I’ve been trying to get in here to blog for weeks but each time I start I get distracted and somehow never make it back.

Thanks for the emails checking up on my whereabouts.  I forget that not everyone uses Twitter or Facebook.  I update those regularly because I can get away with one line…

In short I’ve been busy.  I’m so tired of saying I am busy so I’ll leave it there.  2009 is turning out to be a full year for me and I’m still searching for the exact right balance and really don’t think I’ll ever find it! It’s all great though!

The wonderfully exciting part about it all though is that I love a good adventure and I am just recently back from the afore-mentioned excellent adventure with my partner-in-crime Suz

We launched a brand new company at the Brisbane Scrapbooking Convention, a company that aims to provide top quality, low priced scrapbooking products to consumers.  We have designed kits that make creating a breeze and we brought bargains galore to Brisbane.

The site is not quite ready yet so if you go there, you will see we are under construction but I can promise you there’s lots of work going on behind the scenes to ensure it’s worth the wait!

We had a huge stall which was pretty much three people deep the whole time and was beyond anything that Suz or I could have anticipated - SO busy!

I was shocked and excited to see crowds like this every morning queuing to get in to the Expo…

But it was fabulous to be busy and know we didn’t work so hard in vain.  I don’t think I have EVER worked so hard before and I have worked as a labourer!  I can’t express how exhausted we were at the end of each day, it was mind-boggling and exhilarating and like I said - an ADVENTURE!

I missed my man and my babies terribly but loved the freedom of being away.  I loved the anticipation of going to a city that I’ve never been to before and squeaked seeing the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the plane on the way.  In fact I loved the plane ride/s…..:)

I know it was obvious that I hadn’t seen these sights before and I didn’t care!  It was all new to me and uber-cool!

We were very spoiled flying up Business Class and stopping in Sydney on the way for about half an hour if that!  But we were there….

So, anyway back to the Expo, here’s a few more photos….

All of the above shots were taken at our booth and looking out on setting up day as well.  Setting up took us 12 hours!  It was an enormous learning curve and we were sooo tired we collapsed on the beds in our motel room whining about how tired we were!

Brisbane is a beautiful city - so clean and fresh and felt really safe even at night.  It’s also weird because everything closes so early!  We were starving on our last night there at 10pm having packed up everything and NOTHING was open except for the casino.  That is bizarre!

And while I adored Brisbane it was HOT! Holy cow, coming from the foot of a snowed-on mountain to Brisbane was awful at first.  The tropical heat was oppressive -I’m not good with humidity and it’s not just the high maintenance hair issues it causes me, it’s the wetness of it all - yuck!  We were sweaty and foul!  Having said that though I found it amusing that we went out at night in t-shirts while locals were rugged up.  I had started to acclimatise by the last couple of days and we left 25 degrees in Brisbane to arrive in TEN degrees in Melbourne.  And loving it!  After another week of freezing temps here though, I could use a little Queensland heat again!   The mornings there are DIVINE! So gorgeous…

My favourite bits of our trip were all of the customers that kept us crazy-busy, hanging out with my gal-pal Suz and finally meeting so many people I “know” online in the flesh and as I suspected with my faves, it was like I’d known them in real life for years!

Clockwise is me with the most gorgeous Shelly.  We’ve been friends online and on the phone for years and it was quite surreal to actually see her and hug her and be in the same photo!  I only wish I’d had longer to catch up with her, there was no way enough time for a proper chat but I was happy with what I got!

Next in the circle is my illustrator mate Jimmy Trinket, again whom I have known online and through the post for AGES!  I have his monster pics in the Simply Said gallery and I never get tired of looking at his way cool drawings….I’m sure in another lifetime we’d have been besties! So glad he came to visit me

And last there but certainly not least is the crazy-beautiful Scrapbooking Memories MASTER Lynette van Barrelo. She friended me on Facebook and keeps me constantly entertained with her fabulous posts and wickedly funny comments.  I also got to meet my scrapping idol Loretta Grayson and FINALLY meet Petrina McDonald whom I definitely didn’t get enough time with!  Also met lots of other gorgeous people but I’ve pathetically name-dropped enough surely…..

No trip away could be complete without a night on the town so Suz and I met up with some friends of mine for dinner, who then had to leave early to attend to sick kids so we did a little cocktail tour of Brisbane South….

I wish mobile phones had better cameras but love those pics - lol!  We HAD to go on the ferris wheel in the rain and full of margeritas!  AND we had to do this -

We weren’t even on the thing, this shot was taken BEFORE - lol….quality….:)

I’ve been flat out with photography stuff, most recently a shoot for Zeve, a fashion label growing and growing.  They thought it time to update their images and I was commissioned to do it.  Think I was nervous much?  Loved doing the shoot and they’re happy and I hope they sell heaps now!

I’ve done a few other shoots recently but it’s almost 1am and I need to go to bed.  I have scrapping to share and more photos but I will end here for now. Thanks for your patience and checking in on me