Hey everyone,

Popping in again for a quick hello! As you know I love to share little tidbits of my life and that of my family on this website.  Since we have just moved, and there is always so much news to share I have set up a new blog called ‘Capturing Cairns’ to share more of my family’s adventure, moving to the other side of the country.

So just to save you having to read all that jargon, and doing my best to keep this a stamping dedicated blog, I will in future being posting all that news on that website…..

You are all most welcome to pop in and read it, and keep up to date on all our adventures…..

The address is: www.capturingcairns.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there!

HEY GANG!

WHOA, what a week it has been!!! This post is like 24 hours late, thanks to me not setting the post date correctly, and not having internet access to fix it! My sincerest apologies. I haven’t quite got to view all the challenge entries for this past week either yet, so I will do that asap, and get the challenge winners up for you!

You know I hate being unorganized, and letting people down, but with this whole move to the other side of the country, and not having my computer, stamps or anything else at my fingertips makes doing this all so hard! Anyway I am sure you can handle Keesh not putting in 100% for a couple of weeks, because I know you are all gorgeous and caring people!

So just a quick update before I give you the next challenge. We are still doing okay over here in the very beautiful Cairns. It is really warm this week, and hotter than usual here, but it isn’t bothering us too much, until you have to start doing some hard work

This week we were finally able to obtain a rental property, after much searching, an applications etc…..the only thing is that it is not available until the15th of February! ARGH, I am going to have to wait another 10 days of so till I see those rubber stamps!!! So seeing as we can’t move in just yet, we needed to find new temporary accommodation until then, as where we were staying is booked out. Thankfully we found a new house, a little more out of town, but it is a beautiful Holiday home with the works, so the kids are enjoying that.

All things are falling into place it is just taking time, and I have to say that it is testing my patience. Since selling in the middle of December everything has been all out of whack! Being a routine person, I struggle with things being all over the place. It is a good lesson in learning how to chill out, that is for sure. But having said that, I look forward to being back into it all! I am sure you are looking forward to that too, and seeing some regular inspiration!!!

The kids are doing really well, and Janaya had her first day of kindergarten this week which was exciting. I will have to share photos really soon, as they are sooooo super cute. I can hardly believe that my youngest is now in school!!! I don’t think it has really hit me yet because Rod is still not working so I have always got someone around, but once he is gone and I am out on my own, it certainly will be different!!!

Okay so onto this weeks new challenge! You may have seen all the DT inspiration already, and I don’t doubt that it is amazing….Me I haven’t quite got a sample for you this week, as I still don’t have my stamps ( which is such a shame!) SO please be sure to see the DT gals for inspiration!

Okay so this week we have a Sketch challenge for you:

 Be sure to go and check out the Design Team members creations and give them some comment love!

Dawn

Cindy

Kirsty

Renee

Chantelle

Sarah-Jane

Anthonette Chavez - Guest Designer

Want to play along? - here are some guidelines.

If you would like to play along, all you need to do is follow the directions:

1. Make your creation following the challenge ie, sketch, colour, or inspiration image.

2. Load your creation up onto your blog or a public viewing forum like Splitcoast Stampers, with a direct link back to the post on this website, so that others viewing the post will know where the challenge has come from, and it is courtesy to do so.

3. Then come back to this post so that you can add your name and link in the Mr. Linky!

You have until the Thursday the 11th February midnight to get your entries linked.

I will be announcing the winner and honourable mention on Friday the 12th February in the afternoon.

Have fun with this one!

Okay who is ready for another week of Challenge fun? I hope you are!

This week we have a different image which can be taken so many ways, so I am sure we will see lots of diversity with this one. Even my creation is a little different too!

Here is the Inspiration image for you:

Here you can go with something earthy, an invitation, wine glasses…..just let your imagination run with it!

This is my creation for this one, like I said it is a little different….

Be sure to go and check out the Design Team members creations and give them some comment love!

Dawn

Cindy

Kirsty

Renee

Chantelle

Sarah-Jane

Anthonette Chavez - Guest Designer

Want to play along? - here are some guidelines.

If you would like to play along, all you need to do is follow the directions:

1. Make your creation following the challenge ie, sketch, colour, or inspiration image.

2. Load your creation up onto your blog or a public viewing forum like Splitcoast Stampers, with a direct link back to the post on this website, so that others viewing the post will know where the challenge has come from, and it is courtesy to do so.

3. Then come back to this post so that you can add your name and link in the Mr. Linky!

You have until the Thursday the 4th February midnight to get your entries linked.

I will be announcing the winner and honourable mention on Friday the 5th February in the afternoon.

Have fun with this one!

Hey everyone,

Well it was so very exciting to see so many fun entries to the colour challenge this past week. I know I am loving getting back into the swing of things, and it seems you all are too!

This week we have the whole DT getting on board and giving us their votes for the best creation and of course we have a prize for each category this week as well.

Getting all the votes together, and without further adiou here are your winners for this week!!!

Big drum roll please……..

This masterpiece was made by the very talented Kim Badelt! Look at those amazing hand made flowers, and those adorable buttons as well! Love all the ribbon and the stitching is a gorgeous touch as well! Congratulations Kim, the DT and myself have chosen your creation to be the Inkspiration Winner, and you have scored yourself $100 of Stampin’Up product for free. I will be in touch asap to arrange that for you.

This gorgeous scrap page is by the lovley Jen Picard! Isn’t that photo just adorable!!! I love the  pretty flowers, and the use of that new scallop punch! What a fabulous use of the challenge colours as well! Congrats Jen on being this weeks Honourable mention! You will receive the brand new Butterfly prints stamp set from the Australian Summer mini catalog! Please email me Jen and give me your address so I can get them out to you in the post asap!

Please Congratulate the girls on their amazing winning entries and give them some comment love!

Of course it was hard to pick the winning entries, and I am sure you are keen to see all the other creations as well. So be sure to check out the slide show below where all the entries are shown!

Thanks again for playing along, and I hope you can join us again this week!

Hey everyone,

Oh it feels so good to get the chance to sit down tonight and ramble on……well I hope I actually don’t drive you all a little nuts, but I just wanted to share with you some of the going on’s we have been up to this past week.

We certainly have hit the ground running here! So much to do, and well it has been a bit of a challenge too. We have never had to rent before, and boy oh boy that is a whole new world to us!!! We found a fabulous place close to the school, and nice and big with extra room for visitors, so we spent the better half a  day getting the application in. They want so much information just cutting short of which underwear you buy!!! Anyway after all that effort and being the first and only applicants, the real estate did a shifty on us and offered it to someone else!!! Talk about frustrating! Since then every house that would be suitable seems to be rented in a space of 5 hours!!! We are a little limited having 4 kids, as we need the space, and not to mention ALL that stamping paraphernalia too! We did look at another house yesterday, which is HUGE, and would you believe it has a complete separate office / craft room full of cuboards, drawers and shelves, and guess what???? It is all PINK!!!! Perfect for me no? I think so. I have been dreaming all day about loading up those shelves with my stuff,  &iPod and getting my fingers busy with some ink and paper……..OH fingers crossed we get it, and if we do I will promise to post a photo!

Yesterday was the first day of the School year for the kids here in Queensland, and so off the kids went to their brand new school! We enrolled them into Freshwater Christian College, which is on a beautiful premises right at the base of the mountains! They were anxious and excited to go, but poor Mali was a bundle of tears and very overwhelmed by the new faces, teacher and classroom! Hopefully it will pass. We of course had to take a few snapshots of them in their new uniforms, and I thought I would share with you:

Elijah, Tiarne, and Malakai

Don’t you just love those Certainly celery shirts with the night of navy collars?!  As you can see there is beautiful rainforest right behind them, and this is just a snippet of what you see everywhere! Cairns is a place where you really get to see God’s Handiwork all around amongst the creation! I am still getting used to all the new animals and insects though…… hearing all the gekko’s clucking at night, and seeing all the butterflies and lizards around as well. Apparently the holiday cabin we are staying in has had 3 snakes in there, so we are trying (as best as you can with 4 kids) to keep the doors closed at all times, as I definitely don’t want to see a snake slithering around. Elijah on the other hand is hoping one will appear, as he loves snakes and is a real Steve Irwin wannabe! I am sure we will soon get used to all the new surroundings!

So there you have  a little bit of news of what has been happening this week. I have really been wanting to blog more, and blog surf too, but here I am paying $3 an hour, and you know how fast one hour disappears on the computer!!! So I am having to behave myself and limit my time on the computer! I very much look forward to having my craft room set up, as well as my computer and having a routine as well!

Take care and I will be back tomorrow to announce the new winner of this weeks challenge……I am LOVING what I have seen so far that is for sure!

Have a great night,