My baby is 10!!

A big happy birthday to my baby boy, he turned 10 today!!
Happy birthday Jayden, love you!!

Got lots of photos but havent had a chance to upload yet, will do that for tomorrow.

A few layouts ive done over the last couple of days for challenges at KSK.







Hope everyone has a Happy and safe new years eve tomorrow night!!

Cheers

Made me think of you....

Deck of Me - week 51
This weeks prompt is: made me think of you.
is there something you see, or hear, or do, that makes you think straight away about somebody special?
As a child I remember my Dad arriving home every night from work, getting changed, getting a cuppa and sitting down on little kiddy chairs with my baby sister to watch Basil Brush. The pair of them would sit their and laugh and laugh, neither of them moving till it had finished.




One more week to go, can you believe I have stuck to something for a whole year!!!
Look forward to seeing what Emily has planned for 2008!

Cheers

Christmas in pictures

Warning!! Lots and lots of photos!
( I really need to learn how to do a collage)

A few nights before christmas we all went for a walk around our streets looking at christmas lights, these are a few of the better ones.









Christmas eve we all sat and watched a movie together, the boys did the standard drinks and food for santa and the reindeer before heading of to bed around 11ish. We waited till they fell asleep then set about wrapping gifts.
This is what the tree looked like after all the wrapping...



Christmas morning and even though I have teens and pre teens they were still awake at 6am! They got to open one gift before we headed of to Southport for breakfast on the beach with Matt and Jenni and a few of heir friends. There was so much food, the weather was awesome and it was so relaxing.

The boys playing on the sand (even Josh!)



Matt and Jenni


Josh and Jenni


We headed back home about 11 with a slight mishap with the car overheating and John's hand getting burnt. A quick trip to the ER and he now has to sport this mickey mouse style hand for a week or two whilst the special burn dressing heals the 2nd degree burns.



Then home for all the pressie opening, the boys were so spoilt with lots of presents as well as money, they were all really excited with what they got.






We had a couple of hours to ousr selves spent lying around relaxing, before we had Deb and Jason call in for a drink, then Vicki and Jim and the kids arrived for dinner (minus Danica she is in Darwin with her mum)

All 9 of us ready to eat


Me and Jess playing elves!


Jess




All in all it was a fantastic day!!

Yesterday we braved the crowds and let the boys go spend their christmas money, it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be.

Hope that you all had a fantastic time with family and friends. Merry christmas from us all here in Sunny Brisbane!!

Cheers

3 More sleeps

and in my house you can tell, the boys are getting so excited, and whats amazing is its not all because Santa is comming, they are all so looking forward to spending christmas morning at the beach with Jenni and Matt. Its been awhile since we saw them both, and must admit im looking forward to a catch up as well. Not to mention the stress free cooking on the beach and not the kitchen lol

Just a few layouts, a couple of them i have had done for awhile and just not got around to posting.

This is a lift I did of Céline Navarro.



These two are a couple for challenges at KSK.




I am getting my hair done this afternoon, it is way overdue for a cut and some colour.

Have a great weekend!!

Cheers

The greatest gift

Deck of me week 50! Wow only 2 weeks left, can you believe it.
The prompt this week was "Greatest gift - you have received or given"
Apart from my family which are my greatest ever gift, seeing my niece being born was one of the most amazing things ive ever seen. But I went with something material for my card.
The photo isnt the best quality, but it is a spun silver bracelet that my mother-in-law gave me that had been in her family for years. It is beautiful and I love it!



This is a layout that i lifted of Adrienne Looman, love her work its so arty and funky and brightly coloured!


Of now to finish the rest of my christmas shopping and get the boys hair cuts.

Cheers

The final week

Last Thursday night Daniel Graduated from Year 7 (primary school in Qld) So proud of him, he looked so grown up. I was proud of me too, I didnt cry!
Here he is with his principal just after he was given his certificate.



Sunday night our christmas tree went up, we have this system where John and Josh put the lights on the tree, then Jay and Dan put all the decorations on (Josh does help sometimes), John andI put the special 'breakable' ones on then I put the Angel on top of the tree. My job whilst the boys decorate is to take photos.
Just a couple of the photos I got...

He really is nearly as tall as the tree!!


Gotta love those elf hats!


The finished tree. The lighting wasnt that great so not a good photo.



Monday morning I woke up with what I thought was just a cold, its turned into a chest and throat infection. Yay just what I wanted this close to christmas...NOT!
The boys have been great though, helping around the house and with looking after the baby.

Update on Katelyn...she is home and doing much better!

Cheers

Stuff tos hare

After 4 hours sleep Friday night then kids fighting (not mine) and the baby really upset and not sleeping I got another 4 hours sleep Sunday night. The good new sis though that Katelyn is home from hospital and her keytone levels are stable again.

Over the last 6 weeks I have been doing some challenges for Enchanted Scrapbooking in the hope of getting onto their design team. The announcement came on Friday and I didnt make it, not to worry.
Wanted to share with you the layouts i did for their challenges.

Challenge 1

A colour scheme - Black, Purple and Yellow.
(you can use other colours but we want
these 3 colours to dominate the layout)

Embellishment: We would like a cut out animal or
creature...
eg: bird or fairy(there can be more than one)
and it doesn't have to be a bird or fairy!!

Photo's: we would like to see some lovely photo clusters.
.. yeap that is right ladies...
more than 4 photos on this layout..



Challenge 2

Use a 'Cooloroo ad for inspiration.



Challenge 3

Use the sample embellishment pack that was sent.



Challenge 4

Use the paper sample pack that was sent.



Challenge 5

So we would like you to Scraplift an Australian Scrapper,
and tell us why you admire their work and wanted to
Scraplift them....

This can be done through the journalling....
or embellishments... or Pattern paper...
But somewhere on the Scraplifted layout you
need to credit their work and say why you
decided to Scraplift them.... .



I chose Lusi Austin to scraplift, the journaling reads...

Australia has so many talented scrapbooker's, you would be hard pressed not to be inspired by one of them. Lusi Austin is someone who's work I admire, her creative work inspires and motivates me to create my own works of art. I love hte way her projects speak to you and show so much feeling. Her layout 'favour, yes or no' inspiresd me to create this one. Thank you Lusi :)

Challenge 6

Use the christmas sample pack that was sent.



Cheers

Prayers

This beautiful little girls got rushed to hospital yesterday and is still in ICU. OUr thoughts and prayers go out to her and her mum and dad. We pray that she recovers quickly.



I had quite a bit planned for this weekend, but now with Katelyn in hospital im am looking after her brother and sisters for Jason and Debbie so they can be with their little girl. Might take them up to the park later.

Got this layout done earlier in the week for the challenge at Everyday Garbage. This time around we had to use 'tickets'.



Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Cheers

Time

How appropriate that this weeks prompt for Deck Of Me is "Time flies". This year has flow by so quickly that its been a bit of a blur, have had good times and some not so good times, but overall I think a reasonable one.
I got sent a heap of photos back from John's mums things not so long ago and in them were photos of Josh and Mat when they were little, they were born 6 mths apart, Josh in Tassie and Mat in Qld, they spent their first christmas together and then in 1995 a year together when Jen and Matt moved to Tassie. Now at 14 they live in the same state and are quiet close. Its amazing to look back at the photos from 1995 and then look at them both now, talking about learning to drive and getting jobs, where did that time go....



Last night was carols night at the primary school, it was such a fun night, got the boys these cute elf hats, they had little candles (battery operated ones) and both sang so well!




John got this photo after we got home!! im so happy that all 3 of them are smiling at the same time!!!


Now that my birthday has been and gone, our christmas tree and decorations will go up at the weekend (a family tradition to wait).
I found this cute little ornament at Myers last week after seeing them on Emily's blog and her gran letting me know where to get them from. Isnt he just so cute and fitting for an Aussie christmas!


Have been madly finishing the gift making (sorry cant share the recipients read my blog) and Im done with the crafted ones! Now just to get laybys of and last minute gifts and im all done!!

Have a great night

Cheers

An Aussie christmas

Christmas in Australia is quite a bit different to the northern parts of the world, with sun not snow being the major one.

For the 123 challenge this month, I had to hand stitch, (the little stars around the photo mat), use different fonts for the title and a christmas photo. Whilst looking through my stash, I found this santa and his sleigh being pulled by kangaroos this made me think of all the different things we do down under, so thats what I did the layout about.



Whilst searching around the net for some aussie christmas images I found some aussie carols thought id share one of them with you...

Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts & thongs

OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE

Engine's getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggy climbs aboard
He is welcome too
All the family is there
Sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbecue!

OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE

Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
Are swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing up

OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE

Cheers

What a week...

Today brings the end of a week that has been not only busy with all the normal christmas festivities and end of year school activities (one more week to go!) but of dealing with things I had hoped that I would never ever have to come across as a mum. Whilst I dont wish to go into detail on a public blog, its been hell here at home the last few days, and im hoping that the rest of the year goes alot more easily and smoothly for us all.

The beautiful Kayleigh is sleeping alot more now and alot more content to lay and play with toys when she isnt sleeping. I will only be looking after her for another two weeks, and whilst I am going to enjoy having my time back, I am going to miss having her here!

I finally got all my christmas cards written out and they are sitting here ready to mail out! Got a couple more gifts to make and then that will just leave getting everything of layby and wrapping it.

Somewhere in between all the chaos of this week I managed to scrap.

Aussie scrapjacked asked us to lift Sarah VanWijck,
This is my version of her layout.



The word over at One Little Word this week was "Live". This is what I came up with.
I have all my OLW layouts in a mini book together and they are all looking so good.



Hoping to get some time to get scrapping commitments done over the weekend, other than that looking forward to our only free weekend until the end of the year.

Cheers

Ideas

Deck of me week 48 - Ideas

don't you love getting a good idea? tell a story! share how (or where) you get ideas, a bad idea you have had...anything to do with an idea!

A nice simple card this week, used a photo of me, The thought bubble is one of the kids stamps ive had for years, Mm letter stickers and the ideas stickers are from a $2 shop.


Aussie sketches challenge was to use the awesome sketch by Claire Bremner.



Planned to get so much done tonight, but instead sat and had coffee and chatted with friends.

Cheers

Counting down the days

Not long now till the jolly man comes, the boys are getting all excited about it, well Jayden is at least, the other two are getting a little older now to enjoy all of the things they used to.

Got a few things made to decorate our place with, this santa made out of felt was so fiddly to put together but doesnt he look so cute. He came in the form of a kit from a $2 shop! the boys love him!



I made an advent calander last year, but thought this year I would make something different, wasnt sure what, thought about the box stle ones then I found this cute pocket style one whilst browsing around the blog world. Check the original out here!





It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air. ~W.T. Ellis


Cheers

Tis the season...

1st December and the start of what is affectionately known as the 'Silly season'

Whilst our tree wont go up today we are starting to get into the swing of things, with lots of end of year parties, christmas carols, graduations etc to go to in the next week or two.

Thought I would share a few of the cards Ive made so far, have a few more to make yet but im getting there.



I got our advent calender made, finished it as 2am this morning!! Havent had a chance to get photos yet, so will share that tomorrow.

December brings a new month of challenges at Scraptastic Southwest, a christmasy feel surrounds us all over there, so drop in and check them all out!
Would like to welcome Natasha to our little team, she will be filling the shoes of recently resigned Lisa (not me) who is expecting a little bubs next year, look forward to working with you :)

My challenge this month is all about journaling your christmas traditions, and this is the mini album that I did for it.








Have a great weekend and enjoy putting up those trees and chrissy decorations for those that do!

Cheers