The Chic and Shab of our Lives

Almost halfway on fitness goal :)

2012-01-26T11:26:00.001+10:00

Happy Australia Day!!!

We had so many plans for Australia Day, but the rain has thrown a spanner in our plans, so instead I tackled the treadmill and house, and hopefully will get some time to scrap in a bit.

I see that my next run marks the halfway mark for my fitness goal ... good feeling :)

So Far:

W2D1 Stats: 2.94km in 31min, 10:33 min/km and burnt 198 cal
W2D2 Stats: 3.08km in 30min40sec, 9:57 min/km and burnt 190 cal

W2D3 Stats: 3.22km in 31 min, 9:38 min/km and burnt 195 cal.

W3D1 Stats: 3.06km in 29 min, 9:29 min/km and burnt 191 cal

W3D2 Stats: 3km in 29 min, 9:40 min/km and burnt 186 cal

W3D3 Stats: 3.08km in 29 min, 9:25 min/km and burnt 193 cal

W4D1 Stats: 3.21km in 29min45sec, 9:16 min/km and burnt 205 cal

W4D2 Stats: 3.25km in 30min, 9:14 min/km and burnt 220 cal

I think that is good progress! Furthest I have run in 30 min is 3.25km, best time per min is 9:14. All up this year I have complete 25.58km of purposeful exersize :) not too shabby :)

And just sharing one of my xmas layoutst that were featured in Australian Scrapbook Ideas late last year!!

Have a good one!!

Little canvas and Wk2D3 of couch to 5K

2012-01-09T11:51:00.001+10:00

Hiiiiii,

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I had a kidfree one and my cousin came up to spend the two nights with me, we had such a ball! Was fun to make last minute descisions and to stay out all day long without having to worry bout tired or hungry or moody kids :)

So I haven't done much in the creative world!

Here is a little canvas I made a little while ago, I took the Christy Tomlinson classes, I actually think I watched two of her videos though, oopsies, life just didn't allow me much time back then. But from what I learnt I created 3 little canvases, this one being my favourite :) Representation of me :) I'll share the other two sometime too, just gotta be organised to take photos.

And getting back to my fitness goal, i just finished my day 3 of week 2 - much easier than my day 1, but man I have never been a lover of exersize, so still a struggle every time. And I must admit the next challenge frightens me!! Going from 90sec runs to a rotation between 2 and 3 min runs. Sigh, I can do this! Just not gonna be fun haha.

W2D1 Stats: 2.94km in 31min, 10:33 min/km and burnt 198 cal
W2D2 Stats: 3.08km in 30min40sec, 9:57 min/km and burnt 190 cal

W2D2 Stats: 3.22km in 31 min, 9:38 min/km and burnt 195 cal.

And just because this is what I did today.

I usually do my jogging sessions at 8speed, I used to do 9, and that was only about 4 months ago, why do fitness dissapear so fast??? But today I did a quick 12speed run, just to get it over with!

Who else is working on a fitness or weight loss resolution?

Off to go sit and scrap :)

Enjoy your monday xx

Couch 2 5K Day two :)

2012-01-06T14:03:00.001+10:00

Another hard day on the treadmill, geez you have to be stubborn to not give up when evething is shouting ENOUGH! My body can do this, I know it can, and I'm the boss!!

So day two of the challenge done!

W2D1 Stats: 2.94km in 31min, 10:33 min/km and burnt 198 cal
W2D2 Stats: 3.08km in 30min40sec, 9:57 min/km and burnt 190 cal

I had yummy Muesli with blueberries and strawberries for breakfast
A banana for a snack, also munched on carrot sticks
A massive salad roll for lunch :) Healthy and light = makes me feel light and good.

Motivation for the rest run which happens on Sunday:

THE WORLD'S FASTEST WORKOUT - 4 MIN!!!!

Also if you don't have 30 min a day to move, and yes I know that some of us just don't have the time ... here is an awesome 4 min workout!! And it WILL challenge your body!! And it might possibly be the longest 4 min of your life, but seriously 4 min of pain, we can all do that!

4 MIN, who doesn't have 4 MIN, HAH, get off your bottom and move!! :)

Have a good weekend!!

My lungs are burning!

2012-01-04T20:28:00.001+10:00

Why???

Why do I feel like my throat is on fire and that I can't breath? My legs are aching and feel a bit like jelly. I feel a bit like throwing up.

Why???

My first resolution for the year I started today!!

Couch to 5K program. (which comes as a brilliant app if you happen to have an iphone ;) )

How many of you have got a 'get fit' resolution? Are you being specific enough, what does 'being fit' mean to you? I like to keep my resolutions specific enough so that I know I can reach it! I know I can run 5km and this program takes you through it in 9weeks. 3 runs a week, round about 30min of your time. Totally do-able! Even if I feel like fainting afterwards!!

Step 1 - So I bought a treadmill, secondhand, $300 - bargain! For ages I have promised myself to get to the gym, but being a single mum with little kids I have to rely on creche and some weeks life just doesn't allow me to get there in the hours I can gym, so it hasn't happened ... now I have no excuses!

Step 2 - Start! Well did that tonight! I started with Week 2, because I thought I was more fit than i am haha, hence the near death experience! Or it felt that way anyways haha.

Step 3 - Don't stop!!

Stats for today - 2.94km in 31min, 10:33 min/km and burnt 198 cal :)

Let me know if you join up so we can motivate each other :)

Motivation for MYSELF today! A bit of passive aggressiveness to get me off my bottom where I was sitting way to comfortably, coming up with every excuse of why I can leave the exersize till TOMORROW.

Tomorrow, I can scrap. Friday I run :)
Night night! xx

2011 & You scrapbook layout

2012-01-03T20:17:00.000+10:00

A layout about all Katie's first during 2011. This one is for Creative Scrappers sketch # 189. I'm finding that it is helping me get back in scrapping when following sketches. Makes life a bit simpler :)

Short and sweet tonight! Sitting on couch sipping wine after a hectic day with two fighting sisters! So time to relax! :) xx

10 Things I love about Katie

2012-01-03T11:00:00.000+10:00

This girl of mine is 6. I am so proud of 'who' she is. So proud to be able to say that I'm this girls' Mum.

I wanted to take some time and jot down some things that I love bout each of us, I thought it might be a good way to start of the year, to remind myself of what treasures I have in my life to be thankful for!!

A few things that I want to jot down for myself about this girl's year just past.
* She started a new journey in Nambour
* She thoroughly enjoyed her first school year in Prep at Woombye SS
* She lost three teeth, all at the bottom
* She can read simple words
* She can write words when spelt out
* She loves helping me cook and clean. She loves to scrap, loves movies, electronic games and
loves making up new games with her little sister.
* Her favourite colour is blue
* She seems to have already outgrown playing with dolls.
* Her current favourite movie is 'Kung Fu Panda' but she also adores her Barbie movies.
* She has 'chores' - Making her own bed, opening her blinds, unpacking the dishwasher together with one other one of her choosing.

:) 10 things I love bout you .... get the template from Shabby Blogs, great freebies there ;)

Websters - It's your style!

2012-01-02T20:58:00.001+10:00

I love the new release by Websters, the cleaner, simpler, more versatile line! You can check it out here. I am excited bout this line! Can't wait! I've always been a Webster's Fan, but often resort to the back as the front is just too specific.
Enjoy this little video by them below :)

Welcome Webster's Pages Sunday Picnic from Webster's Pages on Vimeo.

Have you spotted any good new releases around??? :)
xx
Jolene

NY Resolutions :)

2012-01-02T12:03:00.002+10:00

2012 New Year's Resolutions.

Here they are all scrapped up, imprinted on the brain :) Am entering this one on the Get Picky Challenge.

Ready to make 2012 a happy year!

Enjoy your Monday! xx

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T11:00:00.000+10:00

Image courtesy of Pininterest ;)

Bye Bye 2011

Hello 2012

Image courtesy of SayingImages.com

I love making New Years Resolutions. I keep them small, very specific and do-able! I seem to manage to get most of them done by the end of a year. I always write them down, somewhere where you can see it on and off through the year as a reminder. It feels good, giving yourself challenges and actually achieving them. Like crossing things off your bucket list slowly :) Do you make New Year's Resolutions?

Mine for the year 2012:

* Go some place I've never been before

* Sew at least 5 dresses for Dresses for Africa

* Attend at least one cooking class

* Compelete the Couch to 5K program

* Join a social club of some sort or get back to Dancing classes, something where I can get back to meeting new people.

* Find a new hobby or re-discover a love for an old one (I'm sick of spending night on the couch in front of the tv)

* Save $xxxxx for our new home :)

That is it, all achievable right?? I think so!! And I've already started on a few of them!

End of the year!

2011-12-31T14:47:00.000+10:00

The end of 2011 is here! It has been a good year! A beautiful year! Lots of obstacles and lots of challenges, but when I look back, I smile :)

I barely did any scrapping this year! It was difficult to find a good balance between being a single mummy together with being a high school teacher! My girls had a time and a half with their adjustments to school/daycare life in regards to their health and we spent most of the year having some disease or other! We have settled into the Sunshine Coast beautifully, finding peace here in this beautiful part of the world!

To finish off my year, I found some time and sat down and scrapped with Katie-Lee. Being on holidays, my whole house seems to be so much more peaceful, content and happy. It is a good feeling looking at my girls and seeing them shine with joy. It makes me feel like somewhere along the mess of my life the last few years, I have done them proud. And after all, what is more important in this world than being the best parents you can be. These kids deserve that much, they deserve the best start to life and have the best examples they can fall back on when life throws lemons at them too.

So to finish off the year! Which I'm doing with a smile on my face! I'll leave you all with two pictures! One of the layout I did, based on a sketch by Anna's Craft Cupboard. And the other, a gorgeous quote appropriate for this time of the year!

Best wishes to you all, finish off this year with a smile and start the next one off with a feeling of peace and happiness in your soul! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Beautiful :)

2011-04-28T18:21:00.000+10:00

Been loving pininterest lately, and found this one that just felt oh so fitting in my life right now :) Isn't it beautiful??? :)

Don't fall off your chair :)

2011-04-16T20:19:00.000+10:00

I scrapped!!! Yup, it actually happened!! And I enjoyed it ... but just like that the bug is gone again haha.

AND of all things I actually went with a yellow layout! My least favourite colour, but I do like the layout :) This is Katie and me on her very first day of school, she doesn't mind challenges and tackled the nerves of going to school without even blinking about it. She was so keen to get there and see what her classroom looked like. She loved getting all dressed up in her uniform and she smiled all the way through her day! She is an absolute 'go-getter' in life and I know that that attitude is going to get her to reach her dreams one day!

Katie was doing some scrapping with me and got lost in her own layout! She is always so proud of herself when she finishes her layout and i'm still in the process of shuffling papers. She is a competitor, eveything is a competition here, even eating dinner is always noted by who finishes first. Didn't she do an incredible job!!!! She placed the layout next to my bed, standing upright against my bedside light, and when i went to bed that night my heart just absolutely glowed, she loves doing that, leaving me little 'suprises' of drawing and letters and things next to my bed for me to discover. How much sweeter joys in life can you get than that!!!! :) :) :)

And just something beautiful from Melody Ross. I'm focused on seeing and being thanful for the miracles in every single day! Cause you know what, i'm lucky! I have the most amazing family, the most amazing kids and some of the most incredible friends one could wish for. Mix that together with the fact that beauty surround me every single day in simple things like nature and weather and colours ... lucky. I might not have in all together all the time, but together with these people who love me .... together ... I have IT all ... lucky :) And well ... I'll let the future suprise me with any extra little gifts it might chuck my way, until then .... life is beautiful and perfect in its imperfectness ... just the way it is. Enjoy the quote, enjoy your week :)

Falling down ... but always getting back up :)

2011-04-11T14:17:00.001+10:00

Well .... cough cough! Thanks to those of you who keep emailing me; asking me if i'm okay. To be honest, ever since my move to the Sunny Coast, I have been on a ride .... a rollercoaster ride ... not a fun one either.

I keep tripping, stumbling or stumping my toes. I feel like I keep going in circles, not finding the exit to creating a stable balanced contented life. In about 2 months time I will have been on my own with my girls for almost 2 years!! In some ways it feels like much longer, but in most ways it still feels like it just happened recently.

We are doing well :) We really are :) Sunshine Coast is treating us well and the lifestyle here reminds me of so many miracles and delights every single day! But sometimes little things make me hiccup. Last week around 6pm'ish I was sitting on my couch, I heard a car drive by and glanced out the window. I watched the car pull up to the house accross from us. I watched as the husband/dad got out of the car. Watched the front door fly open as his kids came running to meet him and saw as he walked up to his wife and gave her a kiss. I miss that .... so much ... I think there are some things in this situation you will never get around to being at peace with .... best to just not think about it and just keep on going ... but every so often I notice things that makes my heart ache, things that make me feel empty ... even though I am blessed in my life beyond belief. Sometimes little things make me loose balance and sometimes it takes me a while to get up again. I'm very hard on myself and when I struggle I get angry at myself for not coping better ... which doesn't really help in the long run cause all I do is manage to be dissapointed with myself when really i should be giving myself a bit of a break. I had a gorgeous friend recently remind me that sometimes it is okay to fall down, to stumble and to just stay there for a little while, to just let the aches soak in, to just feel. She shared this with me and I thought it was just beautiful :) So I fell, but .... I got up, and am soooooooooo looking forward to everything life has in store for me ... for us :) Life has been good lately, just gotta make sure it stays that way now :) Cause every day is a blessing and I want to make the most of it and be in the best place emotionally to enjoy everyday :) Anyways here is that little poem for anyone having a hard time, for whatever reason

It’s okay to fall apart.

You don’t have to know the answers.

All those pieces you’ve been holding for so long while you raced around your life looking for the last roll of scotch tape, go ahead, let them fall.

Let them fall.

Every last piece.

It’s okay to scramble.

You don’t have to be calm now.

All those plans you’ve been stringing together like a macaroni necklace in kindergarten–

every last one is beautiful, so beautiful, so go ahead.

Keep grabbing at everything you ever wanted and always feared you’d never have.

Every last beautiful dream.

It’s okay to hope against hope.

This is not a time to be reasonable or rational.

Run, run as fast as you can against the tide that is crashing down now.

When the last wave sweeps over you

and every hope has been dashed

You will still be here, right here

and you will not be sorry you tried to make all your sorrows disappear.

It’s okay to cry.

Even if you are a man. Even if you are a mother. Even if you feel each tear

as an accusation against your strength, your resolve, your natural equilibrium.

Cry in the car. Cry in the shower.

Cry in bed when no one is listening or looking.

Cry when you kiss the kids goodbye for school.

Cry when you do the dishes.

Berate yourself for not being able to get it together

and then cry anyway.

How else will you know you lived, if not for these tears

reminding you were not made of metal, wood or steel

after all?

It’s okay to be lost.

Throw away the map. Leave the keys in the car.

Get out and walk.

Forget about everything you ever knew.

Crumple up those directions and move now from memory

The memory of your heart

The memory of your breath

The memory of that one time you laughed so hard you cried

The memory of that one kiss, the one that left you longing

to be loved for ever and ever.

At the end of your unraveling,

you will look down and see your own feet

that have carried you so, so far

and you will decide for once that it is okay

to sit down

to rest

to hold out your hands

to lift up your head

to open your heart

to the possibility that you were never alone after all

not for one minute

That Love was right there

in her terrible silence

not quite sure how to say it so you would believe her

that you were a thing of rare beauty on the earth

That She still has your macaroni necklace

That She’s been following you around,

making maps of all the places you’ve been lost,

so you’d know how to get back when the time came

to put it all to rest.

Go ahead, be disappointed.

Nothing turned out how you hoped.

Sit under a tree and tell me the whole of it

and I won’t say a word.

I won’t say a single word.

This is the secret nobody knows.

All these days Love carried my heart in her heart.

I was her favorite, even as I cried,

and now I am sitting under her tree

listening to you

the way she listened to me

while I swore she was never ever there.

It’s okay to feel lonely.

At the end of your wanderings

when there is no more scotch tape

and you can’t find your macaroni necklace of dreams anywhere

your heart will trace an unpredictable path

to this place and you will have just enough courage

to let Love tell you the terrible beautiful truth

of how loved you were

and how even now, at the end of everything

it’s not too late.

http://jenlemen.com/blog/?p=764

ANYWAYS, now that you all now where I've been haha, let's move on to other topics :)

This little girl of mine is turning TWO in two weeks time. It blows me away how much she keeps changing and how fast she is learning. Her vocab is starting to broaden out, her favourite words must be 'Yea' and 'Mine'. Other words include, 'bottle', 'wata'(water), 'juice', 'car', 'raining', 'flowa'(flower), 'huggie', 'bye', 'hallo','doo-doos', 'toes, 'dog', 'cow', 'all fall down', 'ouchie', 'mum', 'katie', 'funny', 'see ya', 'bubba', 'toys', 'lily' ... i'll have to add more as i think of them haha. She is a proper stubborn two year old, she doesn't understand the concept of sharing or not being allowed to have something she very obviously NEEEEEDS. So tantrums we have, together with lots of tears, but overall she is an incredible sweet, love-a-bug, happy girl.

Just the other day we were blowing bubbles

And we were as happy as can be :)

But unfortunately mummy asked Lily to share, cause Katie wanted a turn blowing bubbles too

but in Lily's world everything is "MINE" and she told me 'MUMMY, MINE, MINE, MINE'

And the cying continued very loudly all the way through Katie's turn ... and then it was Lily's turn again .... so she was happy again.

That's life here by us, the extreme of extreme emotions of a 2 year old haha :) Lucky she is adorable!!!

That's the news from me, look out soon cause I actually have a layout to share with you all !!! So I'll update soon again, promise :) xx

The Power of One :)

2010-12-29T15:07:00.001+10:00

Christmas was a gorgeous day! We even had some beautiful sunshine to brighten the day. I love the busyness of the day, the excitement that comes from kids, the wrapping paper that fills a floor :) We had a gorgeous yummy lunch and some scrummy desserts. It was just nice to hang out with all the family :)

And since then I have just been in complete and total laziness mode :) It has been gooooood :) I'll worry bout being busy again after new year, until then I'm recharging my batteries, spending some time thinking, doing lots of reading and just enjoying each day :)

I am still thinking bout my new years resolutions ... Have come up with ONE so far haha :) Maybe it is just cause I'm so content with my life atm, but really I like challenges, it keep me going, keeps me motivated and on the go, so need to come up with some gooooood challenges for the new year :) What are your new year resolutions??

Talking about One, I found this gorgeous poem on a gorgeous blog. I thought it was beautiful, so simple, but keeping that in mind, would be a good positive way to start a new year.

The power of One...

One song can spark a moment,

One flower can wake the dream.

One tree can start a forest,

One bird can herald spring.

One smile begins a friendship,

One handclasp lifts a soul.

One star can guide a ship at sea,

One word can frame the goal

One vote can change a nation,

One sunbeam lights a room

One candle wipes out darkness,

One laugh will conquer gloom.

One step must start each journey.

One word must start each prayer.

One hope will raise our spirits,

One touch can show you care.

One voice can speak with wisdom,

One heart can know what's true,

One life can make a difference,

You see, it's up to you!

Two last shares before I go :) This one was done ages ago for Stamp and Scrapbook Madness :)

And a card I have made for Websters Design Team Call :)

I am childfree for a few nights while the girls are visiting their grandparents, am enjoying time to just 'breathe' and be me, so am off to the world of reading and might even do some scrapping later tonight :)

The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance.

The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect,

as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life.

You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.

- Arnold Bennett

Laters Alligators :) Don't forget to tell me what your new years resolutions are :) Think I just thought of another one :)

xx

I've been thinking lots lately ...

2010-12-20T16:30:00.000+10:00

You know it happens this time of the year.

Your brain ticking over, wondering if the year almost past was one well lived, wondering what all you want for the new year to come!

I'm a sucker for New Year goals, it gives me something to dream for, something to work for, something to aim for. I did good this year past, I got every single goal except for one crossed off my list, it has been a hard year, but you know what; I did goooood and all in all, it was a gooood year! :) I feel a sense of success and proudness knowing that I did so many things I wanted to do!

But now I'm starting to wonder what else I want to achieve, what else I want to learn, what else I want to challenge myself with. I'm still thinking ... new years ain't here yet, I have time :)

In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the beauty of xmas :)

We have been busy busy here, with the move to the new house and setting up everything that goes with that. But of course we found some time to just enjoy being a family while decorating the xmas tree ... or trying too, Lily decided that while she couldn't hang up the baubles, she could instead rip them from their base instead, but we got there, tree is up and looking pretty in pink and silver :)

On other news, I was very pleasantly suprised when I received my latest copy of Australian Scrapbook Ideas and saw a layout of mine on the FRONT COVER :) I also have a 5 page article in there, with plenty of tips on taking better photos. So if you are keen to have some time to relax, go and buy the magazine and have a cup of tea.

Here is my page that is featured on the front page! Seems like ages ago that that photo was taken, life was very different back then, think I was about 4 months pregnant with little Lily Belle. Amazing how quickly life can change, treasure each day for you never know what tomorrow has in store for you :)

Well I really just came over to my poor abandoned blog to wish you all a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Keep safe and enjoy the beauty of xmas!

House is under contract!

2010-10-19T20:34:00.004+10:00

Well I'm over the moon excited as my house is under contract!! Hopefully all will go well and the house sale will go though without any problems along the way.

Along with the sale, i'm busy trying to get rid of some things I'm not using as much.

Let me know if you would like to purchase any of the following, payment through either paypal or direct deposit or cash on pickup.

SOLD - ~~FOR SALE - CUTTLEBUG PLUS EMBOSSING MATS - $80 plus actual postage costs to post.~~

Cuttlebug in really good condition. The plates have been much loved, they are still the originals that came with the machine. They have plenty of cut marks on them (which happens every time you use a diecut) but they are not warped. The one plate has had the front bit snap off (somebody was trying to get the 'sandwich' through the machine but it was tooooo thick), so the front bit is snapped off but it is still perfect to use, have been using it without any worries at all. The extra embossing mats is for when you use any spellbinder shapes so that you can emboss with your little machine as well.

Here you can see the bottom of the 'c' plate that has snapped off.

Pickup of actual postage costs will apply.

FOR SALE: CUTTLEBUG SWISS DOT EMBOSSING FOLDER - $6.50 plus $1.90 to post

FOR SALE - CUTTLEBUG DIE CUT AND EMBOSS - DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE - 3 x3" - $13 plus $1.90 postage

More to come, just got to work out what size the circle and scallop spellbinders are that i have ;)

Let me know if anyone is keen for any of these, otherwise I will send them to the Ebay slaughterhouse hehe :)

2010-10-18T19:18:00.001+10:00

One of my favourite stages of toddler-hood is when they start saying some words. I think it is the most adorable thing! I love the way they over exaggerate the shape of their mouth to make the sounds! It is all sooooo cute!

Lily is a CHATTERBOX, she has the longest, most complicated stories to tell. I'm glad I don't have to talk like her cause it looks like super hard work to put all those letters next to each other that really never go together, but it is so cute! And usually because she is a 'pointer' you can figure out what she is going on about by following the points of her fingers.

She is coming along really well with words, although I'm not doing a good job of keeping her words in one language, bit of English, a lot of Afrikaans, whoopsies.

* Mamma (she has this one perfected)
* Tatie-Lee (katie lee)
* Li-ly
* Ball
* Toe (which is afrikaans for close, think it is cause I'm always telling her to close drawers, cupboards etc etc.)
* bere (which is afrikaans for 'put it away')
*ou-PA (afrikaans for grandad)
* Pappa (afrikaans for daddy)
* Tikkie (grandparents dog name - she adores dogs)
* na-na (for either banana or for sweets and lollies)
* goo gil (good girl)

She also understand what I"m saying alot better now!

She is a serious mischief maker, on the trip to the Sunshine coast recently she figured out how to open the electric windows and she also opened up the door .... on the highway!!!! My bad for not having the kiddie thingo on, but seriously, she is only 1 year and 5 months! She is always running, she just about never walks.

And she is doing some awesome full on tantrums!

She knows where her noes is, but instead of pointing to it she squishes her nose up and sniffs hah! She knows where her tummy is and is getting there with her ears.

Awesome stage! Terribly busy but I love it!!!

:)

Class On Sunday

2010-09-24T21:16:00.000+10:00

If you are in the vicinity of Hawthorne on Sunday, join me for a class?? :) At Stamp and Scrapbook Madness :)

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

Okay .... hold on to your chairs!

2010-09-19T20:30:00.000+10:00

Yep I actually did CARDS, and enjoyed them tooo!!! Not sure what happened there hehe, thought it might be good to start using my scraps instead of chucking them, aren't I a gooooood girl :) All Fancy Pants themed just for good measure!

And in other news! I'm still alive after my divorce court case .... barely but alive. That was incredibly hard and incredibly painful. Just gotta wait out the one month and one day till I get my divorce certificate now.

My house is in the market, if anyone is after a little house in Eagleby or an investment, I wanna sell!!! :) Buy a new house that I can create some new fresh memories in :) So here is hoping, the market is a bit dead at the moment, but one can only try.

New week!! Let's make it a goooooooood one!

''Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”

Designing with Fancy Pants

2010-09-15T12:00:00.001+10:00

My latest Fancy Pants Designs layout! Talking bout Fancy Pants, have you applied to be on their design team?? You would be crazy NOT TO! Applications close today though, so hurry and apply, it is sooooo easy, what is there to loose??

Good luck ;)

Have a good wednesday!! I have a date at the divorce courts in Brisbane! Today is the day, BIG day, TOUGH day, HEART WRENCHING day! But the last big hurdle! Thursday = Fresh new start!!

But today?? Today I'm allowing myself to fall into a heap and just crying! I think I'm allowed that much, i'll brush myself off tomorrow! Wish me enough strength to get through the court case before loosing it ;)

xx
Jolene

And just like that ... she is FIVE!

2010-09-14T16:17:00.000+10:00

And she is 5!

At 5 she:

Loves Kindy
Loves having friends
Loves playing boardgames
Can count to 20
Can kinda write her own name
Can recognise numbers
Can recognise alot of the alpha letters
TV shows she loves: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Dora, Diego, Little Einsteins and Jungle Junction
Favourite colour is still Pink
Wearing size 6-7 clothes
Wearing size 12 shoes
Sleeps with a variety of soft toys which include a Mini Mouse, a Unicorn, a Pink Teddy bear and a tiger.
Goes to bed around 7:30 and usually sleeps till 7ish.
Likes staying busy, she gets bored easily 'Mummy what can I do????'
Loves to help, she doesn't care what it is, washing windows, cars, dishes, making food, she just wants to help.
Is super caring, looks after her mummy and her little sis.
She loves going to Sabbatschool
She loves going camping with her Daddy

I just can't believe she is 5, not long now and I will be doing the whole uniform thing booooohooooooo :( But I am mega proud of who she is and how she copes with life!

Love you Katie-Lee!!!!!!

xx
Jolene

SMILE :)

2010-08-27T16:57:00.000+10:00

SMILE

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

Mother Theresa

SMILE

I have a tickle in my brain. And it keeps making the corners of my mouth point toward the heavens.

~Jeb Dickerson

SMILE

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

~Author Unknown

and if all else fails

SMILE

Keep smiling - it makes people wonder what you've been up to.

~Author Unknown

Are you smiling???

YOU BETTER BE!!!!

:) :) :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

2010-08-24T19:59:00.000+10:00

In this past year and a bit I have learnt that being single is not as bad as it sounds. Sometimes being as single as that tree above means you get to have the rainbow all to yourself ;)

I have learnt SO much about myself, I have come to love myself again.

If you asked me two years ago 'who are you?' I would have said a mummy, a creative person and ummmmmm.

Ask me that question now and I can make a list for you :) I know what I like, what I don't like, I know what I want and don't want.

I know i am stronger for everything I had to endure and cope with! I know that everyday is HARD because i'm a single parent and honestly it is hard, every day, but every single little joy is all mine.

My happiness is in MY hands, not somebody elses! Life is beautiful, full of challenges but absolutely and definately beautiful. I'm blessed, my life is filled with blessings. Why is it that we always wish for more? Just stop, breathe and tell yourself, 'my life is such a joy!'

"when one door of happiness closes, another one opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us..."

--Helen Keller

My littlest girl is slowly saying some words and every time I hear her practise her words, I realize how lucky I am! Her newest and latest is 'look' and while a day can be long when i have to 'look' at every single thing, it makes you take notice of things you sometimes overlook in your rush to get where you are going, so today we had a look and saw some gorgeous birds, we saw some clouds, some flowers. We also saw chocolates, shoes, socks, food, milk, books, blankets, lights, fans, mirrors, toys .... you get the idea lol. And I had a 'mummmmmmma, loook!!!' and when I arrived she had climbed on her change table and STANDING on it, holey moley!! And of course now that she knows she can do it she does it over and over and over and over haha. BUT I realize that I"m blessed to be around to see her climb, to see her speak! To see Katie grow up way too fast, to giggle at her telling me that she is 'EXASPARATED' (really, you get exasparated at 4?? who knew lol) !

What are all your blessings? I can make a list of well over ten things, can you?

Still battling day to day here without my anti-depressants, but thanks to all of you with your support, movtivation or your share of your own personal story, I'm filled with guts and motivation, I'm building a life with the foundations of something that has been a dream of mine. Hopefully only a handful of months and I can cross another dream of mine off the list :) wooohoooo! Aren't you all intrigued now haha.

Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep believing, the dream that you wish will come true.

A blog today, just because! Some of you were saying you are going through a seperation as well and I just wanted to say hang in there, it DOES get easier, I know I didn't believe anyone that said that either, but it does get easier and one day will arrive and you might just go 'OH, so THIS is why that all happened!' I have had my 'AH-HA' moment :) And while I was waiting for that moment to arrive, I focused on these two beautiful precious girls of mine!

Tomorrow has the possibilities of being a BEAUTIFUL day!

xxx

Aren't I full of positivism today, no idea why cause i'm EXHAUSTED! Gets that way when you have a girl that has FOUR teeth coming through at once!!! ;)

Where is that rainbow?

2010-08-21T18:57:00.002+10:00

Keeping it real today!

I am ready for a rainbow. Did you know that to get a rainbow you need both rain and sunshine?

I seem to be stuck in the rain atm! Nobody's fault, no situations fault!

I have been having an absolutely dreadful time with withdrawal symptoms from going off my anti-depressants/anti-anxiety pills. Long story short, I was doing a fab job, loving life again, loving every day, so decided to go off my anti-depressants. I was on half a tablet, so thought the next logical solution would be to go off it! I was so wrong!!! Apparently you are suppose to go quarters and then quarter every second day etc etc. Otherwise you suddenly cause your brain to run low on the essential hormone that keeps your anxiety and depression low! So guess what happened!?

Yep! Depression hit me smack hard in the face. Being stubborn I just decided to ride it out, but boy it has been a hard ride! I go through one day where I will cry my heart out for no reason at all, it just happens! The next day I'm angry at everyone and everything for no reason, which is very unlike me! I can't sleep! But yet the withdrawal symptoms make me super tired, awesome combo! So I feel like a zombie! Because your brain is working so hard at producing the missing quantity of hormones, normal brain functioning becomes something of the past! I can't concentrate on anything, I'm forgetful, I say things and do things that I normally wouldn't do cause I don't have my normal reasoning skills. So I have said some super embarrassing things to people and done things which hurt others. I so hate this. I feel in such a 'daze' and kinda like my mind and body are two separate things. Total inner storm constantly brewing!

I've held off for 2.5 weeks now (I think). I researched some websites and it says it could take up to 8 weeks!!!!! EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!!! I so want to be my normal self again! And know that when I talk to people nothing weird will come out of my mouth hahaha.

So am wondering, cause I know that some of you gorgeous people would have gone through these withdrawal symptoms, how long did they last??? Please don't say 8 weeks lol.

I've been keeping as busy as I can so have been painting the rooms that didn't get done last time. Have updated my bathroom with a new mirror and new towel rails. So at least that is keeping me occupied.

ANYWAYS, I know that this too shall pass, so I'm just waiting for my sunshine to appear again, so that together with my current 'rain' I can create a rainbow :) It will come, might be tomorrow, who knows :)

On a brighter note! I went to the Ekka Show for the first time ever! I took Katie along and just loved every minute because the excitement were seriously just pouring right out of her soul. She was so gorgeous! A place with such beautiful colour, so many toys and all the excitement! For me the best part of the day was the closing events! Where you get to watch tricks! The most amazing tricks!!! My favourite was the precision driving, WOW!!! But totally loved the bikes. The V6 or is V8??? lol didn't go down well with me cause they kept on chucking dirt and gravel all over us, next time we will not be in the second front row haha, tooooooooo close to the action lol :) But was awesome!

Katie is turning 5 in 2.5 weeks!! UNREAL! Not long now and I will have to get school uniforms and school books and my heart just sinks thinking about it :( I know she is ready for school though and I'm getting my family as organised as I can to get her settled into a good school!! School here by us is seriously no good! I know cause i did relief teaching there, so I am working hard at trying to get us in a better spot so I can get her into a good school :)

And just cause I know so many of you come here becuase of scrapbooking, I'll share a layout that was published a while ago in Scrapbook Creations magazine. Focusing on stamping :) I found this awesome bird image online, printed it out and carefully cut the bird out, leaivng the rest of the paper intact, so in essense created a negative mask. I could then place the paper on my cardstock and simply stamp into the hole where the bird was. Lots of work, but was fun and so worth it I think :)

Anyways, if you have ever gone off anti-depressants, please let me know the withdrawel sysmptoms affected you and how long it lasted!

:) Till laters :) Have a beautiful sunday and a super gorgeous week!!!

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”

Dolly Parton

2010-08-10T18:10:00.000+10:00

Another Fancy Pants Designs share! I had so much fun with this one!

Journaling reads: FOR YOU: I imagine a life for you that is filled with love, I hope to inspire you to follow your dreams. Katie I hope you know that I cherish the beautiful bond and love we share. I hope that as time goes on, that our bond will only grow stronger. I believe you were created to spread joy to those you meet in your life. You are so beautiful on the inside and outside.

The gorgeous hand dyed lace is from Etsy - Fresh Vintage Crafts

Gorgeous flower design is inspired by Krischelle who helps creates designs for kits and classes at Stamp and Scrapbook Madness!

Have a good week everyone! I'm back to the scrapping table for a purely 'for fun' layout :)

The every day

2010-08-03T10:07:00.000+10:00

This little quote has helped me move through a very difficult year! My divorce date has been set for early september and I"m hoping that that will be the last massive hurdle in life for a while. This quote is a good one to live by :)

“One day at a time--this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.”

One of my recent 'one day at a time' was spent at Pelican beach! It was a windy day but I loved every moment with my family!

Have you Aussies seen the new Scrapbook Magazine that is out!? It is called Australian Ideas, it is different than the rest! If you love doing projects at home some step by steps or some technique ideas then you will love it! It comes out every second month, the next one should be out soooooon! I have a sketch and 4 page commission in the first magazine and here is one my layouts from it :) Everything on there is Fancy Pants except for the American Craft flower ribbon :)

Happy Tuesday everyone!!! Make it a beautiful one worth remembering!!! :)

Some Fancy Pants scrappy things to share -

2010-07-26T17:06:00.001+10:00

We have had a BEAUTIFUL monday here! We have been busy with normal house related things but overall things have been peaceful and blissful today. Gotta love that!!

I have been fiddeling on a bit of scrapping lately, such a good feeling when you have been 'off' scrapping for a long time! Getting my Fancy Pants projects up for the month, one more that is in progress :) Talking about Fancy Pants, did you see the new releases??? YUMMMMM!, check them out!!!! My favourite is the christmas and Happy Together ranges!!! What do you like? What else have you seen being released that has taken your fancy??

Keeping on the Fancy Pants theme, I did a project for their blog recently, focusing on some ideas for their flocked transparencies :) If you would like some quick steps to recreate this layout, head on over to their blog!! Journaling reads: 'Baby may you always live a life driven by passion!'

I just finished this layout off late last night! A bit of a combo from two of their releases! I love these photos, they capture some of her regularly seen faces, it shows how cheeky she is, but how sweet she is as well :) Journaling on this one reads: 'She's got cheek, she's got guts, I love her! She's super sweet, she's mine!' Not sure why the 'y' on the title decided to move but was a bit lazy to retake the picture ;)

A new week and chance to make it a beautiful one!! What can you do this week to ensure that it will be a goooooood one??

Loving LIFE!

2010-07-13T12:03:00.001+10:00

1. To save up to xxxx amount of money - Ummmmm yea so not happening atm

2. To get to and stay at my goal weight - Halfway there!!

3. ~~To take some dance lesson - I ALWAYS wanted too, never had, something Latin I think :)~~ Have done some Salsa since the start of the year and am about to sign up for some Zouk and Forro :) Am so loving it!!

4. Fixing few things up around the house, I would love to finish painting the inside, popping in new light fittings and new bathroom mirror/cabinet at the very least. Hopefully I can finish paiting the inside when I get some tax return money

5. ~~Go for at least one mini photography course~~ - Done, had a fabulous time doing an Intermediate photography course up at Mount Tamborine. Thanks to the most gorgeous friends for spoiling me with a voucher for that one!

6. ~~Go on a hangliding or paragliding flight~~. - Done! Did my tandem paragliding last sunday and oh my was it A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Thanks to my beautiful cousin for spoiling me with a gift voucher for this one!!

Here is me before the flight, I was so excited and amazingly had just about no nerves, I just wanted to get up there!

The right guy was my pilot, he was awesome!!

Up high high high, it actually didn't feel as high as what this photo shows, amazing huh?

And after landing - was such a serene beautiful peaceful experience!!

I have actually scrapped two pages, unbelievable!!! yes I know don't fall off that chair hehe! I had fun though, I think i so totally overdid it with too many 'jobs' related to scrapping that I completely lost my love for it there for a while, so I am glad that I enjoyed myself again :) Here is one of the two that I can share :)

Made a bow out of some muslin that I sprayed with two glimmermist colours :) Got my sewing machine out for some sewing on the layout too!

Journaling says: 'I am blessed to have you two in my life. With you my life is complete'

Of course I have hopes and dreams to find someone to share my life with one day, but I have come to realise that even if I don't, my life is still complete cause I adore being a mummy so much :) I am looking forward to what the future holds though ... whatever that might be ... I say 'bring it on!!!'

Have a gooooooood, super happy and amazing week!!!

Sorry ... Still here ... just having fun

2010-06-16T10:23:00.000+10:00

Thanks to everyone who have been worrying about me! It has been ages since I updated this little blog, but my only exscuse is just having fun with life! I did loose internet access for a week, and then my laptop died on me and it took about 2 weeks to get a new one, but really I have just been having fun with sewing and other things. So still here and perfectly fine!! :)

Here are some photos of my little family! Now if only I could get all of us onto one photo that would be awesomeness! But considering that I can't even get a decent photo of my two girls I won't even attempt it haha!!!

Little sweet Lily-belle! She is the ultimate climber!! She drives me insane as I have to watch her every single move! Her recent discovery is climbing onto the TV cabinet and then walking back and forth in front of my flatscreen tv until making a jump over onto the white couch! Gives me heartattacks every time! But she is a sweetheart, a cheeky sweetheart, but a sweetheart none the less!

This little girl is just growing up so fast! I'm finding amusement in her vocabulary, don't know where she learns all these big words! She is a brilliant sister though and most of the time a super great helper for me, she is a good kid with such a soft heart! She is having trouble at kindy with friends and it just breaks her heart. I love that she has a soft little heart, even though it is terrible to be helpless when it breaks :(

AND this is a little self portrait! Love the little remotes for cameras and seriously only about $12 from ebay I think it was!! Looking better than one year ago this time?? Yep I have been a single girl for more than a year by now! Unbelievable really, but so glad i'm in the now and not in a year ago!!

And seeing as I know most of you are here for scrappy reasons ;) I have one I can share! This one was published in the current Scrapbook Creations! it comes with a step by step of how to create those muslin lollipop flowers! So if you like the look of them, go and buy this months SC to learn how to play with muslin and sprays!

In other news I am ultra lucky to be on the exclusive design team for a new Australian Scrapbook Magazine - Australian Scrapbook Ideas was launched at the show over the weekend! Many of you might already have a copy in your hands, the rest of you will need to wait till it hits the stands in the newsagencies! This mag is different to the rest, it aims at providing you with step by steps and technique hints. It also has a design team call on atm, so if you want to join a team of great gals, buy the mag and get the details and have a go!!!

I better get Lily organised for her nap and get to work here. Thanks so much for the emails/messages/comments of concern, they made me full of warm fuzzies!!! On the same note, when I lost internet access I had to change email providers, so if you have sent me an email and didn't get a reply that would be why! I have a new email addy ;)

Have a gorgeous rest of the week!!

Thankful for a long weekend!

2010-05-03T08:46:00.001+10:00

Happy Monday!!

I am so thankful for a long weekend! We had Lily's first birthday party yesterday and while we had a beautiful day, the day leading up to the party was close to a nightmare for me, bad bad bad day. Everything went wrong! Glad it is over and done with! So today is 'recovery' day! :) Gotta love that!

I had fun playing with some Crate Paper goods a while ago. The colours just jumped out at me and these two layouts came together super quickly!! The first one is of my little Lily having her first sip of water! She didn't mind it too much really! I can remember how Katie thought we were trying to give her poison, it took AGES before she finally accepted water and now that is all she will drink!

Well I'm going to try and relax today, planning on going to have a nap when Lily goes down this morning! Katie had a sleepover at my parents place cause my brother and his wifey is there :)

For those of you lucky enough to have a long weekend like me! Enjoy your day off!

till next time!!
xxxxx

And she is ONE!

2010-04-27T19:00:00.002+10:00

She is ONE! Unbelievable!
she is a CLiMBER! On anything and everything, she could care less. In her eyes everything is climbable.
She is CHEeKY!
She is DELIGHtfuL!
She is super SWEet!
She finds joy in making you laugh and when she sees you laughing she will do it again and again and again.
She can RUN!
She can stand on her TIPPIE TOES!
She can Clap HANDs!
She loves being up to MISCHIEF!
She decides to ignore the command of 'NO'. She knows what it means cause she will shake her head but keep doing it anyways.
She is a GOOD sleeper! I can pop her down with a bottle and she will settle herself. She naps twice a day around 9 and then 2 and sleeps for around 1.5hours or less. She goes to bed at 7 and sleeps till 5:30 when she asks for a bottle and then snoozes till around 7ish.
She Loves FOOD!! And is pretty adamant about feeding HERSELF. I have not really come across anything she doesn't like.
She loves to CUDDLE!
She loves to give KISSeS! She stretches her mouth as wide as it can go and plonks the wettest soggiest but most adorable kisses on your mouth .... or nose!! haha
She LOVEs her SISTER! They are getting to the stage where they will chase each other, catch each other and roll over and laugh and laugh, so sweet!!!
Her favourite toys - tv remote controls or the telephone *sigh* or any of Katie's favourite breakable toys oopsies.
She waves BYE with both hands at the same time and saying 'bye byyyye byyyyye'
She has a head full of adorable hair with the sweetest curls!
she can Blow although not strong enough to actually get the birthday candle out, but she tried hehe.
She weighs about 10kg
she can seriously turn my house upside down in record time! She doesn't really sit and plays, she picks things up and walks and walks and walks around with the thing till something else catches her eye, then she just drops the current toy to get the new one.
She still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.
she had a good birthday day, now for the party on sunday!!!

she thought the best idea was to kill the candle light with her fingers doh! Tough being a single mum and trying to get photos while no one is close to make sure she doesn't touch the candle!

Just a super quick tiny cake for the day. This seriously is so easy to make!! It is called a mug cake cause you are supposed to make it in a cup, but I wanted more of a cake look so made it in one of our cereal bowls! recipe is here at Scrapboutique!

Looking at her trying to blow the candle out - so cute!!

And her adorable tutu I bought, so cute!!

we had a beautiful day!

Beautiful Rainy Weather here

2010-04-21T11:39:00.000+10:00

We have such a beautiful rainy day here, just so peaceful and even a touch chilly, really nice for a change!! But then I love rainy days!!

I wanted to share this Fancy Pants layout with you all! I had super fun with it and even played with splashes of sunflower Glimmermist as well! This layout is now residing in one of the scrapbook frames that hangs on my wall!

I have been scrapping just a bit, not much though as I have been fiddeling with materials and crocheting and all kinds of fun things. But this is the photo I have used on my last layout, isn't it just adorable!!!

And then these two photos of our walk the other day. We live in a neibourhood that is really not all that great for walking, so walking doesn't happen very often. There are lots of young people trying to leave tire marks behind and we have also almost been run over (when I was pregnant and Katie was on her bicycle) by a drunk guy. I literally had to tip katie over to get her out of the way of the car and he missed us by such a small amount. But here are my two ready for a walk and ride.

Thanks to my sweet sweet friend who passed down her girls denim for Katie to wear, it fits her perfectly!!!

She is getting a bit big for the bike though haha. Look at those long legs!!

Lastly for the scrappy friends who check in on my blog!! Carrie from Paper Trunk is having a DT call, a really fun good spot!! Have a go!! You can find the call on her blog here!

Have a good week!!

2010-04-16T18:31:00.000+10:00

Some more prettiness to share with you all!! ANOTHER layout from that kit which you can find at Stamp and Scrapbook Madness! Another Lily layout, just a lazy afternoon in our backyard!

Some pretty things I have spied that make me feel happy inside :) I'm definately into shabby and ruffles atm!! This is an overseas shop which I won't buy from just cause it is a bit pricey in my land, but I can still ooooh and aaaaaah, here are two of my favourite things from ShopRuche.

Gorgeous gorgeous top!

And this super gorgeous belt!

I bought some gorgeous gorgeous shabby style material from spotlight tonight so I can make two similar skirts for my girls. I am going to alter this step by step by Ruffles and Stuff. I'm thinking only 3 layers will be enough, but I'm so excited, I can't wait to start!!!!

And this is what I have been doing with my time today. I am suffering from a really burnt finger too OUCH! I am making a pink one for Lily's 1st birthday party! But turning it into like a potplant style - you can find steps to make these here! SOOOO easy to make too!

Do you like my pretties today?? :) Pretty things make me all warm and oozy inside :)

Have a good weekend!!

Sweetness!

2010-04-14T19:04:00.000+10:00

This girl!! She is total sunshine filled with never ending energy! She wakes me up in the mornings by jumping in bed next to me and cuddling up and just starts talking and talking and talking! Sometimes it never stops haha! But I would never change a thing!! I love my life! I love tucking my girls in for the night, I love going in and checking up on them and seeing them sleeping so sweetly! I love their excitement as the morning arrives! I love hearing them chase each other through the house and listening to them squeeling with delight and bursting out in giggles when they catch each other! Sure not every moment with them is fantastic, some just darn challenging! But I love being a mum, they are my number one priority in life and they make each and every single day beautiful :)

Sweetness!!!

Sharing another layout from the Stamp and Scrapbook Madness Monthly Kit with you all! Prrrreeeeettttty kit!

Love to you all!
Jolene

News

2010-04-13T09:03:00.001+10:00

I have had to make another HARD HARD decision, the announcement is here.

It has taken me AGES of thinking and wondering before making the hard decision as I have loved working with the beautiful owner and team of Paper Trunk SO much. I have been on the team for over 2 years now! I am still trying to find the right balance in my life now that my family dynamics has changed so much and I'm finding that I want to have fun with a few more other things that I don't get the time for now, so I have made the incredibly hard decision to step away from my spot of the team.

I will leave you all with two layouts that I have published in Scrapbook Creations! I used the same 4 photos in 4 different ways in an article, what an interesting exersize that was! Here are two of the 4, both done with plenty of Paper Trunk yummy goodness!!

Thanks Carrie for such an awesome 2 years with your company!!

xx
Jolene

What I have been up to :)

2010-04-12T11:08:00.000+10:00

I have made more room in my life to fiddle on projects that are non-scrappy related! Like what?? Well I just taught myself how to crochet!! bwahahaha, I have made a total of about 5 crochet flowers, not bad considering I couldn't crochet yesterday this day, I love youtube!! hehe.

I am working on a slideshow/home movies dvd of Lily's birth! With pretty songs and bits and pieces, will share some of it when I'm done!! nearly there! Here is one of the little digi pages that is in the slideshow :) All of it is from Zoe Pearnn's digi designs.

I am starting to fiddle on bits and pieces for her birthday, can't believe in 2 weeks time she will be 1 :(

I have also have a scrappy page to share! One of the 4 pages from a kit we put together at Stamp and Scrapbook madness, you can order these online or pop into the store to purchase. My favourite kit to date! So LOVED IT!!!!

Well I'm back to the world of fiddeling on all things wonderful and beautiful!! Have a good monday! It is rainy here!

xxxx
Jolene

2010-04-07T09:10:00.000+10:00

My latest Fancy Pants layout. I think I'm in love with the new Road Show range, I keep on picking it up over and over again. And those alphas are to die for! I so need more cause mine is almost used up! Not too happy with the black butterflies, I wanted to bring in the black somewhere else so it isn't just the title in black but it now looks too harsh, so am thinking I might change them to a softer colour, what do you think?

We had a lovely lovely Easter. We had a picnic and egg hunt by Lake Baroon and it was just lovely! We stayed with my brother who also had a house full of 4 dogs and the kids just loved loved the dogs, Katie just loved playing with tug of war with them!

And one of Katie the morning we left, having an easter egg from her Aunty. I still have loads more photos but haven't edited them yet! I take all my photos in RAW format so I have more control when I stuff up the exposure! Which I tend to do sometimes!

Talking about photography, I'm off to a photography workshop at the end of this month and SO CAN'T wait! It was a gift from my scrappy friends for my 30th birthday! I enrolled in the intermediate class with Bluedog Photographic Courses, it looks goooooooood :)

Hope you all had a relaxing safe Easter!
xxxx
Jolene

at last something scrappy :)

2010-03-30T21:30:00.000+10:00

I must admit, I just haven't been scrapping all that much! Do you find that when you take some time off, it is hard to get back onto it?? Nothing I did worked for me, so I kept fiddeling and getting annoyed by the look of the layout and popping the layout aside to work on a new one (which is something I never do, I usually finish what I start!)

I decided to just leave this one where it is at, pop it in the album so I can stop staring at it wondering what it is that is bugging me so bad! So not overly happy with it, but hey it has one of the very first photos of Lily on here so had to share! I don't normally do b/w but she still has all her birth goo all over her which I don't particularly feel I have to see or share with other people lol. Loads of Websters and Prima here.

And just because I really love this little self portrait that I snapped with my handy little snap digi camera, here is a photo of me and my gorgoeus little girl at our recent break away!

Now, I'm off to try this scrapping thing some more, I figure the more I try the more the chances of my mojo snapping back into place - is that how it works?? What do you do when your mojo is on vacation?

2010-03-28T16:31:00.001+10:00

This mega sweet little girl is

11 months ALREADY!!

She is starting to look much more like a toddler than a baby and once again I just want time to slow down!

She can walk around with incredible ease now and can speed up to a tiny little run when she gets excited!

She only has the 4 little teeth still but it doesn't stop her from loving and adoring food, she tries anything, not fussy at all and of course loves being to make a mess and feed herself too!

She is a little koala cuddle bug, she adores cuddling and often wraps herself around my legs and around me like a little koala. When I'm on the floor she always comes over and comes and props herself on my lap, which makes it tricky when I'm brushing Katie's hair or playing a board game with Kates, but I love the fact that she loves sitting on my lap, Katie was completely the opposite, way too busy playing to be bothered with lovey dovey things haha.

Lily is around 9.8kg and is officially into size 0 clothes.

She is a complete chatterbox and adores to sing. Outdoors is her favourite place to be! She loves loves our dog and unfortunately seems to love the dogs food too YUCK!

Trips this month for her included a trip to the Sunshine coast to visit with her Uncle and Aunty in their brand new house! She loved their dogs and their puppies!! And she also got to go to the Gold Coast for a special holiday with me and Katie, 3 nights away, bliss!

She can wave bye bye to people and also says 'byyyyyyyye byyyyye' - way toooo cute!!

When she is doing something she know she shouldn't be doing she shakes her head, she still does it though, just at the same time as shaking her head haha.

She must be the world best climber!! She climbes onto anything and everything! And then she looks mega proud and checks around to make sure someone saw what awesomness she has been up to!

She is such a joy, such a delight and I'm so ultra lucky to have her in my life! She is forming such a gorgeous bond with Katie and I feel so blessed to have the priviledge of being able to be a Mummy to these two girls!! The world's most important job and most rewarding one!!

Hope you all had a good weekend!! Scrappy updates coming soon ;)

Self Portait photo and Fancy Pants

2010-03-07T21:16:00.000+10:00

Have you all had a lovely weekend??

I am still enjoying the rainy days we are having, just something peaceful and beautiful about soft pattering of rain all through the day! I made the most of the pretty green grass we are having, set up the tripod and popped the camera on self timer and grabbed some photos! Was fun, got all wet but was fun!

I have got the most beautiful new goodies from Fancy Pants, aren't these papers just totally scrumptious!!! I so enjoyed working with them! We are also ULTRA lucky to be working with Tattered Angels this month - so as you can see I turned a bit into a bit of a spray addict.

These photos of Katie are from last easter! I was HUGE, preggers with lily :) Just as any kid, my girl loves hiding those eggs over and over and over and over and over and over. And once the adults get tired of hiding them, she will hide them away for herself to find hehehe. Here she is closing her eyes while we rush around hiding them away :)

Lastly, I will share more from my little flower album soon, just need to wait for a gap in the weather to be able to take some more photos!! In the meanwhile, I just popped a little step by step tutorial up at Paper Trunk blog, so hop over there and go and check it out! I have a layout up of MYSELF too ;)

I'll have more to share soon! I have been having fun creating :)

In the meanwhile, make sure you have a good week!!

Gorgeous girl :)

2010-03-01T14:17:00.000+10:00

This gorgeous girl of mine is growing up so fast!! I was looking at a video the other night where she was around 2 years old and I was just amazed at what 2 years can do at that age!!

She is totally loving kindy! She goes 5 days a fortnight from 9-2:15. She looks forward to it and always babbles non-stop in the back of my car before drop off!

Her teacher says that she is a pleasure to have around. Apparently she is always playing and having fun, but occasionally she stops and looks lost, before spotting something interesting again and then pushing off with squeels. I think the lost bit might have to do with energy levels, cause she is totally buggered when I pick her up after school. She never sleeps in the day, she kicked out the day sleep when she turned 2, but I'm glad she does have some time while the other kids sleep to just relax.

They have been doing so many fun things at Kindy! They made a scarecrow for their veggie patch. They have learnt how to use scissors correctly by first paint squashing a butterfly shape and then cutting it out. They have learnt about the fire drill and have also had some fun creating volcanoes with bicarb and vinegar. This coming friday they have a kindy disco, and of course Katie just can't wait!!

She is learning lots of new songs which is so sweet to listen to. She has also picked up a 'baby talk' which is rather annoying ... must be from another kid at kindy that she is copying??

I love that her teacher does up a daily newsletter with some photos and info from what they have done the day so I can see what they are up to!

So glad I enrolled her in kindy!!

:)

I wonder ....

2010-02-27T20:57:00.000+10:00

I am wondering what Prima has up their sleeves now?? It can only be good!! So excited for whatever it is!!

Pop over here and check out their sneak behind the curtain ;) What do you all think it is?

If you pop over and check it out and spread the word, there is an awesome package of goodies to be won!!

Ooooh I love new things :)

xoxo

only 2 more months to go!!

2010-02-26T19:11:00.000+10:00

That is right! Lily-belle is 10 months old today! She is still the sweetest little monkey around! Here is my little monkey at 10 months!

She now has 4 toothie pegs! They are ULTRA sharp and can slice through skin way too easily - ouch! Her top two toothies has a pretty large gap between them, hopefully time will sort that out! No sight of any more movement in the mouth for new teeth yet!

She is for most part a totally happy go lucky little bubba! She is LOUD! So many loads squeels when she is enjoying her sister, her swimming or whatever else! Very cute to me!!

She can walk way too easily by now! Rarely do you see her crawl. She can bend her knees to pick up things when she walks and get back up and just keep walking without loosing her balance. She loves kicking balls while walking and is really pretty good at it!
With the walking comes the ability to climb and boy does she LOVE to climb!! I have found her on boxes, on my scrapping tote bag, on her highchair happily banging on the wall!!! On her sisters step to reach taps, and the other day she climbed out the slide outside from the bottom ALL the way too the top in super easy quick speed!

Her eyes are still dark but have lots of beautiful brown highlights! Her back of her head is covered in curls!! Oh boy do I have my work cut out for me!!

She LOVES people she knows and asks for a 'pickup' by either saying 'up' or popping her arms straight up in the air, so cute!

She LOVES cuddles, she is my little cuddlebug, Katie was always to busy to be bothered with love lol.

She has this very un-pretty face she pulls where she scrunches up her nose and her mouth and makes a load 'sniffing' noise, I'm still trying to figure what that is all about and still trying to catch it on camera to show to her on her 18th birthday hehe. I'm not a fan of that face lol.

Her car seat got changed to face forward this month. She is pretty petite for her age, she is still fitting into 00 clothes, so she lasted a bit longer in the backwards position than katie did.

She is taking 2-3 naps a day, mostly 2 if they are good naps. One in the morning, one late afternoon and off to bed around 7:30-8:00. She is sleeping through the night till around 5ish which is when she jumps in bed with me for a bottle and cuddles and if I'm lucky she might fall asleep for another little while.

She loves playing games, loves being outdoors. She can boogie to the sound of her musical drums which is totally sweet and adorable!

She loves food, she loves putting anything and everything in her mouth! Prima flowers beware!! hehe. She loves shaking things and throwing things.

She is just so beautiful inside and out! Precious!

Have a gorgeous weekend!!!

Bits and Pieces all over the place!

2010-02-23T13:24:00.002+10:00

Life has been hectic here, not bad, just hectic. Hence my absence from the blog.

First off I wanted to say a BIG MASSIVE thanks to Addicted to Craft for having me on board for the past year! It was an honour being on their design team! It was a hard decision not to reapply for this years call, but I know that I can keep up juggling everything the way I used to way back when :) Congrats to the new DT members!! Pop over to the Addicted to Craft blog and see who they are!!

Next, it was my turn to come up with something intersting for the Fancy Pants blog! And this is my little creation! I used my little journaling book (some pages had of course been torn out and used, but there was still plenty left over in this beauty) My focus is a technique album, making all these awesome handmade flowers that are floating around the web. So now all I need to do is reach for my album when I can't remember how to make them!! And there is still plenty of pages inside to add more - so for those creative souls who come up with these brilliant ideas, keep them coming!! Few more photos of this little album is on the Fancy Pants blog! As well as some tips and ideas ;)

While we are on the topic of flowers! Paper Trunk is having a Flower Festival on their blog. Loads of tutorials and ideas and inspiration will be coming to the blog from the design team. There is already one video on there from a previous Design Team member and I adore the paper towel flower too, so if flowers tickle your fancy pop over there.

Also talking about Paper Trunk, they currently have a little survey on the go and if you contribute your opinions you could win yourself some trunk goodies. The survey is quick, why not have a go and help Carrie out with ideas for future releases! See the banner on the top left hand side.

Okay think that is the lot hehe. More updates about my kids soon .... can't believe Lily is almost 10 months old booohooooo.

Oh last thing, an email I got today, gave me the giggles :)

25 REASONS I OWE MY MOTHER

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE ..
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL ..
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA..
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait until we get home."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING ..
"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE..
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT ..
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

25. And my favorite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.

Hope you enjoy!! Till another day my dears

Who is feeling Fancy?

2010-02-16T19:17:00.000+10:00

hehe! I have been playing with more Fancy Pants goodies! These were for the Vintage Valentine feature on the Fancy Pants blog! This layout gave me more headaches that you can imagine, it just wasn't working!! Once I found the lace and cut it up, it helped soften it all up and pull it together a bit more, but good golly it almost had me bonkers lol. Something different for me, but I do like the end result :)

Doing the happy dance as one of my layouts was featured as a favourite on the Crate Paper blog and I got to pick one of their new collections as my prize!! SO THRILLED as their releases are among my favourites from the 2010 CHA releases!!! I picked the Pink Plum collection, but only cause my favourite release Paper Doll will arrive at SSM soon .... I know cause I was standing next to boss lady when she placed the order hehe :) There is something peaceful and calming to me when I look at the Brooke collection too! Hope over to the crate blog and see the other winners and see if you can spot my layout ;)

I am playing along with another of my favourite release companies - Websters Pages is just awesome to be! I adore their shabby look, they are unique and I have begged my boss to get the latest releases in store!! They have a competition on atm, where you can win some Websters and Tattered Angels goodies!! HEEEHAY!!! If you want to play along it is SUPER DUPER easy! Hop over to this spot to find out how. How much gorgeourness is in this baby range - perfect for Lily, she is my shabby girl :)

I came across this girls blog, and OH MY how did I not know about her blog before!! Her creations are just so up my alley! Go and check her out - Karola!

Gosh think that is it for the time being! I'm teaching a class at Stamp and Scrapbook Madness on sunday, anyone around the Coorparoo QLD area, come and join me for some stamp kissing fun ;)

The sickies

2010-02-08T17:16:00.000+10:00

Had a great weekend! Then Sunday night arrived. I was buggered from work from the day and just wanted to do nothing! Home comes Katie and not much later she starts complaining of a tummy ache! And not much later after that! The spewing up all over the show starts *sigh*. The real test of single parenthood comes when the kids gets sick. So here I have a girl who is throwing up non stop, I ran for a bucket for her and come back and guess what I see .... having a speedy crawler in the house and vomit is not a good mix is all I'll say!!! What a merry mess!!
So I have had a testing day behind my back, totally tired, have my own tummy aches to deal with, plus that of my girl and a way too overactive baby! BUT I know I'll make it, cause I've done it before! We have just taken it EASY today, lying around watching tv and doing much of nothingness, well as much as possible anyways.

Katie's throwing up has settled after a whole night of throwing ups, she looks fine, but I know she is still sick cause she isn't eating and she isn't moving much which is totally unlike her busy self!!

In other news I had done another card!!!! What is wrong with me lol! This one is for the Paper Trunk Blog, if you are after the tutorials for the flowers or box, head on over there ;)

Now if only I can find somebody to give this card and box set tooo hahaha, oh well it was fun to do never the less!! I will be working on valentines day this year at the shop, so hopefully the day will pass by without too much pain ;)

Some quick snapshots I got today, this is what Katie has done most of the day, curled up on the lounge with a hotpack for her tummy, aircon on to break the humidity, but blanket to keep her warm lol.

And a super quick shot of adventurous Lily, who like her big sister and starter to walk at NINE months of age!! She manages about 3 steps before falling forward, but she loves practising none the less ;)

Look at that curl over her ears!

Hope you have a healthy home atm!!

SSM Feb Kit

2010-02-02T15:05:00.000+10:00

WOW, the start of a new month already!! Good golly! hehe, that is such fun words to say hah!

I wanted to share some creations that I did as samples for Stamp and Scrapbook Madness' February kit. We wanted to include the love theme in the kit without it being dedicated only to valentines love, so in this kit you will find some fun heart themes, but as you can see it is obviously suitable to kids or other photos too :) Very cutesy kit, and you even have a stamp included in the kit too! You can purchase the kit online here or go in and grab one from the Coorparoo store!

And I even did a card, WHAT DO YOU KNOW haha, and nope it is for absolutely no one, it will be on the display till Valentines is well and truly over!

So which layout is your favourite?? I love the pink 'love' one :)

Have a good one!!

Hmmmm can you see they are sisters??

2010-01-31T17:27:00.000+10:00

So I was curious and went looking for similar age photos of my two girls to see how different they are. And here we have it!! What do you all think??

And I also wanted to share a Paper Trunk layout with you all! I had fun doing this one! used some coordinations cardstock so I could sand out my 'paint' words, which worked pretty nicely :) And of course climbing into more of the Krafty papers and those scrummy Benny Alpha stickers!!

My heart is happy :) I'm watching Lily pull her blankie over her head to play peek-a-boo, so adorable!! Have a happy week everyone!

9 Months Old Bubba girl!

2010-01-27T12:46:00.005+10:00

Yesterday was Australia day! We celebrated being Australian by doing the typical Aussie thing, hanging out at the beach of course!! Well kind off! My Dad bought himself a boat a few months ago, and I don't get to play as often as I like cause I work on Sundays, so it was good to be able to head out with my family and enjoy the water! Of course even though we were slathered in sunscreen and I was sitting under the little roof in the front of the boat, I still managed to get some sunburn, ouchie! We were planning on having a barbie, but the barbie's were constantly occupied so we ended up settling for fish and chips instead :)

I'm starting to slowly think about plans for Lily's party, still a while away I know, but good to have some ideas right?

I'm leaning towards a chabby chic frilly look, but still ummming and aahing as I was going to do a 'you're my cupcake' party and have one of those MASSIVE cupcake cakes as her cake, too many cute things out there to do hehe :)

So far I'm leaning towards making a frilly Martha Stewart Cake

And having some 'mini' snacks, mini pink donuts etc.

Then I'm hoping to have her dressed in a frilly tutu that I will buy off ebay

and then having some triangle birthday banners hanging around the patio. LOVING those atm.
Some of her bits and pieces that I want to record for this last month :)

Personality - She is still the sweetest most content little bubba girl! She is always full of smiles. She LOVES to play chase, she gets so excited! She still kicks her legs like there is no tomorrow when she is excited to see somebody she knows. She loves to chat, 'mummmma' is still the only word she really knows, but we get lots of other sounds too. She is VERY BUSY she explores every inch of this house and turns everything upside down. Every single thing needs to go into the mouth. But she is usually very content just playing and exploring when she is awake, so I can usually get on with housework or freelance work while she is happy :) She has a super sweet friendship with her sister, I love watching them play!

Teeth - Her bottom two teeth is very clearly visible at the moment, so cute!! For most of this month she has had the most horrible white bulges on the top as the teeth made their way down, the right one has just the tiniest sharp point protruding and the top left won't be far off from making its break through. She has really been a trooper through it all, very rarely did I get tears and moodiness from the pain.

Developments - She is a super crawler by now, I'm amazed at how fast she can crawl from one spot to another! She can pull herself up without any worries. And she can go all the way on her tippie toes in order to reach up high for something she wants. She can easily open up the toy basket while using the other hand to pull out some toys.
Walking with some support or by touching the walls is a hot favourite atm and she will easily challenge herself by going from the chair to the wall and letting go for a little while. She has already given 2 steps by herself, falling over on the third, so I think walking is def not far off.

Sleep - Sleeping in her 'big' cot in her own room now. She adjusted really well and even though I think we both still miss our little cuddles at night, her sleep is so much better now! I still get a wakeup for a feed during the night, not that I have tried to hard to get rid of it though mind you, cause it is so easy, I just make her a bottle, pass it to her in the cot and she will just lie down drink her bottle and go back to sleep :) Sweetie pie! She has been waking up anywhere between 5-6 though, so that has been tough as I am a night owl and don't 'do' mornings very well!

Day time naps are pretty good too! One thing she does that Katie NEVER dis is to rub her eyes! When she gets tired she fists up her hands and rubs her eyes or crawls to me and asks to be picked up and pops her head down on me to give me a clue lol. Katie hated sleep, she still does, and she never just fell asleep while playing or eating as some kids do, it was ALWAYS a struggle to get her to sleep. So it is nice to have a girl who loves to sleep a bit more :) I still pat her bottom to get her to sleep, but just sitting down on my bottom, so no rocking/singing or anything, and usually it only takes 5 minutes or so :) She does object to being popped down in the cot, but usually settles herself back down after a little while of whinging. She has 3 naps, around 9am, around 1pm and around 4pm, on busy days it is usually only two naps and she copes okay with that too :)

Eating
Boy does this girl love her food, I think she will have food above her bottle milk any day! She gets her breakkie, lunch and night as solids plus bottle and then occasional bottles in between too. She mostly gets food from the bubby food bottles, and she goes through about 1/2 a bottle for her feeds, she seems to be liking anything and everything at moment, haven't picked up on any objections yet. When we eat, she makes 'clicking' sounds to signal that she wants something for her mouth too hehe, so cute!

Favourites
Favourite toys at the moment is def Katie's tea set, she loves munching on the pretend pies, cupcakes and drinking from the cups.
She loves her cornpopper and loves walking and pushing it all on her own, she is so proud of herself when she walks behind the thing too!
She ADORES playing 'peek-a-boo' and wants to do it over and over again. When she finds anything that will work as a blanket like a tea towel or her muslin blankets, she will pop it over her head by herself and giggle and then pull it down. This can keep her busy for ages! It is simply adorable!
And then we have one of those 'door' toys and that is another HOT HOT favourite, together with the indoor bins and the toilet of course!! doh!

On hot sweaty days her curls are clearly visible, I think I'm going to have another curly top girl on my hands :)

Well I'm excited cause it is SALSA night tonight!! Have a good day!

FOR SALE: EMBOSSING FOLDERS, SPELLBINDERS

2010-01-25T09:14:00.003+10:00

Hiya scrappers and cardmakers,

Just some things I never use and really should use the money for something else ;) if you are interested in any of these items, please leave me a comment with your email addy so I can email you to discuss. You can pay via paypal which is nice and secure for both you and me, or alternatively I am more than happy with direct deposits too :)

SOLD Spellbinders Nestability Labels 1 - Artisan shape - $33 plus postage
~~Used, but only a few times really :)~~

The Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One from Spellbinders Paper Arts has six dies in one! This is a square bracket with the largest die measuring 4"x4" and decreasing by 1/2" increments until you get to the smallest square measuring 1.5"x1.5"

SOLD Cuttlebug - Just My Type Border Embossing Folders - Very right floral spray border missing! No packaging - $6.00 plus postage

Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers Embossing Folder - no packaging- $6 plus postage

SOLD - ~~Cuttlebug Build a flower - Die cut and Embosser - no packaging - $20 plus postage~~

~~This die includes different petals and circles which allow you to create different flowers with a different embossing every time you want.~~

~~This die also allows you to create many other different shapes such as dragonflies and many other different flower shapes.~~

Let me know if anyone is interested otherwise I'll pop them on ebay :) Have a good monday!! On my agenda today - scrapping, freelance evaluation work, gym, anything else will be a bonus!! :)

See you soon :)

Isn't she lovely :)

2010-01-24T20:53:00.000+10:00

We got this gorgeous dress together with a few other gorgeous dresses from a gorgeous friend of mine! Katie being Katie ADORES dresses and wants to wear one every day ! She loved this dress and loved twirling in it! Doesn't she look just lovely?

I have started doing some dance lessons! I have ALWAYS wanted to learn to dance, and I'm having a BALL!! I have started off with some Latin Salsa, fun fun fun :) So that keeps me a little busy with two lessons a week, so excuse my quiet presence atm ;) It is all for a good cause!!

Hope you are all ready for a new week!!!

CHA is on - YIPPEEE!

2010-01-23T17:44:00.000+10:00

Well scrappers would know why I'm excited!! There are some companies that are releasing the most scrummy products! What is on your fav list?

My top favourites are:
Fancy Pants - gorgeous new designs, can't wait to get my box and play!!
Prima - can they ever do anything wrong??
Websters - loving loving websters atm
American Crafts - oooooh my first time EVER to drool over American Craft lines!!

A quick layout I did the other day, always fun to pop a layout together in no time at all, of course it helps when the photos take up a large space hehe :)

Hope you all have a good weekend!!! And if you are at CHA - NOT FAIR!!!

Day three of my holidays - christmas eve :)

2010-01-08T19:04:00.000+10:00

Day three was a goooooood day :) Once the family arrived us girls all went shopping and I bought myself two short dresses, perfect for the hot weather! We did some swimming, some more lazing around, some walking!

The evening consisted of meeting Santa as he arrived via the sea on a canoe. This is my gorgeous Lily waiting so patiently for santa!

Me in one of my new holiday dresses and my little baby, who is growing up way too quickly!

Santa arrived by boar and his reindeer wore budgie snugglers lol

He always throws candies for the kids, so it is a bit of a mad scramble getting lollies.

Look at Katie's cheeks, stopped to the brim with lollies lol.

She was so pleased with the amount of lollies she got, she also had some help from her Oupa and her Uncle Rudi too!

Little miss attitude, waiting for the fireworks to start :) Which I couldn't capture with the little point and shoot camera I had with me boohoo, but the fireworks were AMAZING!! Loved them!

A quick shot with Santa, before this Katie wouldn't go near Santa, but she decided to be 'brave' and asked if she could go and sit on Santa's lap :)

And that brings us up to xmas, but there are sooooo many photos I haven't even started to edit them yet!

It is weekend!! And I couldn't be happier, this week was one of the worst rollercoaster weeks and I'm glad to see the back of it!! A water pipe burst on top of the emotional things, so I had no water for a while as it was spraying a fountain, all fixed now though!

Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow, it is Leon's day to come visit the girls after church and I am thinking that getting out will be the best, so hoping the weather plays along!! Sunday is work for me.

What are you all doing this weekend??

Big hugs!

Day two of my holidays :)

2010-01-06T08:17:00.000+10:00

Day two arrived bright and mega early. There is nothing like getting up that early and watching the suns rays warm up the sea! Of course there were already other mum's pushing prams around and a few eager beaver exersize junkies running around. I was content to just sit and watch the sea while the girls got right back to turning the hotel apartment upside down!

After lounging around the apartment lazily, we headed downstairs to go and have a swim at the pool! I thought it might be tricky to handle Katie and Lily at a pool, but we were just fine!! Katie quickly made some friends and 'shoo-ed' me away, so me and Lily had a good play. My parents and Sister-in-law joined us a bit later which was awesome.

I even had my 'holiday toes' - see all pretty in pink :)

I lazed around in the sun, just chatting away!

and watched Katie swim, and swim and swim! She simply refused to get out of the pool, she was happy and having fun, so I didn't argue with her.

Lily had a few more dips in the pool and so did I - the water was just soooooooo good!

Back upstairs for some late lunch :)

And then we decided to go for a walk on the beach and have a play at the little kids park. Man alive it is good to be on holidays isn't it!!!

Day two was a GOOOOOOD day! So relaxing, so much fun! Awwwww, now I wanna go back for some more hehe!!

Stories from my holidays

2010-01-05T20:43:00.000+10:00

It was my first ever holiday with just me and my girls! The only time before that I was not together with Leon was once for a 2 night scrap retreat, so it was a big big thing for me! The first day was so incredibly hard, I kept on walking past things and remembering things. I would go 'oh, that is where we had our anniverary meal - an anniversary that we celebrated on completing the wrong date and only discovered later when my parents came to visit and was confused why we had our anniversary celebration lol'

I would remember the times we walked on the beach when we were younger as we only stayed a few minutes away from where my hotel was. The times we would sit together and watch the waves and winge about life and how it just feels like it consists of work .

Tooo many memories, mostly good, but a few not soo good, and it was just plain HARD! The hotel room felt empty and someone was definately missing.

It is hard, when you look at other couples on holidays together, snuggling up while they are watching the waves, or wondering the esplanade with ice-creams in hand, it hurts. It is hard watching the families play in the pools, together, with smiles on their faces. Good thing I had my sunnies on!

The first day was tough, but don't worry not all my stories will be about heartache.

The day started out really early in the morning ... tooooooo early!! Katie came RUNNING into my room and announced so excitedly that she better get dressed for the holidays and rushed back out again. The loud voice woke Lily up and she could pick up on the excitement as she gave some squeels. So at 6 o clock I was up.

Katie came running back out not long after, fully dressed, shoes and all! I went in to make her bed and saw that it was already done, beautifully done mind you!! So now I had to keep her busy while the time slowly ticked by till 11 when my parents would come by to pick us up!
It took lots and lots of 'No sweetie, it is not time to go just yet, we need to wait a bit longer!'

The drive went well! I think Lily slept for most of the way and katie was content in the back.

Booking into the hotel was exciting!! I snagged up the room for a massive bargain on http://www.wotif.com/ It was a mystery deal for $99 per night for us three. I was so stoked to find out that the hotel was a beautiful 4 star sea view hotel! BARGAIN! We had a seperate bedroom with a KING size bed, which was perfect as I could pop the kids in bed and then still watch tv in another room, brilliant!

I'm assuming the room is mostly used by couples as it had this window to see through to the shower/spa HAHA, not sure what the!!? Is that where the female does a strip tease in the shower for her partner? Or is it so that the male can sit in the spa and turn the tv so that he can watch sports hehe. Anyways it actually came in handy, cause I could sit in the spa and watch and see what mischief Lily was getting up to in the lounge area :)

See my new white bag on the table? I got it for my 30th birthday from my Sister-in-law and brother :) Noice!

We had a gorgeous see view from our patio

And we quickly explored the entertainment level with the BBQ, views and of course swimming pool and jacuzzis!

We had a long walk next to the beach! Unpacked and then went to get some groceries. It started to rain but luckily this hotel has an indoor pool, so me and the two girls headed downstairs and had a brilliant time in the pool! A low key evening, Katie took HERSELF off to bed when she saw the clock said it was 7 o clock, she was keen to go and sleep so that tomorrow can come around and she can swim and play some more :) Both girls slept really really well!! And I could watch some tv, read a book and just zone out before jumping in bed myself!!

I had managed the first day of the holidays, so I knew I was going to be just fine for the rest of the week's holiday ;) Stay tuned for instalment 2 hehe :)

CHA

2010-01-02T07:45:00.000+10:00

Man alive, it is getting to that time of the year for us scrapbookers! Soon we will be seeing loads of new products hit stores, I so can't wait to see what CHA will offer this time around!!

GCD has an awesome comp on atm, where you can win all 5 collections, sneaks are up on their blog already, loving some of those embies!! http://gcdstudios.blogspot.com/

Till later :)

Lily is 8 months old - holey moley!!

2009-12-30T22:19:00.001+10:00

Awww man, can someone make time slow down!! My bubby is growing up too quickly and even though I am totally enjoying her busy little stage, I want it all to slow down! She is sooooooo precious! She is total personality! She is easy to please and so full of smiles! She is a clever chickie and also has a musical bone as she tries to 'aaaaaah' along with music in the car, so sweet.

This has been a busy busy month for Lily! Cause she is such a busy girl!

* She quickly learnt to sit up straight and play early this month. Don't you love the good posture bubs have!! She can now crawl, stop, sit up and then crawl some more :) She can sit up straight in the shopping trolleys, no more trying to find the trolleys with bubby seats in them YEAH!

* Halfway through this month she started with all the sounds, she started by saying 'ba-ba-ba-ba' or 'da-da-da' with some squeels in between, so cute! She just very recently started saying 'mummm-mummm-mumm' while she crawls around looking for me, she knows that she is calling me and it just makes my heart swell with pride, I'm so lucky to be her mummy!

* Another 7.5 achievement is the cut of her first toothie, very sharp little tooth protruding on the bottom. Generally she has dealt well with the teething, but it has def turned her off food a bit and also have had some grizlllly days too.

* I love the speed of her crawling, she can totally zoom along! She knows how to crawl over the little ledge to the tiles from the carpet that leads into the bathroom and she has learnt how to crawl on her tippie toes when she is wearing a dress that keeps getting in the way!

* She is pulling herself up against everything and anything!! And of course waves her little magic hand and makes everything tumble off whatever it is she is against! She stretches up high to get to my scrap table, not long now and I'll have to pack away after scrapping boohooo!

* She loves the wind, she adores swinging, if she hears the creak of the swing when Katie swings she will start kicking her legs and squeeling (even if we are inside and out of sight!!)

* She is still an excellent car passenger, she falls asleep so easily in the car, a dream!!

* She is going to 'bed' around 8:30 and is getting up around 6:30, but I still get a few wakeups during the night, sometimes just brief but still.

* She LOVES food! She would have food above a bottle of milk anyday!

* She loves cuddles, but doesn't want to sit still at the moment neither though.

* She has experienced her first Christmas, I think she got totally overwhelmed with all the people around poor bub, but she is loving all of her gifts for sure!! She got a bubby musical piano from Daddy, a musical tower thingo from me and Katie (the type where you have the put the various size circles on the tower), a bus with jingly balls from her grandparents and tonnes of gorgeous adorable clothes from all the family!!

Love to you all!!!

I'm Baaaaack :)

2009-12-29T21:54:00.001+10:00

Not a long post today, I just wanted to say 'hi'. I'M BACK and I so don't want to be. We had such an AWESOME AWESOME holiday, man alive why do holidays ever end??

How was your christmas? Do you get anything from your wish lists?

I'll share more photos and stories from my holidays another day :)

But for now, I wanted to share this unbelievably boootiful piece of writing, from B-Splendid blog, I *heart* that blog!!

WHAT IS LIFE?

Life is an Adventure ... Dare it
Life is a Beauty ... Praise it
Life is a Challenge ... Meet it
Life is a Duty ... Perform it
Life is a Love ... Enjoy it
Life is a Tragedy ... Face it
Life is a Struggle ... Fight it
Life is a Promise ... Fulfill it
Life is a Game ... Play it
Life is a Gift ... Accept it
Life is a Journey ... Complete it
Life is a Mystery ... Unfold it
Life is a Goal ... Achieve it
Life is an Opportunity ... Take it
Life is a Puzzle ... Solve it
Life is a Song ... Sing it
Life is a Sorrow ... Overcome it
Life is a Spirit ... Realize it

-anonymous-

And lastly but not leastly ;) I wanted to say a massive big thanks to Nikki for just being mega sweet and also for giving me this blog award :)

To go with this blog award, I have to list 7 things you might not know about me.
Hmmmmm
1. I have a bit of a fear of water, something to do with me almost drowning when I was little and never learning to face my fear and learn to swim properly. Therefore when I went for scuba diving lessons a few years ago I kinda freaked out and only did the first fitness test and first lesson and never returned - lots of money wasted - I just felt like Doth Vader with that oxygen helmet thing on lol. DOH!!! One day I WILL learn to scuba, I sooooooo want to!!

2. I have no tatoos, although I always wanted one either on the back of my neck or by my ankle, just a sweet tiny butterfly :) Don't worry Mum, I'm not doing anything lol.

3. I have a 3 year uni background in Psychology, I did a combined Psych/ed degree, but when I came to Australia they didn't offer any similar degrees, so only finished my high school teaching degree.

4. I have been to China, my most memorable trip by far!!

5. Weirdest food I have had was deepfried bees - very nutty and crunchy hehe.

6. I am a Seventh day Adventist :) Which means I go to church on Saturdays :)

7. My very first piece of published work were some love poems for my (ex)husband. Hehe :) And then I got lucky and got a travel piece published about the Tiger Leaping Gorge in China together with some of my photographs, one of my proudest achievements to date!! I still have the magazine and it happened more than 4 years ago!!

Anyways, I best be going, I still haven't even unpacked and should prob get to bed, Lily is getting up earlier and earlier doh!!! Tonight is her first night in her own room, so wish me luck!!!

2009-12-21T22:34:00.000+10:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS!!

I am officially on holidays and we will be heading off to Mooloolaba for a week of peace, sun and family!! I wanted to wish you all a Merry, safe and precious Christmas! I wanted to say thanks! Thanks for just being YOU! Thanks for being such a gorgeous person! Thanks for being such a supportive friend even though we might possibly have never met in real life!! THANKS!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS GORGEOUS PEOPLE!!

Love to you all!!!

Mega mega quick

2009-12-20T21:03:00.000+10:00

I wanted to update my blog, but really my days have been so hard that I haven't been able to muster the energy to do so. So today, I'm not saying much, I'm just sharing some pictures ;)

A Fancy Pants layout done using a sketch from Scraplounge.

And my gorgeous girls, decorating or eating the tree :)

Have a good week!! It is christmas soon ;)

More from my 30th Birthday and Winner!!

2009-12-15T19:04:00.000+10:00

As promised here is more photos from my party. These will be the last ones, honestly I didn't take many because I just didn't think about taking more, I was tooooo busy having fun. Of course now I regret not taking more photos, I didn't take a photo of the chocolate fountain (which was a HUGE hit), or my boooooootiful birthday cake :( boohooo.

Here I am, with my two boooootiful gorgeous girls :) Can you see my cool marshmellow tree on the table behind us??

Here I am with all of my delightful scrappy friends!!! My awesome serviettes are on the table behind us, they are soooooo pretty :)

Me and one of my cousins :)

And me and my family, from the left, my cousin, my brother, me, my Daddy, my cousin and my sister-in-law :) Check out my gorgeous fairy lights behind our heads :) they looked sooooooo pretty at night time!!

And more family, from the left, my Uncle, my Aunty (where I think Katie gets her curls from ;), my Mommy with sleeping Lily-belle and me of course :)

So there you have it!! Was a good night, wish I could do it again :)

Thanks to everyone who voted for my layout! I got third place :)

Now for my random winner that will get one of my desktop calendars plus some Paper Trunk Benny Alphas, congrats to

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-12-15 09:02:22 UTC

So congrats to
Sarah Lou said...
all voted! god luck!

5:25 PM

Sarah can you please email me at pienaar(at)westnet.com.au and pass on your postal addy :) Thanks and congrats!

Gorgeous kids from my 30th party and some Xmas shares :)

2009-12-12T20:37:00.000+10:00

These booootiful kids were just absolute angels at my party, they were playing together so nicely, it was just a total delight having them around!! They gave us a few laughs throughout the night too! They did so well staying up! My girl is the oldest monkey and they all made it to 9pm (I think).

And I just wanted to share some of the christmas decorations I made with my Scrap.biz kit that I did a while back. This part of my house actually looks a bit more updated as my dad came around to help put up some more frame racks (I need to take a piccie to share cause I just LOVE LOVE it!!)

Our christmas tree is up AT LONG LAST!! Woohoo, looks so pretty! And i'm loving driving past all the pretty decorated homes on my way home at night!!!

I have more photos to share!! And of course will pick a winner from the previous post, you have till sunday to vote, so if you haven't voted, please do and leave a comment on the previous post to be in the draw ;)

Thanks to those that helped push up my ranks lol.

Catch you later aligators!!

Do you have a few minutes?

2009-12-10T14:00:00.001+10:00

I entered a competition to win a $100 voucher for scrap goodies!!! What an awesome xmas gift that would make!!

If you have time and don't mind, could you pop over and give me a rating of 10 :) - http://www.scraplounge.com.au/promotions/xmas2009/microsite/index.php?username=jpien2 Registration will only take you a minute or two :)

Go and vote and come back here, leave me a message to say you voted and I'll enter you into a drawer to win one of my desktop calendars, and a few of the new Benny alpha stickers from Paper Trunk (yes that is what you call bribery hehe )

Thanks so much!!!!

Quick share from my party!

2009-12-08T17:17:00.000+10:00

Well, unlike my actual birthday day, my party was a BLAST!!! I had the bestest time!

Everything was pink and pretty :) And except for my silly lanterns who only lit up for like 10 min and then died on me, everything else did what it was supposed too. I was frocked up - will share more piccies next time!!

We did 4 cocktails
1. Cool Summer - Orange/passionfruit/pineapple/Grenadine mocktail
2. Pussyfoot - Orange/lemon/lime/lemonade/Grenadine mocktail
3. Tequila Sunrise - Tequila/Orange juice and Grenadine Cocktail
4. Silk Stocking - Tequila, cream. creme de cacoa, Grenadine Cocktail (most popular one by far)

For food we had:
- mini quiches
- asparagus tarts
- date bread slices
- Cob

For deserts we had:
- caramel slices
- cupcakes
- milktart

- chocolate fountain with marshmellows, bananas, strawberries, pretzels, cherries to dip.

Gosh think I have it all, thanks to everyone who made something yummy to bring along!!

Will share more photos another day, I need to get my crew fed so that we can get to the gym for a body balance class (my first one ever, so looking forward to it!!)

Time to review my resolutions

2009-12-03T19:47:00.001+10:00

I have decided that for this year, I'm keeping my 2009 goals fairly simple and doable :) Here they are:
* ~~Improve my photography skills~~ I still want to keep working at it, but think I have managed to bring my photography skills up a notch :)

* ~~Try to hold back on my photoshopping, I go a bit overboard cause I have so much fun haha Done -~~ I'm holding back, sometimes I still catch myself doing toooo much, but at least I can see it now and go back a few steps :)

* Enjoy the moments that a newborn offers, we got so stressed out with each cry from Katie that I think we were to scare to breath, and just take a moment to enjoy that fresh precious new stage, this time will be different :) Hopefully haha. I definately relaxed more with Lily and just enjoyed her even amongst chaos that life brought my way. Wouldn't have minded if she stayed little for a wee bit longer though ;)

* ~~Hope and wish to get front cover of a mag?? That is not too much for to wish for is it?? hahaha. Oh well I can always hope.~~ Weeeeee I was lucky enough to make it on there once this year!! Totally lucky!!

* ~~Focus on the things that are good in my life instead of the things that bring us down.~~ I think I was forced to do this one in order to cope with changes in our house, always a good thing though isn't it, to focus on what is good and precious in our life instead of what is going wrong!

So I am pretty proud of myself for being able to cross those off the list!! I'm already starting to make some goals in my head for the next year.

1. To save up to xxxx amount of money
2. To get to and stay at my goal weight
3. To take some dance lesson - I ALWAYS wanted too, never had, something Latin I think :)
4. Fixing few things up around the house, I would love to finish painting the inside, popping in new light fittings and new bathroom mirror/cabinet at the very least.
5. Go for at least one mini photography course

More too come, I'm still thinking, think I need more challenging ones in there :)

Who of you make goals??

Birthday done and over! Party still to come!

2009-12-01T11:32:00.000+10:00

WOW, I never imagined how unbelievably heart wrenching my birthday would be. I could care less about the age, but I just really badly missed that someone special to wish me a gorgeous birthday. Sure everyone spoiled me :) My Mummy and cousin came over to keep me busy busy and help with the kids. I got some gorgeous flowers. But my heart was just utterly empty and missing someone so incredibly badly. He did call to say Happy Birthday, but I couldn't bare it so just broke down and cried and cried and cried, so I didn't hear from him for the rest of the day - can't hardly blame him lol.

SO I'm so glad it is over. I'm trying to recover today and get my strength back together, bit hard, but i'll get there.

Those 'firsts' are always the extra hard ones, first day, first weekend, first birthdays - next challenge - first xmas!!

So here I am - a whole 30 years old!! Blessed with two super gorgeous girls in my life!

Not much else happening here atm.

Hope you all have a gorgeous week.

Lily-belle is 7 months ALREADY!

2009-11-27T21:11:00.001+10:00

I feel like I just blinked and suddenly my little girl is crawling, I just blinked and my little girl is pulling herself up against everything. I mean honestly - we are almost in december!! EEEEK!
It has almost been 6 months since Leon moved out, yet somehow it still feels like it is a dream.

I have had an aweful few weeks, life is dead set against me!! I know it could be worse though, these are small things, but boy do they quickly add up to a self pity party lol.

1. It started out with me backing my car into a tree!! I was sooooo incredibly tired, I was having a shocking emotional day and it didnt even cross my mind to check behind me. Im thankful it was only a tree and that I have a towbar on my car. Still very embarrasing as I was at playgroup oopsies.

2. I locked us out of the house. I picked up Leons car keyes, locked the door from the inside and only once it was closed realised I had the wrong set of keys, of course he doesnt have keys to the house anymore and it was such an incredibly hot day outside, luckily my parents have keys to my house and could come to our rescue. So our family day was cut a bit short, but we still got out to mount tamborine though.

3. Next I turned up to work on sunday with the wrong bag and no keys for the shop, so I had to bother my poor boss on the only day she has off to come and unlock for me.

4. My garage remote control stopped working meaning I had to take a detour through the house to get to the back and then into the garage, normally not a big deal, but with a baby and bags and all kinds of things, just too much effort sometimes.

5. I burned my finger on the iron - cause I wasnt looking when I picked it up and just assumed the handle was showing my way, of course the hot iron plate was there instead OUCH!!!

6. I burned my tong on some incredibly hot coffee - TWICE!

7. I tried to start the car to get to work and guess what - NOTHING, it didnt even make the slightest attempt to start, $230 later :(

MAN ALIVE!!!!!

Okay onto good and better things!!!

Lily-Belles 6th month

- She started doing a caterpillar like crawl at the start of the month, now she is crawling around way too much, ending up with red little knees - poor thing

- She just recently started pulling herself up on things, hectic! She is now standing up by Katies table pulling water and plates off ugh! She pulls herself up by the bath when Im bathing to try and drink the water by using her hands

- Sleeping is a bit more unsettled than normal as she is constantly trying to crawl in her sleep and then wakes up a bit upset.

- There are some big lumps in her upper gums with her teeth coming through, but all still gummy smiles here!

- She is still as friendly as can be and smiles away through most of the days. She will easily fall asleep in the car on a ride.

- She cant sit still anymore though, her legs and arms are constantly going and she will try to wiggle off your lap and onto the floor to play!

- she is 8.1kg at the end of the 6th month and wearing size 0 clothes.

- She still has the eye infection - doctor said we will need to wait till she is 1 before they can investigate her tear duct more closely.

Scrapping

Im hoping to get some photos tomorrow as I havent taken any for ages!!! Just not right I tell you!

I will leave you with a sketch that I did for a challenge blog that Yuko from JAPAN runs!! How cool is that!! - Scrap in Japan They got 58 entries based on my sketch - HOLEY MOLEY!!! Check out all the interpretations here

Have a gorgeous gorgeous weekend everyone!! This is my last weekend as a 20-something gal :(

Can I just say ....

2009-11-25T08:17:00.000+10:00

WWOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I can just jump out of my own body with joy! I got on the scales this morning and am officially a 60's weight girl, does it matter that it is 0.1kg under 70? NOPE, I just loved seeing the first number as a 6! That was my ultimate goal to reach the 60's weight wise before my big 30th!! So here is hoping I can keep it there for 5 more days! Still some kg to go to get to my goal weight, only 3kg away form my pre-baby weight. Love you Jenny Craig!!!
Okay proud moment over and done hehe :)

A few things to share :)

2009-11-23T21:33:00.000+10:00

It's been a while! I'm madly trying to catch up some things and have just pushed scrapping out of my list for a short while! I am busy organising my party! Have chinese lanterns, have my cocktails sorted - three pink ones hehe, everyone is bringing a dish, so I will only have to organise the chocolate fountain goodies and the mini donuts and pizza scrolls.

I wanted to share this group photo from our recent retreat with Scrapboutique!! Can you spot my cheesy grin?? hehe

I also did up some super cute little christmas cards with the Scrapz.biz Ticklez kit for November. The Bauble is actually an acetate journaling page out of the Making Memories journaling booklets. I just cut it to shape like a bauble, outlined it with a silver pen and topped it off with a ribbon, so super duper quick! The letter stickers are by Paper Trunk, their new Benny stickers, man alive I'm loving loving those!!! And I just handwrote the christmas with a white pen.

The next little card, using more of that same acetate journaling sheet, topped off with handcut trees from the MM christmas range. A few ribbon stars and some pearl brads and more silver pen work, more gorgeous Paper Trunk Benny alpha stickers and whala!

And lasly more journalling page bits and pieces and this gorgeous yummy handmade flower that my gorgeous friend Liz taught me at the retreat! Quick easy and looks super effective!

Lastly, a layout I did at the retreat! Gorgeous little Lily when you she was only a week old, so cute and tiny! Using some websters pages, bazzill and a MM journaling page. Again more Paper Trunk Benny Alphas! Told you I love them, I think they are like $3.95 a sheet (I think) honestly request them at your LSS if they aren't there, the font is just super fun and the size is just perfect, they come in a range of colours too!!

Those red flowers are very simply a scalloped circle and then I cut in at each scallop. I use the nestabilities which you can buy from Stamp and Scrapbook madness, together with the Swiss dot embossing folder, also from Stamp and Scrapbook Madness. They also have printblock albums back in stock! There is a new yummmo brown! But the American Craft albums aren't much more exxy as they already come with 10 refills, loads of those came in recently too!

My family have a bit more drama going on atm, so if you are a prayer please keep us all in your prayers, it all seems a bit never ending and sometimes it feels like it could be much easier to just give up than keeping on pushing on! But I now know I have the strength to deal with all these things life seems to chuck our way, and for that I'm thankful! Here is one super gorgeous little prayer that our church sent out in their last newsletter! So sweet!

Dear God:

Please untie the knots

that are in my mind,

my heart and my life.

Remove the have nots,

the can nots and the do nots

that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,

may nots,

might nots that may find

a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,

would nots and

should nots that obstruct my life

And most of all,

Dear God,

I ask that you remove from my mind,

my heart and my life,

All of the ‘am nots’

that I have allowed to hold me back,

Especially the thought

that I am not good enough.

AMEN

Author known to God

Love to you all!!! I better get back to it hey ;)

Another Christmas Layout!

2009-11-17T16:19:00.000+10:00

Another layout from my guest DT gig at Scrapz.biz this month!! This is my second layout from their Tickelz kit and still have more and more and more goodies left!! Loving the little fun things like the pins and little maya material flowers, and that prima thingo is pretty noice too!!

Here is the link to their kit if you haven't checked it out yet you should!!

I went away to a scrap retreat this weekend past!! Will share more on that later, I'm STILL trying to recover from the lack of sleep lol!!

Have a good week everyone!!

Getting in the mood for Xmas!!!

2009-11-07T20:15:00.002+10:00

Close to Christmas last year, pregnant with Lily-Belle here :)

I couldn't resist getting all hyped up and excited for Xmas when Heike from Scrapz.biz sent me one mega gorgeous and scrummy Xmas themed Ticklez kit!! This kit is full of little treasures!! Lovely papers! That music note paper is all glittery, so gorgeous!! LOVE those little Maya Road material blosooms! I will be doing one project a week for her this month! Thanks Heike for giving me a chance to have fun with your fabulous kits!!

If you love christmas!! You will NEED this kit, such AWESOME value for only $39.95, go and check them out here!!

And while you are there, pop over to here to read my quick little interview questions with her!

DESKTOP CALENDARS - $12.95 plus $2.95 postage to anywhere in Australia!

I did have a few requests to have an option to buy some of my etsy stuff in AUS dollars, so here is the first one, the desktop calendar with my floral photos. Just click the buy now button to pay via paypal OR click on the contact me button on the top just under the logo to send me an email for direct deposit details!

How is everyone's weekend going? Doing anything interesting?

I'm off to work tomorrow :) Should be a busy day as I'm teaching a class plus there will be a kids party there too!!

Have a good sunday!

Grab a gorgeous kit!

2009-11-03T12:55:00.000+10:00

I had SO much fun playing with the gorgeous November Monthly kit from Stamp and Scrapbook Madness! It is excellent value too, over $40 in value for only $35. I got these 4 layouts done but still have plenty of bits and pieces that I'm planning to use for some cards!!

Hop over to Stamp and Scrapbook Madness to grab a kit while they are still there!!

I had a another sleep in this morning till 9:30!!! Man alive I love having my Mummy here!!!!! Am off in a little while to get my hair cut wooohoooooo! Nothing major, just a trim and shape up :)

Hugs

YAY! My Mommy is staying with me this week!!

2009-11-02T10:44:00.002+10:00

I am sooooo excited to have my Mommy dearest staying with me this week! My Dad is off to a bootcamp for the week (much to his disgust, his boss thought he was treating him to something special haha). So I have the pleasure of having my Mommy's company and help! So I can get a few jobs done around here that desperately needs some TLC. Today I'm cleaning my house from top to bottom, doing washing and then off to the gym later tonight!

Tomorrow is swimming and then hopefully a MUCH needed haircut! I have sooooo much to do! Hopefully I can get a few crossed off my list by the end of the week!

My party planning is coming along nicely, less than a month till the big old 30 argh! I have lanterns ordered and they are in the post on their way from China :) 5 hot pink ones and 5 light pink ones wooohoo! I have some icicle lights to put up. I have some hot pink plastic cocktail glasses, the invitations are made, just need to go in the post! And then I'm going to look into what nibblies to have and what cocktails to serve :) So excited! I am inviting 30 guests for my big 30 :) Pretty cool huh - purely by accident, my Mom asked me last night how many people are coming and she picked up on the fact that the 30 guests matches my years hehe. Alot of those will be kiddies though :)

Some scrapping to share! My latest creation for Addicted to Craft using Maya road black sheer albums and some Rouge de Garange papers, very bright very fun and very happy papers! So I made a 'happy faces' book for me to look through when I'm down to cheer me up hehe :)

Also don't forget their 12 weeks of christmas competition they have on, if you enter you could win a guest dt spot with them!

I better get off my bottom and start doing some of those things on my list hey ;)
Have a good week everyone!

@ 6 months

2009-10-31T12:46:00.001+10:00

@ 6 months of age!!

How the heck did that happen, boy they grow quick don't they?? I don't even remember the tiny squishy baby anymore. Instead I have one ULTRA wiggly little bubby.

* Lily is weighing around 7 kg at the moment
* She learnt to roll over (AT LAST - katie could roll over at 3 months already)
* She is on solid food and loving it! She is getting about 2-3 solid feeds a day
* She is mostly wearing size 0 clothes
* She is LOVING any toy or anything that looks like it could be a toy. So much so that while you are walking with her on your hip she will throw her body to the side in order to try and reach something as we pass by it!!
* Still loads of squeel noises, so cute! She loves 'blowing raspberries' while her dummy is in her mouth, and then the thing flies out of her mouth at full force lol.
* She has had a pretty good month health wise.
* I'm busy weaning her in prep for my retreat weekend away - she is loving her bottle now, but didn't start out that way!
* She is still in my room - ssssshhhhhhhhh! I know she should be out, but she kinda keeps me company in there at night.
* She won't be too far off crawling, she can get around pretty well already, just by rotating on her belly to reach toys. She is doing 'pushups' on her tippy toes and sometimes realizes she actually needs to put her needs down, but then she does the rocking forwards backwards thing, soo soooooon my life will reach a new level of busyness.
* She was a finalist for a pumpkin patch competition (didn't win though boohoooo lol)
* She is a really content and happy munckin
* I love how easy she is to have in the car, most of the time she just pops off to sleep by herself, sooooo sweet!!!
* She is pretty much having 3 naps now, one in the morning, one afternoon, one early night time.
* Going to bed around 9-10ish, another feed around 4-5am and then more sleep till around 8. A few wakeups in between though.

Have a happy weekend everyone!!!

Sugar.Sweet Divine Felt Flower Accessory

2009-10-25T22:42:00.000+10:00

This gorgeous gorgeous mega sweet model is posing for photo of my newest addition to Sugar.Sweet.Creations Etsy. This little hair band comes with a detachable little felt flower brooch! There will be a few different colours coming up, but only in limited numbers as I can only make 10 of these beauties with my free pattern licence ;) So if you like the idea of having an accessory that you can pop on a hairband, on a jacket, on a handbag, or whereever else you want, pop over to My Etsy and buy it now ;)

How is that for an ad hehe :)

Thanks sooooooooooooooooooooo much to everyone for all the tips, links, ideas or just sharing of similar situations on Katie's sleepless nights. It makes me feel sooooooooooo much better to know that I'm not alone, other mums are suffering from sleepless nights too and too know that other mums have fun little things that work. I'm slowly test driving a few of the ideas, nothing working yet, it is 10:45 and already had two wakeups from Miss K tonight argh! But something somewhere will work so THANK YOU for taking the time to write!!!!

I had a pretty good weekend here, but just HOT, I even had the aircon running on Saturday. We got the free insulation done a week back and must say that I can feel the difference though! No longer to I walk in from being hot outside to an even HOTTER house, I can now feel the house cooling me down as I walk throug the front doors!! Loving it!

I will have a few more scrappy projects to share soon, I have just WAY too many scrappy deadlines at the moment, will need to slow down me thinks, it is started to stress me out instead of relax me ------ nooooooot gooood! So thanks to those I asked for a bit of scrappy downtime, will be nice to just breathe :)

I better go and get in bed!!! Nighty night and have the most boootiful Monday!

Happenings over here :)

2009-10-20T15:46:00.004+10:00

I have been MIA for a while, mostly because I'm soooooooo tired,

This moody pants girl below is just not sleeping well at all!! She has never been a good sleeper, but ever since everything happened it has just gotten worse, she had me up at least 6 times the other night and lily has me up about twice or more depending on if she gets woken up by this girl. So I am left with a tired girl during the day which = tantrums argh!! Any tips are most welcome!! i have tried a nightlight, music, lavendar spray. We have a good night routine which includes a story, practising our bible memory verse for church, praying and hugs and kisses. She goes to sleep NO PROBs at all, just wakes up alot during the night.

This little gorgeous girl below, has at LONG LAST learnt how to roll!! Far out it has taken her forever lol. Katie was rolling by 3 months, Lily is 5.5 months! But now that she has got it, there is absolutely NO stopping her, she is getting to where she was, so cute! So much easier, as she isn't crying as quickly when she is on her tummy any more!

and ME? Well aside from being beyond exhuasted from lack of sleep, not much else has been happening! But I do have a layout to share that I did a while ago. This one is featuring Paper Trunk Goodness! The Kraft papers and goodies is from their new scrummy collection kits!

I am starting to get things a bit organised for my 30th that is coming up WAY quicker than I would like argh!! I bought myself a nifty little chocolate fountain from Sam's Warehouse for $19.95 - BARGAIN! I have a friend who is going to see if she can get some Chinese Lanterns for me - Thanks Kerry!!! I have another friend who said I can borrow some Cocktail things from - thanks Leah!! Am looking to borrow some fairy lights though if anyone closeby has any I could use at the end of November??
And of course need to get a pretty dress too :)

Otherwise, I'm starting to get some goodies into my new Sugar.Sweet.Creations etsy store. Just some bits and pieces, if anyone is interested in these but want to pay in AUS let me know and we can arrange payment by paypal/direct deposit.

This is my first gift box - more coming as I get time ;) Each one will be different and unique :)

More info about this Gift Box - perfect for a christmas gift!!! here in my etsy store!

And if you love calendars, I have got a few photo desktop calendars printed with some floral photos I took. I have popped some quotes on, the quotes aren't as clear as I would like, but still readeable, I was so proud of my photos, they even have some textured layers on, soooooooo pretty!!! i have one large hanging one on its way too, sooooo exciting!! You can find the calendars by themselves in my shop here

Scrapping:

I am loving the look of the cuteness of the 'Love Bandit' line by Bo Bunny, sooooo cute!!

I am currently working on a mini album for Addicted to Craft which is almost finished, then I'm moving onto a christmas layout ;)

I'm looking forward to:

A scrappy retreat that I'm attending mid November, I sooooooo need the break, so can't wait!!!
Hope you have all been well and happy :)

Having fun in our backyard and another layout share :)

2009-10-09T20:10:00.004+10:00

We popped a large piece of butcher paper on the fence so that Katie could go and paint away :) She loves the use the roller, don't care much for stamps haha, so she was rolling away, yes my fence does have some pretty paint on it now, but I don't care ;) She had loads of fun!! Good way to paint and make the mess outside instead of inside!

And I have a layout to share using more gorgeous FANCY PANTS goodness!!! This one is of Lily's one month photos and that little tag on the left side pulls out with all her achievements etc.

Am looking forward to tomorrow as we are off to Mount Tamborine again! We love going up there and taking a walk to the waterfall and strolling around the Botanical Gardens, always good to make a pit stop at the bottom of the mountain and buy some South African treats from the South African shop there :)

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend!! And thanks so much for all those gorgeous comments on my previous post MWAH! and HUGS!

Moving on!

2009-10-08T19:57:00.004+10:00

“This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days,

smiles when sadness intrudes,

rainbows to follow the clouds,

laughter to kiss your lips,

sunsets to warm your heart,

hugs when spirits sag,

beauty for your eyes to see,

friendships to brighten your being,

faith so that you can believe,

confidence for when you doubt,

courage to know yourself,

patience to accept the truth,

Love to complete your life.”

That is my wish to you - every single one of you - even for a few of you who seem to think it is appropriate to anonamously post nasty and offensive comments about me and my marriage - may you find peace in your hearts! and joy in knowing that you can make people smile and not cry!

I love my blog, becuase so many gorgeous beautiful people visit it! I love my blog because so many people care! I need my blog to help me get through days! So I'm blogging on! I've taken a deep breath - I have family and friends who love keeping up to date with me and my girls, if you are not one of those people move on will you!

I'll leave it at that - I'm moving on, and ignoring yesterday.

I'm smiling today cause I got to scrap with a beautiful precious friend! And Katie got to play with one of her favourite gorgeous little friends! What are some things in your day that made you smile???

Will be back next time with more photos and another layout share!! :)

Tomorrow I'm off to work and then it is the weekend YAY!

hmmmmmm

2009-10-07T12:40:00.002+10:00

WOW! My heart is sitting in my tummy atm, I'm not too sure that this blog where I can share info with family and friends overseas and fellow scrappers is the best way to go??

New things coming!!!!

2009-10-05T08:25:00.005+10:00

Happy Monday!!!

A start of a new week!! Hopefully a good one for a change! I keep plodding on, am just riding out this roller coaster ride of my life, so glad that this massive big challenge in my life is getting to be in my past rather than my future!! It will be 4 months soon since Leon made the choice to start his new life some place else, it some ways it feels much longer, in some ways I still can't believe this has all happened to us. *sigh* Life keeps plodding on and every day I say a prayer of thanks for having my two girls in my life!!! I do still have things to be happy about and things to be thankful for even when the loneliness seems to take over my whole body!!

I have been scrapping!! Mainly to get a my DT projects done for the last month!! But I did enjoy what I came up with!!

I actually printed this photo below of Katie for one of my frames in my house, but for some reason it got printed landscape and not portrait so some of the top and bottom got cut off which left it to small for the frame, so I put it to good use by doing a layout, all yummy Fancy Pants goodness!!! Some of the Kraft line, some of the Dancing Girl, some of the previous release stamps and some of the older style felt.

Talking about Fancy Pants! Did you all know that they have now created a site for all of us!! Meaning us Non-Retail people :) That is right!! There is now a site where you can go and share your Fancy Pants creations in their gallery PLUS they are offering some BRILLIANT, yep BRILLIANT Fancy Pants bundles of goodies at amazing prices!! Mostly older goodies but seriously go and check it out for great prices for awesome goodies!! Get Fancy Studio

Now if you have been wondering what my title of my post was all about!! I'm not saying TOOO much yet, but down below is a new little banner for my Etsy store!! There is nothing in there yet haha! BUT I am working really really hard at creating some Xmas boxes for females - sorry I'm hopeless with boys, so go and buy your normal boy xmas presents!! and hang off for the females/girls, as you might want to grab one of my unique little combos!! They aren't scrappy ones :( but there will be handmade goods, some bought goods plus some of my photography goods in them! So look out soon!!! My first little Sugar.Sweet Xmas Box is coming soon!!
I even wrote my own little thank you poem for the thank you cards! HAH I was so proud of myself!!! And I'm NOT sharing it, you will have to buy something off me and support my new little venture in order to see the poem hehe.

LOOK OUT SOON!!!!

Lastly, talking about XMAS, pop over HERE!!!! Go and get in the Xmas spirit early, we are counting down, 12 weeks till XMAS

Catch ya later aligator!!

Have a bootiful weekend!!

2009-10-02T18:03:00.003+10:00

My latest creation for Paper Trunk using their awesome new Kraft Collection - totally in love with it!! I added in a splash of colour from older lines to add a bit of pop! Katie for her pumkin patch star search shoot :) These were some that didn't make the 'cut'. She had a fun time in the park posing for me though :)

Make sure you ask your LSS to get hold of the latest Paper Trunk line if you love Kraft, it is awesome!!

I had my first day back at work at Stamp and Scrapbook madness!! I will be working there again on fridays and Sundays, so make sure if you are in the Coorparoo area that you drop by and say 'hi'!! I just taught my first class there today, it was gooooood to be back!! I thought I would miss my kids, but can honestly say the break away in between adults was gooood for me!! Although I loved being back again! Poor Katie announced when I arrived back 'mum, I'm soooooo glad to see you, I was so worried about you!' LOL poor thing!

Have a good weekend!!! I'm intending to sleep as much as I can cause I'm buggered!!!! Kids have been sick AGAIN!!

Hugs

Pretty Please vote for my little Lily-belle :)

2009-10-01T15:24:00.003+10:00

Recently I entered my two gals in the Pumpkin Patch Star Search competition! Lily made it into the finalists - WOOHOOOOOOO! They have now opened up votes to the public before they announce the winner who will win a trip to New Zealand for a photoshoot for their catalogue :)

If you are in AUS and close to a Pumpkin Patch store, could you PLEASE vote for my gorgeous little baby girl :)

You can view the entries here, print off a vote form. And pop it into a store before 8 October!!! :)

Thanks so much!!!

Show me your brad storage!!!

2009-09-30T12:43:00.004+10:00

Hiya ladies, I'm looking for ways to improve the way I store my scrapping supplies, some things are working for me at the moment, others aren't.

I'm pretty happy with the way I store my brads, it works for me, but am always looking out for better ways to do it :)

This is how I currently store my brads, in one of these semi-clear organiser plastic boxes that have the compartments inside. This is a fairly large sized one, but as you can see some of my brad colours need more room.

I have organised these by colour, but with the way I store them, it can be fairly hard to find a small brad inbetween the pile of larger ones. I also have my Gem brads mixed in there too, so not the best system

So please share some photos of your brad storage, even if it doesn't work for you, I would love to see how scrappers organise their brads.

Simply click on the 'You are next' link down below and paste a link to your brads!! Thanks gals!!!

Playing along with IHeartFaces

2009-09-28T22:15:00.005+10:00

I decided to join in on the fun at I heart Faces Blog. The theme for the current challenge is blue!

Pop over and have a play, come on I challenge you ;)

Lily is 5 months old ALREADY!

2009-09-26T11:06:00.003+10:00

Holey moley, how did that happen??

I want her to stay small for longer, it is passing by too quickly :(

Lily is 5 months old today, it has been a crazy and hard past month, but also a really enjoyable one watching her grow and learn.

This month was hard cause of her flu, it left her with an aweful aweful harsh cough, I could hear her the sickness vibrating in her lungs when she was just breathing, it must have hurt her very much, poor thing. It took forever and ever to clear up!! So she hasn't gotten her 4 month shots yet cause the doctor wanted to wait for this to clear up first!
She is really into toys now, she reaches and stretches for them - still loves putting everything in her mouth. She enjoyes tummy time, but no rolling over yet!!! (Katie was rolling at 3 months, so I'm impatient hehe). She can though rotate on her belly in order to get to toys!
My favourtie baby stage - the playing with their feet! She has found her feet!! She can lie on her back for ages, just holding onto both her feet, man I lOVE it, I found it so cute and adorable!!!
She is into 00 clothes at the moment, but for pants she probably needs to go into 0 by now.
She has started to have some dinner solids. Just some farex rice with formula mixed in! Last night I gave her some apple puree and she had almost half of the little tin!!
I have also started to try and give her bottles with formula, I was suppose to start back at work this friday past, but Lily had other plans!! So bosslady gave me another week to get lily organised. She was drinking her bottle milk for lunch and she just LOVED it and suddenly one day, she decided to refuse it and just started crying when she saw the bottle!! I have her drinking again, if I try to catch her before she is too hungry. My plan is to replace her day feeds with bottles but keep her morning and night feeds on the breast, so wish me luck ;)

She is adorable with her talking/squeels, and is starting to do some of the spit bubbles with a 'brrrrr' type sounds thingo haha. So much concentration to make noice, so cute!! Still incredibly smiley, and occasional out loud laughs. She loves loves Mummy :) She just started crying when males take her (ie my brothers) hmmmm what else. She loves being outdoors. She is really easy to take out and about, such a content bubba!!!

Still drinking every 2.5-3 hours *sigh*. And still waking up once to twice a night. She goes down for the night around 10pm, wakes up around 3pm (but I don't feed her, just put her back to sleep) and then up again at 6am for a feed and then sleeping till about 8am :) Then she is up for a good 2 hours to play before having another nap.

Think that is it hehe. My brain isn't working anymore these days!!
Hope you all have a gorgeous saturday and sunday, we are off to a birthday party which will be loads of fun!!!