And finally she scraps!

My poor scrap desk has been lonely lately - I even found dust on it! So I organised myself and found time to scrap.

And cause it wasn't much time the latest Kiwi Jack was the perfect thing - I didn't have to come up with an original idea, just borrow one from the amazing Christi.
And it was such a gorgeous layout to jack from. There's lots I've copied straight from her layout - including the title. I'd bought this gorgeous piece of Cherry Arte flower paper and the Urban Lily rubons a few weeks ago. It was one of those - "I have no reason to buy these but they are really cool and I want them" moments. So it's cool I actually did use them!

The photo is of Gracie in her English backyard. Obviously English grass grows as fast as Kiwi grass and my brother hasn't gotten any better at mowing it!

And then last night I went to put away the scraps from that layout and thought - 'scraps' that would be the NZ Dare for the fortnight. So I came up with this:




All scraps that I hadn't actually put away yet. I couldn't get the rubon's back in their packet anyway so it was kinda convenient to use them all up! LOL

In other news:

Rebekah now knows what a blood test feels like. I couldn't believe how calm she was when she sat in the seat and waited - then I realised that I hadn't actually explained to her that they were about to put a needle in her arm and it would hurt! She was brave though and now we wait for the results - to see if there's a medical reason for why she's tired and can't concentrate.

Alexander did his six year net test at school. (A test all kiwi six year olds do to assess reading and writing.) He jumped up a whole 12 reading levels! I knew he was really catching on to this whole reading business - he keeps knowing stuff he could only know if he had read it. Unfortunately his first year teacher hadn't kept up with his enthusiasm and had him reading books that were way to easy.

OK - Jessi is playing at Charlize's house and it's a beautiful, fine day ... I'm off for a walk.

Kelly's entry in my CJ ...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Maryanne Williamson, used by Nelson Mandela in his '94 inaugural speech.

I so needed to read that - in fact the same message has been coming at me from other sources too. You'd think I'd have 'got' it by now, yet still I find myself hiding that light, keeping it all to myself. I'll work on it ...


And cause all good blog posts need pics to look at:
I've been playing with old photos a bit lately. I scanned a few of Grandma's pics. Check out those cute kids! Especially the blond one that kinda looks like Jessi.



And here's Grandma with a different generation of cousins 30 years later - ie. 2 weeks ago!

The Quotes CJ

Here it is - I think I worked out how to make a slide show!

I'm so pleased with it, each and every page is awesome. And such a neat keepsake created by my friends at Scrapbook Essentials ... and useful too - the quotes are great. So thanks everyone who completed a page - you are fantastic.

Another lot of candles puffed out.

Well, I now have a six year old boy in the house.

Happy Birthday Alexander.

Not the best 'scrapworthy' shot of him but hey ... this is real, this is how it happened and this is how it will be remembered. Atleast I mananged to get him to change his shirt before the party. I hadn't planned on face painting being offered and the cake looks a bit weird - but it was what he wanted and he thought it was just perfect. (It's an omnitrix from Ben 10 - in case you didn't know!)

Thanks for all your comments about my kit work. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that other people might like my stuff. So often I look at it and see all the imperfections and 'should'ves' and if only's ... and then you lot say nice stuff and I think maybe it's o.k after all. I enjoy creating and if it looks good to others then that's great too. I should just relax and be more positive.

Kelly (memoryfairy) wrote the best quote for me in my circle journal. Will copy it out here when I next get a chance and you can all benefit from it's wisdom. Must take photos of it too ....

I need more hours in the day!

Beautiful Day

The sun is shining here in Wellington and with the zoo offering $2 entry we've just spent the day at the zoo.


Kit Work
Our work is up at Scrapbook Essentials using the August kit. Lots of black and white and red. Out of one kit I've got four completely different looks, such a fun kit to work with.

A nice cheesy photo of Alexander and Me. Journaling is about how big he's getting. Angela sent me the glitter letters from Singapore last year - they've been waiting for this layout.

I really enjoyed using the tulle ribbon stuff - had to buy more actually. Here I've tied bits through some lace and then added lots of other shiny bits from the kit to make a border.


This is Angela and Grace at Pemberley - straight out of the pages of Pride and Prejudice - well, actually off the movie! Wish I was there too.


I haven't really done a lot of heritage type layouts, but the papers in the kit were just perfect for this. The photo is of my Grandma and her sister and friend. I love how in captures so much of who she was in just one single shot. The black script paper is Scenic Route I think.


This one was in the kit with instructions. I had to hide my journaling cause I didn't want it cluttering up the clean layout.


I loved these Jenni Bowlin frames but didn't quite get them on a layout, so I made them into frames which I can stand on my desk. Photos of my Nana and Grandad are very hard to come by, this one was taken at my parents wedding - they look a lot older now!


Alexander's party invites. These were a bit of a compromise really - I wanted to make something - he wanted to use the McD's fill in the gaps invite and also give his friends a picture he'd printed out. So I made these envelope thingys, wrapped the print out around the McD's invite and popped them in. He was happy, I was happy - done!

The week two layouts from the Ultimate Scrapbooker Comp are also up in the gallery. Some very amazing work there. I've just spent ages trying to pick out my favs - wish Meg would let me pick 52! The next challenge is to use no photo - should be interesting.

Broken

I got an e-mail from my sister this week - "What's up with your blog? It doesn't seem to have been updated recently..." Ah yes, it must be broken!

Just like the dishwasher broke, and the washing machine broke and so did the overlocker. Isn't it weird how everything likes to break at the same time? Only my blog isn't really broken - just neglected. I've been busy - doing stuff. (And reading Harry Potter - I've finished it now though)

And life is busy but not exciting busy and I had no pics to show so it didn't seem like I had anything worth updating my blog with.

But then it occured to me that even though I can't show you the layouts I've just completed, I can put up sneak peeks. So these are a couple of little parts of what's been keeping me busy. And no, these are not sneak peeks of my August Kit work - they are still to come ... I'd better go get busy!

Are you Scrapbookings Ultimate Champion?

There's a new comp up at Scrapbook Essentials. Fancy seeing yourself as an ultimate champion? Read up on the prizes/rules and other essential info here and then sign up here. There's already quite a list of names so it's shaping up to be an exciting competition.

Wish I could enter too - only I guess that wouldn't be fair seeing as I'm part of the judging team. :o) On that note all bribes of jellybeans will be accepted here! LOL

In other news ... did you notice how it was a beautiful blue sky, sun shiny day? Gotta love the sun, it makes life so much more enjoyable. For the first time in ages I managed to hang out a load of washing and it dried all by itself without needing the dryer at all! And I went for a big long walk in the sun while Jessi was at kindy.

It's been a good day.

Finally

...after saving up my hard earned coins, I took home from the shop my very own copy of Nic Howard's book.

This was a momentous moment in my life yesterday. I took that baby home and planned to read it all -cover to cover- right away. I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat for maybe 15mins trying to take it all in and fend off the kids who wanted my attention, while instructing Michael on the proceedings for preparing dinner.

Then reality took over and I realised that if we wanted to eat dinner at a reasonable hour I'd better get in the kitchen and do something about it. So I cooked dinner, did the dishes - our dishwasher broke, pulled the curtains ... you know - did what had to be done.

Then I walk into the lounge and find this:

I think he was studying the dishwasher 101 layout, or maybe he was impressed with the size of Nic's letterbox - whatever it was, the book is obviously just as amazing as I knew it would be.

Now let me get a cup of coffee and enjoy it!

Just wanted to say ...

...thanks - for all the comments left about the princess layout. :o)

And to share some photos from today.

All three of them looking at the camera at the same time!





It doesn't happen very often that the light is good and the kids are good too! Ok so Jessi was having a little grump there but she got over it.

This is a loaded layout.

Lets see if I can remember everything:

Firstly this is my kiwi jack layout. A lift off the lovely Roo.



I had to use the crown thing, I cut round my photo and even scrounged up some note paper from the kids stuff - couldn't do much about the words at the top of the note paper - except choose the pink or the blue words ... just as well they both matched the layout!

Secondly I also did this layout because Tam over at Scrap of Faith issued a Sunday challenge to do a layout using three of her favourite things - the colour teal, a bird and hand stitching. The deadline was Monday evening - so it's thanks to that challenge that I got this completed so quickly. And hence the reason why the bird replaces the flower in the whole 'jack' scheme of things.

And thirdly this layout - being a layout of myself - is a rather late attempt at the whole 'scrap a layout of yourself with the word beautiful in the title' thing. Ann kindly cut the beautiful word for me using her cricut. I've had it sitting on my desk for ages - waiting for 'this' layout.

And the topic - the princess thing - it's a God thing. It's kind of a popular Christian topic at the moment. You can buy t-shirts that say 'I am a princess - my father's the King' Not sure if you can read the journaling - but it say's that I don't always feel like a princess - in fact right now I feel (and look) rather like a frumpy mummy but it's about knowing that I am because God says so.

Oh and a couple of other things - note the flowers on the pink background - lifted from one of Neens dt layouts, using the heidi swapp mask and the white ink. And I also borrowed an idea from Jo - inking the embossed Elsie paper so that the patterns stand out more.

When I took a photo of this layout on Monday to post in the scrap of faith gallery it looked slightly different. I decided after I'd taken the photo that I wasn't quite finished and it needed a bit more! So this is a slightly different version. There is one other little detail that I'd like to add - but I'll have to buy one first - and that is to add a tiny little crown to the 'e' in princess. Maybe a metal one like Meg had in one of the previous SE kits - or maybe a bling one ... I don't know ...

So there you have it - one very loaded layout!

Spare a thought for Reef

You may have heard on the news over the weekend about this train crash. As it happens, the little girl who lost her parents was in Alexanders class at school.

Reef is such a sweet little girl and it's so sad to think she lost both her parents in such a horrible way. I didn't know them well. But I stood outside that classroom alongside her mother each day. We spoke briefly about the weather and stuff and shared the same look of motherly concern when our children were kept on the mat a little longer ... because they'd been talking too much.

It's another reminder that in an instant something could happen that will change life forever. Another reminder that life does not go on forever. The big plans we make now for our future may never happen. The small concerns of day to day living don't mean a lot when looked at from the big picture.

What will Reef remember of her parents? I hope she has lots of memories of quality time spent with them doing stuff that made her feel loved and accepted in this world.

What would my kids remember if I was to suddenly be taken from them? Would they remember the constant nagging to hurry up and get ready for school? Would they remember that I was too busy folding washing to play hide and seek today? Would they remember that I cooked a nutritionally balanced meal for dinner?

It kinda makes you question what is important in life. What good memories are my kids building about life? Where are my priorities? What do I spend the most time doing?

Just a few things I've been thinking about. As for Reef - I'm sure she could use a few kind thoughts and prayers right now.

Thanks also for all your kind comments about my recent layouts. It is really nice to receive positive comments. I still haven't taken a good picture of the kiwijack layout - it's a rather grey and dismal day in Wellington today. Right - gotta go do pilates before going back to kindy.

Design Team Stuff

Well, 'A Sassy Lass Called Elsie' was an awesome kit to work with. I loved the combination of Sassafrasslass papers with Elsie papers. Check out all the other dt girls work here.

My favourite layout for the moment would be this one:


It's refreshing to have all that space around the edges. When I took photos of Dad in the hospital Mum said they better not end up on the internet or in a magazine or something. But I think this one would be o.k. For those of you who don't know ... Dad came off his motorbike on the farm and had serious head injuries. He spent two months in hospital but is now at home - still recovering but very much alive.



This one I started scrapping with the big photo and then remembered that I had some photos of a younger Jessi in exactly the same spot. The frame around the smaller photo is a Zina Wright stamp which I doodled onto acetate.



Just playing with the lined paper in this one.



And the torso. This is actually a Wendy Redshaw-Bruhns design from Freestyle 07. The girls at Rebekah's birthday party did a very simple version and all the time they were doing it I was thinking - 'that paint colour would go so well with the sassfrasslass paper from the kit.' So I took one home to dress up in Sassa style.

And I'm still going with the kit. I've just finished my take on the new Kiwi Jack - lifting a layout by Ruth Cahill. But I'll wait till tomorrow to take a pic of it and put it up here.

Wow at how fast Hannah was on that Jack. Hers looks awesome and I loved how she explained all the thinking and reasoning behind the layout. I should do more of that ...

Right, off to bed - in hope that I can then get up at a suitable time for getting the kids up and dressed and fed and ready for school - before 9am!

It's the 14th already.

I'm honestly not quite sure how it got to be the 14th already. Time flies when you're having fun - or busy or something I guess.

I only have a couple of sneaky peeks before my design team work goes up at Scrapbook Essentials. To be honest that's all I've done - two things. I have another layout sitting on my desk half finished and loads of ideas floating around in my head for more. It's incredibly frustrating to have such a lovely box of goodies to play with and yet not enough time to play.

I think I'm ready for school to go back and my nice little routines to return.

It's party time.

Eight years ago, today, after waiting what seemed like forever - and then another 10 days, I walked into hospital expecting my life to change forever. Eight years ago, it did change - I became a mother for the first time.

And now she is 8. I haven't got any cute baby pics to show you - that was before we went digital. But I can show you a few from today.




The Cake.



The candles.




The naked torsos.



Choosing the papers.



Dressing the models.




The finished project.




The party bags.

I'm baaaaaack.

Two and a half days spent in bed .... mostly.

Venturing as far as the kitchen every so often and then the computer - so I could sit down and rest!

On Saturday I announced to the kids when they came running into the bedroom screaming 'Muuuuuuuuummmmmmmm' ... 'There is no Mum in this house today - only a sick lady who wants to go back to sleep!'

Today I'm feeling good.

Today my three kids went to a friends house for the day, while I spent the day at Kiwiscraps - teaching 22 other kids the fine art of beginning scrapbooking.

Today I went to weight-watchers and lost 1.8kgs! (That's what happens when you spend a few days with a cold and don't eat like usual.)

Today I have started preparing for Rebekah's birthday on Wednesday. (Actually stressing slightly cause she has no presents to open cause I haven't bought any yet!)

Today I might just finish the layout that's been sitting on my desk all week - waiting for me to get better.

Today I can think of some happy things to write in the blue day c.j. (Which I have until Monday by the way Janine - so you can have a look through sometime before then maybe?)

Tomorrow (cause that comes after today) we have some people coming to put insulation under our house and in the roof space. Did you know how much stuff we have in storage under our house and in the roof? There's lots and lots and it all had to be moved in preparation - so the kids are playing with christmas decorations and suitcases.

And just for a second, when I saw the baby's bassinet ... I remembered what it was like to have a teeny tiny baby in the house. And then Jessi hit Alexander with the giant candy cane and there was screaming and yelling and no, there will be no more babies in this house!

A Blue Day

Look what arrived today:

Does it look familiar Nan Jules? I'm guessing it's a lot fatter than it was when it left your house earlier in the year.

I'm having a kinda blue day today myself so it was quite timely to get this and have a little flick through. It makes interesting reading to see what makes everyone happy. As to what makes me happy ... I think I'm gonna have to think about it for a little while - I'm sure I'll find something soon!

Off the page...

...and out of the box.

There's this blog I found dedicated to off the page scrapbooking stuff. It's called More than just scrapbooking - a good name really! It has heaps of really good inspiration if you want to step out of your 12x12 square and do something different.

Even better - Jacqui is offering a free on-line class to make a very cool looking felt book. You have to register your interest and then she'll send you a list of products required. Definitely a blog to keep an eye on!

More Layouts

So the layouts I did for Scrap of Faith over the weekend...



This was for Sal's challenge. We had to get someone at home to choose the topic - or if everyone was asleep someone at the crop could choose. The kids were asleep and Michael was out so Lara suggested 'Joy'. It had to include a Bible verse and use a non traditional scrapping item - like felt. And cause I wanted to get it done quickly ... I went back to Nic's sketch from the Paparazzi layout I'd only just finished. Hey - it's a good sketch when you've got three photos to work with!


This one was for Lara's challenge. She wanted us to use the word create/creation/creator in a layout and also use atleast one Bible verse.

And now - I'm working on a c.j with Elsie papers of course! And Rebekah's birthday invites might just see a bit of Elsie too!

It's been a scrappy weekend.

My new Elsie stuff has really got me going. I've done three layouts this weekend ... and considering how slow I am at scrapping that's lots.


The first was for a Nic Howard sketch comp over at Scrapbook Outlet to celebrate the release of her book 'That's Life.'

This is what happens when you (or rather I) mix Elsie and Nic!

I also did a couple of challenges for the Scrap of Faith Crop on Saturday night, but I'll have to share those later - it's time to brave the cold and wet and go get the kids from school and kindy.

I love Elsie...

... and Jack Me Up.

I finally found the time to finish off this layout for the Kiwi Jack Me Up blog.

Click the link above to see Vicky's awesome layout which was the inspiration for mine. When I saw it, I knew straight away that it was a perfect excuse to go get me some Elsie stuff!

These are Jessi's new church clothes - I love having the excuse to dress the girls up nice atleast once a week. I bought the matching hat, but for some reason she has decided she doesn't want to wear it - she's usually a real hat kid.

I love the scrapbooking inspiration that comes from kids clothes only trouble is I lack the discipline to only window shop ... if I go in I'm bound to find something I 'need' to buy for one of the kids.

My Scrapbook Essential's kit just arrived this morning ... have you seen what's in it yet? Click the link if you haven't and make sure you order early cause, in my opinion, this is one you won't want to miss. Sassafrass Lass stuff mixed with Elsie Stuff - yep I'm going to have a fun scrapbooking month!

You know what ... I think my mojo has returned, I'm feeling that excitement again, gotta scrap - now!