Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

Merry Christmas from our house to yours, may your days be filled with wonderful memories. I promise more blog post in the new year when life goes back to feeling normal.....what is normal anyway? :)

For now here is my Christmas Card I sent out (very late I might add)...

A cool coffee table book

Just a quick post this morning to brag about my gorgeous children (I'm allowed to say that because I'm the mum!) A little while back I saw an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald wanting children to be in a special coffee table book called "Kids of Australia". It is a book produced to raise money for Patrick Rafters Cherish the Children Foundation. So of course i entered a photo of my kids and I was so excited when they were accepted. We had to journey over to Tamarrama Beach in the eastern suburbs (which I know is not that far but when you have to dive through 15 school zones to be ready for photographing at 4pm it was a huge effort) It was worth it and I definitely would love to go back one day and take more photos as it was a beautiful beach and me in the crazy head space I was in at the time drove half way there and realised my own camera was sitting at the front door (i never picked it up to put in the car) so I couldn't even take any extra pictures for myself. I received the book in the mail yesterday afternoon and I love the photos that were chosen. I have quickly snapped some photos of the pages.

We could have bid for our children to be on the front cover but last edition it went for $2500. All a good cause and all but a little out of my price range. So I'm happy with the double page spread.
I LOVE this photos of my girls together!I forgot how chubby Finn looked only 2 months ago. He has had a hair cut since and has slimmed right down...growing up too fast.

The photographer of these photos is Jeremy Byrnes

Some invites, a Hi-Tea and a big school girl.

Well excitement was BIG in our house this morning!!! Tahlia had been waiting for this day for so long and it finally arrived....Big school orientation.

This exact time last year I was holding Kyra's hand as we did our first walk up the street toward big school but today Tahlia didn't want to hold my hand, she held the hands of her sister and her best friend...how lucky can you get.

She had a great morning and wasn't scared in the slightest, she embraced every bit of it. She showed confidence and a calmness as She sat on the classroom floor and listened to the teacher say good morning, she was in her element. I could tell without her saying that she was just so excited to be entering Kyra's world.

Here is a picture of Tahlia and Halle, (T's bestie) with their colouring in.

Now to back track a little. Last year a friend up the road had a special morning tea for all the girls going to big school who lived in our street and Kyra just loved it. It was a great chance to meet other mums and for Kyra to start playing with girls that she would go to school with. So with Tahlia having her orientation this year I decided to do just that. A few weeks ago Tahlia sent out these little invitations that I whipped up (it's my scrapping effort for the moment). 8 little girls plus Tahlia enjoying cupcakes and pink milk...so cute.

Here they all are at the hi-tea table A special BIG thanks to my mum who stayed here at my house and minded finn for me and set up everything sdo that when we walked in the door it was ready. She also made soooo many gorgeous treats for the kids and spent so much time helping me. My mum and dad are always helping me out with the little adventure i go on....THANK YOU SO MUCH!

It was so much fun and all the girls got on so well and played and played whilst all the mum ate the most yummiest treats, it was great.

I love this world that I'm entering...having two children at school. It's emotional though. It means my babies are big and so not babies anymore.

So seeing as these invites are literally my only scrapping effort in forever I'm pleased to announce that if I don't have at least one page to show you tomorrow then there is something wrong! I'm scrapping with my guru buddies tomorrow and sooooooooo looking forward to it and of course all the yummy treats that will be consumed. Did you know that calories cannot be absorbed whilst in scrapping mode? It is such a known fact....well thats what I'm telling myself anyway.

Can't believe I'm sharing this...

Yes that's right, I can't believe I'm sharing this photo with you but I just had too.

Today I was surfing around blog land and went to a blog I visit regularly called The Simple Mom where her moto is "Happiness is making the most of what you have."...I like that alot. Anyway I totally started laughing when I saw the photo from her most recent post Frightfully Frugal Costume Ideas. Here is the photo

This is a modern idea I'm guessing for Halloween coming up but it transported me back to my own childhood dressup days for the bookweek fair night in primary school. This is me...a bunch of grapes on the grapevine. We thought it was a great idea 26 years ago.looks pretty similar...

too funny...

Anyway here are the last of my pages to share from the weekend away....soooo long ago now but I thought that i should share some scrapping since I haven't in forever.

Like I said these were from the weekend away so so many ideas shared and lifted so not much originality on my behalf but at least the story is down. Thanks for letting me lift girls :)

This last picture is upon Shannons request. It's the canvas I did for the girls wall so long ago now. It is a total lift of Nicoles canvas and if I possibly had a link to her actual canvas I would put it in as Nicoles is really great (If you have one nicole or have a picture to send me then I would love to add it in. Sorry about the bad light in photo) EDITED TO ADD NICOLES ORIGINAL CANVAS THAT I LIFTED. Thanks for the pic Nic :)

Here I am again...

Well here I am again after being in what seems like a vortex of bad luck and crazy life with my computer dying and taking forever to get fixed then only to bring it home and it still not work. When we finally got it back working a the whole next week we had street internet/cable issues.

I went on holidays with some girls friends and all the kids (just after my last post) whilst nick and the boys went to sinagpore for the F1. Nick has had time off work recently for the school holidays and I had a sore back during most of that time so I really haven't been myself lately....Time to get back on track.

I sadly haven't done that much scrapping (sometimes you have to really be in the right frame of mind to do pages and write journaling etc I feel) Anyway I have for a few months be working on some sewing projets. I love to get out the sewing machine when I'm having a scrapping break, so then I still feel like I have my creative outlet. I have a few projects happening which I will share with you in the next week but I will share now the mini room make over I did for the girls.

They have such a tiny room which they share and it's hard to make it not look cluttered. You know what girls are like having hundreds of little trinkets to put on shelves, beanie bears and toys all over the bed...it's a bit overwhelming but they love it and I would want to make them put their treasure things away in a draw, so I had to come up with a fresh plan.

This is the girls room before

The girls and I really loved the rainbow, but it chopped up the time room and with the busy Lilly and Lolly quilt covers it was just a bit much.

I really am into the Partridge family style birds and found some cute accessories in that style but the quilt covers were again way too busy. I kept searching for a quilt that I loved and just couldn't find one so i decided to make one. I bought a plain white quilt cover from ikea and then cut out a big bird to sew on. My mum (clever lady that she is) drew me a bird pattern on a huge sheet of paper and I went from there. Here is how it turned out including a picture of me late night sewing :)

The finished bird, I zig zag stitched all the way around each piece and used a cute button for the eye.
Finished room.
I bought stripy blankets for the ends of the bed and left kyra's bed with the plain treehouse quilt for the moment and gave her the bird cushion to keep the theme. I found some cute wall decal stickers that matched and put 2 on the bed and the rest on the purple frame I had been waiting to use.
I love that little bird! It's everywhere for me at the moment I feel like it's such my little symbol...now I'm inflicting it on the girls...but they love it too :)

I was excited to read this post from Sharon when I was catching up on blog reading, as it just fit perfectly into my sewing mode that I'm in. I feel inspired to attempt one of these tops just on the look out for the perfect material for it.

Here are some cool photos from last Wednesday when it hit close to 31degrees. How good is spring :) In saying that today is raining...not sure what is happening with this crazy weather. Anyway we had fun running through the sprinkler...the very exact same sprinkler that i had as a kid growing up...I so need to find a photo of me under the sprinkler to scrap them together. They just don't make sprinklers like this anymore. I love when you look closley at this first photo the water from the sprinkler is in a line.

Bring back the sunny weather...please!

Sydney Dust Storm

This morning i woke up at 5.45am and looked out the window. The sky was blood red. I had that strange feeling that something was happening....so even before I turned on the news I ran and grabbed my camera...of course.

These photos are taken with no flash,I was trying very hard to keep my hand steady (I couldn't be bothered to dig out the tripod) hence a slight blur. I have done no editing or haven't changed any colour this is exactly how they came out of the camera.

The front of my house and then my back yard.

I opened the back door to go out to take the photos and by the time I came back the whole back room was full of dust. Now i am sneezing alot!

They say on the news that the whole of Sydney is covered with dust and the Harbour Bridge and city icons can't be seen. The dust storm stretches from Woolongong right up to Newcastle and it is going to get worse throughout the day....yuck!

It's kinda cool to be part of a one off phenomenon. Stay safe everyone on the roads and breath easy if you can :)

EDITED TO ADD THIS PHOTO that nick sent me via email taken by Ryan Lahiff a professional photographer. It's an awesome photo but makes mine look really avarage...not to worry

Finn turns 2

Well lots of nothingness has been happening in my world since i last posted...in the scrapping world that it. I have just been doing the "life" thing and some therapeutic sewing which I will post about soon.

This weekend is all about Finn. My precious, gorgeous, amazing little man who is not that little anymore :) Finn turns 2 tomorrow and I can't even believe it. He is all of a sudden grown up. He just has the cutest little voice and likes to sing Happy Birthday to himself...I will attempt to post the video, it's priceless, and has full on conversations with you. He is a massive fan of Thomas the Tank Engine and knows all the engine names but looking at their picture in a little catalogue he has, even i can't remember them all. So what do all obsessed Thomas fans deserve on their birthday weekend when they turn 2?...an afternoon at the Sydney Steam Train Park located in West Ryde. It was the perfect venue for such a train fan and the look on his face when he saw the trains was amazing and then when he realised he could ride on them he started jumping and shouted YAAAYYY! for a few minutes...too cute.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Firstly my cake making efforts...

...the kids loved that they could attack the cake and ate the lollies straight out of their carriages all afternoon. Nick's mum brought along a photo that i hadn't seen before of Nick when he turned 2 with a train cake also, how cool is that, father and son, same white blonde hair, same look yet 32 years between their 2nd bithdays with the same cake...is that a page to scrap or what!!!

Riding the trains...Kyra is the leader then Halle,Tahlia, Thomas, My dad, Finn, Nicholas, Nicks mum, Brydie, Piper and Ash. It was cool having all the kids ride together, They had so much fun. You should have seen the row of paparazzi (each time our children when by) just from our little gathering on the other side of the fence, people of mine our heart :)

Changing the signals...

Finn we love you so ,so much, You are such bright sunshine in our lives and we loved that you loved you special afternoon.

We have started a tradition in our family that when you wake up on your birthday the floor in your room is full of balloons....I can't wait for Finn to wake up tomorrow and see that...

All I could have asked for!

A yummy husband,

An awesome father to my children,

My motivatior,

My ROCK!,

A great listener,

So much fun to be around always!

I am so, so lucky :)

I Love You

Happy Fathers Day!

Back to the simple life...

I'm stepping back into the simple life. Finding the things that are important to me and enjoying spending time hanging and playing with my kids. Life gets busy and crazy and i often lose perspective when this happens. This month I'm searching for the simple things in my life again.

This is Finn and I playing in the yard the other day...how good is this sun!

Well it's been a while since i have scrapped, actually I haven't scrapped properly since the RW weekend away. I feel like I have lost my creative mojo for scrapping and (shock horror) for photo taking! I know I can't believe it. Sometimes 'life' stuff happens and with sickness in the mix too all that creative stuff takes a back seat for a bit, but I'm sure it will just take one small thing to get me fired up again, I just have to find what that it????? The fact that I'm suffering extreme tiredness at the moment doesn't help, so by the time the kids are in bed and then Nick gets home between 8 and 8.30pm I hardly get to eat dinner before I'm asleep let alone start to scrap. That is so not like me as I'm usually just getting started for the night at 9.30pm. My photo files for the month of August look pretty sad when usually (because it's birthday month) they are overflowing, so this needs to be fixed quick smart I think!
I'm going to attempt Cathy Z's class to push me back into scrapping land...I hope I can finish it, I have a lot of unfinished projects at the moment :(

I'm also hoping that these two new friends (below) will help pull me out of my photo taking slump.

Friend #1 A working Polaroid camera that i picked up from the markets for $5...love a bargain and how fun will these photos be! Just have to get some film.

Friend #2 This camera I borrowed on Thursday from my friend Justin (thanks Justin) It's a Nikon F65 with a semi fish eye lens. One look throught the view finder and I'm hooked on seeing the world this way always! One catch...it's a film SLR. So I have to wait to get the film deleloped, hope the photos work (as I have to take them all on manual, then scan the negs into the comptuer...could be a while before you see the results. I'm just going to take my time with it and enjoy taking photos a different way.
Also I have decided to step back from doing the Remember When Blogging, you can read my last post here. I'll still be (when I can) putting in my pages for the sketch challenge or colour inspiration so I'll post them here also when i do so you can keep track. I wanted to say Thank You to Lee again for that great opportunity to blog for RW. Lee has put the call out for new members of the design team so if your ouyt there reading this and think you have some great pages, card making skills or photography knowledge to share email me at the link on the right of my blog and I'll pass your info on or jump onto the RW site and email Lee direct.

Fun Food Friday's

Jo's Weetbix slice
Preheat oven to 180 and grease a slice tin ready. Use can use baking paper if you like as the can help your slice come out of the tin easier.



Ingredients.
4 Weetbix
1 cup of SR Flour
3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
3/4 Cup of Coconut
1/2 cup of milk choc bits
1/2 cup of white choc bits
150g butter
200g block of Cadbury choc for topping



In a bowl crush the weetbix and add/combine flour, coconut, sugar. In a separate bowl melt butter in the microware then add to dry ingredients and combine. Then add the choc bits (if you add them before the butter the butter will melt the bits so add them at this point in the recipe). Mix well. Tip all ingredients out into the slice tin and press down hard and flat.
Bake for 20 mins. (just keep an eye on it around or just before the 20 min mark as all ovens are different and the slice will be too crunchy if overcooked). Leave to cool for a minute and then tip out onto a wire rack. Leave to cool for a bit.
Melt your Cadbury chocolate in a bowl and pour over the top of the slice spreading evenly. As the choc on top is cooling/setting score it with a knife into piece sizes. Your choc will crack if you leave it to cut when it is set. Cut the piece right through to the base when the choc if fully set and serve and most importantly ENJOY!! :)