What I see...

...Girls Night In...

Hey girls,

Life is moving at a fast fast pace now that school and ballet are back in full swing! The ballet concert is just FIVE weeks away and I am spending alot of this week photographing gorgeous ballerinas for the posters and concert programs. It is sure to be another beautiful concert at the Civic Theatre - this year I have three chickens to get ready - makeup and curls and be in town by 9am - hmmm, that should be fun ;)

The holidays ended with a very special trip to Sydney to Taronga Zoo - but I'll share that in another post.

Today I just want share the layouts that I am teaching at the "Girls Night In" for Breast Cancer Research - I have donated my class fees to the cause during a 12 hour crop at Edgeworth Bowling Club this Saturday - the day begins at 9am goes through to 9pm. I am teaching at 10.30am and Marrion Werron(sp) will be teaching a beautiful Christmas bi-fold album in the afternoon.

So, for my class you need the usual scrap supplies, along with a 5x7 and 6x4 photo in landscape orientation. Here are the layouts... kits are available on the day and we are using the lovely Earth Love range by Cosmo Cricket. I will bring the inks and punches and a little "gifty" for each lady in my class.

See you there!

JEN xo
 

...Let the FUN begin...

Octoberfest 2009 - Online class kicked off today!

There are 17 layouts (at least - I am still adding extra things) as well as 5 bonus projects - with easy to follow step-by-step instructions and pictures.

$15AU for two weeks of inspiration - email me at jenandwill@bigpond.com if you are interesting in joining in - Registration will remain open for another month as I have had some ladies email me telling me they are away.

And just because I can... here is another sneak peak...
("Making It from Scratch" layout)

Notice the new blog design? I was suppose to be getting organised for a very special family activity tomorrow and got sorta side-tracked ;) (and I have totally forgotten how to create a banner - any ideas??LOL)

Happy Happy Scrapping!

JEN

...Art Attack Saturday...

Today I want to share another "freebie" day we had last Saturday - Last week I was surfing the net looking for free stuff to do - mainly at our local library, when I found the link to the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, and colour me happy - each and every Saturday Morning they have free art time for kids of all ages!

They wheel out a great big trolley full of art supplies - crayons, textas, pencils, pens and collage materials with scissors, buttons and lot of other cool stuff - they throw a pile of round Ikea mats (we have one as our naughty mat at home - the girl thought that rather funny!) around the gallery floor and each child gets spot and board to create on.

It is run beautifully - the young curators take the kids to look at particularly art works first - discuss it for a bit and then back up stairs to let the kids loose with the art trolley - so Saturday they looked at Margaret Olley and then created large "postcards" based on the theme "Holidays" - my girls were quick to set to work, not long after Man of the house arrived - the cricket game he was umpiring was canceled due to wet weather. And there they stayed for close to an hour and half! 

I loved that it was suited to my youngest and right through to my oldest! Every few weeks the gallery changes the theme - we are defiantly adding it to our list of "fun things to do"!!

(for those wanting the info - Newcastle Regional Art Gallery - Laman Street Newcastle - every Saturday and Sunday Morning - 10.30 am till 12.30pm = show up anytime!)

We came home, had some lunch and then I let the girls loose in the backyard with a brand new box of sidewalk chalk - we have this big BBQ area behind our garage - nice flat cement that was screaming for a makeover!! The girls drew for a good couple of hours after lunch - Love the chalk all over her legs!

Princess Bella was keen to - she kept sneaking up and taking the chalk when the girls weren't watching, then taking off with it across the yard.

I had planned for the girls to create a new canvas for their room, but by late afternoon I was not feeling the best! We are planning on completing that project this week sometime.

So another free day of fun for the girls - they are just loving these school holidays! (and if you are wondering where the Tbird is during all the activities? She is having some one-on-one holidaying with Nanny!) 

..Finally I had to share this cute pic - just hanging out in our backyard - CUTE!! 

Happy Scrapping!

JEN xox 

...Family Fun Night - round 2...

Hello Hello,

Well, as I mentioned last week - each Friday night we switch off the tv, turn off our phones, computers and mobiles and congregate in our dining room for family fun night. I just want get some notes down here, as we are going ot compile a journal eventually of each week and games we play.

So during my supermarket visit the other, I picked up the game "kaplonk" for just $10 at Coles - a bargain find - who can say no to a game at that price?!

The girls were excited and couldn't wait to try out the game especially when Man of the house and I told them that we had both played it as kids. Will set it up, and off we went - it was very amusing - maybe not as fun for us big kids (not like I remember it anyway) but the girls had a ball - concentrating and trying hard not to let the marbles fall.

 We played two games of it, before setting it aside for another game called "Shopping Trolley" - a bit like Memory but a little more fun - I picked that game up from an educational shop a few months ago when they had the end of financial year sale - what a great game! Trying to fill up our trolleys with the groceries on the shopping lists - and trying to remember where the items are.

By the time we ended two games of each - it was longer than normal half hour we set aside - it was close to an hour and half.

Back in a few with our Saturday theme!

JEN

...Circus Day Friday...

Well, I am back on the mend (again) I was drying my hair the other morning and I heard a crack and then I couldn't move my neck! I have spent most of the past few days propped up on pillows watching Disney channel with the kids - so the themes went out the window! However, I did get in a couple of others before injuring myself. So, today I will share our friday theme...

Circus Day Friday - what fun we had - it also happened to be a play-date with a couple of little friends that Milly has know since birth (actually before birth - we met in antenatal classes and have met up every fortnight for the past five years -until they went to school this year that is!) so early Friday morning we headed down to the shopping centre to get some snacks and a party game - we discovered a FREE face painter out the front of the supermarket, who happily painted to girls faces to look like clowns - Milly was very specific with what she wanted... this was the result...

We then came home prepared the food and the girls picked out outfits from the dress up box - unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the outfits - but it included a bright green tutu, stripey stocking AND an almost 14 year old in a rainbow wig and large felt hat!!

Food became a bit of craft too - I cut a big platter of fruit and gave the kids a spotty plate each to"create" a face - this was Amelia's creations... They loved the idea and ate so much fruit - they would eat an "eye" then replace it, and then eat the nose etc.

  Of course no circus food is complete with some bright coloured junk too right? so we had "acrobats" flipping in the donuts!!

While they ate I made each of them a balloon animal (or sword) They thought I was very clever and were amazed when I told them I use to go as a clown to kids birthday parties!

We played "pin the nose on the clown" (a $2 cheapy at the supermarket) and before Milly's friends went home each got a little circus party bag that I had downloaded from the net and stuck together - inside was  a balloon, clown mini game, a fe lollies and super bouncy ball too - they were a big hit.

Craft was kept simple - while the friends were over, we set up a table in the playroom with colouring materials and a heap of clown colouring in I also found on the net.

Once everyone went home we created these cute pinwheels - simple to make and stuck into the eraser end of a pencil!

And to keep the girls occupied later in the afternoon, I found these gorgeous circus tickets as a free printable here: http://ginghamcherry.blogspot.com/2009/08/play-tickets-free-printable.html

I cut them out, and even perforated in between each so they could pull one off at a time in their little game. (I printed a sheet off for me too - they are just so cute!!)

Circus day ended and we enjoyed Friday night family fun night - but I will share the photos from then later!

Happy Scrapping

JEN xoxo

...Pirate Wednesday...

Question: "why do pirates have both their ears pierced?"

Answer: "Cause' it only costs a buccaneer"

Milly said this joke at least a dozen times yesterday during our Pirate day theme!! Along with the constant shouts and squeals of "ARRGHH me hearties" sounding out from the backyard as my girls played pirates for most of the day!! We had such fun - admittedly I did have to make a trip to the party supply store for a few small pirate inspired novelties - let's face it - I have girls - and we tend to be lacking in boy type things in our house!! We did already have the costumes - they have served us well - a bargain find three years ago in a clean-out at spotlight - I picked them up for teasha's pirate party for just $5 each and they have been worn many many times since (in actual fact the divine Miss M refused to take hers off at bedtime, so she slept in it!).

 

 

So from Shindigs we picked up some pirate money, pirate tattoos, a couple of swords and some pirate eye patches - my budget was $20 and we came in quite under that - so I was happy with that, we then ordered some lunch down the street, called by the supermarket and got a few treats and headed home for the fun to begin.

Lunch was served on the "top deck" (front veranda) as it began to rain just as we got home - the kids loved the idea of their lunch still on the fish and chips wrapping it came in.

We then applied tattoos (as all good pirate have them right?!) and also made our own pirate hats from newspaper - we even made one for bella but she would not be it!!

The rain vanished and the kids played outside while I decorated chocolate wheaten biscuits with white chocolate decorating icing to create these pirate biscuits (the girls favourite thing of the day) and a few little pirate flags stuck in a bit of junk food just set the mood for afternoon tea...

To burn off the sugar, we had a treasure hunt for the coins that I had hid all around the backyard while the girls ate their afternoon tea - they had to collect 10 coins to get a "treasure" but if truth be known - they much preferred the pirate coins and played with them for most of the evening too.

We finished our pirate day with simple colouring crafts that I had downloaded from the internet at Kaboose printables we had treasure maps, flags, mazes (for lolly) and colouring sheets - this kept the girls busy for about an hour till Man of the house came home, as by now I was quite sick.

Amelia told me that this "looks like Daddy when he is really mad"LOL!!

I think Pirate day was a big success - and it was so nice to do something not too girly too! I must say here that Lolly (at almost and very close to being 14) has been super great with her little sisters = she joins in the activities, she lets them climb all over her, sleep in her bed, and even dressed as a pirate to make them happy - I am one lucky mum to have a teenager like her!! (and I have great collection of photos to pull out at her 21st :)

Today was a childcare/ vacation care day as I headed into town to watch Tbird dance - but more about that tomorrow. I came home to sleep the rest of the day - lots of aches and pains and not feeling "right" -- hope to be on the mend real soon!!

[edited to add: I have an overflowing inbox of emails - I have got them - and will be replying first thing!! thanks]

Live the life you want!

JEN xoxoxo

... Movie Day Tuesday...

It was Movie Day Tuesday yesterday (or as I like to call it - cheapy day so get your kids to the movies day!!) For just $8.50 each we went to the Terrace to see "Up" with some good friends - we had talked about going to the greater union and seeing it in 3-D but the tickets were like $19.50 for adults and $15 or so for kids - our girls were fine seeing it "normal" and we even threw in the golden arches afterwards for lunch and still came out cheaper than those 3-D tickets!!

Well, we all loved the movie, Liz and I had a good chuckle in quite a few spots and the kids thought it was hilarious! I highly recommend it - another great flick from Disney/Pixar.

By the time we got home it was getting into the afternoon, so we gave our cooking for the day a miss  - so instead we headed to the disney official Up website in the hope that there were some colouring sheets or activities the girls could do for the remainder of the afternoon - the site did not disappoint - lots of things to do - we settled on making some cutout characters of "carl and Russel" and also the house - then we discovered the "adventure book" that you can print off and put together - it comes with it's own badges to cut out and stick in when you complete certain tasks - this was big big hit with the girls - and they busily started asking what they had to do to earn their badges - it was very cute! And kept them occupied for a good hour!

So here is the link if you want to create your own fun things... Up printable crafts - And you know what?? If your kids are just loving other disney/pixar movies - such as cars or toystory etc - go search for their official sites - all you need is a printer and a few craft supplies (and we all have those!!) and some time to create. 

Today we have had Pirate Day - which has been great fun - I am now fighting hot and cold sweats and feeling achy all over so need to get to bed - I will share our pirate adventures tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

JEN xo

...Totally Pink Monday...

Hey People!

So, yesterday we began our"themes" - we are not doing everyday - that could nearly kill me! But every few days we are doing a different theme.

Yesterday was Totally Pink Monday - the girls woke up to pink pink pink - balloons, and streamers, and all things girly. Pink pancakes with cream and strawberries for breakfast.

We headed off to Nanny and Pa's mid morning to drop off Tbird for the week and I did a newborn shoot too (Oh my goodness - what a little sweetheart - photos later) but by the time we got home at lunch time - the Divine Miss M was rather sick and slept for most of the afternoon.

When she woke up - it was nearly dinnertime and other pair had very patiently been waiting and waiting for the "pink day party" - so I set up the dinning table with yummy treats and let them go for it!! (there was healthy food and fruit during the day too :) We had cupcakes and heart shaped biscuits and treats - I added pink cordial to lemonade to make pink lemonade. (and YES - Lolly IS wearing PINK!!!!! I have the evidence ;)

After "tea" - the divine Miss M was feeling much much better (thanks panadol!) so I sat with the little pair and we made "pink ladies" from pattern paper out of my stash - I placed brads through the arms to they were movable and let the girls decorate how ever they wanted -they were very proud of their efforts and had fun making up little stories about their pink ladies - Who are now staring out from the front of the fridge!

 

 

**I wanted to add here - that pink day theme was such a cheap and easy theme to create with - I have a box of party supplies - full of plastic table cloths, curling ribbon, left over plastic cutlery from parties etc I keep stocked all the time - I only had to buy a few balloons and a couple of packets of lollies!! The face came from the internet and I just drew the rest of the body - really a cheap cheap day of fun!!!! And the ribbons etc will all just go back into to box again. 

Today is "Movie Tuesday" we are off to see Up with some great friends (hi girls!!) and then home for some craft I have based on the movie - stay tuned!!!

JEN xoxo

...The Holiday Bonanza...

Our October School holidays started on Friday, and after much planning and preparing, I have created a full program of activities for the girls - you see, last holidays was not much fun for the tribe - it was full-on packing mode and we did very little fun stuff - apart from a movie and Marnie's birthday party - so I vowed that these holidays would be different!

So, I have decided to share each day's activities and events on here each night = so stay tuned :)

I have tried to create a lot of "free" at home fun mixed in with a couple of special outings and working around the usual holiday Eisteddfod schedule of Tbird who will competing in SEVEN dance sections at Mattara this year!!

Each day is organised into an activity (eg art gallery) cooking, and craft - the later two are my girls favourite things to do!! And then I have also based the days around themes - Tomorrow kicks off fourteen days of fun with "Totally Pink Day" - I am currently blowing up a load of balloons, have pink cupcakes in oven and am reading how to make my own play-dough!! I am sure the gaggle will wake up to a big surprise in the morning - pink pancakes with strawberries and a few games and craft!

We started the holidays friday night with  family night - 1/2 an hour of no tv, phones., mobiles etc playing games as a family - we began with the smarty game - will give you instructions another day, following by a great game of memory for which our FOUR year old won - check out all her cards - and NOONE was helping her either!!! We finished the night with some other game - that is just too hard to describe - the kids had a blast, played well together and it made me smile that we are creating these memories with our girls!

We have a had another full full week - there were parent nights at dancing - where the middle pair got medals for ballet and jazz, a performance night at school - milly shared her dancing skills with the junior dance group, a parent training night for man of the house - how to play with your kids - great ideas, I have been sick all week with tonsils AGAIN and had to miss canteen :( and a school sport-link day for Tbird that had her competing in some weird game called bench ball - I tried to work it out, but gave up.

Today Man of the house was umpiring at the state women's country championships for cricket - a nice wet squishy sort of day - I actually took ALL the girls with me to the farmers market to get our weekly fruit and veg (we only buy from the farmer) which ended up being an outing of mini dutch pancakes, pony rides and fruit taste testing - we came home with a trolley full of wholesome goodness along with these little gems...

I spent yesterday (the WHOLE day) pulling all the little ones clothes from their room - reorganising, trying stuff on them, purging, and sorting and hanging the summer clothes and packing up the winter - such a tedious task - I dread it each and every year - but what a sense of accomplishment when the job is done! I rearranged a few things in their room that had not been working productively too = so now their room is back to organised chaos! I just realised I am yet to share their new room - I will get onto that sometime soon!!

And I snapped this of my desk tonight - just before I uploaded my photos - a mix of things happening right now - the top right corner are clothes that don't fit the girls anymore - but have some sort of inspiration for me - may chop some up and use the fabric or recreate some of the elements onto pages - not real sure yet, the stampin up catalogue is there as a constant reminder that I am hosting a Stampin Up Halloween party on the 30th of October - if you are interested and live in Newcastle - please email me!! and the pinky looking things to the left of the photo are some ballerinas that are part of a project I am working on for the new dance studio - joy of joys - we will be in after the holidays - Miss K asked me to create a very large display for the foyer (imagine a REAL foyer!!) that will show birthdays and the current weekly themes as well as other important info - I will share the finished project when I get it done - Remember we are talking about a studio for Baby ballerinas!

I will leave you with a pic of Miss Bella - being adored by many a fan at the sportlink day - and yes! I admit that is a big rose clip in her fringe -  afterall she is the Princess of the family now ;) She is so good with kids - they ran her ragged, they cuddled her, teased her, squeezed her, and just adored her and she lapped it up - we are trying to socialise her as much as possible with lots of different situations so she won't ever be timid and she adapts to all of them - such a little darling! Right now she is sitting at my feet with a pig skin thingy dangling from her mouth - a special treat from the beef jerky guy at the markets today - she loves it! Spoilt much??!!

Don't forget about Octoberfest 2009 - 16 days of scrapbook layouts and a few extra projects thrown in - just $15 - contact me for details!!

I will be back tomorrow night with the day's events!

Happy Scrapping

JEN xox

...Octoberfest 2009...

Hi bloggers,

Today, as promised, I am opening registrations for

"Octoberfest 2009"

I have reworked it a little and changed it a bit from last year... so here is how it will work....

• The class will run on my classroom blog from October 15th to October 31st.

• Each day, a new layout will be posted along with step by step instructions, plus there will be bonus projects, doodle sheets and a couple of "two version" layouts along the way. There will be a mix of feminine layouts as well of masculine and non-child layouts.

• The classroom will remain open till November 30, and all projects will have a printable PDF attached to each post.

• The cost of the class is $15 for the 16 days of layouts and bonus projects and open to both Australian and overseas crafters.

• Payment can be made via paypal or direct deposit into my bank account.

• I am really looking forward to sharing some inspiration and quick layout ideas that will get your pages scrapped.

So if you are interested in getting AT LEAST 15 layouts scrapped before you get busy with  Christmas, then contact me jenandwill@bigpond.com for details

****************************************************************************

A lady emailed me the other day asking if I still scrapbooked, I sure do! I have been busy preparing this class, working on DT stuff for Shop and Crop, my photography, and doing stuff with the kids, so here are a few projects from recent weeks...

 

 

 

I spent the last couple of days creating a new canvas for playgroup - we have our family church service this week where our little one will get up with her playmates and sing some songs - this canvas will be on display at church and will then go up at playgroup - This year I created the "old worman who lived in a shoe" (as we now have so many children at playgroup we don't know what to do :) So we have around 50 kiddies on this canvas, I think I am missing 5 that will be added later. I wanted the one this year to be quite tactile so the kids could touch it and feel the different textures - I sure had fun creating it, and my girls have all put orders in for their own little creations for their rooms!!

 

And finally thank you for all your lovely comments and emails about our new baby Bella (the dog) she is going great - sleeping through (from even the first night) making her voice heard, eating toes and making friends with the cats - yesterday she had a bath for first time - stood in the sink very still, but shivered and whimpered as I dried her with the hair dryer - she hated it - and don't even get me started on the combing - you don't try if you want to keep your fingers!!! Here she is looking ALOT smaller when wet - more like a drowned rat!! We love her, such a wonderful addition to our family (thanks again Kim )