Happy Boxing Day!

Warning, first paragraph contains whinging..

Well, it's the day after the big one and I am officially a zombie. The neighbours have obviously decided to go away yesterday afternoon, leaving their 18yo son in charge. Just before 3am(!!) I dragged myself next door to request them (ok begged) them to please turn the music down... It infiltrated every part of our house and Matt and I are both light sleepers. Luckily the son is a nice kid, just his friends are all dickheads. So annoyed, words will be had (very politely of course, Australians are nothing if not polite) to the parents when they get back.

Other than that Christmas was a great success. The night before we went in search of Christmas lights, only one in three advertised houses were lit up - and we tried to get a look in the world record for number of christmas lights house (I know - Canberra!! who would have thought we could have something interesting!) But this was as close as we could get.



Half of Canberra had turned up on the night (although catching up with Francine was nice) and the line to get in was enormous.

We had a quiet one at home (to be honest we were wishing we were back in Laos again) and the kids got the gifts they wanted and were grateful for them in a nice way. my fav picture - I think Henry may have been happy with this present...

BBQ lunch and leftovers, (mini pavlovas) for tea. A good day.

Off to a friends for a leftover gathering and then to the coast for a few days. Then back to pack our house up. The bank has said yes and we have some initial plans from the builder so hopefully it will all come together in the new year.

And one last card before I go. This was for my very close friend Jo. Love her to pieces. And I used a card sketch from my gorgeous friend Irini's challenge site at Get Creative.

Have a happy week, back on friday with lots of beach pictures, although they may feature rain!

Hope you had a great day. xx

Christmas Cards!!!!!!!

For those who don't know me, I do not make cards. I figure that I have enough crafty addictions, follow enough blogs without adding the whole card making craft as well. And part of my minimal christmas card send out involves buying charity cards, this year I think they were from The Breast Cancer association. So no handmade cards from me.

Until Now..

And I think this will still be a one off.

A number of planets aligned for me to come to this decision.
1. I have recently purchased a number of very cute images form both The LilyPad and from Little Dreamer designs.
2. My Cocoa daisy Kit arrived and it had some very sparkly ribbon, yummy mist and a wonderful snowflake stamp that needed to be used right away!!!
3. I received a lovely handmade card from Libeeti (sweet girl!!!)and thought it was rather nice to receive something made from scratch.

so here they are - all hybrid cards, digi images printed and cut out. Mostly pleased with the result, fairly simple but then again I am a simple girl....

The kids loved this one...

This features the snowflake stamp from Cocoa Daisy, with
the chipboard snowflake covered in german glass glitter

here is the layering in detail, some
embossing, some misting and some stamping-

can't beat an owl -

And I was starting to run out of ideas when I realised that there were card sketches in the big wide world and I snagged this one via Tina's blog. It was last weeks sketch from Freshly made. (too late for their comp but like the sketch)
Ok, one or two to go, now to post them...

have a good one. xx

The Advent Calender

I have promised Henry a Lego Advent calender for the past couple of years, first year I was too slow and they were sold out. This time last year we were in Singapore at the start of our holidays so an advent calender wasn't the most practical item to cart around.

This year we got our act together (ie a month of Henry saying daily ' have you ordered the advent calender yet???). We were going to get the normal Lego Advent calender but Henry's eagle eyes spotted the Star Wars one (his two great loves combined) and offered to use his pocket money to pay the difference in price. So order we did. And I let hi have the box two days before first official opening to let the excitement build.

And at 6:30 am on Dec first, Henry arrived in our bed in tears. he had ripped the instructions for the very first one and everything was RUINED!!! A bleary eyed look from his mother, a piece of sticky tape and all was well in the world again. Phew!



Well worth documenting. And with a gazillion Christmas themed challenges out there, I loved the Get Creative challenge to use something that you will be wrapping your presents in this year. I have used a bit of Christmas paper and of course my current addiction, twine, which will get a good run this Christmas.

And I am in love with the numbered tape, I picked up a gorgeous tin with 4 rolls of different number patterns in a closing down sale (Pepe's paperie, I will miss you...). Think I will have to go back and hope they still have the alpha equivalent.

Have a greada - hbatters are gng n kebard and thas aken farn wr this.

Translated-have a great day- the batteries are going on the keyboard and has taken far too long to write this. (and this is the gibberish that it gives me...) xxx

My Twinery tree

I had made an angel out of a Styrofoam cone many years ago. It fell apart last year and I was going to throw away the cone but had seen a nifty button tree in a magazine and thought I would give it a go. Ok, got distracted and ended up with no buttons on the tree but did end up with a twine encased tree intstead. And Henry likes it!! All twine from the Twinery, (of course). I love the patterns the twine makes on the tree and on the base as well..
I really like the simplicity of it, very easy to pull together. I have used an old cotton spool as the base with a wooden skewer (and some appropriately placed blu tack) to hold the tree up. Here's the full image. Hope you like it...


Have a great weekend. xx

Laugh

I went out the other night with my loveliest of friends to celebrate a couple of their birthdays. (see pressie wrapping here).
It was enormous fun and although Ros had to leave early and Jo arrived late, everyone eventually turned up. When the camera came out, we got the usual lovely shots of us and then gave the camera to Katie to take a couple of me and Louise ( I cannot do selfies). So she proceeded to point the camera over to our right. Quite far over. So we had to look what she was actually taking the photo of. The wall and us in the corner of the frame apparently. (ok so there may have been a bright light she was avoiding but we couldn't see it!).



These are the resulting piccies. She was very pleased with the result and I have to say in the cold hard light of the day, I quite like them as well. We did take some more normal ones later in the night.

Most of the elements are from The Lilypad who are I think my fave digi store at the moment. And the sketch is from Sketchy Thursday, haven't played with them for quite a while....

Matt is settling back well. He does give the family balance and it is just great to hear the three kids chatting and playing again. He has yet to face his enormous files of photos but I have tackled his washing...

Have spent enough time at the computer now, go and check out the latest challenge for Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge, come and play!!! xx

He's back... and a new challenge.

And looking remarkably well. In fact he was up way earlier than us this morning, long trip to Sydney and back is apparently more exhausting than a flight half way around the world...

waiting...

spotted..,

and the long awaited hug!!!

The car trip back was full of tales from overseas. Made the time fly.

We made it home just after midnight, Henry was too excited to sleep for another hour and Matt of course is 12+ hours out of synch so it was a very late night. Good to have him home.

Speaking of family reunions (ok very loose link), Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge has their new challenge up. This month it's all about Thanksgiving, and if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving (like us here in Aus) then scrap something you are thankful for or a family gathering/reunion. The challenge is not to use the colour orange at all!!!

This photo was taken a couple of years ago at Mum and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary party. With all the grandkids. Holly came a month or so later and of course little Dylan has just arrived so next family photo will have a couple more in it.

The paper was part of the prize from Scrapbookers Anonymous Echo Park collection so well worth entering challenges to end up with cool stuff like this.

So come on over and play, there will be great prizes up for grabs again. !!!

I love wrapping...

Last night, my friends and I celebrated three of their birthdays in one evening (never mind that two of the birthdays were in Oct and the other in Dec..). but that gives me a wonderful excuse to get out the twine, the buttons and some felt. had so much fun making these things. I love that by putting a few simple things together, the outcome looks so very grand.


I will admit to getting some of the ideas from a new magazine, that was full of Christmas wrapping tips. Stitch, Craft, Create is the first crafty magazine I have bought for an age but it was worth it. I have done the rolled paper flowers before but these are my first felt ones - and how cool is the green one!!
This contained my fav present of the night, a sparkly sequined silver cushion - suited my friend Katie perfectly.And to top the day off, my prize from Scrapbookers Anonymous arrived, full of lovely Echo Park goodness and I made these tags to match. (luckily I think they will be up to the letter 'E' this month so I am all set to go!!)
I made a Lo with some of the patterned paper which I shall show you tomorrow as it is for the first challenge of the month for Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge.

Off to make Matt's room presentable as he is home tomorrow night - wow!! I may or may not have moved all my stuff into his room while he was away as he has this wonderful long desk that just yells crafting area every time I walk past - what could I do??

Have a good one xxx

PS - My brother and his wife had their baby boy, Dylan Jack, on Monday - 10lbs14(!!) eep. Tracey ended up have a caesar but is well. Will hopefully have photos soon.

The end of the month

Which means many challenges are closing soon. I have, miraculously,, managed to finish a couple more.
First up, my friend (and possibly twin from another life..), Irini's challenge site- Get Creative - a lovely sketch - and this is the closest I think I will get to a flower cluster. Ok, three probably doesn't count as a cluster, I tried to add more, honestly but it just isn't me. Much as I love the style I have resigned myself to the fact that I am not a cluster girl...



And here is my completed Lo -


This is Meaghan and her friend about to head off to a party. Gorgeous girls. Meaghan was most upset that I arrived ON TIME(!!) to pick her up. I was under firm instructions for the next party to wait at least 15 minutes until after the official end time to pick her up. sigh.

And a very overdue LO. This is Henry and his U9 soccer team this year.


Notice he is the only one in black shorts, because for some unknown reason, he stripped off upstairs one day and shoved his blue shorts under the couch, the same couch where I found 13 socks of his - why does he have a cupboard when his clothes seem to belong under this couch??

This is for the Scrap the Boys challenge- scrap your colours, ie scrap your boy in sporting gear/teams.

ok, off to watch Henry's athletics carnival for a little while. cheers xxx

Black and White

Two challenges today - and guess which stamp I love from the latest Cocoa Daisy kit? (hint it features in both Lo's....). It's called the Dresden Quilt stamp and it's still available from here, how gorgeous is that??


First up is for the challenge at white with one - this month it is white plus a bright of your choosing and flowers. Unusually for me I choose pink! I was thinking of teal as I have just gotten some really nice teal things, but pink works well for girls, what can I say??? I love this photo of Meaghan and her cousin Holly (no news yet of new baby).



And then an old photo of me and my family off to church. I can't remember if I loved or hated the white woolly hat- - I suspect the later.. But the coat was a dark green velvet trimmed with white furry stuff - very yummy!!

We would leave Mum behind to cook Sunday lunch, which I gather was her time alone. Must have been a relief to pack us all off for a couple of hours esp when we were younger. Then we would pick Nan up and off to mass for an hour. Back to watch 'World of Sport' during winter and cricket over summer. A big roast for lunch. Every Sunday. We don't have set meals like that anymore.

This was inspired by the challenge at Black with Two - Black, lime green and cream. Love black and green together.

Only 8 more sleeps until Matt is back. I think he is heading towards Germany over the next few days. Henry is very excited.

And Meaghan is raking in the money by baby sitting lots of Henry's friends and their younger sister's. Could be a busy month ahead for her.

Ok, have a great day xx

Because I am going to be an aunty again..

...very soon, Trace was due on Sunday, I have decided to do a LO in honour of my little brother who is about to become a father for the third time.


(wasn't he a cutie - and I got to use lots of blue and pink twine from the Twinery - still in love with that stuff!!)

This is the Journalling, the story of how I thought Rob was Elizabeth.

I was only 3 when Rob arrived on the scene. Michael and Geoff (Big brothers -ed) took full advantage of this fact when they ever so kindly informed me that I had a NEW BABY SISTER named Elizabeth (not very imaginative as this is my middle name). I was very excited although I am not sure when I came to realise that I in fact had another brother (and to be perfectly honest I preferred being the only girl..) Looking at him today I am sure he wouldn’t have made a very good girl.

This is Rob now, being chased by his daughter, Holly (such a cutie).

Not made to be a particularly petite girly...

Good luck Tracey!!

I am loving kraft at the moment, so theNovember Kraft it up challenge seemed appropriate as I had a story to tell as well (Kraft with journalling)

They are having a dt call at the moment, hmm could be good fun to apply, nifty sketch they have for the application anyway.

And to finish off, a couple more LO's from the Cocoa Daisy crop (yes, never ending I know but the challenges were so very cool!!!). And I will have more another day - yep I have done 15 LO's in less than 10 days - a world record (for me anyway..).


The challenge for this one is to use scrappy packaging on your Lo. I find the Prima packaging is so yummy that it is easy to incorporate.


Sharmaine chose a number of colour schemes from this website - design seeds -such a cool resource!! And I chose this one -

For this LO when Henry was a baby - turned out really well I think.

Time to get Henry from school, it has just started to rain here, after a really, really hot saturday (mid 30's already) the weather has turned cool again - not complaining.

Don't forget to come and play with us at Another Freaking Scrappy challenge site - some really great prizes are up for grabs!!

Have a good one and I will let you know when the latest addition to our family has arrived (need photos Rob!!!) xx