just the two of us

so sweet

2010-11-30T19:28:00.002+11:00

Hey guys, I just wanted to stop by my lonely blog with my latest creation :)

This layout came about when Ally gave us a challenge to use up at least 4 products that we have had for at least a year. I love these kinds of challenges!

So I picked a photo, grabbed my Orchestra kit (because it's from a year ago, wow!), the SC blog Sunday Sketch and off I went!

I had a blast doing this layout. Now, it may have been because I was watching "Going the Distance" with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, have you seen it?? Oh my gosh, SO funny, I was in tears! lol

I also added some flowers and the bee from Garment District, even though technically I have finished that kit (meaning I can't make a complete layout with it) and put it away I still have teensy bits leftover.

PS: on a sidenote, with this layout I managed to win both Ally's challenge AND the Sunday Sketch challenge! Albeit they were both randomly chosen, I am still amazed!

Thanks for looking!

2010-11-19T09:35:00.002+11:00

I've got a super quick post today sharing my latest layout with you all. I've got a million and one things that I should be doing but the list is so long that I can't even think of where to begin (and all I want to do right now is scrap, typical!).

Okay so this layout is using SC's Granny's Cupboard kit from back in May (I think??) and I love that kit so much that I've only done maybe two layouts with it. This layout is about Ashleigh's aversion to having bubble baths all of a sudden, after having bubbles in her bath for going on 4 years now, she'd decided no more!

I should mention to create the ruffles I used a tutorial Davinie did. You can find it here.
I really love the look, it kind of reminds me of some pretty curtains :)

Also to create the bubbles, I used the Buzz and Bloom chipboard bubbles that came in the kit, snipped them (carefully!) into three pieces and then arranged and rearranged them until I was happy with there placement. Once I was happy, I used Dimensional Magic to both adhere them to the layout and them give a nice glossy look.

Okay that's all for today, thanks for looking, have a great weekend!

Scrapped

2010-11-13T11:20:00.003+11:00

Okay so usually when I don't post on my blog it means I haven't been getting crafty, but nothing could be further from the truth this time! Besides the layout below plus a half finished layout that's been sitting on my lounge for over a week now I've been doing TWO online classes!

The first one is Elizabeth Karthcher's class "Unlock Your Story". It is a gorgeous mini book using lots of Dear Lizzy products and it's almost finished (I will definitely post pics when I'm done!)

The next one is Ali Edwards "Halloween Minibook class" which you can find a link for over on the right sidebar. I took some cute pics of Ashleigh on Halloween dressed up like a pumpkin in the backyard hunting for treats. So when I saw Ali was offering that class I though it would be a perfect way of documenting her Halloween 2010 :)

I have to say I am having a blast doing both of these classes. I'm actually really addicted to online classes now lol I keep looking out for any other ones i see online, let me know if you see any great ones :) I'm going to be sad and kind of lost ones these 2 classes are finished.

In addition to the classes I've also been getting my December Daily ready, it's all good to go come 1st December! I've been *thinking* about Christmas cards which are next on my list of things to do. I even bough the cardstock and envelopes yesterday, yay for me!

Pumpkin Scones layout using the Halloween add-on from SC's Back 40 kit :) The add-on is sold out so I can't link you up sorry! But bAck 40 is still available :) You can click on the layout to get a closer look at the journalling.

Okay I better get going, Ashleigh is at a friends house swimming for an hour or two so I better take advantage of the free time!

Five on Friday

2010-10-15T10:22:00.007+11:00

1. First of all just wanted to say I know I haven't posted for ages but I'm trying not to feel too bad about it.
Somehow I've gotten into the habit for feeling bad to my blog?? Insane.
But I'm done with that! I'm a bad blogger and I'm ok about that ;)

2. I have been crafty, yay! I've got 3 layouts to share woot!

The first one here is about Ashleighs first "manicure". I *think* I've used supplies from SC's Summer Camp kit. Actually it might be from an add-on from Summer Camp and also from Back 40.
Oh boy, my SC kits must be getting out of control if I can't remember where the products are from. There was a time where I could tell you the names of all the add-ons. But not anymore!

This second one is on a subject I've been trying to document forever. I just didn't have the photos to help tell the story, until now.

Basically, Ashleigh is the fussiest eater *EVER*! I mean look at her face when I try to get her to have a bite of a hamburger lol You'd think I was trying to poison her *sigh*

Anyone else have a fussy eater?? I've tried everything but I'd appreciate some advice if you have it :)

I used Partly Sunny for this one and it was for Waleska's Grid Challenge last week (which I won!!). Thanks Walesk!

Okay last one I had so much fun working on. That is until I got black in all over the top right hand corner and had to disguise it by rounding the corner.
See, this is why I'm not a stamper. I just can't get it right. Although I will say I was happy with my efforts up until that point :)

3. I'm feeling particularly Christmas-sy lately. I've been in the mood for making Christmas cards and shopping for presents and making lists.

And I'm so glad Ali is feeling that way too because I'm in the middle of making my December Daily for this year but not only that, I'm also finishing up my DD from last year.

I will post a pic of my finished DD for this year when I'm done. I will say I'm using Crate Paper's Snow Days. I know it doesn't snow here in December (in fact at all lol) but I love the bright colours which are perfect for summer anyway!

4. I finally got my iPhone 4 about a month ago! Yaaaaay! I am *LOVING* it. The reason why I'm loving it?? One word. Hipstamatic. Love, love, love. I basically have stopped carrying my camera around with me now, as long as I have my iPhone I'm good to go :)

5. I wish I had of prepared for this post a bit better. I have lots of other projects to share but no pictures.

Let's just say you can't see my dining room table right now lol I have about 4 different altered projects going on. Seriously. I'm all about off the page at the moment including this advent calendar, these cute drawers for Ashleighs room and a sparkly wand!

And my dining room table is about to get a whole lot messier when this comes in the mail. I just love Elizabeth's style. I can't wait!!! It looks beauiful. Are you doing it too??

Okay thanks for sticking with me this long! I'll be back shortly and will hopefully be more prepared :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-08T19:53:00.003+10:00

Supplies: Crate Paper Restoration (I can't express how much I love everything Crate has released lately) and used (another!) sketch from the SC blog from last week.

Hello Spring

2010-09-02T09:51:00.001+10:00

Yes, yes I know, I haven't blogged since July. Where have I been??

The truth of it is, this blog of mine is mostly a crafty blog and until the last couple of weeks, I just haven't been crafty. No layouts, nothing for about 6 weeks. Definitely a first for me.

Anyway, that's why I haven't been here. I was actually getting quite concerned because I felt like I would never want to scrapbook again. But the last 2 weeks I've slowly, slowly been getting the itch again and with the help of the Sunday Sketches over at SC blog, I've felt like I can look at my stash again without making a face lol.

So here are two layouts I've made recently, I'm so happy with them, and I'm happy to be scrapping again! I think I really needed that unintentional and unexpected break :)

This one is using Partly Sunny (which I think is still available!). It's now my all time favorite kit.

And this one is using Yearbook, I've almost finished using this kit and the two add-ons I bought. Since this kit is from October last year, I'd say that it's about time lol

As of yesterday winter is officially over! I'm usually not so ready to let go of winter and welcome the heat but this was the coldest winter in 12 years, so I'm ready for Spring and the colourful photo ops that come with it:) BUT I don't even want think about summer, ugh!

That's all for today! If I'm not back before the weekend Happy Fathers day for Sunday!

a note from ashleigh

2010-07-24T16:06:00.001+10:00

Hi everyone, mummy just wanted me to tell you all that she hasn't been around because she's been too busy keeping me entertained and happy while I'm on school holidays from preschool :)

She also said to say she can't wait until I go back because I won't let her do any scrapping, no way jose!!

And also I'm costing her lots of money taking me to all these cool places (like Disney on Ice, that's where I am in this picture!) but secretly I think she likes taking me cause she gets to take lots of photos of me doing fun stuff :)

I went back to preschool couple of days ago so mummy has LOTS of pages planned, she'll be back soon, I promise :)

Beachbum

2010-07-15T16:14:00.001+10:00

Just a quick post to share my latest layout with you :)

Here's Ashleigh at the beach, literally across the road from where my dad lives. We are very lucky that we have someone to visit who lives so close to the beach, (although I am in no way a beach person), Ashleigh is in heaven everytime we visit :)

I used the Party Sunny kit for this (which has become my ALL TIME favourite kit!). I just love that yellow cloud paper (I'm pretty sure it's Pebbles Inc.) and those AC thickers are the perfect font for this beachy layout. I did add some Prima flowers and some twine, those were not in the kit. And check out the Buzz and Bloom clouds, just perfect (sadly Buzz and Bloom will be closing :(.

I had a lot of fun with this layout and am looking forward to using this kit again shortly (I am planning on doing a mini album, which will be a first for me for quite some time).

Okay that's all for today. These school holidays are really draining me! One more week to go until Preschool starts again, the countdown is on!

Have a great night :)

The latest...

2010-07-08T19:28:00.002+10:00

Woah. Could it really have been more than 2 weeks since I updated my blog? Life has been busy and I haven't spent much time at the computer, which is a nice thing sometimes :)

In fact I've been so busy I couldn't even tell you what I've been doing lol Do you ever get like that? Your days are filled with so many things that you can't even remember what you did the day before? That's how I feel right now...

Anyway, here are two of the last layouts I did a couple of weeks ago.

This first one is about these cute chalk drawings Ashleigh did one day. I almost didn't take photos of them but they were so cute and so well drawn (says me, the mummy lol) that I just had to. Then when I received the Grannys Cupboard kit from Studio Calico I saw that hexagon paper and just knew that I had to use it on this layout.

This next one is using the Partly Sunny kit. I also used one of the Sunday Sketches from the SC blog from a couple of weeks ago. I'm really happy with this layout. I love the colours, the butterflies, the thickers, the subject :)

Okay well that's all for tonight. The Glee finale is about to start, can't miss that! ;)

Bye for now.

Wordless Wednesday- lunch edition

2010-06-23T17:40:00.004+10:00

I'm pretty sure Ashleigh must be the only 4 year old kid in the world who refuses to eat a hamburger ;) And I'm probably the only mother in the world that wishes her kid would!!!

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T09:44:00.002+10:00

I have seen this concept elsewhere on other blogs and thought it was a great idea. As it's my first "Wordless Wednesday" post I thought it would be okay to have a just a few words ;)

This is the latest layout of mine, all about my love for gumboots on Ashleigh while she's wearing a dress, it's just too cute!

I used a Sunday Sketch from the SC blog for this layout.
That is all :)
PS: My Partly Sunny kit is still not here, excuse me while I pout just a little bit :(

Seriously sweet

2010-06-11T18:13:00.004+10:00

Hello! Aren't I being such a good blogger this week? Quite proud of myself actually :)

Oh and before I forget thankyou for all of your lovely comments about my "on the hunt" layout in the previous post, they really put a smileon my face :)

I have another layout to share today.

Here's Milly and Ashleigh being very cute in their crochet hats from Heartsmiles on Etsy :)

I combined two challenges in one for this layout using the Sunday Sketch on the SC blog and also Waleska's Paper+Fabric challenge also on the SC blog.

The fabric I used on this layout is actually some Dear Lizzy fabric paper behind the pic and I also tied some of the Prima text fabric around the photo. The paper is some old October Afternoon that I've been hoarding forever lol And dont you just love the Jenni Bowlin embossed cardstock? It's the first time I have used it and will definitely not be the last ;)

Okay that's all for today. Have a great weekend, I'll be back next week :)

oooh hopefully my new Studio Calico "Partly Sunny" kit will be here Monday! I have a mini album planned for that kit that I can't wait to get started :)

on the hunt...

2010-06-08T09:30:00.003+10:00

...Easter egg hunt that is ;) Just wanted to quickly share my latest layout with you.

I actually CASE'd this from Davinie's "egg time" layout from the Studio Calico gallery, you can see her layout here.

Couple of things I did differently was I changed mine to an 8.5x11, the background paper I used is actually from the new Melissa Frances called "Alma" (I love this paper so much I grabbed about 5 sheets when I first saw it lol), I changed my pics to black and white because my backyard is a dry, brown mess of dirt in those photos and no one needed to say that!

Easter is one of my favourite times of year but it's also bittersweet because that's when I can really see how much Ashleigh has grown in one year. I suppose most people compare the changes in their children on their birthdays or maybe Christmas, but for me it's at Easter time when I can see how much Ashleigh has changed... *sigh* It breaks my heart sometimes :(

I have found lately I have to remind myself that she's only 4. Four! She's still little and still my baby and in the grand scheme of things it's not like she's 14... I mean I know that but still...
She's so tall. lol. I know that sounds silly but she looks like she's 6 years old and people ie. strangers are always so shocked when I say she's 4 and then sometimes I can see what she'll look like when she is 14!
Do you ever get that? Glimpses of what your children will look like or be like when they're grown up?

Okay so this post turned into a long one and it was meant to be short lol

Thanks for looking and listening :)

I want to make a quilt...

2010-06-04T13:54:00.002+10:00

... And no I have never made one before but since I got my sewing machine and started actually using it I can't stop thinking about what I can do next!

So then I stumble across Susan Weinroth's blog. And I see this...

And then that was it, I have not stopped thinking about making a quilt ever since! Isn't she talented?? Not only is she a fantastic scrapbooker but she sews and has me totally inspired.

Oh boy.

Once I decide I want to do something, I pretty much become obsessed about it until I do it lol

So... now my thoughts are full of fabric and colours and needles and thread and walking foots? Whatever they are. Do I need one?

I'm completely clueless as you can see.

But it's wintertime and I'm determined that Ashleigh will have a homemade quilt to snuggle under (or maybe her teddy can snuggle under depending on how big I make the thing lol).

Am I being too ambitious?

I actually asked Ashleigh if she wanted me to make her a quilt, and in typical Ashleigh style she says "Yes! Can we make one now? I'll help!". Everything is now, now, now in a 4 year olds world lol. But now that she knows I'm planning to make one I have to do it. No backing out. She won't let me ;)

Okay, so tomorrow, I'm going to look at fabric. Wish me luck.

:)

Crayon Roll

2010-05-27T12:14:00.001+10:00

Just wanted to share quickly a little sewing project of mine today :)
About 2 months ago, I bought a sewing machine, originally for machine stitching on layouts but totally open to the possibility of actually throwing some fabric into the mix eventually lol.
While I usually handsew on layouts, I haven't used a sewing machine since highschool so I was actually really nervous to turn the thing on!
But when I saw a cute little crayon roll online one day, I just had to make one for Ashleigh and I even knew that I would use the Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday fabrics. Too cute!
So I searched "free tutorials for crayon rolls" online and came up with this one.

*Please forgive the photo, it's cold and rainy here today. No good for indoor (or outdoor pics).
Oh and of course my batteries died on my camera whilst trying to take more detailed pics, but you get the picture.*

This is actually the second one I have made (it's for Elise's birthday if your reading this Colleen lol). And trust me when I say I did a much better job on this one then Ashleigh's first one!
Ashleigh loves it (which she proved to me on her artwork she gave to me for Mothers Day, you can read about that here lol).

I should add that the original tutorial is to make pockets for 16 crayons but for this one I wanted it to fit bigger crayons so I just doubled the width of the pocket to fit 8 crayons instead :)

I found it has been a great little project to so to "get to know" my machine and get back into learning how to sew again. If I can do this, anyone can, trust me ;)

That's all for today, be back soon!

Tumblr

2010-05-24T19:45:00.003+10:00

Have you heard of Tumblr? It's my latest obsession ;)

Basically, it's a place where you can put things that you find while surfing around the internet that you find interesting, inspiring or just plain pretty. Mine is a combination of all of the above. It's kind of like a blog as in you can update it daily (or whenever), it doesn't take up space on your hard drive and I think you can even make it private so only you have access to it.

I've only been using Tumblr for a few days so I'm still learning but if you want to find out more, Emily Pitts did a great tutorial on starting up your own Tumblr account which you can find here.

Here are few of my favourite images I have on my Tumblr right now.

Isn't this just so pretty??

And my favourite colour right now...

And if I ever own my own house one day, this is what I want the laundry to look like :)

If you want to see more lovely things on my Tumblr, go here.
Or you can simply click on "pretty little things" over on the right of the sidebar :)

Warning: Tumblr is addicting!

Enjoy :)

Project 12- April

2010-05-19T17:04:00.004+10:00

Ever since it's beginnings in January of last year I have been participating in Davinie Fiero's Project 12 Challenge. To read all about it, just click the blue Project 12 icon over to the right of my blog and you can see what all the fun is about!

So this is the layout I did today for this month (which is actually all about what we did last month, are you following? lol).

I used the Soda Fountain kit from Studio Calico which is actually the kit for May last year! It's one of my favourite kits ever, I don't have much left of it, I'm really trying hard to use it all up actually! Granny's Cupboard arrived on Monday and I want to play :)

I also did some machine stitching on this layout, it's the first time I've done it and I'm totally smitten. Yes, smitten :)

Okay that's all for today. I have plenty of other things to share but it will have to wait for another day. Be back soon!

Happy Mothers Day!

2010-05-09T17:48:00.003+10:00

Happy Mothers Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there :) I hope your day was as relaxing as mine!

It started off with Ashleigh waking me up with her gift she made at preschool. I knew it would be adorable before I even opened it :) I didn't get a picture but it included some bath crystals (she knows mummy loves a hot bath!), a pretty flower she made from tissue paper and my favourite part of all, was a piece of blue paper that she had drawn colourful flowers all over, then above the flowers in quotes was "I love hugging my mum and giving her kisses. She makes me a crayon roll." LOL!!
You see when I got my first sewing machine about a month ago the first thing I did was make Ashleigh one of those cute crayon rolls you see on Etsy. She LOVES it! As you can tell :)
Then my brother came to visit and my mum made us a delicious roast chicken followed by apple pie and vanilla ice cream. YUM!!
Oh and I also got some chocolate and a new DVD player, wow I was spoiled, huh?

SO tomorrow we are headed south to Bowral.

Where I'm hoping the day will look as gorgeous as this :) Ashleigh's feeling much better so we can get those photos done finally. I'm really looking forward to heading down there, change of scenery and all that :) I'm not looking forward to the drive as my little miss is not a good traveller and the journey will be loooooong but totally worth it :)

Okay well that's it for today. I have a new layout I can't show you until next week ;) I shall be back then!
How was your Mothers Day?

Randomness.

2010-05-02T16:28:00.003+10:00

Not much going on around here this week but I thought I'd do a quick update with some random things on this lazy Sunday afternoon :)

1. Yesterday was NSD (National Scrapbooking Day) and Studio Calico had tonnes of different challenges going on! Everyone on the design team had their own challenge so I wrote all the ones down that I think I would like to try, which were:

a) Kelly's 5 Product Challenge
b) Steph W's Lift Yourself challenge
c) Maggie's Use Mist challenge
d) Kimmi's Layered Flower challenge
e) Laura's Use Your Fave SC Stamp challenge

And because I'm insane I decided I would combine them all on the ONE layout. Yes that's right I'm crazy. And let me tell you, it was SO HARD. I did not have fun. lol Seriously, it was such a struggle! I was *this* close to giving up but I stuck with it and I'm much happier with it in the end.

2. Last week I got an email giving me the opportunity to buy some pre-sale tickets to Disney On Ice: Disneyland Adventure in July, it took me about 2 seconds to decide that yes I would LOVE to buy some pre-sale tickets thankyou very much!

I have always wanted to take Ashleigh but before now it's been bad timing plus she used to have such a tough time sitting still but now she's 4 I think she's ready.

I am sooooo unbelievably excited about seeing this! I am way more excited than Ashleigh (she thinks the show is a ride and she asked if she could "have a go on the teacups after Mickey" LOL!!!) and I couldn't resist on spending a little bit more and getting second row tickets, hee!

3. I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha. In like 4 days lol. I could not stop reading it! It's one of those books you just can't put down. love, love, love.

Now, as you can see over on my sidebar, I'm reading The Great Gatsby and The Other Boleyn Girl.

I read Gatsby in highschool and remember loving it. But I had Boleyn girl on my "to read" list and when I saw it available at the library I grabbed it. I'm having a hard time getting into this book though. I really want to persevere with it, so I even rented the movie and though that might help me like it more lol I'll let you know how it goes :)

4. Ashleigh's sick. ugh. We had an entire month without so much as a sniffle and now she's got a sore throat and a fever and is totally miserable. Which makes me miserable. ugh. Also that means that I will most likely have to cancel the photos I've had planned for about 2 months now to get done on Tuesday. So if your the praying kind could you please pray for a speedy recovery? Thanks :)

Well I best be off, my sick girl is awake.

I missed you

2010-04-22T10:52:00.007+10:00

Woohoo, I'm back! I can't believe I missed blogging, I never thought I would in a million years, but I really did.
As of yesterday my computer has been humming along nicely, so now I can resume my normal blogging schedule ie: when I have something remotely interesting to share with you :)

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a spot in Kelly Purkey's "Sketchbook" class so for about a week I was a scrappin' fool! Four layouts in one week is HUGE for me since I'm quite a slow scrapper.

Here's the first layout I did for the class:

"3-in-1"

I did this layout using Sketch #1 and my brand new Dear Lizzy papers. As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I would use it for these photos of Ashleigh playing putt-putt for the first time. The next thing I knew was that I wanted to cut all that tiny bunting from the paper and have it criss-crossed across the whole page, after that everything else just came together. I even knew which alphas I wanted to use! (This is all so unlike me right now, since if I'm not using a Studio Calico kit, I've become hopeless at going through my own stash to match papers and embellishments and alphas etc. Studio Calico has spoiled me ;)

The class went for 12 days, and so every morning there would be a fantastic new sketch sitting in my email, very inspiring and motivating let me tell you. The beautiful thing is I still have 8 sketches I have yet to work with, but I have printed them all off and can now use them as many times as I want, over and over again :)

In other news, Ashleigh has started back up at Preschool today now that the Easter school holidays are over and so I thought that this morning would be the perfect time to start my next goal: read a book! I used to be such an avid reader before my girl came along and lately I've really been missing it, so I've just come back from purchasing Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden. To say I'm excited is an understatement. There is nothing like diving headfirst into a great book and escaping for an hour or so, don't you agree?

I will let you know how I'm enjoying it :)

Have a wonderful day!

The computer says no

2010-03-04T12:07:00.002+11:00

I never meant to be away from my newly founded blog for so long but my computer has had other ideas. It has a nasty case of the slooooooows. So this post is just an update (to let those of you who wish to know) that blogging from me will be temporarily (I hope!) interrupted.

I have new layouts! But if you want to see them you will need to head over to the StudioCalico member gallery if you wanna check them out, sorry :( I'm under "JenniferT" over there.

While I can't share with pics with you I thought I'd share some things I'm loving and making me happy right now:

1. The end of summer, woohoo! Bye bye! I am not sorry to see you go and I hope you take your sweet time coming back around at the end of the year :)

2. Welcome autumn and hello March! I love you! You can stick around forever and never, ever leave me.

3. Preschool. Ashleigh has a new obsession and it's a very healthy one that I totally approve of. In fact, the other day I told her when she is 5 she'll be going to school everyday, the look on her face said it all, total amazement. The next morning (and everyday after that) she asks me if she is 5 yet. (I'm not loving that idea, she's just turned 4!)

4. Seeing Easter stuff coming out at the shops. Although I don't like seeing Christmas things showing up in September, I am in total agreement with Easter eggs appearing in January. In fact, I may or may not have already purchased some Easter crafty stuff to do with Ashleigh ;)

5. Davinie's blog. Could it be because she mentioned my Project 12 January layout or because she is so very, very talented? All of the above ;) It seriously made my week that she included my layout and had such great things to say, she is such a nice person!

6. Seeing my layout published for the first time ever in Scrapbook Creations magazine last night at Gill's!! Gill subscribes to Scrapbook Creations so she gets the mag a week before the rest of us, so imagine my surprise when I went over for our usual Wednesday night scrapping, and she tells me to take a look inside. Such a great moment! It's in the Easter gallery for those of you who want to see it ;) And next week when I get my copy I'll be sure to share it here!

Okay well that's it for now, gotta go do that food shopping thing that is definitely not on the list of things that make me happy :(

Happy Thursday!

Happiness...

2010-02-16T08:32:00.001+11:00

...these days comes in a brown box :) I love this box and it's contents! For those of you who are familiar with Studio Calico and are lucky enough to get their kits you know what I'm talking about.

Inside this box is SC's February kit "Baker's Dozen" (sold out of course!). When I opened it yesterday I could not believe how pretty it is! Very girly, with lots of pink and very well named too, because it is yummy and delicious and I just want to eat it! I couldn't wait to dive right in and so last night I got half a layout done already :)

I'm quite a slow scrapper most of the time (unless it's an 8.5x11 I can whip those up quite quickly) and last night's layout was no exception. I'm doing the Sunday sketch challenge on the SC blog, so you would think that should be no problem, just follow the sketch, right? NO! I sit and stare and can't decide which paper to use first *sigh* I had the kit spread out in front of me on the loungeroom floor and I must have sat there for about 45 mins trying to decide which paper to use! I'm using a black and white photo so the possiblities were endless! Anyway I finally chose a mix of paper I was happy with, cut it up, stuck it down, did the title and then it was 11pm! So yes, it sits half finished, but I'm really happy with what I've done so far, and that's what matters, right?

I shall share the layout here when it's finished, don't hold your breath though, it could be daaaaayyys yet ;)

Have a great Tuesday!
Jen

Our new fishy friends

2010-02-08T18:33:00.001+11:00

I just had to share the latest additions to our family:) Meet Nemo and Marlin (can you tell Ashleigh named them?) Nemo is the orange one and Marlin is the black one hiding behind Nemo (fish are quite hard to photograph!)

Before Ashleigh was born I used to have tropical fish and I loved it! They are very relaxing and serene, you can just stare at them for hours.
So as a little present to Ashleigh "for being such a good girl at preschool/she needs a pet/I want fish again" I finally decided to get some goldfish. I picked the tank up Friday and set it up over the weekend so Ashleigh could pick out the fish herself today. It was so fun to watch her get excited about them.

Can you believe when I asked her if she wanted a puppy or a fish, she chose the fish? I had no intention of getting her a puppy because our yard is too small, so that worked out well ;) Oh and I've been instructed that Ashleigh will not be feeding them because "that fish food is so very very stinky!"

Have a great day! :)

Card using IB Sketch #41

2010-02-07T15:35:00.003+11:00

On this Sunday afternoon I thought I would share a birthday card I made this morning (mere minutes before the party!). I used Sketch #41 from Inspired Blueprints and the Garment District kit (one of my favourites ever!) from StudioCalico from March last year.

I'm trying so hard to be a good girl and use up my SC kits from last year to make room for the delicious kits that will be coming out this year :) Speaking of, I'm waiting not so patiently for the SC February kit "Bakers Dozen" to arrive, it's on its way!!

Well, that's all folks!

I'll be back tomorrow with some new additions to our little family ;)

Jumping on the bandwagon

2010-02-04T11:14:00.001+11:00

So I've decided to start a blog. Finally. I created this blog hmmm, let me see, about 3 weeks ago? I just kept putting off my first post with different excuses like, what if no one reads it?? And then I thought that's ok, I'll read it. And what better day to create my very first post than Ashleigh's first day at preschool. At least with her not being here it will give me some time to figure out this thing! Even as I'm typing this I have no idea how it's going to look, I can't wait to press "Publish Post" lol

So I want to talk about the events of this morning. I want to remember her first day of preschool very, very well so when she starts Kindergarten next year I can look at this blog of mine and remember how "easy" it was.

First of all it went exactly how I pictured it:
1. Little Miss Gets Up At The Crack Of Dawn Every Morning gets up late (of course) leaving us with exactly 40 mins to somehow get dressed, do hair, have breakfast and take photos (naturally).
2. Breakfast ends up being a banana on the drive to school
3. We walk into the classroom where she proceeds to then forget who I am, treats me like a stranger and I end up following her around like the paparazzi begging her for her photograph.
4. After giving up on taking photos I kind of just hang around like I was the only one not invited to the party. I've never felt like such a third wheel!
5. Thank the lord that two of the other mums I know (hi Gill and Karren!) shows up so I at least have someone to talk to.
6. Finally, I walk over to Ashleigh while she's sitting on the floor listening to a story. She looks up at me with this look on her face like "Oh, are you still here"? and then tells me to go home.

And that my friends, is exactly what I knew would happen. Yes I feel slightly unwanted and I feel like i should be reminding her that I was the one who gave birth to her and shouldn't she at least pretend to miss me? But mostly I feel extremely proud and grateful. I'm so proud that she is who she is; independant, outgoing, extroverted, loud, kind, friendly, a social butterfly and fearless :)

Phew! My first post woohoo!
I'll be back next time with something scrappy :)

PS: Thankyou to Tracy for the help you gave me with this blog :)