Post it note and pen holder

I love making little things like this for presents:

Do you have problems making bows??

I know I do. So I found this video on youtube. The result is gorgeous.

My favourite song at the moment....

Is "Gives You Hell" by the All American Rejects.

It's a clever, fun video as well. Have a look. I can't get this song out of my head and am going to download it as the ring tone on my mobile. The song has been out for a while now and I love it.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=H-XPHfbFcv4

January 8

I have two flower boxes outside my front door. In the centre of each is a flower carpet rose, one is red and the other white (surprise surprise). I try to have red annuals with the white rose and white annuals with the red rose. This year my mixed-coloured pansies are doing so well I haven't planted my usual red and white annuals.

This photo is of the red rose although it looks a little pink in the photo due to the light. I love this photo. The flowers look quite big but they are small. I have this as my screen save on my work computer and a lot of people have commented on it.

January 7 - Pauline's funeral

Pauline's funeral was held in Chelsea Heights followed by afternoon tea at the Chapel and the Wake at Gayle's house.

Gayle arranged the funeral by herself. She'd spent so much time in the hospital with her Mum during the treatment and they had discussed what Pauline wanted her funeral to be like. Gayle did a brilliant job of organising it. Pauline would be very proud.

The flowers in this photo are all from Pauline's garden. She loved her garden and was very proud of it. She had transformed it since moving there. Gayle and Bryan went to Pauline's house (about 3.5 hours drive) a few days before the funeral to select the flowers to be picked by Kevin (Pauline's hubby & Gayle's step-father) to bring to Melbourne for the funeral. The idea was that the family would sit down together to make bouquets to put on the coffin but it wasn't working out. Then the doorbell rang. It was a lady from the CFA (Country Fire Authority which my brother Bryan is a volunteer fire fighter) Auxillary delivering flowers on behalf of the CFA. She could see that Gayle was having trouble with the flowers and offered to help. She then said she was a florist which was such a relief for Gayle. The lady did a great job. It was so nice to see Pauline's own flowers presented so beautifully and professionally.

As I mentioned above the Wake was at Gayle's. It was also the last day of the 3rd Cricket test against South Africa. In our very Aussie way, we ate sausage rolls and mini quiches (and other food), drank beer and wine and watched the exciting end to the cricket. By the way, Australia won the game but lost the series 2-1.

January 6

Tonight it was back to the Telstra Dome to watch Melbourne Victory take on Adelaide United. These are the top two teams so far this season. The game was a make-up game because it was postponed earlier in the year due to Adelaide's committments in the Asian Champions League. It's also one of the teams we have a big rivalry in the A League. I went to this game by myself as Bryan and Gayle had to get organised for Pauline's funeral the next day.

January 4

Mum, Dad and I went to the Australian Gardens at the Cranbourne Botanical Gardens. The gardens have featured on travel and gardening shows for a few years and we've always wanted to go.

These are natural botanical gardens featuring a lot of desert plants. It reminded me of Alice Springs because it was a beautiful, warm day. There is a big focus on water-saving and low water usage plants.


You can also do some nice bushwalks around the gardens.

January 2

Mum and I went to Telstra Dome to watch Melbourne Victory taken on Queensland Roar, a team we lost to last time we played them at home. We won this game 2-1.

Bryan and Gayle weren't able to go because they were arranging Pauline's funeral so Mum came with me. We caught the train from Gardiner station to Southern Cross station which is only about a 20 minute trip. It's much better than travelling for 1 hour from Ferntree Gully station even though it's nearer to my home.

It was my Mum's first game and she enjoyed it. It was very exciting. We led 2-0 but Qld got a goal and nearly got a leveller but didn't.

January 1

I've joined a challenge on scrapshare called 52/265. The idea is to take a photo every day and scrap a page of the previous week every week so that's how you get 52/365.

My first photo is of my messy computer desk. I have two desks in my office and both are a bit messy at the moment. It's a matter of throwing things out and putting things away.

Pink Ribbon Breakfast 2008 - 25th October

Gayle organised a Pink Ribbon Breakfast which was going to be held at her house until the CFA offered the use of their meeting room. This enabled her to invite many more people and raise much more money that she originally wanted to.

I offered to make cupcakes and decided on 5 dozen (don't ask me where I plucked that figure from) and will never make that many again LOL. They needed to be made at the last minute to be fresh so I stayed up late the night before (luckily it was a Friday) to make and decorate them. I found a really nice recipe on my fav cooking website www.taste.com.au and bought some things to decorate such as hundreds & thousands and marshmallows.

More than 50 people came and Gayle raised over $1100. She initially wanted to make $200.

Next year she wants to make it bigger and better. I only hope she doesn't ask me to make cupcakes LOL.

bookmark card

Here's something else I want to make. The bookmark slips into the card so the recipient gets to reuse it.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JxBBwK8iRhA

How to make a gift card holder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8PWp5B1Z7U

I just watched this video on you tube about how to make a gift card holder for a present. She makes this with 2 slots, 1 for the card and the other for a tag. This is definitely something I'm going to make in future.

Cupcake Flower Arrangement

Since I made all those cupcakes last year for the Pink Ribbon Breakfast organised by my sister-in-law, (which I've yet to post about) she and I have had a bit of a running joke about cupcakes. I just found this gorgeous cupcake flower arrangement on this blog www.inspiredideasmag.blogspot.com and just had to post it. I'm going to make one for my SIL too. She'll love it and will cheer her up a bit.

I'll post a pic when I do it. I need to buy some oasis but why not have a go yourself and post the result on your blog. Let me know if you do. I'd love to have a look.

http://inspiredideasmag.blogspot.com/2008/12/cupcake-flower-arrangement-this-tiny.html

Christmas Day

Christmas was a quiet affair this year. Due to Gayle's Mum not being well, they decided not to go there for Christmas lunch. They thought Mum, Dad and I were going to a restaurant but we changed our minds and decided to have it at Mum and Dads. So we decided to go and see them after lunch. I wanted to try some new recipes so I cooked this chicken. I stuffed it with fresh thyme and lemon quarters. It was so juicy and yummy. I'll definitely use that recipe again. We had pudding and sat around talking for a while then headed over to my brother's house. Santa brought them a Wii so we all had fun playing that for hours. Time flies when you're having fun!!

This Christmas tree is in the City Square in Melbourne.

The lights were in the Bourke St Mall and really jazzed up the Mall. This is where Myer has their famous windows every year.

Photos of Southbank in Melbourne at dusk

more photos from December 6

Photo 1 - looking out west from the Eureka Observation Deck

Photo 2 - looking across to Port Philip Bay (you can see Albert Park Lake where the Formula 1 Grand Prix is held each year)

Photo 3 - looking straight down to the ground from the Deck

Photo 4 - Port Medallions on a potato pancake and salad

Photo 5 - Salmon on risotto base

Christmas - part 1

I say part one because I haven't got my photos from my sister in law yet and I'm not going to push for them because her Mum died of stomach cancer on Tuesday 30th December.

On December 6, my friend Mel and I went to into the City of Melbourne to sample the Christmas feeling.

After a day of scrapbooking at my house we drove to the city and parked in the carpark in the Eureka Tower which is Melbourne's tallest building. We walked to nearby Crown Casino, taking photos of the sculptures along the Crown Promenade along the way. Once inside the casino we headed to the Palm court where they always have this great tree, all lit up. It's pretty spectacular. Then we walked back to Southgate to a cafe called 'La Camera' and had a beautiful meal. We started with one of the nicest Bruschettas I've ever had. Main course was salmon on a risotto base and pork medallions on a potato pancake with a side salad. We decided to share the meal so gave half to each other. We decided to leave dessert for later in the night.

After leaving La Camera we went to the 89th floor of the Eureka Tower to the observation deck. I'll post those photos separately. Near the bottom of the building is a sculpture of bees clinging to the side and inside a box attached.

After leaving the observation deck we walked across the Yarra (stopping to take photos along the way of course) to Federation Square where they have a gigantic advent calendar on the side of the wall of one of the buildings. At 9pm each night of December they hold a circus-like performance which ends half an hour later with the unveiling of the current date. The performance goes on for 20 mins too long for my taste. It's no wonder children were restless watching it; even I got bored. We decided to walk across the road to buy a spanish donut which Mel said I had to have. I didn't like it but Mel said it wasn't authentic so I might try one again one day.

After that we walked up to City Square to take a photo of their Christmas tree then to the Bourke St Mall to see the Myer Windows. The queue was too long so we decided to have a detailed look but you could see the windows through gaps in the queue. It looked very lively and colourful and the kids seemed to love it.

We ended the day by walking back across the Yarra to find a restaurant at Southgate for dessert. To our suprise, many were closed. We found a French restaurant and had a yummy lemon tart served by an equally yummy French waiter. He was very cute and very easy to understand which isn't always the case.

So that was my night out.

kids v parents at soccer

At the end of the 'season' for a lot of kids sports clinics, it is traditional for kids to take on their parents. Here are some photos of my brother (Bryan) and older nephew (DJ) taking on my younger nephew (Matty). I was asked to join in to but decided not to.

The top photo shows Matty's reaction after missing a goal - something he really hates. He is a genuine striker and is said by his coaches to have a lot of potential if he sticks to it.

The second photo is of DJ (wearing the plain red shirt) kicking one of his many goals playing and the third one is of Bryan (wearing the red shirt with the number 8 on the back) playing.

Overall it was great to watch; lots of fun seeing the kids take on their families. They are always very determined to beat them.

Stormy skies over Melbourne

On November 21st there were late afternoon storms approaching so I grabbed my camera (actually it was my new mobile phone) and went outside to take some photos.

When the storm hit, it was ferocious. The winds were really strong. Unfortunately it hit just as I was leaving to go to the city for a Melbourne Victory game but it passed quite quickly, luckily.