Look at the sky!

I took these photos at lunch time of our view of the dust coming over from the dust storms. It's put a real eerie yellow tinge on everything, as well as a fine layer of red dust. Lucky I haven't cleaned the house for Aiden's party yet :)


The poor sun trying to shine through all the dust! Looks pretty spooky actually!

Circus

We do so many fun and cool things with playgroup and I honestly don't know what I'd do without them. We've pretty much met up every week since our big kids were babies (nearly 4 years), and have formed such a great support network and friendship along the way. They are all such gorgeous girls, and would jump up to help at any chance. I'm so grateful for their friendship and support.

Here's a few photos of the circus we went to see today at Garden City. The kids absolutely loved it, and were in awe of the cool things they were doing. I'm sure Erin was taking note of all the aerial performances for future reference around the house!! LOL! Aiden loved the clown, and his jokes and the performances too :)







I've been playing around with the settings on my cameras after managing to read about 2 pages of the 2peas photo tutorial... obviously I need to read more, but I did get some okay shots out of my little point and shoot on manual settings.

Saying goodbye

Today we had news that Al's Pop passed away. Pop was such an incredibly strong and patient man, who always wore a smile. He played such an important part in our lives, and we will miss him dearly. He loved the kids, and always asked after them. I am so thankful for the time I spent getting to know Pop through helping him collate a book of his past for Mayes Cottage a few years ago. Ever since then, we've shared a special bond, and we would often go around to help him with his latest computer problem. He would try almost anything, and embraced all the new technologies. He'd call me up to talk through his latest discovery on the computer or find out how to do something. I will dearly miss his phone calls and skype chats. I only wish I could have said goodbye and told him how much he meant to me!


Celebrating Mothers Day at our place in May. Pop's at the front with Nana.

Some boy layouts for a change :)

I know a big smack on my bottom for not updating sooner, but here are a couple of layouts I did last week.

Aiden was so cute when he inquisitively asked, "Mum, are we having grasshopper meat for dinner?", as I pulled the roast chicken out of the oven. I couldn't stop laughing.

I used some recycled corrugated cardboard from a huge box I tore up from one of the kids toys. I just couldn't throw it out! I painted it with some Tim Holtz crackle paint. Loved the effect.


And our little Harry Potter. All dressed up for Becca & Zoe's Fairy and Wizard party. He wore Al's old school tie, a cape I bought from spotlight, the glasses $2 from Woolies and a hint of eyeliner for the scar! Easy peasy wizard outfit!

A gorgeous day with friends

It's been way too long since I've scrapped, and sadly, the drought wasn't broken today, even though I had a fantastic time at a friend's place scrapping (more like chatting) with the girls. Thanks for the great company and yummy scrummy eats too!! So nice to have some adult conversation!

But, hey, I did manage to make a card for Manon's challenge at ScrapBoutique. I haven't added photos yet, so I'll post another day, but OMG I can say that I just adore the "never ending card idea"! Leone and I were mesmerised by this cool card. Check out the instructions over at Scrap Boutique. Definitely worth a go!

Since I don't have much to share in the way of scrapping lately, here are the layouts I did for the Stamp and Scrapbook Madness classes I taught back in June/July.

Some lemon loving...

A little while ago my beautiful neighbours gave me a bunch of lemons picked fresh off their tree. While pondering what I could do with these little beauties, I found a scrummy recipe for Lemon Chicken which uses 'preserved lemons', which was thoughtfully proceeded by a recipe for preserved lemons! Perfect! I ended up making 2 jars of the lemons, with the intention of giving one back to them to put in their cupboard.

Well, today (6 weeks later!), I finally managed to do up some little tags, and a label using the gorgeous Labels 4 spellbinder that Karen graciously lent me for a 'little while'. Thanks sweetie! I will return them soon.



I took them over this afternoon with the recipe that I'd found in the magazine, and they loved the little package that I'd made. That made me smile! :) I'm so thankful for all the friends we've made since moving here. Our lives wouldn't be the same without them as a part of it!

Speed scrapping across the universe...

LOL funny how those old songs just pop into your head at a totally irrelevant time... star trekking across the universe... sorry, it's getting late!

So, we've been speed scrapping tonight over at Scrap Pile. I created a nice little sketch for the girls to play with, and OMG they came up with some beauties in an hour and a half! Nice work girls!

Here's my sketch - using elements from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs Little Buckaroo Princess kit.


My paper based example


My digi scrapping example - again using elements from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs Little Buckaroo Princess kit.


and a card I made tonight using the sketch! (loving these new Kaiser papers!!)


Phew, I'm stuffed now! Leone came round to have a play, and she created a gorgeous layout too! I'm sure she'll put it up here soon :) We had some yummy choc coated strawberries and cherries to keep us busy too!!

Colouring with distress inks

Check out this gorgeous tutorial on colouring with distress inksl! How easy does that look! Still love my H2Os though! Will be using a mixture of pencils, H2Os and distress inks from now on though! Love the softness of them all!

Going digital???

I've been thinking about digital scrapping a lot lately. In fact, two of my favourite brands, Hero Arts and Kaisercraft have just started producing digital kits and stamps and all sorts of other yummy things digital. OMG it's totally freaking me out! Well, not really, but as much as I love digital designing, I just can't bear the thought of parting with my crafty, lumpy, bumpy goods, nor sitting at my computer for work and play!

I design websites and online graphics all day every day (well, while I'm working), and although I wouldn't give it up for the world, if there's one thing I could change, it would be sitting in front of a computer screen all day. I need a release, a rest from the screen. In fact, I can still see the words, "I could never sit at a desk all day" written all over my face when my Mum asked me what kind of job I wanted. And still, here I am sitting in front of a computer, behind a desk!

In my mind, I see the positives of digital scrapping:
- quicker
- cheaper
- unlimited products
- immediate access to products (once purchased)
- no need to print out individual photos

and the negatives:
- no hands on crafty work (which I so dearly love)
- would need to buy an A3 printer
- unsure of longevity of final print out (although I guess you could say the same about home-printed photos)

So, the dilemma of whether to scrap digitally or not continues... for now I might just try integrating a few little things into my cards and layouts, like these gorgeous Kaisercraft Apple Tree brushes and flourishes and see how I go!

I'd love to hear your thoughts about digital scrapping, and if you've ever tried it, what medium do you use to print them out on so they last?

A few cards and a roast!

I've been having some fun playing with my new stamps and nesties. I've been trying out the gorgeous twinkling H2Os and distress inks... obviously still need lots of practice, but I'm loving playing :)

I made these 3 cards for Kylie's birthday card challenge over at ScrapBoutique.

This first one I used the gorgeous new Kaiser Pennyroyal papers. They are so rich and regal! I've added a couple of prima roses inked with pink distress ink. They look gorgeous in real life.


I tried out this cool technique with the cuttlebug and nesties, where you leave parts of the image outside of the nestability frame. I got the idea from Katarina. I really do love the effect, although it is quite a bit of work to cut it out neatly, and takes some time and patience!


I'm really loving the colours that I used on this image. I used a combination of twinkling H2Os and watercolour pencils for the shading. Karen gave me these gorgeous basic grey 6x6 papers, and the colours worked really well with the image. I also used distress inks, inkadinkadoo stamps and a fiskars lace border punch.


And finally, this is the Thursday (aka Sunday) Roast over at ScrapBoutique. I had such a great time following Manon's instructions, and I really love how it's turned out! I also made a flower (top right) using Liz's flower technique!