Our Paper Dolls

St Barbara's Festival

2011-12-04T18:23:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the annual St. Barbara's Day parade (aka, the christmas parade!). Caitlin was on a float for Outback Rhythm where she does acrobatics. She was thrilled when she picked us out in the crowd and threw us some candy canes.

Craig, Callum and a friend, Dougal took up a good spot on the footpath outside the pharmacy!

This float is the school float. We gave them a huge wave!

This year I think there must have been a record number of floats. They were cellebrating 12 years of the parade and so the theme was 12. The school float did a rendition of the 12 days of christmas. I think Caitlin's year 1 class had a big contributing role. I can't remember wany of the verses, but the last one was "And a principal called McLerie"

This pic is of the float that Caitlin was on. She is sitting right in the middle of the photo, sitting on a box. Her teacher is blocking most of her and Caitlin has her back/side to the camera. I was too busy waving to her at first to take a good photo! Caitlin said that it was the highlight of her day!

This is "Bluey" the huge dump truck. This is my favourite part of the parade each year. I love love love seeing this huge piece of machinery come down the main street. You don't see that in every town Christmas parade!

You can get an idea of the sheer size of the thing from this photo.

I will post photos of todays happenings later!

Photo Update

2011-11-21T13:57:00.002+08:00

I have added a heap of photos just as a quick update. Most are from our trip to Esperance over the winter, which was a lovely trip. It was the first time that Shannon and Ryan had been there, so I enjoyed showing off some of the lovely sights.

We found a very friendly kangaroo, which was drawn to Callum. He just loves animals and treats them so gently. Caitlin on the other hand ended up on our shoulders to get away from this cute kanga!

Dad, deep in thought.

This is a pic of Caitlin at acrobatics. This weekend was her concert, where her beginners group performed a routine. At the end Miss Mel, the principal (facing the camera holding Caitlin in the bendback), gave out some awards and to our surprise Caitlin got a medal for the beginners group. She is now planning how to display all the medals she is going to win!!

Update From Caitlin's Birthday

2011-06-11T21:05:00.002+08:00

Caitlin loved having a birthday party this year. Five friends came over for a play after school, they played some games, ate some yummy pizza and opened presents. I am always blown away by the generosity of others when it comes to birthdays. Altogether it made for a lovely day for Caitlin.

I don't know why this pic of Caitlin's "bunch of flowers" is sideways, but I am sure you get the drift!

Caitlin got a hair crimper for her birthday ($5 from a garage sale, spotted by Shannon - good one!). She felt really grown up having curly hair! Had to get a pic of Cal in there somewhere too, so here he is!

Slack!

2011-03-31T14:22:00.000+08:00

Have I been slack or what! I hope to post some photos and a catch up soon. The kids are gorgeous at the moment, so we need to share some more!

C

Birthday Boy

2010-09-27T09:02:00.002+08:00

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

2010-04-18T08:47:00.002+08:00

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.

2010-04-09T15:41:00.002+08:00

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

2010-01-03T17:01:00.003+08:00

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

2010-01-03T15:18:00.001+08:00

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

2010-01-01T12:03:00.006+08:00

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!

Extremes of the Outback

2009-12-29T09:26:00.002+08:00

It is over 35 degrees here already at just after 9am. Today is expected to be 42 degrees and catastrophic fire danger! We were going to go out and do something nice like go to the library, but I think that we will give that a miss!

The Kids cubby house that they got for Christmas as a family gift is coming along nicely. At tools down yesterday, all that was left was a couple of final trimmings and the windows and planter boxes. When I download my photos I will post some progress shots. They are loving it already! We have revised where we are going to put it. It will be going between the house and laundry, which we decided the kids will be more likely to go to. Also, the spot near the shed gets no shade in summer, which is a huge issue.

Fun with Christmas Goodies

2009-12-27T11:03:00.005+08:00

I wanted to post some creative stuff for a change!

The canvas below is one that I made at the end of November when my friend Bec gave birth to her fourth baby girl! It is only 10cm square, so is very cute!

I love gel medium image transfers and have wanted to use the image of the fairy for ages, so I applied it using an image transfer onto this little canvas. There are heaps of layers of paper, paint, gel medium and spritz on the canvas and I have dyed some gauze and also some paper flowers to add to it. I used a good dose of glitz spritz over the whole thing for some great shimmer. I also used some of my favourite Collections chipboard for the butterfly hanger and the butterfly embellishment, sprayed with a huge dose of glitz spritz (did I say that I love that stuff?). It was heaps of fun and I hope that my friend liked it.

Now for a mini tutorial on faux wax seals. These little blobs are so much fun and very addictive.

1. Using your hot glue gun, squeeze out a blob of hot glue about the size of a 5-10 cent piece. Use a teflon craft sheet to work on, or if you don't have one, use a piece of baking paper. You don't have to work super fast because the glue stays pliable for quite a while.

2. Choose a stamp with some detail in it. I have used proper wax seals and an assortment of rubber stamps. Be cautious using acrylic stamps because they are not as resistant to heat (hot glue!) as rubber ones, so may melt.

3. Ink up your stamp with Versamark (my preference) or a coloured ink. I have used black Versafine and this worked well, but I think Stazon would work best if using coloured ink.

4. Push your stamp into the blob of hot glue and squash it down a bit. Don't use too much force or you will squash too much glue out from under the stamp, making it too thin and also a weird shape!

5. Give your seal 30 seconds to cool a bit and then peel it from your craft sheet. Your glue blob will be stuck to the stamp.

6. Ensure all glue is set and then peel the glue from your stamp. Don't leave the glue on your stamp for too long, perhaps not even until it is completely cold, as it will stick to any areas of your stamp that don't have Versamark on it (ie, the most indented areas) and will increase its grip on your stamp as it cools!

Here are some finished examples. Clockwise from the top are: 1. hummingbird wax seal, 2, 3, 4, 5. Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge unmounted stamp set (mesh, crackle, dates, bubble wrap) and 6. Stampington & Co Temptress stamp (clocks on her head only). If you are in Kalgoorlie, all the supplies I have used are from Keepsake Krafts except from the glue which is from Chez's Crafty Affair.

I love how the impressions are shiny where the stamp presses into the glue and mat where the glue pushes up into the indented areas of the stamp.They look great with some coloured paper behind them and I also think they would look good with some Stazon rubbed over the high spots to give it a bit of definition. I think you can also get coloured glue cartridges, so seals made from melted coloured glue would be very cool.

The glue is really flexible when dried, so it attaches to your layout or art really easily with glue or staples, brads etc.

Hope you have fun creating faux wax seals!

Christmas with Team Slater

2009-12-26T13:22:00.006+08:00

This year was so much fun on Christmas day in our house. Caitlin was getting so excited before the big day and we expected her to be out of bed to check if Santa had been at about 5am. She was really considerate and actually stayed in bed until Callum woke up (I couldn't believe it - bet it never happens again!!). She said she was awake and waiting for ages!

Caitlin was all eyes when she was faced with her Santa sack full of presents.

We shifted the coffee table so we could sit on the mat and look at what Santa had been generous enough to leave for us. All Caitlin really wanted was a Hannah Montanna microphone that records your voice and then plays it back. Santa's elves must have been listening because Santa left one for her.

Caitlin got make up and dress ups and a new summer dress. This is a pic of her giving a fashion parade.

The biggest hit was a fantastic kitchen that Craig and I bought for the kids as a joint present. They both love it, but I think that Cal will be getting the most use out of it! He also got some kids pots and pans from Santa, so they are a hit in the little kitchen.

And of course the biggest hit with the littlest man of the house is the little person sized garbage bin. You can't believe the amount of joy one garbo bin can bring one little man (actually, Mum and Dad, you probably have some idea!)! All we heard on Christmas morning when he ventured out to the living room was "ooooh, biiiin"! I think we may have to have daily "what's in your bin?" photo shots!

Christmas night was a hit too. We had Leoni and Gary and their kids and also Kylie and Gavin and their kids around for tea. It was such a great night, we all got on well, there were no kid arguments and all were happy and merry! I must say tea was pretty yum too, with each of us chipping in with some food.

Hope you had a great Christmas too and that Santa was kind!

Summer rain

2009-11-17T13:09:00.004+08:00

Right at the moment in Kalgoorlie, it is raining iceblocks (as Caitlin would say). The weather has me completely baffled! The picture above is of the wet grey sky, and below is a little video of the hail hitting the ground. The hail stones are between the size of a 5c piece and a flat stone of about 50c size!

Pool Time

2009-11-16T14:09:00.006+08:00

Summer has really hit here! We have had a run for the past week of super humid weather and hot to go with it. I am so ready for some "normal" weather!

We have had the paddle pool out for the kids and they had so much fun in it. I have taken a video of them, but after two attempts to upload it, it just isn't happening. I will post some photos instead.

I was at Cindy's on the weekend and she had some water pumper things that I might get for the kids to use in the paddle pool. Caitlin had heaps of fun sucking up water from their pool and squirting it out.

Our fridge has broken down and has been out of action for a week now. It started with it making a terrible loud noise, but deteriorated into it keeping a temperature of between 16 and 21 degrees! We have moved everything into the bar fridge and has been very interresting to say the least! Samsung and also Harvey Norman have not been as helpful as they could have been. There seems to be no service person in town, so that has made it extremely difficult. The last lady I spoke to on Friday told me that she would have it sorted first thing on Monday morning. Needless to say, we haven't heard a thing from them yet!

It has been reconfirmed over the weekend that there are some people in this world that are not as nice as they could be. It always disappoints me when people are mis-informed and will not listen to another point of view. Those who think they are "right" seen always to be "righteous" (unfortunately there is a really good reason for this gem of wisdom!).

I just did a dash to the clothes line because there is a thunder storm brewing. While I was out there Caitlin was jumping on the trampoline with her umbrella so she didn't get wet! She is such a funny little bunny!

I have been having some fun with my scrapping recently. I have been making some Christmas decorations out of paper and also some altered glass ones. I am so happy with how they have come up. I will post a photo when I have some.

I have found some cool web sites recently.

Wednesday's Wishes is a new online shop by Maxine Hazebroek and Audrey Underwood. They make the most divine off the page items and sell kits for them on their site. I love drooling over their great works of art!

Tammy's Recipes is a cooking site that I came across when following some links from someone else's blog. I love the look of her apple brownies.

Empire Beads is a bead shop (obviously!) and it has great beads for craft work. I love their huge range of pearls. You can get a bag of about 20 8mm pearls for 88c. Wow, that is great value!

Caitlin is itching for me to play and paint and draw (she just won naughts and crosses), so I had better get moving!

Time Off!

2009-10-09T14:58:00.004+08:00

Finally I am back blogging after a long break! I think I needed some time to get back on track with life and also winter always makes me lazy.

So much has happened in the interim, but here are a couple of pictures as a quick update.

Callum turned two at the end of September and we had a cellebration at playgroup and also a party on the day of his birthday, when we were in Perth, with BOTH sets of grandparents and Aunty Pam and the kids. The pic below is from playgroup.

We had a trip to Perth which was intended as a little holiday, but turned into Callum having his tonsills out and adenoids reduced in size, so it has been a slightly stressful time here. Poor boy had his op 2 days before his second birthday, so he was feeling slightly under the weather for his special day! All better now though.

Miss Caitlin is growing up so fast. School has changed her, for the better mostly I think.

This is a pic of Cal and Daddy. The kids had been playing in a big cardboard box and having heaps of fun.

Callum has moved into a "big boy" bed. Caitlin was just as excited as Cal was. This picture was taken on the new bed, after the kids had been jumping and playing and messing up all of the new bedding!

I will aim to update regularly again and I would love to put up much more of my craft things too.

First frost

2009-05-25T15:55:00.000+08:00

Lastnight got down to a chilly 3.5 degrees here and we had our first light frost of the season. It muse have been pretty light because the spuds and lettuces are OK!

Photoshop Tips

2009-05-24T11:15:00.000+08:00

From Designer Digitals

Adobe Photoshop or Elements Tip of the Week:

Marqeeing Time

The Marquee tools in Photoshop and PSE allow you to create rectangular, square, circular and elliptical selections. Find the Marquee Tools by pressing the letter M on your keyboard or locating the Marquee tool icon near the top of the Toolbar.

When you are using the Rectangular Marquee tool, holding the Shift key gives you a perfectly square selection. Holding the Alt key (Mac: Opt key) forces the Marquee tool to draw from the center outward.

So holding the Shift + Alt keys (Mac: Shift + Opt keys) draws a perfect square from the center outward. Be sure to hold the shift key before pressing the Alt (Opt) key.

In Photoshop, holding the Shift key with the Elliptical Marquee tool gives you a perfect circle selection. Holding the Alt key (Mac: Opt key) forces the Marquee tool to draw from the center outward.

So Holding the Shift + Alt keys (Mac: Shift + Opt keys) draws a perfect circle from the center outward.

Random

2009-05-18T14:08:00.003+08:00

Callum doesn't like Craig's stubble, so he protests when he is given kisses by Daddy when he hasn't shaved! Hence the look on his face in this photo!

Just a few random catch-ups:

Caitlin is ABSOLUTELY loving school
Callum has a new tooth - his first 2 year old molar - it came through on Saturday night (hence the really sleepless nights with him)
we all had hair cuts today
I am getting my card swap cards done!!
Craig is away for the night
I am loving scrapping at the moment but just can't find the time
caught up with a friend today and felt really good about it! (thanks D for forgiving me!)
loathing cooking at the moment, even though our order of yummy organic lamb arrived last night

Bye for now!

Caitlinisms

2009-05-11T16:03:00.005+08:00

I thought I would have a catch up of photos of Caitlin. She is changing at the moment. She is losing all that baby look and becoming so much more like a little girl. She is getting pretty cheeky too, so school is having an impact already!

This picture is from easter morning. We had an easter egg hunt and Caitlin, as usual, didn't stop talking! I love capturing photos of her in action!

Caitlin was posing for this shot, and she thought she looked just so gorgeous, like a model, so she asked me to take a photo! Love it!

My gorgeous girl has been so funny lately. She just loves singing and she is great at making up her own songs. Today she was singing a song about me to the tune of Bob the Builder! It went something like this:

I love my mummy
She's so much fun
We scrapbook together
And get our jobs done!

It just cracked me up! When I made comment to her, she had the biggest grin on her face - she was pretty proud of what she had made up!

Today Caitlin and I planted out some of the vegie patch. We bought some seeds and also a few punnets of seedlings yesterday, so today we had to do some digging. We planted Dutch carrot seeds, pea seeds, mixed lettuce seedlings, a couple of perennial silverbeet seeds, some onion seedlings and some snow pea seedlings. Now I have to get a punnet of red cabbage seedlings in and I will have finished that lot.

I want to plant red beet, broad beens and spinach next. Craig and I noticed that some potatoes from last year have self seeded, so I am going to leave it at that soon as I am not eating them at the moment. Then I will have to get some herbs in. My rocket and corriander were great last year, so I am hoping to have a great crop again. Yummy!

Callum's finger is looking much better. Alot of the swelling has gone and the grazes are healing. The nail and the end of his finger is really bruised, so I am waiting to see if he loses his nail. His pain is much better too, so he is healing really fast. I was going to get a photo of his little hand, but it looks no different through the camera lens, so it would be pointless.

Walking and climbing

2009-05-09T12:58:00.007+08:00

We went to Kennedy park on good Friday. The slide there generates a huge ammount of static and Callum's hair went silly! As soon as he put his feet on the ground, his hair fell back onto his head, like magic!

I love this photo of Cal. He has such a cheeky grin. He has just had another bout of tonsilitis, so his cheeky grin evaporated for a while, but we seem to be getting back on track with his tonsils again.

Callum is walking everywhere now and has lost that baby "toddle". He walks with his arms down mostly now rather than held high to balance himself. He started walking full time over the easter weekend (about the 12th of April).

He has also discovered climbing! I suppose he sees Caitlin climbing on things so thinks he is fine to as well!The slide is his main climbing frame, but only a couple of days ago I watched him pull the kids cane chair over to my scrabooking desk, climb on it and proceed to take what he thought was interresting off my desk! I found it funny that first time, but it has shown me that I shouldn't keep anything out on my desk. Hence, my job this weekend is to tidy off my desk and make it safe (and workable again!). No pig stabbers in Cal's fingers (shutting them in doors is bad enough)!

Broken

2009-05-09T12:33:00.003+08:00

Just a quick update - Caitlin managed to shut Callum's left hand in the bathroom door this morning and he has broken his little finger. He is in so much pain, poor little fella. I will attempt to take photos when he is awake again. I feel really sad about this.

Ready to Walk

2009-04-10T08:34:00.003+08:00

A quick update on my boy - he took 18 steps by himself on Monday the 6th and now he is choosing to walk more and more often. Yesterday he figured out how to stand up from the floor, so he thinks he is pretty clever now, being able to stand up and then take off and walk a little way! How cool is that? Not many days now and he will be walking all the time - he gets closer by the hour!

Cal had his 18 month check at the child health clinic on Tuesday and is doing fine. The CHN wasn't concerned at all about him only just starting to walk. He is within nornal limits and she could see that he is trying really hard to be up and about, so she had no problem with that.

I have been really busy trying to get a heap of scraping done ready for next term. We have school holidays here for the next 2 weeks, so hopefully I can get a heap done over that time. I am doing another 3 hours of power class this term, so that is a lot of preparation for me. Also we are starting up a make and take at the crop nights which will increase my work load, but that is OK (self inflicted!).

Quick update

2009-03-28T21:29:00.004+09:00

Just an update:

Caitlin's wrap is GONE! We managed to lose it on a trip to the "stupormarket" on monday the 9th of February. We had been talking heaps about her not having it any more and that big school girls don't have a wrap, so when it came to the crunch she was really fine about it! About 4 weeks later we found it wedged at the back of her car seat. She was thrilled and sucked and snuggled away for all she was worth! It was pretty funny really! As we were going away the next day, we told her that she could have it that night but she wasn't allowed to take it away with her. Since then she has only asked for it a couple of times and when we have said no she has let it alone and gone about her business again. Last week I washed Koala Lou (small pink teady) and Caitlin told me that Koala Lou is now her wrap, and she has slept with her every night since! I think that is really cute.

Callum took two steps by himself on the 15th of March and on the 18th he took 4 steps by himself! YAY - finally we are getting somewhere! Today Craig and I noticed that he often lets go as he is walking around things and takes a few steps unaided. He is getting really steady on his feet and he can walk along when he is holding onto only one of our hands. He can also walk when he is holding onto Caitlin (which is not as stable as if he were holding onto one of our hands). We also noticed that he doesn't often fall over now but lowers himself gently to the floor! Now that he is 18 months he is on a time line! Pushy parents aren't we!

Happy birthday to Neil for last week and Michael, Clare and Craig for this week. I know Craig had a great day and I also hope the remainder had a good time too.

Photo catch-up

2009-03-24T13:09:00.005+09:00

I took Callum to be weighed today. He is 10.95kg and 83cm long. He is below average on the graph for weight but given they were made for American bottle fed babies, I am certainly not worried about that!

Cal is so active at the moment. He can spontaneously walk half a dozen steps now, so I think in a few weeks he will be off on his own! He also prefers to walk just holding one hand and doesn't look for support from walls etc now - he actually guides me so that he keeps away from the walls. My camera is on the blink, so if I can get a decent movie of Callum having a toddle, I will post it on the blog.

Caitlin has decided that she loves to get her face painted, so on market day we went to see Candy the Clown. I keps prompting Caitlin about what she might like tohave her face painted as - Princess, fairy, butterfly, flower - NO! she wanted to be a clown just like Candy! I have scrapped this photo with a new technique that I am working on that I cal distress and roll.

We had a lovely family of doves in a nest by the front door. Only 2 days after this photo they had flown the nest.

Mum and I have a new cook book called "Grub" by Jane Lawson. It is all about those old favourites that we used to love and make heaps - french onion dip, corn relish, apricot chicken and home made crumpets! Caitlin and I had a go at the crumpets and I must say that they were super easy. I was really impressed at how they turned out - heaps and heaps better than the bought ones. We will be making them again soon I think.

Last market day Caitlin came along to help with the market stall, which I absolutely love her doing - she is actually a great help. She drew on a heap of our paper bags to decorate them so that people who bought a balm on that day got an original piece of Caitlin's art! Just look at how grown up she looks here manning the stall.

Here is a pic of our little man who can be found anywhere within the perimeter of our fence at the moment. I am sure he would go even further if he could figure out how to get the gates open! He is certainly not afraid to explore! I found him down near the stable only a few days ago! He loves it in the laundry too and I have to check the washing machine before I put anything in there now - today there was a jewellery box in there! I also found him with one of the laundry buckets on his head - testing it out for size. He thought it was a great game.

Caitlin has speach therapy again this afternoon. She is going so well. Craig and I are so very proud of the progress she is making. We have been working on words that start with G and other words that end in S. We have noticed a huge improvement in those words, but also in many other words that she had been having problems with. I am trying to get her to say "the" in the right spot now too, because she has previously replaced it with "a" so breaking that pattern may be a trial.

It is card swap time again (I have only just finished mine - I am so slow with them at the moment). Margie has set the challenge as a baby card. I think it is a great one because we haven't done anything along those lines yet. Good thinking Marg. I may post some cards in a later post.

Photoshop tips

2009-03-15T17:30:00.005+09:00

I found these tips on Designer Digitals and thought they would come in handy in the future.

How to Straighten a Photo in Photoshop:

Get the Ruler Tool which is hiding under the Eyedropper Tool in the Tool Palette. Click and hold the mouse on the Eyedropper Tool until the fly-out menu appears, showing the tools hiding under the Eyedropper. Click on the Ruler Tool to select it.

(Note: in earlier versions of Photoshop, select the Tape Measure Tool or Measure Tool which hides under the Eyedropper Tool in the Tool Palette.)

Find something in the photo that should be a straight horizontal or vertical line. A horizon, a piece of furniture, someone’s belt, or anything else that can tell Photoshop what “level” should be (but isn’t!)

Position your cursor on one end of the unlevel line you selected in the last step. Click and hold as you drag out a thin line from end to end, following the unlevel line. The line you are drawing should not be level. When you reach the end, let go of the mouse.

Choose Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary.

Photoshop will automatically calculate the angle of rotation that will make your image level. Click OK in the Rotate Canvas Dialog box and watch as Photoshop automagically uses your line to level the photo.

Finally, select the Crop Tool and crop away the canvas surrounding the straightened photo.

A Text Message

Photoshop and PSE have a handy feature that makes it easy to edit type. With the Text Tool selected, the software detects when you move the cursor close to existing type. Photoshop and PSE are programmed to assume that you want to edit your type, so the software selects the existing type layer. This is helpful most of the time, but if you are trying to add new text close to your existing type, this feature prevents you from being able to perform the task.

When this happens, you can disable the feature by holding the Shift key as you click with the Text Tool. Holding the Shift key allows you to create a new text layer, ignoring the existing type. You can even create a new line of text on top of your existing text this way!

Flutter by butterfly!

2009-03-14T15:26:00.004+09:00

I have been super inspired by this great blog by "lolly chops". She is doing some fantastic craft. The butterfly pic above is a project she did as a take on the Ali Edwards butterfly frame, and anyone who has been to my house lately knows that I have been working on a few of these. Finding this puts a whole new spin on the butterfly project!

Turning 4!

2009-03-08T15:16:00.005+09:00

We got back last night from a week in Perth. It was a bit of a mamoth trip. We were a bit disorganised in the morning, so didn't get packed up and ready to go until after 11am. Then we had to drop Mitchi's car back, call in to the Naked Butcher for some yummy nitrate free bacon and because it was late, we stopped for lunch in Mundaring. By the time we got home it was nearly 11pm! Needless to say, the kids weren't up until 8.30am.

We had a great time and got out and kept busy because we had a car to get around in. Craig's work colleague, Mitchi, is away at the moment, so the kids and I used his work car. One of the fun things we did was to go to the museum. Caitlin had requested a trip to see some dinosaurs, so off we trecked and had a look. The museum has been renovated since I was there last and it is fantastic - there is even a kids interactive zone! I would highly recommend it if you are passing through Perth.

I also bought myself a new wok. I was fed up with the old one (well, not really that old) and decided that instead of buying mid range pans and having them last 1-2 years, I was going to get a really good one with a guarantee of long life, which would in the end be cheaper. So, I saw a scan pan wok on sale (over $100 off) and got that. It came with a free lid and steamer basket, both of which I will use) so I feel as though I have gotten a great deal. Tonight we are having stirfry for tea!

Caitlin enjoyed her birthday with Nan and Pop Slater in Perth. Some friends and their children also joined us to help make Caitlins day special. We went bowling and then out for pizza and had such a fun time. Caitlin had put in this request weeks ago, so it was great to follow-through so that she felt special. Now my little girl is 4! I must say the cake was probably the worst I have ever made! I didn't have enough butter to make butter creme icing, then didn't have enough icing sugar to make enough icing to decorate it properly, then Caitlin got stuck into the smarties and I ended up with enough to go only 2/3 of the way around the cake, and with the help of a 4 year old to decorate it, the cake ended up looking rather unique! It tasted good though and a cake with candles makes a birthday complete.

Just to catch up on a few pictures, I have added some random ones here.

Caitlin and Callum love the swing set. Callum is enjoying going down the slide now with some assistance.

Callum has started doing what Caitlin used to do - hop into the dishwasher! I am surprised he hasn't broken the door because he is a heavy little thing!

Here is a pic of my gorgeous girl on her first day of school. She is loving school and can't wait to get back there each school day. She has a uniform of bright yellow t-shirt and black skort, which is far too big for her, but better than getting her day clothes stained.

Here is Caitlin in action putting on her name badge in class. Now that they have been going a few weeks, they no longer need them because the teacher has learned all their names.

I have far more photos and will update again soon!

New header

2009-02-15T21:56:00.003+09:00

I have been playing all evening with a new blog header. I was so sick of the old one and wanted to funk it up. Let me know if you like it. I would love some feedback!

The daily grind

2009-02-10T22:57:00.003+09:00

We are home again. The trip was long to say the least! We were straight back into the daily grind. I have had vegie packing, school has started, scrap classes have started, L and I have been making some balms to sell at the market this sunday and the kids have had a round of illness! All in not even 2 weeks! And I have to get back into the routine of house and home. I must say that even though it is nice to be away (esp. when it is with family) it is always nice to come home again. I have also painted the scrap/toy room since being home, so every thing is happening at once!

I will post some photos of the kids and the new paint job next time I post.

This post is just to let everyone know we are OK, we haven't forgotten any birthdays yet and we will be in touch soon.

C

Punch and Judy

2009-01-27T09:32:00.003+09:00

It is cold here today, but Ulverstone is in for some hot (for Tassie) weather over the next few days, so I think I am going to be broken into the heat again gently!

We had a great day yesterday for Australia Day. We took Caitlin and Callum to the park for a Punch and Judy show. Caitlin was getting really involved and just loved it! Callum was unsure, I think because it was really bright and loud, but I gave him a cuddle and he put up with it alright.

Caitlin has been making mud cakes in the dirt and Callum somehow got into it - this is the result of his playing in the mud (no, it isn't chocolate)! I think it is the end of that gorgeous t-shirt!

Caitlin had a great time making lamingtons with her Nanny. She always says "let me, I can do it!" I suppose it can only be a good thing in the long term to let her have a go.

Look what I have been living on since I have been here... fresh raspberries out of the garden. They are absolutely deluxe! I love them so much and I miss them when I am in Kal and miss out for a season.

This is the view from Mum and Dad's new house. It is very serene and relaxing. It doesn't feel like living in town because you can't see any neighbours across the road, only this great view.

The Rest of My Week

2009-01-26T12:19:00.005+09:00

Well, I seem to have posted in bits and pieces today! What else have I been doing this week? I will go through methodically to get it all down!

Tuesday:
I got my article and layout/card finalised for Scrapbooking Memories and posted them off. It was a real relief because in the end, I had lost the 800 word article that I had written for them 3 times! While in the post office I saw my cousin Hilda and had a little catch-up with her.

Wednesday:
Callum and I headed off to Smithton in the morning because I had two scrapbooking classes scheduled there in the afternoon. We got 10 people to participate and it was heaps of fun. I always love teaching a page and then seeing the end results, which are always so different to my own example. We stayed in Smithton with my sister Janice for the night and had a great time.

Caitlin had a mini-holiday with Nan and Pop while Cal and I went away. She had a special day at Wing's Farm Park in Guns Plains with Nan, Lynette and her grandson Kalan. Caitlin didn't really talk that much about her day out, but I gather from Mum that she had a good time!

Thursday:
Had a relaxing morning at Janice's house. We went to Montague to pick blueberries (Janice, Justice, Lauren and I) which was such a lovely thing to do. The owners are an older eccentric Canadian couple, but they grow the yummiest organic blueberries I have tasted. And they were so cheap at $7 per kilo!

We went scrapbook shopping, clothes looking and then out for lunch after our blueberry picking trip. I spent some time at Janice's packing up, helping Justice with some cards for the "animals" challenge for the card swap, and then headed back up the coast.

When Callum and I got back, I realised that he had cut two teeth over night (his bottom eye teeth R then L). No wonder he had been grumpy for a few weeks!

Friday:
We haded to Devonport to do some jobs - we called in to Pots and Pans and I saw a great stove top coffee pot that I think I will go back and get. It is an Avanti one and was $43 off. A friend at home makes this type of coffee and I just love it, so I would like to get rid of my coffee machine that I am not at all happy with and make it on the stove instead. We went to Mason and Mason for a yummy lunch and look around, then headed to Burnie to Jenerick and then Spotlight for decorator items for Mum and Dad's new home.

Saturday:
Went out for Chinese for tea - very interesting night - they had no high chair, so Cal had to be held, or watched like a hawk, Caitlin couldn't find much on the menu to eat (and they had no kids menu!), we asked for a bowl of ice cream for Caitlin and they came back to me to ask if I realised that a bowl of ice cream was $15!!!, so I politely said that we would give it a miss, then they came back and said they could do a kids serve for $5 and again I said no thanks ($5 for a kids ice cream???). They told us at the end that they were aiming to make it a high class establishment... don't rich people have kids? I wonder how long they will last...

Sunday:
Went up to the farm so the kids could have a ride on the motor bike. Then the kids and I went for a visit with Neil and Louise which was great. They are so relaxed and I enjoy their company. We are going there for tea on Tuesday night as a farewell.

Here are some pics of our blueberry picking expedition. It was such great therapy!

Janice and Justice:

Janice and I:

Lauren:

Look at the luscious little things! The plants were loaded.

Haylee and Justice move to Geelong this week - I think all of our family are really sad to see them move, but realise there are bigger things out there for those two! Justice has been accepted to a great all girls public school there and Haylee will have a new home and job in no time! Good luck. I now have a great reason to stop over in Melbourne for a holiday.

Farm Girl

2009-01-26T11:18:00.003+09:00

Today Dad was carting in the last of the hay he had cut and baled. I love this photo of the huge round straw coloured bales of hay and the bluest of blue skies.

Mum and I sat the kids up on the bales because it is a great kid thing to do - playing in the hay. It really isn't the same as when I was a kid though because the bales used to be small and rectangular, which we could shift around to make cubby houses. And the chooks loved them too, often making a nest in amongst the bales. When you realised that the egg supply was getting low, they were already well ensconsed in their new nest!

Cal had his first ride on the motor bike yesterday, but of course I forgot to take the camera, so today I made sure I got it all on film! He is s o easy going that he just took it all in his stride.

Caitlin absolutely loves the bike and is on it as often as she can convince us to take her up to the farm. I think if she were here more often she would become a real farm girl. She isn't frightened, she wants to have a go and will be in anything. I love that!

She also had a couple of rides in the tractor with Pop, sitting up on his knee and taking it all in. I think with very little encouragement, she would be in there and driving the tractor for Pop!

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

2009-01-26T09:50:00.004+09:00

Happy Australia Day! We are having a barbie for tea, cooking lamingtons and being very good little Aussie citizens by watching the obligatory sport on our national day!

Since I have been updating the blog more often, I feel as though a week without blogging is almost an eon.

Callum loves getting around after his bath in the nudie rude. He also has a fascination with Mum and Dad's ensuite. He crawls so fast that it is hard to get a photo of him! Here is a shot of Cal crawling as fast as he possibly could (because he knew I was after him) into the ensuite to get into mischief. Very cute I think.

This week he has started to pull himself up to standing and the bath is just a good height for him to get leaverage to stand. Caitlin was in the bath when I took this shot and she had been feeding Cal bubbles to eat!

Since we have been here we have been talking to Craig on the phone every day. Caitlin (aka little miss chatterbox) spends as much time on the phone to her Daddy as I do I think! She has a routine on the phone and every time Mum and I hear her we just crack up because we know exactly how the conversation is going to go! I think she is looking out for her Daddy's welfare.

Here is how it goes:
1. "hello"
2. "what have you been doing?"
3. "what did you have for breakfast?"
4. "what did you have for lunch?"
5. "what did you have for tea?"
6. "oh, you haven't had tea? Well what did you have for morning tea?"

And so on it goes! Just hilarious.

We have been wearing her out too. She has been for long walks, trips to the park and the beach, running around, digging in the garden, meeting new people and generally staying out of bed heaps later than she should. Some days she goes suspiciously quiet and when I look at her she is sound asleep. Earlier in the week, she was trying on her new school uniform to see how much I need to alter the skort I got for her (size 4 and far too big) and she sat down for not even for a minute and this is how I found her!

I will post again to put up some more photos - I have been so busy this week!

First time at the Beach

2009-01-19T19:56:00.010+09:00

We had a trip to the beach today. It was the first time that Cal had been to the beach. He had a great time, but got cold fairly quickly. He was loving the water and splashed heaps, played with the sand and of course tried to eat some too!

Caitlin was so excited too. She had only had a splash at the edge of the water and a dig in the sand since being here and today actually got her bathers on. She loves the rock pools, but we have to be so careful of blue ringed octopus here. She was fascinated with the sea snails we found in a pool.

I will post photos of our trip to the beach in my next post.

A quick update of Callum's progress: he is trying hard to pull himself up to standing at the moment, and actually succeded last night in the bath! It is really hard to sit him down on his bottom at all because he wants to stand and walk with you. I have been trying to give him as much practice as possible so that he gets stronger every day and improves his ballance.

Great tutorial

2009-01-19T07:21:00.004+09:00

I was blog hopping last night and found this great you tube video tutorial on making those great Prima lollipop flowers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqV6ebNzpe8&feature=related

I can't wait to have a go. I would love to start using my scraps of paper to make flowers and buttons, etc to sell on ebay or etsy to move the scraps on and stop them cluttering up my cupboards.

2009-01-16T14:22:00.003+09:00

I am trying so hard to keep my new year's resolution to be more organised! I want to be more organised to get into bed at a reasonable hour, to get more scrapping done and submitted for publication, organised to do more fun things with the kids and to see more of my friends. So, in keeping, I am scrapping up a storm while I am in Tasmania on holidays! I like to have all of the term's scrap pages done and ready for the first class. I like to show students what they are "in for". This afternoon I have been working on the Christmas layout for our first class of term and was really inspired but I had forgotten that I had no photos and that Mum had no photo paper, so I have stalled! I will head to HN to get photo paper and will be scrapping up a storm again.

Every time I am home my sister, step-niece and myself try to get a photo of us together. We try to compose it the same every time we have one taken. On sunday we had Mum take one for us and we were all happy with the pic (me, Haylee, Janice).

When we were in Perth for Christmas we went on the train into the city to see Santa at Myer. We took our neice with us and I got this great shot of her on the train. I did a little photoshopping and I love the result. I can't wait to scrap this one. She is such a beautiful girl and fun and easy to be around.

I submitted a cute little apple shaped card to Creative Paper magazine and they want to publish it as a series, all using the transparent cut-out technique, so today we went to the scrap shop in Devonport - Bev's Cross Crafts - so that I could get a couple of bits and pieces to make the 2 extra cards and of course I came away with half the shop! I am sure all scrap shops are set upjust to catch me out! It is such a great shop though, if you are ever able to get there.

Then we made our way to Perfecta cherry farm and had lunch at their cafe called Windows. We had cherry pancakes and they were very yummy. I ate the remainder of Callum's cauliflower soup too and it was probably the nicest of its kind I have tried (and he thought it was pretty good too).

Callum is getting so strong. He wants to walk with me all the time, and it takes him less effort to get up onto his feet from sitting now too (with someone giving him a small amount of help). I really don't think it will be many weeks before he can pull himself up all on his own. He is loving getting into all of Nan and Pop's drawers now that he realises they come open and there is often something in them! Cal has also become an insatiable flirt - he has started playing up to the ladies big time! He does his funny face and waves and talks and bats his cute little eyelids - it is just hilarious to watch!

Beach Life

2009-01-12T09:27:00.004+09:00

We are having such a great time staying with my parents at the moment. They live across the road from the beach and is such a lovely location. Caitlin and Callum have been having great fun playing in the dirt where Mum and Dad and landscaping. Caitlin has had to have a wash in the laundry tub a few times because she gets covered from head to toe!

Callum has always been a real outdoors boy, but he has finally discovered dirt! He has a little spade and he tries to dig and scoop out the dirt like Caitlin does. A couple of days ago I went to check on him and all up his legs and half of his body was covered with what he had dug out! Looked very precious.

Yesterday was Dad's birthday and most of the family was here for lunch - I think 30 or so. Haylee hired a beach peddle buggy for the kids. Caitlin and Cal were on the front and Justice and Chloe peddled. Cal was just cracking himself up over it. Caitlin, the little dare devil was loving it when they went around corners a little too fast. Will and Zane hired a trailer for it and attached it to the back, so there was a train peddle buggy. OMG it was so funny.

Today we are off to Hobart until Thursday to stay with Steve and Kay and Erin and Riley. Caitlin is really looking forward to having other little kids to play with and I am looking forward to spending some time with great friends that I miss so much while I am away.

Craig has had 2 weekends at home by himself now and I think he is trying to keep himself extra busy because he is missing us heaps. Well, guess what... we all miss him heaps too.

2009-01-09T14:37:00.003+09:00

We have had a busy but lovely Christmas and New Year and now the kids and I are on holiday in Tassie.

We went to Perth for Christmas this year to spend time with Craig's family. We had a house full, but the kids all got on so well. I love that they are getting to know each other better, when we all live so far apart.

On the sunday after christmas we spent the day at the zoo with our kids, Steffan and their kids and Brian. Here are a couple of photos of us at the zoo. Callum was absolutely enthralled with the elephants. His little face showed complete shock when he saw one for the first time!

On the 29th of December the kids and I headed off on the plane to Tasmania. We are here for a whole month for a holiday with Mum and Dad. We are thoroughly enjoying it but I don't feel like I have really rested yet. Caitlin was so very sick only a couple of days after we got here. There has been a gastro type virus going around and of course we got it. Callum has managed to escape it, but Caitlin got it in full force. She vomited so hard that she had to lay down to do so. I was up in the middle of the night with a mild dose and had a day on the couch afterwards, but have generally been OK.

Cal is now very unsettled at night. I have no idea why - initially I thought it was teeth, but there have been none poke through, so I am at a loss. He has been up at least 3 times a night, so I am hoping that whatever it is resolves soon, because I am looking forward to a full night's sleep.

I got an email today from Scrapboxx saying that they have an opening once again for a design team member, so once again I am going to apply. They want 3 items of work and will make their decision from there. There are so many tallented scrappers out there that I am sure I will be one of many that apply.

My article that I had written for "For Keeps Creative Paper" magazine is out in the stores. The 2 page spread is on page 118. I had been so disheartened when I last had something published that I was reluctant to submit anything again. Well, this time my expectations have been blown away! The layout has been photographed brilliantly and apart from one typo in the text, it has come up better than I could have hoped! It encourages me t o get scrapping and sub some more!

Scrapping at the Shop

2008-12-13T15:20:00.003+09:00

Wow, it has been such a busy few months at the local scrap shop (LSS) where I teach. I have had what feels like an absolute heap of classes, but now there is only one left and it is tomorrow. Even though I am tired and ready for a break, I am also really excited about the first term next year too. I have set the sylabus, I have done the sketches and now I am set to scrap my little heart out over the coming weeks. I will have to be really organised because I am going to be away in Perth and then in Tassie. That means having all the supplies I will need bagged up, essential tools packed and photos printred. It will be a challenge, which hopefully also means a burst of creativity!

I have an article that I have written being published next month in Creative Paper magazine. I got confused when they commissioned it and thought it was going to be in the November issus, but no... it is in the January issue! I can't wait for it to come out because I have only ever had a page published. I must be on a roll, because I have had a page chosen for the Love gallery of Scrapbooking Memories (I am assuming that is the February edition) and also another article for the May edition of Scrapbooking Memories. It is very exciting! I also have plenty more article and project ideas, but no where near enough time at the moment to submit them.

Our Funny Kids

2008-10-15T20:56:00.004+08:00

I thought it was about time that I updated the photos of the kids!

Caitlin just loves to scrapbook with me. Here is a gorgeous creation of hers! She loves to send some of her layouts to the scrapbooking shop with mine and Renaye is good enough to put them up in the shop, which I think is a crack up and Caitlin thinks is great!

Dad is regularly inundated by kids - good thing he loves them to bits!

Callum has been taking an interest in some more challenging toys lately. Caitlin and I got out a heap of jigsaws recently and he loved the easy ones too.

Just checking to see if it is gold...

Last but not least, Caitlin is having a little break from jewelery at the moment, so when she does play with it, she piles it on to get a fix!

Chinese Whispers

2008-10-10T07:12:00.005+08:00

A friend has asked me to be the first cab off the rank with a chinese whisper - you know, like the message that would start at one side of the room when you were a kid and you had to see how true to the origional it was at the end? Well, this is the same, scrapping style!

My chinese whisper:

there is a plain cardstock background

photo and embelishments are clustered in the bottom half of the page

it has one photo 4x3 (landscape) which is set to the right of centre

there is a medium - large embelishment on either edge of the page framing the photo and embelishment cluster

there is an embelishment laid vertically down the right hand end of the photo with another embelishment in the centre of the larger embelishment

there is a journaling block to the right of the photo

there is a small square of patterned transparency/patterned paper to the left of the photo.

there is an embelishment with a word for the title in it overlapping the top left corner and the bottom right corner of the photo

there is a hand drawn border around the outside edge of the page

I would love it if some lovely scrappers joined in. Once you have done your page, write a chinese whisper about your page and pass it on to another lucky scrapper.

When you have done your page, email me a pic so I can see what you have been up to!

Happy whispering!

Published!

2008-10-05T16:32:00.003+08:00

I have a great secret, but you will have to get your hands on a copy of the next Creative Paper magazine for all the details...

Cal's First Birthday

2008-10-05T16:10:00.005+08:00

We celebrated Callum's first birthday last saturday. I can't believe that he is a year old already! We had a cake at playgroup on friday the 26th and had friends over for tea on his actual birthday, which was the 27th.

I made him a catepillar cake and I am so happy with how it came out. I am not a fancy cake maker, but given that I am very impressed. Callum (and Caitlin!) thought it was pretty good too.

Here is a picture of the birthday boy enjoying some of his cake. He went back for more, so I take it he likes chocolate catepillar cake!

He got some great boy toys for his birthday, like cars, trucks and tractors. This truck is one that he has had for a while, but he just loves it. He leart to broooooom his trucks at about 10 months and he is doing it flat out now! He interacts really nicely with his toys now that he has some more age appropriate toys. I am going to have a huge clean out of the "baby" toys this week and get rid of a heap now that he has some big boy toys.

Wow, he's one! We had a great day!

Home Made Cordial

2008-09-02T10:44:00.003+08:00

I have been trying so hard to finish off the oranges from our tree because the new leaves are just starting to grow and I thought it was time for the tree to put energy into growth rather than sustaining old oranges. I was reading a blog and got the idea of making some fresh cordial using citrus juice - perfect for my oranges.

Don't these bottles of cordial look great! We are not huge cordial drinkers and Caitlin actually won't dring commercial cordial, but she loves this one! I made 5 bottles altogether but have already given a lemon cordial away and one of the orange ones is earmarked for L and her family.

Here is the recipe if you are interested:

Citrus cordial (recipe from a sustainable living blog)

First, make a sugar syrup: * Combine 1 part sugar with 1 part water in a saucepan. * Heat mixture, boiling gently, stirring to dissolve sugar. Then, your basic cordial recipe is: * Combine 1 part fruit juice with 1 part sugar syrup. Chill. * To drink, dilute cordial about 1:10 with water, mineral water or soda water. * Keep refrigerated and drink within about a week. Citrus cordials: If you are making a citrus-based cordial, you can add 1 teaspoon of citric acid or tartaric acid (both are derivatives of fruit, found in the baking aisle of supermarkets) per litre (quart) of cordial as a preservative, which will mean it lasts about a month. I also suggest adding the finely grated zest of one of the fruit too, for added flavour.

I am off to bed - early nights for me for a while because Caitlin and I have school sores. We went to the doctor today, thinking Caitlin had chicken pox and came out with a highly contageous infection that requires us to be house bound for a while, so no scrapbooking classes either!

The Scrap Room

2008-08-23T15:47:00.004+08:00

Here is a picture of the room at the scrap shop (Keepsake Krafts) where I teach scrapping during the week.

Kung Fu Panda

2008-07-27T20:16:00.004+08:00

I took Caitlin to see her first movie today!

My friend C and her son T wanted to go to see Kung Fu Panda, so we tagged along. The kids had so much fun. Towards the end of the movie they both got quite fidgety, but that was to be expected really. On the whole they were both great. Caitlin was frightened at one stage and sat on my knee, but was generally OK with the big screen and the dark. I thought the movie was great too!

Poor Cal and Craig stayed home! Callum slept pretty much the whole time that we were away and Craig pruned some more of that hideous vine (now dead) from a tree at the side (near the dove cote) that has suffered from it being so invasive. He got just about all if it trimmed out I think.

It is raining here. The bureau of meteorology says that we have only had about 5 mm, but I believe we have had quite a bit more. For about 3 days now we have had heavy rain at night and drizzle on and off during the day and the garden is looking great for it. Now the weeds will be even more out of control than they were before! My patch of spinach that I had to re-sow is up and looking good. The new patch of corn is still not up, but I think that takes a while.

CSI is about to be on TV, so I had better go and get my weekly fix of TV!

Scrap Classes

2008-07-24T13:59:00.003+08:00

I had my first class at the shop on Tuesday night! It was fantastic. I love the room and the dynamics were great. I have had lots of positive feedback too. I am teaching there again tonight, so hopefully it will be just as good. I have to get the hang of payments now. Thank goodness Renaye is there for the first few classes because I would have felt a little swamped otherwise!

I will post some pictures when I have some.

Ten Pin Bowling!

2008-07-18T22:18:00.003+08:00

Can you imagine a group of 11 three year olds ten pin bowling - no? Well, we did it today. And it was the cutest thing ever! Caitlin LOVED it. "I can do it myself Mummy" was about all I heard this morning. She would get her own ball off the shoot thing, carry it over to a special stand they have for kids, get me to put the ball on because it was too heavy for her to lift up that far, then she would roll it down the stand (it was sort of like a ramp) and towards the pins. She did so well. I think we will make an endeavour to go as a family some time because we all had so much fun. Can you believe they even had shoes small enough for her? I wish I had taken my camera.

Child Health Visit

2008-07-17T20:58:00.003+08:00

I took Caitlin for her 3 year old check up and Cal for his 8 months check on Tuesday.

Caitlin had a full audiology check because the speech therapist wanted to check that her hearing was OK to rule that out as a cause for her lagging speech. She heard every sound that was produced, so that is promising. On height and weight, she is going well too. She is 100cm tall, which is almost right on the 75th percentile, which means that only 25% of girls her age are taller. She weighs 15.8kg with clothes and shoes, which is between the 50th and 75th percentiles, which is also great. She is on track to be a bit taller than me. Maybe I will end up the shortie of the family like my Mum has!

Callum has lost a small amount of weight since I weighed him at 9 months - he is now 8.06kg (he was 8.14kg at 9 months). When he had the bad cold and tonsilitis he hardly ate or drank, so I can fully understand that he has lost some weight. The CHN was onto it and wants to make sure that he has put on some again by 10 months because of his weight loss when he was 3 or 4 months. I am sure that he is fine though. He is growing longer despite being sick - he is now 72.5cm long. He has suddenly decided food is OK too. His appetite has increased heaps and he is starting to tolerate lumps and loves rice rusks and toast crusts. I expect that he will be beefing up from now on!

Some Photos

2008-07-15T14:52:00.002+08:00

Both of the kids just love us reading to them. I am so grateful that Craig loves reading as much as I do and is setting a great example for both Caitlin and Cal.

Caitlin is loving her babushka dolls at the moment. Every day I have to open the biggest one for her so she can stack and sort and line them all up. I think there are 15 in the set and goes down to the size of a grain of rice. I worry that we will lose the smallest one or two, but hey, if they go by the wayside it doesn't matter I suppose because they have had good use so far!

Our little acrobat has learned a new trick (trained monkey!). She loves to hang upside down. She is getting stronger too. Because she has always had weak shoulders I have been paying attention to getting her to pull herself up using her arms and try to get herself high enough to flick her legs over the bar. She perhaps gets about half way by herself, which is pretty cool.

Dad's earmuffs are also the flavour of the month. Doesn't she look cute?

I have just realised there is a distinct lack of photos of Callum in this post. I will have to make up for it in another one. This is just a classic photo - I get this frown all the time at the moment. He uses it to full effect. Whenever I do something that he doesn't like, I get this huge frown or scowl! I know I do it to Caitlin so that she knows that I don't like what she is doing so I don't need to discipline her in front of her friends, so I must unknowingly be giving the same look to Cal. Classic really! I must scrap this one!

Long time no post!

2008-07-07T20:19:00.004+08:00

Wow, I hadn't realised it had been so long since I had posted!

Most of my vegies are up! I was out in the garden yesterday and the spuds are just coming up, which is great, but means I need to be diligent in covering the vegies at night now because we have had heaps of really harsh frosts over the last couple of weeks. Mum and Andrew will be here at a great time because I will have spinach, carrots, zuchinis and probably redbeet ready in the garden at the time - yum!

We had a quick trip to Esperance last weekend - 3 nights. It wasn't as enjoyable as usual. It seemed like a mountain of packing to get 4 of us there and back, the weather was rainy and windy, and while we were there I had my wallet stolen from the toilets at the Boulevard, so it has discouraged us from going away again in a hurry.

I had my last scrapbooking class at home on thursday night which was sad but also exciting. I am moving classes to the scrap shop because it is hard on Craig and the kids having their home invaded 3 times a fortnight and I was also feeling the pressure of not being able to get into a mess or have an off day or two, like so sften happens when you have 2 kids. Classes start on the 22nd and I am really looking forward to it. Renaye from Keepsake Kraft has made a great scrap space that I am looking forward to teaching in.

All the cards for the June card swap are in and they are all so fantastic. I love getting them all and seeing just how differently we all interpret the challenge. This month was an embossing challenge and the August swap is a fold challenge, where we have to use a non-standard card fold. I would like to try a pop-up card fold, but I think I need to do some research on the net first.

We had a busy weekend again (what's new?). Craig has shifted a heap more lawn from the spots where we are going to have garden beds to the spot where the kids swing set is going to go. It is really hard work, but it will save us money in the end and will establish pretty fast once spring is here. I have set myself the task of completing one job a day over the school holidays to get the inside of the house sorted out. Boring I know! Saturday I cleaned out Caitlin's wardrobes. Sunday I sorted out the kids old clothes that I had boxed up. I set aside piles to go to Good Sammi's and piles that I am going to try and sell on eBay. Today I have started listing things on eBay, so I hope that they will sell. I still have quite a few items to go on, but I am going to work at it of an evening over the next couple of days and hopefully get rid of them. Tomorrow I am going to clear off Callum's bed and make it up, ready for Mum and Andrew's visit in August. Then if I finish that I will make a start on the toy jungle! I have warned Caitlin that we are going to have a big clean up of her toys. Also, Callum has grown out of many of the baby toys like rattles etc, so we can cull them now (maybe to sell on eBay too).

Callum has been really sick over the past week or a bit more. Yesterday evening his temp shot up to 39, so I was a bit suspicious. He has progressively been getting more and more miserable too, so we headed off to the doctor today. Didn't take long to discover that our poor little man has tonsilitis. I really hope he doesn't suffer with it like I did as a child. He has a course of antibiotics and hopefully that clears it up, but we have a repeat if he still isn't 100% by the end of the 5 day course.

I am off to watch the tennis - we taped it last night because it was still not on at 10pm, so we went to bed. We have heard the result (boo hoo) but want to watch it anyway. I will post photos in the next couple of days.

Busy!

2008-06-14T20:51:00.005+08:00

Both Craig and I feel as though we have been unusually busy over the last couple of weeks. Craig was away with Mitchi and Big Yammi over the weekend, so he has worked the last 2 weeks without a break, which means I haven't had a break either. Today we took it easy and had some time with the kids and also pottering in the garden.

Planting two more rows of red beet hopefully to preserve or make chutney out of. My rows are pretty crooked! Wouldn't make a very good farmer!

In this photo, you can see the vegie patch starting to take shape. I have carrots, spinach, parsnips, red beet, broadbeans tomatoes and zucchinis already up and today I planted Bernie pumpkins, purple runner beans, spuds, corn, more red beet and spinach and red onions. Tomorrow I would like to get a half row of cos lettuce and rocket in, some shallots and capsicum (may be too cold yet) and some green and butter beans. I feel a real sense of satisfaction tonight that the vegie patch is coming together so well this year after it being a dismal failure last year!

I know this photo is blurry, but Caitlin looked like such a cool cat in my sun glasses. She was very impressed that I wanted to take a photo and posed like a model!

I tried Callum on some toast crusts on Thursday. I was really surprised that he loved them! He only gagged a couple of times and actually swallowed a heap - perhaps the toasted crust off half a small slice of bread. This is really funny, considering that he can't stand a single lump in his vegies and is super fussy about the texture, temperature, thickness and vegie combinations (he likes everything mixed with apple or pear!). Caitlin thought that it was great that he was eating her crusts that she leaves all the time!

Caitlin can be so laid back some times! Here she is having a pick-wick (picnic) on her special owl plate, feet up, resting in Dad's cane chair from when he was a little boy.

I caught a photo of Callum in action blowing a raspberry today. He loves doing this and uses it as emphasis all the time - cheeky little man! Luckily he hasn't started doing it when he eats... yet.

We have the first Winner of one of the RAK packs! She finished the layouts in a super quick time and says she was on a huge roll!

And, the winner is...

Dee Wells.

A little pack of goodness is coming your way!

There are 2 more up for grabs if anyone can complete the challenge by next weekend.

ED again!

2008-06-12T20:54:00.005+08:00

We had an eventful day yesterday. Caitlin and I were getting lunch and she was jumping around everywhere like she always does and she tripped over and... crunch, her little chin hit the floor. It was such a small fall, that when I picked her up, screaming her head off, I was really shocked - she had blood actually dripping from her and I thought that she must have put her teeth through her tongue or lip which she has done before. Actually, she had, in that really small fall, managed to put a one inch gash in the crease under her chin (where the double chin starts) and about 1/2 a centimetre deep. Blood just poured from it! She was, naturally, absolutely distraught.

We took her down to the emergency department and saw a Doctor there (can't get in to the clinic here on short notice). They debated whether to put stitches in, but they were fairly confident that skin glue would do the trick. Caitlin was such a brave little girl. She didn't cry or even complain, even when the Doctor was squeezing her cut and making her put her head right back. The Nurse managed to steri-strip her chin twice (because she didn't get it right the first time) and still no objections from Caitlin. When the Nurse said "now this might sting a little bit" that was the end of Caitlin's good humour!

When we were still at home Caitlin had been asking "they won't hurt me will they Mum?" and I had tried to play it down by saying that I didn't know and that they would be as careful as possible, not knowing if she would need stitches and that they could hurt. Caitlin screamed and kicked and would not, for anyone, stay on the trolley. She was down and on her way out of there. In the end we had to wrap her in a sheet to restrain her and while I held her down and another nurse held her head still, her chin was glued and a piece of fixomul put over the wound.

Craig said later that he didn't envy me having to do that. When I was trying to reason with her to stay on the bed, I was so close to crying. It was a really hard thing to do! Of course not long after we had finished, she calmed down and was fine. The nurse mentioned an icypole as a special treat, so she perked up quickly! I think the episode will have damaged our chances of being able to treat her easily in that sort of setting again though.

She has to keep the fixomul on for five days and is not allowed to get it wet, so I think we will give swimming a miss on Monday, just to be on the safe side. I really hope it heals well because there was a patch that bled for quite a while and it looked as though the glue had not stuck in that one spot. We will see next week.

Callum, of course took it all in his stride. He is such a calm and placid boy.

I will post some photos at a later date because my camera memory card isn't being picked up by the computer. I think I need to shut down the computer and give it a rest!

I am just working on my second layout for my challenge. Actually, it is a frame that I have been making for at least 4 months, so I thought that qualified as old stash! It is coming up nicely and I can't wait to paint the scrap room now so that it looks nice on my wall (get rid of the hideous yellow)! A couple of friends are absolutely motoring with the challenge. D has done 7 layouts and L had done 3 last time I spoke to her and I am sure she will have done more by now!

Time for bed and to check my little ones are sleeping soundly!

The New Dockers

2008-06-07T22:42:00.001+08:00

Sorry, but I just have to say... Poor Eagles! All they have to do now is emulate Carlton and lose the rest to get some priority draft picks!

One Down

2008-06-07T22:18:00.005+08:00

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill. Patterned paper: Crate Paper . Stamps: Stampin' Up, Hero Arts. Ink: Color Box. Brads: Making Memories. Acetate bird: Heidi Swapp. Alphas: Making Memories, American Crafts. Gel pen: Hyper Gel. Other: thread, staples, edge distresser.

Here is layout number one for my challenge. Pretty simple, but I can't really do anything else and get it to look good! I took inspiration from Elizabeth Karchener's blog header. To get these layouts done pretty quick, I have decided that I will lift some layouts or use some sketches or even lift some of my own layouts. I have also decided that I will try to do five layouts on Caitlin and five on Callum. Seems only fair. Rolling along!

Challenging myself...

2008-06-07T20:15:00.006+08:00

I seem to be scrapping up a storm at the moment. Running classes always inspires me to scrap more and to scrap better I think. Classes have been so much fun! Thursday night my cheeks were hurting by the end of the session, so thanks ladies! H and D, you two together are just a crack-up.

This layout is a class one (using pics of my friend L), but I love it, so thought I would post it here. I think I will do another for Caitlin but use some circles of patterned paper and perhaps the quote "she makes the world a better place" by Kobi Yamada. I have a heap of layouts to share, but I think I will upload one or two per post so as not to completely bore everyone!

I am about to start a challenge that I have set for myself - to make 10 layouts out of old supplies (no recent additions allowed) to get rid of some of my stash. It is getting out of control in my desk and need to make room for some new buttons and alphas that Craig bought me when he was down in Perth this week. The 10 layouts, no doubt, won't even make a dent on the stuff spewing from my drawers, but I have to try!

I have three small RAK's (random acts of kindness) from my stash to go out to some lucky people if you would like to join me. All you have to do is:

Leave a comment on the blog to let me know that you are going to join in.
Let me know every time you complete one of your 10 layouts by commenting on the blog or emailing me.
When you finish all 10, email me with your name and address and I will send you a RAK if you are one of the first three to finish!

Hope this is heaps of fun! I am about to start... what are you doing reading? Go and start using your stash!

Long time no post!

2008-06-06T09:00:00.006+08:00

Yes, I have been reminded that I should post at least as many times as Mardi Winen! (every other day!). Do I have that much news? Maybe...

I think winter has hit here. Finally the days are below 20 and the nights below 10 degrees. I am not looking forward to the really cold nights because I am still up at least once a night to Callum, so I think I might freeze (or be doing some serious controlled crying to get him to sleep all night!).

Callum has been changing heaps lately. This is his usual pose at the moment - hands shoved in his mouth to sooth his gums. He had his second hair cut last friday and is completely blond now! He is saying mum mum all the time and when he is really upset he calls out Mummm eeee! He has also started saying bub bub, which is pretty cute. He is building his language pretty fast compared to Caitlin, I think, because he is also babbling heaps and putting two sounds together already, such as goo ahhh, which I can't recall Caitlin doing so early.

On Tuesday a little tooth popped through at the bottom. He now has 3 teeth at the top and 3 at the bottom. I was having a feel a little while ago and I think the 4th tooth at the bottom will be next - I can feel it just sitting there. I can't wait for all these teeth to come through because he has been so unsettled and in heaps of pain with them. At least he has started eating again. He had 3 days where it was far too painful for the spoon to go into his mouth (even the rubber ones we use).

Today, for the first time, Cal put up his arms for me to pick him up! Yay! I love it when they start to do that. I know when he is excited to see me because he kicks and wriggles all over the place, but actually making a "pick me up" gesture is just great.

Caitlin and I had our review at the naturopath last week and she is impressed with how well we are both doing. Caitlin is just a changed girl. Not that she has ever been a really naughty kid, but she could get really grumpy and difficult sometimes but she is now mostly a very agreeable girl. She chatters all the time, sings the most amazing songs that I have never even heard before (and she knows all the words) and is just the best company. Neither of us have had a cold either, so that is the best news of all considering how sick we were last winter. Craig has his review next week and I think he will be doing well too. He is almost off his reflux tablets and feeling well.

Craig has been away in Perth for 2 nights for a business meeting and will be home on the last flight tonight. It is our wedding anniversary today, so it will be great to have him home . We are going to get some nice take-away from Villa Maritana and have a romantic tea in! Then tomorrow, he trips off again with Big Yammi from Mitsubishi in Japan and won't be home again until late Sunday, so I will be missing him heaps by then.

Time to give Cal a snack! I will post some scrapping stuff after the snack.

Canvas

2008-05-26T20:49:00.002+08:00

Here is a canvas that I made a couple of weeks ago. I had painted it and was going to put a "She" quote on it by Kobi Yamada, but I seriously stuffed it up, so I wanted to cover it over! You can't see the detail very well in this photo, but I have distressed the edge of the cream cardstock and doodled a line about 1/2 a cm in from the edge in silver. I have also roughly stitched some journaling lines in the top right and written "you ROCK little man (03/08)". The red cardstock is stitched on and then ripped off and the flowers are stitched and then distressed.

I am teaching at the local scrap shop (LSS) as of next term and this is going to be one of my off the page projects. I would love to take about 2 classes there a week, one at night during the week and one on the weekend, so hopefully they will take off.

The garden and some photos of the kids

2008-05-26T20:00:00.001+08:00

We are borrowing a little trampoline from L and G at the moment. Caitlin thinks it is just the greatest! She would spend almost every waking moment on it if she could! She has learnt how to bounce down onto her knees from standing and yesterday she got brave enough to bounce down onto her bottom. She thinks she is pretty clever. I got some cute action shots and here is one of many.

She still will not push herself on her trike. It isn't that she can't do it because she can - I just think she likes doing it the way she always has and she is pretty stubborn, so there is no convincing her that there is any other way! She has her smock on in this photo because we had been doing some painting.

My garden is coming along so nicely at the moment. I love growing my own fruit and veg and being able to go out and pick an apple or orange when I want, or choose the vegies for tea and go and get them from the garden. I also love being able to give some away. Craig thinks this is a bit of a waste, but I like how much people genuinely appreciate getting something out of someone elses garden. Here is a shot of my oranges - aren't they yummy looking? Mum, wouldn't you love to go out and pick your morning orange fresh off the tree every day? They still have a couple of weeks to go because they are still a bit tart.

Here is a picture for Dad - my broadies are looking yummy already! I hope the soil condition is OK because they are planted where the slabs were laid in the old chook shed. I fertilised well, so I hope that makes up for it.

And finally, we have a mellon on our watermellon vine that has been there for about four months and done nothing. I think it has not been getting polinated, so now there is one on it, maybe we will get some more (then we will get a rippa frost and it will be gone!). It is about 15 or 20 cm long at the moment and growing fast.

Look at this cheeky little man! Callum is teething at the moment and he is getting about four teeth at once, so he is in quite a bit of pain, poor little boy. Unfortunately for him he takes ages for the teeth to actually come through, so he may be like this for about 3 weeks. He loves putting this ring in his mouth because it sits just nicely on his gums where the teeth are coming down.

When I saw this photo I realised just how much he is changing at the moment. In this photo he is looking much more like a little boy than like a baby. Wow - he is eight months old tomorrow!

And guess who is finally sitting up most of the time! He just loves to throw himself backwards though, so he can often be found staring at the ceiling again!

This is a photo that I took myself of Cal and me, because I forget to ask Craig to take some. I think he was watching Caitlin at the time!

Healthy?

2008-05-26T19:47:00.002+08:00

Caitlin and I saw the naturopath about 4 weeks ago and have been on a pretty serious diet change. Last winter we were so sick with colds and gastro that I just couldn't handle it again for another winter, especially with two kids to look after now.

Erin has cut wheat out of our diets and reduced the amounts of dairy and sugar we consume. I have also given up coffee and tea and almost completely given up chocolate too!!! (not quite). It took me about 4 days to detox, and boy did I feel bad! I guess Caitlin was feeling that way too, but I couldn't see past my own headache at the time. We have given it a really good go - on the weekend Craig accidentally made us pancakes with wheat in them and Caitlin and I both had a really bad reaction to it. Caitlin was still distressed at bed time. We will know for the future that pancakes are not the best food for us. Caitlin, I think, has had the most amazing change from our diet changing - she is so even tempered, sleeping really well, very well mannered, energetic and just a joy to be around. None of the mini tantrums that we used to get either. The most remarkable change has been in her bowel. For the first time in her little life, she doesn't have diarrhoea, which I think would pretty much indicate that she has a wheat intollerance!

We will see how good this new diet is... I have a cold lurking around but not really coming to anything at the moment, so we will see if I can fight it off. We see Erin again on Thursday, so it will be good to get a progress report from her.

Our weekend

2008-05-25T21:45:00.001+08:00

A funny face from our little girl!

Today we continued our never-ending project of sorting out the backyard. Caitlin decided that it was easier to ride in the wheelbarrow than dig the dirt.

She had fun because she was "helping Dadda" which lasted all of about 5 minutes, then she decided that the trampoline was more fun.

The Eagles finally won "Yay", the poor Dockers again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I thought that it was a frustrating year for Eagles supporters, but I really feel for all the frustrated Dockers supporters.

Craig.

Take a photo Mummy!

2008-05-23T21:53:00.001+08:00

Caitlin loves having her photo taken (most of the time). I suppose I have subjected her to it since she was born so she has gotten used to it! Today I was taking a couple of photos of layouts and she piped up "take a photo of me eating apple shoo (stewed apple) Mummy" so I did. Isn't she gorgeous? I love her so much!

I am having a LeReve aromatherapy party tomorrow afternoon and I am waiting for my chocolate cake to finish cooking. All I want to do is go to bed! So, what better thing to do than update the blog?

Catch you soon.

Update of Callum

2008-05-20T19:47:00.001+08:00

So much has been happening in the short like of Cal lately. He had his first swing in the baby swing on the 5th of April and he loved it so much. Caitlin thought it was hilarious that he was in "her swing" and laughing at her and watching what was going on. She had to push him and no one else was allowed!

Callum had his first hair cut on the 24th of April. He has gone from a dark and shaggy haired boy to a little blond bombshell! He looks like a real little boy now, rather than a baby. Here is a picture of Deanne cutting his hair. I was really surprised how much she had to cut off. I think it is funny too that most babies are well over one when they need to have their hair trimmed and my shaggy haired kids were both pretty little when they had a trim up!

This is a shot of my little boy with his new "doo". Pretty cute hey! Just look how light his hair is! The chair he is sitting in is Craig's old chair from when he was a child.

I will update on Miss Caitlin in another post.

Bye XX

First Layouts

2008-05-20T13:33:00.001+08:00

This was my first layout for Caitlin! Wow, my scrapping has come a long way since then!

This was my first layout for Callum. I love this photo so much, partly because it is so hard to catch an impromptu moment like this.

Some Old Photos

2008-05-18T20:18:00.001+08:00

I thought I would start with some cute photos of the kids when Callum was just new! This is a photo of Cal at only a day old. Can't believe that he is pretty much blond now! Little cutie!

Here is a photo of all of us at the hospital. Looks like Caitlin is giving Cal mouth to mouth!

I love this photo, even though it is heavily photo-shopped. I scrapped this one first!

Callum at one month and Caitlin at 2 and 8 months. I adore this photo. It shows how it will probably always be - Caitlin kissing and cuddling Callum and him just taking the adoration in his stride!

New blog

2008-05-17T13:56:00.000+08:00

I thought I would create a blog just for scrapping and family stuff, so that friends and family had somewhere to view pictures and catch up on what we are up to.