With the Family album the letters that spell FAMILY were those rubbery ones that I bought at GoLo. I painted them and they look good-well i think so anyway LOL.

I have some boring and old albums that I decided to revamp. I painted them, used gel medium to paste the paper on, decorated them and then put varnish over the top. I have taught this lesson a few times and it was popular. A friend was going to throw all her old albums out and put her layouts in new albums but when i did this she went home and revamped hers too. They look awesome.

Amanda and Melanie at the baby shower.

I have had a wonderful weekend with Amanda and also with Melanie today.

Saturday I took Amanda into Balmain to an inspirational talk at Nutri-metics. It was very good and inspiring. From reading self help books and teaching students for years I didn't learn much BUT it refreshed me in areas I need to work on and gave me insentive. I came home and wrote out my Goals for 2006 and the actions I am going to take to accomplish my goals. Amanda enjoyed it and came home very positive. We had a lovely time chatting in the car.

Sunday was Amanda's baby shower. Melanie organised and I helped a lot. Was a lovely afternoon sitting outside and talking to friends and family. I love games and won 2 out of the 3. What a hog! LOL.

I did have a good cry last night as Amanda and Craig will be moving in a few weeks. Craig's job with the M7 has finished and he has been offered a job at Tumit-near the Snowy Mountains. It is a 5 hour drive from me. I know they need to go because it will be more money, cheaper rent and it will help them get on top of things. Still I will miss Amanda so much and little Cooper when he is born.

I thought today was going to be another boring day but I was wrong. Melanie rang and asked if they could come around for a swim. I suggested they stay for dinner. Was fun being with my family, especially my little Jess. She is so good in the pool now and can swim and stay afloat. We had a bar-be-que and chatted and was nice being with them. Was especially nice having Gavin here also-he is away a lot with work and it was nice to have the 3 of them here.

Another night when I can't sleep. I need to sleep as I am taking Amanda to a Nutri-metics inspirational talk tomorrow and I have to be up at 7 to get going. It is at Balmain and I am also picking up another lady. I have never driven to Balmain. Brian reckons I will not find my way-he is always so negative but I will prove him wrong.

These photos show the top and the other side of the tin.

When I was looking after Jessica before Christmas I noticed all her elastics were in a bag and spread all over her dressing table. When I came home I decided to make her something to keep them in and make the table tidy. I painted and stuck patterned paper to a used tin and did the same to the lid which was plastic. I decorated it with flowers, rub-ons, CathyB stickers and ric rac. I didn't over decorate it as it will get a lot of use and I thought the bits might come off. Jessica liked it.

This is a layout I did the other night while scrapping with my friend,Debbie. I sewed around the edges and around the main photo of Amanda on the RHS. I also painted around some photos and under the journalling.The little strips of patterned paper were stapled on with blue staples.

Me at the Docklands. This is new area being developed. There are many high rise residential blocks, heaps of restaurants and lots of entertainment. A very nice area.

I have always loved the tiled seats on Brunswick Street. However, this time I was disappointed as most have been removed and only a few remain. At least I have this one to remind me of the seats. We had a late lunch here and it was so hot, 40 degrees. We were exhausted by the time we got home.

Me in Melbourne Botanical Gardens. I am eating healthy, you can see by the apple. It was a 40 degree day and a bottle of beer was the only thing to refresh me. The gardens were so nice and peaceful.

Another "shot" of me at the tennis. I am planning another holiday next year to coinside with the Australian Open. Until you see the players live you have no idea how fast those balls are travelling. It was an unreal experience. The crowd is also fun to watch.

I am back from Melbourne and had a wonderful time. The highlight was a day at the tennis. This is the closest I will ever get to Andre. More photos to follow. I went to the Vodaphone Arena and saw 4 matches, the Margaret Court Arena and saw a match and Court 2 to see a Legends match. Was an awesome day.

Took Amanda to the hospital for a check up. Everything is going well for her.

Another busy weekend away. Brian and I took Jessica up to Toukley to see his mother. We went to the beach on Saturday afternoon and helped his sister with a garage sale for a friend. I also did some gardening for Win. Came home tired. Even though it was overcast and cold I took Jess for a swim-it was so cold but these are the things we do as grandparents.

Have Jess until her parents come back tomorrow night.

Me as a 20 yr old. I used to love this dress.

Had a good day today. Went to visit my very good friend Debbie. We sat and talked for ages and both her and Jenna showed me the crafty things they had been doing the past few days. I am sure if I stayed any longer they would have altered me too. I loved Deb's altered box with the accordian pull out. I am going back there tomorrow night and we are going to have a girlie night scrapping until whenever.

Had a phone call with a very excited little voice saying "My can swim by myself" It was from my little darling Jessica.She was so excited. I saw her come a long way while we were on holidays in Cairns. I love the way she says MY instead of I-it is so cute.

Me as a 5 year old visiting Santa. I still remember what I said to my Mother when I saw this photo. "Why did Santa make me poke my tongue out?"

1957 in Newcastle,Australia

I've done it. I am excited. I have accommplished something. I have now successfully been able to put my LINKS in, and they work.
All i have to do now is work out all the other things. Why can't blogs be easy-perhaps they are, it might be me.LOL

Today was a plus for mankind. Just when you think people are selfish and don't care somebody does something for you out of the blue. Am I being a tad too cynical here? I went down to the butcher to buy some meat as we had lost everything including our Christms ham which hadn't been touched.I was telling the girl who was serving me about our problem and the butcher overheard me and came out and presented me with a big ham and a tray of chicken pieces. I couldn't believe it, I had tears in my eyes and became emotional. He said you come here all the time and he wanted to do something for me as he understood how I felt. How nice! So we had ham for dinner tonight and I enjoyed it.

Brian and Jess at Cape Tribulation.

Cool sunglasses!

Melanie and Jess on the yacht out to the Great Barrier Reef near Green Island. We all did snorkelling but Brian went for a scuba dive. I was disappointed with the Reef as it wasn't as spectacular as when I went off Townsville. I was told it was because we went out further in Townsville. I still had a good time.

The boat ride on the Daintree River where we saw the heads of crocodiles. This was so interesting and the man told us lots of interesting facts.

Jessica and me at Cape Tribulation. We had a great day seeing all the sights. When we got home I asked Jess what was her favourite part of the day-her reply was "The biscuits." Out of the mouths of babes. We saw so many animals and sights and I thought she would have said the boat ride. I was wrong.

This is me at Granite Gorge-the tablelands west of Cairns feeding the Rock Wallabies. They were so cute and loved the barley we had for them. However, when there was no food they didn't want to know us. What users LOL.

Arrived home from Cairns tonight after having 2 wonderful weeks up there. I came home so relaxed and ready to begin the new year. It was a bitter sweet arrival home. When we walked in the front door we could smell something foul. Our fridge and freezer had gone off while we were away and all our meat and everything else was ruined. I felt sick cleaning the 2 and now have to go out an buy all new food. What a way to begin the new year. I had a funny feeling while I was away that soemthing was wrong with the freezer. I wish I didn't get these feelings.

I now need to try and work out how to add my friends to the links. I get so frustrated with myself because I should be able to work it out.