Hiya!

G'day all! Firstly, for those who have commented on my new banner, I just want to mention that the photos for the banner and the avatar were both taken by the delightful Miss Ardyn. Seriously! She has learnt that if I have the camera on a tripod (and it's set to 'timer'), she can press the button and take the photo after the beep beep beeps stop. She loves it. She makes me sit there and takes photo after photo, and every now and again jumps in front of the camera herself before the beeps stop. Very cute. Gotta love digital photography!

Next I would like to discuss the selection of video clip on my Blog. That too can be attributed to Ardyn. She is SO in love with this song right now. I have to play it all the time, so I thought that I would put it here too as a sort of a tribute to her. She dances around to it, and sings it. It's the most adorable thing to watch. Cal saw it for the first time tonight and had to contain his laughter.

I want to talk babies now. My lovely friend Jane is a week past her due date for bubba #2, and I am thinking of her over the weekend hoping that the bugger decides to come out. And then there's my sister-in-law Melissa who was due today with bubba #4. Hopefully that one comes out over the weekend too. Either way, we will get to see the beautiful ones next weekend when we are in Melbourne. Can't forget the camera on that trip.

And my bub has been a bit of a bugger today. He/she is sitting in the most awkward places today, and causing mummy a bit of pain. I mentioned to Cal that it would be here in about 12 weeks, and it bought the reality of the situation to the forefront for ME! Not Cal, but ME! Damn. That time's going to fly!

Have you seen the latest Dove ad? The one celebrating the beauty of women and girls everywhere? Well over on Ngaire's Blog, she has decided to celebrate this in a way that scrappers do. She's calling it the "Beautiful. Like a Rainbow"campaign. Create a layout celebrating your own beauty.....are you in? At the very least take a self-portrait (or get someone to take your photo). Ngaire will set up an album on her Blog that the portraits and layouts can be loaded to, to show what REAL beauty is. Even if you don't scrapbook, you can still participate with a photo....go on....do it. For your daughter, for your mother, for all the women you love. You know you're beautiful, and so are they - celebrate it.

So, I have been going through my Bloglines and my Favourites to try to work out what links to include on this Blog, and I have come across a couple of Websites and Blogs that I find interesting.

This one I saw on Elsie's Blog - very interesting. Give it a go. Mine was very accurate.

I love this Blog - just an interesting visual record of, well, life.

I will add a couple a day and see if anyone else finds them interesting too.

Oh! I almost forgot! Congratulations to Lisa! I was over at her place yesterday, and I ever so politely (?!?!?) encouraged her to submit a recent layout that she did to the Basic Grey gallery, and it got accepted!!!! Yay!!! Her first acceptance. I'm so happy for her. Check the layout here. "Simple is Good" baby!

Lastly, I have been um-ing and ah-ing for AGES about starting an Art Journal, but I just couldn't get my head around it. I've been a member of Ailsing's Yahoo group for a while attempting to get inspiration and a place to start, but have been procrastinating for, oh, about 8 months now (not unusual for me - the Queen of Procrastination..........hmmmm.......maybe the name of my Blog should change?) Anyway, anyone with an interest in scrapbooking would be aware of the introduction of the idea of Art Journals in recent times. There is a lot of talk of Vivian Bonder and Emily Falconbridge's journal works, as well as Kristina Contes ,Teesha Moore and even the beloved Elsie Flannigan. Well I have FINALLY decided to begin an art journal based on the Blog that was inspired by Ali's 'one little word' challenge back in January. Funnily enough the Blog is called "One Little Word". Check it out if you want. Start a journal. Share with me.

And that's about enough of my nattering. If you're still reading, thanks for sticking it out. No pics to share today, there were enough words. Maybe the next post will be just pics....we'll see.

Be happy.
Kirst xx