Creating Life in Colour

Scarlet in January 2012

2012-01-28T21:15:00.001+11:00

I had so much fun last night creating the January page for Scarlet's first year calendar:

I picked up some of the yummy new Basic Grey range and mixed it in with some Charms Creations - aren't they fun!! They are having their next sale on Friday, so you should really go check them out!! If you do, you have a chance to win a great prize pack!! I know i'll be there :D

2012: Complete

2012-01-04T15:44:00.001+11:00

Happy new year fellow bloggers!!! I have been inspired by Ali Edwards and Felicity Wilson this year to join in with the one little word challenge this year. I took my time coming up with my word, but in the end i have come up with:

Complete

What does the word 'complete' mean for me and why did i choose it?

I want to feel complete in my everyday life, and most of the time i do - but i want to feel this everyday, making a conscious effort to do so.

I want the life and world of my little ones to feel complete. I want them to feel secure and not longing for anything.

Creatively, i chose this word is because i am a real 'starter' - not a 'finisher'. I want to change this in 2012, starting with digging out all of the half finished projects i have in my craft cupboard and completing them!!!

Quilts that have not yet been quilted!!

I also have a little 'bet' going with a good knitting friend of mine - to not buy any wool in 2012. Both of us want to start culling our stash, so the aim is to not purchase anything, and use what we've got - and even swap what we have so we can do projects we want to do, if we don't have exactly what we want in our stash!! The first person to cave on our little deal has to buy the other a really expensive, gorgeous skein of sock yarn :D Won't be me (i hope!!!)

What would make 2012 complete for you?

Dizzy December

2011-12-23T09:09:00.001+11:00

Well, I don't know what your December has been like, but mine has been MAD!!! Suffice to say, i haven't blogged in over a month - oops!!! Have you been doing a December Daily album? I have - and it's getting pretty fat - i think i'm going to have to find some bigger rings!!! Here's a few images from it:

I'm a little behind, but it's looking pretty good i think!! I've kinda followed the Ali Edwards model this year - I've been using the transparencies/paper doilies between each plain page. I've just been journalling our everyday happenings, though i have tended to focus on one or two events from the day, which is usually what i have a photo of :)

I've been involved in a comp over at Wicked Princesses - Scrap School, where a new technique was posted twice a week. Most of the techniques i'd tried before, but a couple were either new or i hadn't done them in a while. Since there was no limit on page size, i did a few pages for Scarlet's 1st year calendar, which is a 10x10 Making Memories calendar album. Here's what i've done so far:

You might have noticed this popping up a bit on my blog recently:

I've been getting lots of pages accepted for publication recently, and it's been so wonderful!! I even got an 'honourable mention' in the Scrapbooking Memories Masters edition this month!! So exciting :D

Well, i doubt i'll be back on here this year, so i want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!! Thanks so much for following my creative adventures this year, and i can't wait to share more with you in 2012!!

A couple more shares

2011-11-18T20:45:00.001+11:00

Well, i actually managed to get 2 more LO's done before my trip tomorrow! The 3rd and 4th scrap class for the Wicked Princesses Scrap School comp are due on Monday and Wednesday, so i thought i'd better get them done before i head off!!

The 3rd challenge was to scrap in 'shabby chic' - something i've never done before, and i am so glad i had the chance!! I also drew on inspiration from the once upon a sketch blog - challenge was to journal about what it means to be a woman and i chose to focus on being a mum:

I just love this LO - it's so different to anything i've ever done before and i think i might just have to give this style another go!!!

The 4th challenge was to use acetate. I found a fabulous 12x12 sheet of acetate with gorgeous prints on it - from Fancy Pants, and this is what i came up with:

I've put it on a white background to photograph it, but i plan to punch holes in it with my crop-a-dile and put it straight in my album (not in a sleeve), scrapping directly onto the back another page :D Hopefully it will look really great!! I'll let you know when i've done this page so you can see how it turns out!

Too long between scraps!

2011-11-16T07:24:00.001+11:00

It's been too long between scraps lately! Life has just been too busy to allow it - plus, i've been a bit sick with terrible sinus issues - especially bad headaches! I had one night where it was so bad that every time i moved my head i had shooting pain through my head, neck and back - excruciating!!!

Anyway, i've managed 2 LO's in the last week. The first is for the Scrap The Girls November challenge which was to use primarily pink, polkadots and multiple photos. I mixed it up a bit with an old Heidi Swapp invisibles sheet and some Tim Holtz distress ink "Lipstick" - what a great colour!!!

The PP i've used is a Pink Paisley paper, and i've used some of my Olive Roses embellies too!

I've also been playing along at the Wicked Princesses scrap school comp! Here's my first LO, using a recent WP kit containing Jillibean Soup papers:

I used the same kit for my second LO - quite different isn't it!! I've used the base card stock, PP and some stickers. Most of the rest was from a My Vintage Blossoms kit i got at a recent release:

Well, i'm off to Sydney on Saturday so i'm not sure if i'll get a chance to scrap between now and then. Otherwise, i'll be offline for a week (probably)!! I'm really looking forward to catching up with my family, though a little anxious about flying on my own with 2 kids!!!

Finally finished!!

2011-11-07T08:24:00.002+11:00

I'm not the type of scrapbooker to leave pages unfinished - i like to sit down and work on a page until it's done then put it in the album (or on the wall for the moment). Then i move on to the next page. If i have to put a page away half finished it's a major mental block for me - which is why i haven't scrapped in a week!! I had a page half done in the cupboard!! Last night i bit the bullet and dragged it out to finish it - and i just LOVE the result, so i'm so glad i did!!

I've used some of the new Pink Paisley mistabels papers as the background, with some Studio Calico mist, then added in some new Glitz designs and of course some yummy purple pumpkin - as this is for the Purple Pumpkin monthly sketch comp :D The turquoise elements were a kind of afterthought - and i'm so glad i added them because i think they really set the whole page off!!

Speaking of finishing unfinished pages, i finally finished this page - still not happy with it, but i've said what i wanted to say on it, so that's good enough i guess.

Have you entered yet?

2011-11-06T14:49:00.003+11:00

Have you entered the Purple Pumpkin give-away yet? It's pretty massive!!! There is a $50, $25, $15 and $10 voucher up for grabs to spend at their next sale - 18th November - and this is the last one of the year!!!

This is some of the great stuff they had for sale at the October sale:

It's pretty wicked isn't it!!! I just love using their bright embellies to dress up a page!! Head on over to their blog now to find out how you can enter this great giveaway!!!

Not happy Jan...

2011-10-31T23:00:00.002+11:00

You know how sometimes you do a layout and it's just not working for you? Well, this is one of those. I'm not quite sure what to do with it. It's based on the October Purple Pumpkin sketch, and i'll submit it anyway, but it's definitely not finished. Never mind, here it is:

I'm struggling tonight to come to terms with the fact that tomorrow is 1st November - Scarlet was 3 months old on the weekend - where has this year gone? I'm quite happy to say that i've done a lot of the things i've set out to do this year and more - and most importantly, i'm enjoying everyday life with my 2 kiddies! Praise God!!

Kraft It Up!

2011-10-30T20:42:00.002+11:00

The October challenge over at Kraft It Up! is to create a LO that is monochromatic, minimalist and vintage/shabby chic/romantic, so here's what i came up with:

I've used some of the new MME Lost & Found II, so technically it's not a kraft base, but it's certainally looks like kraft to me!! I just love this range - just like i loved the first Lost & Found range. So great to use such pretty, glittery papers!!! I just love the rose chipboard i've used on this LO too. I've been really into using bare chipboard lately - it's has such a nice effect!!!

I've also used some yummy My Vintage Blossoms that i got from the most recent sale, along with some Sawyers Place washi tape and some of my Olive Roses embellies :D

Scrap The Boys

2011-10-28T21:11:00.002+11:00

The challenge over at Scrap The Boys this month is to use handmade embellishments - this is right up my ally!! I've used a mix of handmade embellishments from Purple Pumpkin (the cute monkey button and one of the cogs) and My Vintage Blossoms (one of the cogs and the hessian ribbon). The PP and chipboard embellishments are from the new October Afternoon 'sidewalks' range - cute huh!!

I've really enjoyed the Passion 4 Fashion competition that i've been a part of over at Scrapboutique over the past 8 weeks - and it's hard to believe that this week is the last week!!! The theme for this week was futuristic - so i went with some purple foil and the geometric shapes of this crafters workshop template. The cogs are a new spellbinders die i got recently and it's the first time i've used it - and i LOVE it :D I've used lots of my Olive Roses on this one, along with some old jellishments!

The Craft Garden

2011-10-21T15:20:00.002+11:00

I recently put in a design team application for The Craft Garden's challenge blog, and to my shear amazement, they have decided to take me on board!! The Craft Garden is a UK based site that encourages crafting of all sorts (not just scrapbooking!!) with a monthly challenge. I'll be contributing towards this challenge over the next 6 months, so i hope you'll drop in and follow me over that time!!!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for me, but in all the business i've managed to (somehow!!) do some crafting. I've been working on a crochet blanket with some yummy Noro silk garden sock yarn. It's a ravelry pattern called Sunny Spread, by Ellen Gormley, and i was inspired to do this as a throw for my red and brown lounge suite. This is the blanket that inspired me:

Isn't it gorgeous? I've been wanting to do a Noro project for a while - one that really shows off the beauty of the yarn. I think this is it!!! I've done about 25 circles so far - no where near enough. THat's just from 1 ball, so i've just ordered 2 more - can't wait to get them!! My plan is to do all of the circles before i even contemplate the outside border, though i think i'll end up doing it in a sports weight off white - maybe a Biggan or Cascade (whatever is cheaper at the time!!). Here's what my blanket looks like so far:

No much, but it's getting there!!! This hot Brisbane spring weather isn't very inspiring to make a blanket, but if i don't do it now it won't be able to be used next winter!!! It's hard for non-knitters to appreciate how we knitters like to do it all year round, even though it's too hot for our hands!!!

I've been managing a spot of scrapping too! Here's one of my recent pages. I made it for the Scrapboutique Passion 4 Fashion comp - this week was 'Grunge'. I had heaps of fun with it, creating my own background from a Pink Paisley mist able and some glimmer mist, chalkboard glimmer mist and some october afternoon sprinkles. Lots of stitching and crochet elements from My Vintage Blossoms plus a bit of doodling. Not to mention that AWESOME digger chipboard piece!!!

Speaking of competitions, remember how i was doing that sketch-a-day comp in September? Well, on top of 30 great layouts for my album, i won second place!! So i'm getting the new Echo Park range to play with :D So, a bit shout out to Scrapbooking From Scratch for hosting such a generous competition - i can't wait to get my prize in the mail and start playing with it. Thanks heaps Peta!!!

Doing a double-take on doubles

2011-10-14T09:11:00.004+11:00

I thought i'd share a double page with you today. It's actually two separate sketches that i've matched together to make a double - i've done this a few times lately, and i'm really liking doing doubles in such a way - i really struggle when i sit down to create a double, but if i do them separately it's quite easy! I just match the PP's, colourings, embellishments, and techniques. For example, i've used a 10x10 blue spotty paper on the left page (the first), and then i've used the left overs of this on the right and added some purple spotty paper. I've also done some doodling and distressing around the edges of this on the first, so i did so on the left etc. So easy!!! And it actually makes for a quick second page because you've already done the hard work on the first page!! Check out what i've done:

Here is the first page:

And here is the second page:

And a few details:

Pretty simple, hey? Both of these sketches were for the Scrapbooking From Scratch skechaday comp. I did another double in a similar manner earlier in the month:

Here was my first page:

And here's my second page:

Unfortunately i don't have a photo of them together - must do that!! Anyway, the second page went on the left this time - a bit tricky, hey!! This time the pages were quite different too!! But i think it still works, don't you?

Don't forget there are 2 awesome sales on tonight! The My Vintage Blossoms sale kicks off at 6pm QLD time, and the Purple Pumpkin sale kicks off at 7:30pm QLD time. I've got my eye on things at both, so i can't wait!!!

Creative Scrappers

2011-10-12T19:58:00.002+11:00

I've just stumbled across this awesome sketch blog recently, 'Creative Scrappers' and one of this month's sketches is unreal!! Check it out:

And here's my take on it:

I've used some MME Lost & Found II PP's, along with some Washi tape from Sawyers place, Prima flowers and bling and some Olive Roses embellies. The alphas are some old Heidi Swapp stamps.

A few more shares from my recent scrapping:

Cuddle with Care

2011-09-30T17:27:00.003+10:00

Evening all! Well, i was amazed, but last night was my first ever night with 2 children and no husband - a 2 year old and a 2 month old - and i actually got to scrapbook!!! By some shear miracle i had both children in bed asleep by 6:30!! I did this month's Scrap the Boys challenge, which was to use household/family ephemera. I chose a gorgeous clothing tag i got recently from Best & Less - it was actually something for Scarlet, but i decided it suited the layout perfectly.

I used PP from my mixed bag of October Afternoon (i LOVE that bag :D ), along with some Purple Pumpkin embellies, some buttons i got from a market a while back, Maya Road chipboard and a random selection from my ribbon box.

The page is about how my little boy was so very sick last week - he spend most of the week on his little couch - either asleep or watching something like "Cars". Poor little man - we couldn't get his temp down for about 4 days!!! So glad he's better now (though i'm not getting as much daytime scrapping done now LOL)

My second LO i did yesterday was for day 29 of the Scrapbooking From Scratch sketch-a-day challenge - based on a recent Becky Fleck sketch. It's a simple sketch and a simple LO, and i just LOVE the outcome. It's a bit of a stash stomper for my old Heidi Swapp stuff - PP and mirrors from her ranges. The bling is Prima - i've had this for ages, but just haven't had the right page to put it on!! THickers for the alphas of course!!

Well, this weekend i'm going to be busy finishing the last sketch-a-day sketch and participating in the Wicked Princesses cybercrop - not to mention snagging some yummy new My Vintage Blossoms embellies at the sale tonight - 7:30 on the blog. I'm also hosting a Stampin' Up! workshop tomorrow arvo, so that will be a lot of fun!!

I'm also going to try to finish the little pair of socks i've been working on all month - they are just newborn socks, but they are plain white and just a boring cable pattern so it's been so boring to knit them!!! I plan to finish them off by the end of the weekend though, because i'm getting a package from The Knitters Studio early next week, containing some yarn for me to start on a pattern that i've been wanting to work on for some time now - 'Skew'. I think this yarn will look GORGEOUS with this pattern - can't wait to see!!!

More 'My Vintage Blossoms' Love!

2011-09-29T08:17:00.004+10:00

I officially cleaned myself out of my 'My Vintage Blossoms' stash (though it was fairly small to start with :( unfortunate - will have to build it up again at the next sale!!!) I used the last of it on the week 4 September Sassy Lil' Sketch:

My second share for today is for this month's Kraft It Up challenge which was to use fabric and stitching. I've actually taken the zip and the helicopter motif off an old pair of Calvin's PJ's - he'd put a hole in the toe so there was no way i was keeping them!!!

The PP's i've used are Kaisercraft's Little Toot range. Embelishmetns are from Purple Pumpkin and Sawyers Place. The stamping is an SU! background stamp :D

My Vintage Blossom Love

2011-09-27T19:51:00.002+10:00

My Vintage Blossoms has just started a new sales blog and had their first sale last week. I got my purchase in the mail very quickly and have been chaffing at the bit to use them! I did 2 LO's with them today, so i thought i'd share my creations!

Both of these pages are for the Scrapbooking from Scratch sketch-a-day comp (yesterday's and today's sketches). I'll share today's first because i particularly love this page (plus it's got 2 blossoms on it :D ) I've used a gorgeous new range from Pink Paisley - i just love the colours in this range - purple, pink and aqua are my favourite colours, so when i saw them in combination in this range i just had to have it all!!

Aren't those purple and black blossoms lovely? I've totally fallen in love with them and i can't wait to get some more next sale!!!

I used the last blossom in my pack of three on the next page. It's quite a busy page this one and i was partly inspired by the sketch-a-day sketch, but that made me think of a LO i'd seen in creating keepsakes most recent magazine with a similar background to this - they had cut out scalloped squares and punched apples. I used my nestibilities to cut all the artisan squares and a SU! punch for the hearts - it's actually a punch of 3 hearts, but i just used one of them. This made it a bit easier with positioning because i had to punch in pretty much the same spot every time (or i would loose more of my paper!!!) This page cleaned out my October AFternoon 5 & Dime papers - i'm just amazed how much use i've gotten out of this kit - it's been really fab!!

I think this caramel blossom really adds something to the page - an element of softness and femininity in an otherwise masculine page. Love it!!

If you want to order blossoms or other 'my vintage blossoms' embellishments, but you don't want to wait for the exclusive blog sale, you can check out the range Krissy has available at Wicked Princess.

My 100th Post!!!! And the last week of sketch-a-day

2011-09-27T10:30:00.003+10:00

I can't believe it, but this is my 100th blog post!!! To celebrate i'm doing a giveaway - a fab scrap pack could be heading your way!! If you want a chance to win this pack, you need to share my great news on your own blog and comment below with a link to your blog!! Plus, don't forget to become a follower of my blog :D You've got until the end of the week (Friday 30th), and i'll be announcing the winner and sending out the pack next week :D

Friday 30th is also the last day of the sketch-a-day comp at Scrapbooking From Scratch - but it's far from over!! If you haven't joined in yet, there's still time - you have until October 15th to do the sketches and expand your album with some great inspiration!!!

Here's a few more of the pages i've done in this great competition:

Scrapboutique had a cybercrop over the weekend too. Unfortunately the only thing i had time to participate in was the speed scrap on Friday night, and here's what i came up with:

Can't wait to see all your fab blog postings - don't forget to be sharing your creations as often as you can!!!

I heart Purple Pumpkin

2011-09-23T08:14:00.002+10:00

Have you discovered Purple Pumpkin embellishments yet? If not, you really need to - they add a whole new dimension to your scrapbooking!! I just love all their cute buttons and other embellies :D They are having a design team call right now, so if you do love their embellishments and would like to represent them, head on over to their blog and put in an application - i already have!!

Each month they have a challenge too. I managed to get this done last night. This month's challenge was a 123 challenge:

1 lollipop/flower

2 doilies

3 buttons

Here's what i came up with:

My 1 lollipop/flower is that cute little white flower in the middle of the doily. The 2 doilies are the aqua crocheted doily and the while paper doily, and the 3 buttons are the 3 Purple Pumpkin blue/green buttons. I've also added in a couple of MME buttons from the Lost & Found 2 range, which is what the PP's are.

And the story behind the title? Well, since Calvin can't say 'v', he calls himself Calma! Cute huh? He's been pretty sick this week. Today is the first morning in 3 days he's woken up without a raging temp, so i'm pretty happy about that. It's meant a lot of snuggle time with mummy, which i can't complain about too much, but it's been difficult to get anything done, that's for sure!!! Today is normally his daycare day, but he won't be going :( Such a shame because i was looking forward to going shopping without a toddler!! I have photos to print, since this weekend is cybercrop weekend over at Scrapboutique!! Hopefully i'll manage to get out anyway. I'd say i'll end up putting him in the pram and Scarlet in the baby bjorn carrier though - he's not going to want to walk in the mood he's in!!

Well, i hope you all have a great weekend, and i might see you around at the Scrapboutique 'Spring Fling' cybercrop!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

2011-09-22T10:39:00.005+10:00

Well, i don't know about you but September has been a HUGE month for me!!! My son turned 2 last week, so that involved having the in-laws stay and LOTS of cooking :D It also meant lots of great photos to scrap!! But i am yet to get to print them!!

Here's the cake i made for Calvin - he loved it!!!

There were lots of candles to blow out - a cake on the night of his birthday, then the next day at daycare and then the following day at his party!! He knew ALL about the cake this year - and something else he totally understood was opening presents!!!

But the best present of all was his new sandpit!!! (or 'sandpit' as Calvin calls it!!) Or maybe it was a visit from Nanny and grandpa!!

We also had a visit from some old friends - people we went to uni with!!!

Now onto scrapping - Calvin has been 'scrapping' with me a bit this month!! This has made it easier for me to be able to put some finishing touches on pages i start while he's not around!!!

I've been continuing with the 'sketch-a-day' contest over at Scrapbooking From Scratch and so far i've done 19 of 22 days!! It's not too late to join in if you are interested - you have until October 15 to upload all your LO's and earn as many points as possible :D Here's a few of my favourites from the comp:

And this one was for the Sassy Lil' Sketches Blog:

As was this one, which is today's sketch :D

Remember me saying that i won a prize pack from Kaiser? Well, here's a Saturday sketch i created using my prize pack!!!!

I hope this mammoth post has given you lots of inspiration!!!

Sassy Lil' Sketches

2011-09-08T08:42:00.005+10:00

The day 7 sketch for the 'sketch-a-day' comp over at Scrapbooking From Scratch was a sketch used for this month's Sassy Lil' Sketches. Here's what i came up with:

I really loved working with this sketch, and i'll be checking out more of the Sassy Lil' Sketches in the future for sure!!! I'd be stocked to win this one as the prize pack is from Authentique and i've been LOVING their papers lately - been finding it hard to get my hot little hands on their new range too!!

In other news, i'd like to give a shout out to the ladies over at Purple Pumpkin - remember the blog comp i entered last month? Well, i won!!! I've got a lovely pack of Purple Pumpkin goodies heading my way - can't wait to get them so i can have a play!!

I also want to give a shout out to the ladies over at the Kaiser blog - where i won 'runner-up' for one of last month's Saturday Sketches!! My prize is a FULL COLLECTION PACK :D Here's my LO, in case you were wondering which one it was - I've lused the lovely new 'Miss Nelly" range and some old Kaiser roses. I'm ecstatic to win this one, as it's a personal favourite LO :D

More 'Sketch-a-day' LO's

2011-09-07T13:32:00.002+10:00

Well i've been doing pretty well at keeping up with the Scrapbooking From Scratch 'sketch-a-day' LO's!! I've actually done the first 6 days. Today being day 7, i'm not sure if i'll get today's done tonight - i'm feeling a little weary already, so i'll probably need another early night i think!!!

I've already shared days 1-3 with you, so time to share days 4-6.

Day 4 - i used one of the new Pink Paisley 'mistables' for the background of this one. HOw cool is the effect? You spray the mist over the 'mislabels' paper ad it reveals this awesome pattern!! PP's are Authentique and Echo Park. Embelishemtns are a mix of Heidi Swapp, Purple Pumpkin and a few other random bits from here and there.

Day 5 is a gorgeous photo of just the 4 of us - our first as a family of 4!! I've used the 5 & Dime range from October Afternoon for this one - so great, isn't it?? I am totally in love with this range, as i always seem to be with October Afternoon's goodies :D

The LO for the 6th day of September was based on a very basic sketch and we were encouraged to make our own embellishments. I decided to do some baking and came up with the banner and the hearts. Co cute!! I really enjoy making them!!

Stuck?

2011-09-04T08:06:00.003+10:00

***Note: I've changed the photos in this post since i decided to add some stitching***

I managed this LO last night in amongst the craziness of life. It's the 3rd Sketchaday Sketch and also the first September Stuck? Sketch. I've used some yummy MME Lime Twist papers for this one, along with some fairly random embellishments i found hanging around - love being able to use these up!! Not my favourite LO, but another for the album - and my boys seem to like it, which is the main thing :D

Yes! I am still scrapping my boy :D

2011-09-03T06:06:00.003+10:00

I've been a very busy scrapper lately!! And most of my LO's have been of my new little girl, but i am still trying to scrap my boy too!! I'm aiming to do half for him, half for Scarlet, but it's been a little heavy on the Scarlet side lately. I'm sure that will even out eventually - after all, i'm 2 years ahead with Calvin's albums!!

Last weekend was the August CC at ScrapBoutique, so i joined in on a couple of their challenges. First up, the speed scrap - always a favourite of mine because it forces me to get a LO done in an hour :D I used some of the yummy new MME Lost & Found II for this one, and i was inspired by all the glitter on the papers to use glitter myself to embellish the page with some borders and embellishments. I'm also really enjoying pulling out all my old flowers - which i haven't used for quite some time!!!

Another favourite CC challenge of mine is the Sunday Roast - similar to a Scrapbooking From Scratch blind crop! Here's what i came up with using some yummy Basic Grey:

And here is my 'token' boy LO for the CC. This was an inspiration challenge where i got inspiration from the pic - bright blue and oranges, along with lots of circles :D

White With One

2011-09-02T23:16:00.002+10:00

This month's White With One challenge is:

White

Pale Pink

Journalling on your photo(s)

Day 2 of the Scrapbooking from Scratch Sketchaday comp was to use this criteria with the sketch. I decided to do a double layout - something i don't do much of - since i had two photos that went together and i wanted to use the space to add emphasis - and white space does this perfectly. Here's what i came up with:

That's the double, and here's the pages separately:

Some details:

I think this is the first ever LO i've done without any patterned paper!! No wait, i did a couple with Louise Nelson at the Scrapbooking Convention this year - but it's the first i've done on my own without patterned paper. Definitely outside of the square for me. I've used heaps of old embellishments too - like old Prima swirls, making memories metal flowers and some Heidi Swapp stuff i've had since she came out a few years ago! Great to be using this old stuff up!!

'Sketchaday' Comp @ Scrapbooking From Scratch

2011-09-01T22:09:00.002+10:00

Evening all! Can you believe i've scrapped tonight?!?! Well i have - thanks to a new comp going on at Scrapbooking From Scratch. It's called a 'Sketchaday' comp - because it's one sketch a day for the month of September! Pretty wild, hey!!

Here's my take on the first sketch of the day:

Isn't she a sweetie? Looking just darling in a little tutu-pants thing that my sister bought for her while she was in New York recently. Just gorgeous!!! We were quite surprised that they fit her actually, given how tiny she is!!!

Head on over to Scrapbooking From Scratch to check out this new comp - it's not too late to join in!! I'm not planning on doing every sketch - with a newborn and a toddler, that would be just a little too ambitious, so i'm aiming for every second. But, Peta is doing a great job with this comp at making sure everyone gets a fair go at the prizes, so don't feel like you can't do it because you can't commit to doing a page every day - and don't forget the best prize of them all - adding more layouts to your album!!! I'm going to do half for Scarlet's album and half for Calvin's - so that Calvin doesn't get forgotten about :D

Woah Nelly!!

2011-08-28T08:06:00.003+10:00

Have you seen the GORGEOUS new paper range from Kaisercraft "Miss Nelly"? I have totally fallen in love with it!! Here's a page i've created with it, using one of the Kaisercraft Blog Saturday Sketches for August:

I've been looking for an embossing Dymo machine for AGES!!! Finally there is a scrap store in Australia that stocks them - Scrapboutique!!! Chels is amazing - her shop is just unreal and the forum is so fun and encouraging. You should really check it out!!! The quote i've used is for the Scrapbooking From Scratch August quote challenge - isn't it a good one?

The cute birdie border is a Martha Stewart punch - isn't it adorable!!

How gorgeous is this pink flower? You wouldn't believe it, but i actually made it myself!!! I've used some stash ribbon (i think this actually came with a present!!!) and a Cosmo Cricket 'Glubber'. Spiced it up with a Delish brad and it looks GORGEOUS!!! I've had these grubbers for a while, but haven't had a chance to use them yet. Now i've got a little girl to scrap for you'll be seeing much more of them!!! I've mixed this flower with an old Prima flower and some Kaisercraft flowers - it's nice to be finally using up some of the flowers i have in my stash!!

Scrapping with Purple Pumpkin

2011-08-24T12:19:00.002+10:00

Remember that great sketch i shared with you yesterday? Here's my take on it:

Aren't the buttons from Purple Pumpkin yummy? I just love them!! I've used an old Basic Grey paper range on this one - Hopscotch. I just loved it when it came out, but i really couldn't justify buying it because i wouldn't use it!! But now i have a great reason to buy pink papers!! And since Scrapbooks Etc is closing and had a massive sale on, i bought some last weekend!!

The bling flourish is from Prima - an oldie too that i've had in my stash for a bit :D And the punch is a Martha Stewart (love her punches!!!)

My page is about Scarlet (of course!!) and how when Calvin first heard her cry he called her a noisy bird!! So cute!!

Speaking of Basic Grey, they have just started a new blog! This has been something they have been missing for some time now, so i'm super excited about this!! They are also on the hunt for new members for their design team, so visit their blog to find out how you can apply for the team, or suggest someone you think would be great on the team!!

What's on your needles right now? I'm working on a lovely lace shawl called Haruni, using some Ella Rae yarn which i LOVE. I love this yarn so much that after i knitted socks for Calvin out of it, i just had to find something to knit for myself - and i've been wanting to tackle a lace shawl for some time now!! I'm up to row 75, which is over 200 stitches now!! I think i'm doing pretty well considering i started this AFTER i had Scarlet!!!

My 'no brainer' project right now is a cardigan i started for Calvin in size 9 months. I never got around to finishing it because it was around the time we moved interstate, and LOTS of stuff got put on the back burner then. Anyway, i've pulled it out to finish for Scarlet - i think this colour can be quite feminine really - it's a similar colour to what i'm doing my shawl in after all!! It's quite a good pattern, since it's knitted all in one (less seams to sew up is ALWAYS a bonus :D ), but it's a very simple, square pattern so it's great as a beginner pattern too!!

Today, I Scrap!!

2011-08-23T09:22:00.002+10:00

Morning all!! Life has been pretty busy around here with 2 children now!! Scarlet is growing so quickly, and she's gaining weight at an amazing rate - 200g last week!! Calvin is going great with her - giving her lots of hugs and kisses all the time - so cute!!

Calvin's in daycare today and DH is busy painting Scarlet's room (this week is his second week of paternity leave - i'll be at a loss next week when he goes back to work!!!) so today, i'm going to scrapbook!!! Last night i joined in on Scrapbooking From Scratch's 100th Blind Crop and it was fab - lots of newbies came along to join in, and of course most of the regulars. I did a lovely little page of Scarlet - to go with the other page i did last week. I just love the paper range i've been using - Fancy Pants "Baby Love". I'm going to try and use something else today though!!!

Someone i'm a HUGE fan of at the moment is Purple Pumpkin. Their buttons and embellishments are sooooo super cute and usable!! I think i used some of their product on almost all of my masters entry recently 'cause they are so perfect!!! I'm going to try and do their monthly sketch challenge today (or sometime this week...) - it's a really nice one don't you think:

Have you seen their embellishments? Here's a sample of what they do - and guess what? You can win this selection this month!! Check out this post to find out how!!

Well, i best jump to it so that i actually get some scrapping done!! Have a great day all!!

A Slice of Pie

2011-08-19T21:19:00.003+10:00

Here's a pattern i've created based on two different sock patterns i've used recently. "Pie Socks" and "Leftover Socks" - both were sourced from Ravelry. I just love the heel flap on the pie socks, and the functionality of the leftover socks. My second child was born 5 weeks premie, and i've had a lot of trouble buying socks to fit her feet - they were really long and really skinny, so i've been doing a lot of sock knitting since she was born!!! Here's what this pattern ends up looking like:

Isn't the heel flap detail devine? Just love it!!! Well, onto the pattern.

Size: Newborn (foot length can be varied though, so it could probably be used for up to 6 months or so - adjusting needle size would create larger sizes too, but i haven't experimented with it yet)

Needles: 2.75mm. I've written the pattern to be knitted using two sets of circulars.

Yarn: Any 4 ply would work with this pattern

Abbreviations: ST = Stitch(es); K = Knit; P=Purl; YO=Yarn Over; P2tog = Purl 2 Together; SSK = Slip-Slip-Knit (slip 2 stitches knitwise, return to left needle, and knit them together through the back); S1 = Slip indicated number of stitches purl wise (unless otherwise noted)

Instructions:

Cuff

Cast on 32ST using long-tail cast on (or any elastic cast on). Distribute 16ST per circular and join into round, placing marker for beginning of round if desired.

Work 22 rounds of K2P2 ribbing, starting with K1, P2, and ending with K1, so that the first and last ST on each circular is knit.

Heel Flap

Work on next 16ST (stitches on first circular)

Rows 1, 5 and 9 [RS]: [S1, K1] to end

Rows 2 and all even rows to 10 [WS]: S1, purl to end

Rows 3 and 7 [RS]: S1 [S1, K1] to last ST, K1

After these 10 rows, turn heel.

Turn Heel

S1, K8, SSK, K1, turn

S1, P3, P2tog, P1, turn

S1, K4, SSK, K1, turn

S1, P5, P2tog, P1, turn

S1, K6, P2tog, K1, turn

S1, P7, P2tog, P1, turn

Gusset

Row 1: K10, pick up 8ST along left edge heel. Work 16ST rib as established.

Row 2: Pick up 8ST along right edge heel and knit across to last 3ST on needle. K2tog, K1. Work 16ST rib as established.

Row 3: K1, SSK, K to end of needle. Work 16ST rib as established.

Row 4: K across to last 3ST, K2tog, K1. Work 16ST rib as established.

Continue decreasing, repeating rows 3 and 4 until 32ST remain in total (16 on each circular)

Foot

K16, Rib 16 as established until foot is ~ 1 inch (2.5cm) from desired length.

Toe

[K1, SSK, K10, K2tog, K1] twice

2 rounds knit

[K1, SSK, K8, K2tog, K1] twice

1 round knit

[K1, SSK, K6, K2tog, K1] twice

1 round knit

[K1, SSK, K4, K2tog, K1] twice

[K1, SSK, K2, K2tog, K1] twice

Use kitchener stitch to join the 6 stitches on each needle and weave in ends.

I hope you enjoy knitting this pattern. I've found it to be super quick, easy and satisfying. I hope you do to!!!

An Unexpected Arrival

2011-08-13T19:25:00.003+10:00

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since i last blogged and a lot has happened in that time!!! We've been blessed with the very early and unexpected arrival of our second child, Miss Scarlet Rosalie Smith. She was 5 weeks early, and a tiny little bundle at just 2.5kg!!

Thursday 28th July i woke up feeling very unwell and spent the morning having yet another 'couch day' with Calvin as i was experiencing what i thought was Branxton Hicks all morning. Turns out that it was the real thing!! My waters broke at lunchtime, as i was reading Calvin his pre-nap stories!!! I had some trouble getting a hold of Jeremy, so we didn't make it to the hospital until about 3pm. Luckily, my cousin Denise was available to take Calvin overnight - he had a ball playing with his cousins :D

After dosing me up with steroids, antibiotics and various vitamins i was transferred to a ward, since i was labouring very slowly. They didn't want to stop my labour since induction at a later stage was not an option in my case, thanks to a previous cesarian. Jeremy went home around 8pm after we'd sent the obstetrician. He was hoping to get some good sleep - hoping that i would last the night. Unfortunately at around midnight i started becoming more uncomfortable so 2pm they transferred me down to the birthing suite, and i called Jeremy to come back in. 6am the labour really started kicking in, and i got an epidural asap :D A bit after 8am i started pushing and with the help of forceps Scarlet came along at 8:55am, Friday 29th July 2011.

I was so pleased to be able to have her naturally, and i can't believe how quickly i have healed!!! So much easier than a cesarian. I can't believe people elect for a cesarian - and that i was even considering it in the last few weeks!!! I was able to have a shower on my own the night i had Scarlet, and i don't know how i would have managed going to and from the neonatal nursery and my room, had i been afflicted with a cesarian wound!!! Having a forceps delivery meant that i had more than my fair share of stitches - i had to have an episitomy as well, so i certainly had the worst of a natural birth, but it was nothing compared to how i healed after Calvin!!

Since Scarlet was 5 weeks early, she went straight into the neonatal ward. Poor little thing had a feeding tube in her nose and it took a lot to get her to breastfeed. She had her first feed straight after birth, but then she didn't take another feed from me until the next day when she only took one half a feed that day. Sunday she took a few half feeds and by Monday she was taking every feed from me.

Sunday night she went under the lights since she was borderline jaundice and by Monday night she was rooming with me! We were so pleased to have her up with me so quickly - over the weekend we had been thinking that we were going to be going home without her!!! Luckily on Wednesday morning Scarlet and i went home together.

Since we've been home it's been very busy. We've had both my parents and my mother in law stay with us and now they have gone home. It's just our little family of 4 now. Jeremy is taking the next 2 weeks off work, which i'm very pleased about. The plan for the next couple of weeks is to resume life as before as best as possible, finding our new routine and rhythm, while Jeremy is around to support me and let me get as much sleep as possible. Right now i'm waking Scarlet for a feed every 3 hours and feeding on demand at night. Hopefully by the time Jeremy goes back to work i'll be feeding on demand during the day as well, which will be much easier - it's not very fun to be waking her, not to mention how difficult she is to wake sometimes!!!

I've actually been scrapping today and yesterday!! Last night i ducked out to my local shop between feeds, which i'll probably continue to do most Friday nights now. Today i had my monthly 101 class at Scrapbooks etc., so i took Scarlet along to that. I spent most of the class feeding her, but it was good to catch up with everyone and of course do a little of the class. Here's my first page of Scarlet that i did last night. I'm super happy with it - it's pretty nice to be scrapping in pink, i can assure you!!!

Where does your camera live?

2011-07-24T20:29:00.002+10:00

As a scrapbooker, it's important that i don't miss ANYTHING that needs to be documented in life - especially when it comes to Calvin. It's so hard to believe that he's nearly 2!! I feel that i've done a really good job with photography so far this year. It may not all be first class, but i've got photos of most of the important things that have been going on in our lives.

I set myself a little personal goal this year - i wanted to take at least one photo each week on my SLR. My SLR may seem like nothing special, but it's pretty special to me. It's something that we really couldn't afford to buy, but i wanted for so long. When my dad got a new digital SLR a year or two ago, he knew that, so he passed on his old one to me. It's a Nikon D70 (yup, you read that right - just one '0'. I think they are up to three now LOL). It's basic, but it's digital. The screen is difficult to see, so i have to wait until i get my photos on my computer to see how the photos turn out, but i'm finding that isn't the worst thing in the world - it means that i get my photos on my computer really quickly!!

I've (so far) managed to achieve my personal goal - even more than once a week i'd say!! How do i do this? I've found it's all about where my camera lives!! The hub of my house is my kitchen, so that's where i now keep my camera!! I keep it with the standard wide angle lens on it - i only have one other lens (a telescopic lens) and it really only comes out on 'special' occasions - when we go out and i'm trying to get photos of Calvin playing on play equipment ages away or something fun like that.

It's a pretty weird place to keep an SLR - and it's definately dangerous, since all sorts of things go down in the kitchen - it's right next to the kettle for goodness sake!! But the beauty of my SLR is that it's like 10 years old, so if something happened to it, i wouldn't be devestated! It would be sad, but really it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong with it anyway!!

It's allowed me to get some fabulous photos of everyday life, like Calvin 'doing the dishes' last week:

Or him sitting down with the K-mart toy catalogue (he was pestering me in the kitchen, so i gave it to him and said 'here, go sit on your couch and read this' - and wouldn't you know it, he did!!! So cute!!!)

Or Calvin putting his massive toy bear on Napoleon while he was faaaassst asleep - and it was still there half an hour later!!!

The most exciting thing about my success in using my SLR so much more this year, is that i'm going to get so many lovely photos of my little girl when she joins us in the next few weeks. Though i had the SLR when Calvin came along, i was unpracticed in using it, so i immediately went to my point and shoot!! This time around, i'll be grabbing the SLR first thing - in fact, it will be one of the first things in my hospital bag :D

Finally Back to Scrapping!!

2011-07-19T13:34:00.003+10:00

It's been over 2 weeks since i last scrapped, so today i decided to spend the day scrapping, while Calvin is in daycare. I actually ended up doing a double LO this morning - one side for the July Purple Pumpkin blog challenge and the other side for the 'once upon a sketch' July 15 blog challenge. Here's what i came up with:

The right side is for the Purple Pumpkin blog challenge:

And the right side was for the once upon a sketch blog challenge. It turned out to be a long way from the sketch, but i had to make it work with my first LO!! The challenge was to use a quote, so i used "Yoooooooo..... Gabba Gabba" as my quote - it's the last thing in the opening credits of the show, which i thought was appropriate :D

I've used a huge mix of products on these two pages. A bit of old Cosmo Cricket (from "The Boyfriend" range), some American crafts, Jillibean Soup (Monsters Stew), Scenic Route. Purple pumpkin embelishments and some random brads plus lots of misting with some glimmer mists and some of Mr Huey's (LOVE how bold that red mist turns up!!!). Alphas are Heidi Swapp and Making Memories, plus i've used a Stampin' Up! write marker.

On the knitting front, i've been doing lots for Calvin lately!! I finished the jumper i was knitting for him and it looks gorgeous - he loves it too - the sign of a well loved jumper is that he took one of the buttons off within a couple of hours of putting it on LOL

I just LOVE the buttons i got to match the jumper - SUPER cute, don't you think!!! Very glad that this project is done really - it wasn't the most enjoyable yarn to work with, especially given how much winding i had to do to get all the colours matching around the body and sleeves!!

My latest project is some fairly simple socks for Calvin:

I've dubbed them the "One team fits all" supporter sock, since they are such lovely bright colours!! My personal challenge for this pair of socks is to learn how to knit socks with contrasting toe, heel and cuff. I think they look good, though i think the heel would look much better if it was a toe-up pattern. Shall try this one next time i think!!

My Favourite Layout

2011-07-15T18:57:00.002+10:00

Purple Pumpkin is after 2 guest designers this month, and to be in the running to be a guest designer, they are asking us to post our favourite LO on our blog. This was quite a challenge for me, as i'm so happy with so many of my LO's this year.

In the end i settled with this LO:

There are a few reasons why this one is a personal favourite. Firstly, the photo is just gorgeous!!! My two men - My husband in the foreground has and always will be my first love, and my son in the background whom i'm totally head over heels for too - he's a shadow of his daddy. They truely are pieces of me - it's like having part of my heart walking around outside of my body, having them in my life :D

Secondly, i just LOVE this paper range. It's MME's Lost & Found which i just LOVE. So there's lots that i love on this page!!! I love the monochromatic and the twine and the subtle bling, and it's got one of my favourite Martha Stewart punches on it and.... i could go on, but i won't.

Hope you enjoyed a little look into my favourite LO at the moment! Don't forget to check out Purple Pumpkin's blog this month - there's HEAPS going on :D

Have you seen Purple Pumpkin?

2011-07-03T21:27:00.002+10:00

I've only just discovered Purple Pumpkin and their gorgeous range of embellishments in the last couple of months. Last month was my first order and i was most impressed with service, delivery and the products themselves!! I've used them already on a few LO's - including at least one of my masters entries!!!

July marks the first birthday of Purple Pumpkin, so they are having a HUGE giveaway. Go to the blog to check out how you can enter, and don't forget to check out their amazing range of embellies while you are there!!! I'm sooooo looking forward to their next sale towards the end of the month. The winners of their giveaway will be announced 22nd July - right before the next sale. Wouldn't it be nice to win $50, $25, $15 or $10 towards an order at their next sale!!!!

I've been busy working on a little jumper for Calvin for this winter (and hopefully it will still fit him next winter - though i'm starting to doubt it!!!) and i'm quite close to finishing now - just got to add the hood :D Check out the lovely colours created by the Noro Silk Garden (Colour 8) that i picked for this project:

Overall i’ve been quite disappointed working with Noro this year. I’ve had Noro envy for so long now and once i started working with it i’ve not enjoyed it like i should. I will certainally not be knitting socks or garments with it again. I’d like to give it a final try with a lace stole or something where the colourings don’t matter so much. But, this sort of project is pretty low on my ‘to knit’ list, so i probably won’t get it done any time soon.

Straight into July Challenges!!!

2011-07-02T07:54:00.002+10:00

I had a lovely night out scrapping last night with Elana at Scrapbooks Etc. in Underwood, and as a result i've already done 2 blog challenges for July!! Been a while since i've done challenges on the first of the month!!!

The challenge for Scrap The Boys this month is to use tape and the word "Play" on a LO. I knew i had some lovely tape that i bought a while back (I think i got it in New York!!!) that i haven't touched yet, so i popped this in my tote before i left for the night. Here's what i came up with:

I've used a bit of a mix of things on this LO - stamps by Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp, Maya Road and Stampin' Up. The little chippies i've used are so cute aren't they? It's from a Maya Road pack i bought last weekend that i have used almost constantly since!!! I've used them on the next LO too. PP's are a mix of a few things including the new October Afternoon 5 & Dime range which is soooo cute!!! And of course a bit of glimmer mist for the splodging!!

Love this photo - of my boys eating weetbix together at breakfast time - hence the title "Work, Rest & Play"

The second challenge i did last night was for the White plus One blog. Their challenge this month is to use White + Aqua/Teal + Chipboard. This gave me a great opportunity to use a chipboard title that i've had in my stash for a while "Wonder What He's Thinking". It's the second time i've scrapped this photo, because it's so gorgeous!!!!

I mostly stuck with one of Kaisercraft's newer ranges "Chapter One" for this LO, but added in some Maya Road chippies and some ribbon. I got the lovely effect on the title by first painting it cream, then misting with silver plus a teal colour - i didn't have the exact right colour i wanted in the mist, so i had to improvise a bit and i couldn't be happier with the result!!! So soft and lovely!!!

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us - we're painting Calvin's new room finally!!! Hopefully we'll be able to finish off this week and then move him in within a couple of weeks - it's getting pretty close now. I'm 31 weeks, but you just never know where God is going to direct your path!!! Have a great weekend all!!

Another PageMap plus some Masters Sneaks

2011-06-27T12:19:00.002+10:00

PageMaps has another contest on at the moment - i love Becky's sketches!! Here's my take on her sketch:

Cute, huh? This is Calvin with his new found friend, Felix. He's about a month younger than Calvin and they play so well together!! Charmaine (Felix's mum) and i try to get the boys together at least once a month, and they both just love it!!!

I had a pretty full on scrapping weekend, which was lovely! There is a store at Rochedale called Somewhere to Scrap that's quite new and they do a big crop once a month. It goes from 9am to midnight. I only go from after lunch - that way i still get to spend the morning with the family :D Anyway, that nice big block of scrapping allowed me to really get stuck into my masters challenges, so i managed to get 2 out of the 4 challenges complete! I can't post them here, but i can put up some sneak peaks! So here you go!!

I'm pretty happy with where it's all going, and i can't wait to have another go at it with the other 2!!

On a yarn note, i finally finished the toddler socks i've been working on, and Calvin even wore them this morning!! They fit him like a glove:

CHA Summer Sneak Peaks

2011-06-26T18:29:00.002+10:00

One of my favourite times in the scrapping world is when all the CHA sneak peaks start coming out - it's so exciting because you are seeing all these products for the first time, but you have to *wait* until they are actually released before you can play with them!!!

Here's a couple of links to some sneak peak sites:

Glitz Design - I LOVE the first range "Dance in Sunshine" - lovely colours and motifs used there!!!
Pink Paisley - They have released a new 'mistables' range. Loving the look of the mist resist papers and lots of muslin products - these are always great fun to mist!!
Echo Park - Victoria Gardens - not really my taste, The Apothecary Emporium - another typical halloween range IMO
Lawn Fawn - very cutsy stamp sets these!!!
My Little Shoebox - a very traditional sneak peak this one - not much to see here, but what i see i like!!!
3 Bugs in a Rug - The Ashtyn collection is so lovely. I can definately see me getting some use out of these oens!!! The rest are nice too, but i definately like the Ashtyn collection the most!!

Some interesting news is that Basic Grey and Tattered Angles are not planning on attending CHA Summer 2011. This doesn't mean they aren't doing releases. Tattered Angles is planning on releasing 42 new colours!!!

Lots more sneaks popping up around the web in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!! Unfortunately, it will be quite some time before it all hits the shelves - especially here in Australia!!!

June CyberCrop at Scrapboutique

2011-06-24T22:04:00.002+10:00

Evening all! Well, i've just started this weekend with the Scrapboutique June Cybercrop - Friday night Speed Scrap challenge. Headed up to my local store, Fancy That, for a couple of hours to complete the challenge, and then i was home in time to upload it. Lucky i was planning on coming home actually, because i needed to do some sewing with my machine on this LO!! Here's the finished product:

How cute is the little star that i've popped on it? I got this idea from the October Afternoon blog this week and i've been dying to try it! It's just like when you pop up a butterfly's wings, but with stars - such a simple, yet effective idea! Loving it!!!

The PP i've used is a mix of some old American Crafts papers and the lovely Blast Off range from Bo Bunny. I've been SOOOO into this range - you've probably seen it feature a lot on my blog recently! I can't believe how much i love it - it suits my little boy so well since he's so into space stuff :D October Afternoon has just realeased a space range too - that makes 3 in total - one from Bo Bunny, another from Fancy Pants and the third from October Afternoon. It seems everyone is jumping on the 'space' bandwagon this year - and i'm loving it!!!

Well, i'm off to bed now. Got to get a good night sleep before i head over to Somewhere to Scrap tomorrow for their monthly marathon day/night crop. I went to this last month and it was awesome! It goes from 9am to midnight. I only go from about 1pm because i like to spend the morning with the fam. We're going to take Calvin down to a new park in our area tomorrow with his tricycle - he'll have a ball!!

Don't forget to head over to Scrapboutique to join in the fun with their monthly CC!! There is lots of inspiration flowing and even a few prizes up for grabs!!!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

2011-06-23T21:20:00.002+10:00

Well i don't know how busy you have been lately, but i've been flat out!!! Calvin is such a handful now, but he is also more fun than ever - i am really enjoying this stage. Even though he's naughty, as he tests boundaries and his own sense of individualism, he is chattering away like mad and i can almost have a full conversation with him!! He's such a lovely little boy - i feel so blessed to have him in my life. What an amazing gift from God he is :D

My sister is getting married next year, and i have just recently finished her invitations - they certainally took some time as they were a lot more fiddly than i had anticipated. Here's a little look at the end result:

Boy that was a big task!! Very glad that they have finally been sent out now, and i'm pleased that Sarah is happy with them too!

Another thing i've been busy with is birthday gifts! My brother and sister - in - law recently celebrated their 21st birthday (twins), so i decided that a home made gift was the way to go. Emily lives in Melbourne, so knee high socks were definately appropriate!!

I thought that Martin probably wouldn't appreciate socks, but i wanted to make him a little something. After much consultation with Jeremy we ended up deciding on a Yoshi Amigurami, and i think he worked out pretty well!!

A couple of other birthdays meant more socks (i'm so into them this year!!!), so my mother-in-law got some lovely aqua socks (Ravelry pattern: Shurtigal) and my bestie in Wollongong ended up with some pink/green socks (Ravelry pattern: Leyburn).

Luckily all of these socks fitted the recipients perfectly!! It's always a bit of a gamble making socks for others!! Another pair of socks i'm working on at the moment is a pair for Calvin. I'm using some lovely yarn from Tangled Yarns called "Ella Rae Lace Merino" in a lovely blue/aqua handpainted colourway. They are looking wonderful so far, and the yarn is just a dream to work with!!! I'm trying to finish these before the end of June to enter into Tangled Yarn's monthly knit-a-long - the theme this month is socks!!! I think i should be able to finish them off in time - i'm on the foot of the second sock (toe down), so not much longer to finish off there!

Another busy weekend for me this weekend. Tomorrow Calvin is in care, so i'm going to make the most of it and get along to the baby and pregnancy expo without him!!! Plan is to duck in and out really quickly - working at my own pace. It would have been really nice to go with a friend, but given that i've not been very well lately, i really need to go on my own and leave if it's all too much for me. Tomorrow night is my regular scrap night at my local store, but i'll just stay for a couple of hours because i'm going to a store at Roachedale all day and night Saturday to scrap - looking forward to that!!!

Sunday we are going to Sea World as a family - it's the last weekend we can use our annual passes, so we thought we'd make the most of it!! Can't wait to show Calvin the penguins they have at the moment, and really hoping that the weather is nice - last time we went it was pretty aweful weather and we didn't stay long because it was just so miserable!!! It will be nice for him to go on a few rides - especially the merry-go-round!! He certainaly loved that at Movie World!!

Well i hope you have a wonderful weekend with your loved ones, whatever you have planned. And that you get to add a bit of craftiness in there too!!

Simple, Funky, Painterly, Misted Fun

2011-06-22T21:06:00.002+10:00

June long weekend i was one of the lucky few who got to do a class with Louise Nelson at the Brisbane Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo. I had so much fun with this class, learning all sorts of new techniques, especially with glimmermist - one of my favourite products that i just don't use enough because i really don't know how to use it!!! The class was for 2 LO's, but i really only got time to do 1. Elana and I plan to do the other together one night - to help each other out :D

Here's the LO i ended up with:

Isn't it gorgeous!! We made our own masks for the grass and clouds and then had lots of fun with some paint and mists, not to mention poskar pens and chipboard. Some of the details:

I got SO MUCH inspiration from this class, so thanks heaps Louise!! Needless to say that i've since expanded my glimmer mist collection in a big way, and i'm experimenting a lot more with things like tissue paper, and creating my own backgrounds. My primary love will, however, always be patterned paper - i just love it all :D But, absence can make the heart grow fonder, right?

My life in numbers

2011-06-07T13:06:00.002+10:00

1 - we've been in Brisbane for 1 year now. It's gone so quick!!! We've made lots of friends in that time and watched Calvin grow so much. We're very comfortable now in our house and neighbourhood, though we still miss Wollongong so much!!!

2 - this is the second day of serious potty training with Calvin. Yesterday morning he said to me "Potty mummy potty mummy!!!!" He sat on the potty and did a wee straight away!!!! I put him in undies for the day and we only had 1 accident - right before dinner when he was quite distracted by daddy working on the garden out the front. Pretty awesome!!! I've sent him to daycare today with no nappies. Can't wait to see how he goes!!

3 - i'm planning on finishing work at the end of next week, so i only have 3 more days of working left

4 - i've finished 4 pairs of socks so far this year :D

6 - The last Harry Potter is out in just 6 days!!! Can't wait!!! Jeremy and i are going to go together on the first Tuesday i have off from work. Calvin will be in daycare and we'll just love going on a 'date' together. I think we've seen all but the first movie together :D

7 - Jeremy and i will have been married for 7 years this year. Where did THAT time go?

21 - Calvin is 21 months old now and such a big boy!!!

22 - the number of invitations i've made so far for Sarah's wedding

42 - the number of invitations i need to make for Sarah's wedding

28 - i'm now 28 weeks in this pregnancy and definitely feeling it!! Finding it hard to sleep at night because she's kicking me in the hips either side!! Very hard to get comfy. Getting tired very quickly now too - did the groceries yesterday morning and that totally wore me out!!!

70 - I am so thankful for my old Nikon D70 digital SLR. Dad gave it to me when he got his new one, and even though it's like 8-9 years old, it still works perfectly and challenges me with my photography all the time. One of my goals this year was to use it at least once a week. Not sure if i've done that, but i'd certainly be close!!! I'll leave you now with one of the gorgeous pics of Calvin i took with it on the weekend:

Mister Huey's Color Mist {LOVE}

2011-06-05T12:43:00.003+10:00

Another lovely night scrapbooking at my LSS, Fancy That - and i was loving the "Mister Huey's Color Mist"!! I chucked it in my bag as an afterthought and ended up using it on both pages i did!!! The gorgeous red i have in it is quite striking, especially when i flicked it onto a shiny surfaced base cardstock (which took all night, plus overnight to set!!!):

The other page i enjoyed some spritzing on was the monthly sketch for Scrapbooking From Scratch. The sketch was designed by Malinda, and i think it's just gorgeous!!! I logged on today to upload my entry, only to find that i was meant to use journaling, paint and 3 circular objects too - oops!!! Never mind. I'll just have to have another go at this one again this month because it was such a fun sketch to use!!!

The page is about how much Calvin is obsessed with his hair - he wants me to gel it every day for him, and he just adores washing his own hair at night - then bragging to me afterwards (dad does the baths). Plus all through the day he's always telling me about his hair. What a little dude!!

2011-05-29T09:45:00.004+10:00

Well, it's been a pretty bit weekend for me in terms of scrapping. I went to Fancy That on Friday night. I got 1 LO and 2 cards done and made a start on my sister's wedding invitations. The LO was for their monthly challenge kit so i haven't got a photo yet, but i really enjoyed using the bright pink and lime green papers provided in the kit, and i added a lovely chipboard ladybug that i inked and spritzed - looked very cute!!!

A few scrappy friends from up here were going to a new store at Roachedale yesterday so i decided to join them and check the new store out!! Once a month they do a massive saturday crop - 9:30am to midnight. i only stayed 1pm to 10:30pm, but i actually got heaps done!!! 3 LO's and lots more of my sister's wedding invites - i'm well over half way with these now. I'll probably finish them this Friday night.

The new store is called "Somewhere to Scrap" and it's a really lovely store!! They have a fantastic range of both new and old stuff plus a cafe and an area for kids - which is fenced!!! I'll definately be going back there again - i've booked in for the next super saturday at the end of June, so i hope i can make it!!

The 3 LO's i did last night were all for challenges. My local store, Fancy That, has just started a monthly blog challenge so i'm quite keen to support that. Here's what i came up with:

I'm still not sure about the title, but the Prima swirl is sooooo cute, don't you think?

My other 2 LO's were for Scrap Boutique. The first was for the monthly challenge, which was to do a LO with a 'mum' theme and quote. I used some yummy new MME 'Lime Twist' papers for this one - it was nice to use some girly papers!!

I enjoyed cutting out some of the butterfly's from the offcuts and popping them up! I also used some Pink Paisley artisan shapes that i've had for a bit. I used some ink of them and then smudged it for a nice effect.

The second challenge was the stylist challenge, which was to use autumn colours. I took a little creative liberty to this idea and used some brights! How cool are these papers? They are a Jillibean Soup range which is super nerdy - lots of chemical formulas etc. Thought they suited a photo of Jeremy and I perfectly!!!

A very happy mothers day!!!!

2011-05-08T17:53:00.005+10:00

Firstly, i'd like to wish all the mum's who read my blog a happy mothers day!!! Especially to my mum who is the best mum in the world, and an even better grandmother!!!

I've had a really awesome mothers day, which was really more of a whole weekend!!! I told the boys that what i wanted for mothers day was for them to go out for a couple of hours (giving me some time at home :D), and pick some plants for our new sensory garden. Then to come home and plant them together!!! It was a great gift and our garden is looking really awesome. Here's just a few of the lovely plants that they picked for me:

I don't think i've shared much about our sensory garden. The idea is to encourage Calvin to enjoy the garden - by having an area for him, but to also teach him about all the different senses:

- Sight - lots of different coloured flowers

- Touch - plants that feel different, especially the leaves - furry leaves, smooth leaves, thorns etc.

- Taste - herbs and vegies that he can eat straight from the garden

- Smell - Different smelling herbs and flowers

Great idea isn't it? We got the original inspiration from Better Homes & Gardens, but we've changed it up quite a bit!! They had a stream running through theirs, but we decided that this wasn't safe, given Calvin's age, plus one of the great things about our garden is that we don't have to worry about him out there, and if we had water that wouldn't be so!!!

Here's Calvin pottering around in the garden:

This is super cute - Calvin decided to pick some of the flowers on the plants we just planted and arrange them in a different garden bed. It was a very bitter-sweet moment for us as we didn't really want him picking them, but that's kinda the whole point of the garden!!! And he was being so creative too!!

So the boys did that for me yesterday and this morning i got a lovely hand painted card from Calvin that he had done at daycare - he was particularly proud of the glitter on it!! I also got a little laminated thing with a picture of him and a poem about mums. Pretty special stuff :D

We went to Maccas for breakfast on our way down to Movie World. It was a great chance for Jeremy and I to have a few minutes together while Calvin had a play in the playground!!

We arrived at Movie World in record time and were there pretty much when the gates opened at 10am - check out how empty it was:

We did the typical thing getting some photos with characters. The first set of characters we saw was all superheros, and Calvin was a bit scared, but he got a kick 'bumping' the flash with his fist. He really liked Tweety Bird and Scooby Do (not surprising, considering he's just a giant dog)

The first (and last) ride we went on was the merry-go-round. He went on it with me first, and then dad later in the day. He really loved all the lights and going up and down. It was super cute how he would get off the rides and tell us all about it afterwards. He didn't seem so fussed on it while he was on it, but you could clearly see the joy afterwards!!

Waiting....waiting...watching the train ride - his favourite by far!!!

Riding the Tweety Bird ride with daddy

Watching the loony tunes rollercoaster, which he had a HUGE fascination with!!

Hanging with dad, watching shows. We were very surprised by how much he enjoyed watching the shows!!! The first show we went to was the stunt car show and he was just fascinated by that!!! He loves cars heaps so i suppose we shouldn't have been so surprised. He really loved the motorbike in the show too!!! The other show we went to see was a Looney Tunes musical which he LOVED!!! He loves music and the characters just captured him completely!! Towards the end of the show we were sitting directly in front of a bubble machine so that was really super exciting for him.

Last thing before we left, Jeremy went on the Superman ride which is one of his favourite rides at the moment - it's the only ride either of us went on that wasn't a kids ride too!!! I couldn't go on any because i'm pregnant, and Jeremy wasn't devastated to not go on many because he went just a few weeks ago while Nadine and Brian were staying with us. It's been so great having the yearly passes for that reason - we can just go to a theme park for a few hours, and it's not a 'waste', which is great when you have a little kid, since they don't survive very long!!! We actually managed 4 hours, which is pretty good considering Calvin's age. It would be great to take him to sea world before our passes run out at the end of June because they have just got a new penguin exhibit that wasn't there when we went last year, and i think he'll really like that!!

A knitting share before i go tonight. I started my third pair of socks for the year yesterday, and i'm amazed how quickly they are knitting up. It's my first ever pair of toe up socks and i'm very pleased with how that is working out for me - i think i'm a convert already!!! It took me a few pattern repeats to figure it out exactly, but now it's looking beautiful!!! And it's such a quick knit that i'm ready to turn the heel on the second day of knitting!!!

I'm using an onLine supersock yarn and the pattern is a free ravelry download called "Leyburn". Isn't it a fab pattern, and isn't the yarn funky!!!

My first baby girl knit :D

2011-05-07T07:01:00.002+10:00

A very quick post this morning - i've just taken photos of my latest knit so i thought i'd pop them up here. I've decided that this will be her coming home outfit and i bought some matching leggings.

The lace pattern on the front turned out perfect, and the picot edge is super cute don't you think!!!

I'd like to knit the matching mittens and hat too, but i'm going to start my next pair of socks next so they might have to wait until after my socks!!

No point crying over spilt milk?

2011-05-06T09:22:00.003+10:00

I can't believe the morning i have had today - it was just one thing after another!! I was already behind the 8 ball thanks to having to sleep on Calvin's floor for at least an hour overnight and then he slept in again!! This is the second Friday he's sleep until 6:30 - i think we really have to start setting an alarm on my work days!!

Things were going ok until Calvin decided to take ages to have breakfast and all the sudden it was 8am - that's when i usually leave for work!!! I was just about to jump in the shower when Calvin grabbed one of the milk bottles i was filling up for him for daycare and spilt it all over him and all over the kitchen!!! I grabbed him quickly and we both jumped in the shower together - which always turns a 5 minute shower into 20-30 minutes!

It wasn't 9:20 until i dropped him off and i had already decided by that stage that work was a no-go. I am totally exhausted and the last thing i wanted today was another boring day at work. The last 2 weeks i haven't had anything to do at work, and it's made it very boring. I'm seriously considering resigning right now - it's getting a bit much being pregnant, looking after a toddler and working 2 days - it's not leaving much time for anything really!! I think the end of June will definately be the longest i'll work.

On a much nicer note, i'm very close to finishing my little dress for my little girl, and i even bought some matching leggings yesterday. Check out how perfect the lace work on the front is!!

May Already?!?!!

2011-05-01T07:48:00.003+10:00

I had a lovely Friday night at Fancy That and managed to do 2 LO's for April challenges. I thought i had until today to post them, but i was wrong!!! April finished a lot sooner than i was expecting. Oh well, i'm going to post and submit them anyway :D Blame it on the pregnancy brain!!

Scrapbooking From Scratch always has a monthly sketch challenge (along with a puzzle challenge and a quote challenge!!), and i really love the simplicity of their sketches. Check out what i came up with this month:

I've used some of the Kaiser "Up, up and away" range. I bought this range a while ago but haven't used it yet. I often find that the Kaiser ranges i go for tend to be more feminine and vintage, so i don't end up using them!!! That might change when our little girl comes along :D I love the stitching i've done around the edge. Took me ages, but soooo worth it!! I'm stitching a lot more since i got my sew easy tool - it just takes the trouble out of all the hole punching, which is often the most painful part!!!

The second challenge LO i did was for the Kaisercraft blog. They release a new sketch every saturday and they are all due at the end of the month. This is sketch #3 and i've used another range that i just *had* to have - i love the bold colours and just how fun the range is!! I forget what's it's called right now, but it's pretty awesome, dont' you think?

I'm still not sure about how this page came out. It was a very busy sketch, which really appealed to me, but i'm not sure i really like how it turned out. The colours and embellies are cool, but it's a terribly busy page. Never mind :D

Easter CyberCrop at Scrapboutique

2011-04-22T22:14:00.003+10:00

Evening all!! This weekend is the monthly CyberCrop at ScrapBoutique, and it's a doosy because it's going from tonight through to Tuesday!! If you want to join in, don't stress - all you've missed so far is the speed scrap tonight. Here's what i came up with thanks to Chelsea's great sketch:

Cute huh? I found Calvin faaaaaaast asleep like this one night when i went in for our nightly "check the chicken" before we go to bed. I pulled the sheet up over him and couldn't resist going to fetch the camera for a shot of this - risked waking him!!! The papers are new Bo Bunny and are SUPER cute for boy pages, don't you think? I thought they suited the photos well :D

I finished my socks tonight too!! These are the second for the year - part of my 'super special 6 pattern sock club' on ravelry. Loving how the Noro knitted up!!!

Finishing these is not only exciting because i finished well ahead of month end, but also because i get to start on a cute little purple newborn dress :D My first knit for this bubba. Got about 10 rows done tonight. I'll get a bit more done tomorrow in the car as we are heading up to Redcliff to stay with Leah for easter and my birthday!! Nadine and Brian are up there already, so we'll be joining them for a lovely friends catch-up weekend.

Off to bed now - a big day of packing and driving ahead of us :D

Nesting!!!

2011-04-17T20:03:00.003+10:00

So since finding out we are having a girl, i've been nesting like mad!! I've had a 'to do' list written for a while, but i hadn't really started it. This week i've been able to tick a few things off!! I've cleared out a cupboard in our hall for my scrap supplies and started moving my scrap stuff out of my room into it - a hard move, but a necessary one! I've also been sorting all of Calvin's old clothes into sizes and boy/'girl' clothing. I've been blessed with finding a lady at my LSS who is expecting a boy in July and she already has a girl, so we're going to swap clothing - that's going to save us lots!!

Calvin has been a bit sick this week - he's had a temperature, been coughing and throwing up. Poor little guy. He's been sleeping a lot too - which has made it easier to sort my scrap stuff out. Here he is looking very grumpy after he just woke up in the car - Nadine put his blankie on top of his head, and he just let it sit there for ages - so cute!

I've been doing a bit of scrapping lately too - Here's a page of my gorgeous boy with his gorgeous cousins, using some old Scenic Route (it's actually a Christmas range!), some Heidi Swapp stuff as well as a Prima blossom that i've had for ages, but haven't found a use for!

Here's a page i created at my local store on Friday night with some new Crate Paper. I really love the little owl stamp on it - it was a last minute thing so it's not stamped as well as it should be - i just knew that it needed something there!!! I created this page based on a Once Upon A Sketch challenge - the second this month.

Lastly here's a page i did that i'm not real satisfied with. Never mind - can't love every page i do i guess!! It's good that it's finished though. It's been sitting on my desk for a bit half done, so i'm glad it's done.

Some Yummy GIRLY Prima Inspiration

2011-04-11T18:18:00.004+10:00

It's no secret that i LOVE Prima, especially their blossoms!!! They've put up their PPP for April and it's yum, Yum, YUM!!!! Check out how they've used it at the Prima blog. And don't forget that if you post it on your blog, you're in the running to win some!! I know i want to!!!!

I thought it was appropriate for me to post some very GIRLY inspiration tonight as we had our big halfway ultrasound today and found out that we're having a GIRL!!!! Very exciting - we are feeling very blessed right now expecting to have a pigeon pair :D I can't wait to start scrapping in pink!!! I've already got some yummy purple Cleckheaton Cocoon tucked away in my stash, so i'll have to start searching for a cute little outfit to knit with it!!!

Last night i did a blind crop with Scrapbooking from Scratch and they are having another tonight!! I didn't quite finish my layout from last night, so i've still got to finish that. Not sure if i'll be able to join in again tonight. It's been a pretty exhausting day, so i'll see how i go. Lazy dinner tonight of spag bol (from the freezer) and garlic bread. Can't wait!!! Oh, i guess that means i should go boil some water for the spaghetti. Off i go.

Travel Journal

2011-04-06T11:32:00.006+10:00

I normally take a travel journal with me when we travel (yes, one of those things made of paper that you use pens/pencils in), but i forgot this time!! I find it helpful to write in it each night before bed so i don't forget what happened - since such a lot seems to happen when we travel, especially since we've had Calvin. Otherwise the little details just get lost. I've probably forgotten lots of the lovely little details from this trip already, since we just got home this afternoon!!!

It's been a very long and difficult trip this one - starting from the plane trip down (Wednesday 30th March). The plane was 10 minutes late, which meant we missed our slot when we got to Sydney, so we had to then circle for about half an hour. Once we finally landed, we ended up sitting on the tarmack right in front of the gate since there was a 5km lightning radius, so the ground crew were'nt allowed out. They must have a bloody good union, because we didn't see so much as a drop of rain while we were sitting there!! A 1.5 hour plane trip with a wriggling toddler (and a pregnant mother with a sinus infection) is bad enough, let alone a 2.5 hour plane trip!! We've decided that when we come back in June we'll be buying Calvin a child's seat even though we don't need to - it's just too difficult to travel with him on our laps, and i'm not going to have much of a lap by then!!

When we finally got off the plane to find my dad (grandad) eagerly waiting for us. Mum (grandma) and my sister (aunty Sarah) greeted us in a similar fashion upon our arrival home. It's kinda funny how things change when you have kids. Calvin is now first to be greeted whenever we arrive anywhere. It's lovely, and i don't resent it at all, but it's kinda funny how they all greet Calvin and then suddenly say something like "Oh, and nice to see you guys too!!"

Both mum and dad took Thursday off work and my pa and his wife (Margaret) came over to see us. It was nice to catch up with them over a very yummy pea and ham soup that mum made. She really does make awesome pea and ham soup!!! We also had a caramel mud cake to celebrate Jeremy's birthday which was the previous Sunday. Calvin was VERY excited by this, and ate a whole piece up quite quickly!!

Friday was a day for just the 3 of us. Mum and dad went to work so we went up to Hurstville for a spot of shopping in the morning. Nothing very exciting there, though Calvin very much enjoyed 'riding' on the thomas the tank engine merry-go-round (he hasn't worked out that it goes around yet - and as long as he doesn't know, it's saving me a fortune!!!), plus a piggy back on dad's shoulders!!

Friday afternoon i caught up with a few old school friends - Pamela, who is married with a little girl just 6 weeks younger than Calvin; Nadine, who is married; and Ally, who is engaged. All at different life stages, but it was really great to see that we are still who we use to be, but just a little different due to whatever life stage we are at! We had great conversation, coffee and some lovely biscuits - which Calvin and Isabelle really enjoyed too!!

Saturday was the day of the wedding - of which our trip 'revolved' around. Nick and Susan. Nick is a great friend of ours - he started the cadetship with us way back in 2002, though he didn't finish with BlueScope Steel as we did. He's been through so much heartache in the last few years that it was so wonderful to see him so incredibly happy. Nick had initially asked me to do the photography for the wedding, of which i was happy to do, but also very nervous that i wouldn't get all the shots they wanted. I was overjoyed to hear that they had hired a professional, but they also wanted me to do some photography too. It was a great experience to kinda 'tag along' with the photographer, and i think i got some really great shots, but i'm very glad that i wasn't the primary photographer!!! I was, however, at the reception, though by then they were fairly over the photo thing and didn't seem to mind if i didn't take too many photos!! Overall it was a really great wedding, and we felt both blessed and honoured to be a part of it!!

Jeremy's parents made the rather large trek down to my parents place on Sunday for lunch. Being from the Hunter Valley, this involved around 6 hours travel for them. We were initially going to meet half way, but decided that travelling the day after a very involving wedding was probably not the best idea - and lucky we didn't because i spent a lot of the day in bed!!! I was quite ill while we were away so being able to sleep during the day was quite a blessing. Unfortunately Jeremy has returned with the sickness i departed with!!! It was great to catch up with them, and for them to have an opportunity to see Calvin - it was the first time they have seen him since Christmas!

The boys played golf on Monday - Dad, Jeremy and Matt. They all had a great time, and fabulous weather for it!! Mum and i did a bit of shopping, and coffee-ing with Calvin, and just generally hung about the house in the afternoon. It was quite a nice relaxing day really. Jeremy and i went out that night to see "Rango" which was quite entertaining, and have a lovely Tepanyaki dinner.

By Tuesday Calvin was going a little stir crazy at mum and dad's so we found a local play center. He had a lovely time there, especially since they did a weekly craft spot which happened to coincide with our visit!! He particularly enjoyed the slide and a little bus that he could hop in by himself and 'steer' (though it didn't actually go anywhere). Unlike lollipops up here, we had to follow him around a bit since there were so many 'black spots' where you couldn't see what they were up to!! A little disappointing as mum and i were kinda looking forward to a nice coffee out together. The coffee was lovely, but we had to drink them separate!!!

Tuesday night i was able to catch up with one of my very best friends, Jess. She drove up from Wollongong to have dinner with me, which was just great!! Jeremy and I were also able to catch up with some good friends, Anne and Matt, who are due to marry in June - our next Sydney trip!!! It was a very long overdue catch up, as we've been trying to have dinner with them since we left last year!! We went to a local restaurant, and had the most exquisite chilli mud crab!! Definately a winner :D

In the interest of keeping the peach, i have removed this section of my blog. For those who read this previously, i stand by what i wrote and it is still a very difficult issue. We have no idea what we're going to do when we go to Sydney in June. Any suggestions would be very welcome!

Anyway, we came home today, and its *fantastic* to be home. As nice as it is to get away, we are really enjoying the quiet of our home and the assurance of having Calvin in his own bed (and if he cries or gets up early, it only affects us!!!) Our trip home today was just as difficult as our trip last week. We got to the airport and found that our flight had been cancelled, leaving us with a grumpy toddler to entertain at a very boring airport for 1.5 hours. He wasn't too bad though. Once we found another little boy that he could play cars with, he was pretty much set. He entertained himself with the hungry jacks crown for a little while too. So cute.

The flight was much faster than the previous and though Calvin wriggled as much as we thought he would, he actually fell asleep about 5 minutes before we landed. I managed to manoeuvre him into a position such that he stayed asleep while we found our bags and got our transfer back to our car. He woke when i put him in the car, but then quickly fell asleep once we got going again. Such a trooper. It's moments like those that i really cherish, and that make motherhood all worth while!!

2011-03-27T14:35:00.002+11:00

Well it's been a LONG time since i last blogged. Sorry to all my followers!!! I've been very busy since we are expecting our second baby 1st September this year. Plus, i started a job in February!! I'm working as a materials engineer 2 days a week doing failure investigation!! Pretty exciting stuff in my opinion :D

Not a huge amount of scrapping has been going on - i've just been too tired to use my brain. I've been doing lots of knitting though, in front of the TV :D I've joined a club on ravelry (facebook for knitters) called the "Supper Six Special Pattern Sock Club" - we are all knitting 6 socks this year, 1 pair every second month, and all the same pattern!! It's been heaps of fun so far and i'm really enjoying it. I'm also learning heaps of new techniques, which is just great!! My first pair was made using some Moda sock wool and the pattern "Shurt'gal":

Pretty cute, huh?!!?! I'm rather a fan of them. This photo doesn't show the pattern very well but it's something like this:

My second pair is called "Nutkin" and i'm using some YUMMY Noro sock yarn!! I'm just loving the colours coming up so far and can't wait to see how they turn out in the end. The pattern is much easier than the first one so i'm enjoying it a little more and getting through them much quicker!! Speaking of Noro, when i bought my sock yarn i also picked up some Noro for a jumper i'm going to make for Calvin:

Aren't the colours GORGEOUS!?!?! The blue really is that light. Can't wait to see how it knits up :D But i'm going to be very good and finish my Nutkins before i start on the jumper.

I also finished off the knitted overalls i'd been working on for almost a year. I thought they wouldn't fit Calvin since it took my so long, but i think they are going to fit him nicely!! Because i used a yummy bamboo yarn it's stretched a little under the weight:

On the crochet front i've been quite busy too!! I've already knitted a pram blanket for the new bubba:

And i'm doing the whole angry birds lot!! I started making them for Jeremy's birthday and got the first 2 done, but i'm going to complete the set. I was finishing the pig at scrapping on Friday night and one lady there wants me to make one for her!! Might have to start selling them i think!!

On the scrap front, i'm mostly just working on one album this year. It's with Scrapbooks etc. in Underwood and it's a mixed media project. I'm doing 1 class every month for the year and i'm calling mine "our growing family". It's really nice to just concentrate on what is happening right now with my scrapping. Hopefully i won't loose too much of what's going on in doing this!! No photos yet unfortunately, but i'll work on that over the next couple of weeks. Other than that i've done a few pages here and there. My favourite one lately is this one:

Well, night all. Hopefully i'll be blogging more often now that life is slowing down a bit. I'm off to Sydney this week though, so who knows!?!?!?!?!!!

Getting my mojo back with some MME!

2011-01-18T15:15:00.006+11:00

I've been feeling like i've lost my mojo a bit lately, so today with Calvin at daycare i shut myself inside my scrap room and made myself scrap, hoping that if i did a page my mojo would come flowing back! Not sure if it's flowing yet, but i'm super happy with what i came up with!!

MME has a monthly challenge which is usually based on a sketch and a theme. Plus, you have to use 80% or more MME product. The theme was "Winter", which i interpreted with the colours i used - shimmery silver and cool blues and greys :) I'm totally smitten with the new "Lost & Found" range that MME brought out this season - it's glittery and glamerous, but seems to match just about anything. I tried it on with a black and white photo today, and this is what i came up with:

Isn't it gorgeous? I'm particularly proud of this one because i started with no mojo and came out with a gorgeous page!! This photo is such a favourite of mine too - with Jeremy in focus, and Calvin blurred out in the background. SO lovely. Check out the lovely glitter on the die-cuts:

For the title, i started with a chipboard piece and dressed it up with a bit of Tim Holtz 'Broken China' distress ink. I was so thrilled with the colour match, since the blue in these papers is pretty unusual!!

The other page i've done this year is a Christmas page based on PageMaps sketch. It was actually for a challenge, but i never managed to get it up on time (since my lack of mojo was making me scrap SO SLOW!!). I've used some really old Scenic Route paper, which i've always loved but just never got around to using!!

The stars that i've used are cut out from some matching PP and then put through the cuttlebug, which gives a really cute effect, don't you think?

In other news, everything is fairly back to normal up here in Brizzy now. For us, anyway. I wish i could say the same for the poor people in Brizzy that have been flooded. The waters have receeded, but the real hard work has started. Please continue to keep these people in your prayers.

Calvin is at daycare today and something i've started doing is going to the pool straight after i drop him off. It's nice to get in the cool water in such hot weather and also have some scheduled exercise. I hope this is something i can keep up.

I have a job interview on Friday at a local lab for a materials engineering job. I'm not sure how to feel about it, but i'm going to give it my best shot. It's strange to think about going back to work, which i figured that i would never get a part time job in engineering!!

Some OTP and Card shares

2011-01-15T18:05:00.003+11:00

I've been quite into OTP this year - only 15 days in and i've done 2 OTP's, 2 cards and only 1 12x12 page!!! Very different to my usual ratio!

I don't think i shared these OTP's from last year. I made each of my little cousins one of Kaiser's cute little handbag desk organisers for Christmas. They all LOVED them and can't stop talking about them. So cute. I was pretty happy with how they turned out too!

Here's the one's i did for the 5 year old girls:

And here's the one's i did for the 8 and 9 year old girls - much 'older':

The 2 OTP's i've done this year are a large Kaiser desk organiser for my scrap room, and a shadow box frame for my dad for his birthday. I haven't yet taken photos of the desk organiser, but here's the shadow box frame:

I made a matching birthday card for dad too. All using Basic Grey's newish "Wander" range.

And since Jeremy's dad has his birthday this month, i made his card at the same time in a similar style.

Madness!!!

2011-01-13T21:46:00.003+11:00

Life has been MAD for me lately. Busy, busy busy. It's been about a month since my last post. Not much scrapping has happened in that time, I think i've done 2 pages so far this year. I really need to keep a running tally this year - i aim to do it every year, but for some reason it always goes by the wayside :(

I still haven't finished uploading all 25 days of Christmas, so i guess that would be a good place to start!!

13/12: Just Chillin'

Not much going on today - no one was feeling great, so we just 'hung around' the house. It's so cute how Calvin walks around with his blankie on days like this.

14/12: Reading before bed

This is something we do everynight at the moment, so i thought it was nice to capture it. We read 3 stories, the last is always "Time for Bed" by Mem-Fox.

15/12: Cooling down in the backyard

There's nothing better on a summer day in Brisbane!

16/12: Playgroup Christmas Party

What a great time Calvin had at his Playgroup Christmas party. He played hard, then ate with just as much vigour. He was HYPER afterwards - i guess chocolate crackles and fairy bread is a bit much for him!!

17/12: Santa Photo

This is clearly not the santa photo. But, i haven't scanned it yet, so this is a pickie of him all dressed up for it. So cute!!

18/12: Wrapping & Packing!

I wrapped ALL of the pressents this day, and we did all of the packing for our big trip!! The car was PACKED!!!

19/12: On the Road

Naturally with the doggies!!! We drove to Manilla from Brizzy on our first day. It was a VERY long day. A section of the road was closed so we had to detour an extra hour. We eventually go there at about 8pm.

20/12: Catching up with Family

Here's Calvin with his second cousin, Sarah on the farm. We drove from Manilla to Sydney this day, via Broke - Jeremy's parents place, where we stopped for lunch. It was another very long day of driving, but more broken up than the previous day, and filled with relief as we reached our final destination!!

21/12: Out to Dinner

Something we always end up doing when we are in Sydney is taking Calvin out for dinner - Grandma and Grandad just LOVE to show him off at the local restaurants. Dad usually takes him for a little walk afterwards. Such a lovely picture with the lighting!!

22/12: Playing at Grandma's

Calvin had a BALL playing at grandma's - new toys!! Well, toys that we played with as kids, but new to him!! And there's always a doggie around at grandma's. Indie took a particular fancy to Calvin while we were down this time, and she just followed him around the whole time!!!

23/12: ??

I have to track down a photo for this day - we were down in Wollongong without Calvin, who was being looked after by Grandma. Everyone was happy :P

24/12: Swimming with Grandad

This was just one of many swims that were had while we were in Sydney. Calvin was in the pool almost every day with Grandad! Even if it was just dipping his feet in.

Phew! I'm exhausted. Christmas day another time i think!!! A quick recap of what's happened since then though:

We drove back to Broke and spent a few days there with Jeremy's family, even getting down to Newcastle to visit the grandparents!
We spent New Year's Eve back at the farm - a very pleasant way to bring in the new year - 3 swims in one day, including one at 9pm!!
Home at last on New Year's Day. Very glad to be home after 2 weeks away!!
Same old until...
Flooding!! Brisbane got hit with terrible floods this week. Jeremy was sent home from work, and Calvin was sent home from childcare Tuesday lunch. Jeremy has been home since - probably going back next week. We have been SOOOO blessed to not be evacuated, blocked in or loose power, unlike many in the suburbs around us. It's been tricky to get groceries, but things seem to be improving now.
Please pray for those affected by the floods. It's totally devastating up here, and the mood is grim to say the least. The real problems will start soon when the waters recede and people have to return to their homes and the harsh reality of what has happened hits.

It's a CHRISTMAS thing!!

2010-12-16T22:08:00.002+11:00

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?!?!

2010-12-12T21:04:00.002+11:00

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

2010-12-11T09:30:00.003+11:00

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

2010-12-11T09:04:00.004+11:00

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

2010-12-05T16:21:00.002+11:00

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

2010-12-02T06:25:00.003+11:00

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

2010-11-29T23:57:00.002+11:00

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

2010-11-28T17:18:00.002+11:00

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!!!

2010-11-23T12:15:00.002+11:00

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

2010-11-21T10:05:00.002+11:00

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!

2010-11-14T13:36:00.002+11:00

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

2010-11-13T22:45:00.003+11:00

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!!

Ellen Barron: Days 1 & 2

2010-11-09T21:44:00.002+11:00

Well, as many of you may know, we've been struggling with Calvin's sleeping (or lack there of) for some time now. He's almost 14 months old and not sleeping through the night - it has gotten so bad that 9.9/10 nights, he ends up in bed with us - not something we ever wanted, but something we started just so we could cope!! Anyway, after a long haul, we are finally in the Ellen Barron Family Center, which is a center designed to help out families with children experiencing problems such as sleeping, eating, social etc. About 90% of the people here are having problems with sleeping. That makes us feel a little better :)

The first day we got here about 9am (after a grueling 1 hour long drive through peak hour traffic across Brisbane...) and we were shown around the center. Calvin had a sleep in the car on the way so he was good for the morning until the afternoon sleep. We enjoyed playing on the great outdoor equipment they have here with lots of other kiddies. Notably a family of 3 rangers - the youngest 2 twins. Interesting talking to the mum because she said it was a bit of a shock for them - neither her or her husband are rangers!! Anyway, finally it was time for Calvin to go for his afternoon nap. They always take it easy with the first nap, since they are still getting use to the new surroundings etc. So, after about half an hour of him crying, we ended up rocking him to sleep. He had a half hour nap as usual. The policy here is that they only try and make them stay in bed for an hour during the day, so since he cried for half an hour and then slept for the rest, it was up time after that.

There's a fair bit to do to keep us busy here during the day. We've been to a talk both afternoons - the first day it was about sleep (what it is, why we need it, how it happens in littlies etc.) and today it was about connecting with your child - i found the first a little ho hum because i've read LOTS on the topic and there really wasn't anything new there for me (plus Calvin behaved VERY badly and a missed lots of it due to taking him out and bringing him back in...). The second was really great. It made me feel like i was doing a great job as a mum for Calvin, and to keep up the good work - reminding me how important my job is, and how much of an impact i really am making on his little life.

The facilities here are really great. We've got a room with an en suite and a separate room for Calvin (thank goodness!!!), and even a communal courtyard. There is a play room and a huge outside play area with lots of equipment to keep little people busy. The kitchen is very well set up with a play pen to put bubbas in while we are in the food prep area. All meals are provided, so it's really just fetching our prepared meals and coordinating it all. We each have a designated highchair for every child and there are a number of tables to eat at. It's a great time to meet other ladies and swap our war stories!! Plus, i have found that the kids tend to keep each other amused while we are in the food prep area - otherwise there can be tears with mummy more than 2 feet away *lol*

Onto last night. Calvin had dinner at around 5pm followed by a bath as usual. By 6pm he had his bottle and was put down wide awake and the game was on. He managed to scream fairly consistently for 1.5 hours until he finally gave up and had a half an hour sleep. After this half an hour the fun really began. He cried off and on from 8pm to 10:30pm - we had 2 or 3 times where we thought he'd gone to sleep, but he woke 10 minutes later just to prove us wrong. Most of the time his crying was quite intense, but it slowed up a bit around those 10 minutes until finally he could cry no longer and gave into it. Peace at last. He slept SOLIDLY until about 3:30am - a good 5 hours. From then to 5am he woke a number of times, but each time he self settled. True to form he was well and truly up at 5am. The nurses said that he'd had a really good night, so this morning was not the time to begin trying to fight that battle (i was a bit disappointed about that, but i saw that they did have a point!!). So, overall i am labelling the first night a SUCCESS!!!

The next morning was not so successful.

After breakfast we had a bit of a play, but by 7:30 he was rubbing his little eyes and pulling his ears. Poor little fella was tired (i wonder why...). By the time i fiddled around with cleaning bottles (not use to having so few...) and this and that it was 8am before we put him down. He cried solidly for A WHOLE HOUR!!! So after an hour we got him up and went out to play for a bit. After he'd had some morning tea and a good play it was time to try again. He cried solidly for ANOTHER WHOLE HOUR!!! I was planning on walking up to Chermside Westfield after his morning nap, so the nurses suggested i take him anyway - he needed the nap and the comfort since he'd not slept a wink all morning, and just about cried himself hoarse.

Sure enough, within a minute of me putting him in the pram, he was asleep. I'd hardly done the buckles up!! By the time i washed his bottle, filled up my water bottle and walked to the shops, he had half an hour sleep so we sat and had some lunch together. It was a lovely bonding experience. We had both missed each other so much that morning and really needed some mummy-son time together. I got some Oporto and Calvin and I had a great lunch together. Him in a highchair enjoying some chips (one of his favourite foods!!) and me with a Bondi burger (the food at the hospital is pretty dismal - not that Oporto is any better, but at least it had some flavour!!!). After lunch we had a nice wander around the shops, and wouldn't you know it, he fell asleep again. So, he had 1.5 hours sleep in the pram in total in the afternoon.

The nurses said to not feel bad about this - it's not that he had won or i had won, but we had both made a huge amount of progress and we both needed to spend some time together having some cuddles and playing together to just re-cement our bond.

The games started much sooner than i expected this evening. After dinner i took him back to our room and popped him in the bath. To say he hated this would be an understatement. He had obviously caught onto the fact that he has a bath every night before bed and as such did not want a bath. The same thing happened when i tried to feed him his milk. We ended up in the play room with some nice dim lights and just 2-3 toys. He played a little and then eventually cuddled up on my lap and took his milk. Thank goodness. I think it's time to start giving him milk with his meals so that i remove that bed time association.

After he drunk his milk, we popped him to bed. It was about 6:30 by this point. He cried fairly consistently for about 40 minutes before giving up and going to sleep. I got straight in the shower to enjoy some freedom at last. Sure enough, half an hour later he was awake again. This time it only took about 20 minutes to get him back to sleep, and i only had to go in once. I'm so proud of my little boy. It's now about 9:15 and he's still asleep. And i think that's probably where i should be.

I'm fairly sure not many people are still ready by this point, so thanks for sticking it out if you did!! Please continue to uphold us in your prayers if you have been, and i'll (hopefully) pop another update up here later in the week!!

And since no blog is complete without a photo, here's one from September which i like to call "Calvin and Hobbs". A very aptly named photo, and very fitting for this post :) Enjoy!

Christmas Cards Share

2010-11-07T12:01:00.002+11:00

Here's a few of the Christmas cards i've created so far. I've used some super cute Paperie papers - all i've bought for Christmas cards this year is a 6x6 pad, and i'll just base them all on this. So far i'm loving it!! The stamps are all Stampin' Up, and the flowers are some yummy Prima from last year. I haven't used them in LOs yet, so i decided to use them up on my Christmas cards since they are so nice and Christmassy!!

Scrappin' my Boys in November

2010-11-06T22:25:00.003+11:00

The first Scrap the Boys challenge for November is "Super Who?". I've done a LO in 15"x6.5" for Jeremy's calendar. I haven't shared any of this yet because it's not finished (even though i've been working on it for ~12 months!!). I'll share the whole thing when it's finished :)

Anyway, this LO is about how Jeremy is a super here because he's such a super dad. I've used some Fancy Pants for this one as it really suited it to a tee!!

The paper already had "Super Dad" on it, so i just jazzed it up with some silver pen (i ran out half way through though!!! I have to get myself a new one to finish it off i think!! The star was in the paper too, so i cut around the points with a craft knife before popping them up with some foam dots, curling them over and adding a bit more silver. I think it looks tops!!

My other creative little bit for this page is the stamp on the photo. It's just a matching sticker in the same paper range, but once i stuck it down i decided that a stamp that fab just had to have a postmark!! What a fantastic way to add the date and location to a photo. I think i'm going to have to use that technique again :) I used stays on ink so that it wouldn't smudge on the photo - always works a charm when you are stamping directly onto photos!!

A Dreamy Nightmare

2010-11-06T15:53:00.002+11:00

Last weekend was the October CC at Scrap Boutique - the theme, a very spooky "Dreamy Nightmare" thanks to it being Halloween weekend. I entered 2 pages:

This was based on a PageMaps sketch, with the added criteria of using black and white and 1 other colour. After a very long 'flick' through my photos, i found some photos of Sarah and Matt at their engagement part which had a black and white theme with a bit of pink thrown in, so that was easy from there!!

Check out how cute all the embellies are. I love Prima!!

The ticket stub and a few of the papers are an old Terresa Collins range that i've had hanging around for ages. So glad to rediscover them and have them get some use!!!

The other challenge i entered was Em's Sunday Roast - a blind crop style challenge where we were given the instructions, but didn't really like what we were doing - just following the instructions blindly!! I'm quite happy with this page - it's very different to what i usually do!!

Something really cool about this page is that i actually made an embelishment myself! The 'Z' was made using some clay that you form then bake! How awesome is that?!?!?! I got a heap from Riot the other day because i had been inspired by an article in a magazine, or maybe it was someone else's blog... Anyway, i have some sparkly ones too that i'm sure are going to come in handy!!

Last night i went out to Scrapbooks etc. at Underwood for a night with the girls. It wasn't an overly productive night, but i did do a LO based on a sketch that was provided that i quite like:

I love this range from Kaiser. It's called "Peachy Keen". The embellies are SO cute, especially the pearl images. I even did a bit of machine stitching which i haven't done in ages - it's something i LOVE to do on my LO's, but it's usually too much of a bother to get the machine out, plus i would often wake Calvin if i do since i tend to scrap while he's asleep!! So, it was good to have a machine set up last night, just begging to be used.

Other than that LO, i did a couple of LO's for the calendar i'm making for my husband, plus a bit of painting for Christmas gifts. More to come on them...

Create-A-Weekend

2010-10-26T10:42:00.004+11:00

What a MAMMOTH weekend i just had!! I went along to the Scrapbooks etc. 'create-a-weekend'. How great is it having so many scrapbook shops around!!! There's pretty much something on every weekend :) The 'create-a-weekend' was kinda like a retreat, but it was based at the shop. We scrapped 6pm-midnight on Friday night, then 10am-midnight Saturday!! I was exhausted by the end of it!!

And then on Sunday, we went along to my second cousin's birthday party. It's so nice to have family around so close that we can join in celebrations of each others lives. I am also teaching Olivia and her sister Grace to play the piano. It's nice to be able to give back to family like that!! Here are some photos from Olivia's birthday party:

All the kids enjoying a 'floor picnic'

Calvin enjoying his first lollypop - there was green drool EVERYWHERE!!!

Olivia blowing out the candles on her cake. This wasn't her 'real' cake - she had a butterfly cake the day before with her friends. This was a yummy home made carrot cake - Denise did a GREAT job with it! Such a sweet girl to pick a carrot cake so that her mummy could eat it - Denise can't each chocolate (poor thing!!)

Grace looked just adorable with her little fluffy pig tales!!

I managed to create 5 single LOs, 2 double LOs, 1 mini-album and 10 Christmas cards on the weekend!! Here's a few of my favourites:

This one was the last page of the weekend, create when i was VERY tired, but i really love it!! I've just used a couple of Fancy Pants transparencies, along with a Fancy Pants journal block and some yummy hand stitching. A lovely bright, simple page. I think i'll submit this one for publishing because it's got such nice clean lines :)

Another page i'm going to submit for publishing is this one. I've used some yummy new Bo Bunny papers - it's actually their Christmas range!! I was a bit obsessed with flowers this weekend too - keeping Prima in business!!! This is a page about how different my sister and I are. I purposefully didn't do any journaling because i wanted to keep my thoughts to myself :)

Although these photos aren't very good (they were taken on my iphone), i just HAD to scrap them. These were photos from Friday morning - Jeremy had been away for 4 days, and Calvin just missed him so much. As i said, terrible photos, but the message is so clear.

There were lots of mini challenges throughout the weekend. This page was created from a 'pantry' challenge - we were given 15 minutes to purchase 3 different PP from 3 different ranges, along with 3 embellishments. Then only an hour to finish the LO. It's amazing what you can get done in such a short time when the pressure is on!! This is Leah and I in a lolly shop in Mallaney last weekend:

I did a double LO about this weekend too. It's using some of the yummy October Afternoon Thrift Shop range. I told you i was crazy about flowers this weekend. I think almost every layout had them on them!!

Last share for this post - this LO was for a PageMaps competition, but i never managed to submit it in time. Shame, because i'm really happy with this one! I've used a Kraft background and some MME PP's. Forget what the range is, but it's last years with dinosaurs all over it.

Scrap The Boys

2010-10-17T10:08:00.002+11:00

Friday night i went along to the Fancy That weekly crop. That's the scrapbook shop just down the road from me :) It was a very quiet crop - only about 5 other ladies scrapbooking there. I managed to get 2 challenges from the Scrap the Boys blog completed.

The first challenge was "Trick or Treat" - to scrap either a trick that your boy plays or something that's a treat for them. I chose "Treat" and created a page about Calvin's first licking of a beater - for his first birthday cake! I've used some yummy papers and embellies from the Basic Grey 'Origins' range along with some Heidi Swapp and Thickers alphas :)

The second challenge was to use fabric on a page and an optional sketch was provided. I loosely followed the sketch, using some of the new Kaiser "Homemade" range. My fabric element was some Making Memories canvas flowers - i was at the crop and didn't take any fabric with me, so i had to make do with what was for sale there!! Add some Petaloo flowers and Fancy pants alphas and this is what i got:

$20 Kmart Challenge

2010-10-13T15:43:00.002+11:00

OK, i've just joined Aussie Mummy Bloggers and they have a challenge at the moment to win a $20 Kmart voucher! The challenge is to look through the latest Kmart catalogue and find items for the family for under $20! So, after a bit of flicking and clicking, here's what i came up with:

Firstly i'd have to get Calvin one of the A-Z racing rascals for $5. Being a 1 year old boy, anything with wheels gives a big smile and entertains for hours! He got one of these for his birthday and he just loves it, so it would be nice for him to have a couple. I love watching him move it around him making little 'brumm' noises - amazing how they know what noise a car makes at such a young age, isn't it!!

Whenever i want to get a treat for my lovely husband, it's always socks. Basic i know, but they way to his heart is through a new pair of socks. None in this catalogue, but i reckon i could get at least 1 pair for $5. That should keep the man of the house happy!!

And for me, i can't go past getting some photos printed! I am an avid scrapbooker, so i can never have too many printed photos. At 15c each, i could get 133 printed for $20!!! But i'm not spending the whole lot on myself, so maybe just 20 photos for $3.

I've still got $7 left and everyone is happy. Something we all enjoy doing is a late Saturday afternoon DVD at home. Last week we watched Shrek, so it might be Shrek 2 this weekend!! Better spend the last $7 on some microwave popcorn, lollies and chocolate. Chocolate bars are only $1, so that's $2 for my husband and i to have one each (bubs is too young - only 1!!) I'll have a flake and my husband will have a cherry ripe. $2 will get us a pack of natural confectionary company snakes - we can all enjoy them, since there are no colourings in them!! And the remaining $3 will get us a pack of microwave popcorn.

What a bargain!! A toy, socks, photos, chocolate bars, lollies AND microwave popcorn all for $20. I think i'd better head to Kmart...

A night at Scrapbooks etc

2010-10-12T20:11:00.002+11:00

Well since last Wednesday afternoon we've had the house all to ourselves! It's been so lovely!! The place is finally looking spotless again and running much more smoothly. I've actually had dinner cooked before Jeremy has gotten home (at 4:30!!) 3 times in the last week!!

I am starting to feel like i've finally gotten the hang of this 'mother' business. I'm sure i'm just having a 'good time' at the moment, and reality will hit again soon. I have just been feeling that since Calvin turned 1, everything has been so much easier though. It's probably because we're all feeling so much more settled in our new house.

It's been quite wet ever since about last Thursday. Our backyard was starting to look a bit like a pond yesterday!! It has started to clear up today though so i hope there's not too much more. It would be nice to be able to get some washing on the line and give our backyard a chance to dry up a bit!!

Our weekend with just our little family was lovely. We went to IKEA on Saturday and Bunnings on Sunday. I found a hall table for our foyer, but it's not coming in until November. Not to worry. It's a good price and it fits the bill perfectly! Just have to be patient. Jeremy put our TV up on the wall in our living room on Sunday and it looks fantastic! Now we just have to fix up all of the cords and maybe put some pot plants around to hide the powerpoints at the base.

Today i had a Tupperware party with was really nice. It wasn't a big deal - just Denise and Belinda. Belinda brought around one of her paintings for me. It's just gorgeous and matches our lounge room perfectly. I fell in love with this painting the first time i saw it and i'm so happy to have it in my lounge room now! You can check out more of Belinda's art at the BKM11 facebook page. But here's mine:

Last Friday night i went to the moolighting crop at Scrapbooks etc in Underwood. I managed to get 3 pages done and a couple of cards. It wasn't what i was planning on scrapping when i left the house though - i had just gotten a bunch of photos from Calvin's birthday printed but i left them at home!!! Nevermind, i had a pack of old photos in my pack so i scrapped them instead. It actually made me do a page about myself for the first time since i've had Calvin!!!!

I did 2 pages for ScrapBoutique October challenges. The first is a page that i LOVE!!!! The challenge was to do a page about what i'm proud of about myself - not what i've done but who i am. It was a bit tough, but i managed it OK. This is one of my favourite photos of me, so i'm glad that i had a chance to scrap it.

I just love the flowers (Prima) and the gorgeous glitter on the papers!

The second page i did for a Scrapboutique challenge i'm not so sure i like. Every now and then i do a page that i don't really like, but i think that's all part of learning and growing as a scrapper. I'm never 'ashamed' of my scrapping, but i do try to learn from my mistakes. I think i have used too much PP on this one (i'm always very heavy on with the PP, but this is overboard i think!!) and i just didn't know where to stop with the embellishments - way too much going on on this page. It kinda reflects what the page is about though - Calvin is a busy boy, and it's a busy page!!!

Such a cute chipboard giraffe:

The final page i did on Friday night was based on a sketch by Peta McBeth of Scrapbooking From Scratch and i LOVE this one too!! These photos are from Calvin's 6 month old photo shoot at Pixiphotos. I just love these photos of Calvin with this gorgeous bear that's as big as him. So cute!!

I'm heading to my local shop this Friday night for the first time. It's called Fancy That Scrapbooking and it's in walking distance to our new house!!! I can't believe how much i love this new place :) They are actually having a blog giveaway at the moment, so check out their blog if you would like to win a pack of christmas papers and embellies!! It will be great to meet some new happy scrappy ladies a bit closer to home!!

Back to Scrapping (at long last!!!)

2010-10-05T19:24:00.002+11:00

At long last i am FINALLY back to scrapping!!! We are in our own home now - a lovely big 4 bedroom house in Springfield - about halfway between Brisbane and Ipswich. So this means that i have my scrap room back all to myself. Even better than Cringila - i don't have to share it with our spare room, though i've had to share it with visitors of late (on a blow-up mattress).

Here's a few pages i've done recently (all of Calvin of course!!!):

I've used some of the Fancy Pants "Sprout" range on this one. I've made this page from a Scrapbooking From Scratch blind challenge. Such a cute page of Calvin with a golf stick that my dad had a photo taken with at the same age. I've really got to find that photo!!

Another page from a blind crop, using October Afternoon "On the Farm" mostly. Cute photo of Calvin with Jeremy's dad and Jeremy's dad's hat on his head!! THis day we were out picking olives around Broke. Such a cutie!!

This page i made for a ScrapBoutique challenge last month. What a cutie, all snuggled up to me this day - i'd got him out of the car and carried him in and he was still fast asleep on me :) I've used some Bo Bunny for this one.

Last share for this post, and a personal favourite. This was made off a Scrapbooking From Scratch sketch, using some Making Memories papers and some yummy prima pearls :)

I'm off to a crop night this coming Friday night, so that will be good!! I'm going to Scrapbooks etc. in Springwood with a few girlfriends i met at a Birkdale a couple of months ago. Can't wait!! I'll share more pages next week after that :)

A busy week away

2010-07-29T20:50:00.001+10:00

It was a busy week last week! Jeremy had to go away to a course with work, so my parents suggested that Calvin and I came down to Sydney for the week so I wouldn't be on my own. So, Monday arvo we made the trek back to Sydney.

Calvin still went to daycare on Monday, even though it was only for a few hours!! It was the first time he got upset when I left him and it was pretty heartbreaking for me. He was fine though, and it was probably good that this coincided with him only being there for half a day I think.

Monday night was spent with just mum and dad and I enjoying a very rare dinner of the three of us. Really lovely. Tuesday I borrowed mums car and headed back to the gong where I caught up with lots of friends and stayed the night at Jess's place (with thanks to Martina for the lend of the port-a-cot). Wednesday morning I got to catch up with my old bible study group and them spent the afternoon with my sister. Back to Sydney with mum and dad from Wednesday night on.

(it was very cold on Wednesday morning in Wollongong, so Calvin made use of a nice thick coat)

Thursday was a very busy day - Mum, Calvin and I went into North Sydney so dad could show Calvin off at work. After which, we went into the QVB for lunch and a spot of shopping. When we returned, Jenny (Jeremy's mum) had arrived - she was joining us for the rest of our trip so she could spend some time with Calvin too!!!

(it was even colder going into the city on Thursday morning - so lucky he had a lovely new beanie knitted by grandma!!!)

Friday was a nice quiet day at home with Jenny and Calvin, and then I went into the city to the Opera House with dad that night. We saw the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and it was really great!!

Saturday afternoon i went out to Kings Langly with Jenny and Calvin to a cellar tea for one of Jeremy's cousin's fiancés (6 degrees separation, as usual with Jeremy's huge family!!!). It was lovely to catch up with the relos and Calvin seemed to enjoy all the attention!!!

(Calvin with Zosia - note how he is clapping his hands!! He's been doing that heaps lately!!)

(Calvin had TONES of fun chasing this balloon towards the end of the party)

We flew back Sunday afternoon and it was very sad to say goodbye again :(

Since we've been back, we have been flat out purchasing a house!!! It's a lovely big house in Springfield, which is out in the Ipswich area. It's 4 bedrooms, double garage and has a HUGE backyard. Plus it's opposite a park and an easy walk from a shopping center. Talk about a dream house!!! It's a bit run down - needs painting and new carpet, plus we need to landscape as it is just grass in the backyard (no problems for Jeremy!!!), but it's going to suit us perfectly - and all for the bargain price of $340,000!!! Down from $379,000!!! We play hard ball. We'll probably be in by Calvin's birthday, which will be nice because we can have it at the park across the road!!!

The last couple of weeks gas been made extra stressful by Calvin not sleeping very well. He has GOT to get some teeth soon!!! Here's hoping that he sleeps well tonight.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Testing, testing

2010-07-18T19:21:00.001+10:00

I'm just writing this post to test out a new app I got for my iPhone which allows me to post from my phone!! Now I'll just have to figure out how to add pictures in...

2010-07-08T14:49:00.003+10:00

It's been 2 months since we moved from our little home in Wollongong up to sunny Brisbane! Quite a lot has happened in that time. Calvin has been SO SICK!!! We've started going to lots of playgroups and mothers groups and play centers, and as a result he's picking up every bug known to man. Yesterday he threw up on me about 7 times. Not just little spews either, really massive projectile spews!!

Since we moved up, Calvin has started crawling too. He's been able to crawl backwards for 1-2 months now, but today is the first day that he's been able to move forwards! Very exciting for us all, though a little terrifying! He's only gone a few 'steps' crawling, but i'm sure within a week or so he'll be off!!

Still no teeth for Calvin too. I'm not too worried though - it's certainally easier to breastfeed a baby with no teeth!!

Sleeping has been a bit of an issue for us all since around easter, but it was compounded by us moving - he was starting to wake 5 times a night, so one night i snapped and rung a parents help line. They were very helpful and started me on a settling method called 'camping out', where we sit by the cot while he gets himself to sleep. At the beginning we were very hands on, then moved to just having a hand on him, then just sitting beside him. Now we're gradually moving the chair further away from his cot with the aim of getting out the door. It has been very tiring, but definately paying off. He's slept all through the night 2 nights this week!! Plus, his day sleeps have improved out of sight. Gone are the days when he would only have 3 half hour naps. He's now having 2 naps, and at least one is more than an hour. Today he's had 2 really long sleeps - 1.5 hours this morning, and 2 hours so far this afternoon (he's still asleep!!). I don't know what to do with myself - i might have to start scrapping again!!! I managed to get some quilting done this morning, so that was good!!

I've been trying to get involved with other mothers as much as possible. God blessed us with finding a great church really quickly, so we've been going along to that, though it's tricky to make friends there when you are only there once a week for a couple of hours - most of which is during the service!! Growth groups are starting up next term, so that will be good to help us get to know people better. I've joined the ABA so i can attend the local all age mothers group, going along to a playgroup (at the church), getting myself along to play centers and play grounds where i meet lots of mothers, and i've even started getting out to scrapbooking on my own!!

I've been back to Sydney once already, and i'm going back again in just over a week. It will be great to see my family and catch up with friends. It's so tricky when i'm only there for a little bit though!! Jeremy's mum is going to come down and stay with my parents while i'm there too, so it will be great to catch up with her too!!

I've done a little bit of scrapping recently, so i thought i'd share.

This is a layout i've done for Becky Fleck's PageMaps Blog (with the hope of winning some yummy chipboards!!):

Here's another page for Calvin's first 12 month's calender - this is for April i think:

And here's a double LO that i was working on before we moved, but i only just finished on Friday night at a shop crop - i just needed a little something that i couldn't put my finger on. I think it's finished now:

A new state of mind

2010-05-17T20:33:00.002+10:00

It's been a LONG time since my last blog - i actually think this is my first blog for 2010!! Calvin has been keeping me VERY busy!! Life is certainly never dull these days.

The beginning of May was a pretty huge turning point in our family's life. We packed up our little house in Cringila NSW and moved on up to Brisbane. We're in temporary accomodation right now, but on Wednesday we're moving into a rental in Tarragindi, and it's got a RED kitchen!!! I've always wanted to have a red kitchen - Jeremy wouldn't let me have red in our last house when we were rennovating, but at least i'll get to enjoy one for a little bit now! Check it out:

I haven't been able to do much scrapping leading up to our move, but since i've moved up here, i've actually been able to do 3 pages and 2 doubles!! I don't have any of my tools, so i've been making some pages using Basic Grey page kits:

I've found a really great scrap store local to where we are living - Photo Continental - it's quite an amazing store - they have a photo processing lab, camera store, scrapbooking store and beading store all in one!! Unfortuately they only do a free crop on a Thursday night from 5:30-7:30pm (no late night Friday night crop), which is NOT ideal with trying to get Calvin to bed etc. Anyway, last week i went for about a hour and a half and made a start on a layout that i finished later. I've used the lovely range from Cosmo Cricket "Zoom":

Today i stumbled across a shop which is a bit further away (over in the Capalabar region, near my aunt), which do a weekly 12 hour crop!! 4pm - 4am!! Can't wait to get into that!! The shop is called One Stop Scrapping, and it's about to move to a really huge location where they will also be running a weekly 'mums and bubs' crop, where it will be encouraged to bring bub along so they can all play together while the mum's scrap together. Sounds wonderful to me!!! Can't wait!!

Another part of moving has meant that we've had to leave our beloved church in Wollongong behind and start the old church shopping all over again. Fortunately we've come across a really great church after just 2 weeks!! It's quite similar to our old church, and the people seem to be very friendly. I was invited along to playgroup this morning, and that was quite enjoyable. I'd like to be able to get along to this every week i think!

In Term 1, i was going to the Library at Warrawong for a "Born To Read" program where kids under 2 came with their mums and we sat around for some nursery rhymes and stories, then play time at the end. Calvin and i really enjoyed this time, so we quickly sought out a similar program up here. Unfortuately we couldn't make it last week, but we're going to try and make it in tomorrow morning!

Also tomorrow, i've got a lovely friend coming up to stay with us! Can't wait for that!!

Well tonight, i'll just leave you with a few photos of my lovely little boy, and hopefully i'll be blogging more often!

May - On the beach in Wollongong, the last Sunday we were there

April - Easter Monday

March - First ride in a bike seat on Jeremy's birthday

Enjoy!!

Calvin's First Christmas

2009-12-25T21:01:00.002+11:00

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 :)

Creating Life in Colour

Scarlet in January 2012

2012: Complete

Dizzy December

A couple more shares

Too long between scraps!

Finally finished!!

Have you entered yet?

Not happy Jan...

Kraft It Up!

Scrap The Boys

The Craft Garden

Doing a double-take on doubles

Creative Scrappers

Cuddle with Care

More 'My Vintage Blossoms' Love!

My Vintage Blossom Love

My 100th Post!!!! And the last week of sketch-a-day

I *heart* Purple Pumpkin

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

Sassy Lil' Sketches

More 'Sketch-a-day' LO's

Stuck?

Yes! I am still scrapping my boy :D

White With One

'Sketchaday' Comp @ Scrapbooking From Scratch

Woah Nelly!!

Scrapping with Purple Pumpkin

Today, I Scrap!!

A Slice of Pie

An Unexpected Arrival

Where does your camera live?

Finally Back to Scrapping!!

My Favourite Layout

Have you seen Purple Pumpkin?

Straight into July Challenges!!!

Another PageMap plus some Masters Sneaks

CHA Summer Sneak Peaks

June CyberCrop at Scrapboutique

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Simple, Funky, Painterly, Misted Fun

My life in numbers

Mister Huey's Color Mist {LOVE}

A very happy mothers day!!!!

My first baby girl knit :D

No point crying over spilt milk?

May Already?!?!!

Easter CyberCrop at Scrapboutique

Nesting!!!

Some Yummy GIRLY Prima Inspiration

Travel Journal

Getting my mojo back with some MME!

Some OTP and Card shares

Madness!!!

It's a CHRISTMAS thing!!

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

Kraft It Up & Scrap The Boys

My Little Shoebox Contest on PageMaps

The first few days of Christmas

Purple Pumpkin Giveaway

November Scrapboutique CyberCrop

A non-scrapping post :O

50th Post!!!

Another PageMap

Another PageMap!

High highs and Low lows - Ellen Barron Part 2

Ellen Barron: Days 1 & 2

Christmas Cards Share

Scrappin' my Boys in November

A Dreamy Nightmare

Create-A-Weekend

Scrap The Boys

$20 Kmart Challenge

A night at Scrapbooks etc

Back to Scrapping (at long last!!!)

A busy week away

Testing, testing

A new state of mind

Calvin's First Christmas

I heart Purple Pumpkin