Well the title says it all! I have had the most random week this week, with all sorts of weird and wonderful things happening!!! From receiving all sorts of goodies in the post, to breaking a tooth and going to the dentist, to losing power, to having no computer for 2 days, to losing passwords, to doctors appointments, to getting a cold and then it going in a day? to meeting people i haven’t heard from in years…….oh really it has been a really random week!

Get this too…..Remember the other week I was saying that I had Ivan my brother in law and his new girlfriend come for dinner? Well Ivan was here helping us solve our electricity problems this morning, and he tells me that his girlfriend Jolene, was talking to her sister in Winnipeg Canada, and she asked if she knew a Makeesha Byl because she reads her website and she if from Perth…… and Jolene is like…..YEAH that is Ivan’s sister in law…..how spinny is that??!! So a big hello to Jo’s sister in Winnipeg!!!!

Anyway the week has been good for the most part and I am just taking the time today to get caught up on all sorts of things on my puter! But I wanted to share with you 3 things that happened this week by photo!

First……. I want to announce that I have a new baby! Yep it is true! Want to see what she looks like?

This is my brand spanking new Cannon 50D Digital SLR! I was so excited to have saved enough ( which was quite the lot of moolah!!!) to go and get her, and wow she is just beautiful! I am just dying to spend more time with her, and I also have to give her a name, which I haven’t quite come to a a conclusion on yet. She weighs in at 3kg’s so I definitely have to handle her with care ( and a good thing I go to PT, to have the arms to carry her!)! I also bought the extra 50ml lens which is for taking close ups, and perfect for photographing my creations etc…. So now with my new programs, I can have all sorts of photography fun, just to find the time to do it all And get this….more random! The guy who helped me in the Camera store, happened to mention that he used to live in the same suburb as me, and on a street just a few metres away. He goes on to tell where he went to school and well in the end we worked out that he went on the same school bus as Rod my hubby! Totally spinny!

Here are two of the first lot of photos taken with my new baby:

Janaya blowing a thistle weed, the trees in the background are the Persimmons in the Orchard. They turn the most amazing Autumn colours and when there is 600 of them it is quite an amazing site!

Secondly, this is why I love being a Mum……….

I came home the other day to find this on my kitchen benchtop…..a hand picked bunch of flowers with this note attached, that reads:

ah good to know I am the friendliest….

It is moment like this, that you just love what you do, and realize you are so blessed, it also helps you to forget that muddy footprint on the carpet that has just been steam cleaned, or the messy bedrooms etc….

here is another pic I captured of the kids the other night….

My kids all LOVE books, so it is rather cute to see them all lined up in their winter flannies, with Elijah reading to them all….. too cute!

Okay thirdly I want to show you what happens when you think your darling 3 year old is having a wonderful afternoon sleep, but open the door to find……..?

She has created a new form of tatoo…..yes with stampin’ spots that is! Check this out!

the overall appearance….

The arms….

The legs….

The feet…

It is a good thing that the stamp pads are non-toxic with all that ink! I soaked her in a bath for over an hour, and it faded but it by no means gone! And well she has to show everybody her new body artwork as well…… I wonder if she will grow to be a stamper or not?

It is good to have a laugh now and then, and I suppose looking back over this weird and random week, I can definitely say my life is not boring! I wonder what next week will bring?!

I actually got to stamp too, for a couple of challenges however I didn’t get the chance to upload them on time because of the whole no computer thing, but I will be back to share them with you, as soon as I have finished viewing all the challenge entries from last week.

I have just heard good news that my brother Bryn has landed safely in New York, so that is good. I never usually worry about people travelling, but after that Air France plane going down the other day, it does make you feel a little nervous when you have a loved one up in the air! Well Bryn will be bringing Kate back home with him, and she hopes to live here for a year, so that will be nice, and I am sure you will hear more about that in time to come

 Hi everyone!

Well wasn’t that Convention Project Parade lots of fun? I had a blast with showing you all the projects from my display board at Convention, as well as reading all your fabulous answers to questions, and then giving away all that FUN blog candy! My head is still spinning!

Anyway yesterday was a Public Holiday here in Perth. I had a relaxing day stamping, and pottering around, which was just lovely. We decided to take the kids out for dinner, into Fremantle which is the town right on the wharf. I actually lived there, and went to Uni there back years back. It is has lots of old buildings and the best restaurants! Very multi-cultural and laid back. Anyway we went to a new Aussie restaurant called Outback Jacks……which was quite the experience!

After dinner we managed to go for a nice walk along the wharf to see the boats. I managed to capture this picture of the kids, which I think turned out rather neat, with their back turned. It is a shame you can’t really see the boats in the distance, but it is rather dark.

As you can see everyone is wearing jackets! It was the first day of winter, and boy did it strike! After our night in Freo, we just managed to get back to the car, and wham down came the rain. We actually got caught in a massive front, with lightning everywhere, and the rain coming down so hard and fast that we could only drive 20km’s an hour because you couldn’t see out the windscreen! We were all a bit nervous! There were lots of cars that actually pulled over onto the side of the road to keep safe. It lasted the whole 40 minutes drive home!

So my plans to upload the Make it Monday were sidelined when we got home, because I needed to pull all the plugs out of the wall. Our house because it is up on the side of a hill, has a tendency to get struck by lightning. I have had 2 modems get fried with it before and a spark fly out of the computer about 1 foot! So i am very vigilant about pulling everything out of the sockets when there is lightning going on.

Anyway, it has passed now, and the sun is shining……hopefully we have a mild winter this year!

Be back with the Make it Monday, in just a mo!

Hi everyone!

I have really missed doing my regular posts! I have come to realize that my blogging is a special part of my life that i enjoy immensely! Whilst it was very frustrating not having my computer on regular internet access in Cairns, it was probably a good thing to, because I really enjoyed the time with my kids, and seeing all the beautiful sites of Cairns!

WOW that place is amazing! It is truly beautiful and there is so much to see and do! We really managed to cram a lot in whilst we were there, but it still felt relaxing. The people there are so super friendly too!

I have a couple of photos, but I won’t show too many, so I don’t bore you all!

Here is the Sunrise at Palm Cove at about 5:45am. This was truly a beautiful morning when we just arrived in Cairns.

Here is Rod holding a Python from the Venom Zoo at Kuranda village. You can imagine where I was…..yep I headed straight over the road to the cafe, as I wasn’t sticking around to look at that snake……EEK!

Elijah being just like Dad, getting cozy with a snake….

And a picture of Tiarne at Mossman Gorge which is part of the Rainforrest

Rod husking Coconuts on the beach at Cape Tribulation

All in all it was a wonderful time away, but nice to be home too! It has taken a little bit to get thing back in order and catch up on things. I had 417 emails to attend to, so after a few hours today, I managed to get them all sorted

Now for the big Stampin’Up news……the retiring list has been released! I was dying to know what was on there, but had to be patient till I got home. Thanks still to Karen, for texting me at an obscene hour to let me know that the Big Ol’ Ugly Flower was being retired………was I shocked…..no?! becasue some of you hate it, Was I sad?!……..Of course I am! There goes my very favourite stamp from the catty! Ah well I will still always have it in my collection to keep!

But wow there is lots going from the Catalog, and it is going FAST!!!!

This year there is a lot of product being retired to make way for the new product. The best bit about that is that it is making way for more of the current US stamp sets, so that our catalog is fairly up to date with what is available in the US. This is great for us, and I am sure you will agree, that you will be happy seeing some of that new product on Australian Shores.

Now for that list……You can view the Retired list here: http://www3.stampinup.com/au/documents/RetiredList_0309_AUNZ_Num.pdf

Stampin’Up! is also offering certain product at a reduced price of 25 or 50% off! That is amazing! Some stamp pads are going down to $7.46!

The retired list works on a first in first served basis, so once it is gone…….it is GONE FOR GOOD!

Keeping this in mind, it is best to have your wish list sorted and ordered before it is too late! I will keep you posted regularly on what has gone and what has become low in stock.

Now to join in on all this Retirement Fund, I have a couple of specials of my own to share!

Special # 1

Purchase $100 of product during March and recieve either 10% of your total order, plus free shipping and handling.

Special # 2

Purchase $100 of product during March and recieve a brand new catalog when they are released on the 1st of April, as well as free shipping on your order.

Special # 3

Purchase $200 of product and recieve free shipping, a free new catalog, and 10% off your total order.

It is a fun time of year, and i really hope you manage to make the most of these fun specials, and look forward to the release of the new catalog with as much anticipation as me! There will be price increases on certain products in the new catalog, ie all stamp pads will be $11.95, and the DSP will be going up to $19.50 So what better way to get all the stamp pad colours, than now before they increase in price!

If any of you have questions, want to place an order, etc, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Hey everyone!

Well I have snuck out with Claire tonight, both of us with laptops in hand…….and tracked down another Internet centre!

We all had an amazing day today! We all headed out to the Great Barrier Reef and WOW it was amazing! I was a little apprhensive because I am proned to getting seasick, and i am not a huge fan of the Ocean, being very scared of sharks! But I am so glad I did go, as it was one of the best days I have ever had!

We went to Michalas Cay, which was about 1.5hours out to sea on a big boat! I managed to keep my breakfast down thanks to the Kwells I took but some others weren’t as lucky! I felt so sorry for them!

Anyway they have a photographer in board, and I thought I would very quickly show you a couple of pics from the day!

Here we all are as we boarded the boat early this morning!

Here is my hubby Rod, and Tiarne and Elijah all dressed up in out snorkeling gear and out in the water! It was so amazing seeing all the beautiful fish, and the amazing coral! The kids did so well, and I was so happy that they could snorkel and have a blast as well!

All in all we were blessed with a wonderful day, and memories to last a lifetime

We just have 2 days left here……..very sad! But it has truly been a wonderful time. I will be back early on Monday morning, and so hopefully will get back into the swing of life! I look forward to checking out the challenge entries too!

Take care!

 Well many of you would have known that it was Australia Day yesterday! It is such a fun, and exciting day. It is usually stinking hot, and there is just this amazing atmosphere! People the week before start adding flags to their car, and wearing all sorts of Australiana paraphenalia, it tell ya, it is fun, fun, fun.

We have fireworks at a suburb really close to where I live, and we usually go there as it is easy with the kids and you all get parking etc……but this year Rod really wanted to take all the kids into the city to see the really big skyshow there. I was not too sure how it would go, because usually they have road blocks, and to find a car park is a mammoth task……and then the walking with all the gear…chairs, esky, hats, suncream, drinks……and with 4 kids…….. you can just imagine, can’t you!

Anyway I felt up to the challenge this year, and Rod really wanted to go, ………so go we did.

I tell ya we couldn’t have gotten a better spot. We left home at 2pm and drove straight into Perth…no traffic???

Then we get straight into a carpark, with hardly any cars…….right on the foreshore????

Surely this can’t be real?????

We had a car park bay that we backed into with the van and opened up the boot, we had the best view ever!!! Right on the grassed area, safe for the kids, and guess what?  NO walking, NO whinging kids, protection from the sun, AND our built in speaker system with the car right there……… too easy!

So since we arrived there so early…… because thefireworks don’t start till 9pm, and we were there at 2:30pm we had some time to kill. It was great though because our neighbours (parked next to us) got a Cricket game happening so we all played that for hours. Rod also took the kids to the mega ferris wheel that is here in Perth at the moment……being not a big fan of heights I manned the post LOL!

There was such a great ambience to the day,……SO many people dressed up….like this:

This is two random chicks I raced over to take a pic of, because I thought they looked great!

(thanks random chicks for the pic!)

During the afternoon there was quite the skyshow with all these stunt planes, parachuters landing, water skiing, sailing races, speed bike racing, a concert (which Tiarne thought was TOO LOUD!) and heaps more.

I loved this helicopter that was flying around towing the Australian flag…..

It was huge which you can tell by the size of the helicopter.

I took a couple of random photos of different things for you to see:

this is a pic of the lawn where we were, and the city right behind us

A group right near us, who brought their paddle pool along…

You also see heaps of this……..bare chested men (usually with their underwear haning out….is that fashion?) Well I suppose they provide some entertainment on the day too……..LOL!

(thanks random guy)

Rod and Elijah playing cricket

Janaya soaking up the sunshine….

Elijah with his Flag that he got up at 6am to make….talk about excited!

Malakai having a rest in the back of the car….

Tiarne with her Aussie flag…..

Rod playing left fielder for the cricket game…

As you can see it was bright and sunny, but luckily there was a really nice breeze too. We all enjoyed the fireworks, they were amazing actually. I didn’t take any pictures of the fireworks because I don’t have a wizz-bang camera, and just knew they wouldn’t work with the one that I have.

Anyway the traffic was really good on the way home, but we still weren’t home till 11pm. And the kids well…..they were like this:

Fast asleep

All in all we were really blessed with a fabulous day celebrating Australia Day. I feel so blessed to live in such a wonderful country too!

And me? well I have saved that photo for later…..you will see in a minute!

Hope all you Aussies had a fabulous day wherever you where celebrating!