idea of having 2 semis bogged here or on the road to town didn't appeal.

The agents rang back and said they were not able to get trucks until next Friday. So we remustered the weaners and put them back into the paddock we had previously mustered them from. Why? There was not enough feed in that paddock for them for a week. We are hoping to be able to muster them on Thursday and walk them right to the yards.