white on white

I haven't entered a Southern Girls Challenge since I left the DT and I miss the girls. So I was determined to enter the next challenge and boy is it a bit of a toughie. White on white. End result very hard to photograph properly, an exercise in frustration, essp on a very overcast day here. (what is that all about? it's Australia day - it's supposed to be stinking hot not sort of mild!!)

I thought a black and white photo would work best and Meaghan had taken this stunning (I think anyway) photo of her cousin Emma. I haven't cropped it at all, she is a natural photographer (am I biased? probably!).

I used a woodgrain mask and gesso to create the textured background and layered on the lace and flowers. The gesso does make the cardstock buckle a bit but love the look. And I am a bit pleased with the way it turned out!

Oh the look on Emma's face, while it looks deep and meaningful is actually the glazed look of a child playing Mario cart on the Wii...

Have a great Australia Day. We are off to friends tonight for a barbie, kids will swim but too cold for the more sensible (boring) adults. xxx

Scrapfit Simple challenge

I feel like I've been missing in action lately. The kids are on hols at the moment (still 2 weeks to go - much as it is good - and easy- to have them home, I'm ready for them to be back in school..) and my life seems to be driving Meaghan all around the countryside. So far since Thursday she has been at three separate sleepovers, two that were out of town on farms, and been to two movies, ice skating, horse riding and bowling today as well as some babysitting.

I only vaguely remember when she lived at home, she spends her time on catch up sleep when she is home now!! Anyway she loves her social life but school will be a nice rest for her (if only that was a joke..).

And this is my new reality - packing boxes-

I am currently feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of junk we have and that I have to sort through in the next 6 weeks. eep.

After preparing for delays as all building projects are (hey, we watch Grand Designs addictively) apparently we have gotten from initial meeting to submitting plans in record time so instead of an initial starting time (ie tearing house down) at the end of april, may, june, sometime, now it is whenever we can get out of the house. Ok, hyperventilating...

Anyway the bonus of cleaning is finding unexpected treasures like this note I found that Meaghan had written to Henry. I suspect that any note written today would have a slightly different message...


Such a little note but it made me smile for the rest of the day. So I thought it was worthy of inclusion on a Lo and the message is simple but happy so I am entering it in Scrap Fit's challenge this week. (not the best photo of a LO, sorry)And I have discovered that I have very few photos of Henry and Meaghan together when she wrote this note. Any photos at this age are Henry watching Meaghan, learning and copying her. Sweet but not suitable for the note. By the way i have a gazillion photos of Matt and Henry together but Matt's handwriting is unreadable and as such he doesn't do notes (and he is male as well..).

Ok, having said how I haven't had time for crafting, I have managed to get a bit of reading done. The pick of my summer reading has been The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.
I could not put it down, cannot recommend it highly enough and I dropped a tear or two at the end (in a good way). Love finding books like that.

Long rambling post, unlike me I know (HA!!) back to packing now, have a good week. xx

Last Sketchy Thursday Challenge...

Very sad week in my scrapping world, one of my fav sites, Sketchy Thursday is closing down. Completely understandable as running a challenge site would take an enormous amount of work but still a bit sad. Here is the final sketch -
and here is my LO -



So the perfect photo to finish with, my new nephew Dylan. We got to visit with Dylan last week, with his big two sisters ( Henry is exhausted, he had no idea what having two very attentive, very talkative cousins around him was like).

Meaghan and Henry thought he was a bit too little to hold (he is just over 6 weeks ) but were content to have the occasional head pat. So very cute but I am glad I no longer have to contend with the sleepless nights and nappies!

So that is it for the moment for Sketchy Thursdays - thank you ladies for all the wonderful work over the past few years.

On a happier note, The new additions to the DT over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge have been announced - glad to see my friend Mitra made the team!! Pop on over and congratulate the latest girls, very talented one and all, so happy to have them aboard.

Off to fill our paddling pool as the weather is finally getting hotter xxx

Winter and Summer

It is cold here today. It is January where we normally get 30 degrees plus every day. This week getting to just above 20 is an accomplishment. Although it means we haven't needed the air conditioning, we have needed doonas at night. And my tomatoes are refusing to go red. Anyway, no doubt the hot weather is just around the corner...

Speaking of cold, the latest Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge is up. And this month there is a sketch and a winter theme.
This is a rare Lo that features Geoff, the mysterious husband of mine. Every year he and one of hid friends take a couple of days to go skiing. Weather conditions are mixed (ok, they manage to get mostly bad weather). One year they convinced another friend, who is a non skier but quite active, to go on their trip with them. I got a phone call half way through the first morning from this friend asking if we could meet half way to the snow to pick him up as he had managed to bust his shoulder within the first hour of skiing. He hasn't been back...

These photos were taken on his camera phone, so a bit blurry but I think that adds to the coldness factor...

Thanks to a suggestion by Irini, who is starting out on their DT, I am entering this Lo in The latest Use It Tuesday Challenge - all about winter. Love the idea of using your stash up and I have dug way back in my stash for the snowflake stickers, from KI and I would have got them in my first year of scrapping, probably at least 4 years ago (actually dated 2005!). Cleaning out old supplies can occasionally lead to a useful item or two being found - huh - who knew???

And here is the sketch from AFSC -
And I have managed to get another challenge over at Get Creative done. This was a digi challenge by Anastasia (with a Lo to base it on, very loosely followed) so how could I resist? And another photo with Geoff in it!! This was how we spent New Years Eve, mountain biking (ok, just on some rough tracks) at the nearby bike park. Henry ended up spending more time running than biking but it was all fun. And it was a nice warm day.

Just about all the elements used are from The Lilypad.

I am hoping to get a Lo done for Sketchy Thursday today as they are closing down this week (very sad). And I have some nice new photos of my 6 week old nephew Dylan. I did get to have few cuddles with him over the past week.

Although I may just be running after kids today...

have a good one. xx

a list and a touch of colour

My head is fuzzy - again- because next door were still away last night so another late night of loud music and squealing teens. But the parents are finally back so sleep will be most welcome...

Two Lo's today. The first is for Irini's challenge suite - Get Creative. I scored two fav mentions there last month - one for my card- startling to say the least!!




Anyway, this weeks challenge is to list 12 elements in your Lo. Huh, counting this early in the year - tricky...

let's see
1. cardstock
2. pp
3. mist (woodgrain mask)
4 photos
5. aeroplane button
6. title
7. stamping
8. tape sticker
9. hessian string
10. home sticker
11. stitching
12. staples

Lots of challenges this month at Get Creative, with the cool prize being a guest designer at Get Creative. Very talented and friendly bunch of girls there. (am very keen on the latest challenge - a digi Lo - love my digi).

And Over at The Paper Variety, they have had the very good idea of having my completely wonderful (and possibly slightly evil...) friend, Tina, as thier guest designer for the month.

The challkenge is to use black and white with a kiss of colour. In explanation, this Lo is reflecting my mood of jealously, that our close friends are currently in Vietnam and we are not. Sigh. For me, Vietnam is tied up with the colour red, so that seemed a likely colour to go with the photo.



This was the last day we spent in Hanoi, out side Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. Vietnamese line up for hours to view his preserved body (we didn't). They also had a live broadcast outside. The choir they had did some wonderful (or not) miming. Very funny. It was getting cold, Henry was wearing two scarves. Not quite ready to go home but we had to. Would love to be somewhere interesting again.

Have a great day and don't forget to go check out the latest challenge at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge site. xx

Happy New Year!!!

Summer has finally hit Canberra - yay!! It is currently a lovely 32C here and we have spent the past few days in our wading pool - big enough for Henry to have fun in anyway. Still trying to find some extra money in our budget for a pool in the new house - maybe just a little one...

A new year means a new challenge for Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge. One last Christmas fling. This time take a trip back in time and tell us a childhood memory from Christmas. Being the bitter twisted person who never holds a grudge (ha) I was reminded of when santa delivered our disassembled swing set that my elder brothers immediately claimed as their own. So of course that led to a fair amount of stirring every time I wanted to use it - for a while anyway.

Most elements are from The LilyPad with a couple (the tree and the abominable snow santa) from Little Dreamer Designs.

Anyway I am over it now... possibly...

And the good news is, we are looking for some new team members for the DT! I love Anne's challenges, always make you think and the end product is a meaningful addition to your scrapbooking albums. So check out the details here, I know most of you are talented enough to join us, please do!


I will attempt to do some real live paper scrapping over the next few days, we did end up at the coast for a few nights, staying with Geoff's Mother. There we learnt that the only item of food that is more tasteless than a boiled onion, is a boiled onion served with silverside (aka boiled meat), boiled potatoes - no butter, boiled carrots and over boiled beans.

Having said that, at least I didn't have to cook it so that makes just about any meal ok in my books..

Have a good first week - I am loving reading about everyones 'one little word' for 2012 - I am completely incapable of restricting myself to one word so I will just be inspired by everyone else. xx