Christmas scrapped!

Firstly, thanks heaps to my special guest blogger friend Renee, who posted some treats for us while I was away, devoid of internet for 2 weeks. Loved reading her posts when I returned. How cute was that black board - totally thinking it's a great idea for the next birthday invitations....

So on to Christmas scrapping. I decided to use Cathy Zielske's monthly templates and did a double page spread, containing a total of 18 photos (9 per page) which pretty much summed up Christmas. Each of my three children got the same layouts, with several photos appearing on all three layouts (mostly on the second page that contained the journaling), but with many of the photos concentrating on just them. Tell me if that doesn't make sense.

The middle photo on each second page layout was a small amount of journaling that read like a list of things that made up our Christmas season.

In order to use Cathy's templates, you need photoshop or in my case photoshop elements. I printed out my completed template as an 8x10 photo and stuck it on a green piece of cardstock, and ran a strip of pp along the bottom. If you aren't into digital templates etc, you could totally do this page using paper scrapping. You just need to be able to crop all your photos down to about 5cm x 8cm. You can replace as many photos with journaling squares  as you feel is needed. And you could stick '2010' right over the top of a photo with stickers.

If you are like me you took a million photos, Christmas seems like months ago, and you don't feel like scrapping 40 or so different Christmas pages. For me, this collage concept is a good solution!

How's your Christmas scrapping going?

Happy Australia Day!

 Celebrated in true Aussie style - at the beach! I'm back. See you Friday

it looks like this

photo uploaded from iphone - apparently my hard drive is full - as of today. um.... that is a problem

a dozen things

Well I made a page. Its been a while. Its not how I planned. In my mind it was going to be much free er - but that didn't happen. It seems to lack something - but I err on the simple simple, very simple plain side of life. I was inspired by the dozen things post on martawrites.com and also the easy/hard post on lovelife.typepad.com -

and just while I am mentioning places that inspire me - my most favourite blog of 2010 is innerpickle.com.au - love Fiona's writing style and her cooking.

Back to my first layout of 2011-

It reads: (for those of you who like the details) a dozen things 1. You understand everything we say and constantly surprise us with your comprehension. You grabbed a towel when you heard us talking about paper towel. You collect things and put them away. You GET the flow of life. 2. You give the sweeetest kisses - or you nod your head down to be kissed if you dont feel like giving the kiss. You are warm and compassionate already. 3. You love Sage. You also love Cohen. You light up when either are around. You can say both of their names - but you call Cohen “co-co”. You constantly bother Cohen with your hugs and kisses. You never miss a goodnight kiss with Sage either. We love seeing your feelings come through. 4. You are toilet trained. Totally. You are very proud of yourself and we are proud of you too. We are also thankful not to be buying you nappies so thanks for helping out there. 5. You respond to Amos, Moss, Mossi and Mozz. We call you all those names all the time. My least favourite is Mossi and I am trying to get that dropped off the list. 6. You love your Mondays with Grandpa. You two have formed a really special little bond and he is your most fav Grandparent. You seem calm with Gramps and you play differently when Sage and Cohen aren’t around to bother you. You guys go to the park together – its your special time. 7. You seem kinda technically minded. You stack blocks and put things together and pull them apart. I am kinda puzzled by this- You didn’t get this from me. I am looking forward to seeing whether you develop this skill further. 8. You love your crocs shoes. I mean love. 9. You know what you want, even when you don’t have the words to tell us. We are getting pretty good at understanding your language and its working well for us. You are quite determinded though – so we have had to work out what you mean. I said determined right? 10. You and Sage have just started sharing a room. I keep finding you curled up together reading books. Its very cute. 11. You like to dance and you love music. Our home is devoid of musical talent but gee we listen to a lot of tunes. You recognise familiar tunes and your wiggly dancing body is so cute. 12. We love you. You have woven into the life of our family amazingly. You have brought us more blessing than we could ever have dreamed. We thank God for you all the time. January 2011

who knew?

who knew - how fast they would grow up? who knew - that all the little days and moments would add up to whole months and years so quickly. who knew - that they really do grow up right before your eyes who knew - some days would be really rather quite hard and tiring who knew - that in all days there would be moments more glorious and joyful than you could ever have imagined.who knew - their own strengths and weaknesses could be so visible in their children who knew - just how great it would be for them to hug you and call out to you make up songs with you and ask you questions who knew - just how much fun it would be

the big one goes to school in just under two weeks. in so many ways i cant believe we are here - in this spot i didnt really dream beyond. the big one - she is going well. she is kind and nurturing and creative and careful. she is asking questions at a rate of seven thousand million per second. the small one - he is going well too. he is different to her - everyone says that - you just cant quite imagine until you are living it. he is funny and more technically minded. he is strong and mighty as i imagined he would be. There is something compelling about how both are growing to become the names we gave them, the wise one and the mighty prophet. i am so thankful for both of them.



Twice in one day this week people I didnt know commented on how I had my hands full. It was an interesting reflection. They have felt kinda full lately. I have become the woman who dreams and thinks about scrapbooking and reads scrapping blogs and doesnt scrap. Grrr... hoping for change.

We are going to Harveys this avo - to print something for me to post here this evening before Nicole gets back. I am reminded of how seriously amazing she is. Those of you know only know her in blog world - she writes in such a humble way about herself.

On an other note - i have been at the beach and park a lot since i popped that photo up last week. i am thankful for the holidays to be here with my kids. i love school holidays. i am thankful not to live in Queensland right now - sending our thoughts to leanne stamatellos (i cant remember how to hyperlink) - and now i am also mindful of those in victoria. our family has survived flood - in different circumstances twice. it scars you for life. its a phenomenal world we live in - dry then wet.

i will be back later - tonight - see you soon

Resolutions and layouts

Hi friends. Hope you are enjoying the new year. I have made two New Years Resolutions after deciding that my New Years Resolution was to be GIVE UP on making New Years Resolutions. After I decided on that one, I came up with two better ones. Here they are:

1. Drink More. I know, I know, I know!!!! That is NOT a common resolution, in fact most people's resolutions would be the opposite.  I don't drink at all. Not beer, wine, champagne, none of it, for no good reason other than I just don't like the taste, and can't be bothered to spend that much money on something I don't like. Socially, it's a bit of a pain, financially it's good, but I've decided to drink one glass of red a wine a week because I heard it helps prevent alzheimers, and with the way I forget stuff, I can just see me with this one, so that's my New Years Resolution. To drink more. Yay me. My husband loves drinking red wine so he is a bit excited by my goals. Anyone else out there with the same one??

2. Wake up earlier. After many many years of being woken by babies and very young children at worst 11 times a night, and at best by very awake happy lively children before the crack of dawn (i.e 5am) for the last two years I have been a mean Mum and made them fend for themselves in the morning while I choose the luxury of sleeping in. I have very early risers, (a genetic flaw inherited from father) so from early on I would organise the movie they wanted to watch the night before, leave food out on the kitchen bench (fruit, dry cereal etc) and train them from very early how to press play (the button with the triangle on it on the VCR) in the morning when they woke. Now though, I have got very set in my ways and really struggle to get up before 8am. Scrapping into the wee wee hours and other night owl tendencies doesn't help. So after 8am I have a coffee, make the lunches, be grumpy, clean up kitchen, do stuff in general, and about 10am decide whether or not to exercise instead of going straight to work considering I only have 5 hours left in the day. The 'not' decision to exercise usually wins. Can you imagine how life changing getting up at 6am would be??? I would have 2 more hours in the day!! It's like a lightbulb moment. So I am starting slowly and this week I've been up at 7:30 am each day, and trying to not be so night owlish. Next week, it's 7am. I'm not promising to exercise all the time or anything, cause that has been my New Years Resolutions for about 12 years now, and it certainly hasn't happened, but I think I could be really onto something with the 'early to bed, early to rise' mantra. 

What are your New Year Resolutions (apart from exercise and lose a few kilo's - it's all too boring!)

Today I have a couple of new layouts for you. Both focus on eldest girl and both use multiple photos. 

The first layout below is done on Kraft cardstock, definitely the world's GREATEST cardstock colour after white. I buy it at at least 30 sheets at a time. This is just a quick summary of an event, that is daughter's 11th birthday.

 

The second layout is again about ballet. There were several about ballet this year, and I guess that's because ballet is a key part of this girls life. She started learning Grade 4 ballet in February this year and did her exam in June, then started learning Grade 5 work, and did that exam in October. She managed distinctions in both exams, each of which are very challenging! The teacher wanted to move her ahead a bit faster, I think just because of her age and the training she's doing with the Australian Ballet School - she started learning ballet properly at the late age of 8 and has had to do some catch up! There was a lot of work involved and at times she was over it, but it's all over and now, in January, she's enjoying a well earned rest. I think she looks elegant yet strong in these photos below that I took of her warming up for her Grade 5 exam. I also think she looks older than the 10 that she was at the time!

 

So there you have two layouts if you needed some layout inspiration this week. All the above photos were originally 4x6 and I just cropped them down as needed.

PS. I am about to go away for two weeks, but I am working on secret guest blogger to fill in!

December action

Right. So the last 3 weeks have been a whirl wind of whipping out the camera, concerts, Christmas festivities and New years celebrations. Happy New Year by the way.

I do have some layouts to show you, but I'll do that in a couple of days, cause right now I want to throw at you our life in pictures from the last few weeks before I've totally moved on to the new year.

First up is a weird quick little painting that I did, the second last one before the school term ended. It's a beach. Hope you figured that out.

My very last painting of the year done the day after the one above was a bigger one (1.4m long) and it is an interpretation of the Sydney to Hobart Boxing Day yacht race. Painting is all done for the year. :(

Then, just to radically change subjects, we grew our very first strawberry from a planter basket on our verandah...

..and proceeded to eat it.  It was small, but sweet. Apparently.

It was then time to put up the old tree. Nice blurry action shots....

Eldest girl had her end of year ballet concert at NIDA which is the only time of the year that she is allowed to put makeup on and not wipe it all off before anybody sees her.

After the hair and makeup were done, her and little friend proceeded to play in NIDA's glass elevator and cause mischief in general. The actual dance pales in comparison of the fun of the rest of the day!

About 4 days after the ballet concert, it was Lucy's last day of her first year at school. I can't believe how quick that went, and I can't believe what a confident self assured Lucy we have got now. She had a brilliant first year, and loved every minute. Can't wait to scrap this photo and the story that goes along with her first year at school.

This was Lucy and Amelia's last day of school, but also their last day at the same school grounds, as Amelia moves up next year to the primary school located down the road. I took in this in their playground on their last morning together. They have been great pals this year at school, and I'm told they often spent their lunches playing together. Note: December also saw Lucy lose her two front teeth!

The day after this was the Year 6 farewell, which the year 5's are invited to. Amaris is in year 5, and this was her first dressed up school occasion. Her and her friends asked me to take some shots of them before they went, and they just love being on my blog asking me immediately after "can you put us on your blog???" So here you are girls, out there in internet/blogland.  Thrilling, huh? Also thrilling that my girl is actually wearing a dress. Miraculous, really. Mine's the middle girl below.

Then it was time for our annual gingerbread bake. We didn't do houses last year, but returned to them this year. I find it easier for them each to make their own individual houses and have total creative control over them, rather than argue about what lolly goes where on one big house. I feel like an engineer cutting the dough to size and making sure it will all 'construct' properly with overlapping eaves and all!

Next up was another annual tradition. We attended our church's Carols by Candlelight event. It poured all afternoon up until 6:30pm leaving everyone waiting at their front doors wondering whether to go or not, but then the skies suddenly cleared and thousands showed up, and we had a great and dry night. With faces painted and all!

One of our first days once school was out was filled at a local bay, and eldest daughter and friend enjoyed hanging out with the bubbler or 'drinking fountain', depending where you're from. Give kids a bit of water and they are totally amused. So many photos I have of my kids playing with spurting water!

Down at the bay's edge, we found a cool boatshed, and the girls decided it would be a good place for handstands. Is anywhere, in this whole world, NOT a good place for a handstand?? My kitchen apparently is a great place...(grr).

On December 23rd, we all went into the city to check out the decorations including the David Jones window displays and an amazing moving light show that was projected up on to the side of St Mary's Cathedral. It was done to music and it was a lovely relaxing way to spend the evening at dusk in the city! Definitely will go again next year.

On Christmas Eve, the girls grandparents visiting from USA took them to build-a-bear for their Christmas present, which the girls loved!

Then it was Christmas day! There was the ham....

There was me trying to get that shot that Di once got of herself in the reflection of the decoration. And hey, there should be at least ONE shot of me this Christmas, right? This is it! Lol!

And there was the cuddling of the seriously adored baby cousin, Olivia. 

Then there was the annual tradition of getting in the pool on Christmas Day cause it's hot!!!! The girls spent most of the day being tipped up in this little boat by their dad, and then getting (gracefully) back in the boat. That boat was the best $9.99 I ever spent at Christmas!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Thanks for hanging out with me here a this blog in 2010. xxx