back to the land of 'after Christmas'

Hello! Hoping everyone had a great Christmas! It's like everything leads up to that one day, and all things for weeks surrounding the big day are classified 'before Christmas' or 'after Christmas'. We'll do that 'before Christmas' or we'll do that 'after Christmas'.

Everyone stocks up like squirrels, or rats, of what ever animal hoards, leading up to the big day. The supermarkets are packed with lines of trolleys (carts) and if one person stops their trolley to look at something, 10 trolleys have to stop behind them, and traffic chaos prevails. All cashiers are actually open - every single one of them - the only time that happens during the whole year.

Though of course, we all know it will be like this, and everyone is mostly gracious, and smiley, and wishing the person that they just bumped into with their piled-high trolley, a merry Christmas.

One lady I saw in an isle, was frantically asking a bewildered 16 yr old boy worker, where the chocolate scorched almonds were. Obviously, the said young boy had no clue, so I leaned over and gave her my box from my trolley, and went back to get myself another box - my good Christmas cheer for the day.

I love it. I love watching the chaos of the 'gathering' mentality, because , you know, the shops won't be open for 24 HOURS!!! I even find myself sucked right in. I actually started to panic last week because Lucy doesn't have a decent sun hat that she'll wear at the moment, and it was on my to do 'before Christmas' list. Christmas Eve was imminent and I still hadn't bought her a hat, and just as the deep breathing started, I realised that I could actually buy it AFTER Christmas. Weird, huh?

You just get swept up with the 'must do that "before Christmas" ' mentality. Must catch up with that person 'before Christmas', must get hair cut 'before Christmas' should really get legs waxed 'before Christmas'. It's as if the world will close for 2 months so one must gather all food, all supplies, catch up with all friends, do all things that might need to be done, in case the world does close down for 2 months. But it doesn't.

It takes alot of inner strength to realise that all these things can actually happen 'after Christmas'. Who would have thought? And, hey, that hat will probably be half price after Christmas. A crazy crazy time for the western world. Or is it just us Australians? Or is it just Sydney-siders? Or is just me?? (said in a quiet, scared voice).

Anyway, now that it is 'after Christmas', I have some time to ponder what I will do with all the Christmas photos I took (make collage layouts, for sure) and refine my ideas for my recording a week for a year concept which I shared a few days ago, using baseball card sleeves. Hey, I would really like to even scrap. Something I haven't done for a really long time!!

These are the last two layouts that I did, before the end of year/Christmas frenzy took over.

Sorry, they're not even Christmassy (except for the red). Same photos, different layout, one for each girl. I posted a slightly different version of the first layout several weeks ago, for about an hour, before I pulled it off the post, because I wasn't happy with it. I re-jigged it a little and here it is again, sorry if you saw it that first time. There is a 7mm white border around that first layout - looks better irl.

So now, the house is relatively quiet, kids are content, playing and not hungry (for once), so I think I'm going to get in a quick scrap. Mmmm, now how do I do that again? It's been so long!

I take it back...

...that post I said was gonna happen Christmas Eve cause I was really nice?? Well? Umm... turns out out I'm not that nice, and am just plain silly - it'll happen on Dec 27th. What was I thinking to suggest it? Merry Christmas everyone!

In the eye of the storm (more photos)

Yesterday, and the day before, we found ourselves in the eye of the storm. The storm being the craziness of end of year 'stuff' and at the other end of the storm, the event of Christmas Eve, Christmas and the day after which is when all the relatives are arriving at our house for the big Christmas lunch. We found ourselves enjoying a couple of days of non-busyness. All the presents are bought and wrapped (did that about four weeks ago),

some gingerbread has been baked (and since iced)

snowmen have been painted on 30 little nails (by yours truly)

and Carols by Candelight have been sung (look at the matching big hand and little hand - (oh CUTE),

and suddenly we found time to enjoy a day at the bay (Gunnamatta Bay, near the local beach).

Before we left I decided I would not take the camera, because we do not need any more beach photos, and my plan was to sit under a tree and read the paper by myself, while the kids swam, and not be crazy photo taking woman. But alas, I regretted my decision to leave the camera at home, and ended up having to take this on my low image quality mobile phone.

Amaris is lying on a little wall about 2 feet up from Lucy on the sand (wall can be seen below).

From my little spot on a chair under a tree, I could see this,

and then looking the other way, this.

I love this little spot, very protected on a breezy day, and perfect for the kids to play about. December in Australia. Yeah. Nice.

While I was uploading these images from my phone, a few more uploaded that I took ages ago, and sparked some good memories from many weeks ago.

This first one reminded me how I spent much of my time with my Lucy, in her last year with me, before she starts school. I have a collection of photos of her having babycinos. Usually once a week, back before school ended for her sisters, we would go 'out for coffee' just her and me. Such a precious and fun time. I'm hesitant to make a layout with the collection of babycino photos, because there will be a huge outcry from the other girls, who never got such opportunities, because they always had a younger sister in tow, and the thought of 'doing coffee' with a toddler or baby AND a preschooler.... well, you know what I'm saying. Anyway, I so loved my special time savouring up every moment I had with my last little one this year, who was really very easy and delightful and lovely to be out in public with. Really going to miss that. :(

And then I found THIS photo on my mobile phone.

More memories of really good times, taken about a month ago. This is a lebanese bakehouse, about 15minutes from us. On the way home from an amazing sale in the city, Di, Robyn (flight attendant) and myself stopped to indulge in some seriously amazing baclava. Robyn is the queen of great food, and she introduced me to this place some months ago. Thanks ALOT, Robyn (said with heavy sarcasm while thinking of the extra 3kg I put on since!). This place is open til like 11pm every night, and is full of these huge trays of baclava (layers of pastry filled with sugar nuts, and syrup). This tray you can see is the pistacio flavoured tray. I also love the almond flavoured tray - can't decide between the two. Of course, there are about 10 other very full trays to choose from. We didn't talk much that afternoon, just sat in the bakehouse, going 'mmm' alot and nodding at each other with our mouths full of baclava. This photo was taken from their front window display. Holy AMAZING. Have been craving it ever since. Ahh, good times, good memories.

Because I always down load photos from my real camera within about an hour of taking them, it was nice to be surprised at old stuff on my mobile.

Have two layouts to show you tomorrow night, even though it's Christmas Eve!! Aren't I nice?? Or just stupid. The latter.

my plan for 2010

Before I get into today's post, I took some photos of a baby today - second baby photo shoot in two weeks, (not real, just for friends and relatives!) and had to share this pic because I love babies feet!! Why, oh why, didn't I buy an SLR when my babies were little?? Oh yeah, I couldn't afford it.

Okay you guys, real post now. Although my head is literally hurting with all that is going on in it right at this moment, I want to share with you my scrappin' plans for the new year. Just in case you want a plan too, and mine can possibly be of assistance. Yeah right. Like you need anything else going on in your crazy lives!!

So I want to record a year. Again. Yes I have said and tried this before!! Back in 2008, I took a photo a week and journaled about the week. I loved how the little album looked - here it is:

I named my little album, 52 weeks, and here's my first public confession regarding that album: I re-did the title page and re-named the album 36 weeks, cause that is as far as I got.

I really love what I've done, if only 36 weeks, and I LOVE the concept, I just couldn't maintain it. It was killing me by the end, because I had a big area for journaling, and some weeks I just couldn't journal, and I had allowed for only one photo a week, but sometimes I wanted lots, or none!!

Due to being traumatised by the failure of my first idea to record the year, I refused to contemplate anything with commitment for 2009. Now, however, I have had enough time to re-evaluate what it is I really want to do, and have come up with a new much more flexible plan.
I think.

So here is my new plan to record 2010.

A week by week record. Each page representing a week of our life. I will hopefully end up with 52 pages, not 36.

Here's what each page/week will look like.

I just made the dark teal, lighter blue, cause I love light blue. Better?

I pulled this page together quickly just now, and the colour of that cardstock really doesn't matter cause the page is a fake, with a mishmash of photos, and a fake week 26. I just wanted to show you the concept. I think this idea has been done before, and was stored away in my subconscious for a couple of years. It was probably originally done by the queen of such ideas, Ali Edwards. But I can't remember for sure.

Each page is a baseball card holder (archival safe and all that jazz), and they fit perfectly into my 8.5x11 album. Each week has 9 spaces to fill.

If I want to stick one photo in, (a cropped 4 x 6), and fill the rest with journaling blocks or pieces of pp or cardstock, I can.

If I want to fill most of the spaces with photos, a just one little journaling block, I can.

If I want to add NO journaling, one week, or NO photos and just journaling, I CAN!!

I can even do a double page spread full of photos if we have a big event.

So that is my plan to record the New Year, week by week. I will share the occasional page to show you I am working at it. If I miss a week or two, I figure it will be very easy to catch up, where as with the large scale journaling that I was doing before, missing a week was torturous!

I found the baseball holders on ebay from Australian seller - they were SUPER cheap. They came in a pack of 10, I bought 3 packs cause I figure I'll need 26 pages (can use double side) give or take a few. I found them here.

Back with a new layout in a couple of days!

some photos of life atm!

Yeah, not much scrapping happening. Sorry.

But here's some photos of some of the things happening around here this past week.

First we put on the Christmas carols, and put up the chrissy tree,

which, as always, comes with moments of silliness, with the door wreath inevitably ending up on someones head!

Then we had the gymnastics open day and presentation. Look at my little five year old - she looks so big here, upside down.

Back up the right way, she looks nice and five again. She lost her chubbiness when she was all stretched out upside down! Lucy is SO loving gymnastics, and she can't wait til next year when she moves up to a three hour class. She tried out the three hour class last week and I thought she would be a tired blubbering mess, but she was literally bouncing up and down after wards cause she had such a ball!

You would have laughed watching me take this photo, above. She is standing on quite a tall beam, about 3 or 4 foot off the ground. I tried to get a bit higher to take the photo and stood on the little baby beam opposite this one, which is a few inches of the ground. I'm there with the camera, trying to take a photo, and I kept falling off the beam!! No balance whatsoever! I couldn't even stay there for 10 seconds to take the photo, so ended up having to take it from the ground, holding the camera up above my head so the angle wasn't too weird. My sister was there laughing at me.

It was very embarrassing.

Remember, I am the unsporty one. They don't get any athletic ability from me!!

One hot afternoon in between the action, the girls tried to 'drink' from the sprinkler, a task that amuses them for quite a while - not sure what that says about them ("small things amuse......")

Look, they did exactly the same thing when they were very little! Mmm. I won't ponder the question of why they haven't progressed in their entertainment needs!

Then last night, we headed here

(National Institute of Dramatic Art) for Amaris' Dance schools concert/recital. It was a BIG, slick, impressive production. Your low key event at the local hall? Ahh... Not quite.

Amaris was in a ballet number, and got to wear a BEAUTIFUL big cream and gold tutu, but do you think I have a photo of her during the performance? Do you think we are allowed in the dressing rooms, or are we allowed to take a photo during the performance?? No. After what feels like a million dollars for fees, costumes and concert tickets, can I just take a photo?? NO. Grr. I get the child protection laws bit, I really do, But I'm a MUM with a CAMERA, AND I'm a SCRAPBOOKER!! Grr. So I will make her put it on again and take a photo.

I did snap a few while we were out in the foyer getting their hair and makeup done a few hours before. Amaris and her lovely little friend found huge entertainment value for about 10min in a small hand mirror (again small things....) and yes, the mum's did have to do that hair - am I getting good at this hair thing, or what? We only had written instructions for the hair, so it was all a bit scary!

Then they headed to the main staircase for some practicing and warming up (probably not the best of places, but the natural light was okay!)

then I got this last shot before they headed back to the dressing rooms to get dressed for the big performance. And yes, the make-up has to be like that!

Then TODAY, was the dance school's big presentation day picnic, and the time that I actually was allowed to take a photo, I forgot the camera!! Good grief. And she won the 'most outstanding for classical' too. Oh well. What can you do? Tomorrow, class parties.

So the week has been crazy, and will continue to be for one more week, but will post again in a couple of days! How's your pre-Christmas hustle and bustle going?? Please do tell.

Total mayhem

Madness. Craziness. Insanity has taken over my life. All good stuff. Not bad stuff. It is Christmas time, and for you non-Australians, Christmas time means not only Christmas parties and Christmas concerts, and presents to buy, and cards to send, and big meals to organise, but it is also the end of the school year and the beginning of summer holidays. Which means, we also add to the aforementioned, already busy list, end of year school concerts, presentation nights, preschool and class parties (both of which I am supposed to bring baked food to...hahaha), gymnastics presentations, ballet concerts and presentation picnics, costume organising, end of year presents for school teachers and preschool teachers (by tomorrow, more hahaha) work parties with husband, full day dance rehearsals for both ballet and school dancing, band recitals, and that's not even it. My gallery called yesterday and needs some new paintings, right away (even more hahaha) and you know when the gallery called? While I was driving 4.5 hours south to deliver other paintings. Delivering took 10 minutes, then I drove all the way home. That's 9 hours driving!! I will give you a photographic run-down of the current week, next week!

Anyhoo.

Needless to say, THERE HAS BEEN NO SCRAPPING. Actually, what is scrapping, again? I can't remember it's been so long.

All I can show you is a layout I did about 3 weeks ago, before the mayhem descended. My parents, who live about 10 minutes from me, live on the edge of suburban Sydney, next to the Royal National Park (ie very big state forest thing). 10 minutes walk from their house into the National Park, is this little oasis, with a creek, little waterfalls, and little swimming holes.

They took the grandchildren for an adventure walk, and they had a little dip. Nice that this is Sydney suburbia, but not nice to realise that our general lives are too busy to stop and appreciate it!! It's not always this bad, just December!

So I did a couple of different layouts, one for each child, and I share in case you need inspiration for a layout that uses lots of photos.

Must fly, places to go, things to do, people to see, all that jazz. Have a great week.