Happy New Year

Here's to the bright New Year,

and a fond farewell to the old;

here's to the things that are yet to come,

and to the memories that we hold.

Once upon a Christmas

Prepare for photo overload! I think over the month of December I have uploaded about 1200 photos and Now I need to go through them and decide which ones to print. I've been meaning to Blog about Christmas for days but the enormity of the number of photos I've taken as well as the severe lack of mojo to do anything much has meant that it hasn't happened. So I made some collages using Picasa to give you an idea of what went on in that 24 hours of Christmas without me actually having to write lots and lots. If you click on the mosaics you can see the photos much larger.

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and have an equally fabulous New Year.

Max's last day of Kinder but no scrapping.

I thought I'd better update the Blog with some photos of Max's last day at Kinder. I can't believe the year is over and in a few weeks he will be starting school! At least I have until the 2nd of February before I have to face that reality. I think Jemima is going to miss Kinder as much as I will but at least she doesn't have long before she starts 3 Year Old Kinder and she's pretty excited about that. She's looking more grown up every time I look at her.

We all had to take a plate of party food on the last day and anyone who knows me knows how much I love fun food. These little reindeer cupcakes are so easy and the kids love them. I love the way the chocolate sprinkles look like fur. Last year I made them using 'Chocolate Royal' biscuits but the cupcakes work much better. The Christmas trees are just made with a truffle mixture and rolled into cones instead of balls and then topped with icing and sprinkles.

The Silly Season is definitely upon us and I've found myself running from one thing to another. I'll be glad when Christmas finally hits because I might actually sit down for 5 minutes. I've been taking daily photos and writing notes for my December Daily album but haven't had time to sit down and put everything together.

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with the fabulous Heidi Swapp on tuesday at 'Create 08' and she really has me inspired. Inspired but frustrated with the lack of time to actually play with the things we learnt and the amazing bag of goodies we received. I'll update in a day or 2 with pictures of what we did.

Oh...and I saw these on Martha Stewart's site and they are SO cute! Might have to make these with the kids.

A letter to Santa

Jan sent me this email today and I had to share it.

I can sooooo relate to it.

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mum all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of choc bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any colour, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the lolly aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mummy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.


I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog. If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare tomato sauce (even McDonalds for working Mum’s) a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always, MUM...!

P.S. one more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children happy, healthy and always believing.

The Scrapbook Scene Sale!

We're having a big sale at work on friday and saturday.

Check out the blog for details.

It's a great opportunity to stock up on everything from cardstock to adhesive. Nearly all our prices will be going up due to the increased costs of products coming from the US. Some of the stock we have had in the past week has risen in price by as much as 40% which is just insane!

Go Elf Yourself!

This is so much fun, you have to have a go. For some reason I can't get it to show on the Blog in Firefox but it's fine with Internet Explorer. No idea why, it might just be the settings on my computer.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

24 years later...

This song is still one of my all time favourites. It's a classic. I remember being such a fan of all the British artists that featured on this project and I HAD to have not only the 7" version but the extended 12" remix. I played it over and over again. Every Christmas it's one of those songs that I have to play and sing out loud. The sad part is though that 24 years later the same message is so very true and there are STILL children starving around the world. It makes those multi million dollar salary bonuses seem rather obscene.



Oh, and if anyone has a contact number for Santa, I'd really like Michael Buble in my Christmas stocking this year. =o)

December Daily

I was determined that this year I was going to make Ali Edwards' December Daily Album to document this crazy time of year. I watched her make last year's journal but just didn't have the time to get everything together and join in, but this year is different. We had a huge Crop session at the shop saturday from 9.30-midnight. I worked until 4 and then shut the shop and sat down to get some of my own stuff done. The DD album was my priority. I've made the inside of the album using a combination of acrylic, paper, cardstock and overlay pages. I just need to get 2 8x8 wooden covers for the outside. Ali prints her photos at home and adds them to the album on a daily basis but I just can't do that. I haven't even put the numbers for the days in the book yet because I don't know how many photos I'll use or what size so I want to be fliexible. I take the photos each day and do the journalling and then once a week get the photos printed and work on those pages in the album. I just don't see myself being able to do it the way she does. I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Christmas Planning

I promised I'd be back with pictures of the finished Christmas Planner so here it is. I haven't finished writing in it so there is still lots of space to fill in but you can see what the purpose of each section is. It was loads of fun to make, just using stuff I already had in my stash. I solved the problems I was having with the Slice so now I'm pretty happy. I'm looking forward to making my Christmas cards and gift tags with it. So...here are the finished pages of the Planner.

A work in progress

I'm in the middle of making a Christmas Planner in the vain hope of trying to keep things organised and at the same time have a record of what was bought, made and sent this Christmas. It will hopefully be a place to record gift ideas, gifts already bought, cards written/received, food/menu ideas etc... I started it when I was up in Charlton over the weekend and took the opportunity to try out the Slice or 'Minty' as it's now known. Thanks for the suggestion Ruth :-)

It really is a fabulous little machine and I had loads of fun making little tags, labels and embellishments for the planner although there were a couple of glitches that I need to investigate further. Not sure if I have a dud design card or if the problems I encountered are what everyone is experiencing. I'm going to do some 'Googling'.

I plan on working on the planner this week and I'll update the blog with the completed book by the end of the week.

A few days away

We took the kids up to see Nana and Poppy after I finished work on Saturday and came home tonight. I haven't been up to Charlton for so long especially with working Saturdays so it was nice to have a relaxing weekend before the crazy Christmas season starts in earnest. Max and Jemima were thrilled to have a ride on Fergie the Tractor with Poppy and although Mima isn't a fan of the noise of the engine, it didn't take her long to uncover her ears and enjoy the ride.




Every time we've been to Nana and Poppy's. the kids have to have a turn on the swing. It's a little Fisher price swing a girlfriend gave me when Max was a baby. We didn't have anywhere to hang it up at our house so we took it up to Charlton in the hopes it would get some use when the kids came to visit. All of the grandchildren love the swing and Poppy always manages to get conned in to pushing them 100 times, even Max managed to squeeze himself into the seat to have a turn. Jemima was having such a lovely time enjoying her turn that she fell asleep! She slept for about 30 mins and woke up in the worst mood which is hardly surprising considering how sore her neck would have been after sleeping like that!

Looky!

Look at what I got! I have been dying for one of these since they were unveiled earlier in the year and they FINALLY arrived in the shop on friday. I got to ring everyone who had pre-ordered one and to say they were a tad excited too is an understatement. Janet had asked me to write a post on the shop blog to advertise that we had 3 in stock for sale but there was no point...by lunchtime yesterday I had sold them all!!! We've discovered that the next order of Slices will be about $100 more because of the AUD so anyone who managed to score one from this delivery is very very happy. I checked out the price for them in the US and our wholesale price is dearer that the US retail price! Now that's ridiculous! Damned US economy!

You'll notice that mine is still in the box and there it will remain until later this afternoon. I have some jobs I need to finish around the house, namely clearing out all the toys the kids no longer play with and listing loads of stuff on eBay including the pram, portacot and change table. My litte people are growing up and it's time to make more room. Once I have finished my jobs I will be scrapping, uninterupted and having a play with my Slice. I need to think of a name for it, all my tools have names as anyone who has scrapped with me or done one of my classes knows. I need to put my thinking cap on and come up with something. Any suggestions?

Hope everyone has a fabulous day.

One Word

Where is your mobile phone? table

Where is your significant other? playroom

Your hair colour? brown
Your mother? frail

Your father? tired

Your favourite thing? children

Your dream last night? forgotten

Your dream goal? contentment

The room you're in? clean

Your hobby? creating

Your fear? loss

Where do you want to be in 6 years? secure

Where were you last night? out

What you're not? confident

One of your wish-list items? space

Where you grew up? Waverley

The last thing you did? wee

What are you wearing? jammies

Your TV? on

Your pets? asleep

Your computer? broken

Your mood? tired

Missing someone? Mollie
Your car? fabulous
Something you're not wearing? boobtube
Favourite shop? Kidston

Your summer? scary

Love someone? definitely

Your favourite colour? red

When is the last time you laughed? bathtime

When is the last time you cried? sunday

Rachel Richter Photography

Remember these gorgeous photos? They were taken in Brisbane last April by Rachel Richter. I had an email from her the other day and she is looking at coming down to Melbourne in Feb/Mar next year to do some photography sessions. She is fabulous to work with and for those of us who love to Scrap, the CD with all the photos on it is part of the package. What more could we ask for?! Check out her Blog here. If you're interested in booking Rachel to take some photos for you, send her an email at rachelrichter@optushome.com.au.

Birthday Boy

He went to bed as a 4 year old and he woke up on Tuesday October 28th as a 5 year old. I had been told for months that turning 5 was a pretty big deal. I think it must be the kindergarten equivalent of an 18th birthday, well it seems that way anyhow. He started the day by opening his presents in our bedroom which has become a tradition mainly because if I left them anywhere else in the house he'd get up and open them without us! We were so thrilled that Jan, Ella and Hudson were in Melbourne to help Max celebrate his birthday, it was fabulous have a house full of kids when presents were being opened. Andrew made the traditional Mickey Mouse pancakes with sprinkles for breakfast and we got ready for Max's birthday party. He had a party with friends a playcentre with THE most amazing collection of slides I have ever seen. I was worried it might have been too challenging for a bunch of 5 year olds but they absolutely loved it. I made an Alien cake for Max as per his request and we made mini one-eyed alien cupcakes to take to kinder. All up I think he had a great day and that's really all that matters.