Funny faces

Ok, here is my layout for the UL comp at Scrap Therapy - I really love this one, some gorgeous paper, and the cutest pics of my girls mucking around, practising their air-guitar skills! I hand cut the title out of one sheet of pp, and the flowers were cut from another - I've given up saying that I'm not going to handcut stuff anymore, because let's face it, I'm a bit addicted, and everyone knows I'll be doing it again! lol

That's it for today - no amazing news, just a lo share. Oh, yeah - have you checked out the big comp at Little Scrapbook Shop yet? What are you waiting for??? Cath has just told us she's got some new stuff in - you know you want to look!! lol

Going, going, GONE!!

And we have a winner ... they're all packed up, and on their way to a new home. I could probably get rid of this much again, and still not notice the difference in my stash - so keep your eyes peeled, there could be another pack on its way.

So do you feel like you need to scrap something?? It's Urban Lily month at Scrap Therapy ... the monthly kit is one of my fave UL ranges, and there is a great competition running with an awesome prize of UL papers!! Check it out ... you have until the end of the month to upload your Urban Lily layout to the gallery! I've been doing that this afternoon, and I've scrapped a lo of some goofy pics of the girls ... I can't wait to get a pic of it in decent light tomorrow. I'll upload it for you then!

Take care people ... Love Tamara

Paper for sale, part 2

Ok, here is the final pack - it's an assorted mix of paper, including 3Bugs, Pebbles Inc, Fancy Pants, KandCO, Comstock Collection, Wild Asparagus, and others. 21 sheets of paper, a 2Bugs tag sheet with 3 tags missing, and a 12x12 creative imaginations overlar (it's the black and gold one - it's clear, but has a sheet of white paper behind it so you can see it better). $10.

Don't forget to check out the post below for the other packs!

Do you need paper??? ROFL

Ok, I'm clearing out some pp ... there is no WAY I need as much as I have! So here they are:

Chatterbox pack - there is a pack of paper patches, which retail for about $6 I think, plus 28 sheets from a number of ranges. $15










Basic Grey pack - these are older ranges, like Sweet Pea Jack and Alyssa, Motifica, Aged and Confused, Lollipop Shop, Acid Washed, and Black Tie. There are 20 full sheets, a 2/3 sheet in case you want to use it, plus a sheet of tags from the aged and confused range with one tag missing. $10











Black and white 8x8 pages. There are 25 assorted sheets of pp, most of them doubles - some gorgeous papers that I have WAY too many off! $5

Melissa Frances and KISS assorted pack - there are 18 sheets of Melissa Frances pp, and another 9 sheets of Designs Galore and KISS photograph range papers. The red range are christmas ones, and are just gorgeous - I love these Melissa Frances pp's! $10

Girly assortment - there are 2 Rasberry paper packs in this lot, with 4 sheets of pp each, and matching alpha stickers, plus a variety of other ranges, including AED, Scrapbooking Australia, and Karen Foster. There are 3 sheets of AED My Cuts, which do have a couple of tags or letters missing, and the purple letter paper has a couple of letters cut out of it. 20 sheets of pp altogether, and I'm throwing in some assorted blossoms with this lot. $10

There is one more assortment, but I can only upload 5 images per post, so I'll create another post above this one. If you are interested in any of these, let me know either by email or by leaving a comment here ... I've got them all packed up ready to go. Postage will be extra, but as an added bonus if you want 3 or more of these packs, I'll post them for free for you.

Have a great day!

A Quick Ad Break ...

Ok people, this will be quick - what do Channel 10 say? A 60 second ad break ... well, that all depends on how quickly you can read! lol

Friday night, I'm having a Total Learning demo ... it's basically a great range of educational books and CD-ROM's, some really awesome stuff! And let's face it, you can never have enough kids books (although my husband would vehemently disagree with this comment!!) If you are in my area, and you want to come along, email me and I'll give you the details. Or, if you can't make it, you can check out the online catalogue, and let me know if you want to place an order ... http://www.totallearning.ws/catalogue.php

While I'm advertising, don't forget - there isn't long until the new Stamping Up! Catalogue arrives, which means that there's not long to go until the Retiring items leave us forever! Here are the links if you are interested in checking out what is retiring ... email me if you want to place an order, but remember, anything on the Retirements list is only available while stocks last, or until March 31st, so don't leave it too late! (Note to self - ORDER SOME WATERCOLOUR CRAYONS!!)
Stamping Up! 2006-2007 Idea Book and Catalogue
Stamping Up! Retirement List

I hope that wasn't too long a break - I'll now return you to your scheduled progamming.

Take care everyone!

2 posts in one day ... what is the world coming to???

Ok, here are the pics I promised!!

http://www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3296
This link will take you (hopefully!) to my Fancy Pants layout for the Little Scrapbook Shop Little Book of Big Memories comp - the girls and I camped out in the loungeroom, it was lots of fun!
And this next one is for my Cactus Pink lo - when I started working on this one, I really didn't like the paper, but I'm so happy with how this lo has turned out!!
http://www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3377
Take a look at the other great lo's in the competition gallery so far - if you haven't registered yet, there is heaps of time, check out the posts in the forum for more details!













And then, finally, the soccer star - how cute is she?? lol

Ok, I'm off again - suffering with a sinus related headache and earache tonight, so I'm having a day of tomorrow to recover. Take care all!

Well hi there! I've been slack, I know, so I thought that in my few minutes of freedom from the tryranny of work today, I'd give you all a quick update as to what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks!

Firstly, Tayla had her first soccer game on Saturday - what a little legend! They had a trial game, and played so well - I can't wait till Saturday again, when the season starts, it was just the cutest thing!! lol I don't have pics here, but when I get home tonight I'll upload some, I promise - I can't wait to scrap them!

Scrapping, scrapping, scrapping - I've been on a roll with my Little Book of Big Memories comp lo's for Little Scrapbook Shop. I'll add some pics later, but you can check them out in the Competition gallery at www.littlescrapbookshop.com ... I can't wait to get some time this week to work on some more of them, I'll loving almost all the products that we are getting to use for this!

Speaking of loving products ... I got my big prize from Scrap Therapy! How much fun was it to go shopping, and not have to worry about paying for it - thanks Nat!! I got some awesome doublesided cardstock - doublemates, it's called, check it out if you haven't seen it yet! Some Urban Lily, blades for my trimmer, chipboard and plastic alphas, rubons ... can't remember what else, but it was all so nice! Oh, some Daisy Bucket - LOVE that stuff!!

So that's it for me today - I'd better go and type up this assignment for my year 10 students (they are going to love it!! lol). I'll post some pics of all the excitement tonight ... take care everyone!!

The winner takes it all ...

Woo hoo - this is just a quick brag post!! Natalie at Scrap Therapy have been having a competition to win a $100 gift voucher for the store ... you had to chat, and let's face it, that's something I'm good at! She announced the winner on Saturday night, during the cybercrop (which was great, by the way), and I guess you've worked out all by yourself now that I won ... woo hoo!!I can't wait to get shopping - Nat has some great stuff in store, and a great sale on Urban Lily this month, so check it out!

In other news - omg, I'm a scrapping legend this week!! I've been working on some of my lo's for the Little Book of Big Memories at Little Scrapbook Shop, and I'm loving every one of them so far - I'm even being a bit daring for me, and scrapping something other than my kids. Of the 12 lo's that we have to do, 3 of them are going to be on me - shock horror! I'm doing a lo about when I got by purple belt, one on my tattoo, and one on the experience of being a full time public school teacher for the first time. That last one is scary, and I'm not really sure how I'm going to tackle it, so we'll see what happens!

Ok, bloggers, I'm off to bed ... take care everyone, cya all another day!

And now, the end is near ...

Gee it was hard finding a song title for this post! lol

This is just a quick one - it's getting close to the time when we have to farewell some stamp sets from the Stampin' UP! 2006-2007 Idea Book and Catalogue, as well as from the mini catalogue. You can check out the retirements here .... there are a lot of them! If you are interested in purchasing any of these before they disappear forever, let me know - I'm offering a 10% discount of the total order cost for anyone who orders 2 or more items from the retirement list. You only have until March 31st to order any of the retirements, so don't delay ... sorry, I'm all out of steak knives, so you'll just have to miss out on those this time! lol

Ok, I'm off to do some work - I just had to check out the retirement list this morning, though, so I thought I'd share it with you. Email me if you have any questions! tamara_rodgers@hotmail.com

Have a great day!

Why does it always rain on me?

You know, I really love the rain ... it's my favourite weather!! But why is it that whenever I have heaps of stuff in my hands, or have parked miles away from where I need to go, that it starts to rain just as I need to leave the building? And why is it that no matter how long I wait for the rain to settle down a bit, it will continue unabated until I get inside the car, then it will stop?? It's a mystery.

Tayla had her first "big girl" gymnastics lesson at YMCA today - she totally loved it! They didn't stop working the whole time, unlike the kindygum class which consisted of lots of lining up to get on the equipment. The other great thing about it was that there is an advanced class on at the same time, so Tayla has decided that next week she'd like to learn how to walk on her hands. And, she wanted me to teach her ... rofl. I don't think so!

I'm scrapping, scrapping, scrapping my little heart out at the moment! I've got 2 lo's almost done for the HUGE comp at LittleScrapbookShop - if you haven't checked it out yet, make sure you do, it's awesome!

Do you want to get some scrapping done this weekend? How about the opportunity to win some AWESOME prizes? Scraptherapy is having their cybercrop this weekend ... it's going to be great, make sure you check it out. Challenges will be posted on friday night, but there are hints in the forum already, so check it out. Nat has done an awesome job on her site - her logo is just to die for, I love it!

Ok, I'm off to do something - take care, everyone!!

Tell me why I don't like mondays.

I forgot for a while there I was singing to you all with my post headings. So here we go - can't you just imagine how amazing I sound singing along while I'm typing?? lol




So what has everyone been up to this weekend? We had our last game of softball yesterday, and it was lots of fun - right up until the game got cancelled due to rain, lightning and thunder. I was a bit disappointed, as it was a fun game - got our butts royally kicked, but the other team were really great to play, and we did pretty well to restrict the score to what it was, so that was good. We had our night out last night - drove to Emu Plains, through torrential rain and car-shaking thunder, to discover that the Hotel we were planning on eating at was flooded, with no electricity. A quick change of venue, and we ended up at the Henry Lawson Club at Werrington. Great food, awesome service, and a really fun Karaoke set up (I didn't sing, but I was about the only one in our group ... go the Bon Jovi head banging!!) What an awesome night! I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I can't wait until next season starts. Most of our team is staying together - only 2 people are leaving, we think, so it's going to be a great season, and our coach is staying too - I think he's planning on whipping us into shape, and not letting us get away with our slackness at training of this year, so I'm kind of looking forward to that.
The up side of softball finishing is, no more early saturday mornings, as we rush to get the kids down to the fields in time for their games ... woo hoo! I can sleep in - at least till soccer starts.

Tayla has decided that she wants to play soccer this year - and that decision was solidified when she found out that her "boyfriend" Joshie is playing too. So we have been on the hunt for tiny soccer boots. After being told by a number of rude salespeople that I would never find any soccer boots in that small a size, as there was no demand for them (HELLO!! isn't the fact that I'm after a pair of them an indication that there is?? Boooooo Rebel Sports at Penrith for their rude customer service staff by the way!!) we found a pair at KMart - and the kicker is (ROFL) that they are Diadora brand ... cover up the first 3 letters, and they are DORA soccer boots!! She's so excited, it's adorable. So here are her new wardrobe additions - she's in heaven. She sat down watching SBS soccer coverage this afternoon, and was taking note of all the things she wants to learn when training starts - I didn't have the heart to tell her that she probably won't be learning an overhead goal kick in under 5's.


K, that's it for me for today ... I'm off to do a bit more shopping for LSBS's big competition! It's so hard to pick which products to use, Cath has put together an amazing selection of stuff for us to choose from! Make sure you check it out, if you haven't already - so far, there are about 50 people registered to have a go at it, so it's going to be pretty awesome. Tomorrow is back to work - I hope this rain keeps up, because we desperately need it, but at the same time I'm glad that I've got a fairly light teaching load this week - rain tends to send teenagers a little nutty!! lol Take care everyone, hope you all have a great monday!

Staying alive, staying alive!!

What a couple of days! Full on at work, full on at home, and to top it all off I'm starting to feel the effects of the February hay fever strike. Sore throat, itchy eyes - fun fun fun! So a trip to the chemist was in order today while I waited for Kelsey to finish dancing the afternoon away at her school disco. It's amazing what a few years at school will do - for her kindergarten disco, she wanted to know when I'd be picking her up, and what songs they'd play, and what she should do if ... I had to walk her in, and it took a while to prise her arms from my leg. Today, I barely got a kiss as she bolted for the door to find her friends!!

Well, a little bit of news - it's not really new news for some people, but it was pointed out to me that I hadn't mentioned it on my blog (sorry AT!) so here I am! I'm officially a Stampin' Up! demostrator. I'm planning on trying to fit some demo's around my busy life - so if you are interested in booking one, or you want to place an order for some of the amazing SU products, feel free to contact me!! I'm about to add the links to the online catalogues to my links on the side bar - take a look, you'll love them! (Warning ... SU! stuff can be addictive ... LOL)
One more SU! thing - the SellABrations promotion that Stampin' Up! has been running is drawing to an end, so if you are interested in getting a FREE set of stamps, all you need to do is place an order for $100, and you'll get to choose your free set from those in the SellABrations brochure ... You'll have to hurry, though, because it ends on monday night! So if you are interested in placing an order, and getting a set of free limited edition stamps, let me know ... you get a free set for every $100 you spend, it's a great deal!

Ok, that's my sales pitch for the night ... lol. Now on to some exciting news ... I think! Tayla has been going to gymnastics since the middle of last year - kindygym at the YMCA, where they teach them balance, coordination, tumbles, etc. Well, she just LOVES it, and is really good. The problem has been this year that since she can't start school till next year, she is back in the same kindygym class as last year, and is bored out of her brain. Well, yesterday Dennis talked to one of her instructors, and she agreed that Tay needs to be a bit more challenged - so she's going up to a higher grade, where she can learn to do cartwheels and more advanced skills. She's so excited - and so am I, but someone on LSBS mentioned last year that she loved gymnastics, and was informed of the costs, both financial and time, that gymnastics can consume when you have a talented child who gets right into it ... maybe I'm not so excited! Ah well, I'm sure I can take on a second job if it comes to that ... lol.

Ok, that's it from me tonight - I'm off to take some antihistamine, and hope that I can speak tomorrow. I can feel myself losing my voice, but I'd hate to not go in when it's an easy day (well, easy compared to the other days anyway ... I have a couple of free periods where I get to catch up on the mountains of paperwork that always seem to be waiting for me!) Take care everyone, have a great thursday!

My big hairy scary encounter!!

Oh my God - never before has getting a coffee been such a stressful event! I had to leave a little early from work today to get Tayla, as Dennis had a Dr's appointment, but there was a bit of time to kill until we had to pick the kids up from school, so Tay and I went shopping. After a lovely little spending spree at KMart, we headed back to the car, and while heading out of the car park Tay announced that she needed a drink. Thankfully, there is a relatively new Starbucks store, which has drive-thru ... perfect!! So through we go, ordering our drinks and heading to the pick up window. I go to hand the lady my money, and she squeals "aahhhh, a spider!" I look up, and there on the window frame of my door, is a big, huge, hairy hunstman spider - I'm talking massive, and less than 10 cm away from my head. Tayla started freaking out, mummy wasn't far behind her, and the girl serving us went hunting for a broom to sweep it away - hello! What happens if it starts running towards me? I couldn't wind the window up, as it was halfway inside the car, and I didn't want it to be trapped inside with me. A manager came to my rescue with a large plastic cup to trap it in ... if you've ever had a large frappe from Starbucks, you'll know the size of the cup, and this spider totally filled it from top to bottom, with no room to move around at all. It was a good half hour afterwards before I felt calm again ... it was interesting driving away after that, let me tell you.

I TOTALLY blame this on Nic, as we spent a bit of time talking about spiders at her place on Saturday night ... all the time I was cm's away from this thing, I was remembering what she told me, and was wishing I had some hairspray - I tell you, this thing had lots of hair! I'm still a little jittery thinking about it actually.

So that was my excitement for the day - I think I'm still coasting a bit on the adrenaline of it all, as our backroom has gone from looking like a total trash heap to looking like ... well, like a back room! I was just contemplating when I got home how many spiders there might be living in amongst all that mess - luckily for them, there were none, as I had my extra strength gel spray ready to go, just in case!!

Oh, some happy exciting news ... I won a prize for a lo I did for a surprise comp at Scrap Therapy! Happy happy joy joy ... LOL. Thanks Nat!! Ok, I'm off to bed - hopefully to dream of things with 2 legs, not 8. And definitely not with little pincers that open and close while you sit there staring horrified at them. Or beady little black eyes. :Shudder:
Thanks for dropping by - if you've got a scary encounter story, please leave a comment! Or even if you don't, you can leave one too - just to say hi, so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself. Luv ya!!

Blogging along, blogging along ...

Yes I know, it's not a real song, but it's close enough ... LOL. This isn't a real post - it's a figment of your imagination! I've just taken the plunge and changed my template over - the drop and drag editing thing is pretty cool, but now for some reason my elements in my sidebar are WAY too far apart, and the flashy blinky thing at the top, advertising the LSBS Competition, isn't flashing or blinking the way I wanted it to. And I still can't figure out how to do a cool pretty looking header for my blog - Cath has given my blog envy!! So really, this is a test post, to make sure that I haven't completely stuffed this up. Have a great friday tomorrow, everyone!

I love a rainy night ...

I'm thinking about doing posts with song lyrics as titles, what do you think?? lol Yep, it's late, I'm bored, and I've been coming up with lots of bizarre ideas, so just humour me.

So an update, I hear you exclaim! What's been happening in my life? Lots, thanks for asking!! Some not so great, and I don't really want to go into that right now ... but I do want to say this. I freaked out a little last week at how long my MSN contact list was getting with scrapping people I'd met online, particularly when you compared it with "real" people (those ones who I had seen in person before I knew what an avatar was). But when the chips are down (what a stupid saying!!) and times are tough, my online friends are the ones who have been flooding me with support, and for that I am truly grateful. It's made me realise how lucky I am to have met so many of you through forums, and scrapping sites, and I value each and every one of you. Big hugs!!! (I need some emoticons on here, Cath!) Just as an aside ... before I edited that last sentence, it said big jugs ... I'm just going to leave that out there, for you to ponder on.

HOW AWESOME has the rain been? I was totally loving it, and am a bit disappointed that it didn't pour any more today. We had our swimming carnival at work today, and could have almost held it in the quad, the puddles were so big after the past couple of days. Fingers crossed that it does some good - God knows we need even more!

Some good news - I have a classroom! YAY ME! It's amazing what a bit of diplomatic discussions will achieve, so tomorrow is D-Day - decorating! I'm taking all my accumulated posters and resources in to get my room organised. Very exciting (well, for me anyway ... smile and nod, all you non-teacher people who don't get the thrill of a permanent classroom, and move on to the next paragraph, ok?)

I think I've got a couple of new lo's to share - do you want to see? If not, you probably should have stopped at the last paragraph - which totally sucks for those of you who aren't teachers, now, doesn't it? The question is, then, if you aren't a teacher or a scrapper, what on earth are you reading this for? There isn't much else in my life ... lol.

These are just a few random lo's from the past couple of weeks - some done for a cybercrop at Scrap Therapy (LOVE the site, Nat, you are doing an awesome job girl!!) and some more just for fun.

Ok, off to bed for me - have a great rest of the week, everyone, and give your kids a HUGE hug. Life is too short to let stress about stupid little things get in the way of what's special, and those moments where you can hug them and make them hug you back, even though they may be rolling their eyes as they do it, are all too fleeting. Take care, and Happy Valentine's Day for tomorrow!!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to work I go.

Well, how did everyone enjoy the first day back to school, hmm? For me, it wasn't such a happy occassion - it marked the end of my blissful scrapping holiday, and the return to the every day activity of planning lessons, programming, dealing with all the politics that comes with working in a school, and of course teaching. There's a huge dilemma about my classroom ... or rather lack of one! But I'm not going to get into that here - too depressing!!

Over the last week of the school holidays, I scrapped up a storm, baby! Lots and lots of lo's, including some monthly and DT challenges from Little Scrapbook Shop, and lots of lo's just for fun. I might just save some time - almost EVERYTHING I scrapped on the weekend used My Mind's Eye Bohemia papers and embellishments ... I'm so in love with them, I can't even tell you!

Here are as many of the lo's that blogger will let me upload today ... please be good little blogger!






Ok, so it's letting me show you 5 - I'll upload some more later on.

So, the really exciting news ... Kieran started highschool, and after the initial misgivings (he was almost sick with nerves the day before) he LOVES it! He is really in his element - he's totally loving maths, and his History teacher is a little blown away by his level of knowledge I think. So all is good on that front ... I think I'm over the "I'm not ready for my son to be going to high school" phase. It's kind of good teaching a year 7 class actually, as I can live vicariously through them, and have some kind of an insight into what my son is experiencing.

Ok, I'm off to get some work done - take care, everyone, and give your kids a big HUGE hug ... they grow up way too quickly!!

The long-awaited update!

I know, it's been ages, and I know that you've been stalking my blog just WAITING for the next update in the delightful insanity of my life. So, without further ado, here it is! Our school holidays in a nut shell.

We had a great christmas - the kids got some wonderful presents, and we're totally over the moon, so that's a good thing. Stayed home in the morning, and let the kids play with their presents, before heading to mum's for round two of unwrapping, and the big feast. I didn't stuff myself silly, which is highly unusual, and I really enjoyed it - with no bloated sick feelings that night, it was a definite improvement over past christmases! I got mainly gift vouchers and books, so I was one happy chappy.

We had our usual New Year's trip to Colo River, only this time we were there for almost 2 weeks, and what a big 2 weeks it was! Kelsey learnt to ride her bike with no training wheels, and almost no effort. Learning to STEER the said bike was another matter entirely, and I won't tell you how many times she came back to our van bragging about her latest stack -the most impressive was when she slowly and gracefully rode the entire length of the park, smack bang into the brick wall of the toilet block. Oh how I wish I had a video camera on it, it was SOOO cool!

Tayla went from being cautious and a little scared in the pool, to being a total superfish - or "mermaid", as she prefers to be called. She can now swim underwater, no floaties, no assistance at all, and is even diving - it's too cool for words!

Kieran went boating - we hired the tinny for a couple of hours, and he was in his element, captaining the ship up and down the river. Good practice for a military career, I guess. LOL


Home again, home again - and lots of relaxation and scrapping, a bit of housework, and many many incredulous cries about how fast the holidays have gone, and that there is no WAY that it's really only a week until my son is heading off to high school. Here are a couple of the lo's I've done in the past couple of weeks - I'm having lots of fun with it, especially when I get to scrap with total legends! Cath, Shelee, Tracey and Nicole graced me with their presence on the weekend, and our house survived the onslaught of "scrappers" (I'm counting you as a scrapper now AT - LOL)



So a funny story to leave you with - I'm totally loving this conversation, and I've just finished scrapping it, but the light is too bad to photograph it, so I'll upload the pic tomorrow.

Tayla: "Mummy, I'm not allowed to say the F word, am I?"
Mummy: "No sweety, you're not. It's not nice to say words like that."
T: Cause it's a swear word, a naughty word.
M: What's the F word? How do you know that?
T: I just know. Can I whisper it though? Softly?
M: What do you think it is?
T: It's FIB, cause lying is really naughty.
M: (PHEW!!!!) Lying's bad, isn't it sweety?
T: Yeah, when you lie you break the truth.

How cute is that? I totally love that a lie is "breaking the truth"... what a legend she is.
K, that's it for me- I promise that my next update will not be as delayed as this one was.
Cya later, everyone, and enjoy the remnants of the school holidays - I know I'll be making the most of mine!

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas ...

and I'm LOVING it, baby! I'm finally out of my pre-christmas funk that has been lurking lately and making me miserable (although I'm still bummed about the missing deco's!!) and I can't wait till Santa gets here. It's been super full on around here lately - time for some dot points, I think!

• Kelsey's dancing concert was awesome, despite mummy having to SEW things ... heaven forbid! She was graceful and elegant in ballet, but the Jazz - Oh MY GOD! She was groovy, and funky, and so awesome, I couldn't stop smiling and crying simultaneously all the way through it.


• Tayla's gymnastics concert was too cute - it was a Peter Pan theme, and despite her initial missgivings (our little angel wanted to be a pirate!!) she was a gorgeous fairy, swinging and floating and tumbling around. No self esteem issues, this girl - they gave all the kids a medal, and she strutted over to us saying "I'm the YMCA champion, mummy!!" So here are some pics of our champion in fairy land ... it was set up so well, and was an awesome show, with some of the older gymnasts taking on the roles of Hook, Peter and Wendy. Tayla was so impressed, she wants to learn to bounce and tumble like them - and given her backflip attempt last night, it won't be long before she can!

• Kieran's Yr 6 graduation/farewell/last day of school ... I thought I'd be fine, really. And I was - right up until my big brave boy lost it, and stood there hugging his best mates, tears pouring down their cheeks. I lost it right along with him. Then Kelsey started - she's going to miss her yr 1 teacher big time. And Tayla started crying because we all were. It was a big Rodger's Family crying session, really. But he looked so handsome all dressed up for his farewell, and when I arrived to pick him up, I found him holding hands with a girl .. not too sure how impressed I was with that, but I played it cool, so that's something, I guess!! This pic is the result of letting him take the camera to the farewell ... not many usable pics among the bunch!!

There was lots lots more, but really, I'm too tired to go through it all. I will share some exciting scrapping news though ... I won a cc with a lo I totally love at the Chookscraps CC, and I've been invited back to compete for a spot in the Chookscraps survivor comp ... I'm in awesome company, as the wonderful Jini was also invited back! Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. This is the lo from the CC - lots of handcutting, and a totally gorgeous picture of Tayla - I love this! I took this photo as part of a camera challenge at LittleScrapbookShop - the lovely DT member and allround legend Lisa challenged us to explore the settings on our digital cameras and take a black and white pic, and this was the result - thanks Lisa!

Have a great christmas everyone ... I can't wait till Santa gets here, and we see what the kids get - they've been refining their lists for a while now! lol. I hope your day tomorrow is blessed, and you have someone wonderful to share it with. Don't forget to check out Santa's website - Claus.com, to see if you are on santa's naughty or nice list - so far, everyone here is on the nice list (although I don't know how after the past couple of days!) Take care!!

Bah humbug

'Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, and all that.

So it's officially December, and try as I might, I'm having real trouble getting into the christmas spirit. Why is that? I don't know, but when you figure it out, please let me know! Our lights are up, and working, except for the one set that Tayla dropped the transformer to, and it's now kaput. The tree is up, but not fully decorated, as there are some decorations missing - don't know where they are, but there are quite a few MIA, including the christmas countdown sign that I made last year. Everything else is replacable, but the sign has got me a bit upset, and I just can't seem to shake it. The only place we can think of that they might concievably be is in the ceiling of our old house - which now sits empty, having been sold by our previous landlords, so we don't know how we'd go about checking if they are still there or not.

On the plus side, there are only 3 weeks of school left - which means, dear readers, only 3 weeks until I'm on holidays, and can try and catch up on some of the massive amounts of housework that sit here waiting for me every day. I can't wait to spend some time scrapping and getting myself organised - I'm planning at least one day of nothing but scrapping every week of the hols, I feel like I'm going into withdrawals! I have done a couple of lo's lately that I really like though -
This one was from a challenge by a couple of friends. Lorraine challenged me on ScrapbookingTop50 to do a lo containing lots of ribbon, black and white, and an oversized monogram. Not long before that, Nicole had sent me a pic of a lo from the Maya Road newsletter (I think!) challenging me to scraplift it. This is the result! Lots of lovely ribbon from the LittleScrapbookShop stand at Papercrafts in Penrith. It's too noice!



This next one is the one that blogger hasn't been liking for ages - it's my last Chookscraps survivor one (yep, the lo that got me sent to Exile Island!) I still love it though - it's such a cute pic of Kieran, one of my "let's try and stop him growing up a bit by scrapping every single picture of him as a little boy" efforts.

Oh, I forgot the truly exciting news for the day - the girls had their end of year physi competition, and did SO well! I'm so proud of them both - they looked gorgeous. Tayla came second in her age group, and was unlucky (says the totally unbiased mother) to not get the dancing award. Kelsey came 7th, and was just lovely - you can really see the impact of ballet in some of her routines, it's so nice to watch.

So that's it from me today - off to feel a bit more sorry for myself, and try and get this house looking like someone other than a family of careless squatters inhabit it.
Take care, everyone.

Tag, you're it!

I've been tagged by Jini! So here is a bit about me ... cause you know, after all, this is my blog, and if you want to read something really interesting you're going to have to go somewhere else, all you'll get here is ME!! ROFL

1. NAME: Tamara
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? A character in a Russian novel
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? It's actually been a while - at least a week or so.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? I never used to, but it's really growing on me!
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Turkey
6. KIDS? 2 stepkids, 3 others, and my husband!
7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? It would depend on which one of my personalities I met ... but really, I think I'm pretty loyal and giving to those who are lucky enough to get close to me!
8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Yep - I have a couple!
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Well derr! (does that answer the question? lol)
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Nope
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? I'd always said no, but as I get older a bit of a daredevil streak is appearing ... so maybe!
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cereal is something you eat at breakfast isn't it? Nah, don't do breakfast ... too early in the morning!
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Ummm ... no, not even when I wear shoes with laces!
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY? I think both ... I'm becoming stronger physically, and I can be super strong mentally when I need to - even though I'm a big sook!
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Cookies and cream. Honeycomb. Do we have to pick just one?
16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their smile
17.RED OR PINK? Pink all the way - I'm buying my boxing gloves tomorrow, can you guess what colour?? lol
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My need to please people ... why can't I just please myself?
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Cherisse, my best friend from high school.
20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Yep!
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Hmmm ... I just got out of the shower, so maybe I shouldn't tell you what I'm wearing! lol
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? I'd be the white one that had rubbed against all the other crayons, picking up bits of all the other colours.
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Vanilla ... totally love it!
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My husband
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Sure do ... she's a deadset scrapping legend, and an allround nice person!
26.FAVORITE DRINK? Coffee
27. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Tennis
28. HAIR COLOR? Brown
29. EYE COLOR? brown
30. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Nope
31. FAVORITE FOOD? Seafood of almost any description!
32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? happy ending!
33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Baz Lurhmann's Romeo and Juliet ... teaching it at school at the moment.
34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? I'll refer you back to question 21.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter!
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Fruit and cheese platter
38. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No idea
39. MOST LIKELY NOT TO RESPOND? Me normally!
40. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Mort by Terry Pratchett
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Marvin the Martian
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV LAST NIGHT? Dancing with the stars
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? My kids laughing!
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles, hands down
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Melbourne
46. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Hmmm ... don't know!
47. WHEN WERE YOU BORN? December
48.WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Lithgow
49. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? Feel like I've done a good job with my kids, look back on our journey big or small, and smile.

Ok, so I tag Amanda, Tracy, or Lavs, whoever reads it and wants to share!

I've tried the image thing again, but blogger is just not playing nice ... maybe next time! Take care all.