Mum and Daughter Moment

I just had to scrap these photo’s and Brenda Kempf’s wk 3 sketch challenge at Scrapbook bytes was perfect for them. We were mooching around this great new mall in Doha called Villagio. My youngest munchkin was sitting on my lap while I tried to enjoy a half cold cup of coffee (yes we have Starbucks here too) and one of the children had the camera. It is unusual for me to be in photo’s let alone caught candidly. We were just chatting, mucking around, and at one point I held her face to let the photo be taken with her being still. You can imagine my surprise when I downloaded the photo’s to the PC and there she is in the next shot holding her own face, She really is a crack up and so much fun.

The Green Tea kit I have used from LaWanna Desjardin is gorgeous and has so many nice touches in the elements..It’s a shame I couldn’t use them all. You can find the layout credits here.

Inside this mall is like a little Venice. All the shop fronts look like houses with the upstairs balconies, open windows and flowerpots. The ceiling is even painted to look like a blue sky with soft white clouds drifting across it, curved down at the edges to fade away behind the roof lines of all the stores.

The main attraction would have to be the little canal, complete with gondola’s maneuvered by traditionally dressed gondoliers, these being serenaded from the sides of the canal by strumming guitarists. The canal wanders through a lovely area of the mall and there are even little steps up and over bridges so you can move easily from store to store. It is a quiet, serene, very pleasant atmosphere.

If you want some noise then head around to another part of the mall. On the way we passed through the echo dome where the dome roof is painted like a night sky with twinkling stars and the munchkins wanted to stay and “echo” all day. Headed to where they have a huge food court and restaurant area. Chai Tea, TGIF, various other places and your usual fast food outlets can be found here. Smack bang in the middle of this area is an ice skating and hockey rink. All set up with score boards and lines marked. It was extra cold in there so it should be a good place to escape the summer heat. Situated right next to the site of the 2006 Asia games, I am sure it will be a great attraction.

Happy Birthday Honey

Hubbys birthday was while we were away and we didn’t do the cake thing. It only took two days being at home before someone asked. We cooked up a nice ginger cake and celebrated again. And what better way to scrap it than with Kim Johnsons “It’s my Party Kit” kit which you can find here.

Credits here

This week…

What an awesome week we had. You might want to grab a cuppa to make it through this post.

Thursday saw us arrive and catch up with our friends. Another lot of friends had arrived from Dubai for the weekend as well, so we all went to dinner at the Marriott. It was a buffet - so the munchkins were in bliss, choosing their favourite foods, going back for more, having deserts before and after main course!! This unusual freedom kept them happy and allowed us to relax and chat for hours. It is an unknown when we will see either of these friends and so it was really special to share this time with them.

Friday up early and try to find the pool. We were going on word of mouth directions. Maps are not real up to date or accurate, not many roads have their names sign posted either, so it took a bit but we found it. A beautiful facility, with everything a swimmer could want.

Yes! The looks on the munchkins faces was priceless…exclamations of “boy! that’s a long pool” and “how am I going to swim that far?” were uttered. Warm ups soon showed them they could. They all swam very well, medals were earned, personal best times were broken and a fun day was had by all. Lunch, which was salad, humus, tabbouleh, other entre’s, a couple of choices of mains, deserts as well as fruit or fruit salad, was also provided - and it was incredible, very tasty and well prepared. Usually the children don’t eat much when competing however it seemed to make no difference as they all ate well.

We went out again to eat in the evening. This time to an Italian resturant called Il Rustico at Rydges. The food was lovely. Most enjoyable was the fresh baked bread and whole baked garlic cloves they brought to the table with balsamic vinegar and olive oil..choose a bit of everything, mix it up on your plate and dip the bread - YUMM!! Then it was farewell to our friends from Dubai.

Saturday was the same routine with the swimming. Two of the munchkins did well, ranking in the top two places overall. Our team also ranked top!

Credits here

We spent most of the next day recovering, and a little time driving around Doha. It is very hot there as well and not much fun in the dust and humidity for sight seeing. Most of my photos are taken out of the car window. The rest of the week was very relaxing, visiting a couple of malls (only place out of the heat), going out to eat for hubby’s birthday and sharing with the friends we were staying with.

Doha is around a bay and quite pretty - when they have finished the 125+ towers they are constructing it will be much easier to navigate and enjoy… roads may be open in the morning, then closed and ripped up by evening due to massive road work and reconstruction going on there as well.

Credits here

Some issues with our car cooling system thermostat kept us there a day extra, however our drive home was uneventful and quicker than the way down when we encountered a lot of sand storms and high winds. Our A/c stopped working for half the way down. This was pretty hard to take in the 45+ celcius heat of the desert.

Being home is always nice..it’s amazing how much you appreciate what you have when you have been away from it for a little while. So that’s it. I will post more layouts and photos over the coming week or so.

Hope you enjoyed your cuppa!

Six Months and a Memorial

We are home late today from Doha. I will fill you in on all that tomorrow.

In memory of my Mum, as it has been six months today since she died in a horrific car accident, I am going to share a layout I did a while back. This layout was done for a challenge at scrapbookbytes.com for their monthly ezine . It was selected and chosen to be published in the April Issue of “Tidbytes“. My first ever layout to be published - I am so pleased it was about Mum. She would have been thrilled for me.

Credits here

See you tomorrow.

Fabulous Facility

Wow!!! Just have to share this photo of the swim facility.

Away for a week.

Off to Doha, the capital of Qatar which is about 5 hours drive southeast of here. We have not been before so it is a real adventure. Driving most of the way there through desert with endless sand, very hot temperatures and not much else. What fun!!! LOL.

All four of the munchkins are competing in an International Swimming competition. The draw to drive that far is for the chance to compete in a 50 meter pool. Here they swim short course 25 meters and have not ever experienced long course swimming. It will be a challenge and I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they actually see the how far it really is. The facility is also indoors and air conditioned - which in the heat we experience here will make a nice change from the last two competitions they were in. Heat stroke is not a pleasant condition to suffer.

I am hoping that the change will also clear up this cough. It won’t budge, however the break, fine company and a change of pace should be just the ticket.

I’ll be back in a week or so with some photos and more layouts to share.

Another flu day!

Even shorter and sweeter than yesterday! Still got the flu, but on the mend. Be back soon

In the absence of much to read here have a look at Decor8..this is one of my favourite new blog discoveries!

Just the Cake

Being sick with the flu is the pit’s. My planned ’something special’ for here is taking longer than I though it would (probably due to a fuzzy head and flu tablets..lol) which means it could be a few more days.

So this is short and sweet today. We attended another pool party - this time a joint birthday party for two 11 year olds. Fun with 40 swimming children! All enjoyed themselves while I got to lay on a sun lounger and watch them having fun. At least I rested, and caught up with a couple of the other mum’s. It was over tea time, so pizza, ice creams and lots of candy from the pinnate filled them up, and I didn’t have to cook either. Yippee…don’t you just love swimming weather!

So anyway - here is the cake from the wrap up party. I am hoping it comes in the correct size now.

Wrap up Party

Today was the wrap up party for the children’s swim team. The major swim season is over and they get a well deserved reward for all their hard work. A pool party of course - complete with blow up jumping slide island, friends and food. A good time was had by all, and I am working on something special to show here in the next few days. In the mean time feast your eyes on the following.

Firstly - a Layout celebrating my son’s success. LaWanna Desjardin’s new kit ‘Cloud Burst’ was perfect for this one
.

Layout credits here

Then a little of the seasons fun.

And finally - some cake!

Sorry - no cake, can’t work out how to get the right size of a straight up photo to fit..lol. And seeing it is after midnight it can wait!

Just for Miriam

I had planned on sharing little by little my crafty space or as it’s know around here “the zone”. I prefer to think of it as my “shabby space”. It is in reality a little balcony that we closed in and took the double slider doors out of. It overlooks the learning zone so we are together..but this is my little patch.

I wondered which bit to share first - as most of it is a mess right about now..lol. Then while reading Miriam’s blog it came to me!

My Little Shelf…started life as a second hand yukky beige shadow box thingy. I threw some spray paint at it to cover the laminate, then added the matt white and scratched it up a bit with an old nail file. Whalla - an altered shelf in my favourite shabby style. Cost - about $10. Now I know it’s not as flash as the one on Miriam’s blog (which I love and would fit in well here..lol) but it does the job! Another part of my altered life.