First things first ...

... I just need to say Happy Birthday to my DH for yesterday ... and before you ask, no I didn't forget, I was just soooooo busy yesterday that I didn't get a chance to post here! Happy birthday honey!!!



OK, so what else is happening in my world? Well, having spent all yesterday morning baking, DH & I then spent all yesterday afternoon choosing where to go on our holiday this year! You'd be very proud of me because not only did we decide, we actually booked it ... yippee! And guess what? To make things even better, we get to celebrate my birthday when we're on holiday!!!

On the digi-scrapping front, my good friends Sue (Sue Cummings Designs) & Kaylea (kaytebug) have team up again to bring us the latest kit in their Project 12 series ... it's called Extraordinary {Love} and it'll be released in Sue's shoppe at oscraps later today. But hang on ... before you head off to the store, check out Sue's blog for a very special offer, you'll need to be quick though, as this offer is only available until 1st February 2010.



Wanna see a quick preview LO created with this fabulous kit? Here you go ... tee-hee!!!


Have a great day everyone!

Is it my imagination ...

... or are the days getting ever-so-slightly longer??? I don't notice it so much in the mornings, but the afternoon sun is definitely lasting longer and I'm sure I saw the tender green shoots of daffodils desperately trying to poke through the winter weeds in my garden!

Many of the designers are working on spring inspired kits. Here's just a small selection of my personal favourites:

52 Inspirations {2010}, Bonus No.1 by Sue Cummings (available at here @ oscraps.com)


A New Leaf by Paislee Press & Audacious Designs (available at here @ oscraps.com)



Missing Spring by Ange Designs (available here at Two Little Pixels)



Anyhoo, how was your week? I haven't really been up to much lately, but I have been able to get quite a few LO's done. I'm not gonna bore you with all of them, but here's a selection of my favourites.

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Oh and before I forget, Happy Burns Night to all my friends and family "north of the border" and in case I don't get a chance to post again tomorrow, I just want to wish all my friends "down under" a happy Australia Day for tomorrow.

What better way ...

... to celebrate the launch of Leiko Beck Designs' latest template "Simple Template No.V" than by hosting a blog give-away!!! Head of over to Leiko's blog for details on how you can get your hands on this gorgeous template for FREE! But hurry, this is a limited time only offer that expires on 24 January 2010.

Go on ... what are you waiting for? Oh, you'd like to see a preview? Well as you asked so nicely. LOL!

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Who'd want to follow me ...

... that's exactly what I asked myself when I first started this blog, and "nobody" was the resounding answer from the voices in my head. Well, "Hah!" is all I have to say to those voices because look ... I have followers!!! How sweet of you guys. Love ya!!!

New adventures ...

... the "thing" I hinted at on Tuesday is now official, so I can go ahead and tell everyone. I've been walking on air since it happened, sitting on cloud 9, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, just sooooooo excited. "About what?" you ask ... well ... I've been invited to join Leiko Beck's team of amazing scrap artists!!!

Of course I accepted without hesitation, who wouldn't?!?! Leiko's designs are just gorgeous. There's always the unique colour combo, the strikingly bold pattern papers, the quirky doodled elements and of course the stylish wordart. Her latest "hello, good-bye" kit is a perfect example of what I'm talking about ...


You find Leiko's designs here at her oscraps shoppe. You'll also find oodles of fabulous inspiration from her creative team and other scrappers at her gallery.

I feel very privileged to have been invited to join Leiko's team and I can't wait to get creating using her designs.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity Leiko!

Just wanted to share ...

... a couple of layouts I created today. Sometimes you just get lucky ... with the LO below, all I did was blend the photo with a textured paper, then added some wordart. Simple. Thank you Mother Nature.

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And I was "chuffed to bits" when I saw that my next LO had made it onto Gallery Standouts today!!! Thanks Amy ... you've made my day and now I can't stop grinning :-)

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Life is good ...

... every now & then you have a day that starts out well and stays that way all day. For me, today was one of those days. I can't go into detail yet ... but lets just say, life threw me a "little tidbit" and I've grabbed it with both hands.

Joker is poker with a "J", coincidence? ...

... that's joincidence with a "C". This is one of my all time favourite, not-so-funny-it's-funny lines from Friends. But you knew that, right? Anyhoo, the reason I opened with that line is because for 2 days running, I've experienced some freaky coincidences!!!

Firstly, I was checking out Stephanie's blog yesterday and was just reading the section headed up as "The Purpose". There's a line she's written that includes the statement "... shining light to the world". Now, at the exact same time I read those words the song I was listening to on the radio was "Shining Light" by Annie Lennox. Freaky coincidence number 1!!!

Secondly, today I was catching up on the January Photo Challenge thread over at the oscraps forum and I saw a post added by my friend LindaW, her post included this fun photo:

But the weird thing was, that I'd framed and taken almost exactly the same shot a few days earlier, but just hadn't gotten round to uploading it to the forum yet. Freaky coincidence number 2!!!

Not sure what strange forces are at work in my world, but if something else "coincides" tomorrow, I'm gonna flip out totally!!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it ...

... snow!!!

This is what I woke up to yesterday morning ... lots and lots of white fluffy snow! I'm like a kid when it snows, all I want to do to build snowmen, make snow angels and have snowball fights! My hubby on the other hand, is far to sensible to join me ... bah humbug!

52 inspirations {2010} ...

... how very remiss of me not to mention this sooner, Sue Cummings and Vicki Stegall have teamed up again to bring your 52 Inspirations {2010}. What is that , I hear you ask? Well, it's a weekly "grab bag" subscription costing just $29.95 for the whole year!!! The subscription includes all 52 weeks of mini-kits, making this a HUGE savings over buying each individual kit.

BUT WAIT, there's more ... order by 10th January 2010 and you'll receive a $10 gift coupon for Vicki Stegall's shop PLUS a $10 gift coupon for Sue Cummings' shop (both at oscraps.com) ... that's $20 worth of additional products!!! This is such a fabulous deal you really won't want to miss it!!!!

Not quite 12th night ...

... but already the decorations are down. I don't usually bring the Christmas decorations down early, but this year 12th night is a Tuesday, so it kinda made sense to bring them down today (10th night!) when I had nothing else / better to do!!! So the outside lights are down, the tree packed away and the 2009 Christmas edition of the Radio Times stored away with all the others (I have editions dating back to the 1970's!!!).

So far 2010 has been uneventful but glorious! We've had three days of wonderful blue skies and warming sunshine ... just perfect. But instead of being outside enjoying this rather unexpected weather, I've been tucked up inside doing a bit of scrap therapy. Still no New Years Resolutions, but I'm open to suggestions. In the mean time, here are the results of my "therapy" ...

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And so it begins ...

... 2010 that is! For the first time in years, I was actually awake when the new year arrived. Not that I was at a party or anything like that ... no, no, no ... Iain and I simply stayed home, watched a bit of TV, nibbled too much snack food and I drank most of a bottle of champagne to myself!

So what does 2010 have in store? Well who can tell? All I know is that it's a beautiful start to the day / month / year here today, the sun is shining and there's not a cloud in the sky ... pure bliss.

I'm not really a "resolutions" kinda gal ... in fact, the only New Year resolution I ever managed to keep, was one that meant I didn't have to make any resolutions ... I did really well that year and stuck to it ... well, resolutely!!! But what about you? Do you make resolutions each January? I'd love to know about them, so feel free to leave me a comment.

Happy New Year!