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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!