Update

It's been ten days since I last posted and so much has happened.

Here it is in bullet form -
Sept 19: I make hummingbird cake for my birthday cake
Sept 20: My birthday and a trip to Paradise Cove in Malibu
Sept 21: I finish icing the cake before Zoe and Stephen visit for cake and a game of Vegas Monopoly
Sept 22: Back to work for me
Sept 23: A trip to Disneyland - Joshua was VERY excited to see Octopus Man (his name for Davey Jones) and Jack Sparrow. Unfortunately, my photos are not that great as someone put little, sticky finger marks all over my camera lense on the Sunday after he helped me ice the birthday cake!
Sept 24: We take Nanou to LAX for her return flight home.
Sept 25: I make two mini hummingbird cakes for a baby and wedding shower at work - unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures this time :-(
Sept 27: All that cake going on - I start a diet! Yep, Sue has booked her flight and will be here in about eight weeks, so I'll be doing those exciting posts about calories and steps and gym sessions missed! Ha! :-)

Back from the Desert

We're back after a long, hot weekend in Palm Desert. I took my laptop with me and actaully managed to scrap some pages while there. It's amazing what happens when you don't have internet connection to waste away the time casually blog-hopping. It was also thanks to templates by Janet at Scrapbookgraphics that helped speed up the scrapping. I want to finish up all of September before I post tho.

In the meantime, here's some photos of Joshua enjoying the pool...

Freebie

More freebie templates from around the web.

The first is from More Originals. I like the simplicity of it.

The second is by Penny. I really love the blocks of colour and bright shapes. Go to her blog to see her coordinating kit.

I love this third template with the great big circle just off to the side of the page. See what Neta has done with the template here.

Nanou's First Day of Visit

Can you tell Joshua is enjoying having his Nanou around? The first day she arrived we collected Joshua early from school and went for a walk on the pier at Hermosa Beach. Joshua loved peaking into the fisherman's buckets to see the fish flipping about. Then we went and had tapas at Medetterano, our favourite place. Joshua ate his usual - bread dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil!

Freebie

If you've read my last few posts you'll probably know I'm a fan of templates so I decided to go freebie template hunting around the net.

Here's what I found...

The first template is part of a September challenge which can be found at Designs by Dani here. I love the super cute flowers, the date and the white space for journaling.

The second at web challenge from DesignerDigitals and inspired by The Paisley Famhouse.

I love the vintage photo frames and retro paper.

Here's a simple and stylish template by Lien. This girl really has a style that's working for her.

Finally, here's a link to a sweet template by Emily Howard at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

A Golden Wonder Moment

When I saw Natali's new kit 'Goodbye Summer' I just knew I had to scrap this photo with it. I love the little daisys and the word art with the splatter and diamond. Everything is from 'Goodbye Summer' except the kraft paper which is by Michelle Godi at ScrapbookGraphics and the overlay is by Daniella at CatScrap. The red zig-zag border stitching is from Natali's 'Freshness' kit. Just a tiny bit of journaling in the bottom right hand corner which reads, 'Sue and Mum sharing a Golden Wonder moment on a beach, probably Hastings around 1970.' If you are wondering Golden Wonder are the brand of crisps/chips that mum is sneaking from the packet while Sue looks the other way.

I really would have loved to have used some more elements. Maybe layered some ribbons to peak out from under the photo, but I was against the clock last night. I needed to get it finished as Lyn arrives this evening and I doubt I'll have much time to sit on the laptop while she's here. Hopefully, we'll be out and about making some more memories to scrap after her visit.

Thanks for looking.

Diamonds!

Yay! I made diamonds! They are up there on the title bar... like 'em?

Once I get myself sorted out I'd like to offer them as freebies. That will probably be in October after Lyn's visit.

Three Things

So I'm loving Janet's Summer 2008 mini album. I still have a few pages to go until it's finished tho. In the meantime I've been browsing ScrapbookGraphics.com and I've got another three things on my wish list.

First is this BEAUTIFUL kit called Goodbye Summer by Natali Designs. I just can't resist those ittie-bittie diamond elements - put them with some craft paper and I'm hooked! Her CT really have done some beautiful work with this kit.

Second are these torn templates again by Natali Designs. These have got to be a 'must-have' item. In fact, I'd been trying to create something like this for myself. Others I've seen have been too big and ugly but these curly, tears are just right!

And the third is the black and silver glitter that coordinates with Flerg and MGL's Squeee kit.

Oh, I could just go on and on about Flergs stuff, including the new Black Magic alpha, but then I'd have to rename this post Four Things or Five Things or Six Things... and I have to end it somewhere, right?

Labor Day

I can't believe Labor Day has come and gone already and we're into September. This time I did get a US flag photo to post. Nothing grand but a flag anyway - yay!