Katie's Blog

Back to School Photos

2012-02-10T17:32:00.001+10:00

So, here I am back with the first day of school photos, just in time for finishing week 3!! Nothing like rushing these things!

Well, I know that Niamh is going to hate the fact that I have put this up, but oh well! She looks annoyed because her friend had just arrived to collect her and I was making her late! Like smiling for one second was a major time event..... ahhh teenagers, what can you do with them?! But apart from that, Niamh has settled into high school without drama (excluding the usual hormonal drama that is, as that is ongoing unfortunately...)

Erin, always happy to be back at school, and now being the eldest there, I am sure feeling pretty good about things! Erin has gone into grade 6 and is over the moon to be back in a class with her best friends!

And lastly my littlest one. Well he really isn't that little, but I need to hold onto the idea... Liam has started grade 2 and is already sneaking in his physics books to show the class at "show and tell" time! Only grade 2 but he is already using terms like "fempto seconds" and blowing us all away!

So, haven't done much else lately. Been too hot and humid to think, but I am hoping to get back into some crafting this weekend!

Until next time....

Welcome 2012... even if it is almost a month late!

2012-01-30T16:31:00.000+10:00

I know, I know, we rang in the new year almost a month ago! But, well, I have been doing other stuff so I haven't been on here so much! But that is OK, kids are back at school now and routine is coming back and I am having time to do things for myself! Yay! That includes being creative! Double Yay!!!

So just in the nick of time I have some monthly challenges to put up and then link over to the respective challenge blogs....

First of all - Kraft it Up, this challenge was a colour scheme with kraft of course.A nice bright summery colour scheme!

I have been playing around making my own masks lately too. This one I used my Cricut and the Paper Lace cartridge and some transparency material, worked a treat! I also "acquired" a doily die (a Cheery Lynn one) and all I can say is it is gorgeous!

Next, White with One: White + Lime + Buttons

Again playing with my own masks (the doily like one), also did some stamping with a great background stamp and then coloured with copics, and only one button!

Scrap the Boys - Favourite summer holiday past times.....

Loving the orange and yellow hues at the moment! So bright and fun.

And last but not least, Scrap the Girls - Monochromatic

I love how this one turned out! And see the bookpaper flower?! That was a doily cut using my new die, makes a beautiful flower I think! All the little flowers are ones I have made from clay too, they look so cute and are so easy to do!

So, I do have one more layout to add. This one is a special one, and probably part of the reason I didn't get up to much over the holidays. I lost my "grumpy old man" fur baby just after new years. It wasn't so much a surprise, but still a very sad time and I still keep thinking about him. Chookie has been with me (mostly) since about January 1993 when I brought him home from the pet shop on a whim. And to put it in perspective, I met Andrew in April 1993, so Chookie has been with me longer than my husband (but only just). All the kids were sad to see Chookie gone, but he got a lot of attention in his last days and plenty of photos too. I made sure to take photos of the kids with him, I just forgot to take any of me with him and that makes me a little sad. But I am lucky to have photos of him over the years so I will always be able to remember him. So this page is dedicated to our "grumpy old man" (he was equivalent to about 100 in human years, 19 calendar years) and the joy he brought to our lives...

I will be back soon with some "First day of school" photos too. That was last week and all are settling in well. I am now the mother of a High School student, but I will deny this if you ask me!! Niamh is settling in really well at high school and I think she was more than ready for this transition.

Until next time,

Katie

Almost Christmas!

2011-12-16T15:48:00.000+10:00

Well, it is almost Christmas and so much has been going on lately! Where to start... well I have been busy wrapping up the local Kindy photo orders and distributing as well as getting wedding photos from earlier organised so that has kept me pretty busy. Add into the mix being on the decoration committee for the year 7 graduation and all the other school end of year events and you can just imagine that I have barely had time to scratch let alone scrap or blog.

But let me assure you, even though I haven't had time to scrap, I have been accumulating "must have" products for when I do have time!!! LOL!!! So to share some photos, first of all is Niamh all dressed up for her graduation evening. It was a lovely evening and all the kids seemed to have a great time (even if the night that it was on was my birthday!!).

Niamh accepting her graduation certificate from her Principal.

Having a dance with Dad, apparently he has "two left feet" according to Niamh!

And this is what some of the decorations looked like on the night. The theme was "Let's get this party started" and it was full of fun and bright colours like a carnival.

Liam lost his first top front tooth a couple of weeks ago, and all I can think of is this is the beginning of loosing my little boy! As soon as those adult front teeth come in their face changes and they are no longer little kids. I wish I could hold onto it for just a bit longer!

Erin has lost some teeth also, not to mention she has had her hair cut short again. She always seems to grow a couple of years when she gets her hair cut. I can see that she is changing, but I am not sure who she is looking like at the moment! I can see elements of my brother Richard and also of my Mother in Law! Andrew just says she looks like Erin!

I have also managed to get the kids in for a Santa photo, but I think this will be the last one that all three will co-operate for! Niamh keeps telling me she is too old for this stuff, so I promised this was the last year that I would "make" her join in, hopefully she gets past the idea she is too old for it and wants to join in for the fun of it!

I never put up my sample for Out of the Hat's November challenge, so I will pop it up now. In fact that was the last thing that I scrapped! OMG that is so sad! I really am feeling the yearning to do something and slowly our lives a quietening down, so hopefully I will be able to get back into it soon!

The criteria was: Two punches; Spots or Stripes; Handmade flower. So I naturally used border punches, including my great new one from EK Success called Flower Burst and I love it! I have also used a MFT rolled daisy die to create my flower and I have a spotty button and spots on my blue paper. I just loved seeing the big cats when we went to Melbourne zoo earlier in the year and so this page was born!

Anyway, I think that about sums up the last couple of months in my neck of the woods. Tell next time!

Kraft it Up and White With 1

2011-10-05T20:10:00.000+10:00

Back again with some more monthly challenges. This time Kraft It Up and White With One. It is so nice to have time to get these challenges done.

First up is the White With One challenge which this month is:

White + Black + Paints/Mists

As you can see I decided to use black as my back ground colour and white for most of the accents and details and of course white mist (gotta love Mr Huey's white mist!). I really love how this one came out and think it suits the photos perfectly and the little splash of colour from the photos is great!

Next is Kraft It Up which had this criteria for October:

Kraft and one of these Styles - Monochromatic or Minimalist or Vintage/Romantic/Shabby Chic

I decided to go for the Minimalist style as that suits my work most of all, and I had the perfect little photo of my gorgeous niece to use for the job! I love how this one turned out, definitely one of my favourites!

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I will get the chance to do some more challenges soon!

October Out of the Hat

2011-10-03T17:34:00.000+10:00

Hello, here we are into a new month already. So along with a new month we have new challenges. For Out of the Hat the October criteria is:

1. Complimentary colour scheme

2. Paper Tearing

3. Felt

Plenty of scope to play around with and opportunity to make my own stuff. So here is my end result:

I also have done another couple of layouts over the holidays.

This one I did do for the Scrap the Girls September challenge of using "clips" but I didn't get it loaded up in time. But I am pleased with how it turned out. Having a lot of fun playing with my new big punch and using up some of my EP For the Record papers.

And here is one of my cute little niece from a while ago. Lots of hand made goodies, the felt flower using my beautiful new MFT rolled daisy die and the little blue flowers made from clay using my own molds. I have so much fun making my own goodies!

Well that's it for now. Catch you soon.

Back so soon?!

2011-09-18T10:44:00.000+10:00

Well, yes, I am! Back to share some challenge layouts! Yay! I have actually had enough time this month to complete a few!

First of all I have done the White With One September challenge:

White

Pale Pink

Journal on Photo

I chose to use the pink for my main colour with splashes and highlights in white, and I even scrapped a photo of myself! Now there is something you don't see every day!

And now for the Kraft It Up September Challenge:

Kraft

Fabric

Stitching

My fabric is in the form of filling in the rainbow between the two photos and also a lollipop flower, and my stitching is on the title label and also along the rainbow.

So there, some shares, and now I am ready to go off and scrap some more!!

Layouts to share

2011-09-15T14:04:00.000+10:00

Hi Ho, thought I would jump on and share some layouts. I haven't been up to too much lately, which has been nice, and the kid's start their end of term break on Friday so I am looking forward to lots of down time and hopefully crafting time! I am even off on a crafting day on Saturday so I might even get stuff done soon!

Last weekend was a busy one with second shooting at a wedding on the Saturday and then meeting with my own wedding clients on the Sunday. Weekends really don't seem to last long any more. That is why I need the week days when everyone is away to recover in peace and quiet!!

So, Liam had a hair cut on Sunday. Just the usual short all over kind that I usually do, and I say this every time, but it makes him age a year or two when his hair gets cut. I especially noticed this at school on the Monday, with his height and the haircut he looked like he was in the wrong classroom and he needed to be in the grade 2 or even 3 block! So, here he is, with Lego in tow of course, not a fantastic photo (taken with my phone), but you see what I mean, this boy does not look 7!

Now for some pages. Just because kinds of pages, because I felt the need to craft!

These photos of Liam make me laugh, the faces he pulls! Especially when he is trying to look down the telescope and at me at the same time. The yellow button I made from white fimo clay and then coloured with alcohol inks.

Here my big boy is looking very pleased with himself as he has mastered the art of no training wheels! Using some Basic Grey Oxford papers here.

I love how this page turned out. Liam with his buddy Kian on Kian's last day before moving overseas. Using up some old Pink Paisley papers.

And last but not least, using some Crate Paper Neighbourhood papers, a simple page but again with photos that make me laugh!

So that's all from me for now. I might even go and try some scrapping right now (well until school pick up which isn't long, well maybe after school....).....

Katie

September... Already

2011-09-07T11:31:00.001+10:00

Well, here we are, September already! That means that my baby has just had his birthday and is now a big 7 year old. He had a wonderful party with his good friends in the park after school and of course received lots of lego (about his only toy interest, although the nerf guns did go down a treat!!).

September also means new scrapping challenges! Firstly, Out of the Hat's September challenge is a good one. The critera is:

1. Use something handmade

2. Include a heart

3. Use chipboard (shape or alpha)

and this is what I came up with! I have used Basic Grey's Oxford papers for this one, and a new punch! Yes I have an obsession.... but at least I can admit it! I am also loving playing with tape at the moment too, I have used some 7 Gypsies tape on this page.

And while I was on a roll I did the Purple Pumpkin September challenge. This month is not a sketch however, there was a number criteria:

1 lollipop/flower

2 doilies

3 buttons

and this is what I came up with!

I am still getting great value out of my Crate Paper Emma's Shop kit! I think this must be about the 4th or 5th page using this collection and I still have more to use, and I just love the colours too!

So I have used a lollipop and crocheted doily from Sweet Vintage on Etsy, two of the buttons are Purple Pumpkins while the third is one I made myself from fimo, and the last doily is a paper doily which I coloured with distress ink and cut in half. Even if I do say so myself I love how this one finished up! And can you see my new punch in there too?! I think it is called eyelet lace and isn't it sweet??!!Oh, and do you like the ticket? That was a recent purchase from My Favourite Things! Lots of lovely dies and stamps over there!!! Just saying....

So, let me think, anything more to share.... no I think that will do it for now. Oh, here is one more picture, Liam's buddies put in together to buy him a big lego set for his birthday and this is what they chose:

How cool is this set? Liam already had the shuttle and smaller sets in this collection, now he has the complete set! I think I was just about as excited as he was!! And to give you an idea, the rocket stands about 50-60 cm tall! Very very cool!!

OK, now I am off! Til next time.....

Some Layouts...

2011-08-25T13:25:00.001+10:00

Well, time is getting away again. It always seems to be a downhill run after the Ekka hits town and this year is no exception. We are thick amongst birthdays, fetes and other events so there is certainly no rest for the wicked here!

I have also realised that I have not uploaded my Out of the Hat samples for July let alone August! Oops!

So without any further ado, this is the July Out of the Hat challenge which was Monochrome, White Space and a Doily. So here is my result, with Niamh when she used to be small (now she is only about 6 inches shorter than me and I am not short at 5'9"....).

I am loving these My Minds Eye doily stamps. They are just devine and stamp so well. I am also loving making my own flowers and love how these came out, and the pearl flourish was created using dimensional pearl paint on transparency, pretty cool! Did I mention that I am loving yellow at the moment??!!

So, that is July, and this is August. Criteria was - Square photo (at least one), Strip Journaling and Paint.

Now, I just have to say that this is my most favourite page in a long time, there is nothing complicated about it, but it just works! And I had so much fun creating it too!! I immediately thought of the old polaroid style of photos when I saw the square photo criteria so sourced some free frames to use, and I think the frame suits the photos, which make me laugh every time I look at them!

Aside from late sharing of those, I have just completed the August sketch challenge for Purple Pumpkin. I must say that I do enjoy a good sketch! And adding some Purple Pumpkin goodies into the mix is certainly no chore!! So here is the sketch:

And this is my take on the sketch:

Again I have been making flowers, and playing with my ever growing stash of border punches (did I mention that I have just precently purchased some more??!!), and again with the yellow!

So I think that is all for now, and hopefully I will be back sooner this time!

Thanks for stopping by,

Katie

Purple Pumpkin Guest Designer

2011-07-19T12:58:00.000+10:00

Well, I came back from Melbourne to find out that Purple Pumpkin were looking for two Guest Designers and seeing how I love their bits and pieces I thought I should throw my hat in the ring!!

So, to enter you need to throw up one of your favourite layouts (whether you have used Purple Pumpkin goodness or not!) and talk about Purple Pumpkin. Well, it just so happens that I have a couple of layouts that I haven't shared yet which use some PP goodness and I have a hard time narrowing it down to favourites so I consider them all favourites!

So here is my first one, and probably my favourite of the two. It shows some photos from UN Day at the local high school (where DD#1 will be going next year!). I thought the owl button was perfect to go along with the "school" theme to the page, and I loved getting four pictures on the page without it looking overdone.

And this one, I love for its simplicity. I do like my clean lines and white space (if you haven't already noticed!). The button here amongst the flourish and flowers just finishes off the page, and helps create the red visual triangle too. I love these photos too, catching these two at their best!

Well, that is it for now. I will have to come back with some photos from Melbourne and my OOTH sample for July. There is still time to get your entry in for OOTH so get over and take a look if you haven't already!

Catch you next time.

Katie

School Holidays

2011-06-28T15:55:00.000+10:00

Well, the next round of school holidays have begun. I for one am glad! I think we all needed a bit of time to unwind and relax. The past term, while short was pretty action packed! The kids all had great report cards so we are both very proud too.

Later we will be going to Melbourne for a nice short break. Looking forward to that, it has been around 20 years, I think, since I was last there. And we will be there for the King Tut exhibition which is ultra cool!

So apart from that, things are pretty normal. I have a little bit of scrapping to share and then I am off to check on dinner. Slow cooked beef casserole! Smells delicious!!

I think all of these are based on sketches. I am finding to get things done at the moment that is the easiest way to work! Less thinking on my part too :) From top to bottom I think they were from: Becky Flecks Page Maps 2 (a great book for inspiration!);Write, Click, Scrapbook; Inspired Blueprints.

Oh, see the cool fabric buttons on all three pages?? I have been making my own! Aren't they cool, and so simple too, so now I can co-ordinate with whatever I am working on. Sweet!

Catch you next time.

Katie

Time to share

2011-06-21T16:07:00.000+10:00

Thought I might just pop in and share some stuff, you know, just because I can and I haven't for a while now!

A couple of weeks ago we had the big Scrapbook show on at the convention centre. I was really looking forward to stocking up on some Martha Stewart punches, which I did and some gorgeous stamps too. Because you can never have enough stamps!

I have been playing and creating too. Always a good combination! So, what to share?? Well how about this one...

Playing with a sketch from somewhere ( I should write them down shouldn't I?? I think it was Creative Scrappers), and using some Sassafrass and lots of hand made goodness!

And maybe this one too?

Playing with some Pink Paisley, new border punches (an old one, but one I decided I really needed to have!), making flowers, embossing, all sorts of things going on here!

And one last one for today.

Another new border punch (yes another older one...), the beautiful Girly doily stamps from My Minds Eye (another show purchase and they are just to die for!) and some of the very pretty (one of my favourites) Crate Paper Emma's Shop papers.

So I think that will do for today! Now I need to go back to my desk and make stuff!

Thanks for popping on by!

June OOTH Challenge

2011-06-09T12:13:00.000+10:00

Well, we are right into another month, already, and that means another challenge over at Out of the Hat. This month the criteria is:

1. Kraft and bright colours

2. 6 buttons

3. A bird or birds somewhere

So this is what I came up with.

I have used some Basic Grey "Fort Lauderdale" papers which were appropriately bright, 6 clear buttons with a rainbow of coloured twine to make bows in each and finally a cute little bird from Fancy Pants "Its the Little Things" line. Throw in an inked doily and hey presto, my page is done! So if you want something to do, go and give this one a try!

I have also managed to do the Purple Pumpkin June sketch. Here is the sketch:

Apart from using the sketch you also need to use some Purple Pumpkin goodies on your page. Here is my interpretation of the sketch:

I have used some Echo Park "For the Record" papers, along with 3 spotty buttons from Purple Pumpkin (these spotty buttons are my favourite!).

I am now counting down to the Scrapbook show at the convention centre this weekend! This will be the first time in years that I will just be going to go and not working, which is both a little sad and a little good. I am hanging out to buy some more border punches so I hope there are lots of great specials!!

Until next time,
Katie

Kaisercraft Sketch

2011-05-24T12:50:00.000+10:00

Back with another layout! I regularly check out the Kaisercraft blog and try to do one of their Saturday sketches when I can, and this weekend I really loved the sketch that went up and I had time to work on it!! So first of all here is the sketch:

and this is my interpretation. I flipped the sketch around 90 degrees to suit the photos.:

I really enjoyed putting this one together and did many things that I don't do too often. I stamped onto transparency and did some fiddly cutting and made some flowers! This was one of those pages that you just knew what papers to use and how it was going to come together! I wish more were like that!

Apart from that, I have another few pages from the retreat to share. These were done using some of the Fancy Pants range "Its the Little Things", I just love this collection! It is so varied and so beautiful! I simply love the colours in this collection!

I used some sketches for the first two. Pencil Lines and Inspired Blueprints are probably the likely place, I can't remember now! And they probably took on a life of their own along the way!

Well that's it for now! I still have more to share from the retreat so I will be back soon!

Katie

Challenge Scrapping

2011-05-17T13:44:00.000+10:00

Well, I have to say I have been scrapping up a storm this weekend! I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with girlfriends at a scrapping retreat and I was very proud of myself having completed 9 pages!! Can you believe it?? I almost couldn't. I rarely get much done when I scrap with friends (I am guilty of talking too much and scrapping very little!), so I really didn't expect that I would achieve much at all. But I think I packed right, didn't think about things too much and took challenges and sketches to work from and then things happened!

So, I have a Purple Pumpkin sketch challenge entry (because my order arrived just in the nick of time on Friday before I left!). So here is the sketch:

and here is my take:

The only other criteria was to include some Purple Pumpkin goodness! Which I did with the cool pink spotty button. I used Crate Paper Emma's Shop which is absolutely lovely to work with too.

The other challenge was for Scrap Jacked. I chose to use a page by Bec as my inspiration and used some Basic Grey Life of the Party for a simple boy page. Here is the inspiration page:

and here is mine

I still have trouble looking at this photo of Liam for too long, he just looks too grown up, certainly older than his six years!

Well that is enough for now. But rest assured I will be back with some more pages to share soon!!

Catch you later,
Katie

May Out of the Hat

2011-05-09T09:42:00.001+10:00

I remembered that I should put up here my sample for the May Out of the Hat challenge! The criteria is:

3 Different brands of patterned paper

Include a bow somewhere

No Alpha stickers - think rub-ons, chipboard, hand written, stamped, sewn etc for your letters!

So this one made me think a little, and then have lots of fun mixing my papers! The result is this:

So the papers I used came from Sassafrass, Pink Paisley and Basic Grey. I used some old Scenic Route chipboard letters (I used to love these ones!!) and my bows are obvious!! I love this photo of Liam with his cousin. They do love spending time together which is so wonderful to see.

OK, that's it for now. Catch you soon.

Katie

Warning

2011-05-09T09:36:00.000+10:00

Lots of layouts ahead!!!

Some new ones for May challenges and some older ones done for challenges that I didn't quite get up in time!

White With One May Challenge was "White, Orange and Scallops". I didn't realise how much orange stuff I had in my stash! I really love how this page turned out too. I think maybe because these are some of my favourite photos of my niece!

Kraft It Up May challenge. This was fun, the criteria besides Kraft - No Patterned Paper!! I had to think, but when the idea started I really had fun with it. I painted some squares and stamped various patterns into them as my base, turned out great for a boy page!!

I can't remember the site for this sketch challenge, maybe Stuck?! but either way it was for last month, or even the month before! I am loosing track. Another set of photos that make me smile. My little niece dancing. You make up your mind whether it is "I'm a little teapot" or "All the single ladies"!!! I think both work, but I immediately thought of Beyonce when I saw the sequence!!

This was done for White With One - April Challenge, which was White, Olive and Twine. I quite liked this one too, but of course I left it to the last minute to start and finish and ran out of time. Oh well, at least I am scrapping! It was nice to use some photos of DH for a change too!! (Not that he is so impressed about it!!)

And this one was a just because kind of page. It started out being inspired from some sketch I saw (perhaps a pencil lines or page map, I really can't remember now), but it took on its own life, as sketches often do. My cheeky little man and the faces he pulls. He still pulls faces, but now he looks a lot more grown up!

So that is the update for now. Lots of scrapping to catch up on and hopefully a lot more to be done. Especially since I am off on a crafty retreat this weekend!! Lots of chatting and scrapping and someone else preparing the food, who could think of anything better??!!

Catch you soon.

Katie

Some Layouts

2011-04-21T15:40:00.000+10:00

Well, so far these holidays have been great! I have had a little time to do some scrapping and I feel good.... I have completed the Kraft It Up April challenge, which was a recipe of sorts:

APRIL'S CHALLENGE....

Is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 challenge, you must create a layout based on the following...

1 piece of Kraft cardstock

2 photos smaller than 6x4

3 different Alphas

4 different patterned papers (yes you can use the reverse side of one sheet as long as the pattern is different)

5 different embellishments

So I got to it and created! This is what I finished up with...

So, Kraft is obvious, my photos are 3.5x5.5 my favourite size to scrap at the moment too :) , 3 different alphas, 4 different patterned papers, and 5 embellishments 1. crocheted doily, 2. Twine flower, 3. Brads, 4. Punched butterfly, 5. Tab phew, all there!

So what do think of my twine flower? I made this myself and even the button on the top too!! Pretty cool. I really enjoy making my own bits and pieces.

So the next layout is for the Scrap the Boys April challenge which is this:

APRIL CHALLENGE

THE CHALLENGE IS TO GET INSPIRED BY AN OUTFIT THAT YOUR SON OR HUSBAND WEARS TO CREATE A LAYOUT...

** You need to use the photo of the outfit (obviously being worn by your son or hubby) inspiration could be the colours, patterns, textures etc...

So, I was really inspired by the grungy pattern on this shirt of Liam's and thought it would be fun to create a background similar and use the same sorts of colours. I really enjoyed the "arty" side of creating this background.

The funniest thing was when I went back to the Scrap the Boys site after I had finished and had a look through the work and found that Ebony's sample has her boy wearing the same shirt!!! What a cool shirt it is!!!

So there is paint, and dimensional metallic paint and ink and stamping and die-cutting and grunging all sorts of fun and yes my hands were pretty dirty after I finished!!

So that is all for now. I am hoping to finish another challenge or two before the month is out. But who knows, time just keeps slipping away this month.

Til next time!
Katie

April OOTH Challenge

2011-04-06T15:13:00.002+10:00

Well, another month has rolled around. A new challenge is up over at Out of the Hat so go and check it out. It is a great challenge, here are the criteria:

Handmade flowers

3 different stamps

Kindy Glitz (or similar)

And here is my sample for this criteria.

I had a lot of fun playing with my new Daily Junque papers from Pink Paisley. They are just beautiful!

Actually, I am really pleased with how this whole page came together! I love these photos of Niamh and her little cousin Alice too. She is such a sweet little baby and growing so much every time we see her. Niamh just loves to see her little cousins!

Talking about Niamh, can you believe we had a tour of her high school last week? I have enrollment forms to be filling out too... Time has just sailed right past, not only that she is catching up to me in height too! Now that is simply not allowed!

Til next time!

Another Great Giveaway - Lil' Red Rocket

2011-03-31T16:17:00.000+10:00

Another fantastic giveaway happening today. Would love to win this one too! I am just loving all these buttons! This one is over at Lil' Red Rocket, so make sure you check it out!

Just follow the link to Lil' Red Rocket..... or leave it just for me!

Check this out...Purple Pumpkin Giveaway

2011-03-31T16:08:00.000+10:00

I stumbled upon some this great Purple Pumpkin give away happening from Anne's link... I am loving the look of all of these cute buttons and bits and pieces and can't wait until they next go on sale! So do yourself a favour and go and check it out too, or maybe not so there is more for me :)

Now all you have to do is click on the link to Purple Pumpkin!

Catch you soon.

Out of the Hat March Challenge

2011-03-06T17:04:00.000+10:00

So, I have finished my sample for the March challenge at OOTH. If you remember from the last post the criteria was:

1. Use twine

2. Use a number in your title

3. Make your own journalling spot

So here is my result. I have made some twine buttons as well as wrapping some around my number in the title. For the journalling spots I stamped with three different stamps onto lined paper and arranged on my page to act like one bigger space.

I also have this page which was from a sketch at Stuck?! for February that I didn't get done in time. But I couldn't let the half done page go to waste could I?? So here is the sketch and then my version.

I also have a few photos to add today. A couple from the neighbourhood walk that Liam and I took a couple of weeks ago. This first one shows the tree marker in the street behind us to show how high the water came up in January. With Liam underneath it really gives it perspective. Liam is approximately 130cm tall, so you can imagine just how deep the water was here.

This next one looks down the river from the Walter Taylor bridge at Indooroopilly. You can see the marker of how high the river went just by the dead foliage on the trees that grow on the bank.

Remember my little nieces?? Well I had the pleasure of seeing two of them last weekend, so of course I took the opportunity to photograph them as well. Little Alice (who was born at the beginning of November) has grown so much. Jasmine is fast approaching 3 and is such a little character. She absolutely loves her cousin Liam though! It is sweet to see how much she dotes on him.

I also snapped a couple of my own kids, except for Niamh. Well I did get her but she was pulling such faces that I am sure she would kill me if I uploaded them! Instead I am saving them for a scrapping project, just don't tell her that!!

I cannot believe how grown up Liam looks now. Erin too is no longer a little girl. I wish they would stop this growing business, it is making me feel old.....

Anyway, more washing to hang out now. Catch you later!
Katie

News....

2011-03-01T15:40:00.000+10:00

Well, I have some news to share. I have been selected to be on the design team for Out of the Hat! Yay! This will be the second time that I have been asked to be a part and I am thrilled! It is one of my favourite challenge blogs and probably the only one I am guaranteed to complete each month.

If you haven't ever checked it make sure you go and do it now! The March criteria are:

1. Use Twine
2. Use a number in your title
3. Make your own journalling spot (for example use stamping etc....)

I will be onto my creation very soon. So keep posted for that.

While I am here I thought I would pop up a few photos. The finished front deck looks great, and we have had many comments on how good it looks too. The only thing we have left to do now is painting and oiling the timber.

The roof and screening make a huge difference to the front room too. I can't wait to get a little setting out there so I can sit and sip cocktails and watch the world go by!

The next photo is from last Monday, just before that huge storm hit. I don't think the photo quite does it justice, it felt darker and more ominous than it looks. But it gives you an idea of how it looked just before the clouds burst and the wind and thunder began.

Well, that's it for now. Catch you soon. Thanks for dropping by.

Challenges

2011-02-27T15:44:00.002+10:00

Thought I had better get some of the February challenges that I actually did get done up and linked before I run out of days in February!
I have managed to get one sketch challenge done for the Kaisercraft blog, two challenges for the Show Us Your Stuff blog and one for the Scrap the Girls blog.
So this first one is KaiserCrafts Saturday Sketch February #2, here is the sketch, and then my interpretation. I have used Lush papers for this one. I also played with my two new Martha Stewart punches! I must say I do love my border punches!! The zig-zag one is great for the edges of rosettes too.

So this next one is for Scrap the Girls and it too is a sketch challenge. So first I have the sketch and then my version. I used a great AC Dear Lizzy kit for this one, such pretty papers and colours. You will probably notice I rotated the sketch to suit my photos, and I loved how it turned out!

Finally we have Show Us Your Stuff. Challenge #1 was a "love" themed page/card/otp, any kind of love and must include a handmade heart. My heart was fashioned from a white paper doily that I misted and inked. I also hand cut some smaller hearts as extra accents to finish the page. I used some Crate Paper patterned papers and really love how they colours worked together. I should mention too that this started off being based on a Pencil Lines sketch #213. But as sketches often do evolved from that, but there is definitely still a resemblance and credit where credit is due I say!

The second challenge for Show Us Your Stuff was a sketch, and also include a quote and of course something handmade. My quote was: " The poetry of the Earth is never dead" by John Keats, something I thought was appropriate given the theme of the layout. My handmade items were buttons from patterned paper and dimensioned using dimensional magic and also the journalling spots that were stamped onto patterned paper and cut out.

So that's me, keeping myself occupied while Andrew has been away. I will be back soon with some final photos of the finished front deck (bar the painting and oiling). See you next time.

More Layouts

2011-02-18T11:00:00.001+10:00

Just a quick pop in with a couple of new pages! One is for the February Kraft It Up challenge blog. This was a simple colour combo with Kraft of course, this month.

I played with a mixture of papers that I had lying around, including Crate Paper, MME and October Afternoon. And I finally scrapped some photos from our Stanthorpe get away back in 2008. Wow that feels so long ago now. I also did a bit of inking and misting that seems to be a favourite "add in" at the moment!

This next page was one I started at a crop of old Scrapbook City girls last week. Ang gave us a challenge to create a "patty cake wrapper flower" from a U-Tube video she found and I have to say I kinda liked how it turned out! I added a punched retro flower and checked brad to finish it off, but what an easy way to make a cool flower! I also used some gorgeous Studio Calico Mr Huey mist (thanks Ang, might need some of my own!!). Other than the flower the layout is a pretty simple page, also scrapping older photos!

So, there you have it. Not much else going on at the moment. Niamh turned 12 back on the 9th. I am a mother of an almost teenager now and I can tell! The roll of the eyes the huffing and grunting.... The joys I have to look forward to for the next few years! Erin is 10 on Monday, so life is busy with birthdays and cakes and presents.

Liam and I did do a rather long walk around the neighbourhood last weekend and I took some more photos to show post flood recovery. The most interesting one is the painted mark on a gum tree on the street behind us. The mark is simply bright pink with "2011" written above and it shows how high the water came there. With Liam under the tree for reference (and he is about 130cm tall) you get a real feel for how much water there was behind us and how close we came to experiencing water first hand.
Til next time.

Katie

The Renovation Story continues...

2011-02-05T11:02:00.001+10:00

I thought I should do some updating on our renovations as the last time I added anything was BF (before floods). It seems so long ago already. Anyway, the day before we evacuated because of rising flood waters we had new carpets go in through the house including our new bedroom. The fellow who laid the carpet was great, like having your grandfather or a favourite uncle in the house. We ended up choosing a mid-grey colour that seemed to go well with all colours through the house and we are very pleased with the results. Here are a couple of pictures, one from our room and one from the hallway. Somewhere in an earlier post you can see what the carpets used to look like!

The other renovations underway is the replacement of our rotting front deck. We decided to also added a roof to help protect this new deck and provide some more shade to the house and also lift its street appeal. So, this is what we started with.

Then, just before the drenching rains and rising waters, the deck was removed and the house looked a little strange. It was funny how people that needed to come to the house responded upon seeing no way to get to the front door too!

Then the new deck took shape, the stairs were replaced, the roofing structure went on and the roof itself.

This is where we are now, waiting for the last little bits to be completed, guttering, screening and painting. Then we can start returning to lives without building work going on! Looks a little different now doesn't it??!! The last thing to be done is a "fix" of the kitchen, but we are waiting for our local Bunnings to re-open after being affected by the floods before we can do that.

I also, finally, have back to school photos! (But don't tell anyone, I kept forgetting to take one and I didn't until the last day of week 2!!) They have all grown so much in a year. This is Niamh's last year at primary school which is a bit mind blowing and Liam is now in grade 1 (I can't believe my baby is turning 7 this year!), with Erin in grade 5. Each year seems to fly past faster than the last.

To finish off, here is a layout I did this week for the Out of the Hat challenge site. The criteria for this month were: include a cloud or clouds, include a tree, use masking or misting. I had fun with this one, and played with my Cricut again! I used the Cricut to cut the tree, and also the clouds and grass that I used as masks, and of course I used my Ranger re-inkers in mister bottles for the misting! I am really pleased with how this one turned out and feel I am getting back in the groove!

Well, cheers for now.
Katie

Couple of Layouts

2011-01-31T16:52:00.002+10:00

Thought I would start the week with a couple of layouts! Yes, I have scrapped. Just feeling like I am getting back into the swing of things again. It feels so long since I last got to sit and play at my desk!

The first is a challenge for the Show Us Your Stuff blog, it was the first challenge for January, a sketch challenge, a nice easy way in! The only other criteria was something handmade, either by you or someone else. I pieced together a little present stack like in the photo and also added some pleated paper also.

The next challenge came by the way of a sketch too. The sketch was sent on by a friend to challenge ourselves and the get the juices going. But, given we started with a card sketch I had to think about it a bit before I could get a good run to turn it into a 12x12 page. The result is something I am happy with though, and I got to play with my Paper Lace cartridge for my Cricut! Yay! Not only that, but I used some more of the Studio Calico bits and pieces that I was given by the lovely Ang! Thanks again Ang!

So there you have it! The week has begun! Catch you next time.

Katie

Walk Around my Neighbourhood...

2011-01-27T12:43:00.001+10:00

Liam and I went for a little walk last Thursday (so one week after the devastation) to see how the parks and river were looking. What we saw took me by surprise. There is still so much mess and evidence of what happened and even still water lying around in parks. It will take a long time for things to truly return to normal.

The view looking toward the river and the bike/walking path that meanders beside it. Currently it is covered in mud and unusable.

This looks away from the river along a little creek that backs onto houses in White St and finishes as an open reserve at the end of Austral Ave. Usually there is very little if any water in this creek, but you can see just how much surged through here at its worst.

Remember the layer of mud from the netball courts? Well that was nothing compared to that nearer the river.

Debris along roadsides and footpaths, full of all sorts of odd things. Here a smoke alarm, a piece of lego, a rubber glove and odds and ends of plaster board. The human side of the debris.

Well, some things are returning to normal with the kids going back to school on Monday. Much to their and my delight! They have all settled back into the routine easily which is good. All glad to be back with their friends who they had been concerned about. I will have to get some back to school pictures up soon too.

The school fared reasonably well considering. The pool is out of action so it can be emptied and cleaned of its muddy waters. The school oval is still out of action as they wait for the soil to dry out and finish cleaning and replacing sand and bark soft fall. The after hours care building is still out of action but the prep rooms are operating. The school really was very lucky in the scheme of things.

I have a couple of layouts to share too. One based on the December challenge for Scrap the Girls. It was to use one of the following colour schemes:

Orange and blue (which I used)

Yellow and purple

or Green and red

I also had fun playing with my new scallop border punch. It is great isn't it??!!

Scrap the Girls December Challenge - Orange and Blue colour scheme

The next layout is also for Scrap the Girls but for the January challenge. This time the theme was Summer, I used some of the things in a Studio Calico kit that I so generously received from Ang. I can't believe how little Niamh is in these photos, and to think she is about to turn 12!! It was nice to get some scrapping done, these were completed before the flood crisis and I haven't got any done since, but with the kids back and a bit of time to myself maybe I can get back into the groove!


Scrap the Girls January Challenge - Summer Theme

Well, that about wraps it up for now. I think I need some lunch and to think about hanging out some washing... Then back to school for pick up time.... it really does roll around very quickly!!

Til next time. Katie

Back Home

2011-01-20T11:41:00.001+10:00

Well, we are finally permanently back home now with power restored and things slowly going back to normal. School is not far away so this gives the kids something to look forward to. Friends to check up on and comfort. We have been advised that somewhere in the order of 40% of families at our school have been seriously affected by the flood waters, so there are many many friends who will need some routine and something normal again.

We are doing our bit too. We have found spare uniforms to donate to help those who lost them. The Sherwood Neighbourhood Centre is also taking donations of clothing, linen etc, so we will be taking what we can to them to help others. I think there will be many weeks before things really return to normal, but also for everything to properly sink in. When the volunteers are no longer out, and the army returns to normal duties, then it will hit the hardest in an emotional and mental sense.

Another example of things still not normal is seeing our netball courts. I saw for the first time yesterday that they are being used as a tip for the collected rubbish before being transported to land fill areas and the like. There is so much rubbish down there it is hard to fathom and I am sure this is simply the tip of the ice berg.

Now for some more photos. Another flood waters one, but the rest show how the local area is still affected.


This looks down the street beside the school toward the netball courts (on the left), the row of trees/shrubs sits just above the top courts.

This is the current view down our side street looking toward the grass netball courts. Looking back to normal thanks to some rain to clean the grass. But all is not as it appears...

Once you get past the grass courts you see the second surfaced court is being used for a rubbish collection point before being trucked onto land fill and the like.

You can see by the size of the truck compared with the pile just how much rubbish there is here, and they have been working for days to remove it all.

This looks in the opposite direction from the courts, back to the reserve area. Here there is still stagnant water and mud and areas that just simply look like they are dying. You can even still see the brown in the tops of the trees showing how deep the water was at its worst.


This last one shows how thick the sticky, stinky mud is that is still lying around. This was on the edges of the small bank that goes down to the pedestrian/bike path that winds its way beside the courts and then on to the river. And it is still really slippery too.

Well, that wraps it up for now. I do have some pages that I scrapped before this that I have had a chance to photograph and will upload soon. Then I guess things will start to feel more normal again. I think we all need that, and I am looking forward to sitting at my desk and having some release.

Til next time,

Katie

Flood Updates

2011-01-14T20:38:00.003+10:00

Finally I have been able to get time and power/internet access to come on and give you updates on us and the floods.
We live in one of the suburbs severely affected by these floods but we have been so very lucky. Our house and property have not been touched by water at all. The only loss we have suffered is a fridge full of food, such a small loss in the scheme of things. We are surrounded by people in our street and neighbouring streets who have lost so much. We have spent the last couple of days helping those of our friends who need help, cleaning mud, removing destroyed belongings and just keeping up spirits.
When the waters started rising back on Tuesday we decided to evacuate our house rather than risk being stranded without power and possibly water. We were so generously taken in by our friends Georgie and Craig, and I am sure this has been the best part of the school holidays for the kids! Ironic really. We spent a couple of anxious days watching the news and being updated by friends and neighbours still in the area as to the water levels and how our house was faring. The best news I have ever received arrived by text from our neighbour early on Thursday morning, simply saying no water has reached our house.

We decided then to make our way over and help those who needed it. What we saw as we came back over the Indooroopilly bridge was amazing and surreal at the same time. I have to say that despite all I have seen I don't think it has really sunk in yet. So much water, just so much water and now the stench and the mud. We took the kids with us on today to help with some cleaning and to get them to understand how lucky we were and how much others need our help now. The water had dropped significantly but it is still so surreal. I made sure to take some photos on Thursday and these follow.

This is looking down towards the netball courts on Tuesday afternoon about 6pm. This is about one house away from our house, but gives a little idea of how much higher we are than the street behind.

This is the same view Thursday morning (water had already dropped about a foot or two). The driveway to the left is higher than the one in the above photo that has the four wheel drive parked in it. That driveway is under water in this photo. Many boats were launched from here during the day.

This is one end of our street. To the left is the kids school. This was a boat launching area.

This is looking down the other end of our street. Below where the water is are at least three houses that were unable to be accessed. This was also another boat launching area.

This is looking down Oxley Road towards Indooroopilly. The street to the right with the sign just visible is Leybourne Street. Boats were being launched from here also.

This is down the end of Richardson Street, looking toward the carpark entrance to the Netball Clubs building, to the left is Turner Street. Again, more boats.

So, that is our lives for the past few days. Full of anxiety and turmoil, but in the end of it great relief. Especially given all the devastation that we have seen around us. We are now spending our time helping our friends and neighbours and even those who we don't even know.
And that smell that they keep talking about, believe me, it is in a category all of its own. Something you need to smell to appreciate, a mixture of rotting vegetation, mud, and even a fishiness it is a stench of its own.
Ok, that is me signing off for now.

Take care, Katie

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-10T11:24:00.001+10:00

Can you believe how quickly the Christmas and New Year period disappears?? So welcome to 2011 and may it be joyful and prosperous for you all!

Right now, along with many Queenslanders, however I simply wish for less rain and less flooding. But we are some of the lucky ones. We have not been washed away and we can still get outside of our home.

I thought that I should come and share some more renovation updates with you. We are very close to being able to completely move into our new bedroom! Yay! As we speak the carpets are being laid. The whole house is undergoing a facelift with new carpets going into each bedroom and to the hall as well. We even took the opportunity to clean all the walls while the rooms were empty over the weekend. The painting is also complete in the new room and on the deck and lighting is connected in the new room also. So only a few little things to finish off, like the deck lighting and fan and the airconditioners. Lucky it has not been so hot this summer that we were desperate for the aircon! So here are some pictures. I thought I would do before and after shots so there are photos of all the rooms and the hallway looking bare and displaying really gross old dirty carpets. The bottom two shows the new room with its fresh paint and also the ensuite all finished. We have been using the ensuite since just before Christmas and let me tell you neither of us will be able to go back to the old shower after using the new rainhead! It is magnificent and we are thinking of changing the old one to something a little similar to share the love around! Which leads me to the fact that we are going to give the old bathroom a small makeover in the coming months too. Which also reminds me, we have no front deck at the moment! They came and ripped it down the other day and the house looks really strange now. I will get a photo as soon as it stops raining enough to get outside, and who knows when that will be??!!

Niamh's old room, soon to be Liam's room.

Our long hall way. And despite the carpets it has never looked this clean!

Liam's and Erin's room, soon to be Erin's alone.

Our old master, soon to be Niamh's room.

The new room, looking almost complete!


And the finished bathroom. We just need to move all our stuff in now!

So that about wraps it up for now. I do have a couple of pages that I have done. One for the Scrap the Girls January challenge and one that I didn't quite finish in time for their December challenge. But I am waiting for better light to photograph them!

Until then! Katie

Christmas Tags

2010-12-21T10:25:00.007+10:00

Hi there. Thought I would share the Christmas tags that I have made to adorn our gifts this year. I have been having fun playing with a digi kit by the lovely Zoe Pearn called Winter Wonderland, you can purchase this kit and others of hers at Sweet Shoppe Designs. There are lots of great digi kits and things there! The tags are quite simple, but more personal than buying them, not to mention I can now use the kit for lots of other things too!! Well, today marks the end of an era with Scrapbook City opening and closing its door for the last time. It is both a sad and happy time. Sad for those of us who like to pop in to see what is new and have a chat but happy for Leisa and Kerri moving on to the next stage in their lives. For those lovely ladies who I have passed on my details to, I have updated my side bar links with all the challenge blog sites that I like to visit! So I expect to see some of your work there with mine as we use these blogs to kick start our own scrapping! I must say I am greatly looking forward to scrapping for myself for a little while. I have to admit since knowing about the shop closing there had been a fair bit of panic buying and collecting going on, so I really do need to sit down and start using all these new products and tools! The latest of which is a Gypsy to go with my Cricut! I am hoping that I will have lots of down time soon with work and shopping slowing down and of course our renos nearly complete! OK, enough rattling on... I thought I would do a quick digi page while I was in the mood too. I have used a free kit that came when linking up for a regular newsletter from Zoe. Not sure if it is still around, but it is a great versatile little kit, and who complains when it comes for free!! Well, that's all for now. Catch you later. Katie

Back Again!

2010-12-15T21:19:00.004+10:00

I know, back again so quickly??!! Unheard of really! But I am killing some time while my new Gypsy updates so I thought I would amuse myself by uploading more to my blog! I thought I would share with you the last class that I taught for Scrapbook City. Now this was no ordinary class, it was an all day, catered, exhausting and head full of stuff kind of class! And it was so much fun it was run twice! Each time with about 25 ladies in attendance! Curious as to what it was about??!! Well, you all know how inspired by Tim Holtz I have been this year, well we decided to do our own version of his 12 tags of Christmas. I created 12 Cards of Christmas based on techniques he had used in previous years of tags and using our own home grown stamps from Dark Room Door. The results were some pretty great cards (even if I do say so myself!), a lot of techniques learnt and a lot of fun had by all. So here is my little collage of the 12 cards to show you what we did. There was lots of distress inks, alcohol inks, paints, crackle paints, masks, grunge paper, embossing and perfect pearls involved and some very dirty hands too. It was a really fun class and I am glad I had such a great way to finish my time teaching with Scrapbook City. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Leisa and Kerri for the wonderful times that I had while working for them. It was a such a fantastic time and I know I will be seeing you both regularly even after the shops doors close for the last time. Well, that is about it. My downloads are almost done and it is getting close to bed time. Til next time. Katie

Santa Photo

2010-12-15T08:45:00.004+10:00

Well, the kids had their photo with Santa the other day. I am not sure how much longer this will continue. Niamh is already saying she is too old for Santa! Anyway, I will keep pushing as long as I can! I have some more renovation photos too! As I mentioned the tapware is in place, and here is the shower I was talking about... pretty amazing hey! And the tapware on the vanities, simple but effective... And most importantly, a second working toilet in the house... You know you have picked good colours and fittings when even the builders make a comment on how good the ensuite looks!! As we speak undercoating and prep work for the painting is going on. So by the end of the week the bedroom should be all painted and next week the outside, and the deck sealed. Yay! Some where in there too the electrician will be back to give us power! Then the hard work begins... the sorting, culling and moving (not to mention carpets, but that will be after Christmas now). That is all for now. Catch you later. Katie

Scrapping!

2010-12-13T11:11:00.005+10:00

I have done some scrapping!! Yay for me!! I decided now that I am no longer busy doing things for Scrapbook City that I could join in some blog challenges again. I have created an entry for the White with One blog challenge. The December criteria was White + Grey + Masking. So this is the result. My beautiful little nieces, with butterflies and flourishes! I created my own mask from some masking paper and Tim Holtz's flourish Sizzix dies, and I had some great My Minds Eye papers that were perfect in shades of grey and white! The next challenge was for Kraft It Up, a challenge blog that I have heard about but not participated in before. The idea is Kraft is the basis for your layout. The rest of the December criteria was Christmas photo, non-traditional colours and knots. This is the result, a dun page I think. Again I had fun with a Tim Holtz technique to create the flower. It is over on his blog under one of his new 12 tags of Christmas. So many wonderful ideas and techniques on his blog! Oh, and speaking of Scrapbook City. They now have a closing date, 18th December. So if you are in Brisbane it is worth your while to drop in one last time for some amazing bargains!! Well, that is it for now. Catch you later. Katie

Schools Out for Summer.....

2010-12-11T14:55:00.004+10:00

So have you got that song in your head now? I have!! Well, the kids have finished another year at school so we now brace ourselves for 6 weeks of holidays. But as things seem to be going lately this will disappear all too quickly too. The Christmas countdown is well and truly on and we are also looking forward to the finishing touches of the renovations being completed so we can begin the moving around. (Not to mention great big clean up and purge!) I have some more photos to share of the renos too. Since last time we have an almost complete deck with railings and screening all but done. Just sealing the timber and lights and fan fittings to be done. The room too is close to completion with tiling in the bathroom complete and the vanities, tapware and toilet in place. Painting and electrical fit out along with wardrobe doors, mirrors and carpets are the last things to be done. We can't wait!! There is now a roof on the deck and external walls on the bedroom, along with louvers and windows. The screening on the deck is underway here. Looking pretty swish and we cannot wait until it is usable. Railings on the stairs make them safe now! Tiles in the ensuite start to finish this area off. Here are the vanities, one each with ceasarstone tops. I need to take more photos showing the tapware! The shower looks awesome!! Remember last post I mentioned Liam had lost another tooth, well here is the toothless boy. And Niamh did pose for a photo with her cast on. We were lucky to find after a week in plaster and a second lot of x-rays that there didn't seem to be a break, just possibly some tendon damage. So no more plaster, which is a relief in this heat. I have also been playing around with some photoshop actions I purchased from here with a "hipstamatic" look. I have enjoyed seeing people with their i-phone versions but as I don't have an i-phone nor any desire to own one I thought I would look for a photoshop version! Here is another one with lovely Erin. This next one is following a "forumla" in Lightroom to create a similar effect. It has its own appeal too, so I turned it into my own Lightroom Preset. I think Liam in his funky glasses added to the effect! Here is another snap I took a couple of weeks ago. We had just come home from shopping to find a rainbow across the sky, and here it looks like it is landing at our house. I searched for the pot of gold but had no luck finding it! And lastly, I celebrated my birthday this week. Aside from the cricut I mentioned earlier I received some great cartridges to use in it, some gold class movie vouchers and a steam mop! I know a steam mop isn't that exciting, but it was something I really wanted and I can't wait until the building work is done so I can clean! Sad really, isn't it??!! Oh and I received these when I was least expecting them! Andrew can be so sneaky sometimes! So that sums up things here. I am sure I will be back soon with more reno news! Til next time, Katie

More Photos

2010-12-02T16:31:00.008+10:00

Hello! Life is getting very busy here as we start winding up the year at school and continue with our building works. I feel like I spend my time split between home answering questions about what way to do something or what colour and so on or down at the school at one of the kids activities. Well, I guess we will be on holidays soon and the building will be over so then I will be complaining about moving rooms, and kids at home!! No winning really is there??!! So, what has happened since I last updated. Well, Scrapbook City is on its way to closing its doors for good. Which is sad, but the right thing for Leisa and Kerri. I will miss having a little haven to go to and just chat if nothing else. But I have gained many wonderful friendships out of my relationship with this shop and I know these will continue. If you are in Brisbane and want a bargain however, I suggest you head over as they currently have 40% off storewide (with a few exceptions like cricut cartridges and the like, but these are still at fabulous prices!) and stock is almost walking out the door! On the Scrapbooking bent, I am now the proud owner of a Cricut machine!! This is my birthday/christmas present from Andrew and the kids! Cool hey?! I was told, that since I kept talking about this machine and that I was hard to buy for that perhaps I should just buy one!! Who was I to say no! I am also getting a Gypsy to go with it from my in-laws for my birthday! I am feeling like one lucky girl at the moment. Now I just need five minutes to be able to sit down and scrap! Liam lost another tooth. I feel like we have a hot line to the tooth fairy at the moment, between Liam and Niamh I think six teeth have come out in about two months! Speaking of Niamh, she has just come back from camp, where she was not allowed to do very much as she has a cast on her arm! Last Sunday while scootering at her cousins house she had a fall and now has a suspected fracture.... So Monday we go back to the doctor, get the cast off, go back to x-ray then go back to see if we need to put another cast on. No wonder I am exhausted all that running around! (I am trying to get a photo, but she doesn't like the camera very much at the moment! I only have one on my mobile so I will have to download that!) The house is coming along. We are starting to get to the details now. The room has walls inside and out, the bathroom has been waterproofed and tiles will start to go down (hopefully) tomorrow, the roof is on over the deck and railings should start to go up soon. So it won't be too long and we will have a functioning room and deck! I can't wait for the deck to be done. I have a photo to share, but it is a little behind with where things really are. I have photos on the camera, just need to download them! Roof frame for deck is up and getting ready to clad the outside of the bedroom. I had a chance to visit my newest niece Alice. She is lovely, so small and basically just slept the whole time we were there! I have some photos of her with various combinations of people. Proud Grandma with Alice New big sister Jasmine with her baby Alice and big cousin Niamh. Life is tough when you are little...... I took some Christmas photos for my sister in law last weekend so she could make cards. I always seem to get a classic photo of my niece Rachel when I do this. I had the giggles when I saw this photo in camera, let alone after I had added to it! And not to be left out, brother Dan had a classic too! Til next time! Katie

So, I told you it wouldn't last!

2010-11-17T15:37:00.005+10:00

The regular blogging that is! But it is only just over a week, so it's not too bad. So since last time, the reno has come along some, we now have a roof!!! Something we feel very relieved by. Plumbing and wiring has gone in, and there is a big hole in the wall where windows and doors used to be getting ready to be closed off! Aside from this, I have a new niece! My brother and his wife welcomed a second little girl to their family. I am really looking forward to meeting her this weekend, so until now I haven't been able to take any photos myself. But thank goodness for the digital age and facebook, which means I have seen lots of photos of little Alice already. Niamh is so hanging out to see her new cousin, I just hope Jasmine doesn't get jealous! I have scrapped a little. With so many other things going on it has been hard to find time to sit and do anything, even though there have been times where I really wanted to! So lets do some show and tell with photos. From the front, you can see our new roof peaking out! From the back you can see the safety rail and most importantly all those lovely tiles over the new section!! So, this is one of the big holes in the wall! It is covered at the moment, but not finished. The outside is clad with builders paper as we wait for external cladding and then the internal walls to go in..... things are happening! So, some scrapbooking! Using some Easter photos taken with my mobile phone. New baby Alice. Photo taken from Facebook from Richard or Jenny's album, edited slightly by me! Another photo "borrowed" from Facebook. Love this moment between Jasmine and her new baby sister! And this is little Edith! Well, not so little now in comparison to Alice. She is growing so quickly and every time I see her I swear she has grown just a little too much. So that is us for now. Til later. Katie

Lots happened this week!

2010-11-07T08:29:00.006+10:00

Wow, I think this is my third post this week! Pretty amazing. But I am sure it won't last! A few things to share. My youngest, Liam, lost his first tooth this week. It came as a bit of a shock to me, as I only discovered he had a loose tooth about a week or two ago! As you can see by the grin, he thinks the whole thing was pretty cool! My sister in law gave birth on Friday 5th November to her second child. My brother is now the proud dad of two little girls. We can't wait to meet little Alice so rest assured there will be photos soon! I have also been the lucky recipient of a cherry on top award. This came from the lovely Michelle. Thanks Michelle! The rules are: 1. Thank the person that gave it to you. (see above) 2. Post it with pride on your blog. 3. List 3 things you love about yourself. Three things that I love about myself - well - I am generous, have a slightly wacky sense of humour and I am fiercely loyal. 4. Post a picture you love. Well, I have a lot of pictures that I simply love for many reasons, but I think this one is one of my favourites. I love this one for the memories it holds and the people who are in it. Not to mention it is simply hilarious too! 5. Tag 5 other people for the award. 1. Anne P - http://scraptastic-stuff.blogspot.com/ 2. Rita - http://budtobloomcreations.blogspot.com/ 3. Sandra - http://buttonsandbowsandmore.blogspot.com/ 4. Ronnie - http://ronniedoll.blogspot.com/ 5. Nicole - http://nicole-paperharvest.blogspot.com/ So thanks again Michelle! These kind of things are always good to make you think a little! I have done some scrapping too! Can you believe it?? I have just completed the November challenge for Out of the Hat. This month the criteria is: 1. Corrugated Card 2. Painted Background 3. String My result is this: I have white washed the background paper to tone it down and added paint in for the journalling spot and used it with a mask. The corrugated card I cut into scallops which I then wrapped the string around. I also used my fabulous new around the page punch from Martha Stewart! While on a roll at my desk I did this one too. This has some of my favourite photos of Liam it it too. We were playing with his "invisible writing pen" and a slow shutter speed, I love the fact that his arms were so fast too that you can't see them!! It makes me laugh! And lastly I am going to finish with a photo of Erin. Caught yesterday after she had finished eating a vegemite sandwich for lunch. How an almost 10 year old can still wear so much of her food I don't understand, but it makes me laugh! I can also see just how grown up she is starting to look too. Till next time!

Reno's continued...

2010-11-04T12:01:00.005+10:00

Warning....this post is image heavy!!! So I am back with some more photos from the renovations. Things are stalled right at this moment while the rain is here. Which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem, but given they took roof tiles off yesterday for adding the new bedroom roof and we only have a tarp covering said missing tiles area I am a little more concerned about the rain! Especially since we are expecting storms today and tomorrow! Oh well, we cross our fingers and hope for the best.... So here are some more photos to show the progression... The new stairs go on and flooring starts to go down. The framing goes up for the bedroom. The 2D drawings finally start to take shape in 3D! Poles up for the roof supports for the deck and more framing for the bedroom. My kitchen gets cut up to put in the door access from house to new deck. My poor kitchen.... at least this means I will get a new kitchen soon too!! Then there was a large break as we waited for roofing structures to be ordered and delivered. I haven't added these pictures onto the computer yet so you will have to come back and check them out later! But I thought I would share some photos of my garden as well. A little while ago I thought I would put a rotting tomato into a pot and see if it would grow. Well grow it did! We now have about 40 tomato plants growing strong and now flowering and fruiting from that one old tomato! To this we have added capsicum and lettuce and it joins capsicum and silverbeet we already had growing! It has been a great thing for the kids watching their food grow, and we can't wait to try the tomatoes. I am thinking there will be a lot of bruschetta being eaten (just have to get some basil into pots now!!) not to mention salads galore and pasta sauces!! Lucky these are some of our favourites. One of the tomatoes full of fruit. These are all roma tomatoes one of my favourite varieties. We also have a few cherry tomato plants happy in another corner of the garden, yum! Cucumber starting to fruit. You can just make out the little cucumber behind the flower! I love fresh cucumber and I can't wait for these to be ready to eat! And one of the capsicum hopefully growing big enough to turn red and be eaten! OK, enough from me today. Catch you soon with some more updates!

Renovations underway

2010-11-01T12:15:00.005+10:00

Another busy month or so has flown past here for me and there has been a lot happening! Our renovations have finally begun and it won't be too long (weather permitting) before Andrew and I have our new room to move into and the new deck will be ready to be christened! The kid's have been particularly interested in the whole process watching everything the builders are up to and checking progress every day after school. I have been recording the progress myself (as any good scrapbooker would!!) and have a few photos to share showing the process. Well, this is the "before" shot. Just how it looked before the work began. It doesn't take a long time to remove something, and the house just looked plain odd without the deck there! The area now level with holes dug for posts and channels for plumbing, just waiting for the slab to go down. And then it rained and it rained and it poured! See the holes where the poles are, that are to the top with rainwater? Well these holes were about 2m deep!!! There was a lot of rain! I reckon that the plumbing channel would have been around half a meter deep and it was full too! We joked that it was a new lap pool just the right size for Liam! Slab finally down, poles in place and the sun out again! It didn't take long for joists and framework to go up! Well, that will do for now, there are still more to come, but there is only so many construction photos you want to share in one go! On the scrapping side things have been busy. I did two all day classes last month focused around Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas techniques. I used some of his ideas and techniques to create 12 cards using the wonderful Australian Dark Room Door stamps and lots of Ranger product. It was messy and plenty of fun and exhausting all in one go! Here are a couple of my favourites from the 12 cards. Using mini-misters with the re-inkers and perfect pearls and the gorgeous flourish mask. Playing with alcohol inks and embossing for this one. Lots of layers in this one! Blending, stamping, distressing not to mention getting those flowers right! And last of all, make sure you head over to the Scrapbook City blog for a great sketch challenge. There is a great pack of brand new Bo-Bunny papers up for grabs for this challenge. You have about a week to get your entry in! This is my take on the sketch: OK, that is it for now! Catch you soon.

Weekend Away

2010-09-23T08:52:00.003+10:00

Thought I would share some photos from our recent weekend away. This was an adults only weekend away! It was so nice to have time to ourselves and not have to worry about kids for a couple of days! (Although I did miss them, a little bit, just don't tell them that!!) We went to O'Reilly's guest house for two nights and had a wonderful relaxing time. We did some bushwalking, we took lots of photos and we just spent time together! So here are some photos from our time away. This was the view from our little balcony. Pretty hard to take isn't it?! The peak to the left of the shot is Mt Lindsay, with Mt Barney roughly in the middle. This is s beautiful little wren called the Superb Fairy Wren, but I fondly referred to him as Mr A Bastard. He was very difficult to photograph because he just wouldn't sit still, constantly hopping and flying around taunting me! The king parrot is a beautiful bird, and one of the parrots you could feed. We didn't get around to doing a feeding but enjoyed watching them from a distance. This little guy was in cleaning up the left over seed from the parrots feeding! He is a Red-Browed Finch. He was a little tricky to photograph also, but not as much trouble as the wren! This little fellow is a Lewin's Honeyeater. A pretty little bird, but he makes a hell of a racquet! The description in our little bird book describes his "machine-gun" like rattling call, and that is exactly what it sounds like! Not good in the early hours of the morning! Here is the pretty Crimson Rosella. This is the other bird that you can hand feed. Although I think they are opportunists too. This one was hanging around the cafe while we had lunch waiting for his left overs! This is the Satin Bower Bird. A bird I remember from my childhood visits to O'Reilly's, for the fact that we never saw one. They used to be very shy birds, but not any more! We also found an abandoned bower full of beautiful (according to the bird) blue objects. And probably the favourite of the weekend was finding how sociable the Regent Bower Bird has become. Again, one of the shy never seen birds from my childhood. One afternoon we found a tree just outside the restaurant with about ten of these birds and some of their mates. They really are a stunning bird, their colours so rich it looks like velvet. So apart from this we also saw (without cameras handy) a pair of Eastern Whipbirds, a White-throated Treecreeper and a Rufous Fantail. Who ever would have thought this little weekend away would turn into a bird watching safari! So that is our weekend! Since then we have entered school holidays. Which has been good, simply for the fact that I have not had to make lunches or rush around doing anything! I have even got a page done for the Out of the Hat September challenge, which I didn't think I would get done! The criteria was: Minimum of 6 buttons, Border strip and Title embedded in journaling. Well, that's it for now. Catch you soon.

My Minds Eye

2010-09-17T08:43:00.005+10:00

Morning everyone! Just quickly dropping in to share my new layout from My Minds Eye, using the beautiful Lost & Found Madison Avenue - Cherish papers! There are full details over on the Scrapbook City blog. Also I have some photos of my new niece Edith. She is so beautiful and makes me miss having a baby around (for a little while anyway!). And these pages were done for Scrapbook City also, using the about to be released Marjolaine collection. Another great collection from Basic Grey! Again, more details over on the Scrapbook City blog. Don't forget the new challenge over at the Scrapbook City blog too! This challenge is all about the bling! There is a great prize too, so go and check it out! That's it from me for now. Catch you soon.

Great things happening...

2010-08-31T17:40:00.004+10:00

...over at the "new look" Scrapbook City blog! We have changed the way our blog looks (with a some great work by the lovely Zoe Pearn, love your work Zoe!!) and we have a great challenge on the go too. Not only that, but we have a new Card City blog too! So much happening so little time! Make sure you go and check out the challenges. This week is a Kaiser Craft challenge. Use 70% Kaiser products from one of these lines: Lush, Up Up and Away, Hippy Girl or Secret Bird Society. I have made a sample and I chose to use Hippy Girl papers. So much fun, and I got to try a new flower making technique as well! I will give some more detail about that later on the Scrapbook City blog. So here is the layout: Catch you soon!

August Already??!!

2010-08-18T16:52:00.006+10:00

OMG! It is half way through August already! There has been so much going on lately that I don't feel like I have had time to scratch myself let alone blog! I guess I have been negligent of my poor blog, but hopefully things will settle down a little soon so I can get back into some kind of routine. But then again....maybe it won't too. Well, whats been happening... I won a family pass to this years Ekka and we all went along last Wednesday. The best thing for me was riding the steam train from Roma St Station!! Although I do love looking at all of the ducks and geese (a hangover from keeping them as a kid I guess), and I did check out the photography and the cake decorating was amazing! My sisters baby is due anytime soon, so I am counting down to having a new niece or nephew to play with. I am busy taking photos (when I haven't put my neck out of course!) for Essence of Time Photography (and myself sometimes too). I did a wedding just a couple of weeks ago and have been really pleased with what I am editing! The schools annual fete is just about upon us. I will be helping out in no less than three stalls on the day. But if I have timed everything right (fingers crossed that I have) I should be over and done with by 11am! We are just about to hit the birthday season in my family so that will keep us all busy too, and of course it is now a downhill slide to Christmas. I have been scrapping and still having a ball playing with Tim's products. This has me busy at the shop too. I have even won a couple of prizes for challenges over the last couple of months too which is very cool. So lets have a look at what I have been working on. Just a few things to upload! I guess I have been busy! I don't have too much in the way of photos to add because I need to go and have a look and size them for here first! Well, I think this post has been long enough. Thanks for dropping by!

School Holidays

2010-06-29T12:01:00.005+10:00

Well, schools over for another term, and we are all glad of a little relaxation. Well, how about just not having to go anywhere in a hurry in the mornings! The term finished with a bang with Niamh finishing off her ancient civilisations studies with a much anticipated "medieval feast". I was not able to be there for the feast, but I helped by creating some "oil painting" artwork of the teachers for the castle and also helped with the decorating. It was looking fantastic too, and from all reports was a wonderful event. I adapted Niamh's Greek Goddess dress to be a medieval dame with some sleeves and change of hairstyle, and it didn't look too bad even if I say so myself! The kids all did well on their report cards and there was especially high praise for both the girls on their instrument work. Now we can relax and take a breather before hitting the downhill run to the fete next term, along with birthdays and new babies! I can't remember if I mentioned before but I am going to be a aunty to two new babies this year! I am so excited! The first is my sister due in August and then my brother and his wife due in November. The kids are really excited too. We all love babies to play with! I am gearing up for some great classes at the shop too and my photography is doing well too. Busy on all fronts there. We are now on the look out for a new car (a second car to boot! the first time in over 10 year we will be a two car family). I am a little excited about this as the new car will primarily be my run about for photo shoots. I am leaning towards something cool like a Toyota Yarris or Mazda 2 or something similar. I have been scrapping too. I am still having so much fun playing with my new found passion of inks and stamping. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of some Dark Room Door stamps into the shop too, can't wait to play with those! So here are a couple of pages, trying to scrap some older photos and use up some of the many patterned papers and embellishments that I seem to own! I have just recently seen a great video tutorial on making some flowers that I can't wait to try so keep a look out for that. But for now, so long and thanks for stopping by. Katie

Phew....

2010-06-15T16:02:00.006+10:00

That is about all I can say to sum up how I am feeling at the moment! Finally I can have a breather after a week of busy, busy, busy! Last week saw me helping Scrapbook City prepare for the Scrapbook Convention held over the long weekend just passed. It was pretty intense. Getting samples done, sorting out demo stuff and then helping set up the stand. It is pretty interesting to see just how empty and bare the convention centre looks with stands half created and filled and one big wall open to the air outside. But come opening day it all looked fantastic. It was such a busy first day. I had the pleasure of demonstrating all things to do with Distress Inks and Alcohol Inks, and I don't think I was able to lift my head up or move from my table for the first few hours of being there. I was constantly talking and showing, it was my tummy grumbling that informed me I needed to stop for a break. But it was all great fun. I just love sharing my enjoyment and knowledge with others so they too can share in the fun of these products. I must have been doing all right too because most of my products sold out or close to it! I know that Leisa and Kerri are pretty pleased with how it all went! So now that is all over I can take a moment to stop and remember who my family is and get back into normal routines. But not for too long! I am now working every Tuesday at the shop with the idea of doing more demos and also basic classes on all these techniques. And on top of that I now work for a photography studio! So that will keep me busy too. I guess that means I am not really a stay at home mum any more. Sad in a way, it happened a lot quicker than I was expecting, but I am working in areas that I love so I have no complaints. I have some work to share too. Some samples I have done for Scrapbook City to demonstrate the Tim Holtz products and a page for the June Out of the Hat challenge. These first three are layouts using the great new Basics range from Basic Grey. They are perfect to use with Distress Inks and the border stickers and rub-on's are great, and whats even better are the prices! So I did one girly kind of page so you can see that all things Distress don't have to be grungy! And I played with the Tim Holtz masks, alterations dies and stamps, and now that we have the distress embossing folders in I will be playing with those too! Happy Happy Joy Joy!! LOL! This next page is the Out of the Hat June challenge. The criteria for this month are:

1. More than three photos 2. Mixed alpha title 3. Doodling and staples

I just love the way my page turned out, and yes I managed to incorporate inks and stamps into this too. Just a little obsessed, I know! Over the long weekend while I was slaving away...I mean doing demos, and Andrew was busy, Mum took the kids on a long train trip to visit my brother. Now I would like to point out that obsession runs in the family. With me it is inks and stamps (all pretty harmless I think), but for my brother it is Land Rovers! He has about four (I think). Anyway, he got out the old series one and let the kids all have a drive!! Hilarious, they all had so much fun and couldn't stop talking about it! So here is Erin having a drive. I added a filter to give the "old world" effect that goes with the vintage of the car! I will definitely be scrapping these photos soon. And last of all, a card. I have been doing cards a little more lately. Especially since discovering the Hero Arts stamps, Copic Markers and Jennifer McGuire's blog! It is all so much fun, and all I can say is lucky I work for a scrapbook shop, I think most of what I earn ends up back in their pockets! This card was coloured using copic markers, and I resisted them as long as I could, but in the end it was futile. And now both the girls want pens too! Ok, that is probably enough for now. Lets hope I have a little more time on my hands over the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by. Katie

Stuff.....

2010-05-04T15:39:00.005+10:00

Well, I have finally managed to find a few spare seconds to sit down and share some "stuff"! Don't you just love that word "stuff" it just encompasses so much! Well, as you can probably guess my "stuff" is all about the scrapping and the photos! We have just recovered from Scrapbook City's retreat (held over the Anzac Day weekend) which was lots of fun as usual. This year I was able to spend my time doing demos of various Distress Ink and Alcohol Ink techniques, and it is so much fun! I ended up doing a canvas of tags with lots of different techniques and I will show a couple of "sneak peeks" today but it looks like this will be turned into a class of its own which is exciting. The canvas is based on one done by Jennifer McGuire who along with Tim Holtz rule the airways as far as Distress Ink techniques go! In fact Tim did his own version of this canvas by Jennifer McGuire and we are on our way to turning this into a class also. I will be doing more of these techniques at the Scrapbook Convention over the June long weekend in Brisbane. So if you are there come and say hello and check it out! I have been enjoying playing with these inks so much that I am finding all sorts of interesting ways to use them in my scrapping. It is amazing just how versatile these inks are, not to mention addictive! I am now waiting on some new Hero Arts and Tim Holtz stamps to arrive so that I can do more! Over at Out of the Hat challenge I have come to my final month as a Mad Hatter. I cannot believe how quickly that 6 months went! But what fun it was, thanks to Amanda for giving me the chance to share my takes on each months criteria and to the other girls whose work was always fantastic! This month the criteria are:

1. Use sanding 2. Use triangles 3. Use a quote

Deceptively simple criteria!! But I had fun and even found a way to use my new found addiction for stamping and distress inks! I sanded the triangles which make up the banner after embossing them in the Cuttlebug, and the quote comes from Top Gun (if you didn't remember!). The car I cut using the Just Chillin' design card and my Slice (yes I still use this all the time!) and I embossed the car and inked the raised parts, stamped a flourish to use as the exhaust, used alcohol ink on clear buttons to colour them to match the car and then stamped the quote and journal spots using the same distress ink! Phew....there is a lot of inking going on there! See I told you I am rather obsessed! Talking about the Slice (like I needed an excuse!), I used the Calendar card to cut these cool Easter eggs and the word Easter to finish off my page about an Easter egg hunt. The eggs look really cool with the Kindy Glitz to jazz them up. And yes, that is a new border punch! It is the swirl one from EK Success, cool isn't it! I have been busy for the shop too, with all the new product that has come in over the past few weeks. I got the chance to play with some new Fancy Pants, the Rusted Sun line is really really nice! The colours are so rich and vibrant I can't wait to use my left overs on some more pages! Oh and the trim is simply beautiful, and yes, there is another new border punch on this page! The zipper one from EK Success, it is funky isn't it??!! So to wrap it up for today (and what a big post it seems to be today!), I have another page where I have been inking a lot, using my Slice, oh and border punches too! In other words the usual!! I just love how my lorikeet turned out. He is a "parrot" shape from the Under the Sea card for the Slice and I used the appropriate Distress Ink colours to "colour" him in to look like a lorikeet, then finished with a red pearl for the eye. Turned out alright too I thought. The journal block too was stamped and "aged" with distress inks and the tickets also stamped onto white cardstock and coloured to look like the old fashioned kind of tickets we all remember. And that is one of my favourite new border punches from EK, the bracket. Oh, I used some LillyBee papers which are really nice too. The first time I have got my hands on any of these! So, I think I have run out of things to say for now. So, until next time, scrap on!

Busy Busy Busy....

2010-04-22T10:15:00.005+10:00

Wow, we are fast approaching the end of April already and life is starting to really speed up. There is so much going on at the moment. Both at school/work and at home. The kids just did their cross country for this year, and while I didn't make it along to see the girls (I know what a bad mother am I!!!) I did go along to see Liam's first run. He didn't do too badly either, he ran 17th out of all the prep boys ( I am guessing there are about 50 prep boys all up) so not a bad effort at all! The girls did well with their runs too. Here is the little man in action, and he even manages a smile for the camera! Then a couple of days later Niamh had to dress up for school for their Living History event. They could dress up as anyone from ancient history, so of course Niamh decided she needed to be a goddess (nothing less would do of course!) and said she wanted to dress up as Aphrodite. So guess which poor mug had to design a costume??!! I spent last weekend cutting and sewing, but I guess at least we have a dress ready for Erin when she gets to grade 6! I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a pattern from a school friend of Niamh's so it made the whole process a little easier, and I must say the result was pretty good! So , without further ado, here is the goddess Aphrodite... Things are pretty busy at the shop right now too with the retreat on this weekend. I will be out there on Sunday playing with inks and stuff so that will be fun. Along with all the preparation for the retreat comes all the new goodies that come in to go to the retreat! I have some new Fancy Pants Rusted Sun sitting on my desk to play with and also I have just finished playing with KI Memories Enchanted range, and a whole lot of EK Success border punches. I have also got my hands on one of the hands free kit for the Slice! It is absolutely wonderful, just fantastic!! Make sure you get in quick if you want one of these, I had a Slice class yesterday and two were sold straight away! Here is the page I created using the KI papers, and border punches. Oh and a card too, now that I am in the habit of making one each time! I thought I would also drop in a few photos from Easter. These were taken at my SIL's when we were there for our Easter catch up. We did a little egg hunt for the kids too. Oh, and I forgot to do something the last time I posted. The lovely Anne sent me a blog award and I forgot to put the details on my blog. So, thank you for the lovely award Anne! Now, I am going to be a little bit naughty and not do all of the "required" things so please forgive me.... (I guess having done some of these in the past I get stumped after a while!) This is what I am supposed to do: 1. List the top 10 things that make me happy 2. List 5 trivia things about myself. 3. Share the award with only 5 people and ask them to do the same 4. Link the blogs you choose and link the blog of the person who gave it to you!! OK, here goes: The top 10 things that make me happy, in no particular order: 1. Chocolate 2. My family (most of the time ;) ) 3. Taking photos 4. Scrapping 5. Reading about photography 6. Chocolate 7. New scrapping stuff 8. New camera equipment 9. Did I mention chocolate??!! 10. Watching mindless TV every now and then 5 Trivia things about me (now this is where I start to get stumped, so I may repeat things): 1. My background is in Physics and I wanted to be an astronaut 2. I love crime shows and have been watching Law and Order and its spin offs since the first show aired in Australia 3. I also love crime thriller novels 4. I love watching Make Me a Supermodel (and similar shows), to see the photographers in action (oh and see the bitchy in fighting too!) 5. hmmm....... uhmmm..... I have always loved crafty things, I even still have some great colouring pencils from when I was a kid! This is when I get naughty, I am not going to pass this on. Mainly because most of the blogs I follow are either likely to get one from someone else or they just don't update as often as they used to! Sorry about that.... Anyway, one last thing before I go. I played around with off camera flash over the Easter break and got some great shots of the kids. You will probably recognise one of the shots from the Bo-Bunny page I recently did! So with that I am done for now. Have a great ANZAC day long weekend. Katie

Been playing with inks!

2010-04-08T16:16:00.006+10:00

Well, I have been playing with distress and alcohol inks lately and I must say it is a lot of fun to be able to just play. I have been swatting up on some techniques with these inks for some upcoming classes at Scrapbook City, and other than being loads of fun it has been a relatively expensive exercise as I realise how many new things that I must have!!! These cards were made as samples using the alcohol inks, with the last two being based on ones made by Jennifer McGuire. The classes will use some of these techniques. I haven't got any photos of my beautiful butterflies yet, but I will try and get some up. These other butterflies use the same great Hero Arts stamp used above, but are coloured with distress inks and look amazing (even if I do say so myself!!). These two projects were also for Scrapbook City to show off the new Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi range. This collection is so easy to use for boys pages even though it is more aimed at us mums and our photo taking habits! In both the card and the layout I have used two great new EK Success border punches as well. I love my border punches and couldn't wait for these new releases to be in stock. These have been selling fast and I am not sure they are loaded in the on-line store but give them a call if you are after one. I do know that the Bracket (used in the card) has sold out for now so get in quick! I have also completed the April challenge for Out of the Hat. This month the criteria is:

1. Use at lease one black and white photo 2. Use a stamped image somewhere 3. Use pop dots

Lucky for me these are all things that I do regularly so the page came together pretty quickly. I also got to play with my new Pink Paisley papers!! I have also played with some Christmas papers from October Afternoon and some old photos of Erin at pre-school, that should tell you how long I have had those ones! Erin is now grade 4.... I created some rolled fabric flowers from calico and sprayed them with smooch ink and the holly leaves were cut using the Slice and the Fa La La card. And lastly for today, here is a sneak peak of my next Slice class. This class focuses on the Think Pink design card and its features and uses the lovely Kaiser Craft La Di Da papers. Well, I think that will do for now. Catch you soon!

Hello!

2010-03-22T11:44:00.002+10:00

Hello! Here I am back again. Life is busy as per usual and finding time to update sometimes just doesn't take priority. But I am here now so lets get on with it! Here are the other couple of layouts that I finished for the shop the other week. Both using new My Minds Eye ranges. The first one here uses the Quite Contrary range and more specifically the "That's My Boy" collection. As usual these are fun to play with and the set of embellishments that go with the papers are so easy to use. I especially loved the journaling stickers that came with the set. This next one uses the Black and Red ranges from the Lush collections.Very nice, that pretty much sums up these collections! Full of rich flocked papers, gorgeous ribbons, bling and great alphabets you can't go wrong! I kept this page simple due to the "classic" feel of the black and white and loved the result. I have also managed to find time to do a page just for me! I decided to have a bit of a play outside my usual style (ok it still smacks of my typical style, but it is a little different, honest!). I decided to create a scene on the page and use my photos in the scene. I have even tucked one of my photos in between layers! Both the scalloped layers are on foam tape to create two "steps" in the scenery. Anyway, I am not sure if it will come up really well in the photo, but I had fun creating it and love the result and that is all that matters in the end! I also got to use up some of my October Afternoon papers (new collections coming so I need to make room!) and some of my large collection of flowers and pearls! Not to mention my vast array of alphabets too! Well that about sums it up from me for now. Take care and catch you soon. Katie

Slice class pictures

2010-03-09T12:45:00.003+10:00

Thought I would put up the whole picture from the Slice class I took back in Feb. In the class we created a layout and a card with idea of getting everyone to not just look at the shapes you cut as one dimensional but think outside the square at the non-obvious ways to use them. It ended up being a successful class and I am now coming up with another one! I used these cards: Wedding, Basics 2, Noteworthy, Studio Essentials and I think Basics 1. Then lots of layering, inking, rub-ons, gems and kindy glitz or dimensional magic!

Out of the Hat - March

2010-03-08T11:58:00.003+10:00

Well, I have finished my layout for the Out of the Hat blog and posted it up over there. I had fund with this one. As I have been playing with distressing inks for some upcoming classes at Scrapbook City I thought I could use these techniques on some calico for the "use fabric" requirement of the challenge. I ended up cutting some tags out of the calico and then distressed them and stamped flourishes onto them. I was quite happy with how they turned out and they became a nice design feature without being overwhelming. I have also finished a layout using new My Minds Eye Quite Contrary and almost finished a MME Lush one too, so I will be back soon to update with those. Catch you later!

New CHA stuff starting to arrive!

2010-03-03T16:47:00.005+10:00

Well, the Winter CHA 2010 stuff has started to arrive and I am having all kinds of fun with new product to play with! Also I can share the Kaiser Craft creations since they have been officially posted now. You can see the KC post here. It is still pretty amazing to see myself and my work up over there. So, we were asked to create a layout and a card for each of the Devonshire and La Di Da collections, which I did and since then I have created another layout with each collection and I am sure there will be more as I have so much left! The paper pads are just perfect for cards too.

The Devonshire collection

La Di Da Collection

The Devonshire layout and card are now up at Scrapbook City on display if you live locally and would like to see them in real life. Here are the other two pages I created using these collections. Both are so easy to use and have lots of themes they can go with too. As for the other new product I have been playing with... I have "for the first time" I might add, played with some Sassafrass Lass (Nerdy Bird) and Websters Pages (Garden Gala) and had a bit of fun too. I have never been really drawn to these manufacturers before and was just a little apprehensive when I got these home. But after a lot of thinking and procrastinating I came up with a couple of pages that I am quite pleased with, and I am quite taken with the Nerdy Bird range!

Websters Pages - Garden Gala Sassafrass Lass - Nerdy Bird

Aside from these pages, I have been playing with some 7 Gypsies. This is another manufacturer that I have not used much of and another one I am starting to love! This is another page with the monthly summary photo collage, or in this case two months. Slowly but surely I am getting through last year! Sitting on my desk I now have some new My Minds Eye Lush (in black and red, just divine!) and a collection from the Quite Contrary range, Little Boy Blue - That's My Boy. I have printed photos and now I just have to get there with some time to spare! Also the new criteria is up over at the Out of the Hat Challenge blog. This month this is what you need to include:

1. Include fabric 2. Include flowers of three different sizes 3. Include chipboard

All should be relatively easy to do, I think! I just need to drop into Spotlight to get some "specific" fabric for something that I have in mind. I just hope it comes together the way I have it in my mind! Catch you next time.

Been creating....

2010-02-16T11:55:00.001+10:00

Well, I got my pack of goodies from Kaiser Craft just days after they announced the guest designers. All I can say is WOW! It was just like Christmas! Mind you, I don't think anyone else in the house quite understood just why I was so excited, but you get that! I was so lucky to receive one of everything from the Devonshire and La Di Da collections, and just between you and me, I was already hanging out for the Devonshire collection anyway! Both are just beautiful and some of the new trims are to die for. I have now completed a page and card with each collection and have sent them off to KC, so I will wait until they are up on the blog before I reveal them here. I have also managed to do another couple of sketch challenges from the KC blog. Admittedly they were from a couple of weeks ago, but time flies, weekends are busy! I had fun creating them and I even used the first of my month in review photos from last year. We are also in the middle of birthday month here, with Niamh just having had her eleventh birthday and Erin about to have her ninth. Which reminds me I must get some birthday photos done! We have had low key celebrations this year, with each of the girls inviting a couple of friends to come out to dinner at Sizzer with us. A lot of fun all round. Andrew and I also celebrated 15 years married at the beginning of the month (not that we did anything too exciting on the night!), and we plan to have a weekend away, by ourselves, later in the year to celebrate. So we are looking forward to that. Otherwise, we are all back into the school routine and the year is moving ahead with great pace already. Thanks for stopping by and catch you soon.

Exciting News

2010-02-05T15:25:00.002+10:00

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather this morning! I was checking my email and there was one from the lovely AnneP congratulating me on my Guest DT spot over at Kaiser Craft! I hadn't checked the blog for a little while so hadn't seen this update! Well I can tell you this is a great way to start the weekend that is for sure! I can't wait until I get my goodies to start creating! Talking about creating, I have just finished the February challenge for Out of the Hat. This months criteria are:

Include a butterfly Buttons and Bows 4 word title

Now I can tell you I have been mulling over this criteria for a day or two, butterflies cool, buttons and bows cool, but four word title, that had me a little stumped. So, to get over this block I pulled out some photos and tried starting with the title first (not my usual process), and ended up having about 4 possibilities of photos and four word titles! Once I was over that hump the rest came quickly! I did use a beautiful layout in an old Scrapbook Trends as my starting point for this layout and I got to try some of the new 7Gypsies papers that I just recently bought! So here it is: If you haven't already, head over to the blog and try your hand at the challenge, there are some cool prizes too! Remember last time I mentioned some new Basic Grey papers? Well I have put together my page using these. This is basically a scraplift of a page by Layle Koncar from Basic Grey. I just loved the colours and the design is very similar to my style too. I can't wait until these papers are in store, they are just divine to work with, and isn't that owl just the cutest??!! Well, I think that about covers it for now. Thanks for dropping by and catch you next time!

Back to School

2010-01-31T13:39:00.003+10:00

Well, the kids have finished their first week (a very short week mind you!) back at school for the new year. My baby Liam is now a big school boy too, and I have to say it was a little hard to think of him as being big enough to go to school. He is my baby and always will be I guess regardless of how big he gets! This coming week will be the real test, five full days at school! I think there will be at least one very tired child by the end of the week. I have been busy playing again with my scrapbooking, particularly making more flowers. I found this design on the well known Tim Holtz's blog and they were pretty simple to put together and they look sensational! For my flowers I have used my Slice to cut out the basic flower shape (3" for the larger one and 2" for the smaller one), one flower was from the Wedding card and the other from Basics 2. The trick that I did learn is that you really need to start with a flower shape with 6 petals. My larger one had only 5 petals and the smaller 8. This obviously didn't ruin the flower but means I had to ad-lib a little to make it work! Both flowers have been sprayed with glimmer mist to liven them up. I haven't yet worked out where to use them, but I know they are sitting there waiting to be used on something! And I can create more if I need the "perfect" flower accent. I have also done a little scrapbooking too. Again using up older stash (although I did splurge on some 7 Gypsies papers the other day!) and playing with my Slice. The journal frame and title backing were both cut using the Slice, and I have used one of my favourite border punches for the scallop border. I really love this particular punch and I have seen that EK Success have a few more coming that were released at CHA Winter and I can't wait!! This was done for the KasierCraft blog Saturday sketch. I used the Slice to cut the patterned hearts and the little tag and the EK Success postage stamp border punch to create the pages edge. One thing I have done and is sitting waiting to be scrapped is started putting together some 6x8 photo proof type sheets summarising a month or two from last year. Then I can put together a little summary of the entire year in a handful of pages! Now to find the time to scrap (actually I think it has been the motivation lately, so hot and humid recently). I have just got my hands on some new Basic Grey (yes the just released from CHA Winter!!). More precisely I have some of my favourite release, Green at Heart, to play with! Can't wait to put that together. Talking about CHA I am now hanging out for the new hands free for the Slice to be available! This looks wonderful! Also dying for the new Pink Paisley releases, loved these a lot!! Ok I can see some spending happening soon, so I had better start saving (or earning lol!!). Well, that about sums things up for now. Thanks for stopping by, catch you soon!

January in Full Swing

2010-01-14T09:10:00.005+10:00

Well, January is definitely in full swing and things are all underway for preparing the kids to return to school. New shoes, new lunch boxes and drink bottles, new haircuts and books being labelled and covered. No wonder the days are flying past (not to mention the money flying out of the wallet!). The girls got themselves proper style cuts for the first time and they are both so proud of themselves! I will take some photos of them soon to show you their new "do's". I have been playing a lot with my Slice the last week or so, partly because it is probably my favourite tool and partly because I am teaching a class on getting the most from your Slice at Scrapbook City in February. I have some sneak peeks of the class for you, if you are in Brisbane and are interested in the class head over to the Scrapbook City website and click on the classes link to find the details. I have also managed to do some scrapping for myself. Just one page for now, but more are in the works. This one has used the Slice, with the Big Kids card for the dinosaurs (which I think are just so cute in pink!), and the Vintage Findings card for the title. I have also just ordered myself a new lens, the 85mm f1.8 lens to be precise and I am really hanging out for this to arrive. I think it will become my most used portrait lens. I have been using the older Tamron 90mm which is really nice, but because it is an older lens it doesn't hold its focus to allow you to reframe the shot, and this really wasn't very helpful! So, a new lens it was, can't wait for that. I have a shoot in a couple of weeks and I am really hoping it will be here before then. Fingers crossed. Last week I took the kids (with G-Ma aka my Mum) in tow to see the new exhibits at GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art). It was all really interesting and the kids really enjoyed the exhibits too. I think I may need to go back with my big camera next time (only had the G10 with me) to really capture some of the fantastic exhibits. One of the most strange exhibits was an interactive one which involved pegboard on the ceiling with strings of different lengths hanging from each hole. The idea is you enter the space where the strings hang and walk through. Well, the kids loved it, me and mum on the other hand felt disoriented and a bit motion sick! A strange feeling indeed. Here are a couple of shots to try and give you an idea. Again, all I can say was this was strange! But I guess that is what art is all about! Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T11:13:00.003+10:00

Welcome to 2010! I can't believe another year has rolled around, and I am sure this one will disappear just as quickly as the last one. Although I am secretly hoping that it will slow down just a little this time! Christmas was good for us, and lasted about 4 days! After that we were all well and truly over festive food! Liam's comment after having sausages and salad (normal food!) for dinner a couple of days ago - "Mmmm, that was so good". Funny, but summed up how we were all feeling I think! The kids got plenty of cool presents mainly around Lego, DS games and Ben 10! I scored a new Slice card (Under the Sea) and a great new lamp for my desk. So I am pretty happy too! I have even had some time for scrapping, which has been nice. The January challenge is now up over at Out of the Hat, so make sure you check it out. I have done my sample with the criteria, which are: 1. Use circles some where 2. Used striped paper 3. One word title And my result is this page about a Kindy creation made by Liam. I have been playing with flowers again on another couple of pages. I read a technique on the Creating Keepsake blog for these scrunched flowers and I must say they turned out quite well. I think I will use this idea again. Although one little tip, don't use paper that is too thick! After making the flowers I sprayed them with some glimmer mist for extra sparkle! This last layout (using some older photos again), I made layered flowers with paper and felt. I really like the simplicity of these kinds of flowers, and how you can so easily create embellishments to match your page from a few scraps! I also ran the chipboard title through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder, something I will be doing again! Well, I have some photos to edit now, so I will keep going. I will share some of these Christmas photos soon! Catch you soon.

A Few More Pages...

2009-12-22T16:02:00.002+10:00

Well, aren't holidays grand! I have had some time (between trips to the pool for lessons and the shops for groceries!) to do a few pages and play with some new things. I finally had a play with my new deep edge Martha Steward punch and I have to say another favourite has been born! Anyway, enough blabbing here is what I have been up to. I also played with the spiral flowers that Anne had on her blog a little while ago. These ones were made with felt and add a real depth to the page. I am also loving these hydrangea flowers I picked up from My2Angels. And the strip in the middle is my new punch, very cool isn't it?! Again playing around, old photos to scrap and older papers to use, making my own flowers with paper and felt, love how these ones look. And can you believe the little girl in the stroller is now almost 9! And speaking of little girls. These two are now almost 11 and 9, a far cry from these little urchins clean out of the bath! I used the MS punch again, as a mask with chalk ink down the bottom of the page and as the original strip at the top. Again making my own flowers. This time from shaped punched circles sewn together. Quite effective I thought. This one has used the newer Vintage Findings line from Making Memories. And given we are so close to Christmas and the cards have been sent, I thought I could share with you my Christmas card for this year and take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Safe and Happy New Year. Make sure to spend time with loved ones and enjoy every moment! Till next time...

As Promised....

2009-12-15T10:44:00.003+10:00

Ok, here I am back, as promised! With stuff to share and news. Firstly, I was lucky enough to get my hands on an i-top from Imaginisce to play with last week and then demo to a number of eager ladies. Let me tell you this tool is very cool! It is really easy to use and makes me feel the need to buy it (no, I do not have a tool problem..... honestly....), for the potential it has to make coordinating and decorating pages so easy and cost effective. Below is the page I created as a sample for the demo. I created two medium sized brads which I covered in coordinating papers, then one was coated in Kindy Glitz and the other sprayed with Glimmer Mist (pearl I think). You can see the actual brads better in the close ups further down. It was just such a lovely and easy way to finish off my page. Scrapbook City are selling the i-top and accessories (although I do know they sold out of a few things on Friday after the demos! See it is not just me!!) Hmm, maybe this will be something on my Christmas list!! Or I can just go and buy myself a present and put it under the tree! The other great new tool to add to my collection is one of the new deep edge border punches from Martha Stewart (these sold out pretty quickly too). I picked up the one that actually creates a doily lace strip, very cool! I haven't put it into use on a page yet, but rest assured that is coming soon! I did however manage to do another page. This one you may remember the photo from June or July from our 10 year playgroup reunion. I finally printed a copy and scrapped it. I really enjoyed keeping this page simple and elegant and I managed to use up some older Chatterbox papers too. Well, the kid's are all finished at school and kindy (for the last time) for the year and I am trying to exhaust them with intensive swimming lessons this week each morning. I think I am only serving to exhaust myself! Oh well, Christmas will be here soon and then there will be new toys to keep them occupied. I have also had a birthday since last posting (not including the brief update yesterday!). I scored a hot pink i-pod shuffle to help me ignore the kids over the holidays! Very cool, it is already loaded with some groovy music and some classics. I have found though, that my ears are just not right for the hard larger ear phones and I need to get myself a set of softer inner ear phones. Perhaps another item to add to the Christmas list! I also scored a new cuttlebug folder and the Music and Dance Slice card. Can't wait to play with those new toys! It is Andrew's birthday tomorrow so more celebrating for us! Obviously we have worked out that just dealing with Christmas is not enough pressure! Hopefully I will have some time to be creative soon and then have some more to share! Till next time, thanks for stopping by!

Check out the cool new feature...

2009-12-14T16:53:00.001+10:00

Check out the Google Translater feature I have just added! How cool is this??!! Anyway, just a quick note to say I have been busy but have some cool stuff to tell you about shortly. Hopefully tomorrow I will find the time to get it in!

Stuff to Share

2009-12-03T12:34:00.004+10:00

Well, its been a busy couple of weeks. You can feel the pace increasing as we slide into school holidays and then Christmas! I now have 2 days left to myself (or sanity days as I am referring to them!) until the kids are all on holidays. So you can imagine a lot is being packed into my spare time! Throw in birthday and Christmas gatherings and the odd photo shoot or two and its a wonder I have time to do anything! Well, I have managed to do a few things! One of which was to get myself onto the Out of the Hat Challenge blog design team! I was pretty excited about this as this is one challenge I try to do each month. So I am now officially a Mad Hatter for the next 6 months along with 4 other talented ladies! Make sure you check out the challenges, they are lots of fun.

The challenge requirements for December are:

1. Spots/Dots 2. Use paper/handcutting 3. Use rub-ons

And this was my result:

I have also finished another few pages, having fun using up bits and pieces and photos that are lying around, oh and playing with my cuttlebug! Oh and also playing with some Glimmer mist and new chalk inks. I must say I am loving these new things! I have to laugh at Erin in this photo! She really wanted here photo taken before she removed the face paint for bed, but she was really not in the mood to have her photo taken! Such a contrast to Liam's happy smiley face, but it makes me laugh as it is so Erin! I love the looks on Liam and Erin's face on this ride. They really don't look like they are having fun, but as soon as the ride finished they were both laughing and giggling and wanting to go right back on it again! I learnt last year that I am no longer up to these kinds of rides, it throws my balance right out and it took me a day to recover! We are all so proud of Liam and his swimming. Especially since he started the year needing to be dragged into the pool grounds. Since this certificate, he has been moved up again, so he is hot on his sisters heels and getting more confident every lesson! Plenty happening at Scrapbook City at the moment too. Classes are being planned, a Christmas party in the works and a newsletter to put together. No wonder I am tired!!! So I had really better get on with it I suppose! Til next time.... Katie

More Playing!

2009-11-09T10:23:00.002+10:00

Hello All! I have been having great fun playing with my Slice and experimenting with ways to use the things I cut from it. My new favourite is to cut shapes from transparency sheets and then use them on my page. Here is an example. I cut the title and painted the reverse side and used a pen to outline the letters on the front, I also used paint to edge the little girls. I was really impressed with how easily the Slice cut the transparency sheets. The other fun playing came about trying to jazz up some of the welded words I had cut for the title of this page. So what I did was flocked them! I simply coated the word in dimensional magic and then covered them in flocking powder and waited for the glue to dry before tapping off the excess. One thing I did learn is don't coat all the words first and then add the flocking because the glue had already start to set on the first one and not as much powder stuck. But it still looks ok. This next page is for the November challenge over at Out of the Hat. The criteria was:

1. Die Cut paper 2. 3 photos of different sizes 3. A tree

I used one of my Martha Stewart punches to create the die-cut paper and while it is not perfect I think it worked out pretty well. I had fun with the tree, a simple hand drawn and cut trunk with punched circles that I stamped using a tree stamp from Imaginisce, and then I added pearls for a bit of flair! I am really happy with this page, I love the simplicity of it! This page was in memory of my Sister and Brother in laws dog Dana who recently passed away. She was a beautiful dog and so good with the kids. Worse still only a couple of weeks later their other dog Gemma passed away too. (Both of them were old/sick so it wasn't a great surprise just sad it happened so close together). I did use a KI Memories Sheers background for this one though. It had been sitting in my stash for a while so I thought it was about time I used it. So the background is really see through, I just photographed it on a piece of white cardstock. This was a fun page, using some of the new Q2 Kaisercraft papers. I loved how this one turned out too. It seemed to be the perfect paper for the scooter theme. Well, that is it from me for now. We are starting to get into the silly season so I am thinking my free time is going to start disappearing, but I will try and update as often as I can. Oh, one more thing, I just bought myself a cuttlebug!! I had been thinking on it a little while and said to hell with it and just bought it! I think Andrew is glad, he was getting sick of me talking about it too! So I have a new toy to play with!! Yay! Catch you later.

More to share

2009-10-29T10:52:00.007+10:00

Well a couple of weeks has flown by. Since I last posted I have worked at the Craft show, worked at the shop, done some scrapping, bought a new punch, bought some papers, wished I could do some more scrapping! Just the usual really! So I have a few pages to share. Most of them have some Slice bits and pieces, and can I say (not that I have used it yet on any of these pages) that the Vintage Findings and Think Pink cards are absolutely beautiful with their frames and flourishes and leaves and things! I will have so much fun with these ones, and I got my hands on some of the vintage findings papers too. Plenty of playing ahead I can see it now! Anyway, lets get on with it hey! This one had sat on my desk for a little while not quite complete. It is one of those "I can't believe how grown up she looks" moments when I saw the photos. I think it was the Wedding card I used for the title, I really love the font on that card. This was one of those funny moments looking at these photos seeing my one year old niece and Niamh's friend (10 years old) in exactly the same embrace with a kangaroo on a visit to Alma Park Zoo. This is my sweet but very funny little niece and her standard face for the camera! I used the Big Kids card for this one, just love the little monster and the font is cool too! Well, my Niamh is playing water polo at school for sport! I didn't even know that they offered this let alone that Niamh was interested! She is the one in the purple cap. Anyway, it has been fun to watch even if they don't really know what they are doing! I used the Fonts card for the title, another really nice font this one, and the Studio Essentials for the little tabbed folder, this is another great card for those little bits and pieces. The letters for this one came from the Fa La La card (lots of cool fonts on this one), and the little people from the Just Chillin' card. The kids loved the people and I had to cut a few more out after they saw these ones! Well, there you have it! What I have been up to lately. I do need to edit some photos too so more things to share later. Here are a few more photos from our Sydney trip though.

No Liam isn't taking the photo, but he certainly did not want to be in the photo!

Warning, warning Will Robinson! Sydney Aquarium What a view these mountain goats have!

Thanks for stopping by, until next time!

Back Again...

2009-10-15T12:00:00.004+10:00

Well, I am back again as promised. I have had a play with my new Slice card with the speed upgrade and all I can say is "WOW"! The difference is amazing, and I wasn't terribly bothered by its speed before but now it just races along. The shadow feature is great too. I used it on the layout below about Liam's 5th birthday. I have also been lucky enough to play with some new stock from Scrapbook City. I have some of the new My Minds Eye Abby Road range. I used papers from the Round and Round collections. These are great for little boys pages and travelling pages. There are some great chipboard, ribbon and brad accessories too, as well as the usual great die-cuts. Also I have been using the new BoBunny Delilah papers. These are really rich in their colours and were great to use. I particularly loved the sticker/alphabet sheet a great way to get co-ordinating bits at a great price! These last couple are some older ones that I have been finishing off and meaning to photograph. They have used some older papers, but notice the use of (my other favourite tool) border punches! I am using the border punches almost every page that I do at the moment and I am really loving the Martha Stewart Lace Doily most of all! So, now to just finish photographing the others that I have finished and I can show you some more! Catch you soon.

Back in the Swing

2009-10-12T16:45:00.002+10:00

Well, school holidays have come and gone (and I think I need a week all by myself to recover!) and life is getting back to the usual routine. School, Kindy, Work and all those things that go along with that. The bright side is I have been able to get back to doing some things just for me! Like buying new Slice cards....I know I probably don't really need any more new ones...but....I am waiting for my Vintage Findings and FaLaLa ones to arrive in the mail and I have Mix and Mingle sitting on my desk waiting for a play! Very cool. I also really like the look of the Jungle and Sea ones being released soon. I think these might have to go on the Birthday/Christmas list! I also bought Big Kids during the holidays, taking my total to 12 cards (ok, I do have a problem, but at least the obsession is mostly harmless!) I have a couple of pictures to show you the day the sky went orange when we were in Sydney. Andrew described it best as feeling like we were in a glass of Fanta. It really was that orange. The first is the view from our apartment on a normal sunny day and the second, well its orange and the visibility is pretty low. I also have a page to share, this was done a little while ago and I just haven't got around to posting it. It is from last years fete and the look on Liam's face in the last shot is priceless. It is funny to think that this year he was doing this ride all by himself! What a difference a year makes. I have a few other pages in the wings and hope to get them up soon so keep an eye out. Not to mention I will have to report back on the new Slice cards! I will also add in a few more photos from Sydney. We had a ball and the kids really enjoyed the experience too. Till later, catch you soon.

Christmas is coming!

2009-09-16T13:37:00.004+10:00

Well all the new stock is starting to arrive at the shop! I had the pleasure of playing with some of Basic Grey's new range Eskimo Kisses. I can say that I loved the colours in this line and was even able to do a page with the left overs that wasn't Christmas related! Gotta love that kind of versatility. This is obviously the Christmas themed page, and it has one of my favourite photos from last year. I was helping out my SIL with some Christmas photos for cards and little Rachel had got over the whole thing pretty quickly. At the time I knew exactly how she felt as I was feeling completely over Christmas by that stage too! But what a photo, the body language says it all! This is our "grumpy old man" Chooky, all of 16 years old and still going strong. He finds any opportunity to hop into something, be it a box or a flower pot! Such a funny old thing he is! I have been pretty busy taking photos too and doing assignments. Got one back just recently with some great comments! Thought I would share a couple of my favourites. Well Liam is now a whole handful at 5! He had a great birthday that as usual lasted more like a week and a half than just one day! He scored on the Lego front too! So much Lego in our house! This is my little niece, what a character she is! This is the response you get when you have a camera in her general vicinity, you don't even have to have it pointed at her! And this one was for one of the Kindy families. It was blown up to 16x24 and mounted for a Fathers day gift and it looked sensational! Well, that does it for now. We are heading off to Sydney soon so will no doubt have lots to report back on then and plenty of photos to share too! See you soon!

Things to share...

2009-08-25T11:27:00.005+10:00

Firstly my little baby boy is getting ready to turn 5! Can you believe it? I can't, in fact I really don't think I want him to grow any older..... but I guess you can't stop the sands of time can you? Anyway, he decided he did want to have a party with his Kindy friends so to make invites simple (you know me I am all for quick and easy!) we decided to take a photo and use this as his invite. Well, it turned out great and I have been having some lovely feedback from the Kindy mum's too, so I thought I would share it with you! Isn't he growing into a handsome young man?! He is really looking forward to his party now too. Not long, next week for that, again a simple affair, a play in the park after school with afternoon tea and birthday cake! Lots of fun. I have also managed another layout to share. Used some older Kaisercraft papers, loved how they looked on the black background too. A simple page, but the expressions in the photos say it all really! These photos were taken at last years fete and we are gearing up for this years one on Saturday. I have a feeling it will be hot.... oh well, not much I can do about that..... Now this next photo is especially for Georgie. It is Josh and Niamh as little tykes sharing a see-saw. I think it was at Gymboree which they used to do together. I think this could make a great 18th birthday photo for both of them!! Oh and last of all I might put up a final layout that I created a little while ago but didn't add when I knew it was going to be included on the Making Memories blog! Very cool, I am over there as a guest designer with two of my pages using the Just Chillin' line, and of course my Slice! The other page featured over there is here on the blog... somewhere..... it was done a few months ago I think.... Anyway, if you want to check it out there is a link to the Making Memories blog on my sidebar. Ok, enough from me, things to do, people to see...you know how it is. Catch you later!

Blast from the Past

2009-08-18T10:51:00.003+10:00

Well, I was doing some filing, well throwing out really old filing because there really is only so many years you need to keep some things...... yes I am a bit of a hoarder.... but what I did find was some photo gems from when Niamh was little! What particularly brought a smile to my face was these ones from one of our playgroup weekly gatherings. I can't get over how little they all were! Not to mention how young I look! Goodness me 10years adds up in the scheme of things doesn't it! But still, what great memories we have with these people and we still catch up! I have been up to a bit of scrapping too. I have had fun playing with the Lemonade collection from Basic Grey. These papers are so much fun and so bright, very versatile too. The next couple were simply using fun photos and old paper stash. I am finding I am enjoying using my old papers at the moment. I really don't need to buy new ones...but I do...on occasion! You might have noticed my edge punch obsession too! Loving all my edge punches and I think I need to buy one or two more!!! Anyway, thats it for now. Catch you later.

Me again..

2009-07-17T11:46:00.003+10:00

Hi all, me again, back for the second time this week! Well I have a few pages to share, so I thought I would just jump on in and put them up before something gets in the way! I feel like I have been on a bit of a roll this week, with five layouts created so far! I have to warn you now though, there are some photos that some may find......totally hilarious and I am sure my children will be totally embarrassed and may not talk to me for a while, but hey isn't that what parents are for??!! Here to make our children's lives miserable??!!! Ok, these first three are quite tame and not hilarious at all, but that could be because I took the photos! The next two use photos that Liam and Erin took of themselves one day while playing with the camera (and no not my big camera, just the little point and shoot that is safe for them to use, for now...maybe I will let them use the big camera in a few years...maybe....) This one I have done for the Out of the Hat July challenge! You can tell Liam had the camera on auto and the flash fired, but the stunned mullet look!! So funny! Now these ones of Erin had me in stitches!! It is the top one with the bulging eyes and flaring nostrils, has me in hysterics every time I look at it! But I guess this is what you get when they have free reign with the camera and they aren't anywhere interesting! They only have themselves to photograph!! Funny stuff and boy am I going to get into trouble for posting this one! I was in enough trouble for printing the photos in the first place!! Anyway, hope these give you a giggle and make your day a little brighter! I think I might just go and scrap some more!

School Holidays are over...

2009-07-13T12:52:00.005+10:00

Well, like most school holidays those two weeks flew past. Between catching up with friends, sleepovers, visits to the zoo and the boring home stuff that just needed to be done the holidays flew right by in a frenzy of activity! Today sees Liam back at Kindy but the girls have a pupil free day and don't return until tomorrow. Counting down now I think..... just me for a few hours a day ....hmmm sounds good! Anyway I am sure you can imagine I have lots to share from two weeks absence. I have photos from our zoo trip and also some scrapping was done too! Yay for me! As you can see plenty of kangaroos. And who can resist giving a kangaroo a cuddle and a pat??!! I found it terribly funny when I looked through these photos to find a photo of my little niece (all of 14 months) giving the kangaroo a cuddle and then to find one of Niamh's friend Emma (10 years old) doing exactly the same thing! Goes to show you are never to old to give a kangaroo a cuddle! Liam loved the emu's (in fact brought home a toy emu to keep forever!), and the peacocks were wandering all over the place. Good for chasing if they hung around too long! I loved the red panda's, such a beautiful little animal. I think this was one of the favourites also. And the other favourite, the lemur's of course! I think the Madagascar movies have a lot to answer for there, Erin had to have her own King Julian to take home at the end of the day. Now, this is not a zoo captive..... (sorry Erin I couldn't resist that one!). Took this of Erin after trimming her fringe and doing her hair before a birthday party and couldn't beleive that I could actually see glimpses of Andrew in her. For so long Erin has been much more like me physically, but now I know there are snips of her father too (aside from the stubborn trait that I always blame on him anyway!!). Loved these photos of Liam, yes it is tough being the child of a photographer! Dug out these old photos of Niamh and Erin that my sister took on an outing to the art gallery one year. They both look so little! Remember that other Slice design card I had mentioned, well the title was cut using that card, of all things the wedding card. But the font is beautiful. Love these photos of Erin, she is always so free and happy...well except when she is sulking because things have not gone right.... and that can last for hours! Some more fun photos. Erin and my niece Rachel entertaining themselves quite happily with of all things, bottle lids.....Goes to show you can have fun anywhere and with anything if you really try! OK, I think that is probably enough for now. Lots of photos and all. I do have a class coming up at Scrapbook City in August so I will post a sneak peak of that soon. Thanks for dropping by, til next time......

Well I have been tagged...

2009-06-28T16:01:00.005+10:00

by two people, the lovely Annette and Beth so I thought I had better pull my finger out and get it done!! OK, this will be interesting.... 8 Things I look forward to (in no particular order!!): 1. Going to bed 2. Taking a long hot bath on a cold, wet afternoon 3. Checking out what's going on on-line 4. Checking out new scrapping product 5. Getting new camera equipment 6. Playing with new camera equipment 7. Taking photos 8. Editing photos 8 Things I did yesterday: 1. Went to the fruit and vegie markets 2. Read the newspaper 3. Read my new CK magazine 4. Put some washing on 5. Had a cuppa and chat with a girlfriend 6. Went out and bought pies for lunch 7. Made pizza for dinner 8. Scrapped!! 8 Thinks I wish I could do: 1. Go to Africa and photograph the wildlife 2. Nap whenever I want to 3. Go into space 4. Play an instument 5. Have enough money to do whatever I want, whenever I want 6. Use above money to help others 7. Look after big cat cubs 8. Have an unlimited supply of chocolate (preferably Cadbury, Lindt and a sprinkling of Reeses peanut butter cups) 8 Things/Shows I have watched lately: 1. Medium 2. Cold Case 3. Law and Order 4. Masterchef 5. New Tricks 6. Myth Busters 7. News 8. Merlin There, that is an interesting tid bit of my life! I am now supposed to tag another 8 people, but given that all the people I would likely have tagged have probably already been tagged I wont! Well, I will come back soon and try to bring some more photos and layouts!

New Pages and Holidays ahead....

2009-06-25T12:50:00.004+10:00

Well I have a few new pages to share with you! These pages were done over the past few weeks in between photo shoots and photo editing! Life has certainly been hectic lately, but the school holidays are almost upon us (in fact one more school day left!) and we (fingers crossed) will be able to take it easy for a little while. That said I have a lot that I want to get done over the break and many people to catch up with and activities to attend....so may be my relaxing thoughts are a pie in the sky dream! Hopefully I will be getting to the World Press Photo display this weekend (just before it closes). This is a great thing to see as there are some amazing photos selected in this yearly collection. We also have plans for Queens park at Ipswich with Kindy friends, plenty of birthday parties to attend, a visit to Alma Park Zoo with family and that is just the first week. Don't mention the sleepovers that are being requested and the assignment work I want to do and the editing I need to finish this break! I am going to need a break to recover from the break! Anyway despite how it sounds I am looking forward to it! So enough gasbagging here are the pages.... Funnily enough all the photos from these pages were taken with a day of each other! Finally catching up on some older events. You may notice the use of two of my newest favourite punches on these pages.... the Apron Lace border punch from Fiskars and the EK Success Postage Stamp border punch. I just love my border punches! Oh, and I should mention that I used the Just Chilling Slice card for the Fete Day Performance page to cut the title and cute dragon fly. This is a great card, I really like the font and the other options are cool and will no doubt get more use as the kids grow! I have another page I am working on that uses another new Slice card (yes I know I have a Slice problem.... but I am seeking help!), the Wedding design card has one of my all time favourite fonts at the moment, so keep a look out for that page soon. I will be doing some classes at Scrapbook City in August and September too. Some quick page type classes, so keep a look out for details on those too. One last share, one of the photos I took at Ang's brothers wedding the other weekend. I really like the spontenaity of this shot. I used a preset in Lightroom (aged photo) to remove most of the colour and leave an almost sepia feel to it. Anyway these are part of the many photos I have to edit!! Anyhoo that about covers me for now, hopefully I will have lots of great pictures to share soon (after all I have been taking soooo many over the past few weeks....) and more pages too. Thanks for stopping by.

Playgroup Re-union

2009-06-19T13:02:00.006+10:00

Well, the weekends are slowing down a little now which is nice. This weekend just gone saw our playgroup get together to celebrate 10 years! All our oldest children have been turning 10 over the past 7 or 8 months so we thought it was a really good excuse to try and get us all together to catch up. The funny part being the adults trying to work out which child was which! They have all grown so much that it is getting harder to recognise them after a long time of not seeing them. We, of course, had to have the obligatory group photo. So here are a few of the good ones!

All the kids. Ranging in age from 10 - 4.

Thought I would try this one in black and white too!

All the kids plus the parents. Although there were a few Dad's MIA......

And closing with a bang, the Mum's in good form!

Here are another few layouts I have done recently too.All but one of them were for the recent June show. It was great fun to play with the new My Minds Eye, My Little Yellow Bicycle and Doodlebug! This first one used the Kaiser Craft Marrakech papers and was done to show how the Slice can be used. I cut the title, frames, corners and journalling spot using the Slice. It is a great machine and I am having lots of fun using it! This was for the show and used a new range of papers we got in from ATD called Family Affair (I think!). I loved the rich colours in this range and the button accessories were so cute! Doodlebug, what more do I need to say! Very fun papers and accessories to play with. These were very popular at the show. This is the Zinnia range from My Little Yellow Bicycle. I had been hanging out for this one to come in! The colours and patterns are absolutely gorgeous! Last but by no means least, this is from the Breaking Free range from My Minds Eye. I think this ended up being one of my favourites. As usual a great range of papers and wonderful co-ordinating embellishments make it really quick to "throw" together a page! Well, thats it from me for now. I need to go and edit my 900 or so photos from the Kindy photo shoots just recently! I am sure that will keep me busy for a long while! Thanks for stopping by. Oh I have been tagged by the lovely Annette and I will get to this really soon.... I promise!

Fun Photos from April

2009-06-14T10:42:00.003+10:00

I thought I would share some fun photos from a couple of months ago! April is my sister Susan's (aka Sooz) birthday and we had a low key afternoon tea near GOMA to celebrate. While there to get people interested in letting me photograph them I suggested they jump of the little garden wall and I snap them in action. Well I went from people not wanting to be photographed to having a line up for their turn! Here are a few in action shots to show you what we got up to. Keep in mind these are single shots from a series taken in quick succession showing the whole jumping process. I think the mid-air shots best represent the concentration that the subjects had while doing the jump!!! Funny stuff really!

Here are the three kids having their turn. Grandma's can jump too! The birthday girl.... Lucky last, my little brother. Showing off... as usual!!

Still going through heaps of photos so will try and get back with some more soon. Oh and also more layouts using the new product we had at the show.

Into June.....ARGHHHHH.....

2009-06-11T13:15:00.005+10:00

I can't believe it is the middle of June already. This past couple of weeks has been a blur! Not only have I been battling the dreaded lurgy given to me so lovingly by my children (who didn't suffer nearly as bad nor as long as I have) but I have had so much going on as well. Typical really! So what has been going on.... I helped Ang photograph her brothers wedding on the weekend (Saturday to be precise) and the weather and day was lovley. Sunday and Monday I worked at the Scrapbooking and Papercrafts Convention (fun but exhausting). And yesterday I photographed the 3 Day Group at Liam's Kindy. That was exhausting too! But I am really pleased with some of the photos I captured! I had to laugh when I had the last three girls to do - Rochelle, Emma and Olivia - they came out and were done in minutes! Seasoned professionals the three of them! I will not be surprised to see these girls on magazine covers when they get older because they certainly knew how to "strike a pose"!! So that covers only a few days but it sums up life lately! Andrew has to go in for surgery on his knee in August so that will be exciting. Nothing too major but something that needs to be done. It means 2 weeks off his feet in recovery though, so that could be interesting. Erin mangaged to loose two teeth in one week. The really funny part is I didn't even know they were that wobbly! The first one to come out even surprised Erin! I think she said something along the lines of "my tooth just came out" after getting out of the bath and the look of shock said it all! The next one was loosened by some corn on the cob eating the night before and then was swallowed with rice crackers the next day at school! She that was pretty funny. There has been plenty of scrapping going on as well. Especially in the lead up to the weekends show. I will get those pages off my camera and load them next time. I have plenty of other projects to share though. I have really been enjoying my craft lately, I guess I have been doing it soley for my enjoyment with no pressure and it shows. Oh, I remember something else I need to share... I have a new camera!!! I know you (like everyone else) are probably asking if I really need another camera??!! Well obviously the answer is yes!!! I got myself a hot little Canon G10 point and shoot. I decided I didn't want to lug around all my equipment "just in case" to family and other casual events. So I got myself a really nice point and shoot! It is full of manual features and even records in raw so it is just what I was after. Now I have something that fits in my handbag! I will of course take the good gear to other events if requested!! OK, time to share.... As you can see I have been having fun with some older photos as well as current ones! I can't get over how quickly they grow, even a single year makes such a difference at the moment. Oh well, I guess that is why I take so many photos!! I need to be sure not to miss a thing! Just before I go, here are a few photos from the Scrapbook City Retreat back in April. This was from the "Masquerade" event. The ladies go to so much trouble with our fun dress up events. If you are interested in our retreats go to the link here, this is our retreat blog. We are having another one in October and also April next year, but they usually fill so fast so get in quick if you think you might like to come along!

Ok so now we are in May....

2009-05-12T10:01:00.007+10:00

Alright, I have been bad at updating my blog. But what can I say life has been busy! Since I last blogged we have had Easter, School Holidays, Scrapbook City's Retreat, Labour Day longweekend at Kirra, Sooz's birthday, Jenny's birthday and little Jasmine's birthday oh and Mother's Day too! So do you see why I have been so busy??!! Anyway, a quick catch up. We didn't really do anything over Easter which was probably just as well since it was rather wet. We did go and see Mosters vs Aliens in 3D at the movies though. A great film and boy has 3D improved since the days of the blue and red cellophane glasses! I did do some photos for a few Kindy families at the end of the Easter holidays and that was fun. They all seemed happy with their photos too which is always a good thing. Here are a few of my favourites from these shoots. I also did some photos as a birthday present for my girlfriend Jenny. I am really pleased with the way these came out. Here are a few of my favourites! Lots and lots of photos! I also have some photos from my little niece's first birthday celebration. I still can't believe she is one already!

The birthday girl

Face painting is fun!

Cuddles with Aunty Sooz and Uncle Ian.

Singing Happy Birthday....

Her fathers daughter! The fun of opening presents.

I have been scrapping too! I just have to get organised and photo all the new pages I have done. I am getting at least a page done a week at the moment and I am pretty pleased about that. Anyway, a catch up in photos of the past few weeks. I will have to add some more up to cover the weekend at Kirra, Sooz's birthday oh, and I think I have some from Easter and Scrapbook City's retreat. Cheers for now.

Another month flies by....

2009-03-24T15:40:00.003+10:00

Wow, I can't believe another month has flown by already! We are now gearing up for the Easter break which is only 2 1/2 weeks away, then after that Niamh goes on her first school camp! Another wow! I think there are a few other parents going through the same kind of "my child is not ready for school camps" kind of denial! Life, as usual, has been pretty busy this past month. Up at Scrapbook City we just had the "Leisa's Favourite Things" event and that was good fun. I even went along as a "customer" with Ang and got to take home all the goodies too!! More things to play with now. I did have to do some sample layouts with some of the goodies that were being given away too. I got to play with My Minds Eye Laundry Line Natural collection and also the My Minds Eye Just Dreamy 2 Brilliant collection. The weekend before that we had a spontaneous weekend away on Bribie Island. Lucky for us we stayed on the passage side so we were well away from any of the oil affected beaches. Liam had the time of his life in the water, and to think not that long ago he was just a little scared of going in the water. While we were here we spent a couple of hours playing on the little trains at the club on Bribie. The kids loved that almost as much as the adults did! I have even managed to scrap a layout for the "Scrap the Girls" challenge site. The first time I have done one of their challenges. They had a sketch for this challenge and I love doing a sketch! Well, I think that about sums up the happenings over the past month, hopefully I will get back here sooner than that next time! Til then, thanks for dropping by!

Told you I would be back soon!

2009-02-24T09:45:00.004+10:00

So here I am back sooner than usual! Not for a long stay however just a drop in to show you some of the projects I have been working on. This first one is for Out of the Hat challenge blog for February. The criteria were: 1. Red and Purple 2. Paint 3. Metal Not as easy as it sounds!! But I do like what I came up with. This next one was based on a sketch over at the Scrapbooking Memories forum. Sketches are always fun to use and help me put together something quickly too. This one uses some of the great new line from Basic Grey called Lime Rickey. It is a bold and funky range and lots of fun for kids pages. It isn't out in shops yet (wasn't I lucky to get my hands on some so early!!!) but keep and eye out as I am sure it won't be too far away!! These two are another early bird special! The patterned papers, shaped paper, frame and beautiful birds are from a new My Minds Eye collection. These are on their way so I am sure you will be able to get your hands on them soon! There are plenty of gorgeous papers and embellishments with these collections that I can't wait for them all to arrive!! Thanks for stopping by, catch you soon!

Another Year and still....

2009-02-18T16:42:00.004+10:00

time keeps getting away from me! Well, I guess I am just going to have to accept that fact and do what I can when I can. That said a lot has happened since the last post. School and Kindy are back for the new year and the kid's are settling into their new classes without any dramas. First day pictures are below with youngest to eldest. Erin by this stage didn't care for photos and just wanted to get to school already! Now that we are well into February we also have been celebrating birthdays with Niamh now 10 (yes I am still coming to terms with that one) and Erin about to turn 8. I will add some birthday photos soon. Liam has now started swimming lessons, which so far have been great. He has been a little hesitant to go in the water before but he is taking it all in his stride and is gaining more confidence with each week. What blew me away was while waiting for his first lesson he jumped straight into the other pool and went down the slide. Something he would never even contemplate before! Check out the photo, by the look on his face I knew the water was cold! Liam also agreed to pose for me one afternoon and I got this cracker of a shot! I really love the expression and the slightly distorted perspective. It just screams Liam! February has also seen me catch up with a couple of people from the Five Minute Photographer forum and join them in an evening with Marcus Bell. It was a very inspiring session with Marcus and I am so blown away by his talent and his down to earth manner. I am certainly hoping to get my photography close to a level like that! Afterward James and I went to Southbank for some food and a chat, Ted was supposed to catch up with us there too but we kind of stuffed that one up! Never mind, next time. I had to pull out the camera and grab a shot of the Brisbane Eye in the night sky, it was just screaming at me to take a photo! Well, that is it for now. I will get back with some projects and birthday photos real soon.....I promise!!!

Quick One...

2009-01-22T09:09:00.003+10:00

OK, have managed to do another layout this week, this one is for Out of the Hat challenge blog and the requirements were: 1. 5 embellishments (exactly) 2. Black and White photo on colour layout 3. Stamped title I had fun with these pictures of Liam dressed up as a Clone Trooper. This get up was one of his Christmas presents and he had been reluctant to wear it until now. We were on our way to one of his friend's birthday parties and it was fancy dress, he needed no more encouragement after that! In other news, we have now purchased a Cello for Niamh. That was certainly a hard purchase to make. But we ended up finding a fantastic store called Animato and it felt right purchasing from here. The man who owns the store dealt with us and you could tell he loved what he did and knew what he was talking about. We will be back next year for a violin and probably the year after that to upgrade Niamh's cello!! I will endeavour to take some photos to share soon. Thats it for now. Catch you soon!

Katie's Blog

Back to School Photos

Welcome 2012... even if it is almost a month late!

Almost Christmas!

Kraft it Up and White With 1

October Out of the Hat

Back so soon?!

Layouts to share

September... Already

Some Layouts...

Purple Pumpkin Guest Designer

School Holidays

Time to share

June OOTH Challenge

Kaisercraft Sketch

Challenge Scrapping

May Out of the Hat

*Warning*

Some Layouts

April OOTH Challenge

Another Great Giveaway - Lil' Red Rocket

Check this out...Purple Pumpkin Giveaway

Out of the Hat March Challenge

News....

Challenges

More Layouts

The Renovation Story continues...

Couple of Layouts

Walk Around my Neighbourhood...

Back Home

Flood Updates

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Tags

Back Again!

Santa Photo

Scrapping!

Schools Out for Summer.....

More Photos

So, I told you it wouldn't last!

Lots happened this week!

Reno's continued...

Renovations underway

Weekend Away

My Minds Eye

Great things happening...

August Already??!!

School Holidays

Phew....

Stuff.....

Busy Busy Busy....

Been playing with inks!

Hello!

Slice class pictures

Out of the Hat - March

New CHA stuff starting to arrive!

Been creating....

Exciting News

Back to School

January in Full Swing

Happy New Year!

A Few More Pages...

As Promised....

Check out the cool new feature...

Stuff to Share

More pages and getting ready for Prep

More Playing!

More to share

Back Again...

Back in the Swing

Christmas is coming!

Things to share...

Blast from the Past

Me again..

School Holidays are over...

Well I have been tagged...

New Pages and Holidays ahead....

Playgroup Re-union

Fun Photos from April

Into June.....ARGHHHHH.....

Ok so now we are in May....

Warning