A couple of awards

I'm really slack at passing on awards, but am very chuffed to have recieved them! Sorry to the lovely talented ladies who gave me these awards back in December (I did say I was slack!!)

I received this lovely butterfly award from Petronela, Mel & Tegan

& was lucky enough to receive this cute award from Karen

Oops, it's been awhile.....

... my excuse is that I have been on holidays :)
I was planning on posting afew things while I was away, but my computer was struck by lightning during a storm. Luckily it only affected my modem, however that was enough to prevent me from getting onto the internet. I will be back soon with some craft related pictures, but thought I'd share some from our holiday first.

Here we are dining alfresco at the resort (aka my parents place)

This pic of the kids & my MIL was taken at Fingal Head - 2 days later a man was bitten by a shark at the same beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mum & Dad got the kids tickets to Wet 'n' Wild & Seaworld for Christmas - I think it was the best present they got, as we had lots of fun. The above pic is Sam & I on the Kimakaze at Wet 'n' Wild - the look on his little face was priceless & had me in stitches the whole ride!

At Seaworld our favourite thing was the Dolphins show, it was amazing

We also loved the Viking's Revenge Flume Ride - I love this picture & the looks on all our faces :)

Awards.......

Over the last few weeks some of my very talented blogging friends have seen fit to award me the following:

Thankyou to Sam from Ryemilan's Stamping who has honoured me with the Arte Y Pico award. The rules are:

1. You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. Remember to leave the person a comment or email to let them know they received the award.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4. The award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

Now to choose five blogs that are 'Wow. The Best Art. Over the top.'

1. Jayne Mercer

2. Marelle Taylor

3. Claire Daly

4. Yvonne Campbell

5. Alisa Tilsner

Then the lovely Carol from Inkantations & Inkarnations & gorgeous Lin Mei nominated me for this award:

More rules for this one:

1) Put the logo on your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Now to nominate seven lucky *poor unsuspecting* souls - all these girls are members of the INKlings & I just love checking out their blogs :-)

1. Elisabeth Stewart

2. Kylie Swain

3. Kari Hughes

4. Karen Oliver

5. Joanna Wassens

6. Fleurie

7. Michelle

Phew - I think I have complied with all the rules, although feel that they should read 'Bad Blogger Award' as I haven't been here for awhile. I do have an excuse - I have been on holidays at the Gold Coast :-) We had heaps of fun catching up with relatives, went to Australia Zoo, the beach, shopping, rollerskating, BBQ's, Movie World, the beach again, more shopping & visiting relatives, so now I need a holiday to get over the holiday. I will be back soon with a card I made using a NEW Spring Mini stampset!

Tag - you're it!

I've been tagged numerous times over the last few weeks, so thought I'd better join in instead of being such a piker!

The rules are:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog .

OK - here goes, my taggees were Karen, Deanne, Kylie & Beth (sorry Beth I'm not sure of your site address - let me know & I'll link it :-)

7 facts about me:

1. I HATE beetroot - I used to love it & even remember sitting at my Grandma's eating a whole bowl of it. Must have overindulged (story of my life!) as I can't stand the stuff now.
2. I LOVE chocolate - I'm always getting in trouble for eating the whole packet of biscuits. I tried the overindulging trick, but it doesn't work for chocolate as I still love it!
3. I'm not good at making decisions - can't even decide what to type as fact 4 ?!?!
4. Testament to fact 3 - as a child one day my Mum told me I could buy any icecream I wanted, upon hearing this I burst into tears crying that I didn't know which one to choose.
5. I'm going to win $50 million in powerball tomorrow night!
6. I'm also testing out the power of positive thinking :-)
7. I have 2 birthmarks - one is in an embarrassing place!

I think you will all agree that my 7 facts are quite random & rather wierd! I can't decide who to tag next (see fact 3) so will instead challenge anyone who reads my blog to pick up the batton! If you are game enough to join in the tagging epidemic, leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog - if your facts make me giggle, I will send you a lovely handmade card in the mail!!

Birthday Girl & Jumping Jerry..

As you can probably tell by the title, this post is abit off topic, although I will include a card! On the weekend my little girl turned two - she had such a lovely day. As usual she was spoilt rotten & got too many presents, but she loved them all, especially all her new jewellery & clothes.

Here she is with her Dad, brother & the cake I made for her. I was quite pleased with how it turned out as I am not a real flash cook & it looked just like the pic in the book (well almost!). Can you see the shine Josie's face? It is from some lipgloss she was given - it goes everywhere except her lips!
For the past month Josie has been asking for a 'pink dinosaur' for her birthday. I couldn't find one & thought a pink dinosaur cake was too difficult to make, so decided she could have a pink elephant card instead. Luckily she loved the card & I also got her a Pink Dorothy the Dinosaur nightie, so she was happy. I have used the Wild About You, Riveting & Birthday Whimsy stamp sets, some Loves Me Paper & Flirty ribbons. Colours are Regal Rose & Tempting Turquoise, I also added Stampin' Glitter to the balloon & elephant for abit of sparkle

Jerry is the kids dog, she is a minature foxy X pug X something else, & is the best little dog. She follows the kids everywhere, including the trampoline! We have one of the round tramps with the net around it & the kids are on it all the time. I'm sure the dog first jumped up to finish off some left over food, but now she jumps up all the time & runs around on it with the kids - it is very cute.

Thanks for checking out my blog, I will be back tomorrow with some pictures of my latest scrapbooking pages :-)

7 things about me ....................

I have been tagged by the very talented Yvonne & now need to share with you 7 things about me that you may or may not already know. So here goes:

1. I am a chocoholic!! I love all chocolate, except dark choc. Unfortunately I have passed this awful disease on to my daughter, who from the age of about 16 mnths when asked "What are you?", would reply (& still does) "Chocoholic"!

2. I am the eldest of 4 girls. We are all very different & I am the 'straight' one - always trying to do the right thing & please everyone (which of course never happens). It can be quite boring at times, but I think the rest of the family love me anyway!

3. I live in the Cotton Capital of Australia - Wee Waa (25km out of town). It is a small country town with a population of 2000. I have lived in the area all my life & am currently living in the house I was born in!

4. My husband & I used to catch the same bus to school, though I don't remember him - I was in kindy, while he was in highschool!

5. We were married in 1999 at my parents farm. It was a beautiful wedding in my Mum's gardens, with a huge marquee. A true family affair, my Aunt Rhonda made a yummy cake, my Aunt Anna did all the gorgeous flowers, My Aunt Cecelia did my makeup (thanks Seal for nearly taking off my eyebrow!), My Aunt Carol & sister Tammy sang during the ceremony & for the bridal waltz, my cousin Margot took photos while another cousin Jeff did the music. I'm sure there were many other family members who helped out to make my day so lovely.

6. We have 2 beautiful children, Sam was born 10 weeks premature weighing 1.5kg, while Josie was 2 weeks overdue & weighed 4.4kg - almost 3 times as much as Sam did!

7. I am a terrible procastinator (or should that read, really good procrastinator) I have so many 1/2 finished projects lying around it isn't funny. I also hate cleaning & would do almost anything to get out of doing it - I just need to somehow make enough money to hire a housecleaner!

I am now supposed to tag 7 people, but instead will point you to the sites of 7 fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators who have been tagged recently & if you are interested can read what they have written about themselves - Claire, Michelle, Kerri, Sharon, Joanna, Melissa & Yvonne.

National Premature Birth Awareness Week

24-30 November is National Premature Birth Awareness Week. The aim of this week is to celebrate babies that have been born early & more importantly to increase awareness of the signs & symptoms that may lead to premature birth. If you are considering having a baby, are pregnant or know someone who is pregnant please read on. If the following info can prevent one family from having to go through the premature birth of their child, I will be happy.
Please see your doctor if you experience any of the following:



B - Backache or pelvic pressure
O - Oedema swelling of hands or face
R - Regular contractions
N - Nausea, vomiting. diarrhoea or other flu-like symptoms

E - Eye or vision disturbances
A - Abdominal pain or cramps
R - Reductionin foetal movements
L - Leaking fluid from vagina
Y - You are worried, concerned or just don't feel 'right'



Please click on any of the following links for more information regarding Premature Babies:

http://www.bornearly.org.au/

http://www.austprem.org.au/



I would also like to add that if you are not happy with what your doctor is telling you - SEEK A SECOND OPINION.



This is a scrapbook page I created for our son Sam.
Sam was born 10 weeks early with very underdeveloped lungs. Doctors did not expect him to survive, but he proved everyone wrong, Sam is now a very active 6 yr old with no major complications from his prematurity. We are so blessed to have him & I thank God everyday.

Criss Cross Card

After seeing the tutorial for this card on SplitCoastStampers I couldn't resist making some. I think they turned out quite well & were really easy to make. Email me if you would like any info on how you can make your own - alana@ceinternet.com.au

A CASE of copying for Fathers Day

OK, I'll admit it - not many original thoughts here!!

In the past I have been embarrassed (especially when working with Trish - the most original thinker I know!) that most of my craftwork is copied. However I have just recently discovered that copying is quite acceptable in the world of stamping, it even has it's own acronym - CASE Copy And Share Everything.

This is great news for me & following you will see why:

I have been making some Fathers Days cards (it is this Sunday 2nd Sept) & this one is cased from Trish (almost exactly!). Quite simple - abit of distress ink & the cool little fisherman is colourd with chalks.

This shirt was so cute I had to case it from here . A stamp down the bottom & abit of ribbon. Bernie wanted me to make it like a footy jernsey - cute idea, but I'm rather challenged when it comes to colouring, so stripes it is! Email me if you would like instructions on how to fold the shirt alana@ceinternet.com.au or come along to my day at Burren on the 1st Sept to make it just in time for Fathers Day.

I also thought I'd share with you some tags I made for Sam to take to school for a stall.

Here's to CASEing - I love it!

Something (not so) cute??

Awhile ago my good freind Trish set a "something cute" card swap. I started, what I thought was a good idea, then a month later I finally finished. Not sure I am happy with the end result, but it will have to do - hope they are cute enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Canvas fun

Well as promised here is my first uploaded pic (2 actually). They are of a canvas table topper I made. The lovely family photos were taken when we were dressed up to go to a friends wedding, courtesy of After Image Photography, Wee Waa.

This is the front view

this is the back.

Hope you like it - it was lots of fun to make & has pride of place in my new buffet & hutch in our front room. It also won me a prize at our local agricultural show - very exciting!! think it was some teatowels - yippee :)

On the WEB!!!!!!!

Finally I have made the journey onto the Web!

This is where I will be sharing some of my stamping & scrapbooking creations. Hopefully there will be some people out there who will be interested in taking a look! Once I am a little more organised I will post some pics.