Last Layout of 2009

I managed to squeeze in one last layout before the year expired. I'm glad I did because I needed to do something just a little bit creative before I packed to go on holidays.

The children in this house know exactly who the tooth fairy is and what the tooth fairy is like. Caitlin figured that this tooth fairy needed a reminder - just putting the tooth on the windowsill (forget under the pillow!) is not enough nowadays - hence a quick note was written and tacked to the soap dispenser. Said tooth fairy got the message loud and clear.


The title of this layout is reminiscent of Six Word Memoirs (I'd give you a link but some of the memoirs are unsavoury to my taste so I'll leave it up to you to pursue if you want). Six Word Memoirs make me happy. (Ha Ha - I didn't do that on purpose!!!) They remind me of Renae and the times we spent ROTFL and coming up with anything but six word sentences.

PS Every time I see the last word of the title I read "reindeer"!!!
PPS I did 77 layouts in 2009.

What have we been creating? Part 2

What to do? What to do?


Susannah made this very, very cute triceratops in Uralla, so we're talking YEARS ago now. Cera has been on a long journey with us and has suffered much over the time. Somehow we seem to have NOT taken a photo of her in the past. My ruthless side says take a photo and chuck her out but my sentimental side just can't do it. I really want to finish her properly. So I've taken a photo and her new home is on top of my shelf - she sits there like a beacon, begging me to finish her off - one way or another. :)

Finnish Stars thanks to Meredith and this link on how to make them.



Of course, we didn't do it the easy way (we used cardstock-weight double-sided paper - hands and paper all over the place trying to keep it all stuck together. In the end staples did the trick.

What do you do with...
...the lining of a dressing-ups coat that is tearing?
Rip it out and make a doll.


What do you do with...
...swimmers that have seen better days?
Chop it up and make a doll.


I now have orders for more dolls. And I have a sheet that is no longer big enough for the bed!

Whiteboard Moments. The whiteboard in the office is well used. Not only does it keep us up to date on the happenings of our business, it keeps the kids occupied as well.


And here's one from last week. Manga is the style of the moment.


The other day I decided to just bog in and do something in/to my art room (yes I have one!). It started with organising my shelves. I had the idea of arranging all my books in rainbow order. That was mildly satisfying but it left the rest of the shelves with something to be desired - some kind of impressive colour arrangement.
Here's the result of a day and a half of me and my shelves - The Expedit of Colour.



So you've made it to the end of my update!
Well done.

Now let's see if I can keep up to date a little bit better.

What have we been creating? Part 1

What have we been creating in the last few months?

I booked myself in for an art journaling class with Dina Wakley and it happened right at the time of our move. Somehow or other, I managed to do it. I kept tabs on where my art stuff was at any given time and was able to grasp moments to produce an art journal - The Graffiti of my Life.

NOTE: I didn't however, manage to keep tabs on my kitchen scales, the fly swats, and other items for the kitchen. :(

So here's the progression and the results.


While I was sewing bits of the book I managed to just get my stitching finished with this much thread left. The bobbin ran out EXACTLY at the end of my sewing!


Later, when I needed to cut my cardboard longer, I needed to do some more stitching and I used every last skerrick of that thread!

I thought I hadn't done much creating but, looking back through the photos, I realise that I have, but it has been with the kids. So much fun.

Playdough Creations





Caitlin's Beaut Biccies - best kept secret :)



Remember celery doll?


She has matured!


Confetti Crayons - fun to do.


Learnt a few things here. There are crayons and crayons.


When it comes to colouring in with crayons I look through the collection and pick the nice solid looking colours - the ones that actually colour rather than leaving a candle wax resist effect. Well if you want to make confetti crayons you leave them well alone. They're great for colouring in, not great for melting.

Here's my favourite Confetti Crayon - made with all the little crumbs.



That's it for Part 1.
Now for Part 2.

It has been a long, long time.

It's been a long time
Way, way long.
Warning - it's a long post. It would need to be to catch up on 2 months' worth of stuff!

So here are some the highlights.
There have been a lot of low times as well, not the least of which being that I have had no access to the Internet on my computer thus making it a bit tricky to do blog posts.

Hennway. Here goes...

We moved - that's all I have to say about that.
Here's my favourite packing photo.


While I was cleaning the house back to spotless I was surprised by our scared little water dragon who scuttled across the window ledge (on the second floor). He didn't make it out of sight so froze - "If I stay really still maybe they won't notice me!" he stayed there for a very long time, so we all took at good look at him.


Did I tell you we had an early birthday party for Caitlin? That way Caitlin could have some friends around to help her celebrate moving into double digits. The date was set, changed, set again and finally Caitlin and I whipped up some cute invitations. This is her idea for a pose.


Q. What do you do when you can't find the gluten free packet cake that you normally use for visitors (cos it tastes 'normal' and the visitors actually eat it!)?
A. You go into creative mode, of course!!! So here's a castle/well constructed with gf wafer biscuits (pushing it for us) and beetroot-pinkified icing cement then filled with marshmallows - couldn't find a just-white-ones packet so pink and white had to do - it went with the theme.


We started moving on the 1st November and we finished moving, sort of, on the 6th November. Our new (as in current, not new. Or modern, as the ad led us to believe.) place is great. Interestingly, I don't mind the sound of the traffic swishing past - susurration is quite soothing. :)

I'll take you for a walk around the garden soon. Here's a photo to whet your appetite.



Quick Dad! Take a photo of this!!!


Caitlin's second birthday cake was a little more sedate. Cait had fun adding cachous to the drizzled on icing. When we came to have the cake all the cachous were gone!!! A certain little sweet-tooth had eaten them all. No worries - we had more to replace them.


Isn't she beautiful!?!

And here's a photo of Caitlin sitting on her bed getting stuck into a chapter book from her BFF Grace.


Could there be more fun than cutting the lawn with scissors?!?! Apparently not.
Check out Hudson's stance - that's because he couldn't find another pair of scissors. It's okay. We found some. 6 kids snipping away got the lawn 'mown' in no time. You know, they even suggested they could do it every week. We have a lawn mower now. :)



Testing out my lens, or camera, or something. Love this man!!!


I found this hibiscus on the ground under the bush so I picked it up, took it to the kitchen and a still life happened.

Still Life Involving Two Mangoes and an Hibiscus!


"Do you know a good photographer?" - it's a joke between Douglas and me.
There's something wrong and my you-beaut phat lens is not working properly. So all the photos I took of Soph before the formal were blown out to billy-oh - so much so that the RAWs could not even be adjusted satisfactorily. Grrr.


Isn't she beautiful!?!

I quickly snapped a photo of Nick and Soph before they headed off to the formal but where was my eye for detail? Okay, so the necklace gives a sense of movement :)


Another dressing up event - an end of school party.


We had a great fun time at Cooper Park in Engadine with my friend the other day. I took my camera along to do a little bit of practising (not really) for a wedding that DH and I are going to photograph. My kids are SO photogenic!


Isn't she beautiful!?!

Where are the boys? you may well ask!

Here!








There's a red-headed ring-in. We were all very excited to have Robbie come and stay with us for a few days last week.

I can hear your mind ticking over, yes I can, and wondering "That's all well and good and thanks for all the photos but what have you been creating besides birthday cakes?"

How bout I put that in another post?

See ya soon.

:D

Here's a Heads Up

I am working on a blog post or two!!!
It will be after Monday when the broadband gets back up to speed (used up all DH's gigabytes for the month) or I actually get my very own broadband and can use MY computer. Now that would be grand!.
Hennway. Just thought I'd tell you :)
Can't wait.

Taking a little break

The amount of creativity is inversely proportional to the amount of stress I have. Is that right? In other words... More Stress = Less Creativity.

I'll be back, DV, after the move.

On a Roll

I'm on a little scrapbooking roll at the moment, just popping into my art room now and then and adding a bit here or there. It's a kinda nice way to scrapbook - cruisey.
So here is my latest - a little record of a couple of life's happenings.


Journalling reads: Annelise fully ruptured her Achilles tendon in early August while playing soccer. It seems that Caitlin went out in sympathy. A minor injury turned into 5 long weeks of crutches and missing out on numerous activities. Not to mention being waited on hand and foot. Both girls are on the mend.

NOTE: Old Heidi Swapp Fuzzy Rubons need extra special care and attention to do what they are supposed to do. Much consternation and a little surgery was afforded to their application!

Here & Now

I got inspired by Cathy Zielski, again. Cathy is promoting her digital templates (that's what I am calling them anyway) and had a few samples of how to use them. I'm already a fan of her Clean & Simple style and these templates are, I'm sure, the bees knees for digital scrapbookers. Digital scrapbooker I am not, so I put together my own rendition with "real life photos and paper" - inspired by this layout by Julie.

I was pleasantly surprised that I had the matching alphabet stickers for the Basic Grey Lollipop Shoppe papers and that the title fitted perfectly without any contrivance by me :)

The journalling includes some of the here and now of me.
It reads: Right here. Right now. My favourite place to be is in the shower. [Hence the photo, kindly taken by DH] I love being in my pyjamas all day but I don't get to do it very often. Besides my pyjamas my favourite clothes are my jeans and long sleeved t-shirt. I like Spring but I still think Autumn is my favourite season. I'm really looking forward to Summer right now, though. I spend a lot of time on the computer and I like it, obviously, but would rather be creating things in my art room, or sleeping. I enjoy going to the gym as often as I can and I miss walking in the early hours of the morning. In fact, I miss mornings - what happened to them?!

That's all that fitted in that spot. There's way more but I'm not writing it down :)

School Holidays, so far.

I cannot believe how fast this week has flown.
So much has happened.
Last Friday I had my makeover and photo shoot for Weight Watchers magazine - can't wait to get the mag and the photos!) Here I am looking as before as I could muster.


We didn't win the Best School Ever on ABC - but they did show part of our video on ABC today.



I went out for dinner with Annelise and Alan on the spur of the moment last Friday night - an enjoyable, and very late, night. My son-in-law nearly had the chance to wallop his mother-in-law, 'cept she wasn't choking ON something, as such. It's all good. As was dessert. Shared. You knew that!


I have endured, but not gotten used to, the changeover to Daylight Saving (groan) - I do like EDST but I hate the change.

Some lovely visitors arrived on Sunday
We drove through the Royal National Park to Stanwell Tops, Stanwell Park and Austinmer then back home on Monday.
Had a cuppa in a cafe in Cronulla with Fay late Monday evening.
Here is Fay's first selfie - ever!


Went ice skating on Tuesday.
I only took about 220 photos! This is my favourite action shot. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No. It's Super Skater!!!


Fay and her girls left on Wednesday :( and I took two girls to the dentist - also :(

Thursday was relatively uneventful.

Which brings us to today.

Caitlin is now walking after spending the best part of 5 weeks on crutches (and me spending a large amount of time (and money - ker-chink) in various practitioners' waiting rooms. It seems she had a bit of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and is on the mend very quickly with a bit of mental and physical reconditioning (and a little, uh-hum, incentive. Read - bribe!). I had no idea that a simple injury could turn into such a complicated affair.

And to top off the week - I scrapbooked another page!!!
Here's my layout that I scraplifted from myself. :)


I'm loving Basic Grey, again. Lemonade. Indian Summer. I thought I had June Bug but I can't find it. I might have it, it's just that my room is such a mess at the moment.

That's all for now. Congratulations if you endured to the end.
:D