The Blind Side

What better way to spend a windy sunday afternoon than at the movies. We went to see the new Sandra Bullock movie, The Blind Side and it was fantastic!! I think one of the best movies I've seen for awhile.

The movie tells the remarkable true story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American boy from a broken home who is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle. http://www.rottentomatos.com/

I spent most of the first half of the film close to tears, its impossible to not empathise for Michael especially when you see the down-trodden Memphis project areas juxtaposed with the clean white neighbourhoods. Seeing how gallantly he perservers, pushes through and survives through life is such a fantastic true story. Sandra Bullock is fantastic in the role of LeighAnne Touhy- I'm not surprised she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Leading Actress, definately the best role I've ever seen her in.

If you get a chance, definately go see The Blind Side...and take the tissues with you!!!

Hope you've had a lovely weekend,

xx Lauren

Prima's up to something!

Theres a big secret over at Prima...

Go and check the sneek behind the purple curtain and have a go at winning an awesome prize :)

xx Loz

Scrapping Challenge

Danielle has set this weeks challenge on The Boxx to create a layout using a handcut (scissors only) title and some book paper. Seeing as I'm tending to create with an arty influence this challenge seemed very fitting.

A brand new baby & such tiny toes. How could we not fall in love with Mackenzie.

Photo Dec 09

I raided Tatum's stash and found some My Minds Eye Life Stories, put the white paint on with my fingers, add a bit of Cosmo Cricket for a bit of a lift and cut the title from a 1963 copy of Seventeen magazine (the ads in this are HILARIOUS!).  Finished off with the stunning photo of Mackenzies teeny-tiny toes :)

After Sam and I visited the Papercraft roadshow the weekend before last I sat down and created this layout with some of my new goodies...

Mackenzie and Delilah complete Sam and Luke's family- they are prefect! and I feel

so incredibly lucky to share with thema dn watch them grow. Love you guys to very much xx

14.2.2010

Some more cosmo cricket, a page from a Golden Book, a collections chipboard swallow, handstiching and some buttons from my old lady stash to finish off the gorgeous photo of Lilah and Mackenzie :) Thankgoodness I have sisters who a) create the best children and b) take lots of fab photos for me to pinch and scrap :) :)

I have been watching the Winter Olympics whilst typing this out and YAY!!!! Congratulations to Lydia Lassilia for winning a gold medal in the freestyle womans arials :) So very cool.

Happy Thursday

xx Loz

Necklace longing

Oh how I would love love LOVE to own one of these beauties...

Anthropologie...a newly discovered site and so much yumminess to inspire, want and dream of...

Miss Ruby Sue creates the most beautiful necklaces, she made the gorgeous one Liz Kartchner wears and I would dearly love to have one of my own...will just have to drool until I win x-lotto :)

Off to drool a bit more :)

Hopefully back soon to post my recent layouts,
xx Loz

Reading...

I think its in the genetics that I love to read, I always remember my Nana with a stack of books next to her chair, mostly a combination of crime/thriller and recipe books. My mum has always read, mostly romance and books she can escape in and Dad...well dad reads...he just reads really slowly, and he has read some suspect books...including alot of what is on mum's book shelf!! Tatum, Sam and I all read, and I love the fact that we all have the same broad taste in books and share around whats on out bookshelves :) Currently I'm reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, I'm enjoying it and think it probably is worth all the hype. I am curious to check out the movie- just need to finish the book first.

I have always loved magazines, when I was house sharing and had plenty of disposable income I wouldn't blink an eye at buy 5 or 6 different magazines a month. But now that I'm living on my own and back at uni...and scrapping!! I have to curb my spending and only allow myself to buy one magazine a month. I actually went to the newsagent's to buy the new issue of Frankie, but it still wasn't on the shelf (or had sold out already!!) and instead this caught my eye-

Its pretty expensive at $14.95 for a 120-odd page magazine but from having a quick flick through every layout I saw grabbed me and I felt immediately inspired :) I cannot wait till the weekend when I can sit back with one of Tatum's coffee's and read it! One of my biggest weaknesses is recipe books and today I walked past the ABC shop who were having a random 50% sale and bought Feed Me Now! by Bill Granger for $25 :) Love Bill's recipes, they are so easy, delicious and appetising, just the best food really :) I am currently spending a fair bit of time watching the Winter Olympics on foxtel. Winter sports seem soooo much cooler, especially this afternoon...the Men's Snowboard Half-pipe....OMG!! so amazing!! Hope you are having a gorgeous week, xx Lauren

Masters Entry

I wasn't going to enter the 2009 Scrapbooking Memories Masters, honestly believed that I hadn't been scrapping long enough (perhaps 4 or 5 months at that point) to at a high enough quality, but big sister convinced me that I needed to give it ago...and boy I was glad that I did. It was a brilliant challenge, and to receive an honorable mention just BLEW ME AWAY!! Such an amazing high :) What isn't a high, is that fact that Australia Post have lost my entry...never to be seen again. I have tried fruitlessly to ask for help to search for it, but unfortunately its no good :( Anyway, I was searching for a photo yesterday and came across photos of two of my entries, which reminded me that I had never shared them. They aren't the best photos, but they still show what I created. I only have phone photos of my two other layouts, my double is a series of photos of Bastian in the Roxby sand dunes and my mystery project is the published layout. I choose to just create a layout over something otp because I believed thats what I did best, and best showcased me as a scrapbooker :) Delilah @ one is my shaped layout. Using yummy Sassafrass Vintage Yummy, glimmermist, an old book page, lace, prima and of course the beautiful photo of my niece Lilah...all thing I love :)

Walking, talking and creating lots of mischief.

I love hanging with your mummy and watching you grow. July 09

My greatest achievement?, is one of my most favourite layouts. Lots of bits a pieces, my first attempt at sewing on a layout (thanks for letting me borrow your machine T), paint, hidden journalling, plenty of texture, just something that makes me smile :) "To be honest I don't have a greatest achievement- YET!! What I do have is a lifetime ahead of me and many adventures to undertake...I want to finish uni and become an inspiring teacher, I want to find my Mr Right and create a loving home filled with children. I want to grow old gracefully and wise, but most of all I want to be unique, happy and love life ♥ 14.7.2009

So, there you have it two of my four entries. Perhaps one day they might all turn up, but in the meantime time to look forward to this years challenges and plan something bigger and better :)

xx Lauren

New things...

I have been very lucky this week and buying lots of lovely new things...my bank account isn't as happy as me though :) Some loooong overdue new saucepans :) I haven't had a proper set since I stopped house sharing at the end of 2007...I've lived off an ikea saucepan, a hand me down Bessemer pot and an 11litre stockpot...all was fine until the ikea pot had a mishap- cooking everyday foods in a stockpot is not fun!! I've looked at saucepan sets for aggges searching for the right set and HarrisScarfe had a great sale during the week it was too hard to turn down! They are Raco Professional Series, cook on all surfaces and go in the oven...I'm a very happy girl :) A bit of baking... I am DEFINITELY not a good baker...these are oat coconut crisps and taste very nice even if they spread all over the baking sheet!!! Recipe came from Donna Hay Magazine Spring 2009...lots of really great recipes in there, which is an absolute bonus seeing as I bought it for the tea towel freebie!

Chocolate-chip cookies (recipe from Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2) were a better success, and taste very nice :)

My baby sister has moved in for a little while, while she starts a hairdressing course at Clipjoint and we went to Ikea on saturday to find some bits and pieces for her...I found these fabulous wine glasses- they are HUGE!! fish bowl size and really nice to drink out of. The bottle of wine is also very good, a Barossa Valley boutique winery, Murdock make some very yummy wines!

Ikea were having a one day sale in conjunction with HeartKids fundraising and I could not go past this gorgeous cushion for only $25!! I found it online here.Sam and I also went to the Papercraft Roadshow at the showgrounds this morning, I for one spent far far far too much money- but I now have some lovely new bits to play with including 4...yes FOUR!! new glimmermists- they were on sale, how could I not buy any!! It was nice to see all the different products about (there wasn't much pp) but it also kinda sucked...old ladies elbowing you...is not fun!! I also bumped into Lou, which is always a pleasure and seriously can't wait for the E2C retreat...not long now!! :)

I also have a new layout to share...but the paint still isn't dry, so will wait til tomorrow to photograph and upload.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend,

xx Lauren

Layouts

A bit of scrapping... Six is a gorgeous photo of my darling niece Lil and is definitely inspired by Lou, with lots of Blackcherry glimmermist and a bit of florist mesh stuff. I also gave my new sewing machine a bash, testing out different stitches and added a Prima vine to finish it off. One of my favourite layouts I've ever created :) Mumma is based on Inspired Blueprints sketch #39. The photo of Mum and I is in the collection of favourites... I spent an awful lot of time whilst growing up playing with that hat :) I had my first attempt at the swirly flower thingy...they are sooo easy, I really should've had a go earlier.

Thankyou for everything you do for me mum, You are the most

amazing person I know. Love you so very very much, ♥ Lauren

xx Lauren

Lou's sketch

The lovely Lou Nelson is featured member on The Boxx at the moment and has set a sketch challenge. Here's my version-

I have also set myself a challenge- sort of like the project 365 stuff, to take a photo of myself on the 11th of every month this year. Just to record my year is a different kind of way :)

Hope your having a lovely weekend

xx Lauren

Op-shop score!!

I stopped randomly at the op shop this afternoon (well actually I was going to the bakery to get something for dessert tonight and the op shop was next door) and found some fabulous goodies. I found three little golden books...Sleeping Beauty, Bambi and Scruffy the Tugboat for a $1!! A set of alphabet cards, with sounds and words on one side and a picture on the other- for a bargain $2.

And an envelope full of vintage stamps for 50 cents.

Best $3.50 I've spent in a long time!!

Now to tidy up the kitchen table and do something creative with the new purchases :)

xx Lauren

A mini-album

I was very daunted by the thought of creating a mini album, but after pulling out my stack of Piggy Tales albums (thankyou Scrapbooking Memories and a random competition win!) and the massive collection of photos from my trip to Melbourne last year I decided to bite the bullet and just give it a go :)

I first hit the album up with some turquoise jo sonjia paint and then using white paint, went over the top with bubble wrap and my fingers. I kept to a bit of a theme on each page, using the same pp on each page and trying to keep the embellishments co-ordinated.

Click on the photo collage to see upclose and in detail :)

It was a fun challenge, and I don't think it will be too long until I have another go.... photos of baby Mackenzie I think :) Happy Thursday xx Lauren

BDO 2010- a wrap up

I was boarder line devastated when I missed out on tickets to this years Big Day Out... but I definitely lucked out when a friend of a friend sold her ticket via facebook :) :) Best surprise ever! Typically of any concert its next to impossible to take good photos- unless you go with a super cool brother in law (check out Tatum's blog and our Green Day outing!!) My photos are more a record of the day and some of the super amazing bands I was able to see... First up, Bluejuice- sporting some very interesting yellow jumpsuits, "Broken Leg" is such a cool song. They are supposed to be touring Adelaide sometime in the next couple of months and I'm very tempted to go see. Next up we saw Kiss Chasey on the green stage. They were good, we pushed our way reasonably close to the front of stage...close enough to be next to the scuffle/punch up that occurred after a drumstick was thrown into the audience!! Then back down to the main stage and caught the end of Eskimo Joe- such a great band, love their music :) Dizzee Rascal was very cool... just the sort of music to get you up and dancing. And then the reason I was uber excited about this years BDO....LILY ALLEN!!! :) She is definitely a bit of a crackpot and her songs can be down right rude..."Not Fair" anyone?? but she just makes me smile...and is soo very cool. I'm a little disappointed to read (via wikipedia) that she wont be making anymore music after the March commitments- she doesn't think she can create anything better than what she has already produced. My favourite Lily song- Smile. Ahhh...my true love, Powderfinger. They were great, all that I could've hoped for :) As the sunset to classic Powderfinger tunes....

The headline act came on stage...MUSE!!

They were truly amazing, with a fabulous light show, and massive images projected on to the screens. The bass player Chris Wolstenholme is mind blowingly good- I was seriously left a little bit speechless! My only gripe...and I know its a little silly is the fact that there was very little interaction with the audience- it would've been nice for them to at least say hi and thanks for having us or something...

I also caught lots of other bands including the Hilltop Hoods- who are just great on stage, especially when they play in their home town :) They pump the audience right up- so very cool to watch. The Temper Trap- love love love their song Sweet Disposition, am planning to buy their cd on my next trip to JB's. Jet- just as good as when I saw them play support for Green Day (although was a little sad I only caught a little bit of their show- but that's a whole other story). And there was sooo much I missed out on because of all the overlapping...but all in all a beautiful music filled day :)

Can't wait for next year!!

xx Lauren

Wanna Win a Scene

The lovely Leeann Pearce has created some new chipboard and it is GORGEOUS!!

Annnnd shes having a fabulous giveaway too!!

Go and check it out!!

xx Lauren