Year Book's SM & FK

Wow how awesome are these mags, both are tremendous!!!!!!!!!!!! Had a good read yesterday when I got them, great thing to do while watching the kids in the pool!!!!!!!!!

Love the new Elite Team, their layouts are sensational!!!!!!!!!!!!. Nic, have admired her work for quite a while and I look forward to seeing lots more of it this year. Steph how does she do it, all that work on her layouts, so many layers my goodness. Katja yay someone who uses lots of photos, a girl after my own heart. Amelia has the most fantastic titles!!!!!! Love the graphic look to her layouts. What a year it will be for FK, so glad I won a years subscription.

Here's the layout I won an Award for Excellence in Craftsmanship for..........

All those circles with the sticky stitches took so long I was almost cross eyed by the time I was done!!!!!!!!!! I'm really happy with it and so pleased it won an award.

The other award winning entries were all sensational too!!!!!!!!!! Such talent out there in the aussie (and NZ) girls. I'm not going to run down my list of favorites for the awards because they are all so good, I couldn't pick.

The rest of the mag is super good too. I love the layouts done by Judy Wilkenfeld in the 'Introducing' section, just so striking. Yay for Cally (Kathleen Pitt) my fellow SW DTer who has a layout on page 60, looks great!!!!!!!!!!! On page 71 my good friend Debbie has a fantastic layout, looks so awesome. I have another layout on page 73, this is my youngest son, Ethan, My niece, Tia and a little photo of my sister Taara giving them both a cuddle. Such a bright layout, I don't do bright very often but this one looks OK............

Just love the section, Simple and Beyond. Janine has done an outstanding job here.

Another great SM mag this month!!!!!!!!!!!! Included is the PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS. I was surprised to see a layout of mine in this section...................

SM have picked what they consider the best of the best for overall scrapbooking excellence from the entire year of layouts been published. Now readers have to vote for the winner. What an awesome array of layouts!!!!!!!!!!!! Such a diverse range too, how do you compare them. I'm never good at picking these sorts of things, so I guess I will just have to vote for myself!!!!!!! lol.

The rest of the mag is jam packed full of great stuff, just love it.

That's it for me.........

Been and Gone

The big day is all over. Hubby is back at work, although he vows next year to have the week off between Christmas and New Year. It was a very relaxing day for us. The kids didn't wake up too early thank goodness. Had a frenzy of present opening and then a lovely big brekkie, with pancakes and syrup, bacon and eggs and muffins. Orange and Apple juice!!!!!!YUM. We had a quiet day playing with the kids and their gifts and then had Christmas night with the inlaws. We went down the park for dinner with them, had a play on the swings and a game of cricket of course.

Spent all the next day resting and then cleaning up the huge mess we had all made. Now all the left-overs are all but gone, most of the chockies and lollies have been eaten.

With Craige back at work, I decided it was time to get caught up on the little bits of scrapping I had to get done so I could have a clear plate before my next DT pack arrived. I would love to get some layouts done just for fun too, but it is often hard to find time with all the kids home on holidays.

I would love to thank Tamar from Tarisota for my beautiful gift, it is the loveliest little collection of goodies. I'm looking forward to seeing the January collection. It's on my must get list this month!!!

That's all from me for now must go and settle down the kids.
Till next time............

I'm Tagged

Probably as good a reason as any to blog, cause nothing else is happening, nothing interesting any way. Lots of spring cleaning, getting ready for the school holidays.

Well here goes............

Never in my life: do I want any of my children to die.

When I was Five: My mother and Father divorced.

High School is: So long ago, and like so many others I wish I knew then what I know now. I would have done many things differently.

I once met: No one that I can think of.

When I turn my head left I see: a printer and a phone.

When I turn my head right I see: Out the office window, there is a couple of ferns.

A better name for me would be: Trish. My name is actually Patricia and I never use it.

I have a hard time understanding: Why people can be so fickle and hard to get along with, ( or maybe it's me)

You know I like you if: I wish to spend more time with you, I don't tolerate people well whom I don't like.

Take my advice: never write anything down that could be held against you.

If you spent the night at my home: You would be very bored. There is a TV in every room and everyone is busy watching them, separately!!!!!!! No conversation no communication no nothing. Very boring.

I always make a point to: Never leave the house on holiday without spring cleaning first. If something happened to me I would hate for someone else to have to do it.

I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than to: Be in a flood or a tsunami or landslide. I am so petrified of water.

And by the way: I hope that everyone who reads my blog has a safe, merry and Blessed Christmas with their loved ones.

I now tag Kim ( get a blog happening girl) and Michelle.

Tarisota Collections

After reading Nic Howards blog this morning it encouraged me to share a story about the beautiful Tarisota Collections. You can link on to the site from the permanent link in my side bar.

Before Kim, Marie and myself were going off to ISC we all came across this beautiful site. What gorgeous products Tamar has and packed into the most amazing kits, there really is something for everyone here. It's all just divine. Well Kim and I decided when we got home after ISC we were going to subscribe to a collection. But as many of you know Kim had a stroke the day before we were going off to ISC. It was a terrible shock!!!!!!!! And very upsetting. She was off to a hospital in Melbourne, to have a tumor removed from her brain, instead of coming to Sydney with us.

Marie and I spent lots of time at ISC thinking and worrying about Kim, but also gathering bits and pieces for her, that we knew she wanted to get while at ISC. Then when I got home I ordered the ' I want it all collection' for her, as I just knew she loved it so much and it would be something she would miss very much if she didn't get the November collection. I e-mailed Tamar with my concerns about getting it in time for Kim's return from hospital, as well as my congratulations on a fantastic product line up and a totally gorgeous site, she was very gracious and responded to my questions very quickly. Thank you so much Tamar, you made this so much more special and easy to accomplish.

Any way back to my story....... On Kim's return Marie and I went for a visit. She looked wonderful and was fantastically funny and beautiful as always. We gave her all her kits and things from ISC, then we gave her her presents from us with the Tarisota Collection as the grand finale. She was totally speechless, and she shed tears of joy. She totally loved it.
Here is a photo of her receiving it, a little blurry but still you can see the joy on her face.




Now today, 5 weeks after her stroke, I have received an e-mail from Kim she is scrapping her first page since this ordeal started. It has been a very long haul for her since she has been home, getting much worse before starting to get better. Her e-mail said

"Im having fun scrapbooking, I just started to scrap Abbey when her training wheels came off her bike and Im using the TARISOTA collection. I love it !!! "

I'm so glad she has improved and has begun scrapping again. Now all of you head over to TARISOTA COLLECTIONS you will not be disappointed I guarantee it!!!!!!!!!!!!

ET entries returned

My Awards for Excellence entries came back today, minus one that must still be getting photographed. I can share 2 here but the others you will have to wait until the book or up coming issues of FK or SM. I loved all my entries and am so happy a couple have been chosen to be shown in the book and ecstatic that one won me and Award for excellence in Craftsmanship.


I love the photo in this one. And had fun playing with texture paste for the snowflakes and frame. Was going through a real Black and Pink faze at the time. This layout was a favorite.

This large photo I have used before but I do really love it, so I used it again. I do use the same photos a couple of times if I really like them, especially if I want them in a couple of different albums, or I have a different story I want to tell. This was my first ever use of Prima Flowers, and I just love them.

Not much else has been happening, had a few projects for SM which is exciting. Very tight deadlines which was fun, keeps me busy and out of trouble any way. lol. It would be nice to keep getting projects from SM, I hope I do as I really enjoy doing them.

Till next time, see ya.

It's finally here

My copy of the Masters Book is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!! Well actually I got 2 at the same time must be my subscription copy as well. I'm happy with it, all the entries look awesome!!!!!!! Really outstanding. I'm going to have a really good read tonight as I have to get a layout finished and posted to SM they want it by Friday. I'm only on the computer while waiting for some dimentional magic to dry. I would like to share my layouts here now as the colors are really bad in the mag too dark and yukky.

The little photo of me is terrible too, I had the local paper here yesterday taking photos for this article about the masters I hope that photo is better.lol. The accent is on the cover, woohoo, my first appearance on a cover.lol. and the colors are quite good so I haven't bored you all with another photo of it. My BTP is an album stand here is a side on photo of it as the photo they have taken of the front doesn't show what it is really.

Well I had better go and get back into this layout it's not going to do itself.

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Published world

Having just read Nic Howards blog, I was surprised to see very well known published scrappers had the same feelings as myself. She is so incredibly talented I cannot believe anyone could think otherwise, even if its not quite your style, you would have to see how good it is anyway.

I've only just begun the whirlwind of published life and I have already been doubting myself and wishing in a way I had left myself in the background. I do truly enjoy the challenge of it all though and I love what I produce, knowing it is going off to a magazine makes me pay that extra special attention to it, I put in loads of time and effort and take extra care. As I'm sure everyone does. Then I worry people are going to judge me harshly, not like what I have done and even say nasty things. This is a fantastic opportunity, exciting and rewarding but it can be hard to. My wish is for people to be a little more thoughtful. We don't do this to make ourselves look better than anyone else, we do it because we love it and want to share with others. This year we were picked to be Masters or Elite Team or to win Awards for Excellence or be on Design Teams or whatever but next year it will be someone else's turn. It may even be yours. So be kind in your words and gracious in your actions because it may be you next, putting yourself out there for all to see. Don't judge us, we will only be here for a short time, just enjoy what we have to offer.

After all that, I would like to thank all my friends who know me and know how hard this can be, who love me for me and have supported me throughout. It truly is you that keeps me going.

Masters and Awards

I wait with increasing anticipation!!!!!!!!!!! My copy of the Scrapbooking Memories Masters 2005 is on it's way. I can't wait to see it, it all seems so long ago. I also received a phone call from SM, the local paper is ringing me soon to interview me on the Masters competition and my achievements, not real sure on all this but at least I'm not the only one, some of the other Masters are doing the same thing. A couple even have a television interview, boy am I glad I'm not doing that.

Some more good news, FK chose one of my other entries to go in the Awards for Excellence book. Yay!!!!!!!!!!! So I will have the layout I won the Award for in it and another layout as well. I got the contract in the mail yesterday, so it must be getting put together real soon. Issue 38 of FK will have the winning layouts in it as well, I think that must be out early next year.

It has been fantastic getting such good results in the competitions and awards this year. I have really enjoyed it so far. I just can't wait to see the books and magazines when they come. It's really special to be acknowledged for doing a good job when it's something you love to do, knowing that others like what I do too is just awesome.

Scrapbooking means so many things to different people, but to me at the moment it is a really nice distraction from all the sad and distressing things going on with many of my friends. I'm very thankful that my family is happy and healthy but continually thinking of my wonderful friends going through very hard times is so sad, I wish there was more I could do for them.

Till next time be happy