Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday, the first day of a new decade.......I hope this one doesn't go as quickly as the last one did!

This year is going to be a big year for us, we have been planning this for a while and now it's finally going to happen.............we are going to build our dream home on 5 acres just on the edge of town.
We've bought and renovated before and that was slightly stressful so I can't imagine how stressful a whole house is going to be!!

Get ready for a few posts about decorating, I'm totally addicted to all the interior magazines and blogs and I'm sure I'll have plenty to share.

The creative front this year is also going to be huge......I've already planned a few things for next christmas and after I finish a couple of orders I'll get into it! Shop Handmade is good for me.......very very good so I'd have to be crazy not to make it my main focus, I'll also do some online sales in my madeit store and possibly a few markets! That should keep me busy enough between picking tiles and paint colours!

I also want to make a few things for the new home, a quilt each for the kids to put in their new rooms and maybe one for myself......that might be pushing it slightly! I have so many decorating ideas I want to get into, covering chairs, window treatments, cushions, bedding and the list goes on.

So here I am slightly excited about the year ahead and what it will bring for our family. What are your plans for the year ahead, I'd love to know?

P.S. I made the little paper houses just before christmas and was going to use them in a special diplay. Next christmas I'll be sure to get it together nice and early!!

More Fabric Boxes!

I hope you are all having a lovely week, maybe doing a bit of Chrissy shopping.......I haven't even started yet! I know what I've got to get I just need a day to to and get it then hide it so the kids don't get tempted by shaking and poking the parcels!

Well it's the 1st of December and that means it's time to put up your tree! My kids are going to have to wait until next week for that one, the one and only spot left in this tiny house to put the massive tree is currently taken up by boxes of handmade goodies ready for market......they've been really good about it and they understand.


Ok here are some pictures to share......This was a special order I made for a lovely friend of mine.......I was so pleased with how the colours worked out that I made another set ( with handles ) for the market in Gundy on the weekend.

This was the view out my bedroom window the other day while I was stitching away.

So glad it's all finished because the amount of dust they created was a bit much to handle, and I bet they're glad they are finished because of the pending rain which has now arrived.

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the past few days, the rush is nearly over and then things will return to normal.

A huge congratulations goes out to a friend of mine Bridgette who was announced as one of this years Scrapbooking Memories Masters for 2011. Woooohoooo that deserves a drink I think!

Quick Share.

It's F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F Freezing at my house this morning, would you believe two days ago I had the air-con on! Last night I wanted a nice toasty bed to crawl into so I put on my electric blanket for the first time this year, this morning I went looking for some nice big warm slippers only to realise 20 min later that I threw them out last year.....thick socks will have to do for now.

So because it's a bit cold at my house and I'm already on my second coffee ( just another excuse to sit in front of the computer ) and the fact that I'm not going to allow myself to do any stitching of any kind today ( how will I cope ? ) until I have cleaned my neglected house which has traces of a Myth Busters experiment smeared all over the bathroom, front door and laundry.......don't ya love that? I would like to share an experiment of my own.

Did you understand that or was that too much dribble?

So here is the experiment......
I've decided to create a cushion like I would approach a scrapbooking layout ( minus the photo ) I'm not sure if it's going to work or look any good for that matter but I do know I'm liking the colours so far.
If it works out I will share in another post.

I'm going to finish my coffee and procrastinate a little more.......bye for now.

They're coming to get me!!!

Well that's what I thought when I looked out my window this morning and saw this......
Yep men in white suits are coming to get the crazy lady that makes felt food for fun! Then I had a closer look and noticed a truck load of big white boxes........bee hives! Great, now not only do we have to be careful of the big snakes around here but now we have to watch out for the bee swarms!!

Did you get your copy of this months Scrapbook Creations?

I got a text message from Jodi earlier today letting me know that I was in it! I had no idea that it was going to be in this month so it was a real nice surprise to see my article for "Artist in the Spotlight" finally published.

This layout "How Dare You" would have to be my all time favourite layout.

Ryan was a little embarrassed when he saw his picture in the magazine, he thought all his mates were going to see it, then I explained that 9 year old boys don't read Scrapbook Creations! "Yeah but their mother do", he screamed back at me.

Well I gotta say I had a great day even though I woke up to strange men in white suits! How was your day?

See ya later XXX

Almost done!

I've been sorting through my scrapbooking supplies all day having a bit of a clean up.....would you believe two garbage bags full of rubbish and counting. I think I have kept every packet even if it only had one brad in it just so I could tell where it came from.....every scrap bit of paper I did a journalling draught on. I usually clean up after I finish a layout so I don't know how or why I let it get into this condition.
It feels so good to almost have it all done, it's even inspired me to continue my purge throughout the rest of the house.......that is if I can drag myself away from my nice clean and organised scrap area.
Today I am going to share a before and after with you.........this would be most of my buttons ( I found more tucked away in a box after I took this picture ) I can't stand the cluttered mess they all made.

Take a look at how beautiful they are now.....
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do if I need one of those purple buttons on the bottom.......and I know that when my daughter sees this later this afternoon that she won't be able to resist trying to stick her hand in and having a play!

A layout for Ryan

I finally got around to some scrapbooking over the weekend......not quite sure what happened last week because I blinked and it was gone!

Ryan has been at me to do a layout just about him......yes my kids are a little competitive when it comes to having a layout done about themselves, "mine is better than yours" kinda competitiveness.

I know it's been a while since we went to Yamba but I still have pictures to share....so here are some odd little balls made of sand....a tiny crab made them while digging out his hole, very clever little crab.

Here are some shells Megan collected while everyone else tried to catch a fish....except me because I was try to take pictures.

OK, I've got to go I have alot on today......so looking forward to having the whole day to do whatever tomorrow so I think my first task will be to sort through all of my scrapbooking stash.....it is in desperate need of a clean up, then and only then will I allow myself to play with the new goodies that turned up in the mail today!

Thanks for visiting

WARNING !!!

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU GET ALL FREAKED OUT ABOUT BLOOD AND GUTS!!!!
Really I mean it.....this will gross you out but it's all part of what goes on in my life so I thought I'd post about it anyway.
This morning while we were getting ready to go to school Ryan came in all freaked out screaming " Mum there is a chicken hawk caught on the fence", he screamed this repeatedly until I could understand what he was on about. Well the first thing I thought was to grab the camera ( as one does when something a little out of the ordinary happens ) as we walked closer it started to flap around.....I was kinda under the impression that this thing was dead!!! So I sent one of the kids in to get a towel while I took a picture.....when I zoomed in on this bird on my fence I noticed that it wasn't a chicken hawk at all it was an owl!!! I approached as slowly as I could and put the towel over the owl to calm it down and try to untangle it from the fence. Oh it was so freakin gross.....his eye was completely gone and what was left was tangled around the barb on the fence. I tried to get it off the barb and just couldn't, so now it's time to get serious I asked Ryan to get me a sharp knife....he came back with a steak knife which turned out to be useless, so I told him to go and get my craft knife with the very sharp blade.......yes that's right my scrapbooking knife saved the day ( it's now in the bin because I'm too grossed out to use it ). After a quick trip into town we took him to one of our local Vet's hoping that something could be done.....you'll be happy to know that at around 2 pm this afternoon he was still doing OK and if he survives he will end up at a very luxurious local wildlife park........well that's the plan anyhow.
Ryan wanted me to share this with you......he is so proud of himself, note that he turned his red dots into cricket balls.

I have been given another challenge be Marisa, this one is a bit of fun and it'll be interesting to see what other people come up with.

All you have to do is go to your sixth folder in your pictures and select the sixth photo and post it on your blog telling a little bit about the picture......too easy!! Select six other bloggers to pass it on to.

Here is my picture, it's Megan about to tuck into a cupcake she decorated all by herself....it was taken about 11 months ago after we spent the afternoon up to our eyeballs in cupcakes and everything you could buy off the shelf to decorate with.

Jodi

Jacki

Pip

Amanda

Tracey

Marianne

Sorry I didn't link them all, I don't have time as my new favourite show Underbelly is about to start.

Seeya!!

Slack blogger is back!

I know I've been a slack blogger in the past week....sorry about that, I'll try harder to blog on a more regular basis I promise.

I bought these gorgeous 6" x 6" calendar cards from Cut and Paste a while ago and I knew I wanted to do some kind of Year in Review album with them, but I wanted something a little different from the usual kind of layout with a series of pictures taken for that month, I wanted something that had a bit of a mish mash of everything......and which I was able to use up alot of older papers on. I have attempted to do the Year in Review the past few years and never got past January, I really want to get it right this year.......so here is a few little snaps of what I came up with this week (my second attempt, the first one was crap).

There are different sized pages throughout this album.......it all just depended on the subject and the size of the photo I printed........I don't want it to be uniform in style.

I haven't written about every single day of the month......because firstly it would drive me mad and secondly who has the time to do that! I just made up a small card with a small photo and a quick note about some things which I thought were worth writing about.

Some pages have what would be considered a full layout.

You can just see on the edge of this one that there are three rings......that's because this is just a 3 ring binder I bought from the local News Agent.....at the rate I'm going with this it's going to be full by the end of next month but I am still able to transfer all my pages to a larger binder if needed.

The idea is for this to be quick and very simple......so far it's working although I still have to catch up on another 4 very busy weeks.

A few afternoons ago we were hit with a huge storm.....the rumble as it moved across the paddock towards us was amazing.
Megan sketched me a little picture of the both of us earlier.....I'm not sure if I'm meant to have two belly buttons or that my tits are down around my waste. She asked me yesterday if when she grew up is she going to have wrinkly skin like me? What am I supposed to say to that? I know that I'm getting older but having your own daughter draw you with tits around your waste ( which they definitely are not ) and wrinkly skin is kinda depressing.

The lovely and very talented Marisa gave me this award.....this was a nice surprise thanks Marisa for thinking of me.

Here are the steps:

Say one nice thing to the man in your life.

Thanks for cooking dinner while I was buried in my scrapbooking the other night. I think it was meant to be soppy but I didn't want to make you all sick!

• list atleast 6 ways you measure success in your life.

My children's happiness, good health, a beautiful family, the most amazing friends, being loved and being able to love others, I enjoy the simple things in life.

Now the tough part is to choose 5 bloggers which you think "Measure Up".

Jacki

Jodi

Pip

Melissa

Tracey

Hope you all enjoy your award :)

It's hard to believe how cold and wet it has gotten.....cricket was cancelled this morning much to Ryan's disgust, he put on his whites anyway and he is currently trying to make mini muffins while wearing his cricket gloves. I on the other hand love the rain because it meant that we could all sleep in and just listen to the rain.....a rare pleasure!

I love a give away....and guess who has one over at their blog right here right now!!!

Have a good weekend.

Bit of this and that!!

I think I have kept just about every scrapbooking magazine I have ever bought over the last 6 to 7 years.....quite a few boxes of them. I thought it would be a good thing to have a bit of a clean up to free up little more storage around the place, so instead of putting all the magazines in the bin I went through them and cut out anything which caught my eye.....a title, colour combination, technique anything I could use for a little inspiration
Here is one of my everyday pictures......I took this at around 6.15 am on Friday morning while I was hanging out the washing before it got too hot........mother nature painted a beautiful picture across the sky....who would have guessed what fury she was about to unleash upon so many unsuspecting people.

"Sunrise"

Here are a few pics I took of Megan late Friday afternoon....she was about to cool off under the sprinkler......

Watch as a little water is added and she slowly turns into a monster......Check out the eyes it looks like she has rolled them back in her head.......freaky!!!

By now it looks like she is totally mad and about to attack.....and all I did was put the sprinkler on!!

Both Jodi and Marisa tagged me a few days ago so I just wanted to let you both know I haven't forgotten....I'll get to it shortly.

That's all I have for today.

More Layouts

Here are another couple of layouts I'd like to share......You might remember that I won the February Double Up pack from Cut and Paste a few weeks ago, this is what I have come up with so far....I only got the kit on Monday morning so very pleased with the result.

and a little more.........I'm totally in love with this layout at the moment the papers were perfect and those pink and black verb stickers from Heidi Swapp are to die for!!! Seriously they are so yummy I want to use them on everything.

Another layout......this one for Ryan and his Cousin Jake.

"Cool Cousins"

a little closer.....

and a little closer......I love the Jenni Bowlin Calendar Cards, very cute and I also used them for a template to make a few journaling cards out of patterned paper.

I still have some papers left so I should have another layout made from this pack to share with you early next week all going well.......Got alot on in the next few days so scrapping will have to wait.

Here is a look at the complete February Double Up pack go and check it out here.

Here is one of my every day life pictures......Frogs frogs frogs....where are they all coming from, everyday there is a frog be it big or small in the laundry.....this little one was found under the dining table while we were eating breakfast.

"Little Kermit"

Had a power outage for the second night in a row last night....this one went all night and didn't come back on until 6.30 am this morning......If we don't have power that means no water, no air conditioning, no fans, no toilet flush, NOTHING BUT STINKIN' HOT WEATHER ALL NIGHT.....I survived just! I think it would have been cooler if we took our pillows out and tried to sleep on the trampoline....I hope we don't get another tonight.

That's all I have for today.

Nice Surprise.

Got my February issue of Scrapbook Creations today........what a nice surprise I got when I saw these two layouts in it.

"New Shoes"

"Totally too Tweet"

and a bit closer
I have been really busy all week doing something which I'll post about later.....check back for that one. As for the rest of the week.......I have so much on that I'm wondering how I'm going to get it all done........that's what you get for putting important stuff off, and off, and off, til you come to the realisation that it isn't going to do itself and then you have to bust your ass to get it all done on time.....sounds like fun doesn't it!!

I've been checking out a few Scrapbooking Blogs late at night when all is quiet and I'm very excited to see so many beautiful new ranges that were released at CHA last week.......I can't wait for them to make their way to Australia so I can get me some. So if you have a spare five minutes go and have a look you'll like what you see I'm sure.

talk soon

New Layout.

What better way to spend an afternoon when the kids are still at school and all is quiet, I mean really quiet something I haven't had around here for a while.....it felt a little strange for a while but my ears soon adjusted to their peaceful surroundings.

Scrapbooking was on my agenda, I was hoping to use some new goodies which I thought would be in the post this morning but they didn't arrive....maybe next week. So this is what I came up with for the day....only a single layout today because I was determined to finish it before I had to go and get the kids...........and my house plummets into chaos once more....aahhhh the joy of it all.

Here it is a little closer...Here is Ryan and Megan on Wednesday morning ready for their first day of school for 2009.....I can't actually believe they put their arms around each other and smiled.......this doesn't quite feel right and I know it will only be a matter of seconds before it all ends.

I told you it wouldn't last........ and all I said was "smile".
Here is my everyday life picture for the day.......I don't know what it's called but it's chicken stuffed with camembert and marinated in a sauce consisting of honey, soy sauce, BBQ Sauce and wholegrain mustard..........it even got the OK from my husband and our offspring so maybe I'll try it again soon.

"Chicken Dinner"

That's all from me today.....see you soon.