I am OFFICIALLY A GRADUATE!

Just a short n sweet one today! Sorry for all those hanging out for a long juicy post haha!

Well today my last semester uni results were released and I am now an official Graduate! YAY!! I am so happy to finally know that it is over and done with and COMPLETE! WOOO WOOOOO!! Soo the graduation ceremony isnt till April next year but its exciting all the same.

and thats all for now.. I have bits n pieces of news to come and update but I am so tired at the moment.. this christmas stuff wears me out.. have been making muffins since I got home from work to take to a chrissy breakfast we are having at work tomorrow :) Should be YUMMY!

Rach xx

Blocks of land, haircuts pics and christmas shopping

Well Nick, Ella and I went and perved on the block of land we will be buying in under a month.. YAY! Under a MONTH! Not too long now!! :) We then went to the park across the road and I realised how ideal this place is to live and how perfect it will all be, I mean sure the building part is going to be stressful and probably agonisingly painful while we wait and wait and wait to be able to move in.. but i really cannot wait!

Well OMG once again I have waited WAYYY to long to get cracking on the Christmas shopping and this year is going to be hard with Ella n all.. hopefully maybe probably someone can come look after Ella while i pop to the shop for a few hours ... fingers crossed!!!

I have done another LO, this time for the Carole challenge over at scrap therapy. YAY! I didnt think I would get it done in time but I made it in with a day spare :) wooo hooo.. so here it is :)

IT STARTS TONIGHT!!

So get ur sexy blogger butts over to www.scraptherapy.com.au NOW NOW NOW!! Well not really now... 7pm NSW time!

IT STARTS TOMORROW!!

Can u believe that its cyber crop time again over at Scrap Therapy!! WOWZA! I am really excited about this one because with work and the end of uni etc I have had no time to scrap but I am going to be making time to do some LO's this weekend :) YAY!!! Sooo if you didnt know about it already make sure u pop on over and check it out cause Nat, the DT and of course the members are all fabbo!!

ha!

I was just over checking out Rachael Merrick's Blog and I stumbled upon this :) Its funny!

I WON!!!

I won $100 in paypal credits yesterday in a competition that ebay had running called "12 days of christmas". I was so excited!! Yeh I know its not all that exciting or a new car or anything but I was really excited when I got the phone call to say that I had won ;) I was also excited to see my name up on the ebay site to say that I was one of the winners, so thought Id include a screen shot :) and brag to all u blog readers too haha! Sooo thanks a bunch to ebay and to Ella for getting me up early so that I had time to find the answers to the questions and just paste them in when 9am opening time came :)


Cheers

Rach xx

Sooo much to tell...

So I have now been back at work for 3 weeks and I am doing ok. I havent really adjusted yet to not being around Ella so much and I still have a little sniffle every now and again when I think about how much I miss her and my mind starts thinking about what she thinks the reasons I am not home is. I really hope that she realises that I still want to be with her but have to work to get money because for some reason in my mind she thinks that I am leaving her because its her fault. I know, I know its just me feeling guilty for not being able to be home so much with her... but still... I am really missing her, missing our 'us' time that we had every day for such a long time and now I barely get home before its her bed time, in saying that though the pay is good and I am doing ok being back and getting back into the swing of things.
I cant believe how close christmas is, where o where did the last 6 months go??? We put up our christmas lights on our house last weekend but havent turned them on yet, will be this weekend plus also putting up our tree :) I am dreading to see what ella will decide to do with it... I am guessing PULL IT OVER??? :) Also wondering what we are going to do with all the presents she gets.. we are already overcrowded by her stuff as it is!! She gets so spoiled because she is not only the first child for us but also the first grandchild for both mine and Nick's family.
Havent been doing much scrapping lately, just havent had the time or the mojo.. but I have some ideas for this weekend if I get a chance between christmas shopping and tree erecting! ;) Speaking of scrapping, round six of SWTS is up at scrap therapy and SHIRLEY CHAI is the star!! :O Do u realise how excited I was to see that?? She is my FAVOURITE!!!
Ummmmm what else??? My internet connection is finally working PROPERLY!! I could log into pages and they would start to load and then would just stop for over a week and I was LOST without my internet!!! So I am very very happy about that! GRRR @ dodo for not fixing it quickly and just stuffing us around!
OHHHH another thing, ella got her first HAIRCUT!!! She was sooo great and just sat there looking at herself in the mirror, didnt try and get down, didnt cry, didnt wiggle around!! her hair looks so curly now ;)lil cutie that she is ;) Ill be scrapping those pics soon no doubt!! They will fit in well with Shirley's SWTS challenge ;)

Speak to u all soon ;)

Rach xx

The LO's, Round 2 & 3 for SWTS @ Scrap Therapy

More LO's :)

Well this is totally a LO post and a mention to Scrap Therapy... see the link in the side bar!! They are running a comp called "Scrapping with the Stars" and so far I have managed to do all of the challenges before the due date YAY! Go check it out if u enjoy a challenge and like to know more about those who are published over and over again. WELLLLL it seems blogger doesnt want me to upload the LO's yet.. soo Ill be back :)

A bad day...

You know those days where u just want to cry but there is nothing really that there is to cry about? I am having one of those.. I guess it is probably due to the stresses of end of uni semester as well as starting back at work in a few days. I just feel really depressed... I dont get like this very often and I am usually a really happy go lucky person but today has just been different... I feel like if someone even looked at me funny I would break down into a ball of tears...it feels good to be able to come and offload how I am feeling into cyber space.. I am not sure if ppl read this or if its just something that is sitting here taking up some little section on the www, but all the same, it is quite therapuetic to come and just talk.. to myself.. soo here's to hoping that tomorrow is different and I get out of this slump.

Rach xx

Back to work... sooo SOON!

Less than a week till I go back to work part time. After being off for almost 18 months it is making me a little nervous... for many reasons... the first of course being because I will be away from Ella for longer than I have ever been away from her since she was born, my sister will be looking after her and will spoil her rotten but even that worries me a little.. will that make her all bratty when I am with her because Nat will give in? or will Ella be able to recognise her Mummy is not a push over like her Aunty Nat is? I am also worried about the usual stuff, like will i remember what I have to do at work etc or will it be like I am starting all over again. So anyway, next Monday is fast approaching ... just wish the week would slow down a little :)

Melbourne cup day today, I get a little excited about it.. not overly..I place a bet every year, $10 on a horse ;) this year I at least managed to get one that placed, too bad that I bet on a win! HA!

A few things have been happening scrapping wise, I won some prizes from a pink cyber crop at www.scraptherapy.com.au and they were awesome! Received them about a week ago and there is an amazing Reminisce pack and a stamp :) Was really excited to get it hehe, yes small things amuse small minds! So thanks for the people who donated the prizes and thanks to Nat for running the raffle. I also won three prizes for LO's, making $35 in voucher, which was also astonishing. I really thought that I would never get anything out of scrapping other than what it provides me personally, it was a shock to think that other ppl actually like my LO's, this encouraged me to submit some LO's to magazines, but to no avail.

Hmmm what else??? Not much I dont think...christmas is fast approaching and it seems that even though I think I am a little organised IM NOT! Each week passes and it gets closer and closer and nothing is getting done that has to be! Uni is almost finished, there are three presentations and two reports left to do, which should be ok. Uni is fully over by the end of next week which means Ill be a busy beaver this weekend finishing up assignments etc. :)

I am sure by now Ive lost half of you because Ive bored u to death or uve fallen asleep so on that note ;) night night in the land of blogs.

Rach xx

New LO's :)

Losing things :(

Well today started out ok.. but then things changed. You see when Nick and I got married we each got a gift from one another... today mine went missing... and no its not just lost.. its gone! My gift was a charm bracelet and the first charm that was on it was a two hearts that were interlocking, the second charm was one of the footprints poem that I love and the last was a dummy that was given to me by Nick when Ella was born... so the bracelet holds a lot of sentimental value... anyways today we were walking through Camden and I heard a chink noise, luckily I looked down because one of the links of my bracelet had broken and it had fallen off my wrist. I was ok because I thought nothing of it, just picked up the bracelet.. but then I noticed the double heart charm was missing... I swear I almost broke into tears right there in the middle of the street.. anyone that walked past would have thought I was a hormonal lunatic lol. Nick and I retraced our steps but couldnt see it, it didnt help that it was windy and there were leaves on the ground that were goldy colours ... so now its gone :( forever. The charm that I got and wore on my wedding day that can never be replaced...Nick said he will get me a new one and it will be just as special.. but it wont be.. it just wont have the same meaning as the one did that I lost...to me its like losing my wedding ring... ok not as expensive lol but still! I guess I will end up getting a new one as a symbol of our five year anniversary which is next year. Nick now wants to buy me a new bracelet that has stronger links so I cant lose the others.. hey I cant complain ;)

Rach xx

Just LO's ;)

This post is just going to be uploading some new LO's from over the weekend... had a full on day at uni today and I am feeling lazy now lol ;) Hope u like! thanks for looking

Rach xx

Another CC comes to a close

Well scrap therapy's cc is almost over.. well it will be at the end of today haha! I have managed so far to get one of the challenges done.. yes thats right.. only ONE! I suck.. and I have no excuse, other than most of us spent friday night chatting instead of scrapping ;) But it was great fun! I also made a key ring from a class Belinda ran that was raising money for cancer research, it was fun and the key ring looks fab! Still havent made a start on Narelle's class and there are two more coming today ;) Its ok though Ill get them done sooner or later :) Not much is going on for me at the moment, the uni semester is winding down and another bunch of assignments will soon be due but the good news is.. that after that lot I am then on holidays till March YAY!! I go back to work in a little under 4 weeks, so not long to go now! Am going to love having the extra money again! Means more scrapping supplies lol! Other exciting news is that its almost time for us to ttc #2. We have been planning to start from November for a while and the time is almost here! I am a little excited, a little scared ... dont want it to take another 2 years to fall pregnant like with Ella. Think its time for me to go have a shower now ;) Going to in laws for lunch today, its a beautiful day! Will leave you with my challenge LO. I love how it turned out!

How exciting!!

So this is a super short post.. but I wanted to say how excited I was about being the scrap therapy LO of the week :) Thanks guys :) I was so shocked to find out cause I really dont think, as a new scrapper, that I am anywhere near the standard of the LO's Ive seen on there before. So pop on over to their blog and check it out! Its in my blog list! :)

Day two & I am still going strong :)

Well I am almost two days down which is FAB! Once I get past the first week of dieting I find it a lot easier to stick to.. its just those first few days that seem to get to me.. so I am on day two and still fine n dandy ;) Plus this weekend Ill be too busy cyber cropping to even think about eating!! haha!! Yes girls, its cyber crop time again this weekend at www.scraptherapy.com.au so POP on over and say hello :) Come raise some money for cancer research and of course have a great time :) I have started making my recipe swap cards and I have to say I am pleased with how they are turning out :) One dilemma being. I AM GOING TO RUN OUT OF LETTERS!! I have asked Nat to get some into the store.. fingers crossed that the wholesaler has them!! If not I'll have to use different letters on some.. they will still all look beautiful though lmao! I'll post a pic of a finished one when the swap is over, I want the first ppl to see them to be those who are participating so you will have to wait ;) Got a RAK today from Lea, what a hunny! It had so many yummy things in it..it really made my day :) In other news.. back at uni now.. :( although only 5 weeks left till end of semester...

Dieting...

This is going to be one of those posts where I totally pour my heart out.. so if you get bored with that type of thing.. leave now :). Ok so I am overweight... I know it! I have to lose about 30kgs to get to my goal weight.. one good thing is that this amount used to be 43kgs... so when I started the dieting saga I actually did stick to it for a little while... but now I am stuck! I try over and over again to start and stick to a diet to help me shift the kilos I need to lose but I am failing over and over again and I dont understand why...it upsets me so much that I can look at myself in the mirror and be so dissapointed with how I have let myself put on so much weight but still it does nothing to motivate me... soo today is it.. the final straw.. I am sticking to it no matter what. I know I have to.. not even just for me... you see I have polycystic ovarian syndrome.. which for those who dont know what it is, puts me at a high risk for getting type 2 diabetes as I age, I also got gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Ella which also puts me at a higher risk than average too, so you see I have to lose the weight to give me the best possible chance against not getting diabetes. Sooo to make myself a little more accountable I am going to come in here weekly and update on my progress.. good or bad... and then maybe I can figure out what helps me to stay on track or what factors steer me away from it. Sooooo goal weight here I come.. for good this time!!!

Been a while ....

Well this one is going to be mainly full of LO's :) Arent u lucky :P All assignments for the first half of the semester are now DONE! Thank goodness I can finally breathe again! Havent been very well lately.. got some kinda of throat infection, have been losing my voice on and off for four days now, makes me feel horrible :( hopefully it goes away soon and I can be my happy cheerful self! I am excited though because this weekend is the next cyber crop over at scrap therapy! Hope to see you all there... thats if anyone actually does read this?? They are going to be running classes that cost $5 each and all funds raised will go to cancer research, which of course is FABULOUS! Ella had a caramel milkshake this morning in one of her cups.. u know the ones with the spouts, anyways she decided that she wanted to pull the top off and then try and drink it ON THE RUG! Sooo we had an a la milkshake disaster this morning, plus now the rug will need to be steam cleaned so it doesnt STINK! YAY ... :( Note to self: PUT ELLA OUTSIDE WITH THE DOG WHEN DRINKING haha!!

Rach xx

Belinda's Class was AWESOME

Well if you read my last post you'd know that the class started at 8pm tonight and I have to say I am impressed! Belinda did a fantastic job and the directions were so easy to follow, even for a newbie scrapper like me :) So thought Id jump on and show you all my LO. Thanks Belinda :)

Rach xx

Dont you know SCRAPPING comes before ASSIGNMENTS

Well I have one assignment left to do, so 5 have flown out the door into the lecturer's boxes and hopefully will get at least a pass mark :) But tonight is a night about me.. well about things I want to be doing rather than HAVE to be doing.. scraptherapy is doing a FREE, yes you read it right, FREE online class tonight. It is being run by the wonderfully talented Belinda and if you want to go just make sure you're around at 8pm (EST) come to this link ----> http://www.scraptherapy.com.au/forum/viewforum.php?f=76 dont be shy, we are all nice... really we are!!!
My birthday went really well, got to spend it with family which makes it special. I got spoilt as usual ;) not that I am complaining haha. I have applied for two other courses, so that makes three in total for my masters, they are all via distance education so I am hoping that at least one of them thinks that I am good enough and they select me. Only one bad thing on my mind at the moment.. I go back to work in 6 weeks :( I am going to miss my baby so much, I am lucky though because my sister is going to be looking after her for me when Nick is not at home with his shift work. It is going to be hard to be away from her for three days a week, but with getting a mortgage we will need the two incomes... so no choice really!
Time for me to go get the clothes off the line ;) Hope to see you all tonight at scrap therapy doing that class... it is going to be a BLAST!

Rach xx

Uni Application Time :)

Have sent off my application for Master of Teaching through CSU today, so happy that it is finally off my hands and on its way. Has taken me a while to get the transcripts and things organised that I needed in order to apply. I am crossing my fingers that I get in because CSU are the only univeristy that offer M Teach via distance education in NSW. I want to be able to go back to work in November and stay there for a while to get some extra cash going before we have baby number two and the only way I can do this is if I get accepted in the course.
The countdown till my birthday has well and truly begun! Only four days to go.. well five really! I am excited because I know I am getting a Canon 400D as a present... yes I am doing a happy dance right now haha!
Ella is well and truly walking now.. no more stopping to crawl when she falls over anymore.. just full on stable walking! I am sure it wont be long till I am chasing her around the house while she is trying to attack the dog! Poor bubbles wont know what hit her! In other news about Ella, she said another word today... bub bles :) her first two syllable word.. I mean sure she has said mum ma and dad da but this was a full on word that wasnt just repeated twice lol... yes I am a crazy mum ma!!
Well thats all from me for now, Im sure to be back within a few days :)

Rach xx

Cyber Crops, Night Owls and hand stitching!

What a fantastic weekend it has been. All started with a bang on Friday night with Scrap Therapy's Cyber Crop. It has been fantastic, lots of great challenges and great chatting. I am now the scrap therapy night owl, it was just a random draw of those who were still up at midnight last night, but I think I look cute as an owl! haha! I just completed a LO that I absoultely love to pieces, it has a lot of meaning for me and the hand stitching took hours but I have to say of all the LO's I've completed, yeh i know its not many, this is definately my favourite.. so have a peek a boo and leave me a comment :) About to get cracking on a uni assignment that is due next week, so that I can have tonight to do another LO.. yes ok I am a little addicted! ohhhh wait... thanks so much to Narelle for the awesome card class, I am making it for my sister who has been having a bit of a rough time lately with boys.. who needs them haha! HOOT HOOT from this owl!

Rach xx

Uni is attacking with a vengence

Well well well... I just realised that in the next two weeks I have six assessment tasks due, all of which are worth 40% of the overall semester mark or MORE. Goodness ME!! Plus in those two weeks I have to fit in more important things like the cyber crop on over at www.scraptherapy.com.au ;)this weekend, I am totally loving this place right now. The people are fab! Cant wait to see what challenges they have in store. In other news... Ella is pushing through teeth again...I seriously cant wait for them all to be through and her pore lil gums get a break from all this sharp teeth lol... it makes her so grumpy and needy and of course disrupts sleep patterns so it has been a lil crazy round here lately. Hmmm what else??? I have applied for my Masters thru CSU and applied to graduate today... its all coming to an end... PLUS i go back to work in 2 months :( its not that I hate work or anything, I actually rather enjoy the interaction and friendships, its that I will be away from my baby for the first time since she was born... :( but you have to do what you have to do...I have really been thinking lately about the time it took to conceive Ella and how we are hoping for a #2... I guess I am just hoping that it doesnt take as long as last time or that it isnt as emotionally draining and depressing as it was before... but thats a story for another time.

Rach xx

Hmmmm... random thoughts

I dont really have anything in particular to write about today but was in the mood for just rambling on about nothing... wow how priviledged are you? Any of you that have children will know what I mean when I say that Go Diego Go is on in the background and Miss Ella is totally engrossed, yeh I know I can hear you from here, I shouldnt be using the tv as a babysitter.... but geez I just really need some time out. Hubby is at work and Miss Ella is not only teething, learning to walk and a BRAT she also is refusing to sleep more than 2 hours at a time... which is starting to make me as grumbly as she is. I always listened when people said that being a Mum really is hard work and at times I would say that it isnt that bad, but when it comes to weeks like this I know exactly why my Mum wanted to make sure I really was ready to have a child. I think the hardest part for me is that as a parent you totally give up yourself and your independence because there is just no time for it, or when there is time for it, its not the right time... not even sure if that makes sense hahaha!! It's funny because as challenging as it is at times, I wouldnt give it up for the world, there is nothing as amazing and beautiful as the love you have for your own children.

New hair and my first scrapping wins!

Ok, so who is like me and when they walk out of the hairdresser after getting there hair cut and styled feels like a million dollars... yeh ok.. so it may cost that much each time I get it done, but the feeling that I get when I walk out the door actually feeling like a respectable human being is soo worth the money ;) I got my hair done today, coloured, cut and foils and I only just changed to a new hairdresser... I was sooo worried that a big chunk of hair would go missing or something but it is absolutely perfect... shame about the face it has to go on :P HAHA! so needless to say i will definately be going back, thanks Amanda!

other news from me is that I actually won something! Not sure exactly what just yet... but I won a sketch challenge for the previous finger paint LO (see the post below) and I also won a competition for the best photo... it was a picture of tulips that I took in Bowral at the tulip festival. Ohhh i love tulips and now I love them even more. They are just stunning flowers, which I why I suppose I chose to have them in my bridal bouquet!

So here is a pic of my new hair ;) BEC- If u've got any cookies, put them down :P Oh wait... its prob too late because this blog thing posts the pics at the top of the post hahaha... sorry hun!!

Rach xx

Well this week has been fantastic or maybe just busy... Ella got immunised on Tuesday and now is sprouting out lovely colours in her nappies, yes you all did need to know that! I also got some more scrapbooking done, the littlescrapbookshop, www.littlescrapbookshop.com.au held a retreat in Merroo and those that didnt go got to participate in a cyber crop kind of retreat. It was fab. All in all I completed 1 double LO and two single page LO's. So now I feel like I am a scrapper! HAHA.. here I am only having done a total of five LO's and already I am hooked on it. It is funny because it totally relaxed yet totally frustrates me at the same time. If something doesnt end up looking how i picture it or I lose something i wanted to use (because I am using my lounge room to scrap at the moment) I end up screaming, BUT when the LO is complete I cant even describe the great feeling of accomplishment that I get, even if i think that it doesnt look that great, I still feel happy. Soo anyways, here are the new LO's I completed. Thanks for looking!

Joining the world of Scrapbooking!

;) So I have now officially joined the scrapbooking world. I thought about it and ventured into shops dozens of times but always walked out intimidated by how great everyone's pages looked and thought I could never possibly make something as fantastic as that... BUT then one day I just thought ... why am I so worried about what other people think of what I create... scrapbooking should be something for me and as long as I am happy with what I make then so be it (even though I would sure love to hear that they look great, like anyone does HAHA).. soooo I took the plunge ;) I have bought a few things so far and can see how easily people must build up their collections... and how expensive a habit it can become! Sooo anyway I have my first LO to share with you guys, so be kind! It is my very first LO ever.. I have dabbled in digital scrapbooking before but always thought that there was something missing in the end... I didnt ever get around to printing them out and having something tangible to showfor the time and effort I had put into making a page, but now with paper scrapbooking I do! So here it is! ;) Leave me a comment... I need some scrapbooking blog buddies! Forgive me for not quite knowing how to take a photo of the LO yet hehehe!