And So I Don't Forget...

Simple Scrapper: May 12, 2015

Back in May I participated along with Ali Edward's Day in the Life, but it was a Story Starter from Simple Scrapper's August membership collection that prompted me to transfer the details from blog to layout, and a sketch template from the Simple Scrapper archives helped me do it. 

I created a 12 photo collage in Photoshop Elements and embellished with some stamping, a label, patterned paper border and some brads. Brads; I hadn't used them in...years! Really though, they are like enamel dots but with more commitment. ;)

 

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

In Progress

The winter seems to have sapped my creativity, but a looming deadline for some Simple Scrapper layouts dragged me back to my scrapbook table this evening. With my rug.

A Quick Trip to Perth

Next weekend Mike and I were intending to go to Sydney to watch Clarkson, Hammond and May Live (the new incarnation of the Top Gear Live show). On Wednesday, while considering which hotel to book, we realised that instead of buying tickets to the Sydney show, my darling husband had instead bought tickets to the Perth event a week earlier. Yep, oops!

So, two days later we were catching a plane across the country for my first ever trip to Western Australia.   

We began Saturday driving to Fremantle, just half an hour from the centre of Perth. After a wander through the market, and a stop for cupcakes, we took a tour of the Fremantle Prison. The prison operated from convict times up until 1991, when it closed down due in large part to the toilet facilities in the cells not having progressed beyond buckets.    

44 people where hung at Fremantle Prison however the oak beam on the gallows saw over 100 deaths, having been relocated when a different prison closed down. Bureaucracy cares about the oddest things sometimes. 

In the afternoon we took a two hour boat cruise up and down the Swan River. We saw some insanely expensive waterfront property, including the home of Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart, but really the cruise was just ridiculously relaxing. 

We finished off the day with the reason for our trip, Clarkson, Hammond and May Live. I did enjoy the show, but I loved seeing Mike almost giddy with excitement. I'm not sure he's ever been so concerned with not being late, and said it was 'Good to see the boys in fine form'. 

After breakfast on Sunday, we drove to King's Park for a last look around before heading to the airport for our midday flight home.   

We didn't really do that much, and it's an awfully long way to fly for a day and a bit. but it was a pretty darn great weekend. Relaxing, low key and fun. Just what we needed. 

Card: Happy 90th Birthday

On the weekend Mum came to visit, with lunch and a card making request or two. I think this is my favourite card I've made in quite a while. 

A white card base, a patterned paper and a contrasting plain with dimension adhesive and my Silhouette Cameo made an easy and striking, personalised card.

Mac, by the way, was my Mum's boss - pre me!

Loving / Not Loving

Prompted by my friend Ella, I'm sharing 10 things that I love and 10 things that I don't.

Loving...

1. Our wedding album. It's thick and heavy and luxurious and wonderful.  

2. Getting my hands dirty with my pottery wheel.

3. Tim Tam Chocolicious Bites. They're incredibly more-ish. 

4. Snuggling down into winter scarves and my beanie.

5. Trashy TV. 

6. Making cards for people who appreciate them.

7. The excited 'Lanie!' and smile I get when cutie niece is pleased to see me. 

8. Ginger beer. 

9. Incredible restaurant meals, where flavour combinations are surprising and the chef is a master.  

10. Binge reading book series on my Kindle. 

Not Loving...

1. Miserable short days where the light disappears before I'm even off the train home. 

2. Construction on the tram line that adds a few extra blocks walking to my commute. Yeah, it's probably good for me but I struggle to get to work anywhere near on time as it is. 

3. Getting out of bed on winter mornings.  

4. Hanging out washing.

5. The sound of people eating. It totally irks me. 

6. Decadent (not healthy) food that disappoints and wasn't worth the calories. 

7. Telemarketers. 

8. Flat batteries. 

9. Having taken photos with a disappointing focus.   

10. Spam email and the promotional emails that just keep coming and coming.   

Goodbye June, Hello July

June was...

• A weekend camping with friends at Cathedral Ranges.
• Picking up my newest creations after my pottery class. A very mixed bunch.

• Receiving a pottery wheel of my very own, thanks to a family connection who, VERY kindly, was happy to see it go to an appreciative home. My handy husband has built me a platform for easy wheeling in and out of the shed, as he has yet to find the room for me to actually use it in the shed. ;)
• A couple of medical appointments and a cough that lingers still. Also managed to get a contact lens stuck in my eye. Oops! 

• Watching an ice hockey exhibition match with friends on a Friday evening before a late night feast at Chin Chin.
• A second month without my car Stormy. Just today, when we thought we'd be picking her up, we learned of a failed wheel alignment and she's back to the engineer. This just drags on and on; thank goodness for the loan car! 
• An incredible (at least) 5 course dinner at The Town Mouse, recently voted the 18th top restaurant in Australia. We were running late - parking dramas - but it was a wonderful Sunday night with good friends.
• Enjoying a play date with our youngest friends. 
• Celebrating brother-in-law Steve's birthday early (as his parent's are abandoning him yet again for an interstate trip over the actual day) and played with my adorable niece and nephew. 

• Seeing a kangaroo during a walk through the nature reserve less than 10 minutes from our house. (Where we has our wedding day afternoon tea.)
• Receiving our wedding album from the photographer. It is so pretty! 

July will be...

• A weekend in Sydney with Mike.
• Lots of reservation-making as we organise our next holiday.