....an awesome giveaway over at kl's blog!

Strange title huh........?

I am so excited......I won an online class with May Flaum over at Big Picture Scrapbooking from the Studio Calico Sneak Night Giveaway!

The class looks amazing and runs for 6 weeks.....wow! Here is a little snippet about the class:

As most of you know I am a huge, huge fan of Kenner Road kit club and a subscriber. It took a lot of research and looking around at all the different kit clubs that are on offer online. At first I ooohhhhed and aaahhhhed at all the gorgeous goodies on offer. I wanted every kit I looked at. I had to take a step back and ask myself a few key questions about what I wanted from a kit and what was important to me.

• Firstly, I considered the price of the kit and it's shipping cost. This was quite important to me as shipping from the US to Australia can be quite expensive.
• What did I want from a kit club? I love all types of vintage goodness as well as the hottest new products on the market.
• What sort of inspiration does the design team and site offer and can I learn new techniques to help me grow and evolve as an artist?

As you can see from above, my three main points of interest can be broken down to cost, quality and inspiration.The kit club had to be affordable to me, it had to supply quality goods and items that I would definitely use as well as having loads of inspiration that would help me use my kit, give me idea's and teach me new tricks. The kit club really had to suit my style as an artist but not constrict me at the same time.

I did do a few one-time purchases to help me make my final decision and I was quite happy with them but they just did not speak to me. Nothing jumped out at me and said "C R E A T E"!
I also watched numerous kit clubs over a few months so I could make sure they would deliver the same product they were known for, every time. This is what made my final decision in the end.

I really look forward to May's class and any new idea's she will have on utilizing my KR kit!

Creative hugs all around! xo

I thought I would update my blog background and header with Catherine Designs' gorgeous new kit Au Bonheur des Dames. Another beautiful kit from Catherine, I had so much fun playing with the kit. Here are some screen shots of the kit if you haven't seen them already:

Here is a little info Catherine posted on her blog about the kit:

This beautiful kit in rich colors of pink, orange and chocolate is named after Emile Zola's Novel 'Au Bonheur des Dames ( The Ladies' Delight). Emile Zola had named his book after an imaginary glamorous department store in Paris called Au Bonheur des Dames.

A little bit of news that I haven't had time to blog about.....

Last Monday was a public holiday here in Australia so my Mum, myself, Miss J and Miss O took ourselves off to officeworks which is a large stationary/office supply store. Just after we walked into the main door it started to bucket down with rain so we took our time looking around for supplies, by supplies I mean anything we saw that took our fancy, we purchased. We finished paying for our 'supplies' and headed for the door. It was still raining quite heavily so we waited in the holding area until it eased enough for us to get to the car. Mum is disabled so she parked the car right outside the doors of officeworks, we only had to take roughly 5 steps to the car. I took Miss J with me on my side of the car and Mum took Miss O with her on the opposite side. I opened the car door and went to put Miss J in my side when I glanced through the windows towards Mum and Miss O but I could only see Miss O. I knew straight away Mum had hit the deck so I threw Miss J into the passenger seat without looking and raced around the car to find Mum face down on the cement. My poor heart was racing as I reached her, a million things ran through my mind as I struggled to make eye contact with Mum. She finally looked up at me and said "I think I have broken my arm". I told her not to move as I grabbed Miss O who was still standing in the same place before Mum had gone down. She was stiff as a board, standing there with her mouth wide open as the rain started to fall heavier. I grabbed her but she couldn't take her eyes off Nan, I think she was in a little bit of shock so I helped her into the back seat and closed the doors so I could go check on Mum who was now drenched from head to toe. She said she wanted to try and get up and sit down in the car to get out of the rain as she explained to me that she fell on her elbow first so she was quite sure it was only her arm that was injured. I grabbed her under her left arm and tried to help her off the ground, Mum is quite a big lady so it took all I had to try and get her off the ground. I managed to get her in the front seat as she cradled her arm which was now extremely painful. After calming the girls down and making sure Mum wasn't injured any where else, I ran into officeworks and got them to call an ambulance. They got me to write out a quick stat dec about what had happened whilst a lady called the ambulance.

I went back out to Mum who was now leaning over the steering wheel and in loads of pain. We waited for about 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and they took her to hospital. To make matters worse, Mum had the air-conditioner on in the car whilst I was inside officeworks so she had flattened the battery in the car so we had to organize a lift home with a friend and leave the car there until I found out what was happening with Mum.

We arrived home and our friend had to leave as she was driving up to Sydney for a week. I sat around with the girls waiting for time to pass so I could contact the hospital and see what was happening with Mum. I had to organize someone to go down to the car so they could call road service (NRMA) and wait for them to come and fix the car to get it home. The car finally arrived home just before midnight thank goodness, I was so worried that someone would rip the new chrome wheels I purchased for Mum. That would have made my day finding the car with no wheels!

I was finally able to talk to Mum about 4 hours later in the hospital after the doctor told her that he would not operate on her as she had too many things wrong with her to be put under for the operation. She had completely snapped of her arm bone from her shoulder at the joint. They strapped her arm up and told her to make an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon next week! (Living in a small town, we have to travel for orthopedic surgeons) No pain killers, no nothing! I called another friend to go pick her up from the hospital and bring her home.

Long story short, they have decided to just strap her arm as best they could and she just has to wait for it to heal on it's own. They just can't take the chance on operating on her. With her diabetes, the arm is going to take forever to mend and with it being her right arm, she isn't going to be able to do anything. She also has a broken left ring finger which is also strapped up and they said just that, will take at least 8 weeks to heal! So loads of pain killers for me Mum to help pass the time!

On to other news, I never got a chance to do a blog post about being a guest for October......

........ Bisontine!!!! I love her whimsical designs, they have been so much fun to play with and to top it off Sandrine is such a sweet, sweet person! Below are a few of the pages I have done so far.



I have to end this post here as I need to get some dinner started. I will add another post tonight or tomorrow with some CT updates and some news about a little person having a birthday! By the way I changed my comment settings so everyone can leave a comment now.....silly me, never even bothered to check that sort of stuff! I just figured that blogger was smart enough to change it for me....lol! Wonder if it can write my blog posts too...........

Big bear hugs!! xo

From the After 5 Designs blog:

After Five designs is turning one! Come celebrate with us all week! There is a new site look, new designers, a week-long storewide sale, fun games and challenges, and more. You won’t want to miss this birthday bash, October 12 - 17.

We will have a different sale Monday - Thursday, so be sure to check back every day for more savings. We are also offering an amazing collab kit, Time Flies, free with any $10.00 purchase! Each designer has created a “shot” that coordinates with this kit. These micro kits are just enough for a layout or two at a great price!

After 5 Designs has had a complete make-over and there is also two new designers joining the amazing talented designers that already reside at the store! Pop on over and have a look around and grab a bargain of two or three....lol!