New page to share

My next layout is up on the Scrapbook Station site.


Journaling:

Lately you've taken to turning everything upside down and inside out. You'd rather play with this little fella's wheels and strap than with anything else.

Janine's also just provided the details for the Creative Edge weekend in January next year. It looks awesome! My mum has offered to have Jamie for a day so I can do one of the classes. I'm so exited! This will be the first thing I've done on my own, without my little tacker, for over a year! Woohoo! LOL, I'll probably miss him hopelessly.

Now I just have to choose a class. That's going to be hard, with Zina Wright, Kate Mason, Steph Caskey-Devlin and Sam Dorn all teaching. Check out the details here.

Congratulations to Jahnava Welsh, Katie Toland and Carol-lea Morgan for joining the design team too. It's going to be fantastic working with such a bunch of talented scrappers.

Jamie brought tears to my eyes twice yesterday. Yeah, I know, I'm a total sook...

The first time, he was sitting playing with his musical gnome. Mum had been playing with him earlier, teaching him the hand movements to "Twinkle Twinke Little Star". Anyway, this was some time later and he was playing by himself a little way away from me. I heard "Twinkle Twinkle" playing and looked over to see him sitting there, hunched over the gnome, making a tiny little diamond shape with his fingers. And then, hesitatingly he made the cutest little "twinkling" movement with his hands. All by himself. Not only had he recognised the tune, but he'd remembered what Grandma had taught him several hours earlier! So clever :).

The second time wasn't so nice. He'd been sitting at the fridge, happily playing with 3 fridge magnets. I'd been telling him not to put them into his mouth, but he was being cheeky and testing me. One by one, they went into his mouth, with a big grin at me. One by one, I took them away from him. When I'd taken the last one away and put it on the top of the fridge, he realised what had happened. And that I was walking away. He started to cry, and when I looked back he was standing with his arms around the fridge, his little cheek pressed against it, forlornly wailing. He looked so absolutely miserable. I didn't have the heart to ignore him. So I ended up picking him up and going to play with something else. Oh dear. I don't think I'm going to be very good at this discipline thing, lol!

OK, betta go. He's up from his nap.
Kathie

The Beach

Yesterday evening was Jamie's first trip to the beach. I took 90 photos! We were only there for an hour people! The crazy mum with a camera glued to her eye. And I'm using our fall-back 4megapix crappy point and shoot because I still don't have a decent camera.

Here's a small selection. I love each and every one of the 90. Has Becky got a sketch for 90 photos? rofl.

Love those little hands and feet. And that little smile :)

Oh, and while I remember: Jamie and I visited Kate and little Georgia and Charlotte on Friday afternoon. Thanks for the coffee Kate! My Goodness those two cute little girls are growing up! Charlotte is such a charmer - with her gorgeous smile. Six months old already! Where did that time go? And Georgia. Well Georgia is just adorable.

While we were there, she kept doing this thing - she'd put her hand to her head and exclaim "Oh no!" in the cutest little voice. It had me intrigued. So I asked Kate what it was about. Apparently it's what they used to do when when they made castles with blocks and knocked them down. "Oh no!" as the blocks went flying.

Anyway, I was telling Phil about it on Friday night when he got home. Showing him the little action. And from the highchair, we hear "Owwoww!". And there's Jamie - hand on head "Owwoww!". It cracked me up. The mimic! Just so cute! We'd better watch what we say and do from now on, hey!

Oh, and finally. A layout to share. I did this one for display at Scrapbook Station. And I totally love it.


Can you read the journaling? Hope so, coz I gotta go and make some milo for us. I'm getting nagged ;).

See ya
Kathie

Thanks for the birthday wishes

I am overwhelmed by all the first birthday wishes. Thank you!

Presents began arriving even before Jamie's birthday. One morning last week, I opened the front door to the courier guy with a parcel with "happy birthday Jamie!" written on it. When I opened it, I found a beautiful old Winnie the Pooh book (one of the original types - even dog-eared to add to the oldness, which I love!) and this layout - and I know she's gonna kill me for uploading it ;):


So much inspiration for me here. The painted HS chipboard strips, the doodling, the use of the HS diamonds (which I have in my stash and can't work out what to do with them!), the gorgeous doodling, and the ghost "J" embellished with little J rub-ons. Fantastic! Thanks so much Nic and Isaac!

So... the birthday party. 30 adults. 20 children. Oh my Lord! What was I thinking? But it was great.

Even though the first guests arrived early. They got put to good use sponging down the outdoor furniture and seats :).

Even with a power blackout. Yes, for the entire duration of our party we had no power. No oven. No hot finger food. Thank goodness for the 2 platters of sandwiches. And, of course, cake :).

With the early arrivals and other complications, I completely forgot to take photos of the frog cupcakes I made. Very proud of those! You can just see them in the photo down below. They were all gone in 20 seconds!

The birthday cake was a number one. It looked great. Until I covered it with jubes. Not a masterpiece, but a winner with the kids. And that's what matters.

That's me, covering the cake. The master at work, lol! Note the laptop next to me. No it is not an extension of me, lol. I wasn't even web surfing at the time. How else do you think I worked out how to make a "1"? And, being a true scrapbooker, I had over 600 fonts to choose from ;). In the end, I think we went with a plain old Times New Roman "1".

Jamie was too young to blow out the candles, but we had lots of other willing participants. And, you know what? I think he took lessons. Because from the very next day he's been blowing. Pursing up his little lips and blowing with all his might. Too cute.

And here's the only family photo I have from the day. Unfortunately the shadows made it a less than ideal choice for a photo spot, but hey, that's what you get with real-life snapshots.


In the last post I said that I had that wall art to make. Well that was fun. It's all packaged up now, ready to send. I haven't a clue how best to send it to NSW though. So that it gets there in one piece. Anyway, it also inspired me to pull my finger out and finish the canvas I'd started ages ago for our living room. See it behind me in the photo up above where the kids are blowing out candles? Love it! I have three other canvases and might get around to completing them now.

Have a nice weekend people!
Kathie

Happy happy first birthday!

Happy birthday, beautiful boy! One! Wow. I can hardly believe it. I still remember cradling you against me, immediately after you were born. You were so warm and sweet. And so tiny. Looking at you now, I find it hard to imagine that you were so tiny. Luckily, I imprinted that moment so firmly on my memory, that I’ll never forget.

You have grown up so much this month. You had a growth spurt and a development spurt. There’s just so many new things that you’ve been doing this month. It’s hard to know when you found the time to fit in all your new tricks because you seemed to spend so much of your time eating! Your appetite was huge. You are no baby any more. You’re a little boy. Even your smile changed this month. It stopped being a baby smile and turned into a cheeky little boy smile.

At your birthday party

You are crawling perfectly now and can really get around quite well. When you’re on the floorboards, you prefer to crawl with one leg outstretched but when you’re on carpet you crawl normally. Today was really warm and you had shorts on. You were funny, trying to crawl on the lawn with your bare knees. You kept getting up on your feet and crawling that way. I think the grass was rough on your knees. Everytime I look at you you’ve hauled yourself up against some piece of furniture. Today you took your first few steps (with help). You’d now prefer to scoot around the room exploring, than sit and play with toys.

Crawling in the backyard

This month I’ve been able to relax a bit too, as you no longer put everything you pick up into your mouth. Now, you hold it out for me to see. “Err”, you urge. And I have to stop what I’m doing and examine each morsel and tell you how clever you are. Nine times out of ten, its one of Jak’s prickles you’ve found. You’re so inquisitive. Everything gets picked up and examined.

You really have grown very clever this month. You clap your hands all the time now. You do it just to be clever, and beam a smile at me. “Clap for Jamie!” we cry. You also wave hello and goodbye now. You are getting much better at communicating too. You look at me when I’m talking to you with such a fierce concentration. The other day I asked you where Tigger was. You were wearing your Tigger shoes and without a hesitation you bent down and pulled on Tigger’s head. I was stunned. It is the first time that you’ve responded to a question and shown me that you understand me.

Yesterday we had your birthday party. All your cousins and some friends. You were so entertaining. You really are quite a gregarious little fellow. You sat on Grandad’s lap, holding court. All the children sat in front of you and, one by one, gave you your presents. You opened them all (with Grandad’s help) and had such a good time! You have been thoroughly spoilt and all today you have been playing with the big red fire truck you were given. It’s a firm favourite already.

Eating birthday cake

Balloons

With the new red fire truck

Your favourite game this month was posting things. I find things “posted” in all sorts of nooks and crannies. You are very neat with your posting. If I take all your blocks out of the bucket, you put them all back in again. You don’t stop until they’re all back in the bucket. You can even throw them in now too. You have some aim! Maybe you’ll be a basketballer? Anyway, as I was saying, you are shown neatness tendencies. Or maybe that’s just me being hopeful. I do hope it lasts ;).

I have been trying to teach you “no”. When you approach the computer cables I say “uh-uh”. You know what it means. You pull your hand back and look at me. Then you gingerly extend your hand again, testing. When the “uh-uh” is repeated, you grin and shriek. Yes, you certainly have learnt how to squeal. Great loud shrieks!

You also talk a lot more now. Lots of baby babbling. New sounds that I haven’t heard before. The other night you were sitting in your high chair, nibbling on some raisins while Daddy and I were eating our tea. I heard you chattering away enthusiastically and there you were, chatting animatedly to a raisin on your tray. Poking at it with your finger and chattering away. It’s moments like that that I don’t want to forget!

You have grown so affectionate. People comment on it – how you like to cuddle with me. You lie your head on my shoulder and say “aaaaah” and give me big hugs. When you’re tired you crawl up to me and lay your little head on my foot. Awww. I have to scoop you up and give you a big hug. Then you lean your head against my shoulder and give a giant contented yawn and hug my neck with your arms. It’s so beautiful! I really feel so lucky.

Photo courtesy of Nicole Wood

We have been so blessed to have you as part of our family for the last year, Jamie. Our lives have changed. And I can’t imagine ever being without you. We love you so very, very much!

Photo woes

I have discovered that the sensor has gone on our camera. It'll cost between $250-$300 to fix. Time for a new camera, I think. I'm having serious withdrawals. I haven't taken one single photo this month! Jamie's birthday is on Friday. Oh no! What'll I do? Lol. Just having a panic attack. Nothing like a bit of melodrama on a Sunday afternoon.

I'm thinking about biting the bullet and, seeing as I'm going back to work in a couple of months, buying myself a new Canon 400D. Harvey Norman has a good price at the moment. Anyone know anything about them? How do they compare with the 350D?

Congrats to the girls that made it through round 4 of the Boxx comp. Beautiful entries! I have dropped by the wayside, lol. I was never all that good at taking inspiration pieces literally and it probably showed. I remember Julia (FK) making me redo my inspiration piece back a while ago because I had taken too abstract an interpretation. Oh well. Can't say I'm all that disappointed. I have other projects on the go at the moment and was wondering how I was going to fit it all in. Everything happens for a reason. And I've just been commissioned to do some wall art for another mag. I'm looking forward to doing something a bit different than scrapping. It'll be a nice change. And change is good!

Super busy this week coming. I'll be a slack blogger. So sorry in advance!
Kathie

Weary

I'm a bit tired today. I didn't get to sleep until 3.3o this morning. And, lol, it wasn't because I was having a big night out!

I think I've mentioned before that we live behind a church. Well, we may as well be living near a nightclub! They have parties all the time. With loud music blaring into the night on loudspeakers, and kids hanging around outside drinking and carrying on. Guys do burn outs up and down the main road and beep their horns and carry on like total d&%$heads.

There was recently a death on the strip of road they drag each other on (right at the end of our sidestreet), where one young bloke slammed his car into a tree at high speed. Three guys seriously injured, one guy dead. The police suspect that it was drag racing. So, you think the kids would learn. But no, Friday night and last night were the pits! It got too much for me at 1am last night and I got up and rang the police. They took the details, but said that all the patrols were busy so it might take a while. Well, the party finally closed up at 3.30am! I was so grumpy!

On the bright side, I did get a layout done ;)

And to make my morning, Jamie woke up at 5.30am! It must have been the silence that woke him, lol.

So, today I'm tired. But we're going to have a good day. Today my mothers' group is having a picnic for all the little babies' first birthdays (they are all born within 8 weeks of each other). It will be the first time we've done something with our partners, so it should be a good afternoon. If I can stay awake :).

Kathie

The Nursery

My first layout for Scrapbook Station Design Team is up!

Journaling: While you and I were enjoying ourselves in Perth with your cousins, Daddy had come home and was redecorating your room. What a wonderful surprise to come home to! Your room's so bright and airy now. New cupboards display your toys. Pictures hang on the walls. Teddies keep watch. At last, you have a proper nursery.

My husband works very hard for his family. Sometimes I don't appreciate that enough. He worked every day that week and then raced home and painted until the wee early hours of the morning. Just to get it finished. Just to put a smile on our faces.

Jamie's room looks like something out of a catalogue now. Well, except for the dirty big running treadmill that stands upright in the middle of the room, lol. (Eventually that will go in our bedroom - once that is painted!)I love to sit in there with Jamie and watch him pull all his teddy bears out of the cupboards; and all the towels off the nappy change table; and all the books off the bookshelf. Sigh. Chuckle.

And these papers are part of the SEI range of baby papers out at the moment. They're so cute! I have a piece of each of the boys' range. Expect to see them on a few layouts coming up :)

Have a great weekend everyone!
Kathie

Eating

Last night Jamie was sitting in his highchair eating raisins, while Phil and I were finishing off our tea. I heard him chattering away enthusiastically and looked up. There he was, chatting animatedly to a raisin on his highchair tray. Ah, moments like that, I just love him to pieces. Not that I don’t every other moment…

And just so I don't forget:

I love the little chomping sounds he makes when he eat
I love how he fishes around in his mouth and pulls out all the lumps in his food (well, not really, but it *is* sorta cute)
I love how he sticks his whole hand in his mouth when he's trying to put a piece of banana in it.
I love how pleased he looks when he drinks from his sippy cup all by himself.

Kathie