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Well I finally made it back to work with all four girlies in school today .. weeheee.  I'm exhausted so am just nipping on here to share some projects that have kept me busy for the last few weeks.  First are from the Trip Down Memory Lane retreat 2 weekends ago.  I always have the most fantastic time at Mel and Jill's retreats and always meet some amazing people and catch up with wonderful friends.  Theres another coming up in April 2010 ... and I cant wait. These first two layouts are from a class I taught using Basic Grey Lime Rickey - working the colours and a little doodle inspiration.

 

And this is my lil' pumpkin witch Emily

And here are two projects from the Pickleberry workshops taught by Jane Dean and decorated by me :)

 Will be back with more soon .... Be happy my lovelies

MWAH

2009 to date. ...

Well its been almost a whole year since I blogged and what a year it has been .. in fact I'm not sure quite where to start.  For this post I would like to pay tribute to my sister Mels and my brother in law Dan and their journey over the past year.  My sister was 23 weeks pregnant when the doctors discovered she has 2 tumours in her brain and both Mels and Dan have faced their battles with such courage (.. and amazing sense of humour).   Dan tells their story on his blog http://www.allaboutdan.com . I was lucky enough to spend time with them in South Africa during the last summer holidays and to get to know my little nephew Carl during his too short visit with us here on earth.  I love this lil' man and miss him everyday.

     
 
 

Hullo dahlinks - just spent the most marvelously lazy Sunday with the girlies in my pj's ... you know the kind of it's cold outside but warm in here kind of days?!  We've watched the "Christmas withthe Cranks" dvd while scoffing bowls of hot popcorn and baked Christmas cookies with the idea of threading them with ribbon to hang on the tree (of course we never really expected them to make it to the tree - were delicious with a glass of milk after dinner) I have started making my advent calenders .. fingers crossed  will finishat least one by the first of December aka tomorrow providing I'm strong enough to resist the lure of a comfy sofa and the telly once the girlies are in bed.

Since it's been a little (well quite a BIG actually) time since my last post I have so much to tell that I'm not sure quite where to begin.  I took part in the Bad Girls Top Designer competition, had a flying visit to South Africa to spend a precious few days with my family, taught at the wonderful ATDML November retreat, have been crazily busy with the build up to Christmas activities at school, etc etc etc.  So instead of trying to catch up on all the news in one go I think I shall relay it in installments starting with sharing my layouts created for Bad Girls.

Love this photo of Dave and Emily, this layout is actually a scraplift of one I did a long time ago for te UKS scrappers block!

   

And my happy go lucky Katie .. another scraplift of one of my earlier layouts teehee .. talk about going back to ones roots!

 

Another of Katie .. I used a postcard from Paperchase as the basis for the page .. if you look closely you can see it under the photo .. I then doodled the patterns off the card onto the background using my trusted AC slick writer and a couple of the girlies felt tips.

 

Aw my little rock stars .. dressing up has always been a favorite pastime in our house .. love these pics of Hannah and Kate taken back in 2001.

 

And here's my BIG little girl ... my baby is growing up sofast and will be starting school next September #sniff sniff#

 

TTUL dahlinks ..MWAH

Baby “Balthazar”

… aka my nephew Victor Andersson Joughin born 12 October 2008 and only able to spend a few precious too short hours with us here on earth.  I wanted to write a tribute to this little man but how does one write about how much he is loved and wanted, and how amazing his parents – Dan and my sister Mels- are?  What words can convey the heartache and love for this little guy?  So I have borrowed a few written by his mummy Melly to use in this post.

"Our little boy was conceived while we were living in London, just a minutes’ walk from Victoria Station so we have decided to name him Victor. Our “work in progress” name for the bump was Balthazar (named after a cartoon character Dan used to watch as a child), and in our hearts he’ll always be baby Balthazar.  They brought me the baby at about 1pm and I got to hold him and love him for one afternoon. He was tiny, perfect and so very beautiful.  Six months in my womb. Six hours in my arms. Forever in our hearts."

 

We'll love you forever little man xxx

Don't ya just love the summer hols?!  Life is still hectically busy but with a much happier and far less stressful vibe.  So far the girlies have been to the beach a couple of times, visited Leeds castle, Linton Zoo, Canterbury and seen Kung Fu Panda at the movies.  We still have a list an arms length of things to do  and places to visit including our annual visit to Jane and her darling girls in Wales.  I'm beginning to think maybe 6 weeks holiday in not enough! 

    

And so ... I scraped through Round3 of the Embellished Idol competition, by the skin of my teeth LOL , with my take on the challenge.  We had to create on something other than 12x12 page and include a life motto/quote.  I used a quote from the Monsters Inc movie as it seems to be my lifes motto at this moment in time ... I must tell the girlies a hundred times a day "not to touch things that don't belong to you".  I used a kids cartoon canvas and altered it into a 'mummy monster'.

And now on to Round 4 .. this week we had to atttach everything onto our layout using at least 2 different type of stitching and include a title and a lil' journaling.  So I dug out some fabric I had languishing in the cupboard - cut out a gazillion flower/bird/butterflies and a birdhouse and scrapped these pics Toopie took of me and the twins back in 2001.  I love these pics - they always make my heart smile.  Everything is stitched onto the background cardstock, I have the bloody fingers to prove it - must have pricked them 10+ times!  Aside from the cardstock the only "official scrapbooking supplies" I used were 2 of the  deliscious Chatterbox  Eclectique embellies!

Voting is on the Embellished forum (ROUND 4)   and closes at 5pm Sunday AEST.  This week you are only allowed o pick 3 of your favourites ... all entries can be seen in the Round 4 gallery on the Idol blog.

Till later dahlinks .. MWAH

My oh my .. it's been a week and a half I can tell you! But wahey- it's friday, and that means it's time for voting on Round 2 of the Embellished Idol competition.. did I mention I'm having a blast being part of this competition?... (erm not sure friends can vote this round think it has to be forum members but will get back to you on that one).  Anyhow the challenge was to use paint, a mask and including journaling on your page.  So here's mine :-

I can tell you one thing I've learnt doing this challenge .... I dislike using masks .. LOL... I'm would be very happy with this layout if I left off the "masked B".  The background is created using masking tape which I gesso'd and painted within an inch of its life!

Tomorrow is our crop in Maidstone - can't wait to see the girls and share a laugh or two.  We're doing a mini ribbon class this month which hopefully will be fun!  Then in the evening we're going to a Barndance to say farewell to our headteacher who is retiring after 20years .. I'm looking forward to getting some fun photos of the evening.

Hope your weekend is blissful dahlinks - MWAH

It's been a veritable sports fest in this neck of the woods lately with Sarahs’ first school Sports day on Thursday and Hannah & Kates today.  I’m all sported out!  Did my evil TA/Mum moment this morning though, when the losing house (ours!) started booing the winning team.  One thing guaranteed to get my goat is bad sportsmanship.  Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed both events and am so proud of my girlies!

Today voting for round one of the Embellished idol competition started … challenge was to use their multiphoto layout sketch .. so here's my entry...

Ali threw a curve ball and said everyone is going through to the next round so no need for votes this week which means .... weeeeeheeeee ... by default I made it into Round two of the competition … apparently it’s gonna get messy! I'm havng so much fun I feel almost guilty .. but not enough to stop mwhahaha!

Have a blissful day dahlinks. MWAH

Well it's only 7:56am and already the morning has been a rollercoaster of emotions in this house! 

My dearest friend Jane goes into hospital this morning for an op to remove a 'nasty' from her throat.  Please say a prayer and spare some positive thought for this darling girl!

Here's a happy pic of our girlies to make you smile hunicakes

Then I click on the chatterblog and find this post .... will somebody please pinch me because I'm having a hard time believing I'm not imagining it!!!!  It is my name there ..isn't it?

What more can I say .... have thrilling thursday dahlinks...MWAH

Hullo Dahlinks ... time for one of my highly irregular blog updates. Last weekend was our Doodlin' Daisies crop and I even managed to complete a layout or two .. pick yourselves up off the floor I do scrap occasionally ... have to say I'm loving the KI Bloom and the Chatterox Artliscious ranges at the moment!!!

This is my little Em .. who loves to dance .. no matter where we are she can't resist a little wiggle .. bless her heart ... I hope she never changes.

     

And my gorgeous girly Hannah .. you know when I'm having a really bad day (translated normally means the kids are driving me crazy and I want to stop the world and get off for a wee while) I take a moment out to really look at photos of my family then  I realise I have so much to be grateful for in my life.

    

Well life has been crazily busy these last few weeks/months soooooooooo ... I decided to treat myself to a visit to the hairdresser yesterday .. the grey was getting me down ... and while normally I would reach for the L-Oreal and do the over the bath with the shower head trick .. yesterday I didn't.  And boy did I feel fantastic ... just being able to sit  for an hour or two with a cup of tea and trashy magazine was pure bliss!  I even succumbed to a mini photoshoot with Sarah and Emily last night (now that's a story in itself) .. so here's one of  the pics Sarah/Emily took.  Yes I know I look like a startled deer caught in the headlights but you try handing over your camera to a 5 and 3 year old ...

I whiled away a couple of happy hours at the Pippin after school yesterday with some friends from school to celebrate Donah completing her Teacher Training qualification.  Way to go Girlfriend!  I'm really excited about starting full time at the school in September ... so life is pretty good at the moment.

Plans for the weekend ? ... this afternoon the girlies are in a parade in the park with their creations from an art workshop they were part of at school (currently its tipping down here so I'm not sure how that one will pan out), the weekly trip to the laundromat, Dave has an arms length list of DIY jobs needing doing round here (but as he is like a bear with a sore head this morning thanks to a massive hangover I can't see any boxes on that list being ticked) and tomorrow is the start of the Embellished Idol competition - (am soooooooooo excited I can't wait). 

I shall be back with more pics soonest.

Till then ... have yourselves a happy lil' weekend. MWAH

Time for a whistle stop visit and a catch up...

So since I last visited I have been busy at the ScrapGenie warehouse sale, was a tag rugby trylines mum for an afternoon, had a marvellous time at Scrapagogo retreat, celebrated Princess Sarah's 5th birthday, busy getting ready for my school interiew (today 11am - hold thumbs), packing for a quick visit to Scrapaganza tomorrow, a sales team meeting on Sunday and a training day with Mr Pickle on monday.  Still with me?

Lets start with the wonderful world of tag rugby, and yes I did turn in to one of those over excitable parents at the try line, fortunately Hannah and Kate are only verging on the cusp of being embaressed by their mother so I reckon I'm safe to be a little over enthusiastic for a couple of months yet.  The girlies came home very happy as their team had won the bronze medal.  Have to say I was a bit dubious about my girly girls playing tag rugby but have come round and even invested in rugby ball.  Although my involvement in their park practice sessions extends only as far as holding the camera ... tag rugby definitely falls under the "Daddy's area of responsibility" category.

   

 

My lil' girl turned 5 on the 11th of this month so there was much before school excitement in our house on Wednesday.  We have the birthday party yet to come ...

Had a lovely weekend away at the Scrapagogo retreat, partook in fantastic classes by Shimelle, Jane, MaryAnn and Fiona (yet to finish off my projects girls will post as soon as I've done so), enjoyed the fabulous company of Ann, Jude, Nicky, Ally, Chelles and MaryAnn (plus quite a few more wonderful peeps), had my photograph take by Cheryl .... and even managed to complete a layout or two while I was there.

Well think I've waffled on enough for now dahlinks ..till next time ... BE HAPPY!!!!

MWAH