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 :)

Life Lessons

Well I'm pretty sure it's official now.  Our beloved Basil-cat is not coming back. :(

Yesterday I saw Madeleine in the backyard sitting at the picnic table looking through a scrapbook of pages she'd made herself.  I went and sat with her and asked her what she was doing.  She told me she was really missing Basil and if she showed him her scrapbook with photos of him in it, he'd realise how much she loves him and then he would come home to her.

Oh it just broke my heart.  She truly thought he left because he didn't realise that we love him so much.  Then she thought maybe he didn't like the food we were feeding him and a whole host of other reasons that all made perfect sense.  It was awful, in fact I am still choking up thinking about it.

So we told both kids the truth, that we think he has died.

And they were heartbroken.  We all were.  Nathan too.  We all cried.  And cried.  And cried.  And poor Alex was just so so sad.  It was one of those horrible moments where you wish you could hug their pain away.  But of course I couldn't.  It was just awful.  We had no explanation for them.  Except that death is part of life.  We shared funny happy memories and told the kids it's okay to be sad.  But it's okay to be happy too. 

So after an exhaustive sook-session, Nathan took the kids to play with some friends and it was the perfect distraction.  Alex was sad again last night but I think they'll be okay.  It's a hard thing to learn but not a lesson we can avoid forever.  I can't help but keep checking the front door looking for him though. :(  I'm heartbroken. That furry little creature has been with us forever. :(  But life goes on....

I scrapped my behind off yesterday.  I have masses of mojo and creative energy and am hanging out to channel it somewhere!  Wish I had more time to make stuff - grr...

Kids are on holidays from today and they were wild.  Oh dear they are so energetic and BOTH blessed with the gift of verbal diarrhea.   Lucky me.  Not.  Oh boy I'm hanging out for some serenity already and it's only the first day!  I was a bit busy finishing off work stuff so preoccupied I guess but tomorrow we might do some cooking I think.  I put them to work tonight putting washing away and doing other chores and have told them if they tell me they're bored, the grout in the bathroom needs a clean, the windows need washing and the car needs a clean.  Reckon they'll be bored tomorrow.  Nope I don't!  I'm hoping we make it out for a bike ride tomorrow.  That should tire them out!

They did give me two minutes of their time today though.  I need this for a class sample and they turned out better than I anticipated - yay!!

You can hardly tell they spent a large portion of today bickering at each other - lol.  Little treasures. I actually do love having them home on holidays.  Mostly - lol!

That's it for today - seeya xx

Second Week of Winter stuff....

Well the long weekend was lovely even though I spent all of it right here, on my ass, at my desk!  I finally finished my work that I had overdue on Wednesday - crikey!  I've never been late for a deadline before - oh well, had to happen some time I guess!

So aside from scrapping like a mad woman, our kids have been busy too!  Alexander had an excursion to the local tour of the Alfred Brash Soundhouse.

In between scrapping like a flustered mad woman, I went as a parent helper and walked with the kids to participate.  It was so cool  They got to make their own music and even burn a CD!  They just loved it.  Mind you, it's not the most ambient piece of symphony but it's precious all the same!

Madeleine and I had a very special girl's night out on Friday with one of my girlfriends and her daughter as well.  We went to see the musical Cats.

I thought Maddy would be bored silly but she was completely enthralled.  Even when I started to get bored, she was still completely mesmerised.  It was so beautiful to get to take her to real theatre and to have her enjoy it.  Far out it was LONG though!  Amazing singers, gorgeous costumes and a visit from the felines at interval.  Madeleine being maybe the tiniest audience member there attracted attention from the cats who were more than happy to have their photos taken with Miss Moo who was wary at first until they talked to her.  Sweethearts they were.

Getting these photos too made me grateful that I finally bought a point and shoot Canon camera because I could not have been bothered lugging my SLR around with me all night!  Maddy clung to the program book all night and talked about it non-stop all of yesterday!

In scrapping news, I have another class date to announce here for next month.  I will be teaching Doodling at Scrapbook Sinners in Traralgon on Sunday July 13th.  I have THREE classes on in total - morning, afternoon and night so if you want to book in, contact the store.  Woohoo it will be a full on fabulous day of doodling delight!!!

And in other scrappiness, my first Weekend Inspiration post has gone up at Aussie Scrap Source

I couldn't have been any happier with the first one I got to do.  Cosmo Cricket.  Hello, I think something cosmic happened to allow me to use my favourite ever company first!  Woohooey woo hoo!  Okay enough of the woohooing, here's my contributions!  Click them to see them bigger :)

That above range is Get Happy.  It seriously MAKES me happy!  It's sooo cool!

This range is Honey Pie.  Perfect Maddy colours.  Perfect Nic colours - lol!  I actually taught this as a class at Simply Said a few weeks ago.  It's now in a lush shabby white frame and when it's finished with at the shop it will be living in Madeleine's room!

Well my computer is running like a snail today, it's driving me mad!  And I have a couple of scrappy things to get done so I'll leave this post here.  Anyone got snow yet?  I keep looking at the mountain out my windows but so far nothing.  Mind you it's about cold enough - yay!!!

Scrapping and Celebrating!

Thank goodness it's a long weekend - Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth and many happy returns if it means a long weekend!

My baby boy turned nine on Thursday.  As with every year I found it all bittersweet.  I love birthdays and this year he was the most excited he has ever been.  It's always a good opportunity for reflection too and it reminds me how fast the time I have with my babies has flown! Nine, yes NINE!  Wasn't he just born??

Anyway I spent the day baking these:

They are Pokeballs from Pokemon.  Apparently last year's were so cool that he needed them again and they were a hit!

I even got to see some finished friendship bands made by the children that I thought didn't understand what I was trying to teach them.  That was fabulous.  I just love the pride that kids (and adults) have when they show you what they have learned from you.

It makes sharing things so worthwhile!

He was a happy boy my Alexander!  He got the presents he wanted - Lego and Bakugan and then had his two best mates over for afternoon tea.  Same as last year.  I thought he'd do something different but this is what he wanted.  Since I'm working on a magazine feature right now, I needed new photos and these crazy boys put on a little show for me - lol!!

They are such good mates and I love how much fun they have when I get the camera out!

This is the face that only a mother could love above and I really do love this one below!

Happy Birthday Alexander!

He also surprised me with a simple cake request.  Nothing fancy this year just chocolate cake with fruit rings and Smarties please!

The family pics we had to have.....

I'm still completely smitten with this boy!

I noticed this in my photos - that how you cut your cake is all in how you hold your tongue:

And apparently same can be said later on when Madeleine was putting the lid on the soft drink - lol!

My sister brought Alex pizza for dinner and her and her kiddies stayed for dinner.  Bad light meant bad photos but I did get this cute one of my nephew Joshua who didn't like Nathan popping the paper bag but really begged him to do it again!

It was a great day all around!

I'm spending the whole weekend scrapping.  I have a TONNE of work to get through and for the first time ever I'm starting to doubt making the deadlines.  I'm remaining positive though as it's only temporary that I will have so much work on.  Speaking of scrapping here's a couple I did for the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  Firstly my use of  Glimmermist.  I wasn't too sure about this blingy product at first but wanted to have a go and well YUM!  I now have it in a few different colours it was SO much fun!

 

And I did this one for the Scrap Her Style challenge.  My second challenge was to scrap the delightful Mel Goodsell. I got to scrap her gorgeous Bella.

I think it actually ended up looking like a Melissa Goodsell layout and I had so much fun doing it!

You can see the other ones here

One more share - last week's class for Simply Said, from my Book of Me series...When I'm Gone...

That's about it for today.  It's amazing how much I can waffle on!!! Have a great long weekend xx

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 :)

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 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!!!