It's Starting to feel a lot like Chistmas

Well, it has been a lot of fun around here lately.

We had the pleasure of going to Jasmin's Preschool concert last week, and although I thought I would cry, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It was just so darn cute. All those little kids up on the stage singing songs they had learnt over the year, and doing little choregraphed arm movements. They even sang a song in Spanish. Jasmin is so good at keeping secrets, that we had not heard any of the songs before-hand, as she kept on saying it was a surprise. We were also presented with their Portfolio of work for the year, which included some of their art work as well as pictures of them at various activites and excursions. Such as joy to receive, and something I will treasure for a very long time!

I also had my Dance Recital 2 weeks ago - it was a lot of fun, and a bit nerve racking.... so funny since I can speak in front of hundreds of people and not get nervous, but I got nervous for the dance concert. Might of had something to do with the fact I had to come on first in my row and I danced in the centre of the stage. I had the girls and Nan, my brother and sister-in-law and nephews along for the second show, the third show Dave and his sister and my brother-in-law came along. The girls were very well behaved and Eliza apparently yelled out a couple of "Hoorays!" and did lots of clapping, I got the "You look Beautiful" from Jasmin and a huge hug after the performance. So very sweet. The last show was a little less nerve racking (may have had to do with the half glass of champaigne before-hand, must remember that trick for next time!).

Jasmin has been a busy little girl - attending heaps of pre-schoolers birthday parties. The last one for the year was on the weekend at the swimming pool. Really good fun. I was however amazed at how many parents did not go in the water and did not really keep an eye on their children. I ended up with a gaggle of little girls -of which only one was a little fishie. Lucky they could all touch the bottom, but it does not take long to drown! None the less, we all had a great time, Dave also went to the pool with Eliza, and neither Jasmin or Eliza wanted to get out of the pool after three hours!

The girls are having a great time opening up each of the Advent Bon Bons and Boxes I have made. Jas insists on picking one out first thing when she gets up, but they cannot open until after breakfast (as some of them have chocolates or candy in them). Last night I spent the night laminating christmas placemats, artfully drawn by my little Jasmin. She did such a good job doing Christmas drawing the other day that I decided to make them into double-sided placemats for Christmas Day, that our guests can take away with them. The girls and I have also made up some lolly bags for our guests as well, using plastic clear lolly bags which I can buy from work. We will put a christmas tag designed by Jasmin on these as well.

Here is a little pic of the designs Jasmin drew for the placements and tag:


The Tag Design:


Finally I end this post with some art work of my own. I managed to get some pages done on Saturday night - 5 pages in just over 2 hours. The pictures were all taken about a month ago when I was taking the picture for the Christmas card. We had a great day taking pictures of the girls and their nephews - we even got some pictures of all four of us together (which I will scrap later).

I start with the sultry Jasmin look:


The very cute Eliza:


Jasmin - such a great subject for taking pictures. I had lots of fun using the SEI Epoxy stickers on these next two layouts:


The girls and their gorgeous cousins:


And finally the two photos I used for this year's Christmas Cards:

Getting into the swing of Christmas

On the first of December we put up the Christmas tree and all the christmas decorations around the house. We have gone all out this year and have fairy lights around the back of the house, a sign for the front, a wreath on the front door a merry Chritmas hanging across the front entrance, the Christmas tree and some motion activated santas who sing Jingle Bells and light up at night.

The girls have been having fun opening up their bon bons:


The welcome sign - Santa is sure to stop here!



Eliza insisted on wearing the Christmas Tree decorations on her head:


The girls admiring their handy work:

Christmas Project

One thing about having kids is that it sure does get you excited about Christmas. This year I decided to do Christmas Advent Bon Bons and Boxes. I have put inside them little trinkets and sweets for the girls. They get to open one for each of the days of Christmas.

I still have two Bon Bons to make (waiting on two toilet rolls!!!), I made the boxes, using the Silhouette digital cutting machine.

Here is a couple of samples.

Memory Bugs Crop Day

I had a lovely day on Sunday with my friend Bek, and my sister and sister-in-law. We all went to the Memory Bugs crop day. It was a great day, really well organised. Tea and Coffee whenever we wanted, plenty of work space. A little shop area to buy supplies if required, pizza for lunch. What more could you ask for? Only $25 for the day, so really worthwhile. I managed to do 9 pages. Both my sister and sister-in-law won raffle prizes. Fiona even won a $15 voucher to spend at the shop. I bought 2 excellent display frames for 12x12 pages and they were only $15 each, so they are now proudly sitting in my scrap room.

Here are the layouts I did on the day:

This first one uses the new Been There Done That Papers and Rub ons from Aussie Scrap Source. I cut the brackets on the Silhouette digital cutting machine.



This LO uses a Hambly transparency as it's background. I used a Heidi Swapp Butterfly Mask to get the painted butterfly pattern down the side, and used Basic Grey Pheriphery paper for the photos. The other butterfly is a Jenni Bowlin one I painted and doecorated with Heidi Swapp Bling.

Finally got Jasmin's fourth birthday down on paper (she picked the paper from the local scrapbook shop):

Love this layout of Eliza's second birthday. I used a Hambly transparency and painted over a mask onto the transparency so that you could see the transparency pattern and the background paper. Love the big acetate letters too from Heidi Swapp.


Here are the great frames I bought for $15 each. I put in the double layout of Newcastle. Went crazy with the paint on the weekend. I used white rubons on white cardstock and then painted over to get the rubon showing through. Thanks to Jennifer McQuire for that idea!

Another layout using the new Aussie Been There Done That papers - with lighthouses on it! Love the Heidi Swapp Acetate - clear ones I added a bit of paint to give them definition around the edges.

Currumbin Holiday Day #5

Day 5 of our holiday was spent relaxing at the beach with the girls. I got sunburnt (I had put sunscreen on everyone else, and forgot myself). It was pretty busy as the Coolangatta Gold competition was on. Jasmin loved jumping the waves, Eliza wouldn't go near the waves (but did by the end of our holiday), she preferred to play in the sand, or to just run up and down the beach with Mum or Dad chasing her!









After the beach we relaxed in the Spa at the Hills where we stayed, and ordered Pizza for dinner from the local Italian restaurant, yum!

Currumbin Holiday Day #4

On our first day in Currumbin we travelled to David's Aunty Sue's place, which was about 40 minutes from where we are staying. We certainly took the scenic route there. We borrowed my sisters Tom Tom, and it took us along quite a scary road to our destination, along ridges with no guard rails, single lane roads around cliffs etc etc.

We all had a great day. There were lots of kids for the girls to play with, Eliza took a liking to little Brendan, who was a little younger than she was. Dave got to meet some of his cousins for the frst time. It was a beautiful spot in the valley and a lovely day.

Currumbin Holiday #1 Days 1 2 and 3

Thought I would also post some of my favourite pictures from our recent Currumbin holiday over the next couple of nights. I took some scrappin supplies and created a mini album / journal while I was on the holiday. It was great! Will post some pics of this album later.

We had a great time on our little holiday, fantasic spending so much time with Dave and the girls.

The following pics are some of my favourites from the first three days, which were actually spent travelling to Currumbin. First stop was Newcastle, for a late afternoon splash in the waves at the beach (girls fell over in the water with their clothes on and got saturated!)





Next stop was Coffs Harbour. Took some lovely pictures under the Jetty of the girls, and I love this picture of Eliza after she has taste tested some sand (I'm afraid I don't understand the eating the sand thing - I am sure she has enough roughage in her diet). Before we left Coffs the next day we visited the Butterfly farm. Jasmin's little doggie (ruppie dog is his name, went everywhere with us).

Jasmin is 5!

After a bit of a break from blogging I am back again! Just have not had the time.

My oh my, how time flies. My biggest little girl is now five. Her birthday was actually on a day we were travelling back from our Currumbin holiday. We didn't have room to pack any presents with us - but she was very excited to get the big birthday card we got for her (have never seen a child so happy over getting a card!). It was difficult to explain however that she was having a little party at home on the weekend after we got back. She kept on saying "but my birthday is today!"

We had a little family get together (although when both sides of the family get together it is hardly small!) We also had my sister's birthday party as well since it was a couple of days after the weekend. I slaved over the cake on Saturday afternoon whilst her daddy took her to another 5th birthday. She is so funny, she knows exactly what cake she wants about a year in advance (plenty of time to syke myself up to make and decorate it. She has already put her order in for next year's cake! She also picked out a cake for her Aunty which I also had to make.

Here are some pictures from the day. She insisted that she invite her best friend from school - Pahul. They are so adorable together... joined at the hip as soon as they see one another. Both have great imaginations!

Update including layouts

Well, I think you would be a rich person if you got a dollar for everytime I said I was busy. The last couple of weeks have been no exception. I am racing against the clock to get all my work done before we go on holidays next week. Off to Currumbin for a couple of weeks. So looking forward to spending time with the kids, enjoying sunny weather, and the good ompany of our friends Jason and Kylie and their children. We are going to have such a great time!

Amongst all my work work... we have decided to close our catering business. Too much work and too much stress. Hellie wants to start a family, so we thought it best if we call it a day. She will be soo much more relaxed, and hopefully able to fall pregnant a lot easier. One of our staff members is going to have a go at running the bistro, and has employed Hellie and all our staff, so I am sure she will do well. My sisietr should feel very proud of her accomplishments, having grown the business revenue by 50% over the couple of years we had the business. Needless to say there has been a far bit of work organising the hand over etc etc.

Trying to madly also get 5 lots of tax organised - as we have an appointment with the accountant next Wednesday - on the way to Newcastle for the first stop on our drive to Currumbin. This includes 3 business taxes and 2 years worth of our personal tax.

Needless to say - I have not had a lot of scrappin time. I did manage to do these layouts over about a 3 week period: