Baby Face

Having done a few layouts of Kevin as a child, I decided to do one of me with my Grandad. As the final grandchild I was spoiled rotten by my Maternal Grandparents. I spent a lot of time with them as a child because my Mum worked but I loved going to their house. My Nanna was a great cook, as well as seamstress for my dolls cloths and a fantastic story teller. My Grandad had travelled extensively in the Far East and had lots of little treasures dotted round the house that I loved to play with.

Daughter

This is another layout with inspiration from Ingvild, this time in the form of one of her sketches. There is always such attention to detail in Ingvild's layouts which I have tried to emulate here, different from my normal style but it does you good to go out of your comfort zone every now and then.

Inspiration by Ingvild

Today's inspiration came from a sketch by Ingvild Bolme - she of the most fantastically detailed scrapbooking I have ever seen. Here is the link http://www.ingvildbolme.com/2010/05/palette-4-from-color-room.html

This is Holly at 3, showing who ever was watching (we were in a restaurant at the time) just how princess's curtsey. Don't you just love their confidence at that age?

Ten things you never knew.

Christine very kindly awarded me this award a week or so back and I have been having trouble thinking of ten things to tell you about me that you don't already know.

Well here goes:

1. I met my husband on a blind date, we have now been together 34 years.

2. I always wanted a horse when I was growing up

3. My daughter had a horse when she was growing up and I saw all the hard work it took and I am now glad my parents didn't give in to my whim.

4. I rode a tandem in a local carnival procession

5. I used to swim for my school in competitions ( I now hate swimming)

6. I have the actor Rob Lowe on home video as his son and mine were at a Thomas the Tank Engine day in Hampshire, England.

7. I won the Victoria Sponge cookery competition at my secondary school. I haven't cooked one since, how could I top that?

8. My one and only rock concert was to see Bruce Springsteen at Wembley Staduim, London.

9. I came to paper crafting when I was doing an interior design course and was sent to my local stamp shop for paint and a stamp to make my own curtain material. The rest as they say is history.

10. I have lead a very uneventful life because I can't think of a tenth thing to tell you.

Exercise is bad for your health!!!!!!!!!

I hope all you Mum's out there are enjoying your day, I had a less than happy Mother's day Eve when I was phoned at approx 9.30am to say Lauren had been taken to hospital by ambulance having come off her bike, hang on, I hear you say, am I having a "deja vu" moment, I am sure I have read something on this blog about a bike accident before, the answer is yes you have, it was my husband that time. Beware People, bike riding is not conducive to good health, despite what the "experts" may tell you.

Apparently Lauren had been riding down the 1 in 20 on the Dandenongs and had to break suddenly (amnesia is keeping Lauren from remembering why) and the next thing she remembers is waking up on the tarmac and wondering where she, the ambulance was called by her training companions. Thankfully her skin wounds are superficial but she took a nasty bang to her head and the base of her spine - I think she must have somersaulted off the front of the bike, hit her head first and flipped onto her back. After initially arriving at the hospital seeming fairly compos mentis, she then became agitated and confused so they rushed her off for a head CT, thankfully that came back clear. Her main worry was, how is my bike (shades of her Father) and I should be revising for a big test at Uni on Tuesday.The Doctor kept her in hospital all day for observation, during which she slept most of the time, but she was let out last night. Today, she is nursing a very sore head and her neck is very stiff. The Doctor was lovely and he has written a letter to the Uni saying she won't be able to take the test as she will have trouble concentrating and the headaches are likely to persist for some time.

Backpacking visitor

One of Lauren's old junior school friends has been travelling and has reached these shores, having travelled down the coast from Cairns, reached Melbourne on Monday. She saw Lauren at Uni on Tuesday and had dinner with her on Wednesday reminiscing about old times and catching up on what friends were doing now. Then on Friday Emily and her fellow backpacker Emma came to see me. I picked them up from the station and then went for coffee and a long chat and then at their request we toured some wineries. In one, the girl who served us had been to New Zealand (their next stop) and was telling them all the best places to go. The girls flew out to NZ yesterday and then last stop on their tour is Chile.

After the wineries we came home had dinner, chatting all the while and then it was off to the station for their trip back and an early night in readiness for the dawn flight. I was a little apprehensive, having not seen Emily for about four years and not really having time for any meaningful conversation since the girls parted after junior school and went to different secondary schools eight years ago, that we would struggle to find things to say, but no, it was like old times and there was barely a silent moment all day. Emily showed me pictures of girls I last saw when they were ten/eleven, needless to say I barely recognised them, Lauren however hasn't changed very much at all.

Sadly I didn't have the girls altogether to take a photo, so this one is just Emily and Holly.