The life and times of Libby Withnall

Well, it’s been about a while since my last giveaway – and I’ve done it again – this time ordering two of these beauties instead of one.

So one of you lucky readers has the chance to win a Crop-a-dile corner chomper. Unfortuately it’s a bit on the heavy side so this giveaway is only available to my fellow Aussies.

Please leave a comment if you’d like to win a new scrapbook/craft toy and I will draw a winner when I return from holidays on the 2nd December. Good luck!

Todays post is bought to you by the letter “P” or should that be “S” for Shimelle’s Blogging for Scrapbookers class.

Okay, yes I know parking is strange topic for a blog post, but I need to know I’m not alone in my parking habits.

Whenever I go to the local mall I always try and park in the same isle – the one in front the main entrance. I’m sure everyone thinks I do this because I’m lazy but I’m not. I don’t even care which end I park at. I do this so I don’t have to try to remember where I’ve parked the car! Yes, you all know I have a shocking memory so this takes away the worry of losing my car. If I have to park in a different isle I really have to make a note of where the car is so I can find it again. And I have to admit I have a similar strategy for nearly all big car parks – I always park in the same area . Does anyone else do this?

This is not to say I don’t get just a little bit excited when I get a rare spot by the door!!!! No where near enough to stop and take a photo! Well, I did but I was documenting a day in my life .

Here’s the layout – this one took like 10mins!

I find inspiration in a lot of different places – the web, blogs that I read, my fav. mags, nature, my kids, books, TV. They inspire me to live a better life, be a better Mum/Wife, get out there and chase my dreams, work towards my health and fitness goals, learn new skills, give ideas for blog posts and scrapbook layouts, the list goes on.

These days most of my inspiration comes from the blogs that I read – of which there are too many to mention. My favourites can be found in the side bar but today I wanted to share with you those you provide me with almost daily inspiration.

Attic 24 – Lucy not only inspired me to learn crocheting but to embrace colour and look a  life I little differently. She also inspired me to start buying flowers for myself and spreading them around my home. Love this!

The Val Blog – Valerie – of the famous Red Carpet Ready program – inspires me to believe in myself and that making health & fitness a priority in my life is very important. She was also the inspiration behind my green smoothie addiction:-).

Down to Earth – provides inspiration in living a simple life. Rhonda has helped me realize how much I love being a Mum & Wife and running our home with love.

Creative Organising - Aby always has wonderful and inspiring ideas for organising in a stylish and crafty way.

Kath Eats Real Food – Love Kath’s approach to food.  Everything is okay but moderation is key.  She’s been a big role model for me this year and an inspiration to find a way to eat that is healthy and liveable.

Lavender House – A fairly new find for me but I’m just loving this blog. So full of life and inspiring photos.

Be sure to check them out for a dose of inspiration.

Today’s layout showcases the things that I’m lovin’ right now. These things bring me happiness and quite a few were inspired by the above blogs.

Boy, Shimelle sure can challenge us. Today we are supposed to write about one of the most amazing days in our lives. Of course, those of you who know me well know I have the world worst memory for details. Plus I feel I’ve had lots of amazing days and it’s hard to find ones that stand out besides the obvious wedding day and birth days. I had thought about writing about the day we got our first goldie or the day we arrived in Scotland and I saw my first castle. Then there are the recent amazing days that I have already blogged about – walking around Uluru and swimming with whalesharks.

But I decided on the most “cliche” amazing day – well, what I can remember anyway – my wedding day. It was rather a long time ago – nearly 17 years ago and I was just 21 years old.

Okay, here’s what I can remember. It rained. We had planned to be married in the botanic gardens but had to move the location the our reception. Amazingly enough it brighened up enough to get outside for photographs.

I remember being embarassed when the marriage celebrant made us kiss again – because the first one was too short!

I remember feeling like a fairy princess. It was so fun getting hair and makeup done and being fussed over the whole time.

I remember that Kevin & I declared we were doing the wedding shuffle, not the wedding dance.

I remember being made to leave the reception way before I want to.

I remember we got really sore jaws from smiling so much.

I remember not much else….so wish I written down more of the details. Such a shame I wasn’t scrapbooking back in those days.

And here’s the layout to commemorate this amazing day.

With my love of both scrapbooking and blogging how could I not take this class run by Shimelle. Everyday we are to given a blog post idea and a layout idea.

Todays prompt was to talk about our intentions for the next 3 weeks. Mine are to develop new blogging skills, gather ideas for further blog posts and to learn to write better posts, which I can then use for journalling on my layouts. Here’s where the action takes place in my kitchen. Such a great place as it’s the center of the home and I also get to look outdoors as I type away.

For todays layout, I wrote about my history of blogging – which started with my own website (way back in 1997) where I had photos and history of the castles I had visited in Scotland. Today my blog is a place to document about my life, my thoughts and my travels.

I just had to include this cute little sticker – making a slight alteration to my blogs title.

Just a quick note to let you all know I’ve updated my favourite links & created a new Food,Health & Fitness section. If you’ve got a few minutes you might want to explore some of my MUST READ blogs. And if you have any must read blogs please let me know so I can check them out.

Has anyone seen it?  I feel that all my posts lately have been about menu planning, sewing and knitting. I guess life is just moving along and I have nothing very exciting to say at the minute. So while I wait for my mojo to return (maybe I’ll find it in Melbourne next weekend) I was wondering what you, my loyal blog readers, would like me to talk about. Any suggestions? Any questions? Not sure? Ttake a look at my categories – maybe there’s one of those you’d like to hear more of.

In the meantime I’ll leave you with some more of my recent scrapbook pages. I’m quite happy with them but don’t feel like I’m really telling the stories I want tell. I’ve got a couple of big picutre scrapbooking classes starting soon so hopefully that will get me inspired.

I scraplifted this idea from one of the blogs I read but now I can’t remember which one. If it’s yours please let me know.

I’ve been tagged by Gretchen. And today you can learn a lesson from me – make sure you get dressed and brush your hair before reading blogs .

Here are the rules:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now, no primping or preparing. Just snap the picture.
2. Load onto your blog.
3. Tag 3 people to play… remember if you are tagged on another blog we will all be heading to yours to see if you played along.

The three people I’m tagging are Annie, Kerrie and Bel – who were “lucky” enough to be the last 3 people to comment on my blog (from my regular readers).

Well, you aren’t going to believe this….

I was originally going to use a random digit gernerator and I actually did so. No. 3 was the chosen number.

But then I thought I might do a video draw like I did last time. However, when I went to download the video I hadn’t hit record.

Guess who won? No.3!!!  So the winner, not once, but twice, is Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessings. Congrats Heidi. Please e-mail me your address and I’ll get the book in the post to you early next week.

Since it’s a job I’ve been putting off for a while I decided to join in the Organising Junkie’s recipe round-up. I did it all this morning – nothing like leaving things till the last minute – so after seeing some of the other wonderful posts on organising recipes I may try something new next time around.

For the most part my system works well enough for me, except when I don’t maintain it by putting new recipes away.

All my cookbooks are stored above the oven.

Except those I found in the coffee table…

and a few in my desk cupboard.

My recipes that have been torn out of mags or printed from fav. blogs lie loose in my desk draw.

I started by getting out ALL the cookbooks. Oh, boy, that’s quite a stack.

I then went through them and ended up with a small, but respectable, giveaway pile.

Next was gathering all the loose recipes and tidying up my folders. Not a fun job when you’re dealing with a few months worth. I also pulled out recipes I’m no longer interested in trying.

Lastly it was time to put everything away. The purple folder is full (and I mean full) of new recipes to try). The pink folders you see below are recipes I have made before and one is for deserts/cakes/etc (both tried and new).

The blue folder is one that contains main meal recipes I make frequently (ideally it would be good to have one of these for deserts/baking as well). Yes, I realise recipes is spelled wrong on my folder .

So there we go, a few hours later and I’m all organised. Make sure to drop by the Organising Junkie to see more great ideas.

Oh, I nearly forgot. When I was gathering up the recipe book I came across Deceptively Delicious which I recieved with a magazine subscription.

It looks like a good book but not one I’ll use so I’m going to give it away to one of my readers. If you like to win please leave a comment to this post before Wednesday midnight.