Times up....almost...

Well our time here in Tuvalu is almost over. Day 14 is here and we fly out in 3 days...to Fiji for a week!! I have to admit that I won't be happy to leave Tuvalu. I could quite happily live here...not just because it means I would no longer be separated from Kerry....but because I love being here. Although a completely different way of life to what we have back in Australia the sheer simplicity of the way of life here is extremely appealing to me.

Anyway enough of my ramblings I have been trying for a while to get photos uploaded and FINALLY I have been able to do it....so on with the show....

Kerry and Kaitlyn beside a piece of WWII machinery left behind to rust



While standing on a wharf looking out over the lagoon I got this photo of a rain shower happening over the Lagoon.....


........yet when I turned 90 degrees to my left this was the view...... a perfectly sunny day..



Looking ocean side of Funafutti





Kerry and Kaitlyn snorkeling in the Lagoon....




A kinda "classy' pig pen.......



....and a NOT so classy pig pen!!!

The water here is beautifully crystal clear....




This is photo was taken on the causeway between the ocean on the right and the lagoon on the left......

...and this is the causeway taken while we were out on the Lagoon....

Still in Paradise.....and loving it!!

Well it's been 9 days since I wrote anything on my blog but I do have an excuse....I'm living in Paradise!!! Yup still here in Tuvalu and loving every minute!!! Things here are sooo laid back and easy going that I really haven't done a lot. We get up in the morning and decide what we are going to do. Sometimes we go out in the rec boat but most days are spent here in the compound just kicking back. We go swimmimg out the front of the compund in the Lagoon which is bliss in itself. Meal times are a bit slap happy here....breakfast about 10 am, lunch about 2pm and dinner anywhere from 7pm onwards.

Speaking of food we recently had a couple of food boats come in so we have done some grocery shopping. Amongst our finds were Tim Tams which hadn't melted into one big lump, eggs, butter, cheese, yoghurt...yes yoghurt but for me the best find was vine ripened tomatoes!!! Mmmm we only bought 2 as they are $12 a kilo and they were transported home and reverently placed into cheese and tomato sandwiches!!! You see here in Tuvalu nothing food wise is ever a constant so when you can get stuff, even toilet paper, you stock up on it. Kerry has a HUGE freezer so he is able to buy in bulk when stuff is available. Of course you won't find everything in the one place so you have to go around to nearly all the little shops and fusi's on the island to find food stuffs. There is no Woolies or Coles or anything resembling a supermarket like we are used to in Australia!!

Speaking of food there is nothing in Tuvalu along the lines of Fish and Chips, KFC, Hungry Jacks, Pizza Hut, Subway or MacDonalds. However there IS takeaway avaliable in Tuvalu and here it is:


Solomai Fast Food Restaurant!!! It doesn't look like much from the outside....and the inside isn't much better, it has dirt floors, BUT the food is good, hot, tasty and cheap!!! For around $5 you can have a choice of chicken, beef or pork cooked in several styles with rice or noodles!!

I haven't been totally non functioning while here in Tuvalu I have managed a couple of digi layouts. This one I have done for the Digi Chicks blogs challenges for this month:



This one was made with papers and elements from Sweet Blossom Designs "Birdsong" and "Butterfly Kisses" Kits. I do have another one that I have done but at the moment my net connection is really slow and posting photos is like pulling teeth and really slow so I'll post them probably later tonight when the net here isn't so busy.....

Talofa........ We have arrived in Tuvalu

Well folks we have finally arrived in Tuvalu...two hours late and minus my suitcase!!! Yup as I type here my suitcase is currently languishing down in Suva! it seems that there is no aviation fuel left here in Tuvalu so the planes have to carry extra fuel to make the return flight to Suva. In order to do this they decided to leave baggage behind so that they wouldn't be over weight. Unfortunately my case was one of the ones removed from the plane!! Fortunately Kaitlyn's suitcase was left on board so at least she has some clothing to wear!! So Kerry has been washing my one set of clothes every night for me. We are hoping that my case will be on the flight that comes in on Thursday if not it won't be here until Tuesday!! Ironically the Prime Minister of Tuvalu and his wife were on our flight and his wife's case was also left behind and word has it she is none too happy about it. We are currently awaiting a supply ship to arrive, hopefully on Sunday, with food and fuel supplies...

That little hiccup aside our trip up was pretty uneventful....not much has changed and it was nice to meet up with a few familiar people from our last trip. There is a new "addition" to those of us living in the compound since our last trip up here...."Bella" is now the resident rat catcher in the compound!! She is a gorgeous tabby coloured cat who has beautiful green eyes that look to big for her head. The boys have adopted her and now she lives in luxury by Tuvaluan standards for cats!! She is fed regularly, has someone nice to sleep and she is extremly affectionate. Of course NONE of the boys will admit to liking her that much but all three make a fuss of her when they think no one is looking. Sometimes she gets fed up to 3 times a day by them...talk about softies... On the down side being that there is no vet here in Tuvalu Bella is now expecting another litter of kittens, possibly while we are here in Tuvalu. Kaitlyn adores her and we had to go out and buy Bella a new food and water dish !!!

I'm hoping later tonight I might have a bit more net speed so I will try to post up some photos that I have taken since we have been here.....

The FINAL week!!!

Yep the FINAL week is here...til Kaitlyn and I fly off into the wide blue yonder for the distant shores of Tuvalu!!! It will take us 2 days of travelling as there are only 2 flights a week into and out of Tuvalu so everything has to be coordinated around them!! We leave here in the wee hours of Monday morning and fly to Sydney. Then we have a 6 hour wait for our next plane which takes us to Tuvalu. We then get to spend a night in Fiji at the Mecure Hotel, which I can really recommend, and then in the morning a 30 minute flight to Suva, then finally the last leg of 2 1/2 hours to Tuvalu!!! Fortunately Kaitlyn is the consumate international traveller nothing phases her. As long as she has a book and her Nintendo DS she is all set!!!

The creation of digi LO's for Kerry is in full swing here is one I did last night of Kaitlyn and her beloved Patchie!! Patchie is my younger brother, Patrick, and from the time Kaitlyn could talk she has never called him Uncle Patrick, he has always just been Patchie....and I think he always will be. Anyway she idolizes him and the ground he walks on....

This LO was done using the Princess of Pop kit by Sweet Blossom Designs and the word art is by Bethany....

Just before Bed Time....I like to.....

....sit and have a little play with Photoshop!! Well it's certainly different to having a cup of warm milk!!! I find it very relaxing and it helps to slow my brain down after a very busy day. I can sit and fiddle and experiment with this and that and funnily enough I talk to myself a lot while doing it. Comments such as "Oooooh thats what that clicky thing does" and "WOW I'll have to do that" can be heard on a regular basis coming out of our computer room. However I have to make sure I write notes to myself on how I did things because guarantee that when I want to use and effect/brush/font etc I'll forget how/what I did!!!

Anyway my latest efforts aren't digi layouts I have been playing with effects you can get with photos and here is one of the first things I have been and am still playing with:

If you look very carefully the words Love You are cut out and you can see the photo in them. I found the most amazing tutorial while trawling the net on how to do this. You can check it out here:

http://simplyshayla.com/2009/01/photoshop-tutorial-picture-wordart.html

Ok the other thing I have been playing with is creating word art...you know the word thingies to use on your scrapping either digital or paper...ok look here's an example of what I have been doing:

Or here is one of my first efforts:

Now all things going well once I come back from my Tuvaluan holiday....mmm 3 weeks in the tropics...I will be full bottle on word art and have created a stash of WA to post on here that you folks can download for free....

Ok time for a gripe. We are ALL aware of the body image problems our youth of today have especially our teenagers...but I really do have to wonder what clothing manufacturers are thinking. Do they just go "yeah that looks like a size whatever" and make up their own sizes??? My DD is only 7 1/2 and is already getting mixed signals about her 'size'. In her school uniform she takes a size 8 child in everything dresses, shirts, sports gear etc, which is about right for her age. However buy her clothing from Big W she needs to have a size 12!!! Best & Less she needs to get a size 14 child and Target and K-Mart she takes a size 10 childrens!!!! Talk about a mixed messages!! I bought her some clothes recently from BigW as they had marked down their summer stock for clearance and when she saw the size she wanted to know if she was getting fat because I had to buy her a size 12!!! I ended up showing her that the t-shirts were the same size as her sports shirt from school which are a size 8!!!

Talk about unfair...thoughts anyone????

I knew I would forget something!!!

Well I knew I would forget to tell/and show you something.....Here is another digi LO I did today....

This LO was actually inspired by the word art (taken from Twilight) which was made by a very talented lady called Bethany. She does some really fantastic word art and has something for just about EVERY ocassion that you could think of!! You can check out her blog and her word art freebies here:

http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.com/2009/03/sing-all-night.html

The rest of the digi came from yet another Sweet Blossoms Designs Kit called "always in My Heart"

So busy....

Geeze I tell you at the moment all my days are blending together as we rush headlong ever closer to taking off to see Kerry in Tuvalu!!! I have lost several days so if anyone has found them can they please send them back home!!!!

Well not a lot of 'real' scrapping at the moment but here are two LO's I did for Challenges over at Hybrid designs.

The first one is Challenge 6 in the Survivor Series which was "use at least 3 different PPs on your LO, AND choose a motif (leaf or shell) to use somewhere on your LO."

My second LO is one from the Hybrid Cyber Crop held last Friday night. This one was fiendishly thought up by Toni the Wonder DT!!!! Her challenge was "1. ONLY 5 embellies on the page, and at least one must be a charm (you can have more if you want) -alphas do NOT count as embellies.2. use as much CS and PP as you like unless it is cut to make an embellie, then it gets counted as one of the 53. use a photo of someone you are lucky to have in your life.
So here is my entry

The other thing I have been playing with is of course Digi Scrapping. this is so when I go to see Kerry I don't have to lug lots of supplies with me. Here's one I have done just recently:

I created this Digi from a kit called Butterfly Kisses from Sweet Blossom Designs.

Not a lot else has happened but keep tuning in for the next installment

Bah Humbug!!!!!

Nope not a reference to Christmas but to the bout of food poisoning I have just been through!!! I felt as though I wanted to die!! But I was soooo grateful that Kaitlyn didn't suffer the same fate....for 2 days I didn't dare venture far from the toilet or the bucket and the whole time Johnny Cash's song "Ring of Fire" kept rolling around in my head!!! However I am now on the mend.....

I have beeen busy doing a few LO's the first one for you to feast your eyes on is one I did for Hybrid Designs Survivor challenge. We weren't allowed to use any PP or bling or bought embellishments of ANY kind. So I opted for a primitive look and used no scissors at all. Everything on the LO, bar the journalling, was hand done including the FAMILY and arrow which I painted free hand.

I have also been dabbling with some more Digi LO's. This one was created using several kits from Sweet Blossom Designs.....

We are now only 23 days...and counting....from leaving for our holiday to go and see Kerry!!! I have been busy with sorting out clothing for Kaitlyn and I and just about done...although trying to buy clothing suitable for the tropics in Autumn here in Australia has proved a bit of a challenge!!! I have also been busy creating Digi LO's for Kerrys photo frame but I want most of them to be a surprise for him so I will only put up a few of them every now and then here as I know he reads my blog!!!

He, Kerry that is, has submitted his shopping list to me most of which I now have in my possession!!! Check out what he has asked for:

UHT cream - yes you can get long life cream!!
Parmesan cheese
2 Mitchum BO Roll ons
2 Africa Body sprays
block percolater coffee
peppermints
resealable bags
freezerbags
chocolate - Cadburys
cheesecake mix
skintastic 2 big bottles
multivitamins - due to lack of redily available fresh fruit and veg

So that should keep him happy for a while....no doubt though he will find something at the last minute for me to get.....

Well thats about it for now folks thanks for stopping by.......

I think this Digi Scrapping is a bit of all right!!

Well I have done another 2 LO's using digi scrapping!!!

It would appear that I have a bit of a knack with this form of scrapping....but I still prefer the old fashioned way of scrapping....

I do have a Digi Project cooking in my head at the moment though......Kerry loves to see all the LO's I do so I thought I might just do a heap of Digi LO's for him and load them onto a digital photo frame so he can have that in Tuvalu after we are gone.....

Toni the wonder DT has promised to now teach me how to use brushes in digi scrapping so that will help a lot and expand my capabilities. I spent most of today looking around the net and it was unbelievable how much free digi scrapping stuff there is out there if you look for it....

Well here's a first....

....yup today I completed my very first digital LO thanks to the AMAZING Toni the DT over at Hybrid. Toni spent ages preparing a Digi class for those of us who had never done or attempted digi before and it wasn't as painful as I thought it might be.

While I am really pleased with how it turned out real life scrapping will always come first for me. However now that I have learnt how to do this it has solved a dilema for me which was how to get some scrapping supplies up to Tuvalu with me...now I can just take them all on a disk!!! So I will have to go and round up some more supplies from on the net....

Time is marching by......

......which means it is getting closer to Kaitlyn and I departing to go to Tuvalu to see Kerry. Ok ok now I know that some of you are still wondering where and what is Tuvalu so tonights blog is going to be devoted to Tuvalu....

The name Tuvalu means 'eight together', although the country is made up of 9 islands. The most southern island of Niulakita, however, is not permanently inhabited.

Tuvalu is one of the world's smallest independent nations, comprising nine low-lying coral atolls with a total surface area of 26 square kilometres dispersed over 1.3 million square kilometres of the central Pacific.

Formerly known as the Ellice Islands, Tuvalu became independent from the United Kingdom in October 1978 however they remain a part of the Commonwealth as they are a Constitutional Monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. Kerry, Kaitlyn and I had the honor of being guests at Tuvalus 30th year of Independance Celebrations last year.

The map below shows where Tuvalu is in relation to Australia....

The island of Funafuti is the main island of Tuvalu and this is where Kerry is based. this is where the only way in or out by air is located and the bi weekly arrival of the plane, on Tuesdays and Thursdays is a major social event...everyone turns out for it....

Funafuti International Airport

The people are very friendly and are always ready with a smile and a nod. I should point out that in Tuvalu the main form of greeting is 'The Nod"....something you learn to master very quickly.

One thing that is immediately noticable as being absent is ATM's, there are no EFTPOS or Credit Card facilities anywhere withing Tuvalu. So everything is cash based. They do have their own currency however all Australian currency is also legal tender within the country. There are no 'shops' like Woolies, Coles, Target or Kmart. There is a thriving network of Fusi's which is the equivelant of our corner deli with food supplies coming in on a fairly reqular basis by shipping container. Fresh fruit and veg is not a sfreely available as here and fresh milk is not available at all. Powdered milk or UHT milk is the only source of milk available.

Tourist wise there are around 1200 visitors to the country each year.

The lifestyle is certainly like nothing that I had ever experienced before and I have to say I really did enjoy my last trip there. Nothing happens in a hurry and Kaitlyn got to experience a freedom of which she can't have here. I could let her play out the front knowing she was safe without myself or Kerry having to be there. If I had to name one thing I really missed it would probably be access to my scrapping stash. I managed to take over 350 photos while there for 2 weeks....so you can bet I will probably come back with even more photos this trip....it is a little piece of paradise on Earth.

For more info in Tuvalu check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu . I'll leave you with a few more photos from Tuvalu......

Funafuti from the Air. Sunrise in Tuvalu

Beautiful waters to swim in. Princess in Paradise

Water Babies.......

Found My Mojo today....

Well looks like I have finally found some Mojo....I got 3 Design Team challenges done for over at Hybrid today. The first one was a pretty basic one from Toni which was to scrap about Back To School.You can do the LO on your kids, your job, or memories of your own school days:

The next one was from Maria which was to use up your scrap's At least 4 different kind's of paper's layered, 2 different kinds of alphas, 2 lots of bling or pearls and rhinestones and2 photo's of something that you can't get by without:

...and the final challenge I did for Feb was from Ann which was do a LayOut One photo of something you love, use 2 embellishments that you love to use (remember only two types of embellishments but you can use as many of the two types as you like, add some hand journalling and bling.....colour choice is up to you...you can use pp...lace....ribbons as back ground.

Finally the Silent Auction in aid of the Victorian Bushfire Appeal is under way over at Hybrid and there is some great stuff up for auction so go on head over there and have a look ....you can find the link on the side of my blog....

Major Mojo Block!!!

Talk about having a MAJOR Mojo block this past week!!! It really was the last thing I needed....I had a LO to get done and what I was seeing and what I wanted the LO to look like were two completely different things!!! I FINALLY got some Mojo flowing about 2 hours ago and got my LO up in the gallery at Hybrid with a couple of hours to spare!!! The challenge this week was "What did you Survive" and I ended up changing my mind several times and eventually came up with this LO...

Today has been a rather busy one for me...I had to do some running around for Kerry getting stuff to take up to him in April, I finally sold our old white station wagon, I bought a new lounge/sofa bed for the family room as the old futon lounge is going to a new home next week, went to the dentist and did some grocery shopping!!!

We have a long weekend here in WA this weekend so I am hoping that the Mojo will keep flowing as I need to finish my DT monthly challenge LO's which have to be up by midnight tomorrow. Fortunately I have these laid out so it is now only a matter of sticking them all together....Kaitlyn has a couple of play dates so she will be occupied...I may also end up taking her to the beach dependant on the weather.....

A mixed bunch today

Well today has been pretty much your average day.....HOWEVER..... Today is the first day of Lent, also known as Ash Wednesday on the Church Calendar, and I was so very proud to watch Kaitlyn do a reading at the Liturgy of the Word service this morning. She walked up to the podium, opened her order of service and then proceeded to do her reading without looking at it once!! Yup she had memorized the whole thing!!!!

Today I also received the photos of Kaitlyn taken for her dance concer last year and let me tell you it is hard to remember she was only JUST 7 at the time they were taken!!! Here take a look at a few of them.....

See I told you she looked gorgeous!!! Not that I would be biased or anything.....well OK yeah I am biased but I am allowed to be......you can be sure that these photos will be turning up in some LO's very, very soon!!!

Have you ever gotten the muchies and maybe fancied a bit of chocolate cake???. The following recipe was posted over at Hybrid Designs Forum recently by "rainbowdolphin".

DANGEROUS 5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.

Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

I have to admit that I have yet to make it as I haven't had the urge for cake but I have got the recipe on the fridge!!!

Well thats it for today folks so wherever you may be take care...........

Time to Dig Deep and other musings

Take the time to have a read of the above message folk......yup the Crew over at Hybrid (you can find the link on the side of my blog) have decided to pitch in and help out...lots of GREAT goodies have been donated and will be up for grabs so go on over and have a look and make a bid. I'm also going to post the above ad on the side of my blog and you can just click on that as well to take you to the Hybrid Forum.

As for me well my MOJO (scrapping juices) has been on the low side this week...I only managed to get 3 of the 4 Cyber Crop layouts done....apologies to Maria for not getting hers done...but no matter what I tried the MOJO wouldn't flow!!! Heres the three I did manage to get done....

People often ask me how do you do scrapbooking??? The thing with scrapbooking is that there is no right or wrong way to scrap. Each scrapper has their own style but most are open to trying something new. I look at some of my earlier attempts at scrapping and I shudder with horror but I still keep those earlier layouts as they show my progression within this hobby. The other thing I like about scrapping is that it doesn't HAVE to be chronological. In other words unlike a photo album where you try to get some sort of time continuity happening you don't have to do that with scrapping. For example the album I have done of Kaitlyn jumps all over the place time wise. One page may be of her as a newborn and the next as a 7 year old.

The other side of scrapping is what is called OTP, or Off The Page. With OTP it is literally that. You aren't scrapping on a 12 x 12 inch square of paper but you are scrapping an object. It could be a cup, photoframe, a mini album the list is endless...heres a couple of OTP items I have done.......





This one is a Kaisercraft Tag holder that I painted and papered....yeah I know I have to finish the tags but you get the idea......



...and this one is a plaque which sits on a small easel that I picked up from Ikea. So the possibilities are endless....lets not forget a few blog posts ago I showed you a computer I had scrapped recently!!!!








Other non scrap news this week is that Kaitlyn and I are set to go to Tuvalu in April to see Kerry. Tickets and everything have been comfirmed etc so we are now counting down to take off!!!! Kaitlyn has well and truley settled in to her new school and is enjoying it immensly. She has also started dancing again and is now doing five classes a week. Hip Hop, Jazz Ballet, Jazz Acrobatics, Classical Ballet and a private lesson learning a dance which will be performed at their end of year concert in November. How she does it or where she gets the energy from beats me but she loves to dance and so far so good.....and yes she is sleeping well at night. Well speaking of sleep time for me to hit the hay.......

Scrappers Rock

WOW!!! Scrappers really do rock!!! If you haven't already go and check out Sarah Gladmans blog!!! She is behind the The Memory Gifts Project for those affected by the Victorian Bushfires. At this point in time she has 10,000 , yes you read that right, 10,000 LO's promised to her which means EVERY family affected WILL receive an album. No one will miss out...so go girls and keep scrapping....

Blasted alarms and other stuff

Blasted alarm didn't go off this morning...someone should blow alarm clocks up...don't know why but it didn't...anyways I didn't get out of bed until 8-15am this morning which is really late for me!! So it was a mad dash to get Kaitlyn fed, dressed and out the door for school but she made it in time as her school is only 2 mins away by car!!! Speaking of school Kaitlyn started at a new school this year. Since she was 3yo she has been going to our local Montessori school which Kerry and I think is a great way of educating your children....however due to multiple reasons we felt that we should look at putting her into a different school for this year. So Star of the Sea was the school we chose and she is LOVING it!!! Heres a couple of pictures of her in her summer uniforms:

The last photo of her shoes and socks she insisted that I take to show Daddy what her new shoes looked like!!!

Ok Hybrid Designs (you can find the link on the side of my blog) are holding a Silent Auction in aid of the Victorian Bushfires Appeal. All things going well it will be held on the 28th Feb. So if you want to pick up some really good stuff/bargains at auction it might just be worth your while popping in to have a look.....I'll keep you updated on whats happening as soon as I get some more details from Mel the wonderful owner of Hybrid.....

Which leads me to my latest efforts in the Survivor competition being held over at Hybrid at the moment. We had to make a postcard to send home so here is mine:

Challenge 4 has just been posted and I have just about finished this one so once it is done I will post it here....

Well not long now until Kaitlyn and I take off into the big blue yonder again to go and see Kerry all the way up in Tuvalu...16 days of almost total isolation on a tropical island followed by 7 days in Fiji with Kerry and Kaitlyn!!! Kaitlyn is a brilliant traveller taking it all in her stride including a 6 hour delay on one of our flights last time we went overseas!! Mind you she had her first plane trip at 9 weeks of age and we drove from Cairns in FNQ to Perth in WA when she was a newborn due to a change in posting so travelling is nothing new to her. She is quite happy to go on a plane by herself to go and see Nanny in Tasmania which she normally does once a year...in fact she is starting to do so much travelling that we have enrolled her in the Virgin Blue Velocity Program and she is quite chuffed with the fact that she has her OWN card with HER name on it and she can earn points to buy "stuff" with!!

Anyway folks thats enough of my ramblings, things to do and people to see today...have a good one!!!