Living my dream

Sunday shake up

Yesterday was my Mum's birthday (happy birthday Mum). She requested photos of all our get togethers over easter. I sat for a day working through from 2005 - 2010 Easter photos. Finally settling on 249 pics, editing them, and getting them printed. I then put them in an album with the dates at the beginning of each year and got a couple of my favs printed in black and white and put them in a frame for her wall.

And yes, I'm getting to my point.....LOL.

When I gave them to her today, she and my sisters (and our kids) loved looking through them. Seeing the growth over the years, seeing the changes, and additions to the family. Seeing the tradition kept alive. It was memoryville for all of us.

I had noticed the same thing putting it together. I kept finding myself going back to the album, again and again.

So, getting to my point.... this weeks shake up is really pretty simple. Take a walk down memory lane. Grab a cup of tea/coffee, sit down at your computer for 5 mins, pick a random file from your photos and start browsing. Make it at least 3 or more years older, then see where it leads you.

Enjoy.

A photo I took today on a walk along (I think) Manly beach.
 

Saturday sketch day.....whoops its Sunday

Where did that Sat go?

Sorry about that, here is this weeks sketch......

PS: Did anyone stay up late last night to watch the end of LOST? I'm still lost about a heap of things. Sigh. But I have my theorys. Anyone wanna share their ideas/theories?

Aitutaki - paradise

OMG. If you are thinking that you need a break, somewhere to wind down, and really get away from it all. Then you need to take a look at going to Aitutaki. We (Andy and I) took off there last Thurs morning, arriving back late last night. When we first got there I have to say we thought it wasn't as 'professional' as Fijji. And we still think that. But when you wake up to this on your doorstep:

or this:

then the need for the flash hotel/motel/bure soon disappears.

And yes, the blues were really that blue. We would sit in the bar having drinks, a cocktail (one just like this) for me:

or this fishbowl:

And I would say to Andy (more than once) how I couldn't believe how we could see every colour blue in the world, in one place.

We took a boat cruise out snorkelling for a day and found 'Heaven'. Yep, its actually called Heaven and this is why:

A little piece of sand 200-300 mtr walk through ankle deep water, from a little island, that you can hang out on, swim near, enjoy the solitude.

Love this shot of Andy and our footprints. Sigh.

 We snorkelled for 2 hours that day seeing the most amazing colours, the most incredible coral with little fish in it. The coolest warm waters that meant we never got cold. It was out of this world.

And its hard to say that. I've discovered I'm a bit of a snorkelling snob. I've been snorkelling and diving in places that are considered the best in the world. Cairns - the Great Barrier Reef, The Poor Knights in NZ, Fiji, and other places, but Aitutaki was brilliant. In fact I'd almost go as far to say its one of, if not my favourite. So accessable. And amazing for the kids (if they were there). It was in a lagoon so no sharks to worry about. Nice and shallow in alot of places, No big waves. And like I said, abundant fish and water life. Sigh.
 

And check out that chick there. She's even wearing togs and feeling pretty comfortable due to the 14kgs she's not carrying around anymore! LOL.

Ok, I've got work to do, so am gonna go off and do it. I'll upload some other photos in the next couple of days.

Later. 

Just saying....

Andy and I have been enjoying some down time.

Sunday shake up

Last week was all about building up someone else.

This week its all about you.

That's right. Every time that little voice inside your head says something negative, I want you to be kind to yourself, and tell it to 'rack off'. Literally. Yep. Literally.

You are an amazing person. You are individual. You are unique. And you have your own special and interesting talents. YOU DO! So stop putting yourself down. Start lifting yourself up.

Quieten that nagging inner voice and embrace yourself. Your creativity. Your fun. Your passion. Your love. You.

I have a couple of friends who every time they finish a LO they lift it up, examine it and exclaim with enthusiasm and gusto "This is the best LO I've ever done". Then they put it away and get on with the next one/thing.

What an incredible way to think. What a motivating way to think. What a free way to think.

And this week, its the way you are going to think.

Saturday sketch day

Here is this weeks sketch. Enjoy.

Family catch up - photo heavy

We've been quite busy over the weekend with lots of kids 'activities' happening.

First was the ant farm....

We read about this in a book a little while back and decided that it would be as good a time as any to get it going. I told Matt what he needed and he went off and gathered all the supplies, then Andy helped gather the ants from our compost bin....

 
It was carefully all put together and they are now watching to see if/when the ants will make a nest in the glass jar.

Next was Matt's sharks. He created a ton of tiny paper sharks, put them all over the house, then added a sign to warn the fish that sharks were about. Too cute! Can you tell he'd been to the boat show?! Yep!

I'm wondering what a sufficient enough amount of time is to take them all down?

Then this morning was the kids cross country. It was set up so well with lots of balloons and streamers...

in all the colours of the school houses. Loud music. Was just like a party.

Matt and Sarah both ran and looked like they had fun. I never get over the way the boys take off like there is a lion chasing them. The testosterone boost must be enormous!

I love how 'into' it Matt is. LOL!

That's looks awfully uncomfortable! I'm not sure what places they came, but somewhere in the top 1/3. Go them!

And what a magical day for it. Now we've got that over, bring on the thunder storms! LOL.

Now I must get on with some work.

Later. 

Sunday shake up

Ok, this one might be a bit deep and meaningful so hang in there with me ok.

Every now and then I start to doubt myself. I wonder and worry why I'm doing a particular thing and what its all about (it could be anything).

And then out of the blue I get someone saying something really cool to me. Like 'believe in yourself. You will be fine. You are doing great' etc.

And it changes things in my mind. I start standing taller again, I start to believe in myself that little bit more and that changes the fact that I can do it. And it grows. Almost like its contagious.

So when that happened to me this week (thank you!), I thought this could be something really good (if not embarressing) to use for our shake ups.

So here it is. All you have to do it tell someone how you feel about them. How you love how they think, or the way they work through things, or that you value their ideas, or worth ethic, or that they CAN do it, or whatever it might be.

And let it be out of the blue. Let it be sincere and let it be from the heart.

Build up someone in your life (friend, sister, wife, husband, acquaintance, you know who!) with just a few well timed thought out words.

I know you can do it.

Oh dear I'm late

but its here...

Potentially very simple, but I dunno, I see a few layers and stuff creeping in there.

And hey, congrats to the ladies who made the SBO DT. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and who the next ones being alluded to are. Exciting times.

T
  

Dusty Attic

I've been asked by lots of people where they can get Dusty Attic from. And I've got good news for you.....

Embellish It has lots of DA ready for you to buy. Not all of it is on their site, but I know Rachel (the owner) and how lovely she is, and if there is something you'd specifically like, she will try and get it in for you. So take a look above, see if they have what you'd like and if not, send her an email.

Things that have excited me today

• Dinner - Italian lamb patties and salsa. Yummo.
• Andy talking about the accounts he's working on ... "do you think the accountant will like the purple drawing or the decorated edge?" (one of those 'guess you had to be there moments).
• Walking past the kids playroom and seeing the floor - Dan and I tidied it yesterday and its still clean!
• Getting an email from one of the Mum's at school complimenting me on my weight loss. How nice was that?!
• Chatting and giggling on the phone this morning with a friend.
• My cup of tea sitting in front of me, waiting to be drunk.
• Looking forward to going back to 'boot camp' tomorrow morning. Its only been one week since I've been but I miss it.
• Twilight. I am totally and utterly hooked on this series. OMG. I'm halfway through book number 2 and just can't put it down. Its interferring with my 'work'.
• Getting another class kit sorted. And working out ways to order all that I need. So exciting.
• Picking peas off the vine this morning for lunch. Gosh they were nice!

Hope you had some exciting stuff happen today.

Scary stuff for a technophobe

I did it. I finally just gave it a shot and linked my blog through to Facebook. So you might be reading this in Facebook, or my blog. Either way, I'm pretty excited. LOL. Go me (thanks for the encouragement Rachel).

So thought I'd update with some photos of some work I've done for Addicted to Craft and the SIA show over in Aussie.

I was lucky to be asked to work with some Rouge de Garance and Memento papers. Ones I haven't worked with too much before, and they were sooooo gorgeous. I loved the brightness of the colours and the fun embellishments I had to work with. So here ya go....

See those 'a's' sticking out either side of the photo? They are actually the backside of the manufacturer strip that is cut off paper before its used. I decided it looked cool and I had to use it, and whala, there it is.....and a close up

This one uses Memento papers and Rouge de Garance stickers, plus I used my cuttlebug to cut out that title.

 This shows off the Rouge de Garance papers, and embellishments. I inked some of them black to get the colours I wanted.

I also made the journaling on my computer, so that it would print white onto black. Easy if you know the trick. I will be showing you how to do this in one of my classes coming up.

And you'll notice in this one how the paper is popped up. This gives a really great 3D look to a page, without adding tooooo much dimension.  
 This next one was made in honour of my friend Jane. Every now and then (like all the time!) I think of our friendship and how it has spanned not only the years, but also different countries, different partners, children, dramas and excitement. I am always grateful to have a friend like Jane and will always feel super rich for having her in my life.

This LO also uses Rouge de Garance papers, including some lovely Prima embellishments in the form of flowers. Yummo.

While sitting at my desk staring at the gorgeous Memento range and trying to work out what I wanted to scrap about, I realised I hadn't done a LO about our chooks. So decided that they would feature. I'm actually pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 
 
Thanks for stopping by.

T 

Happy mothers day

Happy mothers day to all the Mum's out there. I know, its one of those over commercialised 'days', but its a good reminder of why and how we all got here. And its kinda nice to be spoilt, so I'm going with it.

In the spoiling stakes I got to sleep in for aaaaagggggeeeeesssss this morning which was lovely. During that time I was given some beautiful cards, and 2 new beads for my Pandora bracelet. So so spoilt.

This afternoon we hung out at Andy's parents place with a couple of his sisters and families. It was really nice. It was the first time I've been out since Monday night so was a big deal for me. I'm feeling way better. But still a little heavy on the chest. I'm hoping come tomorrow I will be totally aok.

When we got home, I asked Andy to take a pic of my kids and I.....

We took 11 photos to get this 1 semi good shot. Actually I kinda like it. Bumma I didn't move the chair and scooter and and and. LOL.

So to tie in with our mothers day theme, I'd like our Sunday shake up to be about Mum's. I challenge you this week to carry on the mothers day theme and do something else special for your Mum. I know its not always easy to do this, as we don't all get on with our Mum's, but I recon, they did the best they could for us with the resources and information they had, so why not just take a deep breath, suck it in and do something. A phone call. An email. A letter. A dinner (maybe even make it for her?!). But make contact and don't let Mothers day end today.

Go on, dare ya.

T

A share of scrapping and life...

Thought I'd share some stuff that has been going on, including this latest LO I completed after days of sitting on my desk. It started out in my mind so different to this, but I'm calling it quits, putting in in an album and calling it done! Yay.

I used glimmermist and an old Maya road 'sheer sheet' to create the background. Then added lots of gorgeous Prima flowers, some old Heidi Swapp plastic letters and of course a stunning Dusty Attic gate (inked black).

If you know my work, you'll know I love to use those cute little white tags to add dimension and usually dates to my LO's. This time round, I've used them for my journaling.

You can see I've even taken a leaf from my own sketches and used a couple of round photos. Considering there was only some steps in the background, its a good option for these photos.

I haven't really mentioned much personal stuff lately. It doesn't mean we're not having fun with our kids, chooks and garden, more that there is just so much going on, that I can't keep up. LOL.

So a couple of things that have taken my fancy....

1. Dan talking on a play phone to his best buddy Daniel T. "Hi. How are you? Are you good? What are you doing today? etc etc. A really lovely conversation ensued. He's definitely growing up.

2. Sarah got 'star student of the week' this week. They get their photo up on a board and fill in details about themselves. Sarah's response to what she wants to do when she grows up? "To scrapbook like Mum". Ahhhhhhh.

3. Matt has been going great guns at rugby. This morning before he left to play he declared that he would only try and score 1 try. Oh, I said, why's that? Because I have sore feet he replied. Ok. As it turns out he scored 5, and got player of the day. Go Matt.

4. With my cold, I've been a big wuss and have had a fire each day for the last 3 days. I know. Its not really that cold yet, but it made me feel nice and cosy. So hey, I went with it.

5. I am busy trying to pull together some classes, and another fun thing. Wish me luck. This is the hard part.

6. Scrapping wise.....I see Hambly have a DT call at the moment, and Prima have just finished their call. I can't wait to see who will be part of these amazing teams. Good luck to anyone who has or is going to apply.

Later.

Saturday sketch day

Here's something for you to try out....circlular photos. For those who remember the early creative memories days, photos cut into circles were a big thing! We've since gone through many years of square or rectangular photos as the 'fashion'.

So I thought we'd try something a little different, and give the ole circular photos another go...