Werribee open plain zoo

on easter monday we took the girls to werribee zoo

it was fantastic to get on the sarfari bus and drive throughout the zoo into enclosures that belonged to rhinos and hippos and actually see them up pretty close.. the only pics i was disappointed in where the graffee pics...they just were to far away to make a photo work.

heres some pics of the day.

on arrival lilly was off to see the duck pond....she loves the ducks, she couldnt even see the zerbra that were righ tin front of her across the pond from the ducks lol

we did point them out however lol, seeing an animal that for her was only in story books really set the tone of her day. She was really into the hippos.

the big one is harry, and the other one is one of his girls LOL, she is actually expecting a baby hippo any day. Which is exciting i can see a trip back to the zoo for us when that happens.

last is just a photo to prove that im not always behind the camera but that i do actually attempt to have pics of me taken....im not a fan of me in photos, but miss emily makes this one look all that much better.. :)

I hope that everyone had a great easter...ours was pretty quite until the monday when we went to the zoo.

this weekend we r off to melbourne on sunday, im going to paperific and then we r all spending the night in town seeing as we have never been into melbourne before.

Sadly i had to surrender my QLD plates today. Its a shame that the rego is out next week otherwise we could of kept them much longer, so im on the lookout fo rsome sort of sticker that says yep they r from QLD seeing as the car no longer tells anyone. The vic roads guys had a dig about being from QLD LOL...i did ask to keep my QLD plates for the VIC ones to be attached somewhere else and i was promptly told jokingly that i couldnt be a QLD'er anymore LOL

photos of avoca

heres our house, yes thats the chemist attached to the front of it. Its a pretty cute chemist. and makes life interesting people r always coming and going from the front of our house.
this is the view right outside my door, yes thats a double lane highway right out the front, its busy, but its not...its the country so it doesnt really bother like a highway in town would.
the chemist attached to our house and parts of our house r a historical point in town. This is what the information sign says thats right across from our house
"William Goodshow (see here) migrated to avoca in 1853 and a year later purchased the present allotment and established a flourishing pharmacy. He remaind until 1889 when he sold to george w towl. 10 years later Towl sold to AG Lalor and the family still own and run the chemist today. Its the oldest chemist in continuous use in victoria.
yes parts of my house r that old...scary isnt it!!!

if u look at my new banner thats the view from our house down the road towards the shops and the main street... YEP we live on the main street.. :)

preschool

well heres our offical first day of preschool (that is really the second day)

we didnt have her shirt orwinter uniform last week until we arrived but this week we could do the official photo
she is quite proud to be going to what she calls "school"
im just really pleased that she likes it all so much as its quite different to daycare for her. Its all quite full on and she comes home very tired. But we were impressed to here her count backwards from 10 this week. She can be a clever cookie when she wants to be, im looking forward now to the child she will become learning wise next year when she is at school and while ive been proud of other children who i have taught to read and troubled readers on reading recovery i just cant wait to see lilly begin to read and how exciting this next part of her little life is actually going to be for me as her mum. It really is amazing to watch children grow and develop into the person they will end up being.


a quick one of my two possums together, only just managed to get emily lol

ode to my dad

what would i do without him

he so kindly took off a few days to help us move last week. Thankgod too. I would of never gotten everything onto the truck without him, I was still packing while the truck was being packed, please tell me other people have done this because i could tell the truck guys where not impressed (but to bad, with two kids under foot all day every day it isnt the easiest thing to do and that was with lilly staying with my parents for 2 days)

my dad then drove us around as the car left before us and we sold the astra, and of course took us to the airport...hardest thing in the world was walking away from him that morning. thankgod for skype as we all have the video conference up and going and helps with the missing thing when u can see the person u are talking too. The girls love it too. Here is my dad with the girls at the airport, nothing like looking at the miracle of the airport through the eyes of a child.

My last qld weekend i spent away with some close friends, we drank, scrapped, talked and just hung out. We got onto children and chores...god knows how...my kids dont really have any chores, but will lilly fast approaching 5 we feel its time she start being expected to do some things around the house. Its a battle with her every step of the way. Except for this. Wiping up...i HATE doing dishes, and until now we have always always had a dishwasher i will pack and unpack them i dont care but washing dishes is my one thing i cant stand and then drying them up, for gods sake i just washed them i dont want to dry them as well!! Well lilly has taken a liking to wiping up which i have to say is making the dish washing just a little bit better, at night we do it after emily is in bed, there r no tv's or distractions and we actual talk its really nice, while the process of washing the dishes is never going to be a fav of mine this time of night where its just the two of us if fast becoming a fav. Here she is on monday night wiping up for her daddy, she is just so proud i love it (from the light u would be mistaken into thinking it was day wouldnt u....we r all having issues getting used to day light saving just in time for it to go back to normal! stuipd system really)

Now the promised pics of the house

im still working on setting up bedrooms, emily is the only one of us that has anything even remotely close to soemthing that looks like a bedroom. The whole house does get nice light, and im slowly becoming happier with the house and its starting to feel more like home.

This is my country kitchen

to the side of the kitchen where im standing to take the pic is the laundry which is a big room that will be good to store things in, its also my pantry

behind this is the dining room and the fireplace that works.

we will need to get something to go around the front to stop emily from getting to close before we can use it....thankfully we have two rooms with gas heating too so it wont be to bad to not use it until we find something to go around it. I know i know the ho lol...is the first two letters of my home. My wonderful friend chris gave me the first two letters and i ordered the other two yesterday.. :) They r from scrapapple and r jumbo letters...they r COOL, im going to paint them white and sand back the edges.

from here u can see one of the lounge areas and my scrapping space.

Our computer is set up in here atm. It has gas heating also in the old fireplace. Excuse the fact that i have no lounge in here, we r off to look for a sofabed lounge to go in here on the weekend so that we can have a second area that can be for guests if its needed. Also looking for a bigger tv to go here as dan dropped our other one a few days before we moved. I saw a few yesterday that were ok priced so i think we will purchase that locally, sort of nice to give them the business. This is also our airconditioned room for summer too.

our other lounge

no heating in this room, but it has been a hot room so far so im not sure if it will need much more than our old oil heater anyway. but we will see. the fireplace is boarded up so im not sure if it even works., but its a nice big room and all along that back wall r built in bookshelves that have been fantastic. and is giving us alot more space to put other things.

LASTLY and as of last night when i actually got to spend a few hours in their unpacking is fast being my fav spot to be....the scrap space. This house had the perfect spot for scrapbooking. There is a backdoor and a passage way there and then it opens up into a little area with a bench already there with cupboard and drawers. the passageway is big enough to have some of my shelving there as well and the backdoor gives a nice breeze now that we can open it...it took them some time to locate the key for us.

now im not done with organising it or decorating it, on the weekend i want to look for some sort of shelving to sit on the desk so that i get more space to pop the jars along the back without it taking away from the working space ihave there. But its nice to have a place to put my scrapping stuff that doesnt take away from the rest of the house. We had no idea how we were going to deal with it until we got here and saw that there was a great space for it. The room needs a paint but once i get my things on the walls im sure i will be ok with it.

ok there u have it u will notice i did not share the bathroom...its very BROWN and quite gross and in need of a gloved up hospital grade clean which i plan to do when dan is home on the weekend. Its surface clean dont get me wrong but its an area i want to attack properly.

and our bedrooms, i dont know if i will ever like them, but they have nice light, and the size is big, a painting would do them the world of good and if i owned this house they would be already done, as would a new kitchen and bathroom....but i have to keep reminding myself that this is nto my house and therefore not my problem.

tagged

havent been tagged in an age
As for the tag, here are the rules:Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are my seven random facts about myself...

1. I wont go to the washing line after dark (worse about it now im in the country and the whole snake issue is added in actually i think thats where the issue came from in the first place after our first country stint)
2. I have seen more of europe than australia
3. I have to die my hair, im grey as
4. im addicted to clinque everything
5. Im continually on a diet - but we r careful with that word when u have daughters i think u have to be
6. I hate spending the fortnightly grocery budget on the groceries...have they gotten way overpriced or what...it sthe worse job i have to do i think
7. i love winter.

ive seen this tag on a few blogs
so if u havent done it consider yourself tagged.. :)

here

well we r here and after the initial shock things r settling down nicely.
the house we r renting is very old! in fact the chemist is attached to it and has been in that location since 1854 or something crazy like that, longest working chemist in one location in vic. Everyone in town tells me how lucky i am to be in the house as there is lots of history attached to it. While i find that something interesting to look into, its hardly lucky!....i really try to not be a snob, but apparently there r some snob qualities to me lol. HOUSES, oh i like nice ones. This house is large (which is great for a family) but its OLD. The kitchen is not nice, the bathroom is not nice (but on the plus side im not missing have two of the buggers to clean) and while lucky for us the front of the house was painted inside our bedrooms where not and they r horrible (good size rooms but), toilet...oh my there is no water saving flush in sight and the shower head is pretty much the same lol, i had no idea just how much water used to come from older shower heads and just how good the flow from the water saver taps at home actually is. I feel guility for using so much water each time we go to the loo or have a shower as we r under restrictions here to, not as bad as home in our shire but still!!! The house wasnt jacqui clean, which dan would call better homes and gardens clean when we moved in and with the unpacking going on i still cant get on top of it. But to the dust in the corner of the steps...your days r NUMBERED!!! tomorrow is your day to die while lilly is at preschool! I will share some pictures of our big country house (well the nicer parts anyway) during the week when the boxes r gone and everything has a place to live.
otherwise its been a very quiet weekend the town was dead due to the long weekend. and dan has settled into his new job a bit more too and is making the changes they all needed and flexing his muscle in his new executive position. I think he is going to love making the decisions and getting the credit!
no scrapping obviously, but its coming!!

Goodbye Queensland

well its here

we start the long process of moving tomorrow

truck arrives to pack the house and then thursday we fly. The car is on its way already and will hopefully be waiting for us on arrival.

I did however leave my mark on QLD, went away for the weekend with some friends.

such a beach and therefore qld thing to do.

some QLD reflection

im not an actual queenslander i was born in nsw

but when everything major happens in qld that makes me a queenslander

i finished high school in qld (class of 94 maroochydore high school)

i finished university in qld (class of 98 Bed Toowoomba campus of uni of southern qld)

I met my dh in qld, got married in qld, worked for education qld for 9 years would of been 10 this year at the end of it (i did enjoy much worked for long service leave last year).

i became a mother in qld twice

i owned qld property

ive met the most wonderful friends in qld

thats a whole lot more than the nsw list!

so on this my second last qld eve

i bid it all farewell, i have loved living in the state and the opportunity it has given me

see u all in a week or so onthe flip side in victoria (or as lilly says in toria)

SOLD

SOLD
after a week on the market

prayers, hopes and wishes r needed
that the 21 day contract holds...its only subject to pest and building
oh my god!

HOME

i wasnt going to select a word for the year....i didnt really think i needed or wanted one
the serious deicions etc and changes and i was left pondering this very word
HOME
i sometimes think its the home that we so careful built nearly 2 years ago, that very home is now on the market and will belong to another very soon
but then i was faced with being left in qld while dh started our new life in vic and the thought of was that home, home anymore??

it wont be if a major part of it is missing...so for me home is a place i create no matter where we live or in what we live, owned or rented, unit or house. It will still be home because we will be all there together.
so to keep this in my thoughts this week im off to buy some free standing letters to spell out home to put up somewhere in the house, to take with me when we leave in just over 4 weeks and hopefully they will remind me all year that home is where we are all together.

avoca and warrenmang

well here are a few photos of the town and the vineyard

house is up on the market right now

i still cant believe we r doing this!!!

ok this one side of the main street of avoca....has a large stripe down the centre of it...so looks like mitchell from this view!! (mitchell is the south west qld town i did my country service in...about 8 hours west of bris)

Another view of the town.

now the vineyard

oh yeah feel real sorry for me...it will be oh so hard!

this week ive spent many hours getting the house ready for the market (I always tend to spring clean and reorganise in jan/feb/march anyway for some strange reason...always involves the purchase of new furniture and this year was no different lol)....and that lead me finally to howards storage world...and while i got the practical keep the house tidy and organised things.....i just couldnt go past these....they look so pretty in my laundry.

BIG CHANGES AHEAD

for us all
as we embark on a new life in a new state
in 6 short weeks (god willing) we r set to become victorians!! (well victorian queenslanders!)
dh has to be down there in 6 weeks no matter what and myself and the girls will follow as soon as the house sells.
it hits the market monday, PLEASE let it sell quickly
im excited, worried, stressed and most of all scared that i will end up with a marriage and family that has a state in the middle of it....
dh is going to work here in the resturant.. www.warrenmang.com.au and we will be living in avoca vic, a small town 55 minutes from ballarat for the next little while.
im guessing we will be so busy in the next few weeks that i wont even think about my blog, but will try to post as we go along.

i havent scrapped much at all....just a few things for dt and classes which i cant share
if your local to morayfield book into a class 23rd feb at blossies....my final goodbye class for queensland.

check out stamping and papercraft this coming months issue im on the cover again....its a buzz, my card... congrats on the new job, was a commissioned card with a specific theme to follow

fav photo of the day

ive been doing really well with my photo a day

at the start i was struggling to see the things that would look like great photos

and then we did a few things and it was easy, and then today eaiser ideas have just shown up in my head. I think this is my favourite favourite photo so far

its a photo that makes me smile but its also got a little sad side. I smile cause look how cute they look..hehe...and then i see how much my girls have both grown in the last little while...and then i look at emily and think oh my where has my baby gone...she has changed and grown so much lately and starting to lose that baby look, and all of a sudden she is looking so tall im not sure how that happens one day they look like they always have and the next taller! she is such a funny chicken with her new kindy bag too lol, loves it, its just like her big sisters and she knows its hers and fussy, she holds it all the way to and from kindy and then takes u into her room to hang it up where it goes in her room unlike her sister who we argue with from the time we get home to take it to her room lol

usually i would work today, hence the kindy, and i spent a wonderful afternoon with my lovely friend and emilys god mother so my day was filled up, because i felt just a little sad to see my cute family walk out the door without me this morning.

more cleaning tasks this week from the scrap heap

this week was a cardstock mission and i will admit i didnt think it was to bad, but it looks 100% better without all the stuff on the racks!

when it rains it pours

just lately ive had some great scrapbooking things going on

for years ive scrapped and played with some mag publications and its all been mostly a great time...i then wanted other scrap related things

as u do

then i went through this time where it didnt matter what i submitted no one wanted it, im pretty much mostly the whatever person, and then it changes as quickly as the mags stopped being interesting in my stuff

my luck starts with making masters top 100, and then getting my hm

then paper trends and the part of my project that was on the front of the cover (of which i have now seen but still dont have a mag copy, but it did look cool on a green wall) my first cover anythimg and first us publication

then the other day i saw stamping and papercraft who i have had heaps of success with recently and its a mag i really enjoy being published in as the ytake such care to photograph the projects, im on the cover that is out right now with a card called hello there...that was exciting to see

but nothing like what im about share was i expecting

went to ikea today with my friend julie

chris rings me talking about a layout i have coming out in scrapbook creations and that she had seen it...ON THE COVER

oh my god, my baby girl is on the cover of scrapbook creations!!!!

so i can already see the sales for scrapbook creations next month is going to be inflated by lots of jones family members!!!

how cool is that im totally floored by it...wow! cant wait to get my layout back now.. :)

congrats to the mason family on the safe arrival of beautiful twin girls and chelsea is in our thoughts as she overcomes her hurdles

a little bit of a tidy

Ok so i dont usually join in challenges usually i dont have time....that was until today. Over at the scrap heap they decided to start off the new year with a clean up your scrap space challenge.
here are my before the first challenge photos.....very sad!



Now challenge one was the take everything off your desk and scrub it clean...i couldnt quiet believe just how dirty my desk was...lets just say it was like putting a layout in a pile of dirt!, next was the scrub clean your self healing matt of which i couldnt get the paint off but its looking much better now! and then cull and throw out broken and empty things from tool boxes etc and put things away that just seem to creep onto the table area....of course u will have to ignore under the desk for the moment we havent had that challenge yet...but it was so nice to just create in something that wasnt a mess not that i did much after all this cleaning. But in my cleaning mood i found a double photo frame that was empty...it isnt now! lol


its begging to be messed up again isnt it lol, i did tidy after i fixed up the photo frame and it was so much easier cause it all had a place to go!!

happy new year

happy new year everyone

i have started my new year off by getting my first photo a day photo and taken a leaf out of ali edwards book and made the pages for my book for the month so that if im organised i should actually be able to keep up with 365 photos! this year. I have chosen to make mini monthly mini books which i will display in the house, my girls love mini books to look at. I used my bind it all to make the book with just papers that were in my scrap pile. I think i will get a small basket and throw page size scraps into it every time i scrap so things r cut and ready to go. I have decided to go for multi size pages behind this front page. Hoping it will look ok at the end.

for the front of each month ive also decided to take family photos to see how much we change through out the year. It should be interesting i hope.

de christmasing

well ive just de christmased come on the new year

lilly was a little sad to see the christmas spirit leave the house but she will live.!

christmas morning saw us up at 6:30 which i didnt think was to bad and there was nothing slow about the present opening in this house it was all in for the santa gifts it slowed a little when things came out from under the tree, we were then off to my family for the day. But it was odd weather this year in brisbane and only the kids got in the pool,my family isnt really big into the gift thing which is ok the kids got a wooden cubby house a few days before so they were stoked with nanny and pa and some togs from nana and paulie...so they were very spoilt when it came down to it all. i spent the last 2 weeks nursing a stomach bug thing that just wont leave so even my waste line enjoyed the cheer cause i didnt parttake to much .

boxing day saw us at the sales even thou i said i wouldnt go, but only to our local target and shops. I got a few things on sale and a nice dress and shoes for a wedding in a few short weeks.

heres a layout of my girls christmas santa photo...we went on christmas eve....slack i know, but i knew it was going to be hard for emily....she only just made the photo poor pet

and some photos christmas morning before going to my dad and step mothers for a yummy lunch.

ooer and i almost forgot that my scrap supplies are the proud new owner of a clip it up...its fantastic! its all so neat and tidy now, wanting to top teir of it now too, but that will have to wait it isnt a cheap storage solution but way worth it!

well on to the new year, im not one for resolutions, but i have decided that in 2008 im go ing to keep a photo journal and take at least one photo of something each and every day, i will then put it all together in mini albums for each month i think! lol time will tell if it happens but i think it will be interesting to record our family's daily life including the growth of my kidlets in this way, i will share on my blog too

happy new year all

oh ps check out stamping and papercraft this month....ive got a card on the COVER...i was way excited to see it there...its a card called hello there and the cards use the lovely kate masons napkin mod podge technique, which has been explain by me in the mag with permission from kate and its only there to aid people in completeing my cards... :)

Masters 2007

Congrates to the girls that got the top title.. :) the work on the cover looks fantastic and i cant wait to go get my copy of the mag to see it all

the site has some of the hm stuff up gave the link yesterday and its all fab work...including my own storage item which was a buzz to see up there with some great names!

heres the rest of my entry....i loved it even if the judges didnt, its some of the better work i have produced this year i would have to say. Heres my mini book entry

its a book of envelopes that open in each one is a page of the book.

single entry

and my double...has opening tabs and stuff...about feeding emily

and finally my hm winning tool tote

some news and christmas

no paper trends yet to show off my work...but im told it looks great...im dieing to see it but

then my friend chris pointed this out to me

http://www.scrapbookingmemories.com.au/current_issue.php

im happy to have gotten something for my efforts...its nice, looking forward to seeing this mag the work on the site looks fantastic

and congrats goes to all the other winners both masters and HM's

here i go again i will be sucked in now for next year...bugger lol

im nearly ready for christmas some last minute things to organise tomorrow hoping the shops will be quiet seeing as its sunday...crossing fingers anyway