What I see...

my baby...... is three!!

Oh! Can you believe it? my baby baby girl - the divine Miss M is three today!

We were blessed with beautiful sunny weather on Saturday for her "Dora the Explorer" fairytale adventure party. She had a ball - Mum made her dress as I could not get the Dora one, then on Friday, as I called into Toys'r'us, there one was! I was so mad, I told the manager and he gave me the dress for $12 (Amelia wore it) the dress Mum made was just beautiful and she looked every bit the princess!

I made the balloon table decorations again, and create "backpack" for each child (we only had 12) from the purple Kmart recycle bags - the handles became the backpack straps, and I simply drew on the face. I made maps of the yard and they had fun finding explorer stars.

There was a craft table full of Dora foam crafts and colouring sheets, but our big trampoline seemed to entertain them just fine.

I had a lady from Waratah make the cake - designed from the picture of Dora on her invitation and we are all so happy with the result.

Lots of print offs from the Nick Jnr website including alphabet letters that spelt her name, that I coloured and ran through our laminator.

I made each little girl a bracelet with the initial of her name in the centre (sorta like Dora's bracelet) and the girls all loved these.

Party boxes were the character ones from spartys that I filled with Dora pencils, crayons, sticker etc and a few lollies.

It was a couple of hours of very relaxed fun, they played, came inside and got plates of food, played, ate then played some more and had the cake. and Marnie was such a happy girl!

Happy Happy Birthday my Princess girl! You bring so much joy to all our lives - we love you!

We also have a new family member... meet Lucy our new baby and another GIRL!

She is a black and tan Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and she will be two in a couple of weeks - she has slotted straight into our family and the kids are smitten!

I will be back later with some layout shares!

JEN xo

Been having a blog vacation!

So...... Our household has had a share of ups and downs over the past couple of weeks - beginning with Lolly's foot being stomped on during a soccer game - which meant hours at the the medical centre getting an xray etc - which had the doc believing that the foot was broken and sending us straight to the hospital - more hours of waiting only to find out that what the Doc had thought was breaks were actually two very large growth plates (Lol was excited by this - it will mean she will soon be growing and catching up to her peers) so it was not broken after all, just badly sprained and out of action for few days and on crutches - has healed just in time for our school holidays.

the divine Miss M has started her usual winter sickness bouts (due to allergies and compromised immune system) last week she got bronchitis (again) only her Doc gave us different antibiotics that her little body didn't like and as she got better from the bronchitis, down below was not so lucky - we have had one very unhappy little girl!!

Me - of course (as I always do) got a head cold over the weekend, but it cleared within a day and a half - and I swear it is because of the flu shot - as I am normally down for a least a week with colds and flu.

Milly, Tbird and Man of the house have escaped the bugs (touch wood).

So that's the bad stuff - onto the good - Tbird danced in her first eisteddfod on Monday - 9yrs and under classical ballet and got highly commended - she was only a mark off second and a couple off first - which her friend Abbey from dancing won. We were so proud - even got her a rose. She is competing again on Friday - 10yrs and under national character - a new dance, and really just for the experience - mum has been sewing up a storm for us.

Scrapping wise - I have been hiding away in the studio at night getting projects for the shop, newsletter and DT done (plus the air conditioned heating is a dream!) I am teaching a big three hour 5 layout class on Saturday, next week will be  big week to - teaching the monthly "this is me" class on Wed, and the layout and Crop on Friday night. Followed by hanging out with Michelle at her crop on the Sunday - Edgeworth Bowling Club.

So my baby is turning three next week - and so I am busy (as you all know I get with party plans) we are having a Dora Fairytale Party and I have found amazing ideas on Nick Jnr websites from here and abroad - should be loads of fun - the only down side has been I could not for the life of me find THIS dress anyway in Australia (now, I have seriously spent HOURS and HOURS searching for this darn dress on the net and ringing every Kmart, Target, Big W and toy store in a 100 km radius) If you have one - please lend it to my gorgeous poppet!! It is the exact costume of all the party decos we have bought, but as it came out last year, no one has them now - in Australia anyway. I was also a bit of shocker with the invits and felt SO SO bad for Marnie as I always make the invits by hand for all the kids - with the flu and everything else - she got shop bought ones (OK, gasp in horror! My friend Trudy did - thanks Trud!!!) but I jazzed them up with kindy glitz, and foam Dora thingies - and of course I will make up for it on the day!

Other than all this - Here is a bit of an insight into our past two weeks - via my beloved Picasa2  program - (avail free from the net - Google picasa!) I just love the collage function!

So here is each pic:

1. those Dora invits 2. Princess Milly 3. Marnie crafting 4. sibling hugs - Alex and Ethan 5. Kai 6. Elf Alex 7. the cat whisperer 8. doing "work" in Daddy's glasses 9. the ballerina 10. the performance 11. Number one fan 12. frosting! 13. decorating biscuits 14. the supplies 15. biscuit ART 16. those eyes! 17. Sugar glaze over 18. decorating daddy 19-21. Jo Jo circus costume - this could possibly be the cutest thing ever!! 22. hair raising experience 23. the new "thing" - doing the dishes two year old style 24. the boy 25. what I got when I climbed onto the tramp - noice one!

and because I just had some fun making that one = here is one for some pics of June - I call this one "in Living colour"

1. crazy day at Dancing 2. lounge gymnastics 3. pony pals 4. the swing 5. the cutest smile in the world 6. clown 7-14. our annual trip to playschool - held at a local club and always fun 15. on the trampoline 16. she was in a posing mood! 17. his new sleeping spot! 18. cheeky 19. animal day for dance - mummy face painted,and she designed her outfit 21. we love McDonald's happy meal toys! 22. card for Kim's birthday celebrations on her site 24. she wanted "paint face" too 25. "sleep'n like Sammy boy"

Now I haven't forgotten about the Sunday Scraps...

Sunday Scraps Prompt 26:

Use an image from your photos to create large page embellishments!

On this first one - I recreated the white flower that was on the dress (sad story here - which i forgot to add to the page) she wore this gorgeous dress just once and then it shrank in the wash - we have never had that happen with any of our pumpkin patch clothes, and we have a lot! the girls at PP were great about it, so we chose a different dress after that - but it really was a beautiful dress!!!)

This second one - I ran with the butterfly theme - from the butterfly necklace that Milly is wearing in the pic. (using the gorgeous new Kaiser range) 

Back soon JEN xoxoxox

Sunday Scraps - Week 25 and the party pics...

Well, I have been having lots of fun scrapping over the weekend. But really began to think about the fact that most of my pages are mostly single photos and are about my thought and feeling to my girls. We live a full life, we cram a lot into our day, week, year. But I tend not scrap any of them very often.

So this week....

Sunday Scraps - Prompt 25:

I have been reading the new Donna Downey book - "Designing Layouts" and there are fantastic sketches in there for lots of photos on your pages! Donna tends to scrap all those little events, the daily routine stuff like cooking with her gorgeous kids, what kind of toys they play with, the start of each school year etc. The photos are just snapshots along the way - not always photographically perfect, but true to life - and that makes them beautiful!

This week - I want you to dig out a pile of photos from one event or occasion and scrap them on a double layout! I took once of Donna's sketches and altered it a little create these two layouts below... Both layouts are using KI Memories! (lettering on layout one are paper loft)

So I guess I should share some pics from Tbird's High School Musical Sleepover right??

okay... might do this in point form....

  Teasha's HSM party:

• The birthday girl - dressed as Gabriella - a couple of red and white singlets, white full skirt and a Gabriella science coat that she got last Christmas - HSM hair ribbon from when we went to HSM on ice.
• Decorations - really easy - we went with a red, white and gold colour scheme - cheap red, white and gold plastic table cloths - we draped these over Will's computer and the toys in the playroom etc. I laminated HSM posters that we had from the HSM magazine. Also I found a whole lot of HSM party stuff on ebay - party plates for the food, hanging decorations, signs etc.
• I made these balloon table decorations by tying 4 balloons together, then another four together on top, and few sparkly things out the top and curling ribbon - I made two and they cost me around $6 - to buy them made they are $20 each - Will didn't believe that I had made them!!!
• I hung red and gold streamers from the curtain rod (without the curtain) and found a gold foil curtain that we hung on door where they entered (they loved that especially)
• Each child got a drink bottle with their name on it when they arrived (we don't EVER do cups at our parties - too many spills!!) The drink bottles were $1.20 each  from Go-Lo and I simply stuck gold stars all over them and used a HSM school book label for each child's name.
• The food was the usual party kind - popcorn in cool popcorn container that we found at Coles (and we kept for our family Movie nights) mars bar slice, white chocolate rocky road, tic tock biscuits (cause of the song "what time is it?) star shaped ham and cheese sandwiches - funny enough this was the biggest hit! chips, lollies etc, cupcakes with white icing and red sprinkles,  we got pizza's for tea.
• I made the cake from 2 dozen Krispy Kremes - stacked high on a white platter (tip - use toothpicks to hold each layer to the previous) I then melted a block of Cadbury Dream Chocolate and drizzled it all over the donuts, and finished by sprinkling edible red glitter and red sprinkles over it - the HSM candle came from ebay with the decos. We added sparklers to the top too when we sang "Happy Birthday" the kids were so full that they couldn't eat the cake that night - so I microwaved the donuts for them for breaky (very yum as the chocolate melted too!)
• We played "pin the kiss on Troy" - I laminated a Troy poster for Tbird for her birthday and we used lip shape post-it notes for the kisses - the girls all LOVED this!
• We also played the chocolate game - instead of hats, scarf and gloves - we used a cheerleader outfit - they had roll a six with a dice and get the outfit on, then had to use a knife and fork to cut the chocolate block and eat it till the next six was rolled (tip: microwave the chocolate a bit before the game)
• We had a scavenger hunt outside in the dark - each team of three had a torch and we hid bracelets, lollies, bubble etc all over the yard - on the cars, in trees, along the house etc - they then spent the next half hour jumping on the trampoline together.
•   We did HSM sing-star and watched both movies on the three mattresses spread out on the floor of the playroom.
• We had an award ceremony when they all got up in the morning - made from gold star gift tags I found at spotlight - I then wrote awards onto journaling strips and stuck them to the stars with foam tape. I finished by tieing red ribbon to them so they would hang around the girls necks - awards included "largest snorer", "first asleep" "Most like Sharpay" etc.
• With breakfast, we gave out water bottles - that I had wrapped leftover red pattern paper to with a star and sticker initial on each one. and a bit of curling ribbon.
•   When the girls all arrived, I took a picture of each of them (while they still looked glamorous) and while they watched the movies, I printed off the pics, and punched them into circles to add to the covers of little notebooks that I had previously covered to be ready - these came from Golo and were less than a dollar.
• I found red and white toe socks at a $2 shop and knew it would be so cute for them all to get one before bed! It was the funniest thing watching them try and get their toes in!!!
• Party bags were red little material bags that I got from Riots craft shop - I simply tied a gold tag (spotlight) to each one with their initial on it - filled with all sorts of cheapy little things they would love - including HSM erasers etc (which BTW are now 50% off at Kmart as well as all the other HSM stationery - grrrrr - a week after her party!! go check it out!!)
• and of course here is one more pic of Tbird - a new shirt that I gave her when she woke up - from Target (also on sale :)

SO that's the low down on a very NINE  HSM party - one I am sure Tbrid won't be forgeting for a long time.

I am tired just remembering it :) I am almost done with her album and will share that soon!

JEN xoxo

I've survived!

Thanks for all your concerning emails about my where abouts the past week or so!

I have had a bit of a shocker - vomiting kiddies, infected elbows (on Tbird) and me myself just not having a great week (that spiraling downwards depression sort of feeling) trying to shake it off and get back to normal!

We survived Tbirds party - she had  fantastic night last week - we had nine 8-9 years olds, although I had to referee a punch up (seriously!) and there were many many spats at each other, all in all they are a great bunch of kids and they did actually sleep (from 1am till 7am) Made a Krispy Kreme cake drizzled with melted Cadbury Dream chocolate - of course the kids were too stuffed to eat it after all the junk they had had, so I heated the Krispy Kremes up for breakfast - and the kids all loved it. I will share pics of the decos, and all the stuff soon.

So I owe you two weeks of Sunday Scraps... (and tomorrow will be another one again)

Sunday Scraps - prompt 23:

Raid your scraps!!!! I want you to only use pattern paper scraps (no cutting into a new piece) and maybe a cardstock background :)

I had such fun going through my big tub of scraps - and went with a whole range of papers - For this first one, I cut my scraps into little squares all the same size - painted my background cardstock with Modpodge and laid all the squares down, then went over the whole thing again with modpodge, once dry, I stitched over areas and then added the photo etc.

The second one is simply using a circle punch to punch out scraps in the same colour range - I adhere them to the page with tape then stitched over some of the elements. Even the photo mat was a scrap from my scrap tub!!

I don't often head into my scraps, but found I was really enjoying myself as I was thinking about what I had created with the papers originally!

So onto the next week....

Sunday Scraps - Prompt 24:

This week our DT theme for Shop and Crop was Poppets - I simply LUUURRRVVVEEEE poppets and when ever I create one I always think "why don't I do these more often?"

So this week - Create a layout using a poppet! Here is a great link to a site where you can find fantastic paper dolls and all kinds of clothing patterns - and you can either print them in colour or just print the outlines - I altered mine a bit in this first one - making the bodies bigger for my bigger girls etc, but it was great fun to play around with the patterns and clothing - so the site is http://www.makingfriends.com/index.htm - and just look around for paper doll templates - and simply add your own photo face instead of the head!

The second one has my own hand drawn bodies - and really shows the personalities of my family - Teasha is always doing those blasted bunny ears behind Laurens head, Marnie of course is a wild little thing and that face is so her!

Journal 2008:

So I thought I should update with my journal too - still going strong - here a few weeks worth......

 

so there's a few weeks of my journal - will update with more pages soon.

...and I can't end a post with out documenting something ULTRA cute that one of tribe have said.... Lately when I ask the divine Miss M if she loves me - her answer is always the same "I love you BIG MUCH mum!" (how seriously cute is that?!!) Did a layout last night with that exact title - will share it later next week! She is exactly a month off turning 3 - THREE! Where did my baby girl go???? Love this munchkin so much!

Thanks for stopping by! JEN

bad blogger and the last weeks Sunday Scraps!!!

Okay, so I know I said I would be back on Monday with the Sunday scraps - but somehow time slipped away this week! I don't where it went, but I think I blinked and missed it.

I had a few hours of play today - fake TTV for my photos (that's through the viewfinder) old fashion style! Love this right now - flicker is the great place to check out some really cool ttv's!! you simply save the image and open it as you would a normal pic in photoshop - then put the image and photo together - tah dah - old style photos!

Life in the hall house has been mixed this week too - Lauren has been sick and off school since Tuesday - fighting a head cold, and coughing etc - of course she then lost her voice too and has refused not to talk (not to be unexpected as she is twelve!) after a visit to our doctor yesterday, she is in fine health again - but still not a good voice - even the Doc telling her not to talk didn't work - we had our own special remedy and now she has her voice back!!!

  So having Lauren at home meant our whole schedule went out the window! The little ones mucked up, Lauren was either trying to sleep or playing the playstation, and I was losing my mind! add then days and days of heavy rain! My mum came to the rescue yesterday by having the little ones for sleepover - resulting in me gaining some sanity again, I also had a Doctors appointment yesterday - have had blood-tests to check up on numerous things - no diabetes, or high blood pressure or anything nasty, so whilst I was there I got the flu shot! we then headed to Tbird's school as her class were running the assembly - she made the cutest angel there!

Sunday Scraps Prompt 22:

Use office supplies to create your layout!

I used masking tape on the photo, and notepad paper for the journaling (this is actually one of my layouts for Shop and Crop) and this second one was using a file divider (love these as they are less than a $1 for 5!!)

and while I am sharing layouts (no journal pages just yet!) here are the other few things I had in the Shop and Crop newsletter and DT gallery... I'll be back soon with more!

Have a great long weekend people!

JEN :)

Just Quickly...

Haven't quite finished my Sunday Scraps for this week just yet, will be back tomorrow with that.

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes and emails! Tbird and I both had a great day. I was spoilt with roses and tulips, and Pandora charms, feel good body stuff and a a new hairstyle! Tbird, was treated to the ballet, lots of HSM stuff, a couple of bags, a watch, and varies other bits and pieces - plus of course her party this week coming. Man of the house took me out for cake before we picked up the tribe and later I went to dinner at the Mattara with some girlfriends from Church - so a great day all round.

and I want to say a hugs thank-you to Janine who beared with my crazy crew and took amazing pictures of us on Friday afternoon - go check them out HERE but here is  one I nabbed from her blog - pretty much how the divine Miss M was the whole afternoon - not being so divine! But just love that she captured my girls (and man) so perfectly! I can't thank her enough - and totally recommend anyone out there wanting great pics to contact her!

that's it for today, I will be back tomorrow with layout shares and other things!

Keep it real

JEN xo

Happy Birthday to...... US!

That's right - Tbird and I are celebrating our birthday today!

Miss Tbird is finally nine (she has been hanging for this for the past 11 months and 28 days! LOL!

Me? I am fine with spilling my age - 33 today - I don't really have any views on the age factor right now - another birthday, another year goes by!

But my Tbird girl, she is thriving, she is such a talented young performer - I just know that her name will be up in lights one day! This year she has come on in leaps and bounds - the change of school meant a fresh start, her learning difficulties are getting smaller and smaller and she is catching right up to her peers. She is liked at school, I get constant compliments on her manners and kind-hearted nature. Often parents of her friends tell me she has an amazing vocabulary (that means alot, as when she came to us she could only mutter two word). She is truly a blessing to our family.

Today she will be surprised with a bunch of balloons that I am sending to the school, and a whole bunch of cupcakes that I stayed up late making - will share pics later.

I am off the get my hair done, maybe lunch with my man, and then give Tbird a little surprise after school, before heading out for tea with my girlfriends.

Have a happy day

JEN xo

Sunday Scraps - Week 21

Good evening ladies and ....and...... ladies :)

So here is this week's Sunday scraps....

Sunday Scraps - Prompt 21:

Use a movie title or a quote from a movie as your layout title.

  For me... I love the movie "riding in cars with boys" so when the little chickens and I were playing in the car whilst waiting for Teasha to finish school the other day, I sat there thinking "these would be great for a layout" so I did a bit of play on the title - "Riding in cars with the girls"

The second layout is using a quote from one of my favourite movies (and Lee's - hey hunny - Happy Birthday xoxo) "Ferris Buellers Day Off" - I just love creating layouts with really long bold titles too :)

So onto life:

I have been so proud of myself - today I taught myself the basics of downloading and loading actions and brushes for photoshop - this has seriously got me all excited - to think about two months ago I would even open the blasted program - did all my editing in a cheap print program, and after just one afternoon with the lovely Janine, I was hooked! Funny thing is, I didn't even realize that my program is like the latest version :) So I have had a bit of a play today after we got home from soccer (lolly lost :( ) and here are some pics - really for my mum as they are her favourite people!!

First one is Pa at soccer - he was being a little TOO loud and opinionated, so the ref made him a lines man (thank goodness, he was getting embarrassing) using a aging type action. (just reread this sentence - cracked me up - aging action - heheheheh)

Second one is the divine Miss M - yep! that is totally Tbird's tap costume from last year that we renamed "the duck" it is about 4 sizes too big, but I just love how this looks like one of those photos you get on cards.

Finally - playing with a more grungy look and this one was called lomo - she is looking way older than a few days off turning nine right now!

So that then led me to wanting to practice more photo taking - and as we are having our shoot with Janine on Friday, I wanted to suss out some locations for the pics - so armed with my most trustworthy "smile this way, turn your head slightly that way" child = Tbird we drove around Newcastle looking for great afternoon light - and I am delighted to say the least - yes she pulled faces, yes she danced in between shots, but she posed and she even started suggesting locations - gotta love that girl! Here is a collage of pics from this afternoon - totally unedited and unplayed with! Can't wait to get my hands on these little beauties!

so that's it for today, I will leave you with a few images from yesterday - I spent a lazy afternoon scrapping with Alison and co - creating this in her class plus an album that is yet to finished AND because I told her I would post this silly shot taken on my little point and shoot that I got recently - seriously the camera was great deal - 8.1 mega pixels, pentax, has movie functions, SLR features and a few crazy features like this... frames! and all for the low price of $49.95 (when you buy $100 of credit for rabbit photo printing!) I will use the credit to get some gifts shortly, but what a great deal!!

Peace out!

JEN

...It's official...

I am now a DT member for Shop and Crop!

So happy to be joining the online crowd and I am in some great company - a fabulous DT team!

As you know I have been teaching for Sasha at Shop and Crop the past few months and have had opportunities to create with some of her great kits - so now, I a moving in on the site too :)

So this weeks DT upload is Masculine - I know! They really threw me in the deep end ;) - Here are my two contributions...

Both are using the Fancy Pants Papa range - the little folder on the first one opens out the reveal more photos!

I have also been doing a bit of creating this week for Madame Tbird - as it's our birthday next week, there is a party to organise the week after.. We started with a photo shoot in the backyard, which then was used to create this... Which was photographed and shrunk down to create this...

Which were then popped into some Heidi Swapp packets to create this.....

She loved them!

As did the nine little eight and nine year olds that received them!

Taught last night - we worked on our About Me album... 

Yep! that's me as a little one!

And tonight I am teaching this friends page - some places left - come and have some fun!

Sunday Scraps - Week 20!!!

Just quickly stopping by with this week's prompt, I will be back soon with a better update, some projects and news, but right now I am super tired and heading to bed - to the comfort of "warmie" (no, not man of the house) but rather what I affectionately call my new electric blanket, I haven't had one before, and I am in heaven - it feels so good to jump into a bed that is cozy and warm, and when you change positions, you don't hit that dreaded "cold spot"!! Don't know how I have made almost (in 11 days) 33 years with one!

Sunday Scraps - Prompt 20:

This week I wanted to share something with you loyal blog readers, so I have created this doodle sheet for you to use at your leisure!!(not to be used for publication or classes without my consent) Simply right click on it and save to your PC, then open your print program and print it off at A4 size - onto white card to handcolour or onto coloured card (for less work :)

So here are my samples - using both ways!! and working with the Crate Blue Hill range of papers...

have to say, I am just loving photo shop too ;) (thanks Janine!!!)

Have an awesome start to your week ladies!

Jen ;)