Merry Christmas!!

I know its been forever since I posted but I'm still around here and there a little. Next year I'm hoping my busy crazy life will calm a little  with the girls again in school 5 days and Finn will be in preschool 2 days.
My plan is to try to do the 365 days of photos like some of you have this year....i'll see how I go.

Anyway I just wanted to jump on here and say  Merry Christmas and throughout this Christmas season I wish you, your family and friends happiness and safety and may the New Year bring health, fun, peace and lots of CREATIVITY :)

I had to add one more pic I love taken by a friend at one of our recent holidays,

 randomly capturing the moment.

Part 2...sewing etc

I'm so in love with retro type material but unless you can come across a stash kept perfect from the 60's to material available in the shops now cost a BOMB! I was in a cute little shop near me called Peg's Pieces and the whole shop is full of funky patterened material...I wanted it all. Most averaged $24 a metre and my favourite material in the whols shop costs $35 per metre AHHHHH that is just too much and really just annoying. I did manage to find the material for these pants at spotlight, the one random funky thing there at $12 per metre, a little better.

Love my little model, she loves it too :)

I've also grabbed a heap of flowers etc to make headbands and clips in a million colours etc, to buy a premade one is about $25, this way is so much better. Sorry about the light on the white flower,,,it's a little bright.

I can't leave the boys out. I made this super hero's cape for Finn's little friend who turned 4 on Saturday. Blue cape that has a red shiny star at the front with little ties and the long flowing cape at the back with C for Cooper.. A long time ago I made with some friends some silver ones when they went to the Hi-5 action heros concert. Each child/superhero had their own letter on the back...too cute. Finn is modeling Coopers before we wrapped it up.

Here are my cutie girls in Oct of 2006 in there silver capes.

T for Tahlia, K for Kyra and E for Ellie and R for Rafferty the blue hero.

I couldn't resist putting in so many pics...time goes too fast and how CUTE are they!

Thank you Sharon for changing my world with this post just by clicking one button on the dashboard!!!! I can't believe how long the old way of posting was taking me. This post with all these pics took a tenth of the time. 

3 cheers for Sharon :) Yip-Yay!

A little bit of sewing and some basic collages.

So this is the post that I should have written ages ago about the love of sewing I have at the moment, actually I think it has taken over scrapping for me right now. I have that same factor that I get when i see so many great pages and i want to scrap them all at once. I have sooooooo many sewing ideas bursting out of my head and I just want to keep churning out outfits and accessories before they fly out of my brain never to be thought of again :). One of my new friends Sally that I have met this year (Sally is a mum from Tahli's kindergarten class) is extremly creative so this latest sewing run has been inspired by her amazing outfits she is making for her daughters. She is really quick at whipping things up and keeps giving me these amazing ideas for things that i instantly want to make. The run hasn't finished yet but i'll share some pictures of the lastest things I have made and I'll keep posting as I finish and photograph more things.

I'm on the same wavelength as Di, I want my kids to value a handmade item, feel the satisfaction of completing and tackling an idea in your head and learn the process of making something from nothing rather than buying everything from a shop. I love the uniquness and person touch that you can put on something you have made and then that item really has it's own story....especially when your kids say "Thank You Mummy! I LOVE it, it's the best ever" My mum has taught me to sew and I'm so thankful. I remember watching her make things when I was little and begging her to let me press the pedal on the machine. Man I wish I had a photo of us together sewing when I was little :( I would have loved to put it together now with a photo of me and mum teaching my kids. Not to worry. I always seem to rope mum into my little projects. All the tricky bits that are hard to finish or if I'm in a rush(which I so was for those outfits for the photo shoot) mum steps into save the day. I'm so lucky...thank you :)

So my last post I showed pictures from the shoot we did here are some close ups of the tops and pants.

This photo is a collage (so basic) but on this post background you can't see the white background of the picture. Handmade hairclip (well I just glued the flower to the clip...cheating I know), top and pants.

The next top is made from a table runner and is like a little shrug top. It works over long, short and singlet tops. I can't wait for the girls to wear them over a little dress in summer...so cute. I changed the photos to black and white as the lime green top tahli was wearing went a crazy colour when I edited it

Remind me to take a photo of the cool retro double tricycle that Tahli is leaning on in the next photo. I had this bike when I was a little girl in red and I found this blue one last year at a garage sale, I was so excited when I saw it...hours of fun!The next is one of my favourites items. Two little cardi's made from a spencer cut up the middle and as many layers of ribbon as you like. Tahli's is a pink cardi with tans and whites.

Kyra's is a white cardi with whites and pinks. I made a little collagewith the steps to making the cardi as I took photos as I was sewing. Again, collage just basic as I'm still learning.

I'm finding Blogger so incredibly SLOW to upload and more photos around it's killing me. So that I'm not here all night (as I've already been sitting here for hours and am ready to crash on the lounge) I'm chopping this post in half. So this is part 1 and part 2 will be tomorrow...more creations to follow.

Where in the world have I been?

Where in the world have I been?..... Well nowhere actually. Just in my own little world coping with a busy life, 3 kids and a hubby working long hours. I mentally checked out from the computer for a few months and have hardly touched it which has been nice (I think you need to do this every once in a while). I've missed reading everyones blogs and chatting to my online buddies (anyone still out there?)

Anyway here I am trying to get back in the swing of blogland and giving you an update over the next few days of what I've been doing whilst taking a break.

Firstly we had our photos taken for a school fundraiser which was fun and I LOVE the photos! I have made one my blog banner and will share some of my favs. Photos are taken by Distinctly You. Michelle was great with the kids especially as Finn cried pretty much the whole time and Kyra was a bit grumpy and it was raining. The photo shoot was 30mins long and she snapped 173 great shots for us to keep. LOVE IT.

and this one

and this one

and this one

and this one
and this one and theres so many more :)

I know we are all very matching with colours but I love that about it. I made the girls tops and pants and have actually been on a sewing frenzy. I will share my creations in the next few days.

I have whipped up a really quick 8.5x11 black cloth photo book for Mothers Day with this series of pictures. I was on a time limit to do it before Mothers Day and couldn't do any fancy collages. That will be in my next book. I love the idea of the printed photo book and will definately be doing more.

I have also been attempting some collage photos after a tutorial from Nicole. Thank you so much Nicole for your patience with me. My photoshop program doesn't seem to like me though as it keeps freezing up on me and making me soooo frustrated and things are slow going. Still pushing for a Mac :) I will share them soon too. But for now, here is my cheating collage. Kmart have a new photo computer system for printing photos etc. You can grab as many photos as you like and it keeps filpping around the collage untill your happy with it. It prints out well and each photo has a slight outline/shadow around it which i like. You can print 5x7, 8x10 and 12x12...yes 12x12 for all of you that are still partial to the what seems like "old" 12x12. Best thing for me is that Kmart near me is open 24hours a day and the photo section is open until midnight. When your hubby works late it is a blessing that at least one shop is open that late :) Anyway I will be testing out the 12x12 print this week to put straight in my scrap album and i'll let you know what it looks like. This one below I had printed in a 5x7 as a test just to see what it came out like and then scanned it. Not bad I say.

Well I hope you are all well and have been very creative, looking forward to catching up on your blogs.

Looking back over the school holidays

Well we are about to enter the week when all things fall back into place...well hopefully that is. Kyra starts back at school in year 1 (it seriously feels like yesterday that she started kindy and a whole year has past) Tahlia starts Kindergarten (yay for having 2 kids at the one drop off this year) and Finn starts day care (kindy) 1 day a week on a Friday so yes it's a BIG week for me. I could be one crazy, happy/sad emotional woman this week but I'm going to love it because I know they will all love it. We have everything ready and in place at this end of the week, ask me again on Thurs/Fri and I can't be to sure how organised I really am :)

In the spirit of things going back to normal (ha ha I have to lol when I type that because what is normal anyway???) I thought I post some favourite photos from this crazy time that we called school holidays. Note, not much time for scrapping...hopefully that will change in the next week :)

WARNING...lots of photos to follow.

Waiting in line to ride Santas railway in Myer/city, Halle Kyra and Tahli in front and lisa and it in background.

Hanging newly made photo baubles on the christmas tree

I know this photo is blurry but i love it. Yummy food at our 2nd annual christmas traditions dinner with grandparents.

News Years Eve with my buddies Michele and Lisa in Currarong.

Kayaking in Currarong (Thank you so much again Lisa for inviting us we had a ball). Thats me in the blue kayak with Finn and Kyra in the pink kayak next to me out the front of where we stayed.

A moment in time...

Next Holiday...Salamander Bay.

The girls, loving spending everyday together,

We had soooo much fun when we hired bikes

How cool is this little trailer, all the kids had a turn.

Back in Cronulla...Gunnamatta with my boy he is so divine at the moment, I could just eat him up!

Check out these great photos from Di's photography blog, scroll down the post untill you see 4 gorgeous kidlets, they are such good buddies and are still willing to put up with Di and I clinking a million shots each time we hang out :)

Saturday night was a well deserved night out with no children with our great friends Lisa and Ash to the city for dinner at The Malaya and rocking on at Bungalow 8 (too bad it wasn't the night Prince William was there I would have said hi for sure). I felt young again going out in the city and having a crazy fun time. I'm so going to do that more!

With my yummy Hubby With Lisa A delicious meal..(go the self portrait, I'm getting good at not getting my arm in the shots). And last but not least tonight i went to check on Kyra first (it was 9.30pm) and she was no where to be found...then I heard giggles and Kyra had made a bed for herself in Tahlis room(more photo on her room later). How could I be cross? It was school holidays afterall. So I turned on the light, fixed her bed up properly and jumped in to pat Tahli to sleep and of course grab a photo...trying to take every opportunity possible to capture moments. My little crazy cats, I love them so much! They would play all night if they could possibly stay awake...actually I think kyra could, she needs zero sleep!!??! For all their fights, they really are best friends.