It's a CHRISTMAS thing!!

MME is a fantastic paper design company (not to mention all the yummy matching embellies!!!). I've just discovered their great blog, so i've done their most recent challenge. The challenge was to do a LO with the theme "It's a _______ thing", following a sketch and using MME products! Here's what i came up with:

I love the tag i've put the title on! It's a simple acetate tag that i put through my cuttlebug then inked the back with some white stayz-on! Cute, hey?

I chose to do this page because something we do EVERY year at Christmas is put up the tree on 1st December. This year Calvin was able to help, and he just loves all the decorations i've put everywhere!! What a cutie :)

I'm off scrapping at Scrapbooks Etc at Underwood tomorrow night, so i'm looking forward to that. I've been finishing some OTP's as gifts this week - for my 4 little cousins up here (all girls!!), i'm making them a Kaiser handbag pencil holder thing each. I hope they like them!! Off to keep working on them now!

Up to the 12th day of Christmas already?!?!

As if this year hasn't flown by quickly enough, this month is absolutely flying too!! Just one more week until we hit the road, heading down to Sydney for Christmas with my family. I can't wait!!

6/12: Finished all the Christmas Cards

Well, it seemed like it took forever, but i managed to make 38 cards this year - though this wasn't quite enough, so some people only received bought cards (sorry if you're one of them!!!). I think i sent about 50 cards this year, all with a newsletter included of course!!

7/12: Water fun - a must in an Aussie summer!!

Well Calvin had a ball this morning (excuse the pun!!). It seems that the ball pit was left open overnight and one side had a couple of inches of water from the rain!! Calvin and i spotted it at the same time, but he was just way too quick and in he went! Instead of grabbing him out straight away and taking him in to dry and change him, i went and got the camera. He was just having way too much fun to stop him!!

8/12: Nora Bailey's Funeral

Today was filled with all sorts of emotions. Nora, my aunt's mother in law, passed away last week. She was an old lady of 92, but certainally didn't seem it. We all sort of thought she'd be around forever - she was so much a part of the furniture in the Bailey's household. She was such a lovely lady with a really fabulous sense of humour. Boy did she love Calvin and Jeremy!! She'd always ask me when i was bringing Jeremy over because she was going to steal him off me if i wasn't careful!!

Her funeral was really lovely and afterwards we went back to my aunt's house and had a bit of lunch and just spent some time together. It's been a bit tricky to get over to see my aunt as she's about 45 minutes away from where i am now so it's a real day trip getting over to see her! Unfortunately she doesn't get over to see me much so if i want to see her i usually need to go to her, but that's ok. It was lovely to spend some family time together. Calvin had a great time playing with toys that i remember playing with as a child!

9/12: Posting the Christmas Cards

I didn't know how i was going to do it, but i managed to get a photo of Calvin posting a Christmas card!! Perfect for the album, and he was pretty chuffed with himself too!! Unfortunately it was taken on my iPhone so the quality isn't fabulous, but it's good enough for me!!

10/12: Daycare Christmas Party

11/12: Watching Dad Mow the Lawn

This photo just speaks for itself doesn't it!?!?!

12/12: Piano performance by Trinity and Bridget

Today Jeremy's cousin's family came over for a piano 'performance'. I've been teaching the girls piano this term, and they have come a long way!! It was really just a great chance to hang out as a family - and to finally meet Brent!! Trinity played us about 4 songs in the end, and Bridget played 1 - though we really had to coax it out of her!! In the end, she was bribed with a lolly :)

Here's the girls with Calvin in front of our tree. Calvin did NOT want to sit with the girls - he just wasn't himself today. Turns out that he's either teething or has a virus because he spewed up at dinner. Hope he's feeling better tomorrow because i'd like to get some SANTA PHOTOS done tomorrow!!

Kraft It Up & Scrap The Boys

I had a busy night last night at my LSS, Fancy That Scrapbooking in Springfield. It's a nice little shop and i'm really enjoying going there - especially since they don't charge for their crop nights!! A rarity these days!!

A couple more shares today. Firstly a challenge from the Kraft It Up blog. The challenge was to scrap a Christmas photo using non-traditional Christmas colours. I took inspiration from the yummy Bo Bunny range that has come out this Christmas and scrapped in Purple, Aqua and Lime Green - how yummy does it look!!!

The ribbon i used on the LO was quite a find!! I had to do 3 laps of the shop until i found exactly what i was looking for, and boy does it suit!! So shimmery and such gorgeous colours :) I've used lots of paint and glimmer mist and glam on this LO - i was quite into the paint last night!!

I've used a bit of paint on my second share for today - it's for the 1st Scrap The Boys December challenge "Dasher or Prancer" - scrap your boy strutting his stuff!! Here's Calvin pushing his little chair around the first time he figured out he would walk by pushing stuff. He loved it!!

The papers are from the Wander range by Basic Grey. They are such good boy colours. All of the chipboard pieces are from the same range, as well as those yummy tag type bits - how cute are they? Basic Grey has been doing these things for a couple of ranges now and i've resisted, but i thought they worked really well with this range. Might have to reproduce them myself next time though - they are just a piece of PP with some wire, popped up on some foam. Cool, huh!!

My Little Shoebox Contest on PageMaps

Another PageMaps contest (you all know how i love them!!!), but this one is a little bit different - there are 2 packs to win this time!! One is going to a cardmaker and one is going to a scrapbooker. Since i do both (though neither especially well LOL) i thought i'd enter both. Here's what i came up with.

The sketch for the LO is:

I used some Fancy Pants papers and other bits and pieces to make this:

I love this new punch i got on the ScrapBoutique retreat - it's a lovely Martha Stewart punch and SO GOOD for boy layouts and cards!! Not to mention, Christmas :)

For the card contest, the sketch i was working with was this:

Pretty nice isn't it?!?!?!! Taking some inspiration from this and using a lovely chipboard piece, some old Kaiser, some old Carolee's Creations stickers, some paints and my cuttlebug i actually came up with 2 cards. Christmas theme of course since i've been busy making cards recently!!

There's still time to enter these contests if you want to - just visit the PageMaps Blog. You have until 12th December (US), so it could be a great source of inspiration this weekend!

The first few days of Christmas

Every year, i see beautiful mini albums of the 12 days of Christmas or all of December etc. So, this year i'm determined to do one!! So, for the 25 days of Christmas i will be taking photos, collecting bits and pieces etc. - doing something Christmassy every day!! Here's my progress so far:

1/12: Trimming the tree

Calvin was a lot less interested in putting the tree up than i thought he would be. He did, however love it when i put the baubles up - and he started taking them down and leaving them all around the house immediately!! His favourite ornaments are these little red ones shown above, and cute little fluffy dog and cat ones i got free with dog food a couple of years ago!! He also showed intense interest in all of the bells i like hang off the doors!!

2/12: Making Christmas Cards at Playgroup

I've yet to take a photo of this, but Calvin 'made' a Christmas card at Playgroup today. It was the first time he had used stickers and he mastered them very quickly!!! Clever boy. After playgroup we had lunch with Belinda and Bridget - Sushi. Not very Christmassy, but Calvin certainly enjoyed his first sushi experience!!

3/12: Kissing Rudolph

Calvin was so cute with this little Rudolph toy today. When you press his foot he starts 'ho, ho, ho'-ing and it turns into ecstatic laughter, which Calvin finds hilarious and he tries to copy!! So cute. After playing with him for a bit he picked him up and kissed him on the nose!! Calvin went to daycare today and Jeremy and I went and saw Harry Potter together (Jeremy took the day off work). Great day out together - how lucky are we - 2 dates within a week (our anniversary was last week!!).

4/12: Finished the Christmas Newsletter

I try to have all of the Christmas cards finished and posted by 1st December each year, but it rarely happens!! I've made most of my cards this year, so that made it even more tricky!! Today i finished the newsletter, at long last. It was quite a drawn-out process this year, with computer issues and continual interruptions from Calvin!! We had a 'sick-day' today, with Calvin being a bit out of sorts. He mostly just lazed around on the couch with myself or Jeremy all day, not wanting to do much. It rained almost all day too, which made it even more miserable. An excellent day to spend at the computer on such a task!!

5/12: A Trip to the City!

Today we went to the city to see all of the lovely trimmings and do a bit of Christmas shopping. Here's Calvin having a great time sitting on the edge of a garden of Poinsettias with a lovely metallic angel in the background. Of course he is wearing a very Christmassy shirt with Rudolph on it (do you get the idea that i like reindeers yet?!?!) which is a little bit sparkly :) Calvin loved looking at all the trees and decorations everywhere, and even had a little wander around Queen Street Mall holding mum's hand. Jeremy got a haircut and looks really great now - he really needed it!!

Planned activities for the days to come include finishing and posting the Christmas cards, visiting people, cooking, getting a photo with Santa and all sorts of other things!!! Hope you can join me for the ride :)

Purple Pumpkin Giveaway

Check out this giveaway at Purple Pumpkin - it's a great little prize of super cute doilies, flowers, ribbons and buttons:

I'm entered 'cause i want to get my hands on some of them - especially the cute little buttons!!!

November Scrapboutique CyberCrop

This weekend marked the last CC on the Scrapboutique calendar. BC, i was able to participate in every single CC challenge every month. These days it's a bit more difficult!! I've only just rejoined the CC's in the last couple of months, and i got no where near every challenge!! I've done just 2 this month. The speed scrap which was on Sunday night (which is traditionally the roast night!), and one of Em's challenges.

The theme this month was "A Royal CyberCrop" since Kate Middleton is now engaged, and there is a Kate Middleton on our forum! A lovely girl who is on the design team at Scrapbooking From Scratch with Peta McBeth (the owner). Very funny coincidence.

Anyway, all the photos are quite ordinary, but here is what i came up with. Em's challenge was to scrap the little prince or princess in your life with lots of bling - including pearls! One of my favourite paper ranges right now is the MME Lost & Found, so i naturally gravitated towards this, given it's glitzy nature. I added some silver glimmer mist splatters and some zva pearl flourishes, and i'm pretty happy with the result.

The other challenge i did was the speed scrap challenge, which is based on a sketch. We were also asked to incorporate 'royal blue' or purple into it as these are 'royal' colours. I grabbed some crate paper for this one. I'm particularly proud of the little circle flower i made - i rarely think to do this sort of thing, so i was pretty happy with myself when i did!

A non-scrapping post :O

Most of my posts have at least SOME scrapping in it, but this one doesn't!! As some of you are aware, i have other creative outlets outside of scrapping. I recently finished a gorgeous little cardigan for some dear friends of ours in Wollongong. They had a little baby girl at the end of October and i only jsut put this in the post (such a slack friend i am!!):

I used a new technique in this pattern that i haven't used before - knitting single row stripes. This involved using either double pointed needles or circulars. Naturally, i was already using circulars so this wasn't too much of a problem for me once i figured out what i had to do. It made for a very interesting and enjoyable knit. I used a variegated for the contrast colour, and it gave a fabulous effect, wouldn't you agree?

Another share i have for today is a project that i've been working on for most of this year. It's a pair of bamboo overalls for Calvin. Well, at least it was for Calvin. The plan was to finish it for winter/spring this year, but that is long gone (especially in QLD!!!). I'll still finish them, but they will have to be for bub #2. I finished the legs quite quickly, but once i moved onto the body i slowed right down. It just became so BORING!!! It's just the same thing around and around and around again.... Not my style at all. I'm using it as an opportunity to learn continental knitting thanks to YouTube!!

My last little share for today is a gift card i won recently:

A few posts back, i did a post about what i would buy if i had $20 to spend at Kmart. They only had about 8 entries, so they just sent everyone a $20 gift card!!! How lucky was i? I actually ended up using the $20 to get a soda stream refill and some new flavours :) DH is very happy about that as he just loves the thing!!!

Well, it's getting to the hairy end of the day with Calvin. We've had a lovely day today - we went down to the Gold Coast to go to some markets, then spent a bit of time at Pacific Fair before heading back. Now we all enjoying the peacefulness of our backyard - the dogs are mulling around, Calvin is playing in his ballpit and on his see-saw and Jeremy and I have just finished a cappuccino. It's such a mild day here that it's really pleasant outside. Time to head inside to feed the hungry little man though, before a bath and some stories then bedtime. And tonight i'm going to SCRAP!!! Scrapboutique has a CC on this weekend, so tonight is roast night!! Can't wait!! Why don't you head on over and join me?

50th Post!!!

This is my 50th post on this blog - how exciting! To celebrate i'm starting a new blog:

Scrapping on a budget

On this blog i'm going to post at least once a week tips and tricks for saving money in scrapbooking!! I'll also have a monthly special on how to save money and still follow recent trends - this will be based on my own observations from magazines and sites i visit. Each post will have an example of how i have used each technique on a layout, so you can see how it actually works too!!

Go check it out right now!! There's even a chance to will a prize pack on the first post.

Another PageMap

Quick blog this morning as I'm away at a retreat. This is another PageMap I've worked with. Loving this new glitzy MME!!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Another PageMap!

I so love PageMaps by Becky Fleck and i'm a particular fan of the blog. They run heaps of contests there. Lots of them are only open to US citizens (or with a US postal address), but i enter them anyway because i figure i'll probably never win anyway. If, by some slim chance, i ever do i could get the prize sent to my dad's US work address anyway!!

Anyway, this week there is a contest to win her second book, which i'll probably end up buying anyway! I have the first book and it's fab when you are stuck for ideas - especially when the mojo seems to have gone by the wayside. The pagemap looks like this:

and here is what i came up with:

This is a page about Calvin's first experience with fried rice - which he LOVES!! I've used some old Prima i had. I think the range was "Peaches" or something like that. The bit with the birds is actually some cuttlebugged coordinations whitewash that i've sanded and then kindi glitzed. It looks so cute!! I'm really happy with the outcome.

The bling is something i picked up at some random scrap shop. Had it for ages, so again, good to use up some old stuff!!

How often do you use 'old' stuff you have in your stash? I find it really difficult, but i really need to do more of it because it just seems to accumulate so quickly!! Either that or stop buying new stuff, but that's not going to happen...

There is another comp at PageMaps finishing next week. The PageMap is:

I'm going to give it a go - hope you can join me in the challenge!!

High highs and Low lows - Ellen Barron Part 2

The rest of our week at Ellen Barron was filled with lots of highs and lows.

We were up at our usual 5am on Wednesday morning - the very pleasant surprise about this was that i wasn't up during the night!! I think he may have had a couple of whinges, but he self settled, so that's all good!! I was on such a high when i got up that morning!! After the two hour long sessions of crying he had the previous day, i was hoping that he might have a sleep during at least one of his day sleeps on Wednesday. This was not the case. Trying to settle him after his second failed nap attempt took me to my breaking point for the first time during the week - not bad really to be able to make it half way without crying!!

See how grumpy he is when he doesn't sleep!! This was him after he didn't sleep through either of his naps!!

After 2 failed naps, the nurse suggested that i get him up for a bit (again!!) and then try something different later in the afternoon. So, i ended up staying with him, patting the mattress, until he fell asleep. The nurse said it was better that he had a nap in his cot than the stroller. I tend to agree with this, but it did mean that next time i tried to settle him, he thought i was going to do it again, which made for a very trying night. It took until 10ish that night to finally get him down. I was so upset that one of the nurses ended up putting him down the same way as how he went to bed in the afternoon. After a discussion with that nurse, she and i agreed that the next day we would go back to leaving him to cry instead of staying with him - otherwise it was just too confusing for him.

Thursday morning was the first day he had a day sleep in his cot on his own. It took me just 15 minutes to get him to sleep and then he slept for an hour!! And the most amazing part was that he woke up chatting!! He hasn't done that since he was a very small bubba!! The afternoon yielded another failed nap attempt, which meant that he was so tired by bed time that he wouldn't drink his milk and it took less than a minute for him to go down!!

I figured that this did not bode well, and i was not mistaken.

Midnight he woke. After ~45 minutes of unsuccessful resettling i got him up and gave him a bottle. It took another hour for him to fall back asleep. Not good!!! He wasn't asleep until 2am. My i hate that hour. On the up side, he didn't wake until 6:30!! That was a very pleasant surprise - it's the latest he has slept in ages - he usually rises with the sun!!

Friday had finally arrived and we were able to go home. We had such a lovely morning playing in the enormous play area with all the other lovely little boys there. He really did have such a wonderful time playing with them the whole time we were staying. After a huge play, all of the mums headed down to the kitchen for a last goodbye cuppa. I brought along my Moccona, so we didn't all have to drink international dust and we all just gathered and chatted like we'd known each other for years. We had all been through so much growth that week, and we'd done it together. One of the dads took down all of our details and vowed to email it all around and arrange a get together in January at his place (they have a pool!!) for all who could make it.

Our first night home and Calvin cried for 2 hours before going down. Not too bad considering he was testing the waters yet again. The most pleasant surprise was that he slept until 6:30 again!!! We actually woke before him. He thought it was the biggest treat to be greeted with 2 very happy parents and wagging doggies on Saturday morning!!

Saturday was a day of no day sleeps for Calvin - the first day of his life (i think!!) that he's never had a day sleep. He just wouldn't give in - what did i say about testing those boundaries!!! He actually feel asleep in his high chair - to which we both were yelling "Calvin, wake up!!!". There was NO WAY we were letting him have a cat nap so close to bed!! He was in bed at 5:30 and asleep by 6. Poor little guy was so tuckered out. He's still asleep now, so we're hoping for a good night, but you just never know with our little guy.

It's hard, and we've got a long road ahead of us still i think, but i am really looking forward to knowing what to expect from my little guy each day and night in terms of naps. Jeremy and I have decided to just try him with one nap tomorrow and see how that goes. If that doesn't work, then we'll go back to 2 on Monday. That's all you can do!!