The wedding (cont)...

Now things have settled down, I have more time to do a quick run down of the wedding day + some more pics...

We were up early Saturday morning to set up and decorate the reception. The girls went off to the hairdressers to get their hair done, then back home for makeup and to get dressed. Cathie & Kylie turned up just after noon to set up for the photos. Lots of photos taken of Katie, bridesmaids, flowergirls, mum and Cohan.

The limo arrived and then we all went off to the church. Mum walked Katie down the aisle, where James was holding Cohan and waiting for her. I admit I started to get emotional watching my beautiful little sister walking down the aisle. Mum and Cohan gave the bride away. The ceremony went off without a hitch - except for Katie starting to really sob during her vows. Mum and I couldn't believe it when she pulled a tissue (yep a tissue, not a lovely handkerchief) out of her bra to wipe her eyes and blow her nose, then we were even more amazed when she stuffed / jammed the tissue back down her bra!! What a dag!! LOL The kiss, signing of the register, family photos outside the church, then the bridal party headed over to the Botanic Gardens for more pictures.

There were lots of fun photos taken of all the bridal party at the park. Katie & James went off with Cathie & Kylie to the Rum Distillery and some historical buildings around Bundaberg for a more photos.

The reception was nice and relaxed. The meal was nice, except the kitchen didn't end up cooking veges or putting out bread rolls?!?! Speeches were short and sweet - once again Katie started sobbing during her speech! I didn't realise how emotional she can be!! LOL Katie & James had the bridal waltz (I'm pleased to say all my songs went well - all the practice I put in really paid off). Cut the cake, bouquet toss, garter toss, then down to socialising and dancing the night away!

The newlyweds

The Bridal Party


I will probably add more pics and memories over the next couple of days. It has just been so hectic for the last month, that my frazzled brain is still trying to catch up!! :o)

The wedding...

The day was perfect! Everything went very smoothly, we all had a great time and Kate & James were really happy. The only disappointment was that my dad and brother couldn't make it.

I didn't have a chance to take photos, but a HUGE "thank you" to Kylie for using my camera to take pics for me. Also another HUGE "thank you" to Cathie for being the "official" wedding photographer. I quickly downloaded photos off everyone's camera yesterday, but haven't had a chance to look at them yet.

Kylie emailed me these pics this morning (resized so I could download them onto here), but I will be adding more over the next couple of days.



Today DH & I have been together for 14 years. Because our anniversaries are 4 days apart we usually just have the one celebration. Craig jokes he would have gotten less time for murder :o)

One more sleep...

...till Katie & James' wedding!! My SIL Kirsty and 2 nieces (both flower-girls) arrived today. Mum and Kirsty have been decorating the fruit cake, the mud cake and all the cupcakes - so all the wedding cakes are completed. Cody & Lacey are having a final dress fitting. All of the bridal party has arrived in town and the wedding rehearsal is tonight.

Tonight I'm going to make sure the camera and video camera batteries are all charged and my camera cards are empty. I'm going to pack my camera gear, tripod, song book, CD, etc all ready for tomorrow. I also have to do the final draft of the order of speeches and whip up my Matron of Honour speech. There's nothing like the pressure of doing everything at the last minute!! LOL

DH and I had a beautiful meal last night at Kacy's Restaurant. We kicked off with drinks and some entrees. For our main meal DH had a steak (cooked exactly to his liking - he is a typical ex-chef - super fussy!! LOL) and I had Chicken Atlantis (chicken breast, Morton Bay bug, prawns and scallops in a creamy cognac sauce). YUM!!

Wedding anniversary...

Craig and I are celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary today. Don't worry I won't get all soppy about how much I love him :o) He brought me an iPod and I got him a Navman (?) DH also had flowers (gerberas - my favourite), a teddy bear and a balloon delivered to work-I am so spoilt! We are going out to dinner tonight to a restaurant at Bargara.

I had my final dress fitting this morning - mum just needs to sew the straps on to the back and it's all done! The front of Kate's dress is still catching as she walks along, so mum has to take it up again. Mum has already taken the dress up twice - first time it was too long, 2nd time was due to it catching. I will point out that there are embroidered motifs all around the bottom of the dress. Mum has to unpick each individual one, then hand sew back them onto the dress. She literally spent the majority of yesterday and early this morning unpicking them, hemming up the bottom, then resewing the motifs back on. I am not kidding when I say her fingers are so swollen and bruised.

Once all this wedding craziness has died down - I really want to get some photos up here. I haven't managed to get all my challenges finished for the month :o( I did get my journal spots made for the Savvy swap. I made cute little cupcakes - I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I'm posting them off today. I can't wait to see what I get!

These are the brads I ordered off ebay - they arrived Monday..






How cute are those cupcakes?!? Yep - I have a slight cupcake addiction ATM!! LOL

Wedding countdown...2 more sleeps!!

I'm getting too old...

...to party all night and get to bed at 5am!! I paid the price Sunday though!! LOL

Katie had a fantasitc hen's night and all the girls had a ball! We kicked off with party games at home - making sculptures of certain male anatomy with play-dough, an adult version of "pin the tail", etc. We then dressed the bride with a veil, L plate, shot glass on a string, whistle, etc and wrote up a treasure hunt list. We went to a pub hoping to do karaoke, but they were having a karaoke final, so we couldn't sing :o( From there were went to another pub and chatted, danced and drank the night away. Katie managed to get most of the items on her treasure hunt list, plus a few extras!! :o)

I didn't get a chance to do any scrapping over the weekend, but did manage to get a card finished. It's the first card I have made and I'm really happy with it. We are on early shift this week - so I'm hoping to get some scrapping done every afternoon.

DH went out fishing on Sunday and caught a huge mackeral! We haven't cooked it yet - I cna't wait - I love mackeral steaks cooked on the BBQ with garlic butter! YUM

Wedding countdown...5 days!

Cohan does love his Uncle...

Well it looks like Cohan was just tired yesterday...when we saw him this morning he was happy to play with Craig (hitting him in the head with my make-up brush! PMSL).

While blog hopping today - I found this fabulous site called Wordle... where you can make "word clouds" with different fonts, layouts and colour schemes. Here are some examples from the website...


What a brilliant idea!! You could make your own personalised background paper for any theme!! I have been trying to create a wedding theme "word cloud", but my computer doesn't want to play today :o(

The hen's night is tomorrow night - I'm really looking forward to it!! I'm going to work out final details for the nibblies and games tonight. I am going to do some grocery shopping early tomorrow morning before I go the hairdressers.

It's wedding fever here ATM - 2 friends are currently organising their weddings - one for this November (Erin) and the other one is in April (Kylie J) next year!

Wedding countdown...8 days!

Katie, James & Cohan are home...

They arrived at around 3am this morning! We spent a bit of time with them before work this morning. Cohan cried when Craig went to cuddle him - which is the complete opposite to their last visit - he absolutely adored Craig. I'm not surprised, because Cody and Lacey would scream at Craig when they were that age (but they totally love him now) I think it's the goatee that frightens them. Then again... Cohan was a bit cranky and tired from all the travelling - might be a different story tonight when we get home.

I forgot to mention this on Monday...I received my magazine from Ngaire - once again - a HUGE thanks for that!

I finished off my ISTIA challenge LO the other night and I'm hoping to get started on my journal spots for the Savvy SWAP tonight. I'm hoping to get the 6 recently completed LO photographed and on here sometime this weekend. With all the wedding plans, visitors, etc I don't think I will get much scrapping done over the next two weeks. That means I won't get a chance to do the challenges I had picked out - oh well, I will just have to scrap up a storm next month!! LOL

BTW I would love it if you would leave a comment! Go on...I dare you! LOL

Wedding countdown...9 days!

Congratulations....

I completely forgot to add this yesterday... Congratulations to Nakia & Rob on the birth of their gorgeous son Traye! He was born last Friday - DH & I went to visit them that night and got a cuddle! He is so beautiful! :o)

Speaking of babies...I can now let the secret out... my bestie Bec and her hubby Dale are expecting their first baby!! I'm so excited for them!! They are 17 weeks along and everything is going really well.

I finished sewing on 3 of my LO last night and they are all done and ready to be photographed! Tonight I am going to finish my ISTIA challenge LO and start working on some journal spots for a swap. Kylie is doing the same swap and has created these amazing spots. When she showed me - I told her that I wanted one too - she reminded me that since I'm doing the swap I will already be getting one!! D'oh!! LOL

Wedding countdown...11 days!

A pony and a long post....

My brother brought my nieces a pony on the weekend! I'm having visions of that pony getting WAY TOO much love!! LOL He will be brushed constantly and spoilt with bread, apples and carrots! Tim sent me a picture of the pony, but I haven't had a chance to hear all the details from Cody. I am sure she will tell me all about it when they come down for the wedding.

I had my final singing practice Saturday morning. I'm still practicing on the drive to and from work everyday. Poor DH - I'm sure he's sick of hearing the same 8 songs over and over! LOL Usually I don't need to practice so much, but Katie has requested a few songs that I haven't sung before - so I have had to work out key changes, timing and lyrics. Plus I'm a perfectionist - I won't sing in public unless I know the song perfectly - I hate the thought of making an idiot of myself.

I have decided to get my hair cut this weekend when I get it coloured. I was lucky enough to find a picture of exactly what I want. Now I just need to actually find and hairdresser and make an appointment!

I went to ISTIA on Sunday afternoon - it was a nice relaxing afternoon. Due to Cassie being sick the group challenge was cancelled. Since we brought all the stuff, we decided to just do the challenge anyway. I've found my mojo again lately and have managed to finish 3 LO, plus created 3 new ones over the weekend. I'll photograph them all in a couple of days - we are on late shift again this week, so it's hard to get good light before / after work.

It's been a while since I have checked out ebay - so I thought I would do some random scrap-related searches - I love seeing what I can find. I brought a heap of shaped brads from one of my favourite sellers - tea cups, owls, cupcakes, guitars, robots & spaceships, and pirates (ship, hat & skull/crossbones) - SO CUTE!!

Wedding countdown...12 days!

A present....

I received a present from my bestie - Bec - this morning.... a hair straightener!! I LOVE IT!! I had a go of Bec's when we were visiting her and loved the change in style!! I have a natural wave in my hair, which makes it stick out a bit. At the moment I'm growing my hair for Katie's wedding and it looks very similar to a Mrs Brady hairstyle - very scary!! LOL I'm itching to have to all chopped off again - I'm getting foils done next weekend and I'm tempted to get the chop then!! For most of my life I had long hair down to my waist, then about 4 years ago I just decided to cut it all off! Since then I have kept it pretty short - I'm a hairdresser's dream - I usually just give them a vague idea and let them loose!! Once I gave my hairdresser strict instructions and a picture, but she still cut it WAY TOO SHORT! It was about 5cm long all over - and with my round face it did NOT look nice! I walked out crying, I was so horrified! Usually DH is sensitive and says the right thing, but I don't know what got into him that day cause his response was "Well, the bright side is that at least you don't have to look at it"!! I guess it had the right effect - I was so shocked I stopped blubbering immediately and just sat there in stunned silence. Anyone that knows DH would know that is not a typical response!! I will admit that for about a fortnight later - every time I saw my hair in the mirror I would burst out crying.

Katie sent us some recent photos of Cohan and he has gotten so BIG in the 2 months since we've seen him!! They will be home in a weeks time and I can't wait to see them!! Cohan has one tooth and tries to bite everything, so I will have to remember to keep my fingers away from his mouth. He also has a permanent mohawk happening - SO CUTE!! Katie said she tries everything to make his hair sit flat, but it keeps sticking up!!

Wedding countdown...15 days!

Frozen cookie dough....

Some days I find something that makes my mind boggle... Anyone that has kids is familiar with school fundraisers eg chocolate drives, raffles, etc. Well someone at work was selling frozen cookie dough - how funny!! Gone are the days when you would buy the actual biscuits, now you just buy the cookie dough in frozen 1.5kg buckets and make your own!! I will admit that DH brought 2 buckets - a total of $27 - I nearly died when they came collecting money (which somehow I had to pay even though DH put in the order)!! So, we currently have 3kg of frozen cookie dough sitting at home in the freezer - waiting for the influx of wedding visitors. Really, I guess it is a good time saver. All I have to do is get it out of the freezer, roll into balls and flatten, bake for 15 mins and viola! Fresh biscuits!!

Here are few more layouts... I did this layout of my SIL Kirsty and niece Lacey at the midnight crop last month.

CISter's 28th August Sketch

I mentioned a few posts back that my sister loved the Winter Baby layout I did of my nephew and wanted me to make her one too. Because I couldn't find the same paper anywhere I just decided to do a simpler version for myself and give my sister the original one I did. Here's Winter Baby-version 2!


A BIG thank you to the lovely Ngaire! I was lucky enough to be the first person to email her and score the October issue of the US CK magazine! Pop over and check out her beautiful work. While you are there have a look at her fabulous "Pay It Forward" give away.

Wedding countdown...16 days!

Toot Toot...

I won the August pack challenge at This & That! :o)

I still have a few more completed layouts that I want to add, but I haven't had a chance to photograph them yet. However..I did find this one amongst my emails today! Just so you know - IRL the orange flower isn't as bright as it appears in the photograph! LOL


ISTIA is on this Sunday and once again, we are having a challenge. This month we have decided to do a team challenge (details are here). After some emails amongst the team members we decided who was buying what and picked a colour combination of pink, orange and brown. At lunch I popped over to This & That to buy the patterned paper. Buying patterned paper for other people was a lot harder than I thought! After searching the whole shop - I found some fabulous papers, but they weren't exactly the chosen colour combo... hot pink, lime green and bright orange!! LOL

Wedding countdown...18 days!

Some (finished) layouts...

Well, we got all the spring cleaning done and the rain cleared, so we managed to get the windows cleaned. Next weekend we will do a bit of gardening. I didn't have singing practice on Saturday, so I got to do some shopping with DH. All the shopping centres were packed with people - especially the dept stores - it was crazy!! We braved the crowds and brought a new tent ready for our next holiday. My MIL gave us money at Christmas to buy one, but it has taken us this long to find exactly what we were looking for.

These are some layouts that I (finally) finished over the weekend + my Creative Artz layout. The pictures are a little wobbly cause I was rushing to get the layouts photographed while there was still some decent light yesterday.

I am so happy with how this layout of Lacey turned out! This one was difficult to finish - I got the butterflies, paper and picture down easily, but had trouble deciding on a title and the finishing touches. I finally came up with a very appropriate title for our little "free spirit" and then found a packet of rub-ons in my stash which were "just the thing" to complete it.

Stuck Sketch #52
I love this picture of Cohan - it makes him look like a little boy - not a baby anymore! I took this photo just before Katie & Cohan flew home to Mt Isa in July. It's been 2 months since we've seen them, so I can't wait to see how much he's grown!

Creative Artz August Challenge
This is our other fur-baby - Jedi. She's standing guard at the back fence watching all the kids in the park :o)

Wedding countdown...19 days!

The Sunny Cowgirls...and a streaker!

Last night DH, myself and some friends went to see The Sunny Cowgirls on tour. The support act was pretty average, but the girls were brilliant as usual! They sang a lot of new songs off their latest CD. Then, in the middle of a love song, some idiot does a nudie run in front of the stage!! PMSL! The girls continued to sing the song, but afterwards said the bloke should have streaked when they were singing one of their new songs "Naked"!! LOL I am so disappointed that my camera batteries had died!! RFLMAO

No definite plans for this weekend - just a bit of spring cleaning ready for all the wedding guests. We had planned on cleaning all the windows, but it depends on how long this rain is going to stick around for. And as usual, I will be doing some scrapping :o)

Wedding countdown...22 days!

A quick post....

I found a new challenge site - Puzzle Sketches . I already have enough challenges for this month, but the concept is brilliant! I have added it to my favourites list for whenever I need inspiration. I might even see if we want to give it a go at our next ISTIA day.

All the new challenges for September are up on the blogs - I've already started on 2 of them! I am still waiting for This & That and Creative Artz Cottage to announce the August challenge winners.

Wedding stuff...My bridesmaid dress is nearly completed, mum just has a few finishing touches to add, then it's all done!! The Hen's night invitations have been sent and I am currently working out the plans for the night! Also, Katie wants cupcakes as her wedding cake, so this weekend we are trying a few more recipes.

Speaking of weddings... While tidying up my emails today, I found this LO I did of my SIL Kirsty and niece Cody last year. This is one of favourite photos I took at my brother Tim and SIL Kirsty's wedding in 2007.


Wedding countdown...24 days!

Another fun filled weekend....

I kicked off the weekend with the midnight crop on Friday night at This & That. I managed to work on some LO and do 2 new LO. So far I only have one photo to put up on here, but will add some more during the week. This one is a pic of my nephew Cohan, when I was scrapping it I was a bit worried it might be too plain, but I am much happier with it now.


White with 1 August challenge

All the September challenges will be posted online soon -I can't wait to see what they are! Kylie has decided to pick 5 challenges this month and concentrate on them. I am thinking about doing the same thing - I had so many challenges picked for August, but only managed to complete a few of them.

I have entered "Who's Layout Is It Anyway" at Aussie Scrap Source , so if you get a chance - pop over there and have a look.

Saturday morning I had 2 hours of singing rehearsals. Everything was more organised and I actually got to have a decent rehearsal :o) DH and I went to our work (yep, we both work for the same company!) family fun day. We had a great time and the weather was perfect - you can tell it's spring! I even had a jump around the jumping castle - there were a few unflattering pics taken of me!! I didn't have a try of the climbing wall. My short legs couldn't get up high enough to start on the first level, plus I wasn't brave enough to take a running leap like the others!! LOL

Sunday DH decided to go fishing, so we skipped the multicultural festival. I spent the afternoon watching TV and scrapping - a nice way to end a busy weekend.

Wedding countdown....26 days!