Hello from the beach ...

so i am sitting outside our unit, looking at the sea (the pool is right in front of our unit actually ... so its a double water view - am i rubbing it in too much! wink!)

Can you tell i'm loving these mosaics? So i doubled up on a couple of pics ... ops! too chilled out to change it ... lol!~

I am loving being here ... have been surfing a couple of times, and back running .. even tho i forgot how hilly it is - the first one was a bit of a torture session! but i love the good endorphins that come after!

anyways ... gotta run, dinner is calling ....

Merry Christmas ....


great food, great friends, great family, great presents, great fun, did i say great food ... lol!





seriously tho, i love Christmas. its a wonderful day to celebrate your faith, and what you believe in ... we traditionally go to Christmas Eve Mass at my church St Gerard Majella's. They do a "live" outdoor nativity ... with a real Mary, Joseph and Jesus ... angels, shepherds, wise men and real animals - camels, shep, donkeys etc ... its so awesome, and i love how it makes me think about the story and how it must have happened.


This year, we had a storm roll in ... but we decided to brave it and go with our umbrellas. It wasn't the same atmosphere unfortunately for the Swapp's ... but still fun to experience for them.
We had a wonderful day ... i have shared some pics in the mosiac (how cool is it? heidi has shown me how to do it ... so cool - lucky she is getting me a little bit more computer savvy!) One of the many highlights was our dress up Table tennis competition, Gary and I were the "bobs" and Heidi and Eric the "afros" ... shame about the skills! lol!
I was surprised by Gary with my very own single ski ... what a shock ... i better learn how to use it now! i guess that will be one of my New Years resolutions ....
I have to share tho ... for my friends and family who don't know, Heidi my friend is a scrapbook designer and she is Mrs Pink ... its her favourite colour. Well, she put a load of washing on the other day and totally turned all the whites pink ... i just think its so hilarious ... it was a mistake ... but just so funny!
For those Create 08 ladies, we have kits on sale on the Create 08 blog ... they go on sale Jan 2nd ... go check out all the options! very cool!

i love sydney ....

its been a great couple of days, i really love Sydney alot. I was here earlier in the year for my birthday ... so i feel very blessed to be back again in the same year. There is always so much going on there, esp this time of the year. I love all the Christmas windows and decorations.

We were picked up from the airport by some lovely ladies in the Scrapbook industry. They were so nice and took us to this really awesome Chocolate shop ... of course you know how much i hated that! LOL ... it was stunningly good. I especially loved the chocolate pizza ... which of course i will attempt to knock off at home now. You will have to stand by and see if i can pull it off.

We did go up to DJ's to see the Christmas windows ... they are always really gorgeous! Of course i took pics to show my girls. There was a spot of late night shopping ... yay!

I had to go back to Bills for breakfast and share the delight! My favourite meal there are his famous Ricotta Hotcakes ... they are super amazing. Heidi shared my feelings on them. She couldn't finish hers like I could ... lol! i am a seasoned hotcake eater tho! From there the only option was to hit Oxford Street ... truely a sensory overload. The shop windows were so cool ... and it was frustrating to not get to finish shopping there ... one of my favourite places to browse for sure. Check out this Garfield cake ... it is just amazing! The cake shop this came from was really incredible ... i was in awe!

We were off to Sraploot from here for Heidi to do her stuff. Sue and Craig's shop is really nice and i would love to have it as my LSS ... its so well stocked, and its a large shop ... i really enjoyed being there - it made me want to shop! LOL!

The ladies there were so nice, and i met some gorgeous girls. They loved seeing Heidi and one lucky lady - Michelle, won the prize for Heidi to scrapbook her photos. It was wonderful for these girls to see her in action. They also had a "heidi" clock which she personally signed and then hung in the "heidi swapp" corner.

We had the pleasure of having dinner at Circular Quay with Sue and Craig after all the festivities.

My family were so happy to see us back today! I was the favourite because we bought cupcakes back from the Cupcake Shop ... so yum! Tomorrow the rest of Heidi's crew arrives ..... i need to organise our Christmas menu ... lucky i love to cook, i have a few good ideas up my sleeve! Funny how my life revolves around food! speaking of which ... i think the Darrell Lea Rocky Road is calling ....

Create 08 Brisbane & Melbourne

It kicked off on Friday night with the Brisbane Retailers Event. We had so much fun with them getting messy and creating ... they were a fun group of ladies. It was great seeing all their creations!

There was no rest as next morning we had to be up early to organise Create 08 Brisbane. We were greated with woman when we arrived, who were super keen and ready to have fun. Some of the girls even helped us set up ...thank you so much to you guys, you were awesome and i really appreciated your kind and generous spirits! It was a fun day, full of lots of scrapbooking thanks to Heidi who had planned super cool projects (of course). It was really nice to meet all these people i had been in contact with and put a name to a face. What a great group of people - who looked like they had heaps of fun. I was a little jealous i wasn't sitting down with them creating cool stuff! lol! It was a bit of a family affair - esp in Brisbane, even Gary was called in to help ... our girls were doing jobs, and i had a team of volunteers who were amazing. Lisa, Ange, Alicia and Tracey you girls were fabulous and i am so thankful you were there ... thanks a million! We met with the Scrapbook Creations ladies after the event, they were so generous and donated magazines for everyone ... we really appreciate the support of them and others like Delish, and all the other sponsors who supported us.

Monday we were on the early flight down to Melbourne, I took our eldest daughter Katya with us ... she has truely been an amazing help to us and quite frankly i don't know what i would have done without her. So she was on board to help set up in Melbourne, and my dear friend Suzanne let me steal her daughters to help (and give Katya some company - they are super best friends) Melbourne was a different situation, as the venue was able to let us set up the day before .... this was alot less stressful on us ...

Melbourne was so fun, again i was just so happy to meet all these great people i had been in contact with and get to know them a little. I was on the floor in Melbourne so i got to spend more time with everyone, if i did it again i would have done the same in Brisbane ... i guess that is part of learning! We did run out of food at lunchtime, and thanks to everyone for being so patient and understanding of the situation while they prepared some more.

Once again i loved seeing everyone so busy and inspired making all the fun things. I had done the samples for the calender class ... so i knew how exciting all the techniques that were being taught were ... it was exciting to see people learning. I have to thank Suzanne for her help thru the day, Maddy, Jessie and Katya for their wonderful help ... also my sister-in-law who was amazing on monday .. i know she would have loved to come if she had a babysitter!

I was really touched with the gorgeous girl at the end who stood up and thanked both Heidi and myself ... it bought a tear to my eye to be honest, and i appreciated her thoughtfulness so much. Heidi did an amazing job of teaching, that is why we all love her so much. She made tears come to my eyes ... and i wasn't even doing the class! lol ... she has a way of touching your heart ... a special gift!
Arlington at Wattle Park Chalet were so helpful to us, they really bent over backwards to accomodate us and make the event go well ... i am especially thankful to Tanya for all her hard work and the positiveness. She made this process so much easier for me - esp with me being away from Melbourne!

We had approx 2 hours in between ... mostly which was re-setting for the Retailers event. We had again a gorgeous group of woman, i enjoyed chatting to them all and seeing their creations. Being in business myself, i loved seeing their reactions and the lightbulbs going off as Heidi shared some ideas and advice for ways they could improve or grow their businesses! It was inspiring ...

I just want to leave this LONG post to say i feel incredibly greatful for the opportunity to have been able to do this with my dear friend Heidi. She is so talented and clever ... and she constantly inspires me. This has been an incredible learning experience and i want to say THANK YOU for all of your kinds words of encouragement or the "thank yous" the emails and the comments on the blog. You are an incredible group of ladies, and i feel thankful to have met you thru this cool experience. Merry Christmas to you all ...

a new love ....

we have had a huge weekend of fun ... my brother and sister-in-law and little nephew have been staying and we had a big boating day yesterday - so fun. I tried wakeboarding yesterday and its officially on my list of favourite things to do now - wikid fun!

today the girls had their christmas party for dancing at Wet n Wild - a huge water park. I had to share this photo of us on one of the rides with our friends ... holy cow it was hilarious (if you couldn't tell already) i think its going to be early to bed tonight ... we are all worn up from all the action!

Heidi and I have been busy video chatting and testing the classes out ... i have been having so much fun, she has come up with awesome classes (of course) all the Create 08 girls are going to have the best time! the count down is on ... yahoo!

Finally .... some scrapbooking!

Last friday Gary finally put his foot down and declared that something had to happen in the laundry/scrapbooking room! (i share my desk with the laundry ... its not so bad, you can get your washing up to date at the same time as you get creative ... lol) i was starting to infiltrate into other rooms, the spare room, the garage ... it was spreading everywhere! So last friday we went and got new shelves ... what a difference. I feel like a new scrapbooker ... so much easier to access what i need, and also clean up after myself. I have finished a few projects this week like my "Remember Book" for this year which i taught in the Creative Cafe class ... i will have to take some photos of it. I just finished this page today ... i have about 200 photos from my China trip, and finally i have had a chance to start of them. These paper cuts were sold all over the place in China. I actually cut this one to make it larger ... they are so cool and fragile! The red chop is my name i had it made there too ...

Its Dance Concert weekend this weekend, so i have to run ... its Stage Rehersal tonight ... i am so excited to see the girls in concert tomorrow ... i "well" up with pride! Enjoy your weekend!

getting excited ....

its thursday night, the eve of friday ... i love fridays! i am planning to get alot of things done tomorrow. Tomorrow is my brother in law's birthday ... and i need to send his birthday present to him! opss! at least i've got it i guess!

This week has been WILD to say the least. The weather here in Queensland has been devestating! The storm i blogged about the other day did major damage ... and we have had two more since. So many people have damaged homes, have lost roofs, two people have lost their lives ...its been really bad. Tonight we had another one hit, and we flooded downstairs! sigh! lucky nothing was damaged it was easy enough to clean up ... but i am feeling so bad for all those unlucky ones who are suffering badly. please keep them in your prayers. We have another storm forcast for saturday and then more next week ... so who knows what that will bring. This photo i took tonight as it was building up ....

The kits and product for Create 08 arrived last week and i went thru and checked it all on wed! It made me so excited to see it all ... the ladies coming are going to have a great time playing with all this cool stuff! Things are going well and we are on track for a couple of amazing events!

I made this up quickly today to drop off to our old neighbour (from our last house) she turned 90 last week ... still lives at home, isn't that so cool! it was lovely to see her ... she inspires me!

even tho this week has been super busy, i did manage to do these circle journals for our cj group ... maybe tomorrow i'll get a chance to work on some more creative projects. I have 2 more circle journals i need to get out ....

Dance Concert season!

if you remember what i was doing last year this time ... sewing madly dancing costumes! Lucky for me this year has been considerably less sewing ... most of the 12 costumes (yes people ... there are 12 this year - every year gets worse!) have been made, and there have just been minor touches of adding or altering done by me! This weekend was taken up by dancing tho ... the girls had their costume rehersal on sunday and because they are in so many it went for most of the day.

I have to say tho, watching each one of them dance just makes me well up with pride! Its all worth it!

We had a massive storm hit on Sunday night ... i did take a couple of photos of it rolling in, before it got too wild to be outside ... there was major damage all over the place. We lost power for12 hours ... which was interesting. I did the dishes in the candle light the old fashioned way - in the sink! LOL! and went to bed early .... caught up on some sleep ... i felt great this morning! I got up and went for a run ... i love that!

the best thing that happened today was getting some special mail from our lovely friends in Canada! They sent some treats for all of us ... i esp love the chocolate!

Y U MMMMMMMMMM !

more boating fun ...
yesterday we headed down to the river again for some more skiing, wake boarding, biscuit, wake skating action (and even bare footing ... one of our friends was ripping!)

seriously fun day. I had my first day single skiing ... this time on a single ski! such a buzz to get it sorted! i was stoked!

katya learnt to knee board ... and loved it! she was out with a friend ... they had a ball!

Learning things as we go, last night i made a mental note to self ...

1. more dry towels on board

2. have dinner already made for that night (too tired to cook ... even tacos was an effort!)

3. a thermos for a cup of tea right at about 4 o'clock would help! wink!

4. book in for a massage for monday if your chinese massage friend is available!

we were all so tired last night, it was early to bed. check out the kids faces in the buscuit photo ... so funny! I had a few sore muscles today too ... to be expected after a full day of skiing!

I had to share this ... these photos were from saturday morning. In our house ... usually sat and sunday morning we really enjoy a nice breakfast. Gianna didn't want scrambled eggs that katya cooked, so i made her her very own tiny omlette in this super cute little pan (my sister gave me) Talk about Princess treatment! (there is that chinese pose again! - too funny)

I did this page for November calender this month.

Melbourne Cup Fun ....

All Australiasians know about Melbourne Cup day, but for my friends overseas ... the first tuesday in November there is a big horse race in Melbourne called (you guessed it) The Melbourne Cup. It is something alot of people use to celebrate the day, weather you are into horse racing or not (most people are not) its just a reason to frock up and have a great day.

Each year we place a bet for our family, everyone chooses either their age or their birth date ... and every year i walk into the TAB not knowing how to fill out the forms! honestly!

This year Gi got 3rd ... so i think she got $7.80 .... lol! enough to buy some lollies ... she was happy!

To be honest i have not really been a huge Melbourne Cup person ... however this year some of the mothers at school decided to put on a Melbourne Cup Lunch for 200 woman as a fund raiser for a family at school who has a child who needs constant help. Its such a great cause and was a fabulous day.

There were heaps of raffles, lucky door prizes and a fashion of the fields competiton (for those that did make an effort and get dressed up)

also a fashion parade ... so a full day of activities and fun!

The food was great, and the company fabulous ...

bring on next year i say!

Maiden Voyage

Today we took our new boat out on her maiden voyage. We are calling her "One Life" as that is part of the mentality behind buying her .... making the most of the one life we have, and creating family memories!

I grew up in a family that was into boating and i was reminiscing with my dad on the weekend talking about all the fun we used to have ... today was the start of that for our family!

We went to the Brisbane River ... it was great conditions for skiing and playing on the river, beautifully glassy and protected.

I was stoked to try single skiing ... going double and kicking one off ... very cool!

Needless to say i am really tired now ... and i think will turn in and head to bed! fingers crossed the weather will be great next weekend! wink!

for family and friends on facebook you can check out the rest of the happy snaps there!

an answer to prayers ....

this as i was trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner tonight, a friend dropped by who had been out fishing early this morning and dropped off two lovely fresh Brim for us! i was delighted .... i love fish! (not ALL my friends do ... you know who you are! wink)

so i thought i'd share how i would cook these little beauties tonight on the bbq!

Jamie Oliver (one of my favourite chefs ... who i was lucky enough to meet in person and cook pizza with - thats another story!) gave this idea out. I think its an italian idea originally ... basically its flavouring salt to use as seasoning. So this time i have used orange rind and fresh thyme leaves and blitzed them in the food processor with about a cup of salt.

Then I put cuts in the side of the fish (so it can soak up the salty flavour) and wrapped it up in a al-foil parcel to cook on the bbq (remember to oil the tin foil so the fish doesn't stick)

I made some foccacia in the bread maker and thru a salad together. This is a great summer meal ... it feels like summer now, nice warm day today!

Once the fish is cooked, you need to carefully remove the flesh ... remembering that there will be bones, so be careful with small children! I usually just open the parcels and put them on a dish in the middle of the table for everyone to dig into!

If you would like the bread recipe, it really is delicious and everyone loves it! All my friends have tried this bread ...

the breadmaker does all the hard work, and then you just chuck it into a tin, add some flavoured oil ... let it rise again and bake! i am happy to send the recipe to anyone who wants it!