Just Like Heaven

Mammoth Month!!!

So it's been madness like most families for some reason at this time of year!  For us, well me really, it's a happy kind of chaotic delight that sometimes overwhelms me, but it's all good.  I would rather be busy than bored and bored is something I haven't been for a long time!

The start of this month saw us finally get some snow.  This photo is a couple of weeks old now but this is from the front of our home.

On the clear days it's gorgeous.  We're hoping to get up there in the next couple of weeks - yay!  There's heaps of snow up there now!

Our baby girl Madeleine turned six at the start of this month.  Poor baby must have felt like she'd been waiting forever.  Hers and Alex's birthdays are a month and a day apart with his first so she has to wait knowing it's so close yet so far!

All she requested was a Baby Born that swims and a Mermaid party.  She got both. :)

It was freezing but she wanted to be a mermaid.  We had her party at a florist here that does kids' parties.  Normally fairies but they did the mermaid one just for Maddy.  She wouldn't let me take many photos, but her other Baby Born doll had to go along dressed up.  Love the huge smile on here face - she wore it ALL day!

Pick the scrapbooker's daughter - lol.  The ribbons woven into her plaits are from Simply Said and yes the braid around her forehead is Making Memories Noteworthy - lol!

The party was really sweet.  It was hosted by Tallulah-belle the fairy and her special mermaid friend Pearl.  They did a wonderful job with the little mermaids.  They made mini clam-shell books, had stories, danced, played games and of course ate cake!

Her cake was exactly as she requested (phew).   She wanted a love heart cake and a mermaid on top and it had to be pink and purple inside.  I managed to make the heart into an island and make icing water and add a few coloured shells and a new mermaid Barbie on top!  Well, she was so very happy she squealed!  I love this photo from the day -

Of course it was strictly 'girls only' so the boys stayed home and we had the all-important family photos in the afternoon.

So a very happy birthday was had by our girl.  Amazing how the time has flown! (Don't we all say that?)

The following weekend was my guest teaching gig at Scrapbook Sinners in Traralgon.

I can honestly say it was one of the best days of teaching I've ever had.  It was a long day - we left at 8.30am and didn't get home until close to 11PM but the time just flew.  I taught three lots of doodling classes and had a blast!  Mind you by the end class I had forgotten things that I'd told them but they were all a good humoured bunch of ladies in and out all day and very forgiving!

One of my favourite parts of the day was catching up with my one of my oldest (as in had longest lol) friends Dominique.  Dom and I went to Art School together which seems like an eternity ago yet only yesterday.  Dominique is one of those friends that I can not see for years yet when we see each other again, nothing has changed.  It's perfect!

Yes that IS a bottle of Passion Pop in my hand and YES I won it in one of the fundraiser auctions that Teresa ran on the day.  It came with a yummy woolly scarf too.  Mind you I paid $10!!  I thought it was steep for a bottle of our old favourite "2 buck chuck" lol but it's now $5.95 per bottle!!!  What the?  How do all the young kids afford that?  Anyway the old Passion Pop has spent some time with Dom and I in the past, but we refrained this time!

I was also very happy to catch up with this scrappy chick again who I haven't seen for ages - Naomi!

Naomi inspired me heaps last year by her persistence with blanket stitch.  She found it difficult in the past to get the hang of, but she kept trying until she got it  For the amount of time it took her, she has far more patience than me, I'd have thrown it but watching her patience as she tried again until she got it was amazing.  Mind you, she's the blanket stitch queen now!

It really was an awesome day.  Teresa did such a wonderful job of organising everything!  And best of all she took heaps of photos.  I have to admit in the past, I have forgotten but we are scrappers - der, take photos - roflmao.  I'm so glad she said now because now I have these wonderful memories.  I haven't seen her photos yet but I'm sure we all will soon!

Now speaking of scrappy chicks and stuff, I'm now working at Simply Said as well as teaching there.  The management has changed so I'm giving Marie a hand and LOVING it!  I'm so enjoying being back behind a scrappy counter and helping customers and meeting people and I'm really enjoying making displays and sharing ideas and and and......lol...even though I was incredibly busy having worked just about every day last week, I've found it all invigorating if that makes sense.  The upcoming plans for there are just so exciting that I can't believe I get to be a part of it but I'll keep you posted as I am!

Here we are in our photo for the local paper this week looking as spunky as ever - lmao!

Marie is having a HUGE sale on Thursday - 30% off EVERYTHING!  If you were thinking about visiting the store that would be the day to do it!!!

Here's the last class I taught there - the next Book of Me - "How I've Changed..."

I think it gets bigger if you click on it!  It was kind of a pain searching for all the photos but in hindsight now it was an interesting review!

I have heaps more scrapping to share but it will have to wait for now I'm too tired!

In amongst all of my madness, I joined some friends and auditioned for Deal Or No Deal yesterday - lol!  What a hoot.  We went all the way to Melbourne to fill out a form, have our photo taken and have a quick group interview.  I think we were accepted and now just wait to hear when we're on the show - woohoo!!  Here we are outside the audition - brr it was cold!

We had coffee and cake afterwards at a gorgeous cafe so it was a good excuse to get out for the afternoon.

Now, I think I need to leave it here for now.  I haven't been to bed before 1 or 2am for about 5 days now. I'm sure I'm running on pure adrenalin - lol!

Aprons, Art and other stuff :)

Oh dear this month has been crazy-busy!  Personally I blame the school holidays for starting the ball rolling on my disorganisation, but I know it's not that, it's ME! 

I have SO much that I want to blog from the last couple of weeks that I just do not know where to begin.  So I'll just start at the start.  Let's just pretend I blogged this two weeks ago and I'll try very hard to blog every day and catch up because I want to get it all down.

Okay well a couple of weeks ago I was sick.  I just had a cold.  A stupid head cold that made me feel stuffy, tired and flat.  It made me even more vague than I normally am if that at all is possible! So I cancelled my class that week at Simply Said.  It was good actually because I had sick students too!  It would have been one giant germ-fest so we had a break.  Except for Tanya. :)  Tanya had come a long way to do my class and since she is my gorgeous friend as well, I invited her to my home instead to scrap and she was kind enough to agree to that.

So she packed her scrapping gear and came to my house to scrap and chat and do the girly thing.  And Marie joined us too.  Only we didn't scrap at all - not a bit!  We just chatted and drank wine - lol.  I soon forgot about my cold and had a fabulous night and part of the next morning too!!!! 

I'm thinking it was fate that I met Tanya a.k.a the Apron Chick because she makes scrapping aprons.  Tanya married one of my High School friends and if i didn't eventually meet her through him maybe, I think we might have crossed paths somehow anyway.  We met at Crop 4 Kids and we have HEAPS in common.  So this visit was wonderful :)

Here's Tanya's aprons which you can buy from Simply Said, Scrapbook Sinners, or contact Tanya through her blog here.

If you did my classes at Paperific, you'd have heard me gushing on about them.  I wear mine to work all the time, the front pocket is great and they're just awesome. :)

So the next morning, Tanya came back to my house for a play with some scrappy stuff and her little girl Indy and Maddy had a wonderful time.  I must process all the gorgeous photos we took because they got along SO well :)  Here's the big girls out in the cold anyway :)

I look sooo tired and that's because I was - lol!!! It was a fabulous couple of days and a great way to forget about my silly cold!

The kids and I had a fabulous time during the second week of the holidays doing absolutely NOTHING!  We made plans to head to Melbourne on the Thursday.  We were packed ready to go on the train to the gallery and it was sooooo wet that day that we all decided to just stay home in our bed socks.  The week was restful and really really nice! 

The following Sunday was Madeleine's birthday.  I have heaps to blog about that but I'm so sleepy right now I'll leave it until next post.  My party bags feature is out this month in Scrapbook Creations.  This feature was ACE to put together.  It was sooo much fun to play with everything not to mention how many lollies we ate!  If you haven't seen it yet, here's what I made!

Hmm many lollies were eaten! He he he......

Before I leave it here for now, do yourself a FAVOUR and go and check out all the previews of CHA on the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  I can't tell you how much internal squealing I've been doing over all the gorgeous new stuff coming out and Marie has decided to somehow add another floor to her shop just to accommodate all the Halloween stuff - roflmao!

Okay I still have HEAPS to catch up on here but I need to sleep!  Thanks for dropping by and seeya xx!

OH one more thing.  I have my own domain name now - woohoo!  You can just type www.nicolefinlayson.com and you'll b brought straight to here - woohoo again!!!

OH and girls who have tagged me and stuff - I haven't forgotten I'm getting to them I promise :)

Absent note - lol...

Wow, I've had a crazy busy week and it's not looking like getting any less busy either.

I'm sad that the holidays end today - I'm liking having the kids home, but I'm ready to get back to routine.

I'm working today at Scrapbook Sinners in Traralgon - if you're local, come and say hello :)  It should be a great day.

I have HEAPS to blog and the task just seems huge each time I think about tackling it!

But for now I need to get ready for today's big class day.  I'm getting picked up at 8.30am and not finishing until late tonight!  Phew, it's gonna be a big (and fun) one!

Holiday Horror Heads

So we are at the end of week one of the school holidays.  The weather has been disgusting to say the least.  We've all been pretty much cooped up inside with colds and when we have left to go somewhere I am met with, "Do I have to wear my jacket?"  "WHY can't I wear my thongs?" "It's not FAIR!!!"  Ugh....mind you my offspring haven't been too bad.  They've spent a bit of time with friends, been bowling, watched a lot of TV, played the PS2 and the computer and made piles of paper mess with their crafts and scrapbooking.  Not too bad so far considering....

So today I FINALLY made it to the Post Office and whilst arguing about shoes and clothes and who gets in the car first and did we have to go and why can't I buy toys and what song is on the CD player and who looked at who with a mean face and whose breath stinks and and and......and....I grabbed two Postpaks off the shelf and made my way to the teeny bench to write addresses down while being bombarded with, "Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum can I look at the footy stuff?"

"Yes but don't touch please" I replied to them.

"Muuuuuuum Alex keeps touching." 

"No I don't it's you."

"Nahhh it's not me Mum he's dobbing on me for nothing."

"Am not"

"Are so"

And I'm biting my lip as right now I'd like to knock their heads together but instead I'm trying very hard to ignore the banter.

 I ask Alex to swap my envelope for the bigger one on the shelf over there as if I leave this spot, the queue of people waiting for my bench will take my place.  So he goes to the shelf and pulls down not one, but a PILE of envelopes.  Grrrrrr............and they're the wrong ones and Maddy is laughing at him and he's cracking at her because she's laughing and I'm just about DONE!  So I ask him to come back and stand with my purse and I'm feeling like my blood pressure is about to explode and I head over, pick up the fallen envelopes and get the right ones.  I say thankyou to Alex for helping me and go back to writing my addresses.  When I over hear a conversation going on behind me with a younger couple.

"God you wouldn't want to smile would you?", followed by some comments about sour mothers etc.  That was the woman and the man patronisingly replies with some wankish comment about how she should be kind as not everyone has so much to smile about and she replies with some comment like, "Yeah but still..." and then I realise they are talking about ME!  WHAT!!!!!!  The more I eavesdrop, they are talking about the incident with the envelopes and how grumpy I am.

I was so embarrassed initially.  I wanted to hide but now in hindsight I want to throw a Lynette Scarvo "ARE YOU JUDGING ME?" right at them.

Excuse me?  Screw YOU..I am sick, I am tired and I have spent all morning being bombarded with the endless bickering of brother and sister and constant drivel about ponies and Star Wars.  I haven't had a decent sleep in weeks thanks to my snoring husband, I didn't know if there was enough money in my account to post the work off that I was posting and I've just driven the block 27 freaking times using probably $45 worth of fuel just to get a #$%^&*( car park and YOU are judging ME!!!!

Just like every other average mother in Australia I get up every morning wondering if I'll make ends meet, pick up a constant stream of dirty dishes and clothing, odd socks and pieces of rubbish.  I'll be demanded on and whined at by every child I've given birth to and let's not forget by my significant other.  I'll somehow manage to piss someone off inadvertently either from my immediate family, extended family, girlfriend network, workplace or total stranger.  I can do that on a daily basis with little effort yet good intention.

I'll manage to feel guilty about something somewhere that isn't my fault and I'll be told by at least one family member that they don't want that for dinner.  I'll forget at least one item at the supermarket and I'll be mad at myself for eating something that I shouldn't or that I didn't exercise today.  I will say yes to at least one thing I mean NO to and I'll put off that something I've wanted to do for myself AGAIN!  I'll forget not only something from the supermarket, but I'll also forget I was meant to be somewhere, I had to do something today or I was meant to ferry someone somewhere today.  And I'll feel bad about it!

Grr......again I repeat if you are reading this Post Office rude woman - SCREW YOU!  I'm doing the best I can.  May you have children who leave you stretchmarked and saggy and may they be blessed with verbal diarrhea and peck you every day until your ears bleed.  And my you never have a restful sleep and may other women JUDGE and berate you while you're in public.  You know, in case you don't feel shitty enough about the job you're doing - BLAH!!!!!  May you never think a full sentence again and may you feel like that almost equally arrogant man of yours is just like having another child.

Oh ignorance is bliss........:X

Saved by sickness and scrapping....

Back in April when we went on our long weekend into the city, Alexander had been talking about a project he was doing at school.  His "Passion Project" he called it.  It was about his passion, something he loved.

As soon as he mentioned Pokemon, Lego, Star Wars or Ben 10, I think I tuned out.  Anyway he was desperate to go to the Museum to take photos of the spiders for his project as he'd decided to do the project on "gross things".  I kind of followed what he was saying but much to my shame I mainly just nodded in the right spots, gave him the camera and told him to take photos of whatever he liked.

I vaguely remember him telling me he wanted the photos printed. "Yep mate no problem I'll get to it".  I had no idea what he wanted.  Each time he vaguely mentioned it, I vaguely answered with something to buy me time I guess.  While we were in Melbourne he had asked me to print out a picture of a spider for him which he cut out and stuck onto a piece of Reflex paper and wrote some random facts around it.  I thought he was amusing himself while we were on holidays.

I didn't give it much thought again until I went to school on Tuesday to his classroom to pick him up early as he'd been feeling sick.  His teacher invited me to stay and watch the presentation of one of the children with their "Passion Project".  So I did.  It was wonderful.  A Powerpoint presentation all about this boy's love of the Zebra Finch.  What the?  A Powerpoint presentation?  Is that what Alex had been going on about?  Was this the project he kept kind of mentioning, every time while he could NOT have my attention.  I was either cooking dinner, on the phone, on the toilet, or doing something that needed my full attention.  Or that's my excuse anyway. 

So I watch the gorgeous presentation and then leave with Alex.  "When's your presentation?" I ask him.  He tells me it's on Thursday.  It's now Tuesday.  Very excited I ask him if it's ready to go and he tells me it's not yet.  He tells me he needs the photos and some information gathered from the internet, like he's been asking me.

At that moment I realise that I am possibly THE worst mother in the world and the sting of the "too-busy-to-give-the-kid-some-attention" kicks in big time as I realise I have become one of THOSE mothers.  The kind I swore I'd never be.  I felt bad, and asked him if I could see what he had so far.

He ran off to his classroom to get it and he presented me with two wrinkled up pieces of photocopy paper with the diagram I had half-heartedly printed out two months ago and the random facts written on it.  It was pretty sad looking and he looked so ashamed.  He reminded me how he'd asked me to print his photos and how he'd asked for help.  Yep, Mum feels even worse now.  Apparently some kids had made dioramas with their parents, a couple had made a video and one even had their Dad contribute drawings and photos!

Realising we'd been granted a chance I told him to go and get all the information he'd gathered so he could  work on it that afternoon at home.  I'd help him.  I had work galore due but this was more important.  I actually felt sick with guilt.  I think I felt worse because he was so cool about me NOT helping him.  If he'd been cross with me or something I'd have an excuse, but I had nothing.

So we went straight home.  I edited the photos he took right then and loaded them onto the USB stick and took them straight to the lab to get printed. 

I tipped out every blank mini album and  scrapping supply I'd been hoarding for something special and I told him to go for his life and use anything for his project.  He opted for a mini album in a board book.   Mind you  I'd been saving this blank book for something but it didn't matter anymore.  I'd been saving the red spider web paper since he was a toddler.  Again it didn't matter.  Nor did the hacked up Cosmo Cricket papers, or half a bottle of Tombow that he used matter anymore.  What mattered was that my son could have had to stand up in front of his class with a project that he knew was crappy.  And knowing how much pride he has in his work, he'd have been humiliated within himself.  Sigh....more Mumma guilt.

It was so nice to work on it with him too  He did the bulk of the work.  In fact I was amazed at the skills he had as far as using Word and the way he formatted everything.  All I helped with was the text box sizing to fit the book and the odd bit of Googling.  He designed the whole look of the book, picked the papers and I thought his heading ideas were super-cool.

I'm so proud of what he did.  All I did was helped him glue and sand. The photos were giving me the creeps anyway.  Eww, the Huntsman was a real one at the Museum and don't even get me started on the Cockroaches - EEEEEWWWWW!  Anyway he scored 18/20 for his presentation - the two point deduction was because he sat on a chair to present and talked too quietly.  Woohoo - he was STOKED and best of all he was enthusiastic about going to school that day.  Another confidence boost - something my boy really needs!

Not to be neglectful of Miss Maddy Moo - I finally paid for her mermaid party that I'd promised her, and set about making her damn invitations!  I'm so crap at invites but anyway here they are with my number and stuff edited off.

Yes I even bought the damn die cut for the Cuttlebug just for that die cut shell...hmm......

Mind you she LOVES the invites and I finally came up with an idea for her special cake today!  She's having a mermaid party.  She's got a bit of a 'thing' for mermaids right now - so cute!

And just one more pic for today.  I'm sick with a nasty cold.  I feel like death warmed up at the moment - blah.  I'm stuffy and foul and poor kids are home on holidays and Mum is sick and the weather is FOUL!  In an attempt to not park them in front of the PS2 ALL day we baked!

We also made jelly and Nathan and Alex cook stir fry beef for dinner.  Apparently Alex did the bulk of it.  ANOTHER boost to his self-confidence and I can tell you the noodle stir fry was DIVINE - yum!!!

Well that's about all that's happening in Finno-land tonight.  I've been scrapping and scrapping but nothing I can share today.  I'm teaching tomorrow night, I'll share then!

Oooooo one more thing.  THANKYOU for all the nice messages, emails and comments about the loss of our fur-baby Basil....I looked for him again today.  It's just not the same here without him....I appreciate the kind thoughts - thankyou :)