Meet Opal - Shimelle Challenge

I've been meaning to scrap this photo for years, literally.  It was from our Round The World trip, no prizes for guessing where!  It was actually at Steve Irwin's Zoo in Brisbane and we were really sad to have missed him by a couple of days (well that's what they said but he might not have actually been there for months!)

It was one of those magical experiences that you never forget,so soft and fluffy!  We had to hold Opal under her bottom because koalas have no rib cage so holding them under the arms like a baby to pick them up would crush their internal organs.  To pick them up from the floor you have to hold their hands and dangle them!

I was able to use some new supplies (Glitz Finnley from the S J Crafts sale) and some very old ones.  I've had those lime green Doodlebug letters since I started scrapping and the little koala button from even before that!  I threw in some new Project Life cards and some felt leaves and back gems - it feels great to use some really old stuff!

My travel album has kraft card stock on every page so as well as the background I used a couple of Tim Holtz die cuts from my ancient stash too.  

The page was inspired by this challenge from Shimelle using half page photos.  It's certainly larger than I normally scrap but not quite half a page.  

I've still got a few more to share but they will have to wait until later after I've travelled back from sunny Wales.  Yes it is sunny - it was supposed to rain hard all day here but it has been beautiful!

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 205 - NSD challenge

This is what happens when you try and do too many things at one time...  What a mess?!  That little gap to the right of the pink mat is only there because I just literally picked up the camera from that spot.

Last Wednesday I mentioned that I was working on an assignment for my writing course.  I'm still doing that because something exciting came up on Thursday morning to throw my plans out a bit.  You may have seen this post where I had the amazing opportunity to be a guest artist on Shimelle's blog for her National Scrapbooking Day celebrations.  We were talking about techniques for scrapping at pace and I have certainly been harnessing those techniques to get some of the challenges completed!

My course books and computer are piled in among half finished layouts and paper crafting products and this is not a good mix because things are getting lost and creased.  I'm still working on making the single from last week into a double but I DID find the off cuts from the original and there is plenty enough to make another page - huzzah!   I've got several more challenge layouts in the pipeline but there are classes to go to, family to feed, washing to do, this penultimate assignment to get completed and another blog hop with Jennifer to prepare for in amongst it all too.

One of the layouts I have completed this week actually fits 2 challenges.  This one at Shimelle's blog is to highlight your favourite papers and this one at S J Crafts which was to use just one manufacturer.  I don't think it will surprise anyone that I chose Echo Park!

I adore these papers from About A Boy and they were on my desk when I grabbed the photo and just went with it.  I flicked through my pile of Pinterest print outs and literally chose the first one that I came to that had the right number and orientation of photos, otherwise I could spend all day deliberating over this one or that one...  You can find the original from Debbie Hodges via my pin.

Those big rocks in the Northern Territory in Australia are so darn crazy right?  Just like that crazy rainbow chevron paper that I want to use on every single layout right now.

I'll be catching up with everyone's blogs in the next couple of days so make sure you put the kettle on :-)  And if you want to join in the desk sharing fun for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday then head on over to Julia's blog to find out more.

Bye for now
xx

It was a dark and stormy night...

This post is brought to you by Story Telling Sunday at High In the Sky.

This month, Sian gave us the prompt of "It was a dark and stormy night" which got me thinking about how much I love a good storm.  We're lucky that we live in a part of the world where they are not that frequent, dramatic or devastating but it does mean a lack of available material!

I wondered, should I tell you about my first big storm, the Great Storm of October 1987 that everyone remembers because of poor old Michael Fish, but actually not much happened to us.  Or the January storm 2 years later where my old moped couldn't cope and I had to push it home against the wind, but that all happened in the daytime.  How about that fabulous night 20 years ago on the balcony in Gibraltar with Management, with lightning illuminating the entire sea in front of us?  Er.. no, its not THAT sort of blog.

In the end I asked Management "Can you think of a dark and stormy night?"  His eyes glazed over and a smile twitched at his lips "Gibraltar."  "No, not that one, its for my blog."  "Ah, I see, no not that one then. Erm... the Outback?"  "YES!"

As part of our Round The World Trip, we had to coincide several parts of the world in the 'wrong' season.  One of those parts was Australia, particularly the outback and Northern Territory.  They have a wet season there which runs from December to May but it is also incredibly hot so the climate when we were travelling there was humid, so humid in fact that it melted my nail varnish off!  We travelled around Alice Springs on a tour bus visiting Uluru and Kata Juta and most of the time we slept under the stars in swag bags.  At least some people did, I don't think I slept at all.

Desperately trying to sleep on the first night of our trip to Uluru.

We headed north from Alice Springs to Darwin making stops in various sparsely populated, widely spaced places heading for Katherine Gorge so we could do some kayaking.  We saw many amazing things along the way including this termite mound.  This is the last photo we took with our old 35mm camera which finally died after a rather fun bus journey but that's another story.

That night was the first night that retreated inside the tents which were really just canvas huts with 4 racks for sleeping on.  There is such a lack of civilisation in that part of Australia that at night it really is pitch black because there is no haze of light from local towns and obviously no street lights etc.  It really is rather surreal.  There was a terrific lightning storm that night but it was far enough away that we could just sit and watch like fireworks.  One guy played guitar and another played the didgeridoo and we sat on little stools with a stubby beer watching the storm circling around us and literally feeling like it was lighting up the world.  It was one of those nights that you don't want to end yet it wasn't full of expense or crazy partying.  I often wonder if the other people on the trip think back to that night and how beautiful it was in its natural wildness.  We didn't escape the rain that night and it came down so hard that it flooded the ground within seconds and came in through the sides of the tent which was not so beautiful.

Obviously this is not my picture, see the credits below, and we were not anywhere near Uluru when we saw our storm but this fantastic shot gives you an idea of the sort of stunning show we were treated to.

http://blog.smallworldjourneys.com.au/uluru-storm/

I don't expect to ever again experience a storm like I did that night.  Now its back to my usual storms which normally involve heavy rain on the school run!

If you've got a scary or stormy story, or any story really, please do link up and share it with others, we love to read.

Bye for now
xx

Meeting the Neighbours - Story Telling Sunday

We're having a very floppy day here - Management's back is playing up (probably due to humping the large tent around), Louis is having an asthma flare which is very unusual, and I am still not firing as I would like to after my bug.  We are chilling out and watching the Olympics and loving it all and it gives me a wonderful excuse to join in with Sian's Story Telling Sunday.  

We have so many stories from our Round The World trip but this particular tale is one that I think about every week day when I watch my Aussie soaps.  I popped back to our old Travelpod blog to see what we had written but actually it was unusual that Management wrote this one.  Over to him...

OH MY GOD!

Now, when I was told I was going to a Neighbours trivia evening I thought this would be a sedate affair with a quick pickie with some semi-celebrity. Not a chance! 

We got picked up from the hostel in the most disgusting coach ever with the coach driver doing a very good impression of Les Patterson. After picking up numerous amounts of scantily dressed girlies on the way, we arrived at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub in St. Kilder. There was already a large queue. After about 15 minutes we eventually got in and you were seated at specific tables so that they could sqeeze in as many people as possible. Then the drinking began. After quite a lot of the drinking the mc eventually said the stars were on their way and one by one in walked Toadie, Connor and Harold. The noise was deafening as 300 plus drunk Brits screamed and chanted the star's names. The celebs were then asked questions that the crowd had put forward. Many of these were directed towards Toadie asking about rumours that he had been caught in the toilets with various female backpackers on previous evenings and had been banned. The best question though was put to Harold - "Why do you have such a jelly belly?" His answer - "Because every time I slept with your mother she gave me a biscuit!" What a star.

The quiz then started and the stars went round the tables to meet everyone and get photos with them. Harold had a bad leg so he remained on stage and you went up to see him. Most of the questions were about anything but neighbours and our team managed a creditable 7th out of 35. The quiz rounds were interspersed with a number of dodgy 18-30 type games to win trips etc. The most amazing thing about the whole evening was seeing all these young girls wearing a couple of hankerchiefs tied together throwing themselves at the stars in particular Harold! I have to say he wasn't complaining.

At this point I have to say a small word about my wife. Seeing her little face after having her picture taken with Toady was like a small child on christmas morning. She even said "this is the best day of the trip so far" - how sad is that?

Anyway after quite a bit more drinking we splashed out on a taxi back to the hostel (a whole 5 pounds).

After the excesses of the night before we decided on a quiet inexpensive day. We had to be out of the hostel for 4 hours as it was being fumigated! I tried to explain that LJ's socks always smelt but they must have suspected something even worse. In the morning we went swimming at the public swimming pool which was free via the hostel. Now, at home I consider myself not a bad swimmer but here I was put to shame with all the locals bombing up and down the lanes. There was even a man with one leg who was twice as fast as me. The pool was 30 metres and LJ managed 20 lengths!

After swimming we had lunch in chinatown - 3 dishes with rice for $6 (about 2 squid) and then went to the market and bought our tea. We splashed out and got a huge piece of rump steak for just over a quid.

This morning we did the other neighbours tour which was a bit disappointing. The tour takes you to the road that is Ramsey Street (real name Pin Oak). This is an actual street where poor people actually live. Well not so poor as it happens cos they get paid $50,000 a year to let the TV company film there. It seemed very small in real life and not at all how we remembered it from the telly. We then passed the studios and the driver pointed out the actors cars and told us what the ex stars are doing. Rik Alessi is now a tour guide for the outback so we may see him later in our travels.

Neighbours trivia - Erinsborough is made from an anagram of Neighbours. Erinsborough High is a school in real life. When Harold "disappeared" a few years back he was actually sacked and only came back when the producers changed.

Future plots - Kylie returns as a stripper and gets it on with pom newcomer (Management apparently!).

So that was our Neighbours experience as told at the time by Management.  Its really funny looking back at what we wrote about things back then and what we remember now, or the style we wrote in and how we might write it now.  It was 10 years ago now and so much has changed for us since then.  I'm looking forward to scrapping all about our strange experiences!

Bye for now
xx