Everyday Insanity and Delight

best day ever!

Melbourne Cup Day means a public holiday for us all.  It's going to throw the whole week out I'm sure but I for one welcomed the sleep in. 

I worked until around 2am this morning so wasn't planning on anything too huge to happen with everyone home plus our nephew Kyle sleeping over.  I did the usual - editing, laundry, cleaning, shopping while the boys SAT all day on the Wii and Maddy played beautifully.  Alex had a friend come over and all was pretty content until I heard music box music and realised it was Mr Whippy!

Mr Whippy never drives his ice cream van around hardly ever.  It's a real novelty for us here.  I want my kids to feel that same kind of excitement that I STILL do when I hear the music play.  So Nath headed off in his van with Kyle and I took the other three kids and we hunted him down for ice cream!

 

They're always ridiculously overpriced but who cares?  Faces like these are priceless!

 

And then Madeleine declared today...."Best day EVER!"

 

And you can't deny that kind of enthusiasm is truly admirable!

:)

3 weeks or so...

I shouldn't be sitting here right now but I'm biting the bullet and blogging before a whole month gets away from me!

Like everyone else I know my life lately (always) has been hectic and a bit chaotic.  I often wonder when things might slow down and if they do, will I like it?  Probably not.

A few weeks ago, Suz and I realised that we were both drowning in commitments and like most mums of youngish kids, we were (are)  hardly ever afforded enough uninterrupted time to catch up with work so we headed out towards the mountains and the quiet and rented a little holiday cabin for a weekend.  The view of the snow on Mt Baw Baw was gorgeous and the whole place was lovely.

 

The weather had been cold and wet, yet the one weekend we're stuck inside working, the sun came out and the weather was glorious...

 

Mind you, I got quite a bit of work done and could sleep when I wanted, eat when I wanted and didn't have to pick up after anyone but me.  I'd love to say it was lovely and relaxing but it was very much trying to get as much work done in as little time as possible.  Lovely to do it all without distraction though...

 

I managed to not only complete this kit for our Budget Scrapbooking October Christmas Card kit release -

 

but I finished off the October Quickutz kit too!

 

I managed FIFTEEN cards from our $20 card kit - I was stoked!  If you're interested in buying them, you'll find them on our site here

And Suz's Pages kit too!

Speaking of scrapbooking and paper stuff, you've all seen this which is in Scrapbook Creations this month - 

 

Well, I also did the Scrapping For Teens article this month.  Here's my contribution - 

 

A CD case and a little cover for a gift card.  AND thanks to a very generous teen, this little book from passport pics.  I put the call out on Facebook that I needed teen pics and her and her Mum chased up and scanned all the pics I needed. SO helpful!

And.....here is a little book I made for Aussie Scrap Source using lots and lots of Glimmermist.  It was actually to showcase a few different uses of bobbly trims (they're so yummy)

 

 

For such a little project I'm telling you it felt like it took me forever to complete it!  I'm SO slow...

I've been more than busy with photography jobs lately and LOVING it!  I've had some of THE coolest jobs ever.  Some have been commercial jobs so I can't show them yet but others I can share away.  Like this one, a current fave because it was SO fun!!!

 

Aren't they hotties?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three sisters who did this just because they wanted too.  Cool huh?  AND they thought they had TWO hot rods coming from a friend.  We ended up with SIX gorgeous amazing old cars including a Mustang from a random stranger who saw what we were doing and offered her car to us for photos.  People were stopping us and saying more women should do it.  It was empowering for all of us and I've never really been "into" cars but the red one above was just SO beautiful it took my breath away. I have literally hundreds of great pics to sift through and having a ball doing so.  You can see more of them here

Here's a few more of the G family.  I loved looking at these gorgeous cherubs, they're so adorable..

 

 

 

 

And....I had a belly in the bush shoot too!

 

Lots more of those on the way :)  It was a crazy adventure getting there.  I wish I made more time to blog so I'd get it all down!

For now though I'm sure I've annoyed everyone enough with this giant photo-fest.

Back to editing and scrapping for me, thanks for stopping by!

Nic :)

October already...

Far out this year is flying....where does the time go?  Seriously...we're into Term Four already as well! 

We had really nice holidays here, and also nice that the kids went back to school yesterday..they were ready and so was I.  We didn't do heaps, the weather was mostly miserable and we were sad about the passing of Grannie.  Both Alexander and Madeleine were far more upset than I anticipated. So we hung out at home mostly which was just as well because I still had to work on stuff for Budget and for Nicole Finlayson Photography

We finally managed to get to Star Wars at Scienceworks  Serious geek-fest with fittingly geeky volunteers working there who looked like they just stepped out from behind World of Warcraft or left a LAN party.  Love that.  It was obvious they are true fanatics and couldn't have been a better match to the exhibition. I'm sure one of the staff there own this car....

 

Okay so I'm quietly sniggering but the truth is that I love seeing people with a passion :)  The Star Wars thing creeped me out at first then bored me silly.  I'm so not into it.  Nathan and the kids though...well they love that stuff.  And I did enjoy how educating the process was really..

 

 

Yes I may snigger but I HAD to do this regardless of the fact that my poor husband clearly can't work my camera :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice huh?  I reckon Darth was demonstrating with much cheekiness, my um, height, or lack thereof...

 

 

 

We went to the Lightning Room presentation as well and learned all about sound and electricity.   That was cool!

 

And went to the Planetarium.  If you do this DO it!  I hadn't been since it was at the old museum and this one is amazing.  So real I felt motion sick.  The chairs recline back and the show is sensational.  We went underwater, and out into space.  It's a great experience, especially for kids :)

 

Look at my boy's hair!  Grr I so wanna chop it off, although it's growing on me now I guess!

 

She doesn't care that it's pouring rain, it's a park and she's playing there. And that's it.

 

The photos in the Pumping Station aren't great but I don't care :)

 

 

It's such a gorgeous old building, I just wanted to stay all day!

He's gonna hate that I posted this but I LOVE it!

 

We ended up cold and wet and didn't care!

We spent quite a few days just hanging out at home and Alex stayed with a friend for a few days.

We had Grannie's funeral in Geelong on Friday and it was hard.  A beautiful service but so hard to say goodbye.  I said a few words as the oldest grandchild and managed to get through without too much sooking.  I was mad at myself that I cried, I SO wanted to get through without crying at all, tried to save it until I'd finished talking but it just didn't happen.

My cousin brought with her a bag of Grannie's beads.  She had HEAPS of gorgeous plastic bead necklaces and bangles and as children we all used to play in them so in Grannie's honour, we all wore one of her necklaces.  It was such a thoughtful thing on the part of my cousin.  Both of my babies cried when I did and really cried and it made me even sadder that I couldn't take their sadness away.  I'm glad they came though - an important life lesson.

After going to visit Grandpa and hanging out at Grannie's favourite pub for her wake we headed into Melbourne city to the Eureka Skydeck

Both kids and I have been before but Nathan hadn't.  Poor Nath, he has a morbid fear of heights and he tried to enjoy it, but he just didn't...

It was way too cold and yucky to do anything else unfortunately..:(

Saturday night we headed off to a 40th birthday party.  It was a dress up party and we had to go as something starting with the birthday boy's initials - S, A or B.  We somehow managed to pull together costumes amongst all of our busy-ness!

 

Nathan was an Arab, I was Boy George, Maddy was a Barbie Ballerina and Alex at the last minute decided to go as an Axe-Murderer. (Aren't boys charming?) It was fun to dress up!

 

Mostly though last weekend we slept.  We were SO lazy!  And it was fabulous!

I don't think I can share the last few photo shoots here as they're shots for commercial jobs. Hmm must check that but I can tell you I've been very busy and I'm loving it.  Also busy with Budget Scrapbooking as well. It was World Cardmaking Day  on Saturday and behind the scenes, Suz and I were working madly on new mini-kits for cards in honour of this special day.  Here are some cards I made using die-cuts...

 

 

And some using stamps...

 

You can see all of our cards from the weekend here

And.....if you want to buy our bits and pieces used on our cards, you can get it all here

Or you can WIN our card kits FREE by participating in this

Nice and cheap and lots of fun to make!

While you're there check out our latest kits that I don't think I've shared yet...

Pages -

 

Quickutz -

  

And check out Suz's delicious cards - 

 

Yummy eh?  You can get these here   Each kit is under $30 and comes with everything you need to make all of the projects shown PLUS the instructions!  New ones are due in a few weeks :)

Speaking of paper stuff, here's a layout I did for Aussie Scrap Source

 

 

 

I'm going to now take my freezing self (hey isn't it meant to be Spring?) and do some more scrapping!

Thanks for stopping by :D

Yesterday

I went on an excursion with Madeleine's grade yesterday, to the Police Station here.

 

The Junior School is learning about their local community so they went to see how everything works inside the big building on the corner here..

The kiddies were so funny, just about all of them obsessed with the belts that the police wear with the gun on it...lol..I almost felt sorry for the officers fielding all of the questions :)

The car was a highlight for them too - check out this face when the siren was switched on!

 

Think my girl enjoyed the trip much?

 

That's our point-and-shoot Canon in her hand, she took lots of photos...the apple never falls far from the tree eh??

This is the "Ugh finnnnnnne Mum take the stupid photo" face...

I had just arrived home when Nath called me to say he'd found a car for sale that he thought was exactly what I have been looking for.  I feel like we've been looking forever but it was exactly what I was after and after a test-drive I was smitten and get the new car tomorrow after it's detailed.  Pics to follow after delivery tomorrow.  A bit sad to have this baby go as a trade-in though...

 

I have driven this car for seven years...Maddy was tiny when we bought it...

 

Nevermind, I am happy to be moving onto a sedan, I guess and we seriously need to update.  Wish I was getting it today - lol...

I'm not having a crisis.....honest....

...but I got this done last week....

The bar piercing that is - known as a 'scaffold' or an 'industrial'.  I already had the high ring piercing and the bar goes either side of it.  I know what you want to ask,"Did it hurt?" and the answer is, "Hell yes!"  It was a needle piercing so a cut to fit the bar.  It was worse after a couple of days  - OUCH - but today I've been able to lay on it.  I LOVE it and before you think I am mindlessly insane, I'd been thinking about it for ages and decided to just do it.  I love piercings and it's there because I feel like I'm going through some huge changes emotionally, spiritually and philosophically and basically it's there to remind me of what I've been through, to listen instead of speak, and to not grow OLD! It's a reminder that although our bodies age and we wisen and mature, we shouldn't forget the lessons of our youth - and that's the main reasoning!

So I've been busy busy as usual, have my finger in a few pies right now, one of them being a little job I'm doing in a soon-to-be-opened cafe/art gallery here.  I've been soooooo insatiably lucky to cross paths with artist-extra-ordinnaire Kimbaross.  To cut a long-ish story short, I finally met him in person last weekend and have secured some of his DIVINE pieces for display and sale in the gallery.  Here's a couple I have here that I do NOT want to part with.  Ever.

 

I've totally stolen these pics from his site (thanks K - lol) and will have a new section at www.nicolefinlayson.com where you will be able to buy the artworks I have in the gallery online if you'd like to.  If you're interested in either of these pieces, please contact me via the email link.  If you just want to drool over his amazing portfolio check out his work here. AND if you don't want to buy these pieces you can buy prints of the pieces at the same site AND he is generously donating all profits to bushfire charities.  Awesome eh???

Speaking of all things arty, I feel a bit inferior to post this right after that creative genius BUT I finally got a chance to scribble and here's this week's effort -

A quick charcoal on canvas paper.  Man I LOVE charcoal. Anyway it's title "Resignation".  You know when you fight the daily fight and you just give up?  Well that's what I was thinking here...

I have a sketch book full of ideas for art pieces, just life gets in the way sometimes...

At least I still get to scrap - here's the last few pieces I've done for Aussie Scrap Source

Isn't that Cosmo Cricket "Everafter" range totally DIVINE!!!??  I did a layout with it today as well but can't share quite yet :)

I spent last weekend with my favourite scrappy girlfriends making pages for Sarah's Memory Gifts appeal,a  crop organised by Cindy.  We made HEAPS of pages and had a FABULOUS night with drinks, pizza and laughs all around and lucky for me the lovely Suz let me crash at her house for the night. (Actually i should say thankyou to phoebe since it was her gorgeous pink room that I got to sleep in again :) -thanks Phoebe)

Here's a few pics stolen from Cindy's blog of us feeling festive...

 

He he heeee!!!

I've been very busy with photo bookings as well this month which is SO fantastic, I'm LOVING every second still!  I have a couple of exciting things in the pipeline so I'll be busy for quite some time I reckon.

Before I go I want to share with you some more of the 10th Anniversary photos of Tanya and Michael - they were SO adorable.

 

 

 

 

 

Hotties aren't they?

I have some other stuff I'd love to share but honestly I've been sitting here for SO long, I really need to do something more constructive.  Bye for now :)

Crossing stuff off the list...

I haven't been wanting to scrap much lately.  I've even had a couple of scrappy dates and I've seriously just fluffed about looking busy and achieving little.  In fact the last layout I actually completed was at the start of this month!  Not good.....;)

So instead of stressing about the lack of mojo I cleared out lots of old stuff - yep more - chipboard letters, old laser cut chipboard bits, metal letters, all sorts of stuff I've held onto because I feared I'd never get any more.  It was great to have it all but it was crowding my space and making me feel suffocated!  So it's gone...I was going to RAK it here but my sister just cleared out the lot - yay, and she was so happy to get it too so it's all good.

Oh and I'm also feeling organised because I made this....

It's a Scrapper's Journal.  I ws inspired by my blog-less, but incredibly talented friend Jenni who made one, then Marie and Leesa did and I just decided to finally DO it!

It houses any ideas that pop into my head, my list of projects due (previously I had that on a loose piece of paper - grr), things the kids say, things I want to scrap one day, layout ideas and even a section for memorabilia like tickets and stuff and the little bits that I know I'll scrap soon, but I often misplace them...

OH and inside the front cover is an ad that Cosmo Cricket (my fave company) had in CK ages ago and I ripped it out with the intention of framing it.  Instead it's in here, I just LOVE it!

So I've been meaning to get this together for a while and now it's done - yay!

I've been given a very generous blog award by the lovely Leesa

"These blogs believe and invest in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their awards".

And in celebration of the continuing friendship and support that I have been fortunate to come across I am passing the award on to these beautiful and inspiring women -

1. Suz
2. Cindy (who FINALLY has a blog!)
3. Julie
4. Shelly
5. Mel
6. Donna
7. Tanya
8. Tam

Julie and Shelly - bugger bugger bugger, I have recently lost my links list AND your blog addys too - waaaaahhh, and a few others too.  I'm re-doing my links list so will hopefully have them all restored asap!

Righto girls, spread the blog love..

Speaking of love, I've been trying to take a photo a day for Project 365.  I reckon 365 days will pass before I get them organised into an album of sorts but I'm happy to be motivated to take more anyway.  Here's todays...



This is Maddy taking our kitten Matilda for a walk on her lead - lol...it's amazing how she runs to the door when she hears the bells.  I thought she'd hate wearing a harness but she's SO fast we have to keep her contained for a bit.  She'd be on the busy road or annoying the neighbour's dog before I know it and her little legs are so fast none of us can catch her. 

She's been so lovely to have around though even if my little vintage bowls of buttons have had to be moved to sealed jars and my keyboard has become a kitty-bed!  Don't even ask about my hanging ribbons - lol!  All I can say is she's lucky that I'm totally smitten with her cute furry little face!!!

And one more tag before I go, this time from Marie

Here goes....

1. Go to where you store you pictures on your computer.
2. Go to the SIXTH folder and pick the SIXTH picture.
3. Post that picture on your blog along with a SHORT story about it.
4. You know the rest. Tag SIX people and leave a comment on their blog or email them letting them know you chose them.  

Well...........I keep photos all over the place on my computer - heaven help anyone who tries to work my filing system if I'm not here to sort it!  Another thing to cross off my 2009 list - ORGANISE PHOTOS!

Anyway, I digress....



Here it is, Alexander's sixth birthday party in June 2005.  He wanted a party where the kids dress as superheroes so of course he was a Ninja Turtle.  There were heaps of kids because clearly I was an idiot and the party went for THREE hours of sugared-up fun!  I had handmade spider and face cupcakes and thankfully for a change, the weather was good so we could head outside.

Boys being boys, they insisted on this - lol...



....which is always okay until someone, and there's always someone, gets hurt - nothing serious thankfully until later on when we played "What's the time Mr Wolf" and one little boy ran smack bang face first into a tree.  Poor baby gave himself a nose-bleed, I felt so bad for him....

Mind you they (and us) had a fabulous time passing the parcel, playing hide and seek, running mad and of course eating cake and stuff!





Look at those chubby little cheeks, SO cute and nice short hair!  Apparently only dorks have short hair now.......

Righto I'm tagging...

1. Julie
2. Mel
3. Cindy
4. Teresa
5. Tanya
6. Suz

The reason for every one of them is the same - they are gorgeous and share my passion for this cut and paste and I want to see what they come up with.

Righto, I've been in and out of this post for hours - enough already!  Have a fabulous long weekend - we're having a very patriotic Australia Day do tomorrow night, I can't wait - seeya!

Now that's just not right.....

She's my baby, at least she was.....not looking too baby-like here.....when did THIS happen?  Sigh....

We have had a lovely weekend after a really good week.  Our baby Tilly is fitting in nicely and a welcome addition to our home.

This photo is one of many that I took yesterday while Maddy was celebrating the very special sixth birthday of Phoebe I got so many gorgeous shots and I'm guessing others too, like Cindy who needs a blog but still doesn't have one...lol...hehehe....had to write that there....

I still haven't been scrapping much, I'm enjoying the break, but starting to itch even more to get right back into it.

Still trying to convince myself that Project 365 is not something I want to embark on...oh but it kind of is...how cool to have a photo and journalling for EVERY day for a whole year?  It's the whole point of scrapping for me - the journalling and "boring" bits that add up to our existence...

Hmm, it's Monday tomorrow, maybe........

Here she is....

...our new baby Matilda, or Tilly for short.  Now with us for just over 24 hours, she's made herself right at home and we're smitten with her already!

She's already crawled into my scrapping stuff and managed to find each of us asleep very early this morning.

She's teeny-weeny with a little squeaky meow, and follows the children and snuggles.

She's a bit of a mischief maker too I think, and is definitely curious.

It's a beautiful thing to see Madeleine and Alexander play with her instead of looking at a screen of some sort!

I have to admit though, today is the day that I'm done with the school holidays.  Both kids were at each other's throats and Alex has developed the attitude of a naughty teenager.  I think we've possibly been spending too much quality time together - lol, time to get out and do some stuff.

Righto, well I have a tonne of housework to still take care of - blah......

An exciting start to 2009!

Wow, the last two weeks here have been very exciting!

Firstly I'm ecstatic to be able to share this - yay!!

Nicole Finlayson Photography

This is my new baby and what I've been working towards for a long time!  To see it finally online and live makes my tummy flutter and makes the anticipation of what this year might bring!

With everything officially updated, set up etc, I can now take additional bookings for the rest of January and throughout 2009, please see my site for details.

Our Christmas this year was actually fairly quiet which in my opinion was perfect :)

We had Christmas with my Mum, her partner, her sister, my cousin, my sisters, niece and nephew the weekend before Christmas and it was easy relaxed and nice.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Day we were up early and had the day at home!  It was lovely, no rush, it was wonderful.  Both kids were stoked that Santa gave them a Nintendo DS each and I was very lucky with the gorgeous presents they gave me - a set of mini hand-painted drawers and divine little candle bowl - so beautiful. 

Most of the day looked like this.....

 

I spent the afternoon cooking for our family do with my Dad and sisters at is house in the backyard.  Totally casual, a barbecue where we all take stuff.  This year I was on pasta salad, scalloped potatoes, chocolate pudding and pavlova.  I drizzled
Kahlua over the pav, and dripped melted chocolate over the top.  I melted far too much chocolate so Nathan suggested I make little choccy shapes.  Here's my dodgy pav - lol!

 

Thought we'd better do the obligatory family pics once we were home - full of food, too much to drink, you know how it goes :)

 

Yes, I'm standing on a chair.  I would have kept the whole thing if the roly poly tummy weren't so in-your-face!

 

This was a Christmas miracle - getting normal photos of Alex without either having to pay him, bribe him or beg...

 

It was pretty easy to work out which present was Maddy's favourite at the end of the day - a life-like lion cub that purrs and blinks and oh it's soooo cute!

 

We took the tree down Boxing Day and spent the next few days relaxing at home.  Actually i was mostly working on a magazine feature I was commissioned for with a tight deadline, oh and I was waaaaaay behind on some other scrappy stuff due too.

New Year's Eve, we had a bit of an informal 'do' at our house - a few families over, toasty marshmallows, again too much to eat and drink, and just between you and me, a bunch of old farts (yes me included sadly) wondering if it was midnight yet so we could go to bed.  I kicked some nine-year-olds butts at Singstar and had a great time indulging in my latest fave very bd for us treat - kahlua with iced coffee milkshake - oh so decadent and divine and so so unkind on an upset tummy the next day!

It was my birthday last week.  Thirty-five - woohoo!  That's half way to seventy - so awesome that I've made it!  Okay it sounds sort of old don't you think?  Hmm, I don't mind aging but it does now put me in the next demographic for stuff..

I had a FABULOUS birthday - honestly it was the best one I've had for years!  My babies sang Happy Birthday to me with puppets, so cute! Alex gave me a canvas paper pad - I've been drawing heaps and really wanted one!  Maddy gave me candle wax, bless her, she knows I burn wax in my oil burner all day long and thought it was that kind of wax.  Instead it's the kind you make candles from so we're going to make some candles.  Together.  Yay.

I then had lunch at the pub with a group of girlfriends and got the most beautiful huge bunch of gerberas.  (Note to self - TAKE A PHOTO!)  Had a lovely relaxing afternoon op-shopping with my babies (LOVE that), cake with my sister and Dad, lovely phone calls, emails, text messgaes, I was feeling the love I tell ya, most in years I reckon :)

Nath made me a cake when he got home.  He'd worked more than 13 hours that day but didn't want me to have a birthday pass with no candle to blow out!

 

Here's the babes fresh out of the bath, cuddly and delicious!

 

I haven't been scrapping much this week.  I just finished a huge pile of work and the only scrapping I've done was because I had a scrapping play-date - lol!  I'm enjoying not scrapping for a bit, in fact I've been doing some other stuff - sewing, reading, drawing, it's great but having said that I'm itching to cut and paste.  Speaking of, here's a few I did for Aussie Scrap Source -

 

 

 

The last of my Christmas projects...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with masks....

 

 

I had a lot of fun making that mess background let me tell you!

And lastly...

 

 

 

 

I'll share my other crafty stuff in another post.  This post has taken me DAYS!!  Oh dear - lol...

Here's to a fabulous New Year for all of us!!!!!

Priceless

While shopping at Target a few nights ago:

Maddy:  "Mum can I get some new thongs please?"

Alex:    "Yeah can we?"

Me:     "Well you do need new Summer shoes let's have a look.

Maddy:    "Hmm, Mum I think I need some high heels"

Me:        "Really? Why would you want those?"

Maddy:     "I'm going to be a woman soon you know Mum and I'll need high heels when I'm a woman soon..."

Me:        Totally speechless. 

I thought she was only six.  Apparently that means you're almost a woman!

She does look older with a fringe now I guess.....

So things have been hectic to say the least and I can't believe Christmas is upon us already.  I had a wee panic last week when I realised denial was not a good option for Christmas shopping and I fulfilled my most loathed task of supermarket shopping.  $600 later YES $600 (well $648 if you're my husband adding up the dockets) and it's done.  And I still forgot a couple of #$%^& things! And that was without presents!!!!

Hmm....

Once the shopping and stuff were done I called into the Simply Said chick night.

Don't even ask why I'm on the bar, honestly....lololol...

Just realised I've been so slack with the blogging I haven't even shared these from Halloween 2008!

There were heaps more but posting them would involve having to resize them and stuff and may lose interest mid-way and not bother finishing this post.

We raised over $500 for breast cancer and a fab night was had by all!

I was also lucky enough to take classes with Melissa Frances while she was in Australia.  See that's me with Melissa....

And with Sandie and Marie...

And since I'm on the topic of scrapping celebs, I met Heidi Swapp and did her classes - her all day ones PLUS her retailers class that night.

And FINALLY got to meet Steph and Caz from Aussie Scrap Source, goodness knows we work together yet have never met!!

AND got to spend the day with she who it is a priviledge to call my friend Suz

Speaking of Suz, we had dinner in Berwick last Sunday night with the Bridge club girls who NEED BLOGS!!!  Here we are!

And here we are with Cindy!

Andin the last couple of days last month, Suz and her gorgeous babies joined us on one of our city adventures off to see the Myer windows and spend the day in Melbourne checking out all things Christmassy!

Nice to be in the company of one who 'gets' the whole constant photo taking thing.  Wish we'd had longer yet I think the kids were ready to go home when we did...

Dodgiest photo ever - might well be one of my faves - lol.....

Love Suz's handful of rubbish and the girls trying to jump up from the bottom.  It was hot and sweaty and a total adventure as you'd expect with 4 kids and 2 Mums!!! The train trip was fabulous and easy - yay!

Also realised I never shared any pics from Maddy's school excursion to Puffing Billy. It was a mad day, I drove over to Puffing Billy following the bus as the kids were only going one way which meant I had to follow (they needed parent helpers but they couldn't fit on the bus!) then catch the train back again with Maddy before driving back.  On top of that night Alexander had basketball and then I was off on the Simply Said retreat.  What can I say - I got to retreat at about 11pm I think and I was totally exhausted and in need of a break!  Okay I scrapped non-stop but nice to have meals made for me and no housework!

And retreat pics....

That pic is a shocker but I love it.  It's me and one of my my cabin-buddies Julie. Look behind us, isn't it gorgeous?

The next one in 2009 is booked out, in fact I can't even fit!  Let me know if you're interested in hanging out there and maybe we can book the place for a scrappy weekend.  It was a total treasure found by Raylene, I think I'm taking some time out there with Nath and the kids next year - woohoo!

During the time I've been absent from my blog here I've been scrapping, photographing and Mamma-ing - all the good stuff.  My photography has been very very busy although slowing down this week for Christmas.  I'm so excited to be able to say I have bookings into January already with only a few spots left!!

I've been doing a lot of re-assessing and soul searching over the last couple of weeks, mainly because I had to.  For those of you who who know about my PTSD you'll know occasionally it nips at my heels and it decided to pay me a visit this month - blah!  It's a life-long battle really, I just take one step at a time....Anyway I could whine about it or feel grateful that it makes me re-assess and that's what I have done - re-assessed ready for 2009. 

I have resigned from teaching regular weekly and/or fortnightly classes at Simply Said.  Not because I don't like it there but because I simply cannot fit everything that I want to into each day, and I've kind of lost interest, so I'm letting it go.  I will still be doing a few weekend workshops making major projects - an all-day type thing so for everyone who has enquired about my canvas class it will be going ahead and I can't wait. 

The Book of Me class has new teachers and I will be focusing on my photography.  I am loving it.  Really and truly LOVING it and get excited like a kid at Christmas before each shoot.  I still love scrapping, I just need to do some other stuff too.  The ladies who are teaching at Simply Said in 2009 are fresh and new and clever and things can only get bigger and better there with the 2009 plans.

And of course I'll still be working for Aussie Scrap Source and doing stuff for Scrapbook Creations magazine, and they have big 2009 plans too.  It's an exciting time!!!

Since I'm chatting away about scrapping and photography, I'll share some work done for SS and for Aussie Scrap Source.  To see my photography, check out my photo blog - Nicole Finlayson Photography
(hmm must update that too - lol)

You can get this baby book kit from Simply Said....

And also these.....cute eh?

One more photo of my very clever boy and his sock puppet that he made for school...

 

And some of the Santa photos I took last Sunday, or was it the one before? My Santa was out of action, lucky my gorgeous husband came to the rescue much to the delight of his children....

 

...and his relieved Mrs Claus...

 

Well....what a huge post, I think I need a lie down!  If you still read my blog despite my sporadic posting, feel free to say hello.  If I don't get around to posting beforehand, I hope you have a lovely relaxed Christmas and thanks for popping in this year :)!!