ONLY 2 MORE SLEEPS!!!!

till Santa comes!!!! Our Christmas plans have been up in the air all week, one minute we are going away, next we aren't....NOW WE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole of Queensland is fairly saturated with rain at the moment and all roads around us are closed but if we get going today, we hopefully might make it down to spend Christmas with Brad's family! It will be a VERY long car trip, we have to go across to Rocky and go all the way down the coast!!!!!

Anyway, we are looking forward to getting away, even if its long and wet!

So I want to take a moment and wish you all a very MERRY AND HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! Stay safe and enjoy every moment! Thank you all for being here for me this year and all your lovely comments.  It has really helped me, more than you will ever know.

See you in 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xo

Happy Friday !!!

Well didn't that week fly by!!! Hope you all have had a great week.  Just popping up quickly my LO for Stuck?! Sketches! - 1st December.

Sketch:

My take:  Once I saw the circles on the sketch I knew I wanted to mask a circle to make it appear like what I captured thru the lense (does that make sense??!!)

(Adventure)

Purple Pumpkin button and the beautiful Oprah Winfrey quote which I found in a book the other day. (The biggest ADVENTURE you can ever take is to LIVE the LIFE of your DREAMS).

Hope you all have a lovely weekend :)
Thanks for stopping by!
xo

GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Go and check out this blog as there is a very generous giveaway on Peta's blog.

The Colour Room

Hi there everyone,

I haven't joined in at the Colour Room for ages and last week I thought...yep going to do it! And guess what....we got a doozer of a colour palette to play with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ARRRRRHHHH!!!!!! But I set myself the challenge to get it done.

Here is the Palette....its a hard one!!!

But after much thought, I came up with this.....
I curled the corners as I wanted to get the effect of Finlay sliding down the slippery slide.  I am happy how this turned out.

Some closeups....my cute little Prima flower & pebble as well as a Such Sweet Tierney button.

Oh and my little Prima butterfly!

I am looking after my nephew today, so 3 boys in the house makes for one interesting day!  I am expecting my Dad & Mum here tonight for dinner.  They are up for a week! Can't wait!!

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments I really do appreciate them!
xo

Christmas Photos

Hello everyone,
Hope you had a lovely weekend! Well my attempt at getting some Christmas photos of the boys sort of failed.  What I had in mind to do ages ago was ruined because of all the rain we have had!! Oh well there is always next year!! Tthe sand flies are so bad at the moment, that any sort of spray we had on was not stopping them from biting, so I took a few hurried photos that I thought I would share.  Maybe next weekend I will have another go!

Here is just a few....

My two munchkins!

Riley not so sure about these lollipop things!

Finlay...I don't really want to do this, would rather be running around!

awww...love these ones!!

Yep...Finlay was not impressed about the mossies!!! Riley was more interested in trying out his lolly!!

Hopefully I will get some more!
Thanks for stopping by, will have some more scrapping to share tomorrow hopefully!
xo

Flowers....

anyone who knows me, will know that I LOVE flowers.  When I first got married I just loved when we bought our first house, that Brad and I created some beautiful gardens.  Then the drought came and so did water restrictions and so did children...lol!! so there went all my dreams of having beautiful flowers that I could hand pick and fill my house with! Anyway...one day I will get back into it again, when we buy our own place in Emerald, cause there is no water restrictions up here!!!!!!!!

So even tho I have two little boys, I am never afraid to add a flower to a scrappy project/layout.  In fact most times I do....I have a little passion for Prima flowers of late...but who doesn't!

Show us your Stuff is a new challenge blog that has been created to show off your handmade embellishments. The 1st challenge went up at the beginning of this month and we had a sketch provided along with extra criteria to use FLOWERS. Other than that you have to somewhere in your LO include a handmade embellishment.  And no, it doesn't have to be handmade by you.

So here is the sketch.....

And here is my take:

(I just ADORE your dimple)

Okay so my hand made embellishments include buttons from Sweet Tierney and then my handmade flower which is underneath a Prima flower. Riley has the most cutest chin dimple ( he can thank me for that!!) but I am sure he may not think so when he gets older.  I think it will make shaving really hard!!!

Hope you are having a lovely Friday and have a super duper weekend!
Thanks for popping by :)
xo

Get Picky....

Hello everyone,

Thank you to all the lovely ladies that left me messages yesterday.  Life sure is hard when you have a sick little one and your overtired yourself, but somehow we get thru hey, and sometimes its hearing from others that just brighten up our day :)!  Well Finlay is still sick, mainly at night, as all you mummy's would know, it's so much worse at night.  Poor little man, he is just miserable!

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked from the reason of my post.  I loved this month's inspiration challenge at GET PICKY. I found there was so much to be inspired by this picture.  I will list a few things so you get the idea where I came up with my ideas. (does that make sense...I never know these days...lol!!)

Here is the picture.

Here is my LO (apologies for the bad photo.  The weather is so overcast here today :(!!)

(always BE STRONG for each other)

I took inspiration from the gorgeous colours in this room.  The placement of the chair for my photos and the chest of drawers for my journaling.  I LOVED the black lantern (I think thats what it is) on top of the chest of drawers and immediately I knew I wanted to use my Twiddlybitz Nero Wrought Iron Chipboard.  But mostly the word STRONG stood out to me as it was the only word in bold.  I wanted that to be my focus point on my layout and journal about how important it is to be strong for each other in life.

I came to understand how important this is as just in my early 20's my mother was diagnosed with aggressive uterine cancer.  It was something that as all people that receive news like this, was a terrible shock and it took a lot of courage to be so STRONG for my mum especially when she had no strength of her own to even speak.  I won't go on with all the details but that is something I want to pass on to my children, is that there will be in life times that will be hard, things will go wrong but if we can learn to lean on each other and be strong for each other, it makes the hard times that much more easier.  Does this even makes sense....oh well I think you get the picture.

Anyway, that is just a few things that inspired me to create this LO. But over all I just LOVED the Audry Hepburn quote...so much to think about.

Here are a few close up's.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope you are having a great day :)

xo

I'm still HERE....!!!

just, tho...lol!!! I know its only Wednesday but it sure feels like it should be the end of the week!!! So much has been happening here lately I not sure who I am or where I am some days! Do you ever feel like that?

We have had massive amounts of rain which has caused flooding and our little country town to be isolated from the rest of the state, Brad was stranded in floodwaters last Friday, power has been off and on. I have had Kindy interviews for Riley, our house in Brisbane settles this week, so I have been tooing and froing between banks and solicitors and our real estate, I have nursed my baby every night since Sunday night all night and been at the hospital for a couple of hours last night...he is sick with Croup!!!  Its been so stinking HOT here during the day that because I being up at night I have had zilch energy to do anything housework related...okay that's not true, I have been busy catching up on washing and ironing and doing some baking.  Oh this is probably nothing compared to you other busy mums but this is just a little of what's been happening in my household since the last I posted.


SO HAVE I BEEN SCRAPPING????



YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Some I can share, some I can't.  Here is a just because LO.  I am going thru a but of a faze at the moment and I love to scrounge thru my stash and look at ways I can use older products.  I have had this diecut paper for AGES and always thought it looked a bit busy so I chopped it in half and joined it together and smeared white paint over the cardstock to tone down the colours.  I LOVE how this turned out.

Using a few products there, the chipboard buttons and fabric flower thing from the Chip Chop Shop.

Must keep going and attend to my sick little boy.  He needs lots of cuddles today and is VERY tired! 

If none of this makes sense or I have made any mistakes....mummy is tired too...my brain is a little fuzzy today...lol!! Apologies :)

xo

December Challenges....

Hi everyone,
Just quickly popping up  the December challenges for White With 1 and Kraft It Up.

Details for White With 1 are :

WHITE + GREY and MASKING.

Details for Kraft It Up are:

This month your challenge is to scrap a CHRISTMAS PHOTO using NON TRADITIONAL COLOURS and you also need to incorporate KNOTS on your layout, whether it is with ribbon, fabric, twine, lace etc...

Look forward to seeing your entry.
xo

Last Minute...

Nothing like leaving it until last minute!!! I have been waiting for ages now for the sun to appear to take photos of these LO's....so I am sorry the quality is just not there.  We have had dull weather now for weeks (well it seems like it.. lol!!)

Scrap the Boys November 15th Challenge - was to use chipboard on your LO. Using some Buzz and Bloom border chippy which I painted with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze (Indian Summer).  Love how it comes out nice a shiny. Photo of my boys with their cousin, taken by Felicity Wilson, during our Easter Holiday 2010.

(Three Little Monkeys)

Next up, I decided to play along at A2Z Scraplets November sketch challenge.  You didn't have to use their chipboard to enter, but seeing as tho I have heaps, I decided to incorporate into my LO.  I have had this little chippy since Riley was born so I was excited to finally be able to use it!!

(Ride Em Cowboy) 

Again I painted the chipboard with some Glimmer Glaze and doodled around the outside to give it some definition.

The other LO I had was a "just because" LO so I will wait until the sun comes out to show you that one. It just keeps showering here.  After being away last week, the boys are super keen to spend sometime outside but keep getting interrupted by the rain.  So instead, this morning we had a "pretend birthday party"! We got out balloons, party hats and some mini cup cakes for morning tea, sang happy birthday to each other (lol!!) and pretended to have a little party...they loved it! Something different to do on these rainy days.

xo

Little Bits of Pretty

Lea has launched a blog called 'Little Bits of Pretty' ..
and is selling the most gorgeous little kits full of vintage bits and pieces.

100% of the sales are denoted to Westmead Hospital. How GENEROUS is that!!!!!


To celebrate the launch...
Lea is having a giveaway on her blog ....
You can win this yummy kit....

To read all about it.....and to enter...
check it out HERE.

xo

OK...

I know its been a week since I have blogged but I have been away.  If the sun decides to come out I have 3 LO's I did before I went away that I need to get up before tomorrow.  In the mean time, we have had a huge cloud burst... I was attending to my boys and never got my washing off in time... :(  oh well...

Hopefully I will be back soon.
xo

3 Amigos....

Hello everyone,
Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  It certainly was a wet one for us! Perfect weather for scrapping hey!  Here is my take on the Stuck?! Sketches! November 15th challenge.

Sketch:

(3 Amigos) 

Using the gorgeous Hambly woodgrain screeprint as the background.  It took me ages to work out how to use it! and bits and pieces from My Minds Eye, Fine and Dandy collection.

Thanks for visiting :)
xo

IT'S ONLY......

10 days till the end of the month!!!!!!!

So that means only 10 more days for you to upload your KIU challenge and WW1 challenge.

Kraft It UP - Decorative edges (see here for more details).

White With 1 - White with Yellow - Journall direct onto your paper/cardstock (see here for more details).

Look forward to seeing YOUR layout soon :)

xo

Mini Album

Last month I really struggled to "love" anything I did, so last week I thought I would do something totally different (ie not a LO for any challenge or anything).  Last year I did a little mini album on Finlay's 1st year, just highlighting a few milestones of things he loved and did each month.  I always wanted to do one for Riley as well, so I pulled out all my stash of bits and pieces (great way to use some of it up) and created this little mini album for Riley's 1st Year.  I love it (hope you do to!)...Finlay's is a fabric album so I decided for Riley's I would do some inking, distressing and sanding just to give it a different feel and look. It was so cute to look back on his baby photos and to read his journal book that I kept of what he did and see the similarities between Riley and Finlay. 

You will spy bits and pieces from Purple Pumpkin in there too :)

Sorry it was very hard to photograph, cause like everything I do, its lumpy and bumpy and doesn't sit really flat, but I am sure you will get the picture.

My hubby has the day at home today!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!! Apparently its too wet for him to be working out at the mines today...suits me! So my plan of a nothing day is turning into "get a few jobs done" hehehe...with a promise (weather permitting) to take the boys out to the dam this afternoon.

Thanks for visiting and for taking the time to leave a comment.  :)
Happy Friday!!
xo

Get Picky

Just loving all the challenges at Get Picky....I find their sketches are a great source of inspiration!

(A Walk in the Park)

Using a mixture of Echo Park (Walk in the Park) and My Mind Eye (Fine and Dandy). These photos are of my boys taking a walk thru the Botantic Gardens here in Emerald.  

Well its wet, wet, wet, here again today....will have to go an organise some indoor activities for the boys.  Me....I have the perfect indoor activity to do!

Thanks for your comments and have a great day :)

xo

Creative Scrappers

Hi everyone,

I went on a little blog hopping journey yesterday and decided to pay Creative Scrappers a little visit....what did I find.....???? I found this amazing sketch!!

(Mama's Little Boy) 

A Purple Pumpkin button....

Bits and pieces used there.  The background paper and the chippy title are from the new Fine and Dandy range that My Minds Eye have brought out.  Love it!

Thanks for checking in!
xo

Out of the Hat

Hello everyone,

I have been a terrible blogger this last week but not due to lack of creativity...just due to....well life!! Life has a way of getting in the road of my hobby (lol!!) but today I have made some time to share with you my layout for this months challenge at Out of the Hat.  Loved last months so much I thought I would join in again seeing as tho the criteria was so "me".

* Cardboard
* Painted background
* String

My take:

(Know that you are always Loved)

I used Gesso as my background paint....love using Gesso, it gives it a nice strong finish.  Otherwise just using up some bits and pieces from my ever growing stash!  See that cute little bike charm...it came in my pack from My2Angels...my win at Scrap the Boys a few months ago!

Thinking of my Grandma today....her sister passed away last night.  Wish I could go and see her and give her a hug. I know she would be feeling it without my Grandad there beside her.

Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments...love them all ! :)
xo