Birthday Boy

Yay, we now have a 3 year old in the house! Cal got a big boy bike for his birthday and we have had a race track up and down the hall all morning so far!



This is our boy as he sat in our bed and opened a couple of presents at 7am.



This is the cake I made to take to playgroup so we could cellebrate with Cal's friends on Friday.

New Research

New research has found that there is a possible link between breast cancer and the regular use of multivitamins. I was blown away by this - what a huge find. This research may have implications for many diseases, especially lifestyle related ones.

You just can't supplement nature. Nothing beats a fantastic diet of fresh and yummy organic produce!

If you want to read about the new research, it can be found here.

I have just realised that it has been 3 months since I have written a blog post!

I have been busy as usual. My tonsillectomy in January went well. I felt like I was swallowing razor blades for a while, but that passed quickly and all is now back to as normal as can be as I learn to deal with allergies as well.

Caitlin started full time school at the start of February and is loving pre-primary. She is very tired by the end of the week and was beginning to get sick by the end of term but overall has coped extremely well.

Mum and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the end of February. I went to tassie for 8 days (kid and husband free!!) as a surprise. My sister organised it on her frequent flyers and I am eternally grateful. I am so glad that I could be there for such a special occasion. We had a family get together on the day of their anniversary and the next day we had an open home, all of which went off amazingly well.

While I was in Tassie I got to meet some Dutch cousins who happened to be visiting at the time. Ab and Marietje are such lovely people. They are talking of coming to my end of the country in a few years, so I really do hope they make it.

I also taught 2 scrapbooking classes in Smithton, which was great fun. It has been a while since I have taught and it felt good. I am still not ready to go back to teaching regular classes. I have been thoroughly enjoying my other crafts recently. I have been sewing for the kids and also making gifts for my friends' children. It feels great to give handmade gifts.

I have been working really hard at simplifying our lives. I have been making and baking almost everything. We buy very little from the supermarket at the moment. I even made a batch of soap last week! I never realised just how easy this is! At the moment I have a sourdough starter brewing. It is beginning to bubble away and smells pretty interesting. I can't wait to make my own sourdough bread. YUMMY!

Mum and Dad have just been for a visit. They brought their car over on the train, had a night in Perth and then came to stay with us for 2 weeks. Dad got stuck into the vegie patch and between Mum and Dad, they have pulled our yard into shape! I said to Dad that he will need a holiday to recover from the work he has done here! The kids love having their grandparents around (for 3 days they had both sets together!) and play madly to make up for lost time. Mum went for Nannies help at school, which pleased Caitlin no end.

We had a gathering of friends and family for Easter which was relaxing and lovely. Kylie and Gavin and Leonie and Gary and all the kids came here, we all chipped in and made great food and enjoyed each others company.

Craig came out of hospital today after having his knee op. He is doing well and keeping his pain under control. He has some physio exercises to do and has crutches for long walking and uneven ground. He was upset today because he felt he was rushed and treated poorly on discharge from the hospital. They didn't even tell him when he needs to take his tablets next, or fill his scripts for him - he was told that he could stop off on the way home to get it if he wanted! I used to work at the same hospital and felt very embarrassed and sad that Craig was treated this way. Needless to say that I was crabby that my husband had been treated that way!

I have been loving some blog and web site hopping lately (I have a laptop set up in the kitchen and it makes the Internet quicker, more accessible and fun). Some of the sites I have loved are:

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

http://www.dana-made-it.com/

http://leonie-stampcardnscrap.blogspot.com/

I will post photos when I have some on the computer, as I haven't transferred them over yet.

Progress of the Cubby House

Here are the progress photos of the cubby house that was given to the kids as a family present at Christmas time. The instructions said that it would take 2 people 6 hours to put it all together. At the end of it, Craig decided that they would have to be master builders and pretty speedy workers!


This first photo is of all the parts laid out on the table and the first walls going up. Some of it was pre-made, such as the cladding for the walls and the shingles for the roof, other parts we had to put together ourselves, such as the frame work for the roof. Needless to say that some of it doesn't quite line up! It was a fun process though and the delight the kids showed was great.



The walls are up, the roof frame work up and the kids are already enjoying it!



Almost finished. Window frames and a few finishing touches to go at this stage.



A close up of the finished item! Caitlin and I went to Bunnings shopping and decided on some petunias and impatiens for the window boxes. This pic was just before Cal discovered them and decided to pick every single flower and bud from the flowers in one of the window boxes just for Mum! Caitlin was rightfully very upset. She has been watering them regularly and keeping them free from Callum's eagle eyes.



This is a pic of the wasps nest that Craig found in the eaves outside the laundry. We were a little worried about how to get rid of them. In the end, we stayed inside and Craig would run out with the fly spray and give them a squirt and then run back inside as fast as possible. It is comical to think back on but is was pretty serious at the time!

I have been getting creative and trying to make up a few hand-made gifts to have as a stash for during the year. I have already started playing around with Christmas cards for the end of the year! I would love to give only hand made gifts and cards, so if I can get even half way there I would be pleased.

Countdown and One Word

This is what I am cooking for tea tonight. It is called Chinese Sticky Rice and the recipe can be found here. One time we were in Perth we went out for yum cha. Caitlin was great and tried a heap of new foods. The one thing that she absolutely loved and still talks about is sticky rice. One day she even cried because we couldn't find any sticky rice for her to eat!

I am on a countdown now until I have my tonsils out. It is only 6 days now (I have them out monday the 11th) and I am slightly nervous, but can rationalise that it is going to be heaps better with the big suckers out!

I am taking Ali Edwards one word challenge this year. All the details can be found here. Ali chose the word "story" and I think this is a great word with so many openings. It isn't the word that chose me though.

My word is "nurture". I think this is the word with meaning for me for so many reasons on the simple, obvious level, about to go into surgery and also with a house full of sick kids! I also know it is the word I would like to focus on in a deeper, more profound or abstract level. I want to nurture positive friendships/relationships. I want to nurture my creativity, not just my paper crafting. I also want to nurture some new roles and new skills during the year.

I will attempt to post some of my progress on my "one word" journey on a monthly basis (see how we go!).

New Year Tutorial

I set a challenge ages ago on the kal-scraps blog for people to use ONLY scraps to make a layout. It isn't until the last week that I have gotten around to taking that challenge myself! Here is the layout that I made (it is sitting on my layout shelf with a heap of other layouts and projects behind it - it isn't actually a weird shape!).



I made some cool flower accents on my page that added interest but didn't overpower what I thought was becoming a busy layout already.


To make the flowers:
1. Choose some flowers out of your stash. It doesnt matter what colour they are or what they are made out of because you are going to use them as a mask. You could use any shapes you desired, it doesn't need to be a flower.

2. Position your flowers on your project.

3. Choose a spray - I used Glimmer Mist in Creme de Cocoa, which is a very subtle gold spray with almost no background colour. Colour wash, walnut ink or any other favourite spray would also be great.

4. Spray this over your layout. I kept it fairly confined to the area where I was putting my flower accent. Remember to cover your photo if it is already on your layout because you don't want any over-spray damading your photo.

5. Remove the flowers or shapes from your project and dry off your paper/card with a heat tool.

6. Once dry, outline your flowers with a white gel pen. My favourite white pen is the Uniball signo. I buy these from my favourite Stampin' Up demonstrator, Leonie.

Finished!

For the ink splotches on my layout, I sprayed 2 sprays of colour wash (my favourite, lettuce) into a medicine cup. I then dipped a dry paint brush into it and flicked this over my page, making a splatter pattern over the layout.

Happy Creating!