Holiday Scrapbooking

Managed to get a couple of pages done, during the 3 1/2 weeks I was on holidays. Here are some of them:

Eliza seven months old - took me an hour or so to stick all the bling on this - but boy was it fun, actually managed to watch a movie at the same time.



















Jasmin's SURE page. Love this Basic Grey paper - sometimes I feel the need to just show-case some beautiful patterned paper with my pics - so just added some brads and bling to the middle of the flowers. This is another example of me using more of my own hand-writing on the pages - I think it actually personalised them more.




















The two sisters together. I really love these pictures we took of the girls - there were so many good pictures I didn't know which ones to scrapbook.




















The start of a series of pages I am doing on Jasmin's experience as a flower -girl, love this picture! Only really needed a simple layout to show-case it.



















I also created some flip albums for 2006 with all the everyday photos in them. Bought some beautiful bright red Kolo albums from Pepe's Paperie. Included a journalling block at the beginning of each set of photos outlining the what, when, where, who of the photos.

Ali Challenge #11

OK, so I finally got to do the cover page for my new album - Relax 2007. It will be a work in progress - eventually there will be 12 pictures on the page, with an example from each month on how we relaxed that month. Loved working with the red paint! I should be able to post some of the first pages from the album within the next couple of days - the designs are in my head, just have to find time to put pictures to page.

A visit from friends

Last week and for part of the weekend, we had the pleasure of having friends from Sydney come and visit us. It is always great to catch up with them, as we only get to see them a couple of times a year. All the boys have grown so much. The eldest is in Year 8! My god, where has the time gone! Jasmin really loved running around with the youngest - Liam, and really enjoyed having the boys around. It was funny when then left, Jasmin had all these little boy mannerisms - we thought we had a little boy in the back seat of the car on a trip to the mall! Jasmin wanted to know when she could see them all again.

I really enjoyed having a friend here to talk "girl-talk" with, makes you feel like your not alone in dealing with the day-to-day issues of having some many different roles.

Dave had a lot of late nights with Mark playing, you guessed it, CS (ie. Counterstrike!) There were certainly no nights before 1am to be had.

After they left, I couldn't help but feel a little sad. I think once you have had children, the importance of both friends and family seems that much greater. That is certainly one of the things we want to do this year, spend more time with family and friends. It is so hard though, when we lead such busy lives!

Here are some pictures from the week, including Jas and Michelle blowing bubbles outside, and the four boys in order of age - Kieran, Josh, Shaun and Liam. There is also a picture of us all at the end enjoying a bit of Pizza on their last night (and no, we didn't eat take-away all week, Dave has already lost 4 kg in 2 weeks, since he restarted the CSIRO diet). Have to post this pic later, as it won't add for some reason!

FORTHELOVEOFEFFERS Dare #55

After my daily visit to my favourite blogs I was inspired by the following Dare on the FORTHELOVEOFEFFERS blog. The Dare is as follows:

The details: Choose the inspiration website based on the graphic design and layout of the site first... then twist it by using a color palette similar to the origin website inspiration. I love doing this and it can be really cool especially if the original design isn't a color palette you usually work in! Doing this really helps to push yourself creatively, taking you outta that comfort zone and forcing you to try something different.

Well, it certainly did force me to try something different. I have done the following page, inspired by the bright colours of the Limetart website. The page is quite a bit more "arty" then what I would normally do, but I love the results.

The page is about my favourite new word from Eliza which is Boo! The journalling is as follows:



You are sixteen months old in this picture and starting to say more words. Especially words which start with B, such as Bear, Baby, Baby Bailie and Bye. My favourite is Boo! You have the cutest little expression on your face when you say it. Here you are at our friends Ginny and Paul's playing hide and seek - hiding under someone's top. You popped out and said Boo!
26 December 2006

Ali Challenge #13

Ali's Challenge #13 goes as follows:

What are your essentials? If you had to get rid of everything and just keep a modest amount, what would be on your list? The challenge this week is easy: draft up a list of your essentials. What do you reach for time after time?

Well, here is my list of essentials:

1. Camera, Laptop and Photo Printer

Definitely cannot do without the Camera to take the pictures - for me it is a trusty Nikon D70. Love my camera. Also couldn't do without the Sony Vaio Laptop which I use to download my photos onto, before transferring to our server storage. Definitely couldn't live without my HP Photosmart printer - it does 4 x 6 as well as 5 x 7 prints. I tend to print the photos I scrapbook on this printer as I am never organised enough to take my photos to the printers.

2. Black and White Cardstock

Love scrapbooking on black and white cardstock at the moment. If I only had a couple of colours in my stash, these would be the ones. Always buying these babies in bulk (I bought 30 sheets of White in December and it is all gone already!!!)

3. Self-Healing Mat, Art Knife, double-sided tape, metal ruler

The essentials, without these I just couldn't do it. Also love my Guilotine, but hardly an essential as you can do without, just takes longer to cut stuff.

4. Black and White Pens, Stapler, Paper Piercer and Brads

Black and white pens for journalling, stapler for adding ribbon and other emblishments to the page. Couldn't last without the paper piercer for putting holes in the page for brads. As far as brads go, I think it is essential to have a selection of different colours and shapes and sizes.

5. Paint and Ink Pads, Alphabet Stamps

A selection of different colour paints (I like the Heidi Swapp paints), including black and white - which allows you to make an infinite number of colours. I also could not survive without my Chalk Inks - I use these all the time for stamping titles using the Making Memories Alphabet Stamps, I also use the stamp pads to create backgrounds - just by rubbing the ink pad across the page (however, you do use lots of ink this way).

6. Basic Grey Patterned Paper, Chipboard Letters and shapes, and Wholly Cow Rub-ons

Couldn't survive without these at the moment. The Basic Grey paper is just adorable. Could happily use just this patterned paper at the moment. Love also the chipboard letters for titles and monograms - painted or inked using the paints and inks from above. Definitely could not survive without the Wholly Cow Rub-ons - especially the Urban Calligraphy, Lace and Vines ones.

7. Letter and number stickers

Letter and number stickers in a variety of different colours and shapes. A must for titles/sub-titles.

I think that is it. Ask me in another couple of months and list may be completely different.

Elsie Flannigan - Challenge #24

Managed to do a little scrapbooking this week. Since I love White Cardstock so much lately (I also love Black cardstock as well), I thought I would do Elsie's #24 Challenge from her book "52 Scrapbooking Challenges". The challenge is to Design with White Cardstock. I did two layouts - one of Jasmin and one of Eliza at Surf Beach in December last year. I have been looking forward to working with these photos. I had a lot of fun mixing paint colours, and have decided to include a lot more of my own hand writing in my journalling this year. Here are the results:


The journalling on Jasmin's Page is about a plan she came up with walking to the beach:

The Cuddling Plan

Mum, how about you cuddle Daddy while I cuddle Eliza, and then you can cuddle Eliza and I will cuddle Daddy - what do you think? Is that a good plan?

Ali Challenge #11

Have been thinking about the last Ali challenge which goes as follows:

This week your challenge is to create something, anything, that celebrates your chosen word for 2007. Maybe a layout. Maybe a blog posting or a journal entry or a simple post-it note that you put somewhere you can see it each day. Make sure to journal about why you chose your word and what it means for you - the more you let yourself explore the more benefit you will receive in the end.

I have decided that my word for 2007 is going to be RELAX. Yes, this sounds easy, but not for me - I find it very hard to relax, even when I am no where near work! I really do need to start chillin' out. I found myself tensing up on the way home from work yesterday at the prospect of doing 3 lots of payroll before bedtime. I had to tell myself to relax, so I have decided that this will be my word for the year. My plan is to create a RELAX 2007 album, and to scrapbook at least one example a month of how we have relaxed that month. I plan to put a title page at the front of the album, with 12 pictures on it, one favourite picture a month of us relaxing. I hope to post some examples on this blog soon!

Jasmin has decided that her word for the year is going to be "Love". Isn't she a sweety? She quite often comes up to me and says - "I love you Mum", or "I like you!". We both decided that Eliza's word is going to be Yum! She loves food so much - when we were deciding on our words last night we turned around to see Eliza helping herself to some nerds which Jasmin had put in a cup on a shelf where Eliza could not reach (well now she can reach). She was sitting there eating the nerds, and every so often she would burp and smile! Jasmin and I decided that Daddy's word should be healthy. He has just started the CSIRO diet again to get rid of all the christmas cheer he has been partaking of.

Back to Work

Ok - there are a lot of photos in this post - and yes, I am too lazy to move them to the end of the post! They should add a feature to add them to the end of the post (or maybe they do and I haven't found that feature. So here are the pic's and I have a little, or should I say big, description at the end about our summer RELAXation.

My brother Jeff turns 40!

Our little Marilyn Monroe - Eliza, standing over a vent at Wildlife Park at Darling Harbour.

Girls looking at the Kangaroos at Wildlife Park.


Luna Park and Darling Harbour.

Well, I went back to work today - after three and a half weeks holidays. Davie still has another two weeks, I am insanely jealous. There is nothing more precious then spending time with the family.

We have had a really busy last week. Starting last Sunday with my brothers 40th birthday. The family chipped in an got him a Nintendo Wii - he was really surprised. It is a great gaming system, very interactive.

A late night Sunday night getting 3 lots of payroll done before heading off to Sydney for three days with Julie and Leslie.

We arrived in Sydney on Monday, walked to Centrepoint for lunch, done a little shopping, walked to Darling Harbour, and took the girls to the new Wildlife Park. They enojoyed it - Eliza was just gald to get out of the stroller, and ran around like mad. Jassie loved the animals and even had a snake put around her neck!!! After this we jumped on the Ferry to Milsons Points and went to Luna Park. This was our very first time at Luna Park. I get motion sickness, so I was just happy to chase Eliza around after she went on the couple of rides she was big enough to go on. Jasmin went on every single ride she was big enough for, including a roller coaster - she is a real dare devil (not like me at all!). A train ride back to Central to the Mercure Hotel, and a late dinner before crashing around 11:15pm.

Up on Tuesday - more shopping and walking! Dave and I ordered our wedding anniversay present (19th January will be our 16th Wedding Anniversay). We ordered our second Peter Lik photograph "Tranquil Bay" (Dave's turn to pick since I picked last years photograph). We also got to pick a smaller photograph of San Fransisco by night, where we went as part of our US holiday back in 1996 (seems like a lifetime ago).

Then off to Darling Harbour for lunch, and then all the kids rides, the play area, the paddle boats, and then Jasmin decided she wanted to do the bungie trampoline. We had a great time. Back to the hotel for a swim in the pool, and then a lovely dinner again, and off to bed late once more.

Wednesday we spent in Parramatta shopping at Parramatta Westfield, Julie and Les went to the Civic Video Regional Meeting (Dave and I just could not get our act together to get out of bed in time to go, so Julie and Les took one for the team). Wednesday arvo we drove home and did the movie ordering for February.

Thursday we spend in Goulburn and then drove back home on Thursday arvo so that we could get some washing and ironing done!

Saturday we went to the pool with the girls - Eliza is a real fish, loves the water, and wants to go and swim by herself (even though she cannot swim). Saturday night we went to our friends place for the most beautiful Tapas we have ever had. Needless to say, we went home very full indeed, and in need of a stomach pump. To finish off the weekend, we had our friends Joanne and Andrew over for a BBQ dinner - seems like we haven't seen them for ages! Ben, thir oldest is half hour younger than Jasmin!

Well, I think Jasmin and Eliza will be very happy indeed to see us both go back to work - they may actually get some rest!

I will post lots of pictures tomorrow night - in the process of downloading them off the camera - 731 pictures in total.

Christmas Fun

Well it has been quite an exhausting first week on holidays - starting with giving the girls their Christmas presents from us early, so they could play with them before we went back to Goulburn. Jasmin got a new big bike - it is 16 inches tall, and has a great basket on the front of it for carrying dollies. We got Eliza two smaller presents - a peddle bike of her own and also a Zebra toy thingie. We didn't think to build Eliza's bike the night before - kind of thought that it would come out of the box mostly assembled, but it didn't. Eliza had fun trying to help Daddy build it.

Back to Goulburn on the Sunday for Julie and Leslie's Annual Christmas Eve cocktail party, which is always lots of fun. This year Big Les got dressed up as Santa Claus - I think everyone sat on his lap!

Santa was very clever and managed to find the girls santa sacks at Julie's place (we gave him special instructions on where to find us). Jasmin had lots of fun opening up her presents from Santa - one of her favourites is a Fairytopia Barbie doll with sparkly wings.

Christmas Day was the normal over-eating food fest. Starting with our extended Family - our brother-in-laws parents place for breakfast - bacon, eggs, baked beans, home-made raspberry and banana bread - yum.

This was followed by Christmas lunch at Evan (Dave's brother) and his fiance Jane's place. They were very excited to host Christmas Day in their new house.

Dinner was at my parent's place, where Eliza spotted the lollie bowl as soon as she walked in the door and parked herslef on the seat in front of them. Every year we open our presents before dinner, it starts out quite orderly, and by the end is just complete chaos - must be a factor of how many little and big kids are there!

Boxing Day is always with our friends - Ginny and Paul in Goulburn. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember, and one that we always look forward to. The kids had a great time playing hide-and-seek, and then swimming in their new in-ground pool. The girls had lots of fun. Eliza just wanted to swim around by herself - a little bit of a problem, since she cannot swim. Jasmin was impressed that she could touch the bottom of the pool at the shallow end.

Christmas Project

I was very busy leading up to Christmas. I had a couple of scrap booking projects on the boil, which were completed just a couple of nights before the big day. For my Nephew Robert and his wife Arlene I made a Baptism, Engagement and Wedding Album. I only had a week to do the wedding album as they were married on the 16th of December. In total the wedding album had almost 70 pages in it (8 x 8 inch). I kept the design fairly simple - a title page at the beginning of each section, with each page in a section using the same design for that section. Each section had a slightly different design. I was pleased with the results, considering I had such a limited time to do it.

I love the three ring binder albums - I used jet black linen albums for this project from WeR Memory Keepers.
I have posted a couple of pictures of the album here.