Calvin's First Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We've had a lovely day today up at the property in Broke with Jeremy's imediate family:



Calvin got spoilt rotten of course:



He's SUCH a gorgeous boy!! I love him to bits. He had a lovely Christmas - dressed up as a little reindeer (so cute!!). We were up at about 6:30 for a feed, then our morning consisted of a lovely breakfast with a HUGE fruit platter, followed by present opening and enjoyment over morning tea. Many of us then relaxed, or had a nap before a lovely Christmas lunch of roast turkey!



The afternoon was also quite relaxing with a few games of badmitton, but the most exciting present of all came - rain!!! It is DESPERATELY needed out here!! So dry. I expect it will be much that way up on the farm too, when we get up there next week.

Tomorrow (Boxing Day), we're heading into Newcastle for lunch with some family, then to Singleton for a BBQ with a few of Jeremy's Singleton mates. Sunday we'll relax, and we'll probably head up to the farm Monday or Tuesday. We'll head back to Sydney for Friday or Saturday night when my parents are going to babysit so Jeremy and I can go out for a date!! Dinner and a movie - we're going to go and see the new "Avatar" movie, which we're really looking forward to!! Then back home and into life again :)

I'll leave you with a photo of our little family from today. So sweet :)

If it ain't Broke...

Well, we're up in Broke this weekend - spending some time with Jeremy's family. I'm not sure how long this post will be because Calvin has been due to wake up for a feed for about half an hour now, so i'll just blog until he does, then press the post button!

Yesterday was a bit stressful - travelling from Wollongong to Broke. We didn't get to leave until about 11 due to Calvin messing around a bit with his feeds in the morning, and then he slept until we got to Sydney (at the end of the M2 - in the stretch of Sydney between the M2 and the F3). We stopped at the maccas for lunch, and i fed Calvin there. Got back into the car and Calvin was all good until we got on the F3, where he proceeded to scream his lungs out. I was driving so Jeremy was reaching over the back putting the dummy in and trying to calm him down. Nothing worked, so we ended up pulling over at the rest stop on the Moony Moony Bridge. Took us about half an hour to calm him down. We had planned to stop in at Newcastle to catch up with Chelsea and then Jeremy's grandparents, but by this stage, our stop by Newcastle was definately off. We ended up arriving at Broke at about 4:30 - just in time for Calvin to have another feed.

In other news, Calvin has started sleeping through the night!!! He slept through for the first time last Thursday night. We've since had 5 full night's sleep, though the last 2 nights he woke for a feed. Hopefully he'll sleep through again tonight, but God only knows what he'll do!! It's funny how you just can't predict these things - like him having a long nap this arvo!

So, onto scrappy business, i've done a few pages recently - all of Calvin of course!!

Here's one i did for the Scrapboutique November Stash Stomper competition. I've used glimmermist to create the effect on the middle green square - masking with a chipboard piece which i've included on the page. The PP are all Sassafrass Lass, and the flowers are Prima. Alphas are Basic Grey and the bling is Kaiser.





love those flowers...

The next page was created for the Scrapboutique November CC Sunday Roast. I've used some yummy Stampin' Up! PP, along with some thickers for the alphas, some Pink Paisley chipboard and some Stampin' Up! punches. Cool hey?!?! This is my favourite colour combo - raspberry and chocolate - sounds good enough to eat doesn't it?!?!!



The next page was also created during the Scrapboutique November CC - during Chelsea's friday night speed scrap. I've used some of the delicious new Bo Bunny PP's and diecut stickers, on a Basic Grey background and i've added a little Heidi Swapp.



I was a busy bee during the Scrapboutique November CC!! This was for Manon's colour challenge. It's quite different to what i normally create, and i'm still not sure if i like it, but it's good to step outside the box every now and again, i think!! I've used a mix of all different PP's in this - Bo Bunny, Rosa Moka and MME. Thickers and doodlebug for the alphas. Prima for the flowers and Stampin' Up! for the brads (which i went a little crazy with...)



Something else that i've been working on is a calendar for Calvin. It's hanging on the wall outside his room (no room in his room...), and it's a progressive calendar. The idea is that i make the page for each month using photos of him from that month, and i write his little milestones as they happen on the days they happen - that way i won't forget all those little moments which will become so precious!! It's a MM calendar, and the pages are 10x10. I've done 2 so far - October and November:





In other news - i've been published!!! You can find my first published page in the November issue of Creating Keepsakes - at the back in the 'Australian Scrapbookers' section.

Well, Calvin's still asleep, but i've said pretty much all i need to say!

Calvin's been Scrapped!!

Hi all, it's been a while since i updated my blog as i've been FLAT OUT!!! Looking after a newborn is hard work - especially when i'm breastfeeding!!! And in my 'spare time' i've wanted to scrap, rather than blog!! Anyway, i've actually managed to do a couple of pages of Calvin, so i thought i'd share them!!

My first page of Calvin was using his first ever photos!!! I've created it using some of the awesome new papers from Fancy Pants in the "Little Sprout" range, along with some matching rubons, thickers and a Martha Stewart Punch. The base paper had "The Day You Were Born:" on it, and so i've written the story of Cal's birth on it!! This page was based on a pagemaps sketch from the Scrapbook Capital October sketch competition.

The next page is a beautiful photo of Aunty Sarah with Calvin - she just loves him so much!! I've used a mix of October Afternoon "Ducks in a Row" and "Cherry Hill" - my new favourite combination!!! This page was for Scrapboutique's October stash stomper challenge.

Using this same patterned paper combo, i've created the next page - a page about how Calvin makes me so happy. It's amazing how i feel when i look at him and hold him - the most incredible feeling in the world!! This page was based on a Scrapbooking From Scratch blind challenge!

My final layout was created based on the recent "For Him" LO by Zoe Pearn at Scrapboutique. Zoe is a designer for MME, and it's using MME papers from the new "Ooh La La" range - isn't it beautiful!?!?! I'm also working on a mini album from the same set of classes - the class was last night, and i got about half of it done, so hopefully i'll get the rest done next week.

No more scrapping for me this weekend as i'm going to be flat out!! Calvin is being baptised tomorrow, so we've got the family down all weekend. Not sure that i'll get much done next week either - Jeremy will be working all week, so i'm going to be on my own for most of it! Plus, i really need to think about Christmas Cards!!! I can't believe how quickly Christmas is sneaking up on us this year!!

15th September: The day our life changed forever

Introducing Calvin Oliver Smith. Born 15th September 2009, 6:06pm. Weight 3.235kg. Length 49cm. 

So, here's the story of how our little man came into the world. At 4:30am my waters broke. I had actually got up to tell the dogs to stop barking, when my waters broke halfway down the hall!! Luckily, i didn't get the sudden 'gush' that lots of people get, it was just a trickle. Anyway, by 5:30 we were in hospital, but ironically, after all those weeks of contractions, i didn't go into labour!! They let me go for a couple of hours, as the OB was due to come into the hospital at 7:30. When he came in, they started me on the inducing hormones. I was 4cm by 10am and started on the gas and by lunchtime we decided that i neeeded an epidural. Once i got the epidural, i was able to have a sleep, which was great to prepare me for the afternoon that we had ahead of us. 

At about 3pm they started me pushing, and unfortunately i had a window on my right side which made it quite painful for me. After 2 hours of pushing, they decided to try the vacuum on our little guy, and that was unsuccessful too. They suspected that he was posterior (his head facing the ceiling, rather than the floor, like it should), but they couldn't quite tell because he had so much hair!! Anyway, after trying the vacuum for about half an hour, it was decided forceps wouldn't work so we went for an emergency cesarian. Here he is when he came out - his first photo:

While they were stitching me up, and monitoring my recovery, they took Jeremy and Calvin away to cut the cord, weigh and measure him. 

I was in recovery for about an hour, and Calvin spent the whole time with his hands in his mouth, wanting to be fed!! Once i was back with him, he was straight into it - it was amazing how naturally breastfeeding came to both of us straight away.

Very proud parents!!

More Contractions....

Well, Jeremy was on roster on Friday, and he spent most of it with me in the hospital. I was having really close contractions early in the morning (from about 5:30am) but then they fizzled out again, going back to about 5-10 minutes apart. So at about lunch time we decided to go into the hospital to be check out - to find out exactly what was going on. 

They hooked me up to 2 monitors - one to record the baby's heartbeat and one to record my contractions. Then they told me they would be back in 15 minutes or so. 2 hours later, they returned apologising profusely as they had 3 deliveries in the time i was in there!! We of course knew this as we heard each and every one of them!! So after 2 hours of sitting being completely bored (we ended up playing hang man on my iphone...) they came in and told me that everything looked normal for very early labour, and they wanted to give me an internal. The internal revealed that baby is very far down - his head right in my pelvis, but my cervix was no where near ready to begin dialating. 

So the bottom line is that i'm going to have to endure through these contractions for a lot longer - probably a couple of weeks. I'm doing all i can - trying to stay active, taking lots of raspberry leaf, all that sort of thing. Just got to wait. Poor baby is well and truely ready to come out and his mumma is letting him down :( We're booked in to see the OB again this Wednesday, so i'm going to see if there is anything he can do, because i'm so incredibly uncomfortable - especially at night!!

On another note, we decided to get out of the house yesterday and do something that's been on our 'to do' list for a while now!! We went and walked across the seacliff bridge up at coalcliff/stanwell park. All 4 of us - Jeremy, the dogs and myself - really enjoyed the walk and the fresh air. It was just perfect weather for it too!!

Well, i'm off to hang the washing out and make some lamb and feta parcels for lunch now.

Confessions of a BAD BLOGGER!!

Well it's been AGES since i've blogged. I just haven't really been in the mood. I'm now 38 weeks pregnant, and i'm SO over it. I've been over it for ages, i know, but i'm now really struggling to sleep and do simple everyday tasks, like even hanging the washing out.

We had a pretty exciting weekend last weekend. On Friday morning i went into labour - i was having contractions very spuratically - between 2 and 15 minutes apart. Mid-afternoon i decided to call the hospital, and they told me to have a bath, so i did. This stopped the contractions! I went back into labour later that night, and was able to sleep really well that night. I got up Saturday morning, and went back into labour quite quickly. The contractions were now 2 to 5 minutes apart, so i told Jeremy that i was going to have a shower, then we were going to hospital. Once again, the contractions stopped when i got in the shower! Crazy! After that, the contractions were very spuratic again for the rest of the weekend, and have been on and off since then.

We're going to see the OB this afternoon, so it will be interesting to see what he says.

I've been very slow in the scrapping department lately. Here's what i've done recently:

Here's a double LO i did about our changing kitchen - the last big change that needed to happen, which was tiling our floor. I've got a picture below of the full double, then each side. I've used some of the yummy new Pink Paisley papers available at ScrapBoutique - my last little task as a celebrity designer there!

So, i haven't been doing much scrapping because i've been doing a lot of laying on the couch!! This means that i've done LOTS of knitting and crochet lately - plus even some cross-stitch!! All for baby of course. I finished a cute little jacket for baby (3 months) recently, but i haven't photographed it yet, so i'll pop it up when i've done that. So now i'm knitting a cute little jacket for him at 9 months - it's the first item i've ever knitted all in one piece, so it's quite an exciting knit for me! 

I'm also doing a crochet blanket to match his room - i've done 3 of 6 squares now, just starting on the 4th square. It's looking fab. I plan to make it 6 squares large for now, but i'm going to keep adding to it as i've got a total of 400g of the wool to do it in!! (ordered from bendigo of course). 

Plus, i'm working on a little cross-stitch for baby - a cute little Anchor kit with a baby bear asleep, and i'll put the name, DOB, weight etc. on it when he comes. It's looking pretty good so far. Very nearly finished it (as far as i can before bubs comes!!)

So, basically i'm just playing the waiting game at the moment. Trying to distract myself as best as possible during each day. Finding it very hard to trust the Lord with his good and perfect plan for us and our baby, especially with so many random contractions. He'll come when he's good and ready.

What's Ad About !?!

I know it's been a while since i've blogged, but just a quick one today with a LO i just did. It's for a site i just found - Wicked Princesses. They have started a blog called "What's Ad About !?!" where they post a monthly challenge to create a LO based on an ad. Here's this month's ad:

And here's the LO i was inspired to produce from it:

I was inspired by the writing on the background (hence the background PP with the occasional bit of writing), and the colours - though i translated these into more of a pink and black rather than red. I was also inspired by the picture - to create a page with a 'hug' in it.

The products i've used are from Terresa Collins "Documented" range, Little Yellow Bicycle "Love Letters" range, some glittered thickers and the cute little owl is a RW Laser Cuts chipboard piece which i've painted, then put some glimmer mist on. It's a shame the photo doesn't pick up on how glitzy this page is, 'cause it's quite nice IRL!!

Enjoy! And check out the wicked princesses website as they've got a big comp about to start in September with some awesome prizes!!

Last week at work, and Embellished Idol

Yay! I just found out i'm through to the third round of the Embellished Idol competition, with this layout:

Aren't these papers so delicious!! They are new from "Little Yellow Bicycle", in their new 'Traveller' range. The challenge was to make a 'circular' layout with the theme 'around the world'. For the third round, we have to create a monochromatic layout (with black and white). Not sure what i'm going to scrap with this, but i'm sure i'll come up with something!!

So, this week is my last week of work - Thursday being my last day. I am SO looking forward to not working. I am so sore and really need my rest these days. It also seems that my first trimester nausea is back!! Terrible thing to have come back, but never mind!! Our little boy is growing well now - he should be about 2kg now - hard to believe!! At our obstetrician appointment last week, our doctor confirmed that he's the right way up (that is head down!!). We have our 34 week ultrasound on Friday morning, and we're both really looking forward to seeing him again!! It's amazing that in 6 weeks (maybe less, maybe more), we will have our little boy in our arms, God willing. We are both SO excited about it!! It's just going to be very hard to wait that long!!!

Well, before i finish this post, i'll share a couple more recent layouts with you. The first one is using some of Basic Grey's new 'Lemonade' range:



And the above layout is using some Pink Paisley 'Captivating' papers. Isn't the picture so cute?!?! Both layouts above are from our trip down the coast in June/July, on the beach at Tathra. The photo of Napoleon is him at his happiest i think!!

Showers, Contractions and Design Teams!

Well, a lot has happened since my last post! Saturday 1st August was my baby shower, which was just a fabulous day!! Jeremy's mum came down and stayed with us all weekend, which was lovely, and the actual baby shower was at my mum's place in Sydney. It was just wonderful that mum took care of pretty much everything on the day, so i didn't have to worry about things - just turn up and eat and chat all afternoon!!

Here's what i looked like on the day - 32.5 weeks here:


We all sat outside and had lunch, which was really lovely. Mum made heaps of lovely quiches and slices for us to enjoy! We all look very blue (except me...) because i asked everyone to wear blue - to celebrate our baby boy!! After i sent the invites with that request, i realised that i didn't have anything blue that fit me!! So i decided to go completely the other day with my lovely hot pink top!!

After our lovely lunch in the sun, we went inside to open some pressies and play a couple of games. Mum organised it very well so that the prizes were lush bath bombs, and the 'nappy pin' game certainally kept my sister and her friend amused while we were opening the pressies!!

And check out the beautiful cake that mum made for the event - she really is very talented at cake decorating!!

So yes, it was a very busy, enjoyable day that went way too quickly!!

In other news, i've been experiencing some Branxton Hicks contractions in the last week or so. I had a whole day last week - from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon where they were few and far between - i would get 3-4 an hour then nothing for an hour or so, then it would begin again. Then on Friday night i had a single contraction. We've just been to the obstetrician and he said that it's a good thing - my body is getting ready for what's to come!! Bubs is the right way around too, which is just fabulous! We've got our next ultrasound next week, which will determine if my placenta has lifted. It's fairly likely that it has, but if it hasn't, we may be looking at a C-section. Please pray for this for us - it's certainly been at the top of our prayer list!!

So another HUGE thing that's happened in the last week or so is that i've been chosen to be on the design team for Scrapbook Capital!!! I'm SO excited about this - it's the first design team i've been on - it's a 6 month position, and i just can't wait to get started with it all. I'm also still on the ScrapBoutique design team for the month of August, while the owner (Chelsea) takes a break after the massive month she had in July celebrating the shop's second birthday!

And here's some actual scrapping that i've done recently (how have i had time!?!?!). This is a page i did for the Embellished idol competition, using some SEI papers, Prima embellishments and Heidi Swapp Invisibles alphas!

Ongoing Layout Challenge - Finished and Updated!!

Well the week-long CC at ScrapBoutique has been going just great! There have been LOTS of challenges and prizes up for grabs, plus games and general frivolity!

One of the most interesting challenges for me has been the ongoing layout challenge! Each night, a DT member posts an instruction without consulting with the rest of the team, and you just have to build it as you go! Here's how mine has been building so far:

Can't wait to see how it finishes up when i'm done!! 2 more steps to go. I've been using some of the lovely new Kaisercraft Q1 releases - the Loire Valley range. So cute, and really challenging my normal colour scheme!!

**Update** Here's my finished layout! Isn't it fab? Thanks to the boutique babes who organised this one - loving it!!!

New Competition at Scrapbook Capital

A new competition will be commencing in August at Scrapbook Capital and here are the details...

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN SCRAP?

• I need at least 12 to sign up
• it will be an elimination competition
• there will be 6 rounds
• 1 winner
• for those elliminated, a gallery will be set up and a small prize will be up for grabs too
• a prize is yet to be decided but will let you know asap.
• the competition is "so you think you can scrap!" This will really get your mojo going and your creative side exploding.... definetely something for everyone
• each round will have a closing date. no late entries will be excepted
• Competition will start in August
• You MUST register to take part.

Come on girls.... sign up!!! you've got to be in it to win it!!

Week Long Cyber Crop at ScrapBoutique

Want some extra scrapping challenges this week, with a chance to win some great prizes? Head on over to ScrapBoutique for thier week long 2nd Birthday Cyber Crop!!!! 

I've just posted one of the challenges - a challenge to create 3 birthday cards for upcoming birthdays!! Here's what i came up with:

The first card uses October Afternoon 'Cherry Hill' papers and die cuts, plus some Stampin' Up! rubons (no longer available). The other two cards use Making Memories 'Just Chillin' Boy' 8x8 papers plus die cuts, and the super cute little alphabet stamps from Stampin' Up!

Friday night on the Cyber Crop, we had a "Speed Scrap" - creating a layout in an hour, based on a sketch with some extra criteria. Here's what i came up with:

Part of the challenge was to use some PP that's been in your stash for over a year - i've used some old Scenic Route, which i LOVE, but i just never used!! Glad i did - i'll probably use it again soon!! I've also used a really lovely RW laser cuts chipboard embellishment, a College Press die cut circle, some thickers and carolee's creations alphas, along with a *yummy* retired Stampin' Up journal stamp - love it!!

Holy Tolledo Batman - That's Not Our Kitchen!!!!!

Well, we just couldn't believe our eyes when we got home yesterday and took a peek at our new kitchen floor - it's AMAZING!!! Why didn't we do it years ago? (because we couldn't quite afford it...and we didn't have a little one on the way wwho was going to scrap his knees on the concrete as soon as he tried to crawl...). It really is beyond what we could have imagined - we have never been so happy with anything in our house (well, it seems that way after every major reno, doesn't it?!?!).

We got so inspired that we raced down to Bunnings that night to pick some paint to finish the other 3 walls in the room, before we put all the furniture back. The tilers initially told us that we'd be able to use the space again the next day (today), but yesterday they asked us to wait and extra day, so we figured what's *another* day, in the grand sc



I'll have some better pictures over the weekend, when i can actually go in and walk on the floor (these shots were just taken from the doorway...)

If you're not doing anything tonight, you should head on over to ScrapBoutique for their annual birthday WEEK LONG cybercrop - it's going to be unreal!! It will be kicked off tonight with a speed scrap from 8pm!

My kitchen is all over my house!!

We're having our kitching/dining room/laundry tiled tomorrow, so the contents of the area are all over our house!! Because our garage is under the house, it's much more convienient to put stuff around the house and deal with it for a couple of days than it is to move everything to the garage! Check it out - here's the now empty room:

And our 'nursery' is has our freezer, washing machine and dishwasher packed into it:

Our living room is crowded with our fridge, computer and 'island' unit from our kitchen (plus tea and coffee making facilities, as well as a toaster - so we're set for a living room breakfast tomorrow!!)

Our bedroom has our buffet unit plus the drawers from our 'island' unit, along with a couple of chairs and bits and pieces.

And my craft room is stacked with heaps of random stuff, like our wine racks, and bits of the laundry. The dining table and chairs got sent down to the garage, along with a bit more of our laundry. Thankfully it's only for 2 nights - We should be right to walk on the tiles on Friday, and hence move everything back in. I hope we don't have too much trouble getting everything moved back in!!

We've been looking forward to doing this for ages now - we've been in the house almost 3 years and living with a floor consisting of 3 separate floors - 2 concrete floors with very dodgy brick joining, and a timber floor in the corner (we think this was the original kitchen). It's just amazing what you can live with, i've learnt through this house!! We didn't even have a laundry until 6 months ago!! But, with bubs on the way, we really needed to get it all sorted. I might even have a linen closet one of these days...