Living my dream

The Me Blog

Did anyone else know there is a new book out by Autumn Leaves about making pages for your "Book of Me"? Or am I really slow? LOL!

Well I found out about it today when I was reading Lee's blog. Very cool. They even have a blog about it with challenges etc. It looks like it just started recently so looks like they're gonna have alot of fun and you can too. I'm really keen to do more about me. More about my life. What I think, how I feel. What makes me tick.

There are just too many people around who keep getting sick and worse and alot of them have young children. Its scary. I want my kids to know me. I want my kids to know how much I love them. I want my husband to know the same. So its time I started actually getting in some of these photos, and did some LO's about me. Check it out for yourself. Grab the camera, or some old photos and start doing some LOs about you! And when you do, let me know. I wanna see!

A timely reminder

Well I was reminded this morning of just how little babies are, and how quickly they grow. What treasures they are, how precious. This morning as I left daycare and looked back I saw Sarah stop jumping on the tramp and just sit there staring at the other kids. Something tugged at the heart strings and I worried for my little girl. That she wouldn't make friends, that people wouldn't accept her. Sometimes I get scared thinking about how innocent they are and how 'mean' the world can be. Its such a big place for my little babies.

I know its only the preggie hormones talking, but the thoughts are there. I guess at the end of the day we can only do our best to teach our children to be kind, considerate, and to think of others while somehow maintaining their individuality and integrity. If anyone has the answer to this, let me know ok?! LOL.

Anyway, since I was thinking about babies, I thought I'd show you a pic of my two as teeny tiny (well 6lbs 12oz and 6lbs 11 oz) babies. So here they are just a few hours old (Sarah on the left and Matt on the right):

And for the first time, here is a scan of our wee bundle of joy at 20 weeks and 2 days:

Bit of this 'n' that...

Today Sarah was counting some magnets on the fridge and she counted to 11, and I thought wow, then she went further. She got to 20 only missing out on 14 and 15. I haven't heard her count like this before so am assuming its daycare. They can both count to 10 and have done so for ages, but 20. Wow, very impressed mother!

And I finally got my baby clothes out to wash and hang on the line. But from boxes and boxes of clothes we only have about 5 stretch and grow type nighty things that are uni sex and NO clothes at all. Oh dear! I can see we're gonna have to do lots of washing once the baby comes and we know what it is.

This weekend coming we plan on getting the draws ready for the wee one. Its actually quite a fun project where we paint them, then put some lovely fabric on the front of them. I'll put some pics up once finished.

For now though, here is a pic taken the other day of the kids in their carseats. Such a typical picture (and not the best one! LOL). Matt is having a bit of fun/joking around and Sarah is quite bored with the whole thing. LOL! (Note the ever present 'dog').

Awards for Excellence part two

Well, yesterday's post was all about me. LOL! But last night I spent the evening reading/looking through the whole Awards for Excellence book and it was really amazing. I loved seeing everyones entries. What LO's won, were publisher awards and commendables. It made for interesting interpretation and I tell you that's why I'm glad I'm not one of the judges for these competitions.

But I really wanted to say a huge wow to the ladies I know who are in there. And comment especially on some of the LO's which took my breath away.

Nic is on the ELITE team this year. Three of her LO's appear in the magazine and they are just AMAZING! I remember seeing them last year and thinking WOW, Nic you're GONNA be on the team. So beautiful.

Marieke Broekman has several LO's throughout the book and her work is amazing. She was picked to be part of the DT and its easy to see why. Stunning use of material.

Loved Rebecca's LO titled A photograph. The journalling is so cool. I think I may even have to use it as a quote on one of mine one day. I'll talk to you first Rebecca! But wow, loved it. Also loved the colours. But I'm having a bit of an 'orange' time right now. LOL.

Lianne also has a couple of LO's in the book. They are fantastic. Especially love the bandana one. Love the sentiment behind it and the metal mesh. Cool.

Nicole Wright has some gorgeous LO's here, and I especially loved her 'Blue Jean Baby' LO. Such a fantastic photo, and loved how all the colours tied in. Wow. What a talent!

Jaimie has a couple of gorgeous LO's in here too. Her work is incredible. I remember talking to her before the comp and how humble she was about her scrapping. Well she was picked to be on the DT and she's had work in I think every issue since? GOOD ON YOU GAL! You are a legend. And so deserve it!

Chris (whom I've only recently found out is really Christine!) has the most outstanding LO on page 50 which is also featured on the front and back covers! Wow. So cool. I LOVE how she did the title, and all the journalling. Stunning.

And did anyone see the pictures by Karen Smith (pg 62) - WOWEE!

Loved Lesley's "Playful" LO on page 76. She used the same colours as the hat in her picture and even made the same fringe which looks amazing. Just such a cool idea and wonderfully done!

Janine has a couple of brilliant LO's highlighted. One in particular I loved. The huge flower with lots of different PP (pg 82).

Now I've gone on a bit here, and for me its unusual as I'm certainly NOT qualified to comment on these amazing ladies work, but I just had to shout out to some buddies and say wow, love these LO's. Congrats to everyone who has a LO in the book and who were picked for the ET/DT. And for those who are gonna give it a go this year....you have until Sept 22nd so get your thinking caps on!

One thing I found myself thinking as I read the book is that I'd love to know how or why LO's are chosen. I would love to be a fly on the wall when the entries came in and see what tickled the judges fancy so to speak. Purely selfish of course so that next time I could send in the 'perfect' LO's and be part of the team. LOL!

Whoops I've just had Andy yelling up the stairs that he's gonna shoot the kids so I'd better take off. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Can you tell its gotten me thinking?! LOL. Have a good one.

Awards for excellence

My book finally arrived today. I've been hearing about other girls getting theirs over the last couple of weeks and had almost forgotten this would arrive on my doorstep. And my LO is on page 75. So stoked. I still love this LO. Pity you can't read all the journalling, but here it is just for you, LO and journalling:

When my sisters started having children they would have rows of teeny tiny shoes in their hallways. I used to love those rows of little shoes and dreamed of one day having my own child to start my own row of small shoes.

Then, just the other day, sitting at the beach I looked over and saw this….Matt’s foot, resting in the sand as he played. A teeny tiny little foot that Andy and I had brought into this world.

We weren’t doing anything special….it was just another day at the beach, but it hit me that I was living the life I had always dreamed. It may not be glamorous, highly paid or even recognized, sometimes its not even fun. But I’m doing it, living my dream.

We played a bit more, and started the walk home. But unlike normal, those little feet wanted to walk by themselves. Those teeny tiny feet belonging to my children are growing up. Very soon they would be big feet, filling big shoes.

As we opened the door and went inside, taking off shoes and jumpers, shaking off the sand. We lined the discarded shoes up along the wall, and I smiled as I saw my very own little row of shoes.

One of those comments you just don't want to forget

I showed the kids Up2Scrap this evening just before they went to bed. In particular my LO of Sarah. We kinda had a wee talk about what she was wearing and how cool it was to see her in a magazine. Just as we finished the talk, she pipes up and says "Is Matthew here?" It was so cute. And typical of how close my babies are. Just luv em to bits.

Lots to catch up on

Well today was the kids first expedition at daycare. They went to the local fire station which is only a short walk away. I went as mother helper and got to take photos. It was so much fun. All these little kids wandering along, holding hands talking about the fire station, fire engines, firemen. They were so excited. We even got to see a digger on the way. Made Matts morning! When we got there the firemen did a wee talk, showed us all the clothing they wore, putting it all on including the mask/breathing apparatus. They even had a wee outfit to dress up one of the kids. It was so cool. Then they drove the fire truck out of the station and around the back where all the kids were able to get on. All week Matt had been saying he wanted to drive the truck, but when it came time, he was scared and just stood there. Poor wee mite. But he and Sarah did get to go in the back of the truck! Then they let the kids play with the hoses (with the help of one of the firemen). They got to hold it, turn it on and off and make the spray wider. Again my two were a little nervous but with some help from Mum to get them started, they were fine. Just brilliant. Take a look at wee Matt in the shot of them both. What a classic! Here's a couple of the 'bad' photos to give you an idea. I've got better ones which I wanna scrap so you'll have to wait to see the page before you see them ;)

Other stuff. I'm now fighting off another cold and feeling shot. Never ends huh? I actually went to a wonderful lady this morning who does accupuncture/massage to help prepare you for labour and prior to that helps with pain. Boy did she help me today. FANTASTIC! And when we were doing the accupuncture she positioned one of my arms so my hand was on my baby bump. As this happened I had the weirdest feeling. Like my baby was reaching up to touch my hand. At the same time, I saw it in my mind. I know! Sounds really strange and weird and if I read this on someones blog I would think they were nuts, but its something I want to remember, so its going in here. It was one of the coolest things and really made me feel connected to our wee one.

Ok, scrap stuff. Have you seen the July Heidi Swapp newsletter? She is holding a promotion in it for water photos. She wants 3-5 water photos that go together that she will scrap for you herself (if yours get picked), plus you'll get a whole heap of goodies too. Don't have a link for it, but do still have the email. Let me know if you want it and I'll forward it on.

Oh and I got my copy of Up2Scrap today. Loving this mag. Its getting better and better each time. This one had a heap of stuff in it which is so inspirational and a heap of amazing kiwi ladies whom I have the pleasure of knowing. Go girls!!!! Can't wait for the next one now.

Tarisota....who else is getting this amazing pack each month???? Wow is all I can say. Mine arrived yesterday and its so scrummy. I finally bit the bullet and paid for a sub rather than buying it each month. Yay. It has the most gorgeous stuff in it and well worth the money in MHO. I can't help myself and get the whole lot, just couldn't miss out on a single piece of the gorgeous product. Awesome.

Well, kids are up from their short afternoon sleep soon, so better go get organised. Have a great day.

Couple of links

Just had to post these....

Thinking of Grey's anatomy which is on tonight. Don't ya just LOVE that theres a new guy on the block (Dr McSteamy, Sigh). Gets better every week. Especially why he's there. Interesting. Well, if you wanna get a bit more up on the play check out the Grey's Blog as written by one of the writers of Grey's Anatomy!

Also, saw this on 2peas. Its a really cool site which does rubber stamps and has some under the 'new' section which are almost identical to some of the BG wholly cow rub ons. So if you wanna get that look all the time - run to Purple Onion right now and put in an order!

And last but not least if you're in Oz and wanna try something a bit different go check out this site. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but 'think' its a bit like trade me or ebay where you can list things to trade, BUT no money changes hands. Sounds too good to be true right? Well I've had it on good authority from some Aussie girls that it works!!! Check out Freecycle.

Weekends almost over

Well, its Sunday night and nearly time to start a new week. Its been a long weekend. But a good one. I've been so grateful to have Andy here. About 3 days ago my preggie pelvis started to do the whole split thing and I'm finding it really difficult to move. I still find it amazing that things like this are happening with a single baby and they didn't happen with the twins. I seriously would have thought there would have been more strain on the ole bod then?! Go figure?

So I've been trying to take it easy. But I find this so hard to do. Anyone else like that? I mean I can't just sit around. For one thing its boring, but for another, there is so much to do, and if I'm not 'doing' anything I wanna scrap (and this isn't good cause the legs are down not up! Hmph). Anyway....I can't believe that this Tues we'll be 34 weeks which means only another 6 to go. Its really hit me lately that we will have another little baby in the family soon and well, WOW!!! I'm so looking forward to it.

The kids have been really cute lately too. Their big thing at the moment is going around telling everyone/everything that they love it 'soooooo much'. Big grin! So of course the baby is involved in this and they will often come up to my tummy in the day and give it a big kiss and say they love the baby sooooo much. Whew! Lets hope it lasts once baby is here and screaming?!

And scrapping news.....I've been stuck on one LO for days. Just can't get my head around where to put the journalling. I think I've worked it out now, but its a matter of logistics and how to do it. So it may just sit there another night?! LOL.

And huge congrats to the ladies chosen for MME's DT. After seeing some of the names and their work, I'm just blown away and can't believe I even entered, WOW!!!! But hey. I still love my LO's so thats cool.

OK, going to try and work out this journalling.....maybe?

Have a good one.

CJ's

Circle Journals are FUN. They allow you to do small pages which don't take much time on lots of different and varied topics. They allow you to see and keep lots of your friends gorgeous pieces of work.

I have just finished being in one CJ which started March 2005. It had 18 people in it and took over a year to come home. But it was so worth the wait. It was only a tiny wee book (4x4") so now it doesn't close. But I think that's part of its charm. LOL. At the same time I received mine back, I also received the last one I needed to complete before it went home. So I quickly finished it and sent it on its way. The topic was 'art' and I shared about my friends Mum who was an artist and gave me two of her paintings when she was dying. They are very special to me.

Here are some pics (my CJ first, then my page for Coby's CJ).

I also 'threw' together this LO about my Nana and the last birthday party we had for her (its straight IRL). There is more journalling under the main photo which is a bit more 'real'.

Also for the preggie Mum's out there who are sore and tired (read me, LOL), spare a thought for the Japanese woman who is pregnant with FIVE (yes, 5) and is now bigger around her tummy than she is tall!

He's home

Yesterday was so great.

After 10 days away Andy returned home.

Up until now every time he's gone I've thought this is the time the kids really noticed. But this trip it really was. About 2 days ago as I was putting them to bed, Matt started crying "I want daddy back". Of course this set Sarah off. It broke my heart. But what can you do? So they got lots of cuddles, and luckily were told it was only a few more days until he was back. Then on Monday they were told he would be home 'tomorrow' and we would go to the airport to pick him up. I keep forgetting what great memories they have cause first thing yesterday morning, they KNEW. Matt couldn't stop talking about daddy and going to see planes. Even asking to go ON one. LOL.

They were dynamite! I don't think I've ever seen them as excited as they were yesterday morning. In fact so much so that for the first time ever I put them in front of TV straight after breakfast. I needed to get a few things done around the house. And they weren't helping. LOL. The funny thing was that as soon as they saw him they shut up. And I mean totally. Not a peep from them. Andy was trying to talk to them and ask them about their week etc and nothing. Weird. Anyone know what that's about? After about an hour they were back to the dynamite stage so thats fine. And we had a good afternoon. They even slept for AGES!

Well its daycare for them today and I'm gonna do a bit of scrapping. I've got a CJ to finish which has been going since March 2005. I'm the last person on this one, so its nearly home. I'm quite excited about it, but its a hard topic. 'ART'. We'll have to see what I come up with. I also got mine back from the same group and its GORGEOUS. Will post some pics/comments later this week.

Have a good one.

PS: So much for being 'tricky'. I forgot Andy has his laptop with him at airports and he was doing something half way home (in Singapore) and read the first two lines of my last post before it crashed. He freaked. And in trying to read what was going on it crashed another 7 times! Poor guy. It never does that. So anyway, we get in the car at Auckland airport and he starts hinting he knows. ARGH! I nearly die. LOL. But due to the laptop crashing he hadn't seen the pics so I was able to show him in real. He was very very impressed, but a little worried I had overdone it. Especially when he saw what I'd moved. But I'm fine. Very sore and stiff on Sat night, but fine. Thanks for all your comments. Its so cool to get feedback here.

Busy wee beaver

Ok, so Andy's on the plane now so won't be checking in for a few hours! hehehe. So I can share what I've been up to this weekend with you all. LOL! I have been a busy busy wee beaver.

I finally stopped fighting the fact that I don't want to be in this house when the baby is born, resigned myself to the fact we will be here and have got my A into G and actually done something about it.

Step 1: As hubby has been away under no circumstances tell him what you are planning for fear he will forbid you to do it (after all you are 7.5 months pregnant)

Step 2: Move all the stuff in the downstairs walk in wardrobe to my sister Angies garage for storage (after all we don't want clutter when we finally do go to sell do we?!). THANK YOU ANG!

Step 3: Buy a few extra bits of storage so it will all fit and not appear tooooooo messy when we sell and so I can still use it easily now.

Step 4: Move my scrapbook stuff from the 'spare/play' room upstairs to the spare room downstairs wardrobe.

Step 5: Somehow get large set of drawers (see white draws in pic - these hold just my alphas. Hmmm, do I have an alpha problem or what?!) from car into downstairs room by myself (aren't blankets great, so slippery across the floor! LOL!)

Step 6: Put together kitset cubes, and everything into the right draws etc.

Step 7: Clean rest of upstairs bedroom, move stuff still in there around to suit a babies room. Put up cot and make cot (note we have a portacot set up here which is for one of the twins when they sleep during the day).

Stand back and admire your handywork (this took me two days, not the admiring, the moving LOL!).....

Hey, also for the scrappers out there, check out this site: scrapblogs. Its only new, but is getting scrapping blogs together in one spot. Looks great considering how new it really is! Check it out.

Oh, and more cool news. Got an email from Up2Scrap today. They are after 2 of my LO's for the next issue. Yay!!! Thanks Up2.

Had to show you this...

Check this out for a cool new toy. Cause Andy travels a fair bit he brought some video cameras which he's connected up to Skype (Skype is a really really cheap phone connection (0.01c to China) and you can either buy a standard style phone or use the computer). Well we did a few tests the other night and here are some classic pics. Will be so good for Andy to see the kids when hes away and vice versa. Awesome.

Thanks everyone

Its nice to know there are still some nice people out there. Thanks guys! And you were right. Not a single person offered to help. I couldn't believe it. One lady did stare at me and smiled. Well hmph to her. LOL.

And Ruth, you are a character! Loved your answer. LOL. I tell you, wee Matt has hit the terrible twos with a bang over the last couple of weeks and is just dynamite! I haven't seen (or heard) anything like it and I must admit its thrown me a bit. But thankfully due to lots of previous experience with the naughty rug (or spot when we're out) they know that Mummy is serious when I say they'll go on it and it does work.

You might remember how I in my preggie hormonal state (well that's what I'm saying) somehow ruined our little point and shoot camera by leaving it in a puddle of water in the bottom of the kids buggy. Well, last weekend we went and brought a new one. We were keen on the Canon, but the time delay was HUGE (and after an digi SLR I couldn't handle that) so we went for a Sony. I still like the ole Fuji Finepix, but Andy has some issue with the whites. Apparently they aren't *that* white. So anyway, here it is. My gorgeous new point and shoot. Just take a look at that screen!

And I have to say a huge thank you to Rachel Eadie who made my day this morning when she emailed saying 'thanks' for my part in Amy's motherhood album. Glad you like it and are enjoying all the gorgeous work in this wonderful album.

A question for you

A woman who is heavily pregnant is half way through paying for her shopping at the local supermarket when the fire alarm goes off.

Everyone is told to evacuate.

You notice she goes across to a toy whale where 2 x 2.5 year olds are playing. Obviously her children, and she is trying to be calm, but still get them to leave the whale/store so they are all safe.

Its only the childrens second week at daycare and they haven't had a sleep and are not co-operating, in fact are starting to have tantrums cause Mum is cutting short their turn on the whale and they are tired.

She is trying to safely get herself and her children out of the shop and is starting to panic (just a little bit) as her children won't leave and she can't pick both of them up due to her big belly. Eventually she explains that if they don't come with her right now they will going on a naughty spot, and they leave safely.

As the observer, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?