Boot Camp part 2

Just a perfect day (even if my eyes still watered from the cold...)



We were asked to wander our neighbourhood and take photos of what grabbed our attention, didn't matter what just take a stack of photos. And yesterday being a perfect winters day in Canberra, off I went. I discovered what grabbed my attention - signs, trees, and patterns on services covers (ie gas, telstra etc). Very curious. I would have loved to have taken a heap down at our local shops but there were far too many people around and I was a bit too self conscience for that.
Enjoy bits of our suburb, I think I can feel a LO coming up...

Perfect day, I love how this tree just has the odd leaf hanging on.


The leaves of the pin oak hang on for dear life, it is like the tree is saying "I know it's damn cold out there and I AM NOT letting go of my blanket until I am good and ready", that would be me...


Great swings nearby, large enough for mum bottoms to fit on, like the effect of the shadows on the ground.

There has been spates of shoes thrown over power lines in the past few years, not sure why, like to think random artistry but afraid it is more like random bullying.

This is a letterbox from my childhood, still a few around.


A small sign of the promise of spring, still a few months off, but lovely buds waiting.

This always raises an eyebrow. I know they are growing a hedge but they put the gate in long before they planted anything, just a gate nothing else.

The pattern on a local bus stop shelter caught my eye.


Our word of the day was 'grow'. I thought Meaghan would be the perfect subject for this little experiment, her self belief and confidence has grown so much in the past year to the point where I occasionally have to remind her that she doesn't quite know everything. But I don't do this often at all because that belief fades with time and it is wonderful that she has that armour to see her (hopefully) through the next few years. so proud of her though. xx
My heavy metal tag is still in the construction stage, have struggled with that a bit.

Have a great day xxx

Quick Fix

What a wonderful day. Yesterday I was in a slightly bad mood, nothing seemed right, you know those sort of days. Anyway today I decided to spend at least part of it creatively.

And I actually succeeded. After having a go at the Creativity Bootcamp, go check out some of the wonderful work that is being submitted, a lovely way to while away an hour or so, I then managed to get two LO's done. Yay for yukky weather when there is no tennis and no hockey training.

And yay for leftovers.

Ok, first Lo is for SPCC, quite like this combination, so scrapped a photo of Meaghan and her cousin Emma, so cute. Not sure about the background but am pleased with the rest of it.



Secondly, my new favouritist challenge site, Design Dollies, and another colour challenge. This is Henry in his first year in his jolly jumper. He loved it for a while and then tolerated it because he wanted to be moving rather than just jumping up and down. Matt on the other hand would have spent his childhood in it. he was addicted and often jumped himself to sleep, so funny.





I hope you all have a great day, back to housework tomorrow. xx

Creativity Boot Camp

I came across this site just last week and thought it was just the thing to get me out of the routine I have found my self in. Madeline Bea has put together a two week class, full of prompts and some thought provoking ideas (and exceptionally generously, it costs absolutely nothing to join in). You pick your medium and off you go.

My medium is of course scrapbooking but with a slight, self imposed twist. I have decided to do a scrapping art journally thing, and use only what is available on my desk and immediate surrounds. I have a stack of photos that I have printed off but didn't use in my work. And I have a stack of paper, ribbons etc. i also decided not to spend to much time on each page - just get it down and see how I go, pretty rough but good fun.

Day 1

Prompt - Ivory

This word has so many meanings to me, not just a colour but the feeling of a bygone era, old china, old paper, soap, it's a word you can touch and smell. And on Day 1 I broke my own rule by using the printer, but it was printed onto paper I had nearby (sigh). It was also the colour of my wedding dress, which I made myself (things were a bit tight when we got married, just bought a new house, Matt was two already and it seemed a waste of money to me to spend thousands on a dress I would wear only once. ( it was also the last item of clothing I made for myself, but I digress). I still have no regrets, except possibly leaving it so late that Mum spent the night before hemming it....


Day 2 Picnic


Picnics equal sunshine, hats, flies and a good deal of running around. This came together quickly and isn't strictly a picnic photo it has that same feel about it for me and that's all that counts...

Day 3 multilayered



My favourite so far. I love have layer upon layer on my work so scrapbooking wise this wasn't so much of a challenge. What I liked most was using this photo of the tiger in The Saigon Zoo. It is a multilayered photo with the cage very much in prominence. And my feeling about the zoo were also very multilayered, guilt at the awful lifestyle these animals had but also a pleasure at being able to see these beautiful creatures up so close you could reach out and touch them (if you were deranged that is). Very pleased with the way this turned out.

Stay tuned for futher experiments..

Ok off to pick Henry up from school now, so very cold here today, am hoping that it rains so tennis is called off, does this make me a bad mother?Probably but it is so very bitter out there...

I love this

My new favourite site, go check it out, here THXTHXTHX. Makes you think about saying thank you to the less appreciated things in life, always good to look at things from another angle.


I will admit to Monday being my favoourite day at the moment after very hectic weekends, it is nice to sit back and take a big {quiet} breath....

xx

Messy Sketchy thursday

Although I intended to get nice and messy with this one, I ended up cheating somewhat and going digital. It still looks messy though - that counts doesn't it? I think I will use this sketch from sketchy Thursday again though.

June Butterfly Craft Visual Challenge

The latest Butterfly challenge is up - the last visual challenge for a while as Karen is taking a well deserved break for the summer over there (ah warmth, I remember you well...). he picture used for inspiration is a lovely floaty, summery feeling ad. Well that is more than my imagination is up for at the moment when I am feeling anything but summery and floaty (so not a winter person...). So i took the butterflies and the pinky bits as well as using a single image, my rapidly growing 13yo. I think if I did it again I would use smaller butterflies and quite a few more of them.

Any way go check out the challenge over here as well as the lovely work the other girls did.

Colour Combos Galore is back up and running after a couple of months break. They have a whole new, very spunky look to their challenges. This was for last weeks challenge, colours including, turquoise - icing - cookie dough - pink sprinkles(don't you just love those names??). The latest challenge has just gone up, along with their new design team, loving the new look.

I used an old photo of Matt and Meaghan messing around, must have been just about when Meaghan was 2 I think. So funny to think of them that small with no Henry in sight (and with Meaghan being the complete cow of a two year old, he certainly wasn't even a possibility then!).

Quite pleased with the way this turned out.


More exciting news for me - I have just been named as guest Designer (in November) for the very fun Design Dollies site, yay, yay, yay. Should be great fun, very much looking forward to that. They also have a new design Team, full of wonderfully talented people, love their work.


Have a great weekend - we're off to the fete at our local preschool (this weekend Jo...) after our various sporting commitments. Hopefully a quite weekend after the madness last weekend.


xxx

Wet Weekend

and you would think that would mean a nice couple of days snuggled up,, maybe get some crafty stuff done. But no...

Saturday started out so promisingly with a phone call saying Henry's soccer was off (yay). Meaghan's was still on, in the rain so I managed to get a park by the fence with the intention of staying warm and dry, until a phone call from Matt ("we don't know if we can get to the place we're supposed to be...") So back home and off to the other side of town, back to the soccer and having lost my parking spot had to stand in the rain to watch a close game between Meaghan's team and another team from her school (THE grudge match - although the half time speech 'you have to stop gossiping with the opposition...' is not a common pep talk). Unfortunately Meaghan's team lost, but meaghan probably had her best game so far, very proud of her.

Off to ABBA revisited that night with friends, haven't been out dancing for eons, so very, very much fun. The memories came flooding back and of course singing along at the top of my exceptionally untuneful voice was a high light, luckily everyone else was doing the same, so no one cared (at least that's what I tell myself in the hash reality of daylight...).

Back home before 11 to find out Geoff hadn't picked Matt up, so back in the car I go, sigh. And that was only Saturday.

Sunday equally busy (dropping Matt at hockey, shopping, picking niece up to spend afternoon with us, flattish tyre -luckily no change required.. etc). The highlight (??) being the suggestion from my husband (and stupidly agreed to by myself) that a ride around the lake (25km) would be fun and we could squeeze it in before the rain hit, HA.. We probably had about 10minutes out before light drizzle hit, not too bad so we kept going, HA, wetter and wetter we got, the rain was a lovey steadily getting heavy rain rain that seems so rare in Canberra, HA.

I have never been so wet in a non aquatic event before, the upside being, besides the exercise, I repeat HA, is that Geoff owes me big time now, hmmm, where's that credit card again...

Monday, after the normal school rush, plus dentist appointment for Henry saw me kick back and do not much at all, just one Lo as my Cocoa Daisy kit arrived (yay). Everything used on this Lo is from their May Kit with some of their add ons as well. How yummy is that??

I used a sketch from Twisted Sketches, with the twisted to include something New. This is about Mum when she was a new teacher, 50 kids in her class (and we complain if there's more than 20 in the kindy classes now..). Once she married dad, she no longer taught but quite a few of her pupils still live nearby, and still call her Miss Hawke (in fun mostly) and most are heading towards being grandparents themselves.



Enough rambling now, back to my token attempts at housework...

xx