ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks as there has just been so much going on. I'm not usually one to let things get to me, but holy crap has karma been a little bit one-sided lately and I don't know where it's coming from. As you would have read in recent blogs a friend from the camp committee died, then Taryn re-injured her thumb and went into yet another cast.
On top of that, in the past 5 weeks:

• My computer died, taking with it a good chunk of data on it's main hard disk that finally failed 1/2 way through data retrieval.
• My dad's PSA levels (cancer indicator) went up for the first time in 18 months.
• My washing machine broke and won't spin automatically any more. It gets half way through a cycle and stops, then I have to manually go and restart it to spin out the final rinse.
• I got a bad case of the flu which 3 weeks on is still dragging it's heels to leave me completely.
• Having got my new computer up and running, my modem promptly died.
• During Taryn's performance of Grease, whilst I was working back stage on props, one of my back teeth cracked in half.
• Running late for school drop off on Friday, I got to the top of our street to find I had one very flat tyre, with a huge nail sticking out of it - yip, it was pouring with rain.
• In the weekend just gone, dad was taken into hospital with a gallbladder attack and upon investigation they also found he had a hernia. (He was finally operated on today and should be home tomorrow).
• Jayden was playing on the kids computer and don't ask me what he did, but that just wont even turn on any more now!

So as the title says - Enough Already!

Now onto the positive side - I am truly grateful for all the wonderful things that surely must be coming my way to balance out all this karma. Bring it on!

Oh and I have managed to retrieve most of my photo's, so will be posting the book week photos soon.

King of the Castle

Is what Jayden thought he was over his 7th birthday weekend just gone. He chose a castle cake for his birthday family bar-b-que (decided he didn't want a party? go figure). So do you think I could find blue jelly when I needed it? He had to settle for slimy swamp water in his moat, which kind of suited the crocodile! Taryn put together an entire scene from lego to go on and around the castle, which really made it I think.
Jayden also had a (in his words) fake cake, which was a rugby field, which he took to rugby Friday night (his actual birthday) and had it in the clubrooms after the night game under lights. His team even bought him a present and the manager, bless her soul, put on treat foods for them all. He had a great time.
He was spoilt rotten, getting a new bike (finally - his old one has been broken for several months now, but we were hanging out till the birthday), and electronic guitar (thanks to my lovely sister-in-law that works at Hasbro-Australia), loads of new clothes, a skateboard, books, puzzles and a car that has hydraulic movement (and a whole lot of noise!!! Thanks Steve!!).
Kind of hard to believe my youngest baby is now 7 years old. Where does the time go?

Cast # 7

Not sure if Taryn is going for some kind of record, but this is cast number 7 in 18 months! Of course that sounds worse than it actually is, as the first 6 were only for 2 different injuries.
Well this cast (if it's even big enough to call it that), was to immobilize her thumb. Yes it's the same thumb she broke last year - apparently now a weak spot seeing as the injury was over the growth plate. So this time, no tree root was involved, just an aggressive opponent on the netball court.
I always imagined it would be Jayden that ended up with all the real injuries, but somehow he seems to get away with the all the dangerous things he tries and Taryn gets hurt doing normal stuff!
Well let's hope we can make it through the balance of the year without another cast, or I might have people start questioning her injuries!!!!!

Farewell Brian

Sadly on May 9th, Brian, a valued member of the Camp committee passed away. Brian had worked tirelessly as the committee secretary and had worked on numerous camp matters and was famous for his letter writing abilities (especially to the ARC), among many other things.
It came as such a shock, especially given that in recent months he seemed to be in the best health I had ever seen him in (in my 3 years on the committee). I had just started to discover his wit and sometimes hidden sense of humour. I enjoyed working with someone so dedicated to what he was involved in. I will miss him. Farewell Brian - Rest in Peace.

Camp - A fun workout..

..for my stomach muscles. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much and for so long. Several of us at ScrapCamp had tears in our eyes, were holding our tummies (from the pain of laughing so much) and begging the story tellers to stop. Sylvia put us right over the edge with the story of the 'Down' family and their sons: Bob, Neil, Stan (& I'm sure there was one more but I can't remember), and then their daughter Eider!
Photos to come.
And a wee confession - I fell off the wagon and bought more ribbons. 4 initially, but then in my last overseas order, I brought some boxed sets in for a customer. 3 different themes with 1 yard each of 6 different co-ordinated ribbons per box. Minimum quantity of each design was 3. She bought 2 of each and left the 3rd. They are sitting on my table looking all glorious and inviting. I'm not sure if they'll make it to the shelves!! That was at the end of April and my goal is to try an make it through May without another ribbon purchase.

Hi, I'm Carrie and I'm a ribbonholic!

It's been 13 days since my last ribbon purchase. My addiction started with fibres, but like many addicts, I soon moved onto something stronger and ribbons became my preference.
I didn't really realize I had a problem until trying to find the best method of storage. Those bought by the metre are hung through book rings, but I also had many prepackaged ribbons on small spools. I found containers for these (the clear ones on the left-hand side of the photo), but still have some odd ones to store (that's them in the box in the top left-hand corner).
So how bad is my addiction, well in my defence, not as bad as some I know (eh Tania?), but I counted them and without repeats (of which I have a few), there are 327 different ribbons. Tania by the way has over 400!! She's real bad huh?
Well ScrapCamp is next week and the plan is to use at least 10 different ribbons while I'm there and then be strong and fight the urge to buy more. Perhaps I'll even get really serious about it and give away some of my duplicate pieces? Well, on second thoughts, perhaps I'm not quite ready for that step yet, but soon maybe!

Has it really been that long???

I couldn't believe it when I logged in to post. A whole month has just gone by with no posts - how slack. Well I suppose I just wasn't up to sitting posting about how bad I'd been feeling after the operation - for over a month!!!! Well the good news is I'm finally on the road to recovery. So would I recommend having Endoscopic Sinus Surgery - HELL NO! Apparently (says the surgeon) most people don't have such a rough time - yeah that made me feels heaps better!
Onto to brighter things - School Holidays next week, along with ScrapCamp, followed the next weekend with the Ceramics show. A busy time, but should give me heaps to post about.