A tear in my eye

It's hard not to get a tear in your eye when you see someone grow from a baby to a mature young adult, have little Baby Bailie and then get married!! Not only that, but my gorgeous little girl Jasmin was a flower girl at my Nephew Robert's Wedding. He is a mere 19 years old, but such a mature sensible young man - he married Arlene on the weekend. It was just adorable!




It was a tiring couple of days. Jas went back to Goulburn on Friday night to do Wedding practice, and then we went back a bit later. When we got to Goulburn - we found Jassie busy putting on Nails with the Girls - she was soooo adorable, and so happy to be one of the girls.

Next day we got up early and went to the hairdresser to get our hair done. Jassie got curls in her hair (which really didn't last long at all as her hair is so fine) - but she did look adorable.




The hair dressers did a beautiful job on Arlene and Julie's hair - but it was all a bit stressful. They didn't finish all the hairs until just before 11am, and the wedding was at 11:30am! To Arlene's credit she didn't look at all stressed - and we all managed to get to the church by about 12pm (very fashionably late!).



Robert aned Arlene got married in a little Catholic Chapel by Father Damien Styles the same priest who baptised both Eliza and little Baby Bailie. It was very Quaint.

Little Baby Bailie was the Junioor Flower Girl, Arlene's sister was the Matron of Honour, her best friend was a bridesmaid, Julie carried Baby Bailie down the aisle. Anthony - Roberts brother was the best man, Patrick (Arlene'e brother) and Evan (David's Brother - Robert's Uncle) were the groomsmen.

Jasmin and Arlene's sister's boy - Shamos were the Flowergirl and Page Boy. They were adorable together. Apparently Jasmin wants to marry Shamos or Daniel (her cousin), so I guess she'll marry Shamos as Daniel is her cousin. Apparently the feeling is mutual as Shamos wants to marry Jasmin!

Afterwards we did photos on the lawn and then we all went to the Rimbolin for the reception - which was casual finger foods, whilst the bridal party went off to get their formal photos at the court house and Belmore Park.

Here are some of the photos from the day:


Baby Bailie - the Junior Bridesmaid.

The Bridesmaids - Rosie and Rhiannon:















Nanna Julie with Baby Bailie, Shamos and Jasmin Cuddling, a sneaky photo of Arlene's brother Patrick giving Arlene a kiss, the flowergirl and page boy, and the bridal couple.

Chraistmas Party 1

Here are some pictures from the recent Catering Christmas Party:
1. Jasmin playing with another little girl at the Christmas Party - they both got Little Ponies from Secret Santa - they had a ball playing together.
2. Eliza trying to play bowls.
3. Eliza sitting on the middle of the green after tiring of trying to pick up the bowling balls! Dad was close at hand to make sure she didn't decide to go and pick someone elses ball up.

Christmas Photo Shoot

How hard is it to take photos of Children? We had a lot of fun taking Christmas Photos of the girls a couple of weeks ago. Dave bought some little Christmas dresses for the girls whilst he was in Sydney at a Gloria Jeans workshop. They looked really cute in them. I took about 200 photos - Eliza just wouldn't sit still for five seconds! Here are some of my favourite photos:

So Busy!

We have been so busy - always seems to get hectic leading up to Chistmas. We just enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend down the coast with friends, staying near Surf Beach. The weather wasn't brillant, but good enough to go to the beach a couple of times with the girls. Sunny but a bit of a chilly breeze. Girls always have a great time at the beach. Jasmin picked new swimming costumes for herself and her little sister. They both looked very cute.

Managed to get Christmas cards made on the weekend, now all I have to do is write in them and send them off. Also finished a present I am scrapbooking for a relative - 12 layouts completed. I am really happy. Will have to post a couple of them on this blog after christmas.

Drove straight from the coast back to Goulburn on Monday, as we had the Catering Company Christmas Party. We decided to have it at the Club, and all learnt how to play lawn bowls. The older childen really enjoyed it. We had a BBQ dinner, and did secret santa for the children, and gave all the staff a chrissie present.

Tuesday I worked from Goulburn, as I had to go to the accountants and get the three business taxes all done, and had a meeting in the arvo with the club to work out the details for the new contract - our contract is being written for two years this time instead of one, which is good news. The club are happy with our services, and impressed with the investment and improvements to the catering since we have been doing it.

Will Post pictures tomorrow, as the Blogger is playing up tonight and won't upload my images! - Images have now been posted!

Jasmin's Vocabulary

Just had to include two new additions to the english language, compliments from Jasmin:

1. I asked Jasmin what she was holding in her hand one day (it was a very small calculator), she replied: "It's a punchativity, Mummy"

2. Jasmin was making wierd noises when I was putting her in the car a couple of days ago, I asked what she was singing, to which she replied - "No Mummy, I'm doing Sound Affections!"

Mid Week Update

Well it has been an exciting week in the Turner household for toys and furniture. Our old Rear-Pro LCD TV had a manufacturing fault so LG kindly gave us credit to spend on another TV - so we upgraded to not just one Plasma but 2! (Had to put some extra cash in as well). We now have a brand spanking new 60 inch LG plasma for the Family room, and a 43 inch plasma for the girls playroom (couldn't help myself - just looked so much better than the huge black 80 cm CRT we had there before).



Also got some new furniture for the girl's playroom including a Cupboard with lots of drawers for the huge number of toys the girls have, and a bookshelf. Love getting new furniture.



Had a very busy weekend - started with Friday night with a sleepover at Bek and Mikaelas place. We had a great time - Bek and I scrapped and the girls played together - dressing up, dancing to the disco ball, running around. They had a great time clomping around the house in their "Clapping shoes" (dressup plastic shoes that make lots of noise when they walked). They got up to plenty of mischief as you can imagine when you get two little girls together - lots of teasing the boys next door over the fence, bouncing on the bed (and falling off !) and running around the house half naked! Girls didn't go to sleep until 10:30 and we didn't go to bed until after midnight. Check out Bek's site here.



Also on Saturday I went out to Julie's place in Queanbeyan to make Christmas Cards - it was a lovely afternoon, and now I have plenty of inspiration fo putting together the 40 odd cards that I must get done this weekend!



Saturday we also had a BBQ - least we could do as Mark and Rod had come around to finish painting a turquoise wall in the study and to help Dave lift the new furniture and TV's in to place.



Sunday - we had a trip back to Goulburn to do the Video Shop ordering (really should be called a DVD shop these days), for January. Must say that it is a bit of a disappointing month for movies in January compared to December!



Busy weekend coming up - Dave has a work christmas party on Friday, and then we are off down the coast for some sunshine with our friends - off to Malua Bay this time. Back to Goulburn early next week for staff party for the catering company we part own, and also accountants appointment (about time we got the company taxes done). I am also excited as I will be handing over the bookkeeping for Civic Video to the Accountant - very excited about the prospect of getting some of my time back!



Well - here are some of my choice pictures from the last seven days (must get some pictures from Bek of the girls together).

Picture 1 : Eliza trying to get her pink blankie out of the washing machine - after she "puked" her milk up on it coughing! She loves her pink blankie and will not accept any substitute (hope we never loose it!)

Picture 2: Eliza sitting in the fridge. She loves to sit in some really weird places - and as soon as I open the fridge she is there in a flash.

Picture 3: Jasmin showing off her injuiry from bouncing on Mikaela's bed on Friday night - she proudly shows anyone who is willing to look!

This weeks update

Well, I officially feel like Crap - managed to come down with a head cold (reason for why I haven't posted earlier this week). Unlike most normal people, I start vomitting when I get head colds - my body cannot stand the chemical changes or some such thing (that's what the doctor told me ages ago anyway). Well hopefully I will feel better tomorrow. Girls have also had a bit of a head cold as well, and so has my Mum-in-Law and Dave. So has been the sick household this week and last week as well.

Have been working hard as per usual, managed to get the last BAS out of the way at long last - so breathed a sigh of relief after this.

Worked at home today - Eliza thought she would come and help me by sitting in my work container, that I bring all my work home in (bless her cotton socks):

Jas also keeps me entertained whilst working - normally stands outside the window I am working near and presses her face against the window and makes funny faces. She makes me laugh.

Love watching the girls lately - they play quite well together most of the time. Jassie is really affectionate in the morning and loves to give her sister big hugs:

Here she is riding her little sister around on the stride to ride walker on the weekend:Jasmin has taken a real shine to taking photographs lately, so I decided to give her our old Kodak Digital Camera - she runs around taking ridiculous photos of walls, floors, her toys, Eliza's Blankie and other stuff - Oh well, she is having lots of fun. Here she is with her toy camera:




Well, I think we have a fourth computer nerd in the family - every chance she gets Eliza is up trying to use the computers - here she is with my two laptops. Even at such a young age she thinks she can multi-task.

And finally - had to include this cute picture of Eliza wearing Jasmin's sunglasses - originally she had them on the back of her head - was not quick enough to get the camera for that one though.

Ali Challenge #6

This weeks Ali challenge was as follows:

This week I want you to take a bit of time to check out your own style. What defines your style? Create a layout shows examples of your own style evolution - write about how you have grown as a life artist/scrapbooker since you first began. These sorts of stories are so important as a part of your own personal history. How cool for your family to see all the layouts you have created AND a layout that talks about how you see yourself evolving as a life artist/ scrapbooker.

Well, I really haven't had time to do a layout for this challenge - too busy trying to finish the last BAS for the Tax Office However, I did take the time to look through my very first album to see how much my style has changed. Yes - quite a bit of the cringe factor looking at my old layouts, but they are so valuable, and even though they don't contain a lot of journalling, they normally do tell you the who, what, where and when. Some things I noticed about all of my first pages was that I used a lot of plain card stock, matted a lot of photos, and used those fancy scissor things on a lot of layouts, and did a lot of hand journalling (especially using that dot lettering style). I started scrapbooking about 6 years ago, and back there certainly was not the variety of products on the market that there is now.

I have grown as an artist, and although I can't really define what my style is my current work is quite simple - the simpler the better, as there is not normally a lot of time to scrap. I still like using plain textured card stock - my favourite at the moment is to use either white or black card stock so that the pictures really stand out and I love using paint, chalk ink and rub-ons. I also journal (normally using the computer) a lot more about thoughts, feelings and memories that I don't want to forget (although the examples below are devoid of any journalling!). I get more and more confident as time passes, and try different things with new products.

Here is my very first layout (it was done at a Creative Memories workshop at my friend Kylie's place - thank you so much Kylie, you started my interest in this wonderful hobby!).

And here are two recent examples:

I really like this layout with Jas on it. I used the Heidi Swapp Fuzzy Rub-ons (took about 10 minutes to get the damn thing on the page though), for the background I rubbed a chalk ink pad on the page.

Cute things you see Workin from Home

I'm working from home today, and I looked out the window to see Nan and the girls outside - having a tea party, don't they all look cute together!

Ali's Stamp Challenge

Rewarded myself for completing yet another BAS (only one to go now), by doing this week's Ali Challenge - here is the challenge:

Create a layout that uses at least three different stamps - one geometric, one text, and one organic (swirl, artsy, etc.). If you make a mistake, work with it or leave it. Chances are, no one will ever notice except you - everyone else will see it as a totally cool artsy use of stamps. Embrace that!

My first layout is Eliza at six months. It uses one geometric, one text and one organic stamp. The second one just uses organic stamps - thought I should scrap this photo from Christmas last year, before doing this year's Santa pictures.

Fairies and Bees

One of the many things I'll miss when my little girls grow up is the great times we have playing dress-ups together. On Friday evening Jasmin, Eliza and I got dressed up. Jasmin gave herself a fairy name of Lena, and got Eliza dressed up in a bumble bee outfit - and called her "Evil Baby Guy". We ran around outside using the walkie-talkies.

Girls Weekend

This weekend I went down to Sydney with some girl-friends to attend workshops by Elsie Flannigan. I had a great time - always good to have great company, eat good food and indulge in my favourite past-time.

Here is a picture of me with Elsie - she is quite a small lady, girlie voice, very friendly - really very lovely.

I attended two workshops - in the first workshop we created a mini album with black and white photos. The workshop was called Altered Products. Got to do some things I would not normally do - doodle on photos, cut stickers and epoxys. Here are some pics of the results of the first workshop - I did a little album on my girls and called it Sisters (PS. ignore the spelling mistake in Together - i'll have to fix it later!):
















You can imagine my horror when I saw the second mini album we had to make - I had been worrying about why we had to bring along a needle!! I cannot sew (lucky I was sitting right next to my friend Kim who is a fabulous needlepointer and she showed me how to do the blanket stitch around the bag to hold our album. I'll post some pics of the inside of the album tonight. So once again -lots of stuff I wouldn't normally do - sewing, using felt, doddling, hand cutting frames.

Hellie's Birthday

My gorgeous sister Hellie had her birthday on the weekend - we had the pleasure of hosting the party at our place, and what a lovely day we had. The weather was beautiful, Dad did a great job on the BBQ as per usual, and the kids ran around having a great time together. We also made hearts and fish out of the novelty ballooons (thats all I learnt to do before the DVD went haywire!)

Here are some pictures of Hellie and the birthday cake - no we didn't try to light the candles with a flame thrower - these a special quick light candles!

Possessed Daughter

I think Jasmin was possessed by an evil spirit on Saturday. Can you imagine my horror when I discovered that she had drawn on her cupboards and bedroom wall with a black whyteboard marker? Imagine my even greater horror when I discovered the drawing on both hallway walls, the bathroom tiles and screen, the toilet walls, the laundry walls, washing machine and cupboards, the study wall, and my filing boxes!!!! Lucky our friend Rod was around, painting is amongst one of his talents - he had all the walls repainted by 7pm that night. Lovely excuse to get another couple fo feature walls. Here is a little sample of her handy-work!

Jasmin's Birthday

Well, needless to say we were all exhausted by the end of Jasmin's Fourth Birthday party. What a day. When everyone had left, this was what Jasmin said - "That was fun Mummy - Can we do it again tomorrow?". To which I replied - "No, sweetie, you can have another birthday party next year". Now Jassie has been busy inviting everyone that rings to her party next year. Here are some pictures from the day:


My beautiful little fairy girls. Bek - did an excellent job of face-painting for the kids.
The chaos of opening all the birthday presents - I haven;t seen so many presents! Lucky Jasmin and Mummy had some helpers!

Jasmin has been asking for a Barbie Birthday cake for the last six months - when she saw the cake she exclaimed - That's beautiful!