Sydney Dust Storm

This morning i woke up at 5.45am and looked out the window. The sky was blood red. I had that strange feeling that something was happening....so even before I turned on the news I ran and grabbed my camera...of course.

These photos are taken with no flash,I was trying very hard to keep my hand steady (I couldn't be bothered to dig out the tripod) hence a slight blur. I have done no editing or haven't changed any colour this is exactly how they came out of the camera.

The front of my house and then my back yard.

I opened the back door to go out to take the photos and by the time I came back the whole back room was full of dust. Now i am sneezing alot!

They say on the news that the whole of Sydney is covered with dust and the Harbour Bridge and city icons can't be seen. The dust storm stretches from Woolongong right up to Newcastle and it is going to get worse throughout the day....yuck!

It's kinda cool to be part of a one off phenomenon. Stay safe everyone on the roads and breath easy if you can :)

EDITED TO ADD THIS PHOTO that nick sent me via email taken by Ryan Lahiff a professional photographer. It's an awesome photo but makes mine look really avarage...not to worry

Finn turns 2

Well lots of nothingness has been happening in my world since i last posted...in the scrapping world that it. I have just been doing the "life" thing and some therapeutic sewing which I will post about soon.

This weekend is all about Finn. My precious, gorgeous, amazing little man who is not that little anymore :) Finn turns 2 tomorrow and I can't even believe it. He is all of a sudden grown up. He just has the cutest little voice and likes to sing Happy Birthday to himself...I will attempt to post the video, it's priceless, and has full on conversations with you. He is a massive fan of Thomas the Tank Engine and knows all the engine names but looking at their picture in a little catalogue he has, even i can't remember them all. So what do all obsessed Thomas fans deserve on their birthday weekend when they turn 2?...an afternoon at the Sydney Steam Train Park located in West Ryde. It was the perfect venue for such a train fan and the look on his face when he saw the trains was amazing and then when he realised he could ride on them he started jumping and shouted YAAAYYY! for a few minutes...too cute.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Firstly my cake making efforts...

...the kids loved that they could attack the cake and ate the lollies straight out of their carriages all afternoon. Nick's mum brought along a photo that i hadn't seen before of Nick when he turned 2 with a train cake also, how cool is that, father and son, same white blonde hair, same look yet 32 years between their 2nd bithdays with the same cake...is that a page to scrap or what!!!

Riding the trains...Kyra is the leader then Halle,Tahlia, Thomas, My dad, Finn, Nicholas, Nicks mum, Brydie, Piper and Ash. It was cool having all the kids ride together, They had so much fun. You should have seen the row of paparazzi (each time our children when by) just from our little gathering on the other side of the fence, people of mine our heart :)

Changing the signals...

Finn we love you so ,so much, You are such bright sunshine in our lives and we loved that you loved you special afternoon.

We have started a tradition in our family that when you wake up on your birthday the floor in your room is full of balloons....I can't wait for Finn to wake up tomorrow and see that...

All I could have asked for!

A yummy husband,

An awesome father to my children,

My motivatior,

My ROCK!,

A great listener,

So much fun to be around always!

I am so, so lucky :)

I Love You

Happy Fathers Day!

Back to the simple life...

I'm stepping back into the simple life. Finding the things that are important to me and enjoying spending time hanging and playing with my kids. Life gets busy and crazy and i often lose perspective when this happens. This month I'm searching for the simple things in my life again.

This is Finn and I playing in the yard the other day...how good is this sun!

Well it's been a while since i have scrapped, actually I haven't scrapped properly since the RW weekend away. I feel like I have lost my creative mojo for scrapping and (shock horror) for photo taking! I know I can't believe it. Sometimes 'life' stuff happens and with sickness in the mix too all that creative stuff takes a back seat for a bit, but I'm sure it will just take one small thing to get me fired up again, I just have to find what that it????? The fact that I'm suffering extreme tiredness at the moment doesn't help, so by the time the kids are in bed and then Nick gets home between 8 and 8.30pm I hardly get to eat dinner before I'm asleep let alone start to scrap. That is so not like me as I'm usually just getting started for the night at 9.30pm. My photo files for the month of August look pretty sad when usually (because it's birthday month) they are overflowing, so this needs to be fixed quick smart I think!
I'm going to attempt Cathy Z's class to push me back into scrapping land...I hope I can finish it, I have a lot of unfinished projects at the moment :(

I'm also hoping that these two new friends (below) will help pull me out of my photo taking slump.

Friend #1 A working Polaroid camera that i picked up from the markets for $5...love a bargain and how fun will these photos be! Just have to get some film.

Friend #2 This camera I borrowed on Thursday from my friend Justin (thanks Justin) It's a Nikon F65 with a semi fish eye lens. One look throught the view finder and I'm hooked on seeing the world this way always! One catch...it's a film SLR. So I have to wait to get the film deleloped, hope the photos work (as I have to take them all on manual, then scan the negs into the comptuer...could be a while before you see the results. I'm just going to take my time with it and enjoy taking photos a different way.
Also I have decided to step back from doing the Remember When Blogging, you can read my last post here. I'll still be (when I can) putting in my pages for the sketch challenge or colour inspiration so I'll post them here also when i do so you can keep track. I wanted to say Thank You to Lee again for that great opportunity to blog for RW. Lee has put the call out for new members of the design team so if your ouyt there reading this and think you have some great pages, card making skills or photography knowledge to share email me at the link on the right of my blog and I'll pass your info on or jump onto the RW site and email Lee direct.

Fun Food Friday's

Jo's Weetbix slice
Preheat oven to 180 and grease a slice tin ready. Use can use baking paper if you like as the can help your slice come out of the tin easier.



Ingredients.
4 Weetbix
1 cup of SR Flour
3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
3/4 Cup of Coconut
1/2 cup of milk choc bits
1/2 cup of white choc bits
150g butter
200g block of Cadbury choc for topping



In a bowl crush the weetbix and add/combine flour, coconut, sugar. In a separate bowl melt butter in the microware then add to dry ingredients and combine. Then add the choc bits (if you add them before the butter the butter will melt the bits so add them at this point in the recipe). Mix well. Tip all ingredients out into the slice tin and press down hard and flat.
Bake for 20 mins. (just keep an eye on it around or just before the 20 min mark as all ovens are different and the slice will be too crunchy if overcooked). Leave to cool for a minute and then tip out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool for a bit.
Melt your Cadbury chocolate in a bowl and pour over the top of the slice spreading evenly. As the choc on top is cooling/setting score it with a knife into piece sizes. Your choc will crack if you leave it to cut when it is set. Cut the piece right through to the base when the choc if fully set and serve and most importantly ENJOY!! :)

6 Candles...

I know I say this all the time but time goes so, so fast!

Kyra turned 6 yesterday and all of a sudden seems so grown up. 6 candles on her cake is lots. I so clearly remember every feeling and emotion of her birth and of course being so in love with this precious new little baby girl and then you blink and you are putting 6 candles on her cake. I'm still so in love with my girl and so proud of her in so many ways. Her smile was from ear to ear all day yesterday and was just loving being the birthday girl because on your birthday you get to wear what ever you want, eat what ever you want and do everything first before your brother and sister...and of course there are lots of presents to open :)

Happy Birthday Kyra!

Fun Food Fridays

Its a little late, but still Friday :)

This is so extremely yummy and so extremely easy to make. It is a recipe from a good friend who's name is also Jo, that I have adopted as my own :)

Malt truffles.

Ingredients.

250g melted Butter

1 tin of Condensed Milk

4 tbl Golden Syrup

2 packets of Paradise Malt Biscuits (crushed)

1 tbl Vanilla Essence

3/4 Cups Walnuts ( chopped into pieces)

1/2 Cup Currents

Method.

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and once mixed put the whole bowl in the freezer until hard.

2. Pull out of the freezer and scoop up teaspoons of mixture and roll into balls and then roll into 1/2 cup of coconut

3. Put onto a tray or into a container and put back into the freezer until you are ready to eat.

4. Pull out your plate of malt truffles 15 mins before you are ready to serve. ENJOY :)

Next week I have the yummiest weetbix slice recipe to share...I know you will all be addicted to that for sure, just ask those who tried it on the scrapbooking weekend away....