Outnumbered

Last but by NO means least.....how low can you go??

So how low CAN you go?

Well Kelly Matthews would have to be the lowest of lows that I have ever met.

Let me set the scene.
Darren completed extensive renovations at Kelly Matthews house. What was supposed to be renovating a bathroom or two turned out to be months of work. More jobs were added on a daily basis which Darren happily accommodated. Late last year we were invited to dinner at Kelly Matthews house were Darren was presented with the letter and confirmation print outs for flights to Queensland for the whole family along with accommodation at Noosa.

The letter reads –
Dear Darren,
Thank you for all your hard work and help with renovating our home. You have done a wonderful job and we would have never got this far without you.
Please accept this gift as a token of our appreciation for your perseverance, commitment and dedication to this huge mission.
We hope that you all enjoy yourselves and get great pleasure from this gift.
Love from Kelly, Kaz, Jackson, Shelley, Bella and Louie
XXXXX

A very generous gesture that was never expected. We were excited and looking forward to the trip, the count down was on – 30th April we were going to Noosa for 7 days.

Recently I booked the hire car along with tickets for all the big theme parks, you can’t go to Queensland with out doing the theme parks right. We had also arranged to catch up with Darren's Dad who lives in Queensland, the kids were looking forward to seeing Grandad - they have only seen him once before.

Anyway with only a week to go before the trip I went online today to Jetstar to check the booking. Using the booking reference number on the print out I added the details only to have it come back with an error….WTF! So I called Jetstar. I was told that the tickets had been cancelled. They were cancelled on 31st March. They were cancelled by ME!!!! There were 2 calls that day in regards to the booking, the second call was apparently from me asking for the booking to be cancelled - the tickets were in my name any cancellations had to come from me. Obviously I never made that call! Kelly Matthews did! I have since found out from the police that it is a criminal offense to impersonate somebody, there are phone records to prove who made the call and Jetstar record the calls for training purposes so they have it in their archives.
There wasn’t much I could do as the money had been refunded.
So now I am left with having to tell the kids we are not going to Queensland. I have to deal with the whys, the tears and the disappointment.

Now I am thinking ‘what if?’

What if I had not checked the booking and just rocked up to the airport next Thursday, kids in tow and luggage. Only to be told that you don’t have a booking.

To cancel the tickets is low enough but to not notify us............well, I think that takes the cake. TBH it was always a thought in the back of my mind. Really shows the type of person she really is, to do that to the kids...........

So my question again…………….how low can you go?

With that I will say goodbye. I am closing my blog when this months billing period expires.
Flat out with the new business. Launch day last Satuday was a huge success so I just don't have the time to post here anymore. You could say that I am moving on :D
So I raise my drink to you all and thank you for reading.
Catchya on the flip side.....MWAH!

PS I will still be hanging on Twitter so feel free to follow me there :)

As promised...

These babies took me ALL afternoon. They aren't as easy as they look.
The cupcakes are the way to go as they were the easiest. Getting the cake to stay on the stick once you dip it is a whole other story though. We had just as many 'flops' (literally LOL) as we did ones that stayed on the sticks. After realizing how hard it was to get them to stay on the stick I opted for the plain look - just sprinkles (I had intended on making the white sprinkle ones into sheep). I managed to make 4 pink chicks though. I did try making one bunny but it looked more like some kind of alien PMSL. I thought I was being clever by using bullets dipped in white chocolate, my other option was to use milk bottles but I thought the bullets looked more like ears. Anyway the evidence of the alien bunny has gone as Darren ate it.......fortunatley for me I hadn't yet taken a photo of it :D I still have 6 or so uncoated cake pops sitting in the fridge so I might have another go tomorrow.
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.
Catchya.

Today is the day

I am off in a minute (or two LOL) to pick up the ingredients to make some cake pops. I have a list of what I want although I am not too sure as to how many of the items I will be able to get :( I think I am going to have to get creative and find substitutes. I will post later with pics of what I create.

Yesterday I went to Crop for Kids with Rach, this is such a worthy cause that I love to support. We sat with girls at Table 4 and didn't bring any scrapping stuff LMAO. We did however manage to complete the challenge by using products from our goodie bags and by borrowing tools and adhesives etc.. from the girls. Managed to spend a bit of $$ at the trash and treasure table, lucky dip, the two onsite shops - Kity Q/Crafty Matters & Scrapanalia and plenty of raffle tickets. Jane from Crafty Matters has been very busy making some new stuff that is super cute, check them out -

or you can check them out HERE.

OK better move my arse :P
I will be back later with a Cake Pop update.

Edited to add : Did you remember to turn your clocks back?

Check out these....

(pics from bakerella.blogspot.com)

How cute are these Easter Pops?
I plan on making some of these over the weekend at some stage. I want to do 2 batches, one for me to play with and one for the kids - they can do what ever they want ;)

I found them over at Bakerella. How clever is she :D

So thought I had better let you know the name of the shop.........April Fools of course LMAO.
Judging by the amount of emails I received you girls were not switched on as to the date :D Sorry but it did make me laugh. I have no love for scrapbooking on that sort of scale...it was ALL sucked out of me, I couldn't think of a worse way to waste money or spend my time. Yes it has left a very bad taste in my mouth and I am bitter, who wouldn't be with all the shit that went on, classes taught using my work (or even worse COPIES of my work)  without my permission, money owed, the list goes on but I won't!

Well I hope you all enjoy your weekend, it is the start of the school holidays here in Melbourne, a time I usually don't look forward to but this time I am. I have a few things planned and I am really looking forward to them.

Catchya.

So what have we been up to???

It has been a week since I last posted and I have been super busy with our new business venture. The last 2 weeks has seen us move forward in leaps and bounds. Early last week we signed the lease for the shop and over the weekend the boys were flat out fitting the shop out. We are looking at an opening date of April 24th and having our Grand Opening celebrations continue over the weekend. We have already received orders from our suppliers and we have been busy entering all the stock into our system. We have also been busy making up samples and display projects.
So what is the name of our Scrapbook shop? I will reveal that in my next post :)

I will leave you with a pic of the shop front BEFORE the boys started work (it's the one in the middle).

The Birthday Boy :)

Birthday, Tags & Stuff.

Happy 12th Birthday Nathaniel.
I was on a mission yesterday (yep, I left it to the last minute as usual) to get Nathaniel the one and only present he wanted for his birthday - Wii Skate It game which also requires the Wii Fit Board. After trying 5 stores and being told new shipments would arrive by the end of next week I was about to give up when I thought I would try the obvious, EB Games, and they actually had them in stock. I should have tried them first, it would have saved me a lot of running around. So Nathaniel is happy - he ended up with 3 new games (JB HiFi has 2 games for $100 at the moment - selected games only) the Wii fit board and a new wardrobe, he was in desperate need of some new clothes much to his disgust. He has shoved them in his wardrobe........wrapping paper included PMSL. I will be back later with a pic of the birthday boy.

Last night I taught a group of gorgeous ladies and had fun playing around with techniques and getting dirty, some more than others.....Jen LOL.
Here are the 4 samples I took along, as you can see the whole pink and red thing is doing it for me at the moment :) I whipped these up during the week as my original tags haven't been returned to me (I figure if after 5 weeks the remainder of my stuff isn't going to be returned to me it NEVER will).
I didn't get home until 2am and have been struggling a bit this morning but all is good, I want to thank Cindy and the girls for having me so Thank You Chix :D

I have a pile of washing to get folded today, I hate washing! well the folding part anyway. Birthday dinner tonight for Nathaniel and the rest of the weekend I have no plans but have a few things I 'would like to' get done.

To finish off here is the word of the day - Plagiarist
You know who you are.

It Arrived.

How quick was that!
It was published/printed on Friday and it arrived this morning. I did pay the extra for the quickest shipping but I didn't expect it to arrive this quick.

I got it in hard cover with a cover slip - IMO it really finishes it off. I am very happy with the results and will definitely be ordering from blurb again :)

I have been busy creating but can't share just yet. It is perfect 'scrapping' weather at the moment, I even put the fire on last night - it was quite chilly here last night. Saturday I went to the Stitches & Craft show with Rach and Linda. It was well worth the visit for us as we were trying to source some products and we did exactly that - very happy with what we found. Also bumped in to Hayley while we were there (waving hi) she was child free and totally enjoying it. We scrapped the night away on Saturday night with lots of laughs along the way, I love hanging with those girls.

In case you are wondering, I deleted yesterdays post in an effort to delete an image I uploaded but unfortunately it didn't work :(  I have since reposted it.

I'm off now - literally, I have a business meeting :P
Catchya

Have you got your ticket yet?

WHEN:
Saturday, 4th April 2009 10am - 5pm
WHERE:
Springvale City Hall
397-405 Springvale Road
Springvale (Melways Map 80 A11)
TICKETS:
Are $30
EMAIL:
cropforkids@gmail.com
ABOUT:
Crop For Kids is a scrapbooking event officially approved by Good Friday Appeal for the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. We successfully raised over $7,500 in 2007 and $12,000 in 2008. We hope to achieve more in 2009.
VISIT:
www.cropforkids.blogspot.com

Technique Tags.

I have been asked by the lovely Cindy to teach a group of girls some 'technique tags' next week. After Tim Holtz did his '12 Tags of Christmas' last year I was itching to have a play with all the cool techniques he used. The tags are the perfect size for having a play and you can use them on your layouts once you have finished. You can check out Cindy's blog for more information.