Still looking!

At this rate Jayden will be living with us until he is 35, as originally planned (by me). Joe and I went to look at another house yesterday, this time all four boys were present and accounted for – and on time! It’s in the Crestwood estate (near Bunning’s on Olsen Ave, for you locals and regular visitors to the area). They must get a lot of Uni students, (Griffith Uni is just up the road) because she didn’t bat an eyelid when she realized the house were for four 19 year old boys – that have never lived on their own before!! The house is a very nice 4 bedroom with ensuite and air conditioning, not much lawn to mow, but garden surrounds the perimeter that will need attention to keep the weeds down. Not much room for 4 cars either and not a very wide street for parking, so IF they get it they will have to work out some sort of come and go system so they are not parking on the footpath.They were quite adorable, heading off to the local café to order hot chocolate and coffee while they filled out their application forms. So that was it they were done looking for the day. One property – we saw at least 3 other carloads of people leaving after inspecting the place as we got there. This is why I say – we are going to be having our son at home for a little longer yet!! (I will keep you posted).
Well, Jessica had big news this week as well – On Thursday her ring was finally ready to be picked up. She rang me at work very excited. I still haven’t seen it yet. She tried to take a photo to send me but the flash kept hitting the ‘bling’ so she couldn’t get a good enough shot of it. She has been promising me that she would try again – nothing yet though!

On Monday it will be my youngest niece Georgia Mae’s 4th birthday, then on Tuesday it will be her brother Jachob’s 11th birthday so I have been very busy making their birthday presents. I love the look of the photos on canvas that is very popular at the moment, but I came across another version of that idea, that I thought I would be able to duplicate. Instead of printing straight to the canvas, which you have to have a professional do, they simply glued an a4 size photo to the canvas base – this I new I could do.I was really happy with the results and the kids loved them.Another project I stupidly thought of was: Decorated Chinese take away boxes. It all seemed very simple in my head. I bought some boxes from Spotlight, they came in packs of 5, unraveled one and took it to work to scan on the photocopier – that gave me the template. I then worked on it in Photoshop adding the photo, text and coordinating papers to decorate. (So far so good).
I then printed off the design onto a3 glossy paper, took it home, set myself up at the bench with all the tools I would need to finish these little suckers off. I proceeded to cut them out – I reached for the glue – went to stick it down onto the original from Spotlight, then aaaaaghhh – I should have flipped the template to make it a reverse copy to match the original. The way I had done it, to match the angles on the original the printed design side would have to be stuck face down!!!!! Back to the drawing board! With much much fiddling they were finally done! Those pesky wire handles weren’t easy to get back on either – in any case the kids were really only interested in the contents anyway – they were filled with lollies! Happy birthday to Georgia and Jachob for Monday and Tuesday anyway!! Love Aunty Juicy xx

I promised Mum some photos of the kids:

Moving out!

Yesterday Joe and I went with Jayden to have a look at a couple of rentals for himself and 3 of his mates – he has decided that it is time to move out. Now anyone who knows me will know that I am really struggling with this idea. He’s my baby, he needs me – no really, he needs me. Luckily for me the houses were both in our street – actually walking distance. Technically, we only looked at one, because my beautiful, unorganized boy child got the inspection times mixed up. He thought one was 8.30 and the other was 10am, but it was actually the other way around. Anyway, at least we got to see one of them. It was still in the process of being vacated, the carpets need dire attention and you could tell that the clean the house was getting was a rare occurrence, because they missed badly in some areas. The boys were a little put off, especially with the state of the carpets – so that’s telling you something, but the agent promised that they would have them cleaned before new tenants moved in and if they liked the place they had better get their application in because we were the first of about 10 other people viewing the property that day. So I will keep you posted!
With the view of Jayden moving out, he has decided that he may need a few quick lessons on cooking and cleaning, so Tuesday night has now become our official ‘cooking lesson’ night. Last Tuesday was our first cooking date. We made red sauce pasta, with cabonossi – he did a brilliant job, I took some for lunch the next day and everyone commented on how nice it smelt. So this week we are doing fried rice, I am really looking forward to spending the time with him – you gotta get it when you can these days!

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Here is a birthday invitation I did during the week-

Valentines Day!

I've decided that I don't necessarily like surprises! Because it means you are no longer in control. Joe has been away all week again, working at Bald Hills, so I obviously got myself into the mindset of being home alone, working out what I’m going to do with myself, what I’m having for tea etc… Yesterday – Valentines Day – When I spoke to Joe in the morning I had asked him not to go to any great expense of sending flowers to the office, because it wasn’t necessary and that I’d rather spend the $100 on a pair of shoes! So yesterday morning when I got to work, Adam gave June and I a single chocolate rose, which was a really sweet thing for him to do, especially in lieu of being a ‘single’ for the day. Then as we were getting ready to go home, everyone was saying what they had planned for the evening and asked what Joe and I were doing – I said I would be going home to an empty house and heading to bed early. I haven’t been sleeping very well and I was so tired. I called into the supermarket and picked up some bread, then headed home - as I was rounding the corner, I looked up the hill and saw Joe’s car was there. He had driven all the way home (about 2 hours) with a beautiful bunch of roses and a reservation for a Valentine’s Tea, which he had made a week ago. All he kept saying was quick go and have a shower and put on a dress - I think this is where I started to get a little annoyed because he wouldn’t tell me anything else. Anyway after feeling a little out of control of the situation, I decided to surrender to the occasion with the very sweet love that was its intent. We ended up having a very special evening together and I am so grateful to be so loved by this man and the fact that he tries so hard to make me happy. As I’m sitting here writing this is he making his way back to Bald Hills for his last day there, then he will be home again tonight.

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In August it will be 6 years since we lost my nephew Luke in a car accident in America. Today we should have been celebrating his 24th birthday. So on this day, as we do every year on his birthday we will be lighting a candle to remember his beautiful smile and his contagious energy for life that we miss so much. My thoughts are also with my sister Leandra and nieces Elizabeth and Rachel, clearly a more difficult day for them than all the others in the year.

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Here is something that I’ve been working on this week –
I had an order of ‘Thank You’ cards from the funeral slideshow I did a couple of weeks ago.

Feeling the love!

Wow - what a great response from so many people. Thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart for your all emails and messages of love and encouragement. I truly didn't expect it.
Now you all need to pass it on to your friends and family - circulate people, circulate!!

I had a shocker of a day yesterday and to come home to so much love, gave me back my perspective again.
Anyway - back to my yucky day, well really it was just a very sucky afternoon.
Firstly just before I'm ready to leave work to come home, the heavens opened up, torrential rain fell, it was so bad that 5:oo came and went with everyone still sitting at their desks, it was too bad to even think about getting in the car. Around 5:15 it started to ease off a little, so I got brave and decided I was going to make my move. I spent a lot of the next 40 minutes just sitting in traffic with the rain pelting down on the car and going through puddles that you could have sold tickets to and used for a swimming pool. But that was ok; I was very patient and knew that I would make it home eventually. Joe rang a couple of times to check on my progress - (thank you babe that was very sweet). When I finally got to Arundel, I had to stop at the supermarket for a couple of things. I didn't feel like it, I didn't want to, but I had to, so I stopped and went in to get what I needed. On my way out of the car park, I had a little altercation with a young thug, who apparently thought I had wronged him out of a little of the road space (I hadn't) - but I suppose he wanted to impress his passenger or maybe that’s just the way he deals with life. He squared up to my window, stopped the car, flicked his hand at me in a condescending shooing motion and said - move the f**k over!! At this stage I had just had enough - so then there was a viscous exchange of some not so very nice words, (sorry Mum & Dad) which he ended very maturely with showing me his middle finger and sticking out his tongue? I just shook my head and drove off in absolute disbelief at the growing intolerance we show to each other, when something so minor can cause such a display of outrage.
Finally I made it home, only to find my beautiful boy with this trousers rolled up to his knees and pushing a broom, sweeping all the water that had accumulated at our front door, he was sure it was going to get high enough to get in the house. He said he’d been there sweeping for the past 20 minutes. Jessica rang me at work this afternoon and I told her about it, she asked if I had gotten a photo of Jayden on the other end of a broom, because nobody is going to believe that part of the story. Sisters can be so cruel!
I relayed the story of the moron in the car park – of course he wanted all the information I could give about who had been so awful to his Ma. I felt very loved and told him that I was ok and he didn’t need to pay any sort of retribution on my behalf.
We had a bit of a chat about our day and then he went in to have a shower. He told me that he would be staying the night at Amy’s (his girlfriend’s) house and asked me if I would be ok. I told him I would be fine as long as it didn’t rain all night. He told me to make sure I put lots of towels down to soak up any water that might come in and then happily left me on my own. Thanks mate! That love I was feeling from him earlier….not so much now!!
Jayden had been gone for about an hour and I remembered that he had said there was mail in the letterbox that he hadn’t got, the rain had stopped and we were losing some light so I thought I would just pop out and get it before it got too dark. I had only taken two steps out the door when I saw something moving in one of the puddles at the end of the path – yep, it was a snake!! It must have heard me coming, because it quickly swam through the water and into the garden. It was at that point that I decided that whatever mail was there, was not that important and could wait until the morning to be retrieved.
That’s when I finally got to relax and turn on my computer and felt all your love – funny how it came just when I needed it – thank you beautiful friends and family. In the words of the great Jeff Fenech – “I love yous all” J
(a little chat that I had at work with Siggsy today also helped) Siggsy is my office pal, he is the sweetest guy you would ever want to meet. His mother should be very proud of her beautiful boy. We often have deep and meaningful conversations and I love him so much because he ‘gets’ me. I can’t say that about many people in my life. You know how you walk in the door of your home and the reason you know your home is because all of a sudden you transform into yourself and the people in that house, ‘get’ you. It’s like you peel off all the layers that you apply to yourself before you walk out the door in the morning, layers that protect you, layers that hide the insecurities and doubts about yourself, so many layers that you don’t even recognize yourself anymore. Well that’s how I feel with Siggsy, I feel very comfortable just being me. I told him today that I thought Karma was just a big ol pile of poo and that I really didn’t believe in it. I told him that I thought the meaning of Karma was that you attracted back to you what you give out – but that I really was being hammered by that theory and couldn’t believe some of the crap that is presented to me by random people. He told me wisely, that he had given that theory a lot of thought himself and actually gave consideration to being as angry at the world as he sometimes saw the world to be, but thought that if he lived his life that way he would surely be setting himself up for encountering constant bad energy. So ultimately he would put up with a little bad fortune to stay true to himself. Like I said, a very wise young soul.
So now that my tale is done, I have decided that it was time to put an end to my afternoonus horriblus and go to bed.
Goodnight all, kisses, Joanne xx

Thank you cards

Joe is away for the next couple of nights, so the house is very quiet. I've had a busy day at work, so I thought I would just upload a couple of things here and then get an early night.

4:30 comes around very quickly - and unfortunately the first thing that I see when I open my eyes is the dreaded treadmill - I lay there and think of every reason in the book why I can't get on it today, but ultimately, it just leaves me putting off the inevitable, so I give in to my petty excuses and just get on with it!!

- Thank You -

A really individual and personal idea I came up with after we celebrated our daughter Jessicas' 21st birthday last year was to take photos of the guests with her during the night then when I made the thank you cards, for each guest we were thanking we used their photos on the front, then we had the photos printed and included them in the card so they had a copy of them too.

This is a layout I did with some of the party photos:

Libby & Gavin's Wedding Day Slideshow

This is a slideshow I did of my beautiful niece Elizabeth and her gorgeous husband Gavins' wedding day which was in October last year.
I have only just sent them their hard copy and I'm not sure if it's arrived yet or not, so I don't know if they've seen it.
I wish I could be a fly on the wall when they watch it - because that is where I find my greatest joy - in their joy. So Libby and Gav if your reading this - I hope you loved it, because it was made with so much love for you both. I am a very lucky aunty to have you in my life and for you both to love me so much - a big fat MWAH to you. Aunty Jose xx

I also just wanted to give my gorgeous friend Joanne a big thank you for the beautiful comment she left after reading my 'first post'. Thank you for always being there for me and for being such a big support and for believing in me so much. I love you. xx

My first post

I've wanted a website for so long now, so that I could showcase and advertise the work that I do and that I'm passionate about. So since October last year I have been in the process of having one created by one of Joe's (my husband) cousins, Luke. It sort of got a good start and I was so excited about finally having somewhere to call 'home' for my 'creations' - but the progress has slowed somewhat and I'm not sure when it will be finished, so in the meantime this is where I am going to call home to 'my stuff'. I really want to say a huge thank you to Luke for the time and effort he has spent on the website and maybe one day we'll get that little sucker finished!

So that leds us to here! I really don't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner, because I've been visiting scrapbooking sites for nearly 2 years - never really putting 2 and 2 together - until now that is.

I’m in the process of starting up my own business called ‘Personalised Anything’ designing & printing greeting cards - birthday/anniversary/baby/baptism/Christmas etc. Invitations - birthday/wedding/engagement, etc as well as personalised keepsakes – designed for you chocolate wrappers and as a sideline - scanning photos/slides to disc and dvd production of slideshows for weddings, funerals etc…..

So welcome to all who enter. I really hope you enjoy your visits here and if there are any services I can provide for you, please let me know and I will be thrilled to assist or just drop me a line and give me some feedback. It would be great if you could pass the link on to all your friends as well.

- my brochure -

- samples of my work -

This is a card I made for my Dads 70th birthday last year.

I love going through all our old photos and breathing new life into them.

They tell such a story so it's a shame to have them forgotten in a shoebox under the bed.

Welcome baby in a wonderfully unique way -

These chocolate wrappers are a custom made, fun way to commemorate the arrival of a special little person into the world. It makes a great gift and a beautiful keepsake. On the back of the wrapper you can tell a story of their arrival, giving specific details, like when contractions started, what the weather was like etc...

They are also a unique gift for Christenings and Baptisms.

Wedding DVD cover and CD label for Slideshow –

You can order a beautiful record of the day of your wedding. Each photo is enhanced to get the ultimate feel of nostalgic romance.
Then you choose the song/s that you want playing in the background. It could be a song/s played during the ceremony or anything you wish.
This would also make a great anniversary gift to capture and bring back memories of your speical day.

In Memory DVD cover and CD label for Slideshow -

In the saddest time of our lives, we want so badly to keep the memory of our lost loved one alive. A slideshow showcasing their life, to be played during their funeral service, documents their achievements, the people they met and loved, cherished pets, their passions. Backed by meaningful music, it is a perfect way to say farewell and thank you. It would make a cherished keepsake that can be past down so they are forever remembered.

I hope I get better at doing this - it's taken the better part of the weekend to get this far.
Love and kisses - Joanne