Photos

I haven't been taking many photos lately. The weather is largely to blame - it's always so wet and dark and grey. But also, seeing as I have been having a bit of a mini break from scrapbooking, it had just sorta gone out of my mind. Anyway, I was a bit shocked to see that I took only about half a dozen photos in total during the last two months.

So, Phil went out and bought me a little run-around camera that I can stick in my bag and take anywhere. No excuses now! These are from Aidan's birthday party we attended this morning. Happy birthday Aidan!



And then, seeing as I was in a photo-taking mood, later this afternoon I took these:




Love this boy!

Make that two :D

New Life Vote for This Layout	2gether Vote for This Layout
Trick or Treat Vote for This Layout	Little Rugged Man Vote for This Layout
my BEAUTIFUL life [OLW] Vote for This Layout	Nature Boys.... Vote for This Layout
Lauren's Room Vote for This Layout	Sweet Vote for This Layout
chipmunk Vote for This Layout	Why We'll Always be Late Vote for This Layout

Top 10 again!

Woohoo, another nice surprise for a Sunday morning. Once again, one of my layouts is in the top 10 over at 2peas in a bucket. Happy dance here. That makes it three times in the last, ooh, three weeks :)

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Wishlist

This week's challenge for Embellished Idol was to scrap a page about either (a) the five things we'd like to do before we die, or (b) five places we'd like to travel to before we die. This is what I made:


This layout came out very ethereal and wistful - like a "head in the clouds" feel. In addition to the gorgeous Collage Press papers, I've used calico and feathers. I should have taken some close-ups.

My five things I dream of doing are:

1. Hot air ballooning
2. Drive a convertible with the top down - a porsche or an MG preferably ;)
3. Buy art by a famous artist - and, no, it wouldn't need to be the Picasso pictured
4. Master yoga and meditation - I would love to have a yoga studio right down in the back of the garden, but given that I can barely make it through a beginners yoga class, I have a long way to go on this goal!
5. Rent a villa in Tuscanny - for a couple of months during the European summer

Aaaah. A girl's gotta dream.

In the meantime my today consisted of a sleep-in (I so needed it!), a visit to a friend's house for coffee and mud-cake while the kids played, then shopping for birthday presents, then shopping for groceries, then vaccuuming, then stripping and making the beds, then tidying up, then cooking tea, then bathing Jamie and getting him ready for bed.

Thump. There's my reality ;)

Night!
Kathie

Some layouts to share

I have some layouts to share! I had an article in Scrapbooking Memories Issue 11(5) called "Fabric Revival". These are the projects:


Heritage Wallhanging
This little wallhanging is based on unbleached calico. I've used vintage braids and laces, old flowers that have been handpainted to decorate it. The photo is of my grandmother with friends, around 1930.

A close up showing the layering of braids and laces, with sheer fabric flowers.


The Fish Game.
Journaling: "f-oo!" "f-ee!" "f-ow!". This is your fish game. It's just one of many of the "special sounds" games we've begun. The "f" sound is your bunny-rabbit sound - we practice it in front of the mirror, sticking our top teetch out over our bottom lip and saying "ffff!". "f-or!" "f-air!" and so it goes. A little step in the right direction.

I used canvas as the backing for this page, and sprayed it liberally with Glimmer Mist. The mist puddles on the fabric and, when dry, makes a beautiful shimmery mottled effect.

Felt seagrasses, fabric coral, and padded fabric fish make up the embellishments.


Why We'll Always be Late
Journaling: "Jamie!" I call, "put your shoes on, we're going out." and look what happens... oh no! you have grass on your hands... oh no! you have grass on your feet.... oh no! you have grass in your shoes. Sigh. This is why we'll always be late.

This layout uses hessian as the major embellishment - the grass and tree.

I didn't realise until I saw it in the magazine, but one of the letters in the title has come unstuck and now forms a very unattractive black twig at the bottom of the layout. Dratted adhesive!

New Life.
This layout was done for my friend Nic. The baby in the basket is her daughter, Jacinta. I swear, all that I used for this layout is a sheet of patterned paper, some fabric, calico, twine, paint and pearls. Oh and a couple a rubons.

The flowers are simple circles of calico that have been folded up on themselves and then painted. The branches are twine.

The basket it made of twine too :), with a felt blankie and a muslin wrap. Sooo sweet!


And I had a layout in the Masters' Challenge gallery too:

Doggie
Journaling: You were given this little dog for your first birthday and, even now you're three, you still love him and take him for regular walks in the garden.

OK, that's it! Whew! Mammoth share tonight :)
Enjoy your weekend.

Kathie

Classes

My class at Seriously Scrapbooking on 19 September is now fully booked, I believe. Thank you so much for the interest; I will admit to being a bit stunned when Jane told me how many people wanted to do the class.

If numbers warrant it, and if there's a spot on the shop class schedule for it, I'm happy to teach a duplicate class for those of you that have missed out this time around. I'm also contemplating making this a semi-regular arrangment - maybe once every 2-3 months? Would you be interested to come along?

I went by the shop yesterday to see what new product is due to arrive. Oooh, goodness. I think I know just the thing to use. New product - so exciting! Now I'm just waiting for it to arrive so I can design the page and the kit :). I will post a sneek sometime in the next couple of weeks!

At least it didn't rain today. The weather here has been atrocious the last few days. Today, just because I was inside at the office all day, the sun shone. Grr. I'm working again tomorrow and then it's the weekend. Yippy? What are your plans?

Kathie

Jamie Style

This is my layout for Round 4 of Embellished Idol.

Journaling: This is what happens when I let you dress yoruself. A fleecy windcheater over a pale blue summer shirt, over a bright green polar fleece, over a red skivvy. Ah, you're a colourful kid! (At least I know you'll always be warm.)

This week the challenge was to create a layout using the following: * Stitching, * Painting, * Layering, * Distressing, * Chipboard (raw or pre-finished), * and a punch (shape or border).

I made the glimmer-mist background a few weeks back, when I created this little piece. I've layered it over some bright cardstock, and then used further layers of pattern paper and a transparency overlay to create the mat for my photo. I've also thrown in a few layers of little paper strips (from the ol' stash - always looking to use that up!). Oh, and just for good measure, I threw on one of the little glimmer-misted hearts that I used when I created the background.

All the edges of the papers and cardstock have been distressed (actually, this is pretty normal for me, isn't it?).

I've painted some detail onto the masked hearts on the background.

I've handstitched around the edges of the page.

The chipboard is from Cosmo's Girl Friday collection.

And the punch? Well the punch had me stumped. You see, I never really got into the punch thing. I only have a daisy punch, a corner rounder, and an ice-cream punch. At least I thought I did. Then, when I went to have a look, I found a teeny tiny circle punch. And that's what I've used to make all the happy bright little "button" embellishments. I think that you'll be seeing a lot more of these little babies on my pages. Now that I've rediscovered my old punch :)

Have a great Sunday people!
Kathie

Washday

I have a project in the Aussie Reader Gallery of Creating Keepsakes this month.

I loved making this little item - it's nearly all composed of fabric, backed on a piece of corrugated cardboard.


The only paper on it is the tissue paper I've ruched along the bottom.

Materials include fabric, hand-dyed muslin, embroidery thread, buttons, hessian.

I am in the middle of trying to put together a mini-album for my BIL's fiftieth next month. I also have a BTP project to get cracking on for the Scrapbooking Memories magazine Christmas edition. And I am still plugging away at Embellished Idol. I've made it through to the 4th round! Weeee!

Have a fab Wednesday. We are doing the usual things for a Wednesday - playgroup, a brief bit of shopping, toy library, book library then probably home for a bit of housework. Ah, it's a glam life ;)

Til next time!
Kathie

Embellished Idol Wk 3

This week the challenge for Embellished Idol was to create a monochromatic layout. Anyone who knows me will know the challenge that only using one colour on a page presents for me. But, here's what I came up with.


This is an unusual layout for me, apart from only being one colour, lol. It is a layout about me. And it involves no journaling. I might add some later. Because I want to record that I am the world's worst self photographer! This was the best of a bunch of photos I took on that day. I have intentions of making this into a double layout, with all the other out-takes of the day. All in good time!

Hope you're having a great weekend. We are :). Today we went up to the Birdwood Motor Museum with friends. Three little boys examining all the cars, accompanied by three big boys. And three women who tagged along and had a lovely time chatting ;).

Tomorrow I have plans to get to the gym. Which means I should get to bed, seeing as it is now after midnight. 'Night!

Sunshine

It was sunny this afternoon, so Jamie and I had our snacks out in the back garden. This was after Nicole, Isaac and Jacinta visited. Ah, it was good to see them :).

Anyway, out in the garden we went. And, seeing as I only took about five photos in all of July, I thought I would whip the camera out. This is us. I can't decide on favourites, so you'll just have to make up your own mind about which ones you like. I'm putting them all up!



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Thank goodness for sunny days. I can almost feel that Spring is on its way.

Have a great Thursday and Friday.
Kathie

Happy Sunday

Weeeheee, my Play Time layout I posted yesterday is in the Top 10 over at 2peas today.
That makes a girl's Sunday bright :)

Hope your Sunday is going well too.
Kathie

Play Time

Here is my layout for week 2 of the Embellished Idol challenge. Isn't this nice? We have weekly challenges, so I get to upload at least one layout for you each week :). It's actually nice having a little nudge to get me creating.

This week we were challenged to create a circular layout in one of the following themes: (1) seasons; (2) friends; (3) around the world; (4) through these eyes.

I chose to use the last of the four themes, and this is what I made:

Journaling: "What a wonderful world through the eyes of a three year old. Through his eyes the world is full of possibilities and endless opportunity. From the spaceship in the corner of the living room to the saucepan that becomes a horse. His world is technicolour. The laws of physics need not apply. It's a wonderful, wonderful world."

Jamie and his Dad went to the Science Expo this morning while I hung around home doing a few odd jobs. We have friends coming over for tea tonight and then we're off to a first birthday party tomorrow afternoon. All good fun!

Hope you're having a fun weekend.
Kathie

Yesterday's news

We had two pieces of news yesterday. Actually, it was a very busy day, yesterday. Just by the by, we also caught up with an old uni friend who had been living in Thailand for the last ten or so years. She and I shared houses together in our early twenties, and it was so wonderful to see her and catch up. Isn't it wonderful how intervening time just evaporates when you see an old friend?

But I digress. Our news. Yes. Old. I feel old today. Old. Old. Old. Last night we had a follow up visit at the IVF clinic to get the blood test results and talk about what sort of treatment might be available to us. And, in a word, there is minimal chance of success. Well, that's four words, but you get the message.

We have a less than 5% chance of success (with an emphasis on the LESS, sob) if we go through IVF. And, if we did have success (a miracle?) then we would have to deal with the worry about the increased risk of genetic abnormalities, which is a significant risk at our age. I have old eggs, you see, and there was much discussion about egg "quality". Omlette anyone?

So, today I am feeling a little less like me and more like someone's grandmother. Which, let's face it, at 44 I could well have been, if circumstances had've been different. And, today, oh how I wish that they had. But, there you go. No point wishing for the moon.

So, I have this continual loop going on in my head today. Should we? Shouldn't we? Is it crazy to want to be a mum again at 44? Maybe it's time to start acting my age. Maybe I need to go and clear out those cupboards full of baby clothes and toys :(.

Aaaah. Sigh. At the end of the day, I have a lovely little life. There will always be room for one more in our family, yes, but we might have to make do with a cat.

Aaaah. Sigh. ...... moving on....

On a more positive note, our good news of the day was just simply BRILLIANT news. The best ever!

Jamie's speech pathologist is ecstatic at his progress. At yesterday's session she kept looking at me with these raised, WTF? eyebrows. Because our boy has made the most outstanding progress. In the last six weeks he has mastered "p", "f", "s", "h", "t", "d". Wow! WTG Jamie!

Yesterday our speechie had to completely rewrite his program, because he has advanced so significantly. We have another session in two weeks' time and then we will have a month without sessions so Jamie can consolidate his progress (and she can have a month overseas, lol) and then she will re-evaluate him. There are a few things that we still have to work on, but she's suggesting that he may show up as being pretty much age appropriate at the re-evaluation!

What? Say that again? I almost fell off my chair! This is the same child who, four weeks ago she was saying would need intensive speech therapy until at least school age. Now she is saying that he might only need ad-hoc sessions to deal with any minor delays/problems that he has with normal speech development. Pinch me, I'm dreaming!

I am so happy for my little boy. He is pretty proud of himself too.

Hope you have had a good week. I have been doing some creating. Nothing that's finished to show yet. But it feels nice to have some creative mojo again.

Talk soon.
Kathie

Guest Designer

In yesterday's post where I was confessing to being a couch potato this month I think I was a bit hard on myself ;). Because I actually had been creating this month. I was invited to be guest designer for Scrapz.biz. This is a new venture started up by Heike Brennan and the kit Heike sent me was simply stunning.

This is what I created. I could have made another page too, from the kit contents. It was supremely generous and fun.

Artwork
Journaling: "Jamie's artwork" That's what you call all your drawing and painting. I think you got the term from childcare and it's so sweet - your artwork!

Tshirt Love
Journaling: Sometimes you find a piece of clothing that simply leaps off the shop shelf and into your arms. You know it’s destined to become a favourite. I love the unusual colour combination of this t-shirt. I love the moonlight shining on the water, and those two blackbirds. Love, love, love it!


Journey
Journaling: student, piano teacher, exchange student, uni student, back-packer, medical researcher, gym junkie, home owner, HR manager, wife, son, family..

(do you notice how the journaling goes from being self-centric at the beginning to being outward focussed in the last few terms? I hadn't noticed it, until it was pointed out to me. I guess that's what happens when you become a mum - it becomes so much less about you and more about the rest of the family, huh? But for it to come out subconsciously like that in my journaling was a bit of a surprise!)

Jak
Journaling: Big dogs, little dogs, long dogs, short dogs, floppy dogs, wrinkly dogs. I love our Jak the best!

So fun. I loved all the elements in the kit - stamps, ribbons, the cutest June Bug paper with all the little dogs on it. Hehe.

Scrapz.biz is a new venture, so pop over and check it out. It looks great fun. I can vouch for the cute kits. And the DT look inspiring!

Oh, and Heike sent me a series of questions about myself. How well do you know me?

Scrap space: the kitchen table!
Scrap style: colourful and whimsical
Fav colour: orange
Can't scrap without: patterned paper :)
Inspiration: my son
Perfect day: a sleep in, lunch out with my two boys, scrapping the afternoon away, new release videos on the DVD... and no housework!
Perfect Holiday: anywhere with continuous sunshine and a poolside bar is sounding good right about now
Fav Food: Thai Green Chicken Curry
Fav Drink: champagne
Can't Live Without: cuddles

OK, that's it for me today. I've been and done my gym class this morning, done some shopping and now I think we're off the museum. Have a great day!
Kathie

Decor

I have turned into a couch potato this last month, but it was just what I needed. However, I have missed creating just a little bit, so I decided to give myself a challenge and joined up with Embellished Idol. A challenge a week, with uploads each Sunday. It actually got me scrapping!

We had to use the following image as our inspiration.

This is what I created.

Journaling: This is the part that I love the best. I will freely admit that, after four renovation projects, my enthusiasm for the building and extending part has waned. Or perhaps it's just that I have far less time these days and I don't want to spend it painting or sanding. But once the big stuff's all done, and it's time to decorate, that's when I start to get interested. I love poring over the decor magazines and catalogues. I love browsing the shops for new furniture and planning where it will go. And finally, I adore finding all the little finishing touches that make it our home.


Hope you're having a great weekend!
Kathie