Just Like Heaven

Almost-Friday Fish Update

Our little fishies are growing nicely.  Alex has been home from school sick EVERY single day this week.  he's really been suffering poor baby and had to come to work with me on Tuesday.  He wasn't so bad on Tuesday so we went to the pet shop and fitted out our tank.  I figured the babies had survived and were actually growing so we should give them a proper home.

That's just one of the babies, hasn't he grown heaps already?

So I have happy fish and a happy family watching them grow :)

Well mostly happy other than my sick one who has hardly slept at all, it's wearing me down, so badly.....
I'm supposed to be heading off for a scrapping date tomorrow but I'm thinking Alexander will be home again and I'll have to postpone... :(

I worked last night, my class was BIG and spread over several rooms which was good because I got some exercise which goodness knows I need!  So there was champagne, giggles and gorgeous scrapping completed.  Speaking of work, Marie is giving away this month's Simply Said kit to a lucky comment leaver.  Click on her name or the Simply Said links and leave a comment and you might win.  It's a yummy kit!

More from Simply Said and I whipped this up the other night with CherryArte.  You will need your sunnies - isn't it bright??

Nice to just chuck together a quick layout and be happy with it :)

That's about it other than sickies, fish and lots of domestic stuff.  I'm hoping for a potter-around quiet weekend.....it's meant to snow near here (yay) so I reckon we'll be inside gathered around the heater - lol!

Okay have a happy Friday and seeya!!!!

Just because....

.....just because I haven't posted everyday details for a bit, I'm doing that now :)

My blog is here to record this seemingly insignificant stuff and since I'm still in my pjs at lunchtime I thought this a good opportunity to stay in them even longer!

Both kids are home today being Curriculum Day at school.  They were both sick over the weekend but I think they're on the mend.  They are bickering and fighting a bit today so I'm thinking that's a good sign that they're better! Sigh.....it's not so good for ME though ;)

So...first of all out little tadpoles goldfish are growing nicely.  I'd love to tell you their names but it changes daily depending on the kids' moods I think!

I STILL haven't finished fitting out their little tank yet, must get to that today!

And I have mentioned in a few blog posts recently that I've been treasure hunting.  My mother's partner's mother had a house that has been sold and she was an avid collector of 'stuff'.  Good stuff, bad stuff, STUFF! Anyway they have had to clean a lot of stuff out and I've been very lucky to score buttons and jewellery.  Also a dresser for Maddy that needs restoring and a few other bits and pieces.  Here's a few bits I've managed to acquire.  If you know me you know I like junky jewellery and well here's what I got.  I love that it's all a bit different!

I especially love the 70s flower pendant and the old necklaces. The one centre top is solid silver and sooo heavy.  I've got to get it to the jewellers to have it cleaned properly I just love it!

Got these at the Queen Vic market in Melbourne the other week -

The light is SO dull here at the moment.  Don't get me wrong I love Winter but I am starting to forget what sun looks like :(

Found this in my travels the other day too - the glass not the stuff in it!

Acquired even more new mugs - well I can't resist Little Britain - perfectly tacky!

I do love these so!

And......Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day to all the Mums.  Mine started off with crying kids with tummy aches - sigh.....

Nath made lunch for us and then I did the washing and scrapped DT stuff.  We had a very lazy potter-around-the-house weekend and they are my favourite kind!  I got some cute gifts from Alex and Maddy from the school stall.  I got orange-scented candles in a tin, a toilet bag thing with bath sponges, hankies, a notebook, one of those smelly things with the bamboo sticks and this gorgeous card from Miss-Moo.

I'm so proud of her as it's the first year she's really been able to write all of this in my card!  It's gorgeous.

We had afternoon tea with my Mum and then I scrapped some more.  I stitched and stitched and stitched - woohoo!

Oh here's the gorgeous flowers we got when I taught my Mum class at Simply Said last week -

Now it's after lunchtime, I'd better do something productive.  I have a class sample to do so I'm off!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Photos and Funny Stuff!

Wednesday I met my sister at the park where Nathan and I got married to take photos of her and her delectable babies! 

They were SO cute.  Wild and crazy but oh SO fantastic.  I got some GREAT photos of them that my sister is giving as gifts for Mother's Day.

I got lots of cute photos  and we looked in the ponds and there were HUNDREDS, maybe thousands of little tadpoles in the ponds.  I actually took my kids back later to catch some so we could watch them turn into little frogs and then let them go.  I didn't know at the time that is actually illegal to catch tadpoles.  Anyway. 

So, it's pouring rain and muddy and all I took was a bucket, so it was ME on my tummy, in the gardens on the side of the yucky pond dipping in the bucket catching tadpoles and all I got was THREE!!!  Anyway three was enough!

So we carefully took them home and placed them in a little fish tank ready to witness the miracle of nature....

Thursday morning, I gave them some food and later that day noticed they had grown a bit.

into.....................

FISH

Oops seems our tadpoles were actually teeny weeny goldfish!!!!!

Roflmao......it's all good, they've grown again already and we're still witnessing the miracle of nature - only a different one!  Once I get the water to settle I will take some photos so we can document their growth.  How funny though!

I did my second Mother's Day class at Simply Said on Wednesday night and I got THE best treat from Marie!  We received chrysanthemums, chocolate at the class AND champagne!  Woohoo thanks Marie and Happy Mother's Day to us!!

Today I lunched at the pub with a new friend and it was lovely to see her and get to know her more.:) 

And this afternoon I had a wonderful time teasing my kids as I picked them up from school knowing they had Mother's Day presents from the stall hidden in their bags.  Maddy badly wanted to give hers to me - it was gorgeous!

I'm still busy busy busy as always but it's all good.

Alexander's basketball team won tonight 28-8.  I was so disappointed because I didn't go.  Maddy was a bit off-colour so we stayed home.  I love watching his games!

Happy Mother's Day and hope you have a great weekend! I'll be scrapping my heart out!

Yay!!!

Wow the week is halfway gone already!!!  It just flies!

I have been treasure hunting this week, I really must take some pics....but instead I will show you my class this week for the Book of Me theme of Motherhood - yes early this week, I'm teaching tonight but I'm hoping to have a pretty much computer free day tomorrow so here it is -

Yummy stuff on this layout - OLD photo - lol.

My classes are getting bigger and bigger every week which is exciting!

Other huge excitement is this -

If you love the same treasures as I do you MUST check out the site it is DIVINE!!!!  I just love drooling over the gorgeous pics, I want EVERYTHING!!!  and I can't wait to be a designer for there and play with those treasures!!!

Hope you are keeping warm, I have a gazillion domestic chores to do before picking kids up and heading off to work tonight!

Thanks for visiting!!!!

I'm thinking that.....

.....pyjama days should just be renamed to "do-twice-as-much-tomorrow" day.

Grr, a little bit of slacking yesterday and I had to spend today catching up!  What a pain!

Of COURSE I ran all day, and of COURSE we were out of all the essential stuff and of COURSE the boys got to go to the movies while I had to do the @#$%^&* grocery shopping - BLAH, then home again to piles of washing, a bigger pile of ironing and a big huge mess!  Double, triple, quadruple BLAH!

Of course if I'd left it all, our whole week will be disorganised and I have to admit I've spent much of today grumbling about how women of this century are no less oppressed than the women of last century and what can I do to ensure my daughter has a better way of living than I do.

That was sparked by a dinner conversation I had last night.  We had dinner and drinks at the home of friends of ours and usually we end up partying the night away but honestly none of us could be bothered last night.  We went thinking that we'd have to leave the kids and Nathan and I would stumble home having had too much to drink as per usual, but we didn't.  I only had a couple of drinks over a few hours.  Kids came home and I even drove.  Unusual for us.  We still had a lovely night but we were ALL saying how much we needed to sleep.  Are we getting old?  Is it the cold weather?  Is it our lifestyles?  Will it EVER slow down?  Will we EVER cram all the stuff in that we try to?  I wonder if things ever slow down because I'm certainly not the only busy person in the world.  Everyone is busy pretty much and while I'd rather be busy than bored, I thought that I'd get some breathing space.  But not for now.  There's always something I NEED to do. Mind you I had so much stuff I NEEDED to do today I was grateful to be doing it without a hangover! 

Maybe it's the way I prioritise.  Maybe I don't manage my time well.  Maybe in this day and age women are not only expected to manage the house and family but also expected to maintain a fabulous relationship, a job and career, AND a social life while keeping fit and active and  and and and and......I wonder if anyone has worked out the secret of juggling it all yet.

If they have I wish they'd show me how it's done because right now I feel like I'm not keeping on top of all the stuff I'm meant to at all!  Bills need to be paid, things need to be sorted, deadlines need to be met, gardens need weeding, car needs cleaning blah blah de blah blah! Not to mention all the people in my life I haven't gotten around to visiting/catching up with and it's not because I don't want to......sigh....

Overall though I've got it all pretty good, but I wonder if we have things better or worse than those who've come before us.  I'm feeling a bit philosophical about it all really, wondering how things will be for my kids as adults, in particular Madeleine given that she'll be a woman.  I guess only time will tell and we can only do what we think is best at the time...

Off the topic now, I'm off to Bridge Club tomorrow and I CAN'T WAIT!  That's the other reason I've been running like a mad woman.  I'll be out all day tomorrow, then work this week and other stuff so I need to be super organised.  I'm there now I think - everything is ironed, shopped for, sorted.

Fingers crossed I'm prepared for another crazy fast week! Hope you are too. :)

Pyjama Day

Posting to procrastinate I think!

It's well after noon and we are all still in our pyjamas doing a whole lot of nothing!

It's wet, cold and miserable.

I'd better get motivated though as I have projects to do and we're out for dinner tonight.

I've heard a rumour that a friend is also bringing his new partner up to meet us.

What a shock she'll get if they arrive soon - lol

Love pyjama days................:)

We're Back......

We're back after a lightning fast few days.  Wow it went SO fast :( 

I was outvoted on the Anzac Parade so we didn't go.  Really, the kids and Nath and well me too I guess, just wanted to take things easy and not rush so we got out of bed whenever.  We ended up going to museum on the Friday.  Oh please, we've been there SO many times before and that's ALL the kids wanted to do on Friday - lol

Alex in particular loved playing with their new toy -

Ahem - lol.....

 

There's heaps more of the museum but I'll stop boring everyone now - lol.....

Oh except for this one - how gorgeous is this quilt? I would have liked to shove it up my jumper and run away with it......sigh....

We caught a tram, we shopped, we went out for dinner, we walked and walked, we even went on a horse and carriage ride through the city much to Maddy's delight.  The squeals of excitement from her were just priceless and while Alex was trying to remain cool, he was into it too.  I've always wanted to do it so I was excited like Maddy and at night was awesome!  Shame it was raining but that didn't dampen our spirits....

We walked in the puddles and looked at the lights, went out for dinner, played chess and even played in a park while it was dark, cold and wet - lol!

This was so cool - we came across an antique restored carousel.  of course we HAD to have a go.  Made me feel like I was going to vomit but it was fun - lol!

I only took the new point and shoot camera a lot of the time and the difference between that and my beloved SLR is HUGE!  I will put up with the inconvenience of a large camera bag for the sake of good photos I think....

I spent lots of time with my Grannie too which I was very happy about, and scored a few good bargains.  It just went WAY too fast unfortunately....

Both kids were WAY excited to find this artwork of their favourite Totoro

Mind you Alex would have been happy to spend the whole weekend playing the Wii.....

We also went to the Queen Vic Market and came home exhausted but refreshed if that is possible - lol!

Back into the swing of things now though, first thing being my class at Simply Said this week.  I taught this yesterday and will again tonight.  VERY exciting because I designed everything from the chipboard pieces right to the finished product and they all looked awesome yesterday!

Well that's about it for today, I have lots of scrappy stuff to do and it's FREEZING!  Yay it might just snow early here - I hear it's close!!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

We're Off!

We're heading off into the city for a few days over this long weekend. Love that pic, I stole borrowed it from this

site.  Hope they don't mind....anyway, I'm in a mess of chaos trying to pack for all of us while clothes we need are still being washed/dried/ironed and I'm trying to get my head around absolutely everything we need too.  I really LOATHE going away disorganised so I'm madly packing. :)

I bought a new digital camera yesterday.  It kind of looks like this, only blue.

After being so spoilt with my Canon SLR, I realise how crappy a point and shoot camera is but for what it is, it takes really fabulous pics.  It's just another thing for the kids to fight over.  I really bought it for them to use while we're away.  I can't wait to see what they take photos of - it's all so exciting.

We're going to watch the ANZAC parade tomorrow in Melbourne.  I'm looking forward to that, should be good although I find it all quite emotional.  I just can't imagine what it must have been like, or what it still must be like to be a part of it all.  I have Anzac badges at the ready, and not the crap $2 either!

I also wanted to share my next Book of Me class sample for Simply Said .  My theme was Home.  I had THE best night, a really full class and I am always inspired by the girls who scrap at the shop - amazing!

I got home quite late - lol, but it was all good.

Okay back to my packing and DON'T FORGET about the KSK auction for the Asthma Foundation.  Details on the post below, it ENDS tomorrow and all of the layouts are a BARGAIN!!

Seeya in a few days with HEAPS of photos no doubt!

Weekend and class stuff

Phew, well, a crazy day today but I'm most excited.  The day started off with ordering yummy frames for a class - can't wait to share that!

Then Nath told me some fabbo news.  We're looking at buying a business.  Oh my goodness.  It has come from nowhere and will change our lives if we do it, but more on that later.

For now here's my next class for the Book of Me series - My Home.

It's on THIS Tuesday morning at Simply Said and repeated on Wednesday night.  Let me know or call the shop if you want to come.

Hope you're enjoying this gorgeous sunshine.  My washing is flapping away on the line - love that, then I've got to madly make dinner, fold that washing, go to basketball, sort out everything for the weekend - it's a busy one for us this week and do all the usual Mumma stuff so I'd best get cracking now!!!

Super

I've been scrapping my butt off for the last few days and LOVING it.  When I can get to it that is...I'm enjoying every class sample and even working on stuff that isn't due quite yet!  I know UNHEARD of for me.

Yesterday I went out for breakfast with a friend and once I had lost my momentum, my day was just a waste. I had THE worst headache I'd had in ages and it stuffed up any chance I had of getting much done.

Anyway....earlier this week I frantically finished my next class for Simply Said  - my Super Mini Album.  There's people waiting for peeks so here they are and I will email a requirements list to those who have booked.  Crikey I'm getting on top of it all but sheesh the time just flies!

This class will be run on Tuesday morning and repeated Wednesday night and has a kit that contains all the stuff you need.  The places are very limited so if you want to join me, please let me know, or call the shop - number above left :)

Not much else to report - been baking, scrapping, socializing, Mummy-ing all that stuff so I'll leave you with a layout in the Mums gallery in Scrapbooking Memories this month.  I made this AGES ago and I still think  my Miss Moo is absolutely delicious in these photos.

Okay I'm very inspired right now so I'm going straight back to it - well amongst dinner and stuff - it's never done is it?  lol.  Hope your weekend is grand and let me know if you want to come to my class :)

Oh PS - I know I owe emails, I'm getting to them promise xxxx

Week

Wow this week has just flown...it has ended right when I was starting to get into the school holidays and now we're back to school again!  I still think the timing was STUPID but they're over with now so I guess I should just stop whining about them!

The start of this week I was working madly on a magazine feature.  I thought it would come together quickly but ended up taking longer than expected.  Amazing how inspiration takes until the last moment to hit!  It has all arrived where it needed to safe and sound so that's a relief!

I taught my kids doodling class at Simply Said on Tuesday and despite their apprehension, my kids had a ball!  Especially Alexander.  He has made a couple of new friends who were gorgeous and they all drew Pokemon and it sparked a new interest in scrapping for both of my babies.  It's been awesome because while I've worked on layouts, so have they.  I'll have to post them on here, I'm so proud of Alex and how he's come along and Maddy has a definite sense of design happening as well. So they've been working VERY hard!!!

We ended up bringing home a couple of extra playmates for Alex and Maddy after work on Tuesday.  It was lovely actually because we went out for lunch and then Nathan had finished work early so instead of panicking about my work not being finished, I was able to do it because my kids had other kids to play with so they tend not to fight too much. 

Nath cooked with the kids - it was so unbelievably, kind of him to do so.  Then another friend called me to ask for help as she'd hurt her back and couldn't drive well and needed me to drive.  Well I did what any good friend would do and went and picked up her kids too and brought them home for the day and for dinner so she could rest, so by this stage we had six kids.  Add on the one that pops over the fence and we had seven.  And they were ALL gorgeous.  The day was fine so they played outside in our yard. They baked, they scrapped, they made up games, they shared and it was FABULOUS!  I managed to get washing done and loads of work too. By the end of the day they were all grubby and worn out and perfectly healthily tired!  Nath even cooked dinner - gotta love that man..........;)

Wednesday we lunched with Mum for her birthday and I got everything packed and posted off and got held up anywhere and everywhere I could think of.  When Nathan got home I pleaded with him to go out and take the kids for an hour or so so I could get organised.  It was chaos at our house and I just needed to get a few things straightened and sorted.  I went through the house and dusted and mopped and cleaned the bathroom and all the stuff I'd been neglecting since Easter or so.  Phew it was such a relief to get on top of things and Alex and Maddy got to see their friends too.  I even did ironing.....;)

Yesterday I found this in our lounge in front of the heater -

Seems Maddy thought Basil might have been uncomfortable and that he needed some pampering.  Looks like he lapped it up too!  Poor old thing he turned 14 this year.  In cat years that is 74!! He's spent a whole lot of time hogging the heater for the last freezing week or so...

Yesterday was another day of slack morning and then total madness.  While I love slacking in my pjs until lunch, it does make me incredibly disorganized!  I got my hair cut too - in fact we all did - finally.  All four of us were WAY overgrown especially my boys!  I couldn't see through my fringe - what a relief!

I've been so so so incredibly tired this week too.  Don't know if it's the freezing weather or what.  Anyway I even LOOK tired - blah, hope it passes soon.  I took the kids to the cinema today and four others too.  I was a wee bit apprehensive about taking SIX kids to the cinema alone but they were all perfect.  In fact they were beyond perfect.  We saw Horton Hears A Who .  Geez I was so bored I almost dozed off so I surfed the net from my phone - lol.  The kids loved it though ;)  And that's all that matters.

Both of my babies were really good today, they've been gorgeous.  they drove me mad last week, I couldn't wait for them to go back to school, now that the holidays are over, I don't want them to go back.......hmm....lol...

Here's some new pics for this week anyway......my gorgeous girl....just being gorgeous

My gorgeous boy doing the same....

My gorgeous man....doing the Daddy thing and being appreciated for it...

And me with my boys....yes I have projects to do that I needed these photos for lol. 

My kids are extortionists.  They wanted CASH for scrapping photos.  I said NO, we compromised with lollies....I did suggest that they take it out of what THEY owe me for rent, dinner, laundry etc and they backed off right away - PMSL!

Okay this has become a mammoth post so I'll leave it here..........OH and before I forget, KSK are looking for a new Design Team Member.  It's a pretty good gig if you want to have a go - APPLY!!!!

Happy Easter :)

Okay so I'm not religious, don't really care what Easter is all about , but isn't it nice to have a happy kind of holiday celebration thing going on this weekend?  I have to say I've done NO work despite the fact that it's crunch time and I have really achieved nothing - lol!

So Thursday was the last day of term.  Thankfully someone mentioned to me that it was early pick up.  Apparently the school had accidentally not informed us and school finished an hour early.  Even with a reminder I almost forgot!! Bad bad mother!!!

So early finish on Thursday meant we ran into this big furry thing in the street.  Madeleine was so cute, she spotted Easter Bunny and grabbed one of the eggs her teacher had given her and insisted on giving it to him.  She is such a generous little soul....:)

Nath went fishing Thursday night, we went to a friend's house and helped her colour her hair and then coloured mine on Friday.  Oooo it's DARK!  Lol, way darker than I thought it would be which is no big deal really but far out it's dark - he he he.  At least those pesky stray greys that were appearing randomly are gone.  I'm sure it will fade, I have dark hair anyway so it's all good :)

Just pretty much bummed around at home Friday, went to Mum's yesterday for egg exchange and morning tea and while I've had the best intentions of getting lots of work done and class lists written, I haven't got far at all..........oops!

Here's a pic from the kids' crazy hair day last week too -

Little ferals........must get that from their father - roflmao....

Oh, and Madeleine went to her first ever disco this week.  It was SO hot and Alexander refused to go so we left the boys home and Maddy and I went to dance.  She loves to dance (like her Mum, although her Mum's pretty un-co - lol)

She didn't last long with the heat but loved what she did.  Amazing how much my baby has grown in just one term.  She comes out with things now that amaze me and it's such an exciting new phase that our family has entered.  I really loved it when my kids were babies and occasionally miss that but boy oh boy I'm LOVING having both kids at school and finally starting to feel like I'm adjusting to it. :)

Alex took that yesterday.  I really need photos of HIM for a project but he was being a turd so Maddy asked if she could have a photo with me.  Still didn't get a reasonable one of him.  Grr, WHY are boys such a pain? Means I can't start my project yet and we'll have to do them again - grrrr.....

Speaking of photos, I did some of my younger sister today.  Her MSN photo was awful and we've been meaning to update for ages so she popped around today.  Isn't she gorgeous?

We're not much alike are we? Sam is three years younger than me and then I have another sister younger again by almost nine years.  Funny you know - I'm brunette,  Sam's auburn/red hair and our younger sister is blonde.  Genetics huh? This sister is my gorgeous niece and nephew's Mumma.

I went to the movies today with my sisters and saw Step Up 2 The Streets Don't get me wrong, I am a movie fusspot - it's all those years working in a video store I'm sure, but I usually love dance movies and I thought this was CRAP!!!!  Ugh two hours I'll never get back - blah!  the dance sequences etc. were impressive and amazing but I was actually yawning.  Oh please sisters of mine, I am SO picking the next movie!  it was cool to hang out with my sisters, I can't remember the last time (if any) that we've actually gone out alone together, but we all thought the movie was crap - lol!!

Kids were happy this morning that Easter Bunny had visited BUT it's the end of an era.  Apparently Alexander has it all worked out who the real Easter Bunny is and rather than insult his intelligence, I begged him not to tell his sister and he promised not to. He looked like he'd just been introduced to some fabulous 'grown ups club' and there is no way he wants to share that with his little sister!

Alrighty, I had better get away from this computer, the internet anyway, I REALLY have to finalise my class list.  Hi Marie, I'm sure you're reading this, and I know you're only waiting on slack me, so I'm onto it - roflmao!

Hope you haven't eaten too much chocolate like I have, thanks for the visit and seeya xxxxx

Happy Easter

WHAT is the go with Easter arriving already?  Are you kidding me, it's the end of the first term this year too.  Didn't the year just begin???  Either I've been asleep, or the year is just flying!  And damn those delicious and irresistible Easter Eggs begging me to eat them - it's all THEIR fault you know.....

So finally realising that Easter was upon me, I did some shopping yesterday. Kids are done thankfully ;) I can't be bothered with Easter this year - lol, does that make me a bad person? 

Well except of course for the Easter scrapping I've done for Paperific

I've loved doing that....

Now don't stress if you're coming along, about getting your layout finished because I am, right now, making detailed handouts for anyone who comes along and doesn't quite get finished.  I think many people will finish, but if you're anything like me, you never finish in a class and like to tweak it after the class, so you'll have instructions if you need them. :)

I taught the next Book of Me class at Simply Said (am busting to put a link here hint hint - lol....) in Warragul over the last couple of days.  Here is my sample:

The theme was something personal to you, something that would remind someone else of you, something sentimental...Mine was my rings.  I was SO happy with that photo. :)  Anyway all the ladies that did my class did a fantastic page each - all of them, and the best part of this series is seeing how different they all are!

Okay I'm off to battle the crazy crowds at the shops, so for now, hope you have a great Good Friday tomorrow :)

Ooo speaking of Good Friday, how amazing was the Crop 4 Kids total?  OVER $11 000, yes ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!  A HUGE well done Jess and crew, a HUGE one!!!

Almost

We are almost back to normal - kind of.  Madeleine is going back to school tomorrow no matter what.  I have to admit I am so desperate for some space and peace.  I've had hardly any sleep for a few days and I'm starting to feel a bit flustered by it all.  Poor thing, she was really suffering but seems to be on the mend now so yay...

Turns out Alexander had a fabulous day at school yesterday despite his Mum forcing him to go and he bounced out the door today...hooray, chalk that one up to me....phew...

So, anyway, I've mentioned that I've been teaching classes in Warragul this term, finally brought them home to photograph.  I had another doodling class last night - again enthusiasm abounds - it's awesome!!!

I've also been running a Book of Me class which is a regular thing and here's the first sample - the title page of my book anyway.  It was amazing how they all turned out so different from each other.  I LOVE that!!

I have another one next week in this series, I'll share when  I'm finished with the class. :)

I taught this class last week - accordion books.  I've lost count of how many of these I've made now and one of the participants made a PILE of them -  they were gorgeous!

Today I've completed a magazine product challenge and been madly scrapping and planning for Paperific.

Book your class spots with me here

Tomorrow I'm hoping to make a mini album or two for classes, and then we have Alexander's basketball break up and party and then Saturday I'm off to Crop 4 Kids Now that it's close I'm very excited that it's almost here.  I have masses of mojo right now so hopefully I keep it for a while - lol...

Okay I keep forgetting what I actually wanted blog so I think I will head off to bed.  The weather forecast for here tomorrow is FORTY degrees.  Yes FORTY - ew, it's March for goodness' sake.  I'm OVER the heat, move on already and give us Autumn - NOW!!!  It's my favourite season and I'm hanging for it!

Thanks for stopping in, please book soon if you're doing my classes at Paperific so you don't miss out :)

I am back - finally!!!!

Well, I have to say this is the longest I have ever neglected my blog for.  I've just been INSANELY busy.  All good busy but  really drowning.  I thought I'd better update the blog as I've been getting a few lovely "Are you okay?" emails.  Thanks so much, it's nice to know I am missed - a bit anyway.

Okay well, since I participated in the Mirabel Foundation campaign through Meet Me At Mikes, I got sick.  Nothing I really need to detail here but I was sick on and off for a couple of weeks.  Nothing serious, you know when you just get sick at the worst possible time when you have a million things to do and the timing couldn't be worse?  Well that was me.  But I'm good now -best I've been in a very long time.  So that took a fair bit out of my time and my household.  I'm still trying to catch up on the domestic stuff!

Then I started teaching at Simply Said here in Warragul.  I'm teaching classes twice a week and it has started out fabulously.  I'm still finding my way but loving teaching again - loving working too. :)  I'll be teaching lots of classes there, every week.  Next week I'm doing Doodling and I started with a Book of Me class which I was going to run monthly, but the girls enjoyed it so much, I'll be teaching it fortnightly from next term - yay!

So I've been madly making class samples, and doing DT stuff for KSK which I can't share because it's now being used to advertise for something else that I'm not sure if I can share yet but watch this space as I'll be sharing as soon as I have the go ahead.

And I have been doing some magazine stuff too and despite the fact that I lost my mojo while I was sick, I have to say, I feel it coming back - big time.  I cannot scrap enough right now I'm LOVING it.  Just as well because I still have a big 'to do' list - again yay!

So amongst all this stuff, I managed to take some Easter photos.  I needed them for something, lucky my babies were willing to participate - with Easter Egg bribery of course ;)

We had three birthdays to go to last weekend, two of them at the same time on Sunday.  One was Maddy only so while we were all looking semi-respectable, we did the Easter pics above and these:

Nathan and i haven't had a pic together for a while and after much editing I can live with these ;)

Scrapbook Creations is also out this week and I have these in it.  First of all, Jeni O'Connor covered my style this month is the What's Your Style feature.  It's been lovely to be a part of that feature, I really enjoyed it and loved finally defining my 'style'  lol.....that whole 'style' thing always used to freak me out, now I'm okay with it ;o) Here's the layout I did for it anyway.....

Lucky I like doing French Knots - lol!

The next layout in there is in the Lace gallery - my Miss Moo:

Love that photo of her :)

And last of all, I was lucky enough to take part in the 1-2-3D Paper Crafting System challenge from Kidston Craft using their system. 

I ended up using it to make a little pop-up book.  Easy with the tool ;)

It's hard to tell, but the photos pop up!

Okay I think I've waffled on enough for this post.  I promise to be more regular again for you people who have complained - lol!

I'm at Crop 4 Kids next weekend so if you're going I might see you there. :)

 

Festivities are Finished.........

Wow, it's all over already and it went so fast!  Today I'm feeling like some normality is returning to our home :)

We had a lovely, fairly quiet Christmas.  First of all, here's a photo of Maddy-Rudolph.  Her and her little friend Meg made up a play for us.  Maddy was a reindeer and they sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Meg's Mum and I.  It really was gorgeous because Maddy is usually too shy to do anything like this!

Christmas Eve we spent doing last minute shopping during the day and of course the shops were MADNESS but it all turned out okay. :)  The kiddos wanted to buy me a present from the scrapping shop here so I took them down and left the room while they hid presents for me in a big bag.  Both Alex and Maddy took great pleasure in teasing me given that they had a bag of scrappy secrets in the car that I couldn't see.  They hid in Alex's room together and wrapped them, it was gorgeous!  I ended up getting felt ribbons, acetate labels, Creative Imaginations epoxy stickers and new scissors - yum!

We drove around town until late looking at lights and at one house Santa was there giving lollies out to kids.  Alex and Maddy could not believe Santa was in our town already!  They had their lolly and then asked to go home to sleep so that Santa could come - what a pearler, they went straight to sleep and then both slept in until well after 8am - woohoo!

This is easily my favourite unwrapping photo of this Christmas.  Maddy had chosen a present for Nathan that was perfect.  It is a pizza cutter.  A Homer Simpson pizza cutter  that says  phrases by Homer while you're cutting with it. 

I just love the genuine delight on Nath's face and the expression on Maddy's.  It was really funny, she was so proud of herself!

We spent the morning playing with toys and I was cooking for lunch.  I only had to make a chocolate pudding and scalloped potatoes so it was easy really.  We had lunch at Dad's just with Dad and one of my sisters and my niece and nephew.  We had a simple barbecue outside in Dad's yard under a big shady tree and it was perfect.  The kids all had a ball and we had a yummy lunch and as usual, we all ate far too much and went home stuffed!

My personal favourite photo from the Christmas Day lunch - this one.......

Could they be any cuter?

It was lovely to just go home and relax.  The kids just kept playing with their new toys and we napped!

Boxing Day we stayed in our pyjamas ALL day!  Well until I had to leave the house :(  Nath mowed the lawn(finally) and the kids just kept playing with their new stuff.  I baked again, this time a pavlova and scalloped potatoes - again.  Alex was sick over a few days with tummy pains again.  I was trying to entice him to eat so I made a quiche as well.  I really hate cooking, I'd have preferred to be doing something else but the cooking had to be done....and it wasn't very hard :)

We went to Mum's for dinner and this time both of my sisters were there and my gorgeous niece and nephew again.  There was heaps of food and presents galore!  Again we spent most of our time outside, the kids could just run and play and it was easy.

I got heaps of awesome photos but I'm sick of processing now - lol!!!  Most of them are scrapping-worthy and not Christmas-sy so I reckon I'm set for new pics for a while. :)

Yesterday we went a bit nuts and cleaned.  Geez Christmas causes chaos!  I took the tree down, we all pitched in, I almost caught up on the washing, we found homes for all the new toys, omg the new toys there are SO many, the kids were WAY spoilt but very, very happy!  It's been nice to wake up today to some sense of order again.

I'm working on a magazine feature at the moment, one which had a pretty short deadline.  It needs to be in the post on January 8th so I'm scrapping like a mad woman today.  I'm having a ball albeit in a hurry, so I'd best get cracking.

Almost ready

Most of the food is here.

Most of the presents are wrapped.

Baking almost finished - house smells yummo, and I'm having to chase occupants and visitors away from baked goods with wooden spoon.

Washing and stuff up-to-date - house clean (sort of)

Very happy cherubic children.

And I'm scrapping.

Yep it's almost Christmas :)

Alex was sick again this morning, I was sure another hospital visit would be in order but by some miracle, he is feeling better, his colour is back and whatever was going on this morning seems to have subsided for now.  That's a good enough pressie for me :)

Silly

The Silly Season is definitely here and I'm NOT ready for it!

I have NO idea what I'm buying anyone, or where to get it........argh........every year I tell myself I'll be more organised the next year and I never am!

Well, that aside, Alexander played Basketball on Friday night and they won again!  It was one of those close nail-biting games where I was actually holding my breath for part of it, it was that close and they won by only one goal.  It was full-on, even in the last few seconds!  A VERY entertaining game for us.  Poor boys were all very hot though!

Saturday afternoon I found myself at the hospital with Alexander and another UTI.  It's so frustrating, I can never get into the same GP and when we get a new one they tell me it's normal and then he gets sick on a Saturday afternoon and we have to go to hospital.  Luckily we were seen quickly and he had antibiotics quickly, and we got to leave in a bit over an hour I guess.  He has the beginning of investigations in January so hopefully we'll get some answers then.

Prior to that we put up our Christmas tree.  The kids had a ball and I love that I can leave them to it now.

I do love me some home made Christmas decorations, they're the BEST!

And have you seen these this year?  I've been buying a few at a time from a gift shop here.  they're little shiny birds that have a clip underneath that clips to your tree branches - aren't they sweet?

And then Saturday night we had a Singstar date - lol!  Nothing like adults fighting kids for the Playstation 2.  We had a BALL, sung until we were hoarse and drank way too much - again!

It was the BEST night, all of us had a blast and it was just what I needed!  I still can't believe I sang (if you can call it that) in fact I can't believe that any of us not only sang but sang with abandon - roflmao...

Sunday Alex and Maddy had their friends over to play and they played Lego and dolls and we made Christmas decos and generally had a lovely day......Here's a couple of the ones our kids made, already on the tree-

Love the upside-down "Merry Christmas" - lol.

They are little wooden pre-drawn shapes from The Warehouse.  Maddy painted hers but Alex used textas and the greeting is table scatters run through the Xyron.

I went mad yesterday cleaning and cleaning and re-sorting and refreshing everywhere from Maddy's room to my scrapping drawers that hadn't had a clean out for a couple of years I reckon.  What a mess there was in there!  It's all good now and I've been able to scrap.  And not only scrap but enjoy doing it!  I made this:

My sweet little nephew Joshy.  Again this is all product from the Creative IMaginations Creative Cafe range.  How cool is that felt stuff?

I also made this today -

Same stuff again, from the same range - it's SO user-friendly and this too -

The paper on the front, the die-cut and the flower braid, is again from the same range.  To make a frame like this and like the one in my previous post, just find a flat-front wooden frame.  Discount shops are fabulous for these, they're usually under $5.  Then smother with glue and cover like you would chipboard and then trim and sand edges before embellishing - easy!

Well, I think that's about it for today. I'm off on a scrapping 'date' tomorrow.  I'm hoping to get a mini album made, just 'because' and then I have a very busy week coming up.  I bet you do too.

Thanks for stopping in :)

Housekeeping

Well I have nothing too exciting to post today but I have been meaning to document a few everyday things so this is the post that I will tidy this stuff up!

I've been so distracted with my other stuff that I have neglected to document my everyday and I'm telling you that after all the time I've had this blog, it's the everyday stuff that I often value most.

So, that being said, here are some pics of my busy Sunday that I spent sewing a new chairbag and art smock for my favourite boy Alexander, ready for him to embark on Grade Two.

How cute are those skulls?  Apparently his army print stuff from last year is for babies???  and now skulls are the go - lol.  That's his art smock on the right.  I can't help but agree that the art smock is cool.

He was so cute when he saw his chairbag name tag.  "Wow Mum", he said.  "You just keep getting better and better."

I can't ever ask for more than that.

Today was back to school and he was up and dressed and ready to go early, very eager to get there.

I was super organised this morning so we made it on time and we remembered everything for school, creche and work. ;)

He had a great day but was a bit dark on Nathan because he was picked up from After School Care too early.  This was the child that said he didn't want to go this morning......lol.......

When I dropped Maddy at creche though she cried and cried and cried and clung to me and begged me not to leave her.  Why do they do that?  She settles as soon as I'm gone and comes home happy happy happy.  It just breaks me, little treasure..........

I got this photo of her on Australia Day

 

 

at the park, in fact all of these photos were taken on Australia Day.

 

                   

And here's Miss Moo in her element on the horse ride at the Rodeo the other night. :)

     And just because it grosses me out, look what brushed my hand when I opened my window a few days ago EEEEKKKK!~!!!

    Icky yucky yuck.

I quickly closed the window again and walked away but as I thought the creepy little bugger made its way up the sash bit of the window.  Ewy ewy ewwww.

Alexander was SO brave, getting me stuff as I needed it because honestly i am really phobic of huntsmans.  Not spiders in general but this type YES!  yuck.  He even got the camera so I could take a pic.  Hmm, it's freaking me out just looking at the picture.

I watched it for ages, willing it to die after I sprayed a heap of spray on it but NO, it was alive.  It eventually crawled out the screen and I thought it was over but it came back ARGH.  Thank goodness my man came back and squished it - ew ew ew ew........

I've spent most of this week doing the  Mumma thing.  Cleaning, shopping, ironing, covering books all that stuff and it has seriously interrupted my scrapping time.  No big deal normally but it's crunch time as far as class samples go and I have DT stuff to do too so I'd best get back to it.

I will DEFINATELY have a list here of all of my online classes for this term, probably Friday.  If you're interested in any of my online classes Scrap To The Max and/or my personal online classes I will have the preliminary details and dates this week and peeks of one ;)

I will be hopefully be teaching quite a few here, mainly stitching and stuff so watch this space for details.  I'll also update my sidebars.  Golly they're out of date now but duty calls for now.

Thanks for stopping by :)