Wilderness

The Weekend Workout at Scrapapple was a doozie. The theme was "wilderness" to be interpreted however we liked. It didn't occur to me that the kids' bedrooms, or even the lounge room, could be represented as a wilderness. Douglas reckoned that the first things he thought of were loneliness, and maybe depression. Lucky him - he got to be the subject for my Wilderness Weekend Workout - take it whichever way you like. :)

LEGO is Legendary

I reckon LEGO is the best toy in the whole wide world. The kids make the most amazing things with it too.



Reuben made a cool spaceship that has four different modes: plane; spaceship; no cargo; and convertible for land use. The wings swing back and forth and there is a robot in the cargo hold.

Declan's construction has armour and shields to protect the people from fire. And wings.

Junk It Up

Pieces of Me.

Before scrapbooking I tried a lot of creative things. I didn't realise how much I used to do until I started looking at this project. The challenge is to "Junk It Up" at How Dare You!!

Sophie-Lee and I made a little foray into the three antique shops in Uralla. The inspiration just kept flowing as we browsed each nook and corner of these old and cold shops.

The first thing I laid eyes on was this very cute crocheted doiley and that set me off on a little journey of remembering. I taught myself to crochet after seeing a girl doing it at school. I added sheet music which I used to buy almost compulsively because I just hated seeing it lying there silent and alone. Music has always been part of my life (thanks to my Dad especially, who tried to give my sister and I a wide variety of musical nutrition) so I added that to my wall hanging.

I used to sew a lot. I did sewing at school, sewed for my children, others and sometimes for myself. There was a certain pleasure in tearing up the old pattern to stick it into my collection of memories.

Okay - there's more! Those knitting needles are the shortest needles I have ever seen and they were my absolute favourites - they were no good for knitting a scarf because the stitches kept falling off. Size 8 - great size for learning to knit (my grandfather taught me to knit when I was about 8 years old and my Mum kept it going).

There was a little patch in my life when calligraphy was my 'thing'. I bought the pens, the paper, books galore, and did works of art to hang on my walls. So there's a little snippet of an alphabet and a nib to remind me of those days.

I've doodled (just give me a writing implement and a scrap of paper when I'm on the phone and watch out!), painted, drawn, and sketched all my life - so there it all is as a sweet little reminder of the little creative things I have done.

Those buttons... Dad found a whole bag of gorgeous gold buttons (some with bling, some with pearl, or emblems, or just plain) at a garage sale and just couldn't go past them. I was impressed by the surprise parcel that arrived for my girls (I don't think they got much of a look-in) What a treasure - I am attracted to all that sparkles - sometimes more, sometimes less.

Oh! One more thing. There is a little collection of stones and another little collection of shells on my wall hanging. I used to collect anything and everything from shells to Readers' Digests, from gemstones to shoe boxes - so these signify my tendency to collect.

So there you go!

Cool Question

Reuben has always been one for asking questions. He's grown up a little since this layout and so have his questions. Here's one of his recent pearlers.

What if...
there was a hole all the way through the middle of the earth and out the other side and you dived in head first. Would you be standing up when you came out the other side?

What do you think? Scientifically? Hypothetically? Theoretically?

Weekend Away

I had a lovely weekend away with the Armidale Youth Orchestra. When I left on this bus tour I knew the names of the people I would be sharing a room with, but that's all. Rod McKuen said "Strangers are just friends waiting to happen." Now I have two new friends. Some people are stranger than you first imagine - not these two!!!

The AYO combined with St Peter's Lutheran College Orchestra (I don't really know what their name is) and performed beautifully in the chapel on Friday evening.

On Saturday evening, after a day at Dreamworld, we went to see Engelbert Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel - that was AWESOME - the sets, the lighting, the whole thing.

Listening to the AYO performing at the Queensland Art Gallery was such a beautiful experience. The orchestra was set up in the same area as a magnificent chandelier hanging over a fantastic water feature. The beautiful sounds of Khachaturian, Elgar and even the Beatles rang out through the gallery, blending with the artworks - even the gallery itself - and attracting an audience of young and old.

Two little girls in red and white dresses danced, free of inhibition, to the Teddy Bears' Picnic - it was gorgeous.

Here is one of my fave photos from my weekend (I was the 'official photographer'). There's art all around us if we can just open our eyes to it.

Crazy about Crayola!

I wasn't looking forward to finding whiteboard markers - most of the ones I have ever used smell too strongly for me. I was very pleased to find that Crayola have made some - I bought a pack of 8 "juicy" colours from
K-Mart - check them out.
Anway... The kids love them. I took this photo of the boys decorating the whiteboard and then the batteries in the camera quit. I went to change the batteries and when I came back the boys had rubbed out their artwork - so this is it! The good thing about the kids using the whiteboard is that it saves a lot of paper.

Bella!

I just received my prize pack from Bella and thought I'd show you what was in it. What an amazing parcel of stuff. Yippee! Thanks to Aussie Scrapjacked for picking me!

From one extreme to the other!

It's just that I have been waiting for the inspiration to scrap this photo which was taken in April. The whole layout has many design elements similar to Sheree McGee's layouts so I mention her here - I haven't decided whether it is a Scrapjack or not.
As the kids get older it's not easy to scrap them - they look at a photo of themselves and say "That's an awful photo!" I can't scrapbook if I know they hate the photo of themselves, so I have to run them by the kids for kind of 'permission' - which is what I had to do with this one. I do understand - mostly.

Wook Mum!

Well I'm making the most of my snow photos. I just love the look in Declan's eyes here. It's like I asked him "What do you have there?" and he's saying "Wook Mum! Work it out!"

July's Scrapjack

Well here is my Scrapjack of Sheree McGee's layout. I took this photo the other day of the last skerricks of snow. We are just waiting for that super duper fall of snow, meanwhile making do with what we get.