SALE!!!!

BLACK FRIDAY they call it in the U.S. It's the day after Thanksgiving Day and it is one of the biggest days for SALES!

ScrappinOutLoud is having a store-wide sale.

Zesty Digi Designs will be 35% off!!

Don't miss out!!

One door closes, another opens

This week, after weeks of frustration and stress, Studio Style Designs and I have called it quits. It just didn't work for us - on either side! I was sad to leave because SSD gave me the opening I needed when I began digital scrapbook designing.

Then - like the saying goes "when one door closes, another opens" - and it has!!

Scrappin Out Loud (http://scrappinoutloud.com) had a Designer Call and I applied. I was accepted and I've been busy uploading my products to their online shop. Yay!!!!

Now the second photobook of my trip is finished (today!) I will be back into designing - and I can't wait!

With great sadness

This past week has been so sad. My dear Mum passed away on November 11 - Remembrance Day.

My daughter and I flew to Brisbane for her Thanksgiving Service which was on Saturday morning. Although we were only there for four days we packed quite a lot in but it was a very emotional and draining few days.

I think it is the 'attitude of gratitude' that will get us through our grief and the pain of our loss.

My Mother was 94 years of age. She lived alone and did most things for herself. Although she had commented regularly on her increasing tiredness during the past few months, she was in surprisingly good health for her years. She had all her faculties and she was delighted when she managed to crack a cryptic crossword. She kept her hands busy with knitting, tatting and crochet. She read avidly. She liked to walk when the weather was fine and generally walked to the shops for her lighter grocery items. She did not want to have to go into nursing care, but she hoped to stay in her own home.

Two weeks ago she had surgery to remove a small tumour following some tests. I am so glad that she did because she probably would have had a much slower and definitely more painful time prior to death if she hadn't. The day before she died she had a full CT scan which revealed the cancer had spread. I am glad the doctor didn't tell her. Although she appeared to be recovering quite well from the surgery, in the last couple of days there was a decline and in the final twelve hours, she deteriorated rapidly, so her death was quick and it came as a shock to us.

We have so much to be grateful for though - all that I have mentioned above - and above all, that she had a deep and profound faith in God. She was ready to 'go home'.

She was a quiet, reserved lady who liked to do things in the background to help others. She spent much time in prayer for others. She loved her family dearly. She missed her friends who had gone from her life in these later years. She lived 'one day at a time' - a great philosophy.

I am going to miss her dearly but I will look forward to the day we meet again in that place Jesus has prepared for those who believe in him. I loved my Mum.

Photobook progress

In spite of hurting my back and being 'out of action' for most of the week, I have managed to make some progress on my next photobook.

I am up to page 41 now. Yesterday I did quite a section on Prince Edward Island and now I'm working on the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. I think another couple of pages will complete that bit. After that, I have the rest of our time in Nova Scotia to do and then it will be back to the mainland and the journey back.

My Oregon book should almost be leaving the U.S. in the post, I reckon. It should have been back from the printer's last week.

I'm hoping it looks really good because it takes soooo much time to do a whole book of almost 60 pages!

Well, that's it for now...I have to get back to the Cabot Trail...LOL!

Celebration Paper Collection

This is the preview of my new Let's Celebrate! paper collection. I'm really pleased with the way these papers turned out.

November already

Well I have no idea where October went...just that somewhere in the past couple of weeks, I had a birthday, so it mustn't have just disappeared off the calendar!

To tell the truth, I have been extremely busy. I have been trying to do digital photo albums of my trip overseas. One is finished - OUR OREGON TRAIL - and I'm now into the second one. I am trying to meet a deadline so that I can use photobook links which I had purchased a while back before the company changed names. (I'm not sure the company changed anything else much and now they have imposed a 'use by' date on photobooks which I'd bought and hoped to use over a much longer time than what is now available to me. Hence the rush is on! (And that's not to delve into the details of the extra charges they are now slapping on, on top for preparation and processing, packing and shipping - the latter was included in the original price but now an extra lot is being charged. I can't believe it, but I have coupons to use and I'm going to use up as much as I can before the end of this month and then I'm going to find somewhere else that operates in a more 'up front and reasonable' manner and charges within the realm of affordability while offering top quality.)

Amongst all of that, I have added some new product to the digi stores I sell at and have some extra things in the pipeline. I am starting to think of my Christmas kit and I'll start work on that when I need a break from this photo album.

Add to that some back problems again and you'll have the picture of what life is like here!

Anyway, I just thought it was time to pick up the thread again and not let this poor blog lapse any longer.

Home again

What an amazing six weeks I've had...tripping around North America.

Here's a brief overview.
I started with a couple of days in Brisbane, visiting with my Mum, before flying out to San Francisco via Auckland. This was the worst time I'd ever had flying long distances. I guess the lower back problems I'd been experiencing in the past couple of years came back to bug me. I don't think I could have sat another minute on that plane!

My friend, Kathy, was at the airport in S.F. to meet me and we drove back to her place in San Jose. I had a couple of days to catch up with myself and get over the jetlag which wasn't too bad really. Then we packed up the car Kathy rented and headed off on our driving trip through Oregon. I really enjoyed this trip and I was able to take lots of great photos. We headed to Ashland and from there to the coast. The temperatures inland had been really high which induced fog on the coast. I'd really wanted to see lots of lighthouses but some we didn't get to visit because of the fog. Then when we were coming back, Kathy wanted to go to Crater Lake but it was fogged in with practically no visibility so we decided to go to Diamond Lake instead. I loved the Columbia River Gorge and the waterfalls we saw. We took about ten days and then arrived back in San Jose with a couple of days to spare before I flew out again.

My next flight took me from San Fran to Toronto via Calgary. It was an all-nighter, so I was a little tired when I arrived in Toronto at 6 a.m. Sherry and Gary had come to meet me at the airport and then we drove back to their place, quite a distance from the airport. I arranged a visit with Julie and Sherry drove me there the next day (Monday). It was lovely to catch up with Julie and Mike. The next day, Donna was coming up from Michigan to meet me, but she wasn't arriving until later in the afternoon, so Sherry and I went for a drive to Klineburg. I had loved this quaint village on previous visits so I was a bit disappointed to find that things weren't exactly as I remembered. I did do some good shopping there though.

Donna arrived late in the day and after a quick cuppa, we got my luggage loaded in her van and we took off on my second driving adventure. We had decided to visit Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. There was some quite long stretches of driving involved to cover the distances but we managed to fit a lot in and we saw some great places and enjoyed lots of wonderful scenery. We did decide to stop in Quebec to visit the Old City there and we were pleased we did.

Prince Edward Island was lovely and I enjoyed it immensely. Then we crossed by ferry to Nova Scotia and headed up to Cape Breton Island. There we did the Cabot Trail - one of the best scenic drives in the world. After a couple of nights there we drove back down to Nova Scotia where we went to Peggy's Cove. This was surely one of the highlights of our trip. It is such a gorgeous little place with a wonderful (much photographed and painted) lighthouse. It was at Peggy's Cove that I met some more Beale's, orginally from England, and one who is an artist. We wonder if somewhere along the line, they could be related to my late husband.

The day we left Nova Scotia was one of the most miserable as it was wet and windy. We took the ferry across from Digby to Saint John in New Brunswick across the Bay of Fundy. We'd wanted to see the Bay but we didn't much sight of it, given the rainy weather. I think we were starting to get some of the rain from one of the hurricanes in the Gulf. We then drove back towards the U.S through New Brunswick. I liked New Brunswick and then Maine. We followed the coast down and saw covered bridges and cute little seaside towns. Then we crossed into New York State and headed west. It took us about three days then before we arrived back at Donna's home. As they are in the process of moving house - just a couple of miles from their old place, but crossing state borders - I didn't know whether to say they were in Ohio or Michigan.

I had another three days before Donna drove me into Detroit to board my flight to Toronto. I had a couple of hours in Toronto before my flight which took me to Los Angeles. Jim and his daughter, Nicola, were waiting at the airport to welcome me. We met Ingrid at one of their favourite restaurants and had dinner together before we arrived at their home in Orange. I had a wonderful four days with them and Tully, their 6'4" almost 18 yr old son. On Monday September 15, Jim drove me back into LAX for my flight back to Brisbane, via Auckland. I arrived in Brisbane at 8:30 a.m. and my brother, Paul, was able to come and collect me and take me to Mum's for a couple of hours, before driving me back to the domestic terminal for my flight home to Townsville. I arrived in Townsville on Wednesday 17 at 4 p.m. Ben picked me up and brought me home.

It was good to be home again. I quickly unpacked the 'treasures' I'd brought back for my grandkids and drove around to their place for dinner.

I still haven't recovered from this lot of jetlag. My sleep patterns are all out of whack and I'm quite tired. Tomorrow I start back at work. All too quickly routine takes over and my trip becomes a wonderful memory.

The photos and my travel journal will go into digital scrapbooks in due course and I'll be able to relive my memories through them.

Ahh...what a great time I've had. I thank God that I was blessed with safe travel and good health all the way too. (And I only gained 600 grams in six weeks! I am so pleased with that.)

That's my 'catch up' and hopefully, I'll get back into the swing and get blogging again.