Layouts. Routine. 5 habits.

Belinda has officially kicked my phat royal bum to update my blog. I've run out of excuses .... so all I can say is sorry. I really really am. Please, someone push me to update my blog when you are sick of coming back and seeing the same old post from a month ago?

Firstly, I'll share some layouts (to make peace). These layouts were done at the Scraptacular retreat in mid July. I don't know... just feel that I am a bit out of touch, they are not very inspiring layouts to me. So .... ordinary? But anyway... here they are. Most of them need journaling (which I haven't had time to do)....















And some cards.... *insert embarrassed emoticon*




Anyways... let's change a topic. While you are badgering me for not updating my blog, I think I've come up with a tiny little excuse. I have been blogging... just not my own blog.... but here... Aussie Scrapbooking. There are many Aussie scrapbookers, including Ruey Enanoria, Mistra Hoolihan, Lee Scott, Sarah Pearcy, Karen McLauchlin, etc etc, who are contributing to that website with a lot of light-hearted articles about scrapbooking. You can easily subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on SUBSCRIBE on the top panel, and you'll be getting notification of new updates on the website.

So ... I have gone stamping mad lately. No, let's rephrase.... I've gone stamp-shopping mad lately. Stampin' Up new ones from the mini catalogue, Stampin' Up old ones from eBay, Studio G, Inkadinkadoo, Autumn Leaves... and even some made to order stamps too. Not to mention, lots of CHA new buys.... ooops, hubby better not be reading this!

I think I have finally settled down and become a typical school mum. Crawl out of bed a 7am, wake the kids up, make breakfast for them, get their uniforms ready while they are eating, nag at them to quickly eat their breakfast, go brush my teeth and get changed, make their lunchboxes, nag at them to eat their breakfast again, nag at them to brush their teeth and get changed, nag at them to hurry up, comb and tie Ellen's hair, get them to put on their socks and shoes, out the door at 8.15pm. Most of the time, I'll do grocery shopping after that and run any other errands. By lunch time, I have to go pick Phaedon up from kinder, come home and have lunch, then out again at 2.30pm to do school pick up. This is not including the other activities we do. Mondays and Wednesdays, we go straight to Tae Kwon Do from school pick up for both kids, on Wednesdays, Ellen has CPCA (drama/singing/dancing) lessons while Phaedon does TKD. Saturday mornings are TKD again. You like my daily schedule? LOL... I know many of you probably have busier schedules than me, but hey... I'm sure you started off like me too, struggling to get the 24-hour clock work for you. There are things I enjoy out of this though.... I like the gas-bagging I get to do with the school mums and the TKD mums while we wait for our children. I enjoy the adult interaction and the friendships we made.

Kids were sick for about a week leading up to the Olympics ... the longest they have ever been sick for. Constant fevers which we could do nothing about but dosing them up with Nurofen, Panadol and lots of hugs and kisses. Needless to say, I was stuck at home for a week. By the end of the week, supermarket shopping sounded like a holiday! Then one day, they started arguing and fighting over something, and I started yelling. Then I realised... life is back to normal now.

Anyways, enough of this 'days of my life' stuff. So I was doing some supermarket shopping today, and I thought of a fun thing to do. I'll tell you 5 things about my shopping habits, in case you don't know me well enough yet, just so you can have a good giggle what goes on in my head, hahaha...

1. Buying beans - I am a picker, not a grabber. Seriously, I see people just grab bunches and stuff them in the bag. I mean, don't you want to get just the good ones? So yes, I stand there and pick bean by bean.

2. Buying mandarins - I will pick each mandarin and weigh it in my hand, the heavier it is, the juicier it is. I hate mandarins that are dry enough to soak up Murray River.

3. Buying eggs - I will open the carton, push the flap out (has to be out or this won't work), put the cover back on (with flap outside) , tip it so all the eggs get turned onto the cover, open the carton from the bottom, to check that all eggs are perfect, close the carton, flip it back so all the eggs land back into their slots, open carton, push the flap back in, then finally close / lock it. If there is an imperfect egg, or if any egg is stuck in its slot, I will not buy that carton, move on to the next carton and repeat the QC.... hehehehe

4. Unit pricing - I will stand there and calculate which is a cheaper option to buy - the 1kg or the 1.7kg washing powder, the 375g or 500g tub of butter, the 2kg or 3kg packet of sugar. Miser? No way... :) :) :) Wait till you read the next one...

5. I may go into the supermarket with a 'list' of things to buy. But I will still have to go through every aisle in case I miss something. So the 'list' is never just a 'list'. Even my 5yo son knows, 'the list'. He'll ask me before I start shopping,
"Do you have a list?"
"Yes"
"How many things?"
"Just 5"
He'll literally count the number of things I put in the trolley. If it goes over 5, he'll start complaining... "But you said 5!!" I swear my hubby trained him to spy on me.

OK... my dinner is here. Gotta go.... blog again soon! :D