Quick Friday Update

If you love Elsie, you might want to pop over to SnB and check this kit out! It is just yummo for girls/ladies and the glitter thickers is delish!! I did two layouts made up mostly of this kit goodies, and even though I have never been an Elsie fan, I do like my layouts :)




I am so glad it is friday!!! WOOOHOOOO!

I am still pondering about going to a crop this sunday, my house is in desperate need of TLC, I am feeling cluttered and disaster, but it is so bad that I'm not too sure where to start and my main problem is WHERE to sort the goodies to. I have layouts piled up miles high that needs organising. Bits and pieces from the few store goodies left to sort into my drawers and chucking out the boxes and then just general organising of things that add up such as mail/books/magazines.

So we will see.

I am tired tonight as Katie decided that 4:30 am is a perfectly normal time to get up arrrrgggghhh. And here I thought that 5:30am is CRAZY.

If you have a few minutes and are after some inspiration, makes sure you have a good read through Trunk Times. The newest newsletter is out and yumm!!!

have a gorgeous weekend everyone!

xxx Jolene

Ouchie!

Katie's little arm got hurt yesterday. I didn't think that she did anything funny to it, but she couldn't move it at all and we had lots of tears from her yesterday and during the night. She is normally such a brave girl with falls that when she does actually cry after getting hurt, we know it is REALLY bad, so we were really worried. She couldn't move it and couldn't support her body to get up off the couch or roll over in bed.

So I took the day off work to get it sorted, lucky I did as one of her bones in her elbow popped out of place OUCH!!!!

It was easy to fix, the doctor just wiggled it back in place and he didn't seem to cause much more pain. We walked out of the doctors office with Katie swinging her arm and wearing a BIG smile on her face. She has been using her arm ever since with NO probs and NO complaints.

I'm not always a big fan of doctors, but am totally grateful for the quick 5 min visit to our doctor today


On the scrapping front, I taught this layout yesterday at Scrapbook 'n' Bits to celebrate Mothersday. Nice blue and browns so that it is just that touch more gender neutral than my normal pink style :)

This is a photo of Katie and me last year on Mothersday. can you believe we didn't even take a photo this year ON mothersday, I never even thought about it doh! Lucky I got those gorgeous shots in the previous post the day before Mothersday, so they will now become my Mothersday 08 photos


So using one of these pre-mothersday photos, and some yummy papers from Scrapbook 'n' Bits.
They also make their very own paper flowers, and they are SOOOOOO cheap!! So have used some of thsoe on here too :)


Photo of Katie pulling my shirt down in fear of the noise of the water wall feature behind us. She is totally afraid of anything noise, I can't vacuum/blow my hair or use the electrical mixer in the kitchen without having someone else around for her to cling to for dear life. I thought she would grow out of it, but nope not yet.


Hope you are all having a gorgeous week!!!


xxxx

Loads to share today :)

HAPPY MOTHERSDAY TO ALL THE MUMS OUT THERE!!!


First off, thanks so very very much to Jennifer for awarding my blog with the

Arte y Pico Award

Here are the rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.

4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

So here are the 5 blogs I am giving this award to:

* Nic Howard - My all time favourite scrapper, just love what she can do with paper and layers!!

* Karen Day - I admire her braveness to experiment and create new awesome fun techniques that we can use!

* Anne Jo Lexander - I totally adore her colour combo's and her distressing and scrunging abilities rocks!

* Liz Weber - I totally envy all rounder scrappers, people who can scrap, create cards and also do up awesome sketches! Tonnes of talents this girlie.

* Nicole Heady - I get totally and awesomely inspired by this girls' awesome tutorials!!! Such awesome fun and easy ideas!

More and more photos :) These were all taken yesterday, I know they aren't perfect and I of course had an awesome time editing them in photoshop, but I love all them for various reasons!

Me and Katie in front of a water wall feature. It is a bit noisy so Katie was a bit scared of it, which is why she is pulling down my shirt haha. Just loving the light and background in this one :)

Same place, just a slightly different angle, love the way Leon has his arms wrapped right around her to protect her from the 'evil' noisy waterfall haha. Love his facial expression too!


Just couldn't resist using the pathway as a leadin for the eye, just had to use the free Totally Rad action here to dreamify it up a bit :) Think I kicked out a few layers, and fixed up the opacity of the desatured one to suit a bitter better :)


Just totally couldn't resist this awesome wall background. Loving that a I'm picking up interesting features to photograph against instead of just the same old same old :)
(can you all see I'm loosing a bit of weight? hehe, another 0.5kg down this week woohooo )


More action magic on this one :) Me and Katie blowing kisses to Daddy, trying to get her to look at him, but nope, didn't work, still love the piccie though hehe.


Same wall as before. My cute two :)


Looking down at my two, more blowing of kisses from Katie :)

Looking up at these two sitting on some stairs, just had to bump the colour with Maggies colour pop actions :)


Loads of sun coming in from behind, together with a soft edges filter (just a normal filter with some clear nail varnish around the edges) So got this gorgeous sunny and hazy lazy look of Katie.


More soft filters and totally rad actions here.

Loving the background contrast against her gorgeous pink hat, still not looking at mummy though, think she is over photos already doh!


Same wall, a more willing participant hehe, got some cute gorgeous poses out of hubby for this one.




And sitting in a cafe with lots of natural light :) Bit of the dreamy action from Totally Rad, loving the washed out background :)


A bit of tuscany :) with some warm sun on us :)


Just couldn't resist the sweet tippie toes with a bit of sun in the left, so cute!



Got around to photographing some layouts I did a while back! This one is for a pink and brown challenge over at Top50. I added loads of glitter dust to this one, so the HS fuzzy rubon words are all glittering, flower edges and also the dotty paper edge. Very noice hehe.

Playing with some scraps of papers to create an interesting background for this one. The bottom one is the MM glitter one, so all the dots are glittered, I also glitter dusted the butterfly and all the edges of papers again. It is an addiction I tell ya!!!


And more Action sharing. A 70 action pack download. Loads in there than I don't use, but it is FREE and there are some awesome ones in there, espesially love the sharpening ones and the depth of field one for the landscape shots. So if you are loving actions, but can't really swallow the exxy price of the cool packs around, this one has some fun things in it to play with ;)

have a gorgeous day everyone!!!

xoxo
Jolene

Photo Day :)

As of late I have been scrapping less and trying to improve my photography skills instead. Before I got pregnant I was all set for a photography career, I even got an article with photos published in a major travel magazine! I got paid $550 for it, which was awesome!! And a few years back by now mind you!

I wanted to focus on travel photography, so when I got pregnant I knew that that dream would have to wait till another stage of my life as their is no way I'm climbing mountains and hiking with a baby at my side.

But my love for photography is still there, so I have had so much fun lately playing with my family, they are totally SICK of me by now though hehe.


Here are some from last weekend.




We have had a delightful morning this morning as we skipped church and headed out to Roma Street Parklands in Brisbane instead. Katie had an absolute ball as we took her Bicycle/trike with, she didn't want to come home!!! But she is so tired that she actually told us she wants to go and sleep and is now fast asleep - She hasn't really slept in the day since she was 2!!! Except for the rare occasion, so you must know how exhausted she really is poor thing!

We even had some sandwiches and coffee in the coffee shop they have there, DELIGHTFUL!!

I'm looking forward to scrapping now though and hopefully heading off to the beach tomorrow :)

Talking about photos, I'm currently INLOVE with actions!! These are for photoshop and I totally recommend these three FREE ones, I can't stop using them!!!!!

Totally Rad Actions!

Do yourself a favour and download them!!!! Do it NOW, they are totally worth it!

Okay I'm off to edit photos from today and will share them sometime early this week too!!

Enjoy Mothersday!!

xoxo
Jolene

Woohoo another long weekend is here!!

I'm so excited as I can't wait to roll into another relaxing LONG weekend :) PLUS hubby's birthday is tuesday, so we will be celebrating Sunday night CHILDFREE woohooo, some yummy Italian dinner with a movie to follow, something easy peasy and something we enjoy much more than all the stress that goes with having a party hehe.


I'm hoping to do more scrapping and we have stocked up on movies that we can watch :)


Some recent layouts from me, this one below I did alot of at a scrap crop getogether last sunday :) I t look s really askew here, think it was the way I photographer it arrggghh, but thought I would share anyways :)


And this one I did for a Stitching focus challenge over at Scraplounge. More yummy BG and KI lace cardstock on this one and loads of glitter powder against the stitching swirls and flower tips on this one :)

I do hope you all have a fab weekend! The traffic was already chaotic on the way back from work at 12:30 so if you are driving, be safe!!

xoxo
Jolene

Pencil Lines Inspiration

Sketch 82 is up at Pencillines and this week is ultra special as the guest DT member is a very special person to me, so pop over and give some loving for Karen Day and her ultra sweet layout!!


Awesome sketch too Anna!!

This is my take, using some reds, oranges and whites.

Some photos of some very willing family members (Katie's Oupa and Uncle Rudi) playing with Katie, I'm lucky my family are very 'hands on' when it comes to her, so they keep her entertained even though she is the only child in the family atm.

I had such an awesome long weekend and how lucky are we to have another one coming up this long weekend :) Just gotta get through this week first ;)

Hope you all have a fab week!

xoxo
Jolene

Ughie Monday Blues!

Oh my gosh, Monday was going really well and suddenly it feels like a train has gone straight over me, I'm just exhausted, saw and feel 'sunburnt' even though I was in the sun, but just the feeling of it IYKWIM. Maybe I overdid it at the gym today??


So I tried sleeping for a wee while, hmmmmm why is it that sleeping and a 2.5 yr old just doesn't go hand in hand haha, although I did get to 'rest' on the bed, so I'm thankful for that :)


I had a gorgeous scrappy weekend, as I created 2 layouts for a cybercrop at Chookscraps and did another layout that I'm keeping for my FK awards for excellence, I already have 4 layouts kept aside for that. I usually just scrap and if I like it pop it aside and then at due date I select which 4 I think will work the best :) Anyone else having a go this year??


Pencillines News:

I think this week's sketch has been my all time favourite, every time I look at it, I want to scrap it :) So make sure you hop over and check it out!!!!
Guest designer Jana Eubank did a gorgeous job with the sketch and her sensational layout, and am loving the team's examples too. Click this link, I know you want too :)
TWO SCRAPPERS, TWO VERY DIFFERENT CREATIONS :)

Okay here it is :) As you are all aware I'm a bit of an 'addaholic' scrapper style, I smother my layout with yummy goodies. So when it came to this layout that I did using a sketch by Liz Weber, I couldn't help smothering it in new yummy bg :)


Belinda Venables on the other hand is one of those scrappers that can use a few strips of paper and some alphas and someone, unbeknowst to me, creates layouts that blow me out of the water!!!
I was SOOOOOOO lucky that she asked me to scrap this gorgeous layout of Katie, she did the most brilliant job!! I just adore the colours!! And that wing is just way too cute!!!!

Isn't it just amazing how scrappers at complete opposite ends of the scrapping spectrum can make the same photo look sooooooooo different!!! WOW :)

Paper Trunk News:

Do you want to be Trunk Designer Of The Month?? You could be!! and how awesome would that be!! All you have to do is to create a layout from this sketch and send in your entry!! Good Luck!!

Okay I'm off to try to manage some dinner, still feeling aweful blah! Thinking some sleep might help me out, lucky hubby comes home in about 5 minutes woohoooo :)

Catch you all later :)
xoxo
Jolene