A Creative Life

Busy is an Understatement

Who would of thought life could be so insanely busy!!  I guess that just goes with the territory of having 5 kids and one being a newborn and another a 2 year old!  Amidst all the chaos there have been a couple of priceless moments, like Kaitlyn trying to breastfeed her doll!  Paul was even able to capture this on his iphone, so I must pester him to give me a copy of the file to share here as it was one of the cutest things to witness!  I was getting tea ready and peeked around the corner to check if Ashton was still asleep and there she was, on my feeding chair, top pulled up with a dolly held close to her, I just chuckled so much at the sight!!

Now, the other funny incident, really was not so funny at the time, but again, a priceless incident, this time involving Ethan.  At first I was so shocked to see this dark bruise on his chin when I picked him up from school.  I immediately asked him what happened....Ethan: "So and so (name removed to protect the innocent) punched me in the face.  I was so taken back!  My goodness how can a reception child, a 6 yo be capable of such a punch and why on earth had the school not called me.  I asked Ethan for more details and he said the boy wanted his donut that I packed for him for recess.  I was so appalled by this I knew we had to speak to the principal and find out what could be put in place to ensure this didnt happpen again.  Well, the following day Paul spoke to the deputy principal and got the REAL story!!!  My goodness, I discovered I have quite the master liar under my roof!!  Aparently there were a few of them playing chase and Ethan ran into a pole!!!  Quite different to the story my son was reporting!  I was so shocked that he would lie so elaborately.  Needless to say he had a very stern talking to.  But now in hindsight, when I am not totally embarrassed by his actions I can have quite the chuckle over it!  Mind you, he had better not try it on again as he might think it was worth it as he definately got a lot of attention out of the incident.

To make life fun this week, I was trying very hard to get my scrapbooking deadlines up to date and a certain infant was doing his best to make it difficult.  I did get one day where he snoozed the day away and I was able to complete a mini album and some cards, so once again I am up to date and it is such a good feeling!  My problem is that i have a couple of creative ideas and since that day, the little fella has decided that sleeping without being held is a no go zone!!  In fact only now as I type this post has he slept during the day without being held, but I was holding him for 45 minutes before I put him down! 

Now while he was sleeping I snapped these couple of pics to show just how much he is filling out. 

He has gained almost 1.5kg since he was born.  He even sports a baby double chin and his thighs are well and truly filling out now!  I even managed to get a couple of smiles out of him this week!  I look at these pics of him and I swear it could be Ethan as a baby!  Sometimes I also see a lot of Lachlan as a baby in him as well, especially those lovely lips!

I have also had a couple of LO's up on the Color Combos Galore site in the last few weeks.  When I first saw the colours, I inwardly groaned as I am not a girl who enjoys working with earthy tones, but I still accepted the challenge and created these 2 layouts.

 

 

When I printed out these colours they were a little different to what they look like on the screen but you get the idea.

We are heading into a record breaking week here in Adelaide if the temperature forcasts are correct!  A heat wave in November!  We have not even got to Summer yet and they are predicting a week of temperatures over 35 degrees celcius!!  That is just plain cruel in my opinion!  It will be the hottest week on record for November if the forecast comes to fruition!  Lets hope they were wrong, there are some records I am happy not to see set!

Just to finish on... if you could see my little girl right now, sitting on the chair with me, trying to put on Ashtons tiny 0000 shorts!  Seriously too funny for words!  TFL!

I Survived [just]

Well 7 days straight of Paul working nights and I managed to survive!  I have to confess to not a lot of sleep, in fact most nights I could only get about 3 hours sleep, so I wont say I was very good company!  But we all came out the other end alive!! Ashton doesnt believe in sleeping more than 3 hours at a time, often only 2 hours before his hunger clock awakes him!

Tomorrow a nurse is coming for a home visit for his 4 week check up!  I think they took pity on me having 5 kids and arranged a home visit rather than me having to go to the clinic!  Now who am I to complain!!  I will be very interested in how much weight he has put on.  He is now developing a double chin and little baby rolls of fat on his legs, so I am guessing he has put on a bit of weight.  The last time he was weighed he was just under 2 weeks old and he was only marginally above his birth weight, but now that he is over his jaundice he is gaining weight rapidly, well I think he is by how he looks!

I havent taken any pics this week, all too hard due to the lack of sleep issues I was having and often I find photo shoots a little stressful as children and babies are rarely co-operative and I didnt think it would be wise to put them through me getting very frustrated with them!

In fact all last week was about making sure life was kept as simple as possible.  I let the housework take a break, other than doing the dishes and a few loads of washing, but the vacuuming was allowed to wait until this week, as well as the bathrooms!!  I have also been so very lucky to have the ladies from church bring me meals all last week!  It couldnt have been timed better as it was one less thing I had to think about each day and the kids have loved the variety!!  Even better, 2 more weeks of this luxury to go!  I could not thank these wonderful ladies for all their generosity enough right now.

Scrapbooking has taken a bit of a break this week as well, but I have some projects I need to do, so I really have to get back into the swing of things, but right now it is easier to not think about it too much.  I did have a layout for the Prima BAP go up on their site.  It was a double LO sketch and I have to confess that I followed the sketch pretty closely as I just wanted to get it done!  It really is a great way to get LO's done when you are feeling time poor.

 

I had a funny conversation with Cameron this week.  We were driving home from school and he tells me that he wants us to have another baby!  I say, arent you sick of having brothers and a sister yet?  Cam: "No, I love having a baby brother"  Me:  "Are you going to have lots of kids when you are an adult?" Cam: "Yes" Me: "Do you know how much hard work it is having so many children? Do you realise it is you kids that make me so busy and stressed out?  Do you really want to have all this?"  Cam: "It will be fine Mum, I will get my wife to do all the work!!!"   Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!  What are we doing wrong??  How can I be creating such a sexist little monster and Lachlan has chirped in at times with similarly sexist comments in the past!!!  I seriously hope that Cam was just trying to stir me up, but sometimes things said in jest often have a hint of truth to them.

IF i DIDN'T SEE IT I WOULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!   Ashton rolled over from his tummy to his back!!!  He has only just turned 4 weeks old!!  What the????  He could hold his head up from the moment he was born and both Paul and I have been very careful when he is on the change table as he is very wriggly and can get from his back to his side, but tonight I had him on his tummy due to him being very unsettled and he rolled from his tummy to his back, 5 times!!  Yep, I kept thinking it was a fluke but by the 5th time I had to concede this little boy is a very early roller!  TFL,

Full House

All of last week, Lachlan was on school camp in Canberra.  I will admit to being a little concerned with him travelling such a long distance on a bus, but he was so excited.  There was one major advantage to him being on camp.... no fighting in the house.  It was so incredibly quiet all week!  But then Friday came along and it took all of 5 minutes and the fighting errupted!  In an instant I went from being oh so glad he was home to wondering how it was possible for peace and quiet to be shattered in such a short time frame!

Now that the house was full of all its residents, I decided it was time to take a couple more pictures of the kids together!  Unfortunately the youngest member of the household was not overly co-operative.  Actually lets just say that the 3 younger members all had there tantrum moments just to make life more complicated!!  But I at least have a reasonable photo of all of them together now!

 

Now when I see them all grouped together like this I realise I really do have a bit of a tribe happening these days!

Then little miss had to get in on the action all by herself!  Or maybe it is just me that can not resist capturing pictures of her!

 

I just adore this pic of little miss innocent!!

   

So I took a few pics of Miss K, I just couldnt help myself.

   

The little mischief makers!  They pretend they are sweet and innocent but I know better!!  Then it was time for the oldest and the youngest to get photographed together.

   

How little is Ashton!  He is definately getting bigger though.  His little belly is getting quite pudgy now and even his arms and legs are getting a little bit of fat on them!  My cow like capabilities are paying off!!

And then I see him here, perched on Pauls hand, and suddenly he looks so very very tiny!! Or Pauls hand is just very very big! LOL!!  So this  is this weeks update on little mister Ashton who is now 3 weeks old!  My goodness time slips by so very very fast.  Part of me feels so sad that this newborn stage will slip past before I am ready to let it go, but part of me will enjoy getting more sleep at the same time.

On the scrapping front, I have almost done a layout this week!  Well it is designed and sitting on my table, waiting for me to get some time to stick it all down!  I have been printing off so many photos lately, I just wish I had a little more time for myself to be able to scrap them.  I did however scrap this one on my indulgent weekend prior to having Ashton!

 

As can be seen lots and lots of prima flowers on this one!  I think I have flower issues and guess what.... I dont care!! LOL!!  I have even done a double LO for Prima with pics of Ashton and I have used flowers on that as well.  He is a baby and that makes it fine in my opinion! LOL!!  But dont worry, I am not planning on using pink in his ablum!  I cant go quite that far!  Once again, TFL!!

Baptism By Fire!

The past fortnight has been relatively easy due to the wonderful help of Paul while he has been on leave for two weeks, but that is all over today!  Back to work he goes and I get to see just how life is going to treat me with 5 kids!  He only has to work today and tomorrow this week, but then come Sunday he starts a 7 night straight graveyard shift!  Talk about a baptism by fire for me!  He leaves for work around 10pm and doesnt return until around 8am the next day.  Then sleeps until about 5pm.  So I have to do all the night time getting up to the baby, as well as get all 5 kids ready for school, drop them off and then keep the house reasonably quiet while he sleeps!  I am DREADING this shift starting!  The only reason I can manage 5 kids half the time is because of Pauls wonderful support with them, so this will be a very tough week!  I will survive!!  I hope! LOL!!

Well, I didnt get any pictures over the weekend like I was hoping for!  Time just rushes past so quickly sometimes!  But this morning, Ashton was very awake and reasonably happy, so I decided to take a couple of pics of him with Miss K!  I also took a couple with a Christmas hat on them as I have some Christmas themed layouts that I have to do in the next couple of weeks.  So here are some updated pics and little Ashton even has his eyes open for them!!

 

The next two are the same picture but 1 b&w and the other colour.  Which do you like the best?  I thought that the yellowish colour in the pictures may limit the paper choices so edited most of them in both colour and b&w so I can choose which will be easier to scrap.

 

Now for the Christmas themed pictures!

 

 

Look at that adorable little face!  I think he is going to have big blue eyes like Ethan.  Most people think he looks a lot like Ethan as a baby!

 

She is still miss photogenic, but she isnt as co-operative as she used to be!  I had to work hard to get that smile as she was insisting "I dont like it" referring to the hat! 

I can also share a couple of layouts from Color Combos Galore challenges!  The first one was based on a green and yellow combination, which at first I couldnt help thinking of the Australian Cricket team when I saw it!  I had to banish that visual from my mind before attempting to design a layout!!  I have scrapped a few of the pregnancy pictures that Paul took of me.  This one is about the last 4 weeks always seem to take the longest!

 

Then I did a layout that was journalling based.  I just really wanted to capture the story of Kaitlyns obsession with dogs.  At times I feel it is just so important to record the story so I dont forget later on and this is one of those layouts.  The combo was a yellow, blue, red and white one.

 

I have even managed to scrap a couple of layouts this week!  I have to admit to not feeling overly creative at the moment but the deadlines dont go away so I have to work through it! 

Have you ever missed the perfect photo op because you didnt have your camera??  Well, on Saturday it was my nieces birthday party and she had a party at a swimming centre.  Well, Miss K no longer fit her size 1 bathers from last year, so I had to get her a new pair.  I ended up buying  a size 3 thinking I could get a bit longer use out of it.  Well it fit her perfectly, but you couldnt get a cuter photo opportunity with her baby butt cheeks poking out the sides of her swimmers, little dimples and all!!  She had a ball in the water and is a little too fearless for my liking!  I think this little girl needs to learn to swim, pronto, as she is way to confident in water for a little cherub who can not swim!  I am looking forward to getting some pics of her in those adorable bathers though!!  OK enough ranting from me!  TFL!

Time Stealer

Despite spending so many hours of the day awake, I am actually accomplishing very little due to a very resourceful time stealer!!  He is packaged in such an adorable cute bundle, sweet and innocent, but oh so effective!  I think you can easily forget just how many hours of each day are taken up with feeding, burping, nappy changing and settling a newborn!  No sooner have you completed the cycle and it seems to be time to start all over again!  But one look at Miss Kaitlyn and I am abruptly reminded how short this stage is, how quickly they grow and within the blink of an eye that tiny helpless newborn morphs into a bossy little toddler!

Ashton is still very good, he still seems to have one stint each night of 4 hours sleep, so for that I am very greatful.  He is still a little jaundice and I have had him to the drs and today the dr thought he was looking a bit better which is good.  Ashton even managed to pee all over me at his drs appointment!!  I had to walk out of the clinic with the baby capsule carefully concealing the massive wet patch on my pants as it looked like I had peed myself!!  Boys and their fountains are such little treasures!

I have not taken any more "good" pics of Ashton this week but have plans to set up and take some more tomorrow with all the kids.  Lets hope the best laid plans do not go astray!  It has just been so hectic this week with school going back and having to get back into the routine of it all again.  But tomorrow I have plans to get some really lovely shots of them all together.  Fingers crossed my plans come to fruition.

On the scrapping front I can share the news that I have been chosen for the Aussie Scrap Source DT along with the very talented Kathie Link and Louise Nelson who bring so much diversity to the team.  I had 3 LO's up today on their blog!  Part of me thinks I must be slightly insane to take on such a venture at this time of complete bedlam in my life, but I try really hard to manage my time and committments effectively and so far am all up to date!  So here are the 3 LO's I had up on the blog today.

 

We were asked to do 3 layouts about ourselves or products we loved.  This one is just some random and possibly little known facts about me.  Like the fact I was born at home, I arrived so quickly Mum never had the chance to get to hospital.  Another random bit of info is that I was run over when I was 4yo!  Obviously I survived the ordeal!

 

I just love the new Crate Paper line and was thrilled to be able to work with it.  Dont you just love the unusual mix of colours!  I also wanted the layout to be a bit about me as well, so this is about how I always wanted a daughter, but in the end having one made me realise just how much I love having a girl, like a dream fulfilled!

This is my favourite of the 3 LO's and I had to use the beautiful and feminine papers of Websters Pages!  I feel like I have been pregnant so many times it has become quite normal for me to be in this condition!  LOL!! 

Well, my computer time is at an end, there are little rumbles eminating from the time stealer!!  Once again he is staking his claim on my time and the cycle of feeding, burping, changing and settling happens all over again.  These are the simple joys of motherhood!  TFL!!

Besotted!

I know I should be getting used to this whole new baby thing since it is the 5th time, but how on earth can one wee little baby capture your heart in such little time.  The pure innocence, their dependence, the cute little expressions and just their tiny helplessness completely sucks you in!!  Little Ashton has one of those cute little faces so full of expression.  He has the grumpy little old man look down pat!  Just so very cute. 

He has been so very easy (exception being his second night in hospital where he cried out every 15-20 minutes all night leaving Mummy completely sleep deprived and terrified she was going to have a very difficult baby) but since coming home he has been a little angel. He has a feed around 11.30pm and then goes through until 3.30-4.30am before his next feed. Totally do able for me as getting 4 hours of sleep in a row is enough to keep me sane!!

I want to try and capture photos of him growing up, hopefully weekly for the first couple of months because they change so very fast.  These are a few pics from Friday, not quite one week old yet!

 

Look at that very cute little face!! Total angel!

 

Even when sleeping he can manage a frown!!

Look, I even managed to get a little smile!!  Dont worry, I am not deluding myself that he did it in response to me, just his internal wind!!!!

How about this for a facial expression!!!  I have decided that those gorgeous posed photographs are VERY hard to capture!  Sometimes they object to being posed, even when they are supposed to be asleep!!

  

These were my favourites from the quick shoot!  He is a bit jaundice and the midwife is coming back tomorrow to check how he is and if he will need a blood test or not.  So fingers crossed he will be fine, but he looks quite reddish in all these pics as that is a sign of jaundice.  His little hands are almost blue in comparison to how reddish his face is!

Here are a couple of happy snaps of the children with their new brother.  They literally fight over who can hold him.  Miss K is the worst offender as she has taken to throwing the biggest tantrums when I say no, it is one of the other childrens turn to hold Ashton!!  Luckily she has yet to try dragging him around the house like one of her dolls, but I bet she is thinking about it!!

 

Exhibit A ..... Kaitlyn not holding Ashton, but Oh so wanting to.  Please note the photograph does not show the tantrum that followed, but evidence around her eyes in this next picture shows there was great amounts of crying before her position on the chairs changed!!

These were taken on day 2 in the hospital.

 

Here she is saying shhhh bubby, shhhh, just like a little Mummy!!!

 

Now that we are all home, this is what makes her happy!!!  How proud is she to be a big sister!!  I walked out from the kitchen and saw her with Ashton asleep like this on her chest and I had to grab the camera for a photo!  Just adorable.

I have had a couple of layouts that I did a week or so back go up on the Prima blog.  This was my October BAP for Prima.  We were all challenged to use the Tropics line, which is one of my favourites as I love all the bright colours of this line.  What amazed me was how so many of the DT were able to create quited muted layouts using these papers.  Well, I didnt try and mute it down at all, mine is bright all the way!!

 

I just adore creating flower collages from Prima flowers.  I love to mix up the sizes, textures, shapes and colours of the flowers and end up with a fresh and vibrant bouquet!  I also used glimmermist to colour the prima lace that I edged the circle with. 

I also want to take the time to say how much I appreciate all the well wishes that people have left on my blog for Ashtons safe arrival.  It has been so lovely to read the messages of congratulations on my sweet little mans arrival and I thank you all very much for this!

And Baby makes 5!!

Well my little bundle has arrived!!  And I have already taken lots of pictures!  Oh I am sharing just a few for now!

So lets start with the details:

Ashton Peter Koczwara

3100gms or 6lb13oz, 48cm length and 34.5cm head circumference.  He was born at 11.34am this morninging, Sunday 4th October 2009!

Lets say his arrivial was not without an enormous amount of pain and suffering on my behalf as he decided to present posterior!! Grrrrr!!

I went into labour at 5.30am while Paul was still at work!  I was quite calm with my call, telling him to come home and that was around 5.55am.  Paul was home by almost 7am and we literally threw the bags into the car and left the moment he got home (his Mum was looking after the children) By the time we got to the hospital the midwives took one look at me and thought I would be done within the hour.  But they were wrong!!!  That posterior baby boy sent me to hell and back in the pain department.  I was too out of it with pain to bother with counting contractions etc but Paul said they were coming every 3 mins, lasting 2min 30sec each and giving me only 30 seconds of rest in between.  After about an hour and a half of that, my eyes were rolling in my head, I couldnt keep my head straight, could not talk co-herantly or hold eye contact.  I could hear them but I was literally so delirious with pain I was shaking and all of the above.

Somehow I communicated I couldnt keep going like this with a natural birth and an epidural was arranged.  I think Paul was very relieved about this!!  Mind you the epidural took an hour to work completely.  Which is very frustrating, but once it did, bliss!!!  The next 2 hours sailed along easily and Ashton arrived safely at 11.34am, to a happy but very exhausted mummy!

So here is the evidence, including this shot that was taken within moments of him being placed on my chest!  Cheesy little fella he was!!

Stretched out for his measure!!

He looks so much like his other siblings as babies in this picture

 

The details

A few hours later, look like we have a hand chewer!

 

Lachlan with Ashton. Who was so excited he was telling the neighbours next door!

 

Cameron with Ashton. Poor Cameron has a bad cold and we kept sending him to wash his hands the moment he coughed!  He didn't argue!

 

Ethan with Ashton.  Little Ethan was totally besotted with his new baby brother, but he just had one problem, getting past his little sister to get a hold!  She is one bossy piece of work!

A couple of Kaitlyn with Ashton

 

Oh she looks all sweet and innocent in this picture holder her new brother but I am one very worried mother as she takes posessiveness to new heights!  According to miss K, "he's my dolly!!!, Go away!!" Hmm I have visions of her trying to drag poor little Ashton around the house by an arm or leg in the future!  I am going to have to make sure that this little girl is not left alone with her brother in a room!

So this is our new and expanded family of 5 children!  Wish me LUCK!!!

A Rare Luxury!

Lets just start this post with a MASSIVE thankyou to my friends Lydell and Miranda for organising such a wonderful weekend of kid free scrapping and crafting!  Not to mention the sheer indulgent food that they prepared!  In case you two are reading I just have to slip this line in!!!! Back Fat!!!! ROFLOL!!!  Sorry, I couldnt help myself and that was part of the problem all weekend when there were caremalised tomatoes, dips a plenty, gourmet pizza, cheese fondue not to mention chocolate and white chocolate fondue and tiramasu on offer!!!  I am salivating just typing that!!  YUMMY!!!  Not to mention plenty of crafting!  We began to cover the lounge with all our creations!  3 of the girls sewed all weekend while 2 of us scrapped! I managed to get 3.5 projects completed of which none can be shown at this minute!  But they are done!  I am working like a posessed woman, hoping to get ahead with all my deadlines before bubby arrives and I am ahead at this stage, but finding that I am coming to a bit of a halt while I wait for an order to arrive to be able to get cracking on 4 more LO's!  I almost felt like pulling out the sewing machine again for dress-making purposes, but firmly reminded myslef that my scrapping committments must be attended to first and as such there is literally no time for me to be dabbling in fabric and thread for a little while longer, but I was sorely tempted!!!!

I was naughty though, on the Saturday I found a convenient excuse to duck back home (I live 5 minutes from lydells!), just so I could see my little girl!  She had been in childcare on the Friday and the thought of not seeing her again until Sunday night was too much to bear so I popped back home for 30 mins. Gosh I love that little girl.  The older two boys were rude little snots though!  I get greeted by "what are you doing here, you are not supposed to be back till Sunday"  Yeah, thanks for that boys, I love you too!  Now Ethan, jumped into my lap for a cuddle, so he is still in the good books! LOL!  Mind you, when I came home Sunday night, the house was empty!  It was weird, sort of an anti-climax but nice all in one.  I knew that I had been creatively re-charged as I found it easy to throw a couple of loads in the wash, do the remaining dishes in the sink and pack away the copious supplies I took with me.  Where as before I left the mere thought of housework in any capacity was like a bad nightmare.  Lets see how long that lasts for! 

Now.... I always like to share something I have created with each of my posts and I do not think I have shared this Prima LO as yet, but I do appologise if I have.  It was created for CHA but it has never gone up on the Prima blog.  I just love the cherry blossoms and flutter vines that Prima have released.  A lot of the time I end up cutting them up and using them in pieces but on this occasion I used the whole vine in one. As well as adding a few extra flowers and pearls.

Changing the subject....I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable!  As much as I remind myself that the hitch-hiker is easier in than out, the desire to be comfortable is beginning to win this mind game! It never ceases to amaze me how time seems to stand virtually still in those last couple of weeks!  For instance, I got an email from the lady who won the RAK saying it had arrived safely today.  Now in my befuddled state, I thought, boy that took its time getting there, until I looked at when I received her original email....Thursday and I didnt post the box until Friday and she had it by Monday!  That was VERY, VERY, quick!  How on earth could I have felt so strongly that it was a long time ago that I sent it!  That shows just how stuffed up my perception of time is right now!!  Yet, I have no idea when the baby alarm with go off for me, so I just have to endure the wait, no matter what the time frame is!

One last thing.... My little boy Ethan lost both of his front teeth on the weekend!  Boo Hoo!  I hate it when they loose their two front teeth.  Apart from looking really funny with no front teeth and affecting his speech somewhat as air wooshes out of the gap, it is the undeniable evidence that he is growing up!  That babyish innocence is being left behind and his face will begin to look  a lot older from this point on! I know it is exciting for them, a big deal, a sign they are definately getting older, but sometimes a Mum just wants to hold onto her cute little boy a little bit longer!!

Anyhow.....thanks for stopping by!

Getting Closer

Time seems to just slow down about now! I can almost hear the clock ticking a little bit slower as each day passes, almost mocking my discomfort!  Yes I am whining!  I have managed to get a nasty head-cold, which of course under any circumstances makes you feel a bit lousy, but combine it with the discomfort of being almost 38 weeks pregnant, makes for a very miserable woman!  Then to top it off, I have succumbed to horrid discomfort of cramps. I have been so very very careful to never point my toes and have had a few close shaves over the last few weeks, but this morning while lying in bed they got me!!!  Nothing I could do about it, wasnt even stretching, it just happened!  Mind you I had a bit of warning as each time I go to put on my shoes I can feel it developing in my feet!  I hope this doesnt happen too often over the next 2 weeks as it is sooooooo painful that you find yourself sitting bolt upright, gasping in pain and rubbing the area like a mad woman! Ahh the joys of it all!

I am still scrapping like a woman on a mission!  I just want to get so much done before this baby arrives so I can relax and know that I have met most of my deadlines.  I know I wont get it all done but I just want to make sure I am relatively on top of things!  Obviously a lot I can not share just yet, but bit by bit I will!  I can share my latest LO for Color Combos Galore!  I really didnt think I would be able to get this done and my perfect record of doing every combo since I started would be ruined, but I just managed to sneak it in!

It was a lovely mix of orange, teal, cream and yellow.  I have finally got around to scrapping this picture of Paul and I which was taken at the beginning of this year!  Makes me realise how quickly my hair has grown!  I also find it hard to get pics of the two of us together. We are coming up for our 14th Wedding Anniversary on October 8th.  It doesnt feel like we have been married that long, or that we could be that much older! LOL!

I have also felt the nesting instict kick in!  Loads and loads of washing have been done as I get all the baby gear ready.  A couple of last minute purchases have been made. Not much, just brand new dummies for the baby and a few of the disposable items like nappy sacks and tiny baby nappies.  I havent needed to buy anything much for the baby as my best friend Kym came over last weekend for her Mums 60th and brought me all her 0000 and 000 baby boy clothes, as well as wraps for baby!  Add to that a big box my SIL brought over of various size baby boy clothes and my yet to be born little man has got quite a good closet full of clothes in 0000 and 000 size! My SIL also returned my basinette and a couple of extra items and I cleared out a tiny bit of space in Ethans room and snuck it in there.  Mind you, much to my horror I discovered that Ethan was putting his shoes on the clean basinette sheets!  A stern warning was given!  Now I just need to get around to packing my hospital bags, but that would make me think it could happen any time soon and I am just trying to gear my mind towards the long haul, even going overdue this time, so I am not rushing this at all.

I received a lovely email from Lydell , an invite to her place for a whole weekend of luxurious scrapping, no kids to worry about! She arranged it with Paul that he would look after the tribe for me and let me escape for a whole weekend with a couple of other scrapping friends!  I just joked with her as to who will be the designated driver if I go into labour!  Now I have to organise all the projects I want to complete while there! Mind you, I only live 5 minutes from her place, so if I do forget anything I can always dash home to get it! Hopefully I can organise myself enough! 

Once again, thanks for stopping by my blog! And I will let you in on another little secret very soon! Probably around the time bubby is born and nothing to do with bubby at all! LOL! Dont you just love the teasing! TFL!

Life's Irony!

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the ironic sense of humour life throws your way!  Why is it when you need your sleep the most, like in the last few weeks before your baby is born, that sleep seems to be more elusive!  You go to bed at the same time as usual, but now due to a concoction of baby kicks, bladder pressure, reflux/heartburn, and just plain being uncomfortable, good sleep eludes you!  Then there is the standard response from most women who have been through this same experience.....it is natures way of getting you ready for the sleep deprivation of a new baby!!  How about getting sufficient rest before the baby arrives to give some reserves for the emotions!  You know the ones that are directly related to sleep deprivation that cause an emotional response of crankiness!!  All I can say is "kids, give me a wide berth for a while" and that may just have a double meaning! LOL!

Now going back to last month, when I had a mountain of deadlines looming and I felt totally swamped, one of those projects was guest designing for Scrapz Biz with their september ticklez kit!  Now I have never before been asked to Guest Design for a kit company and I found it very challenging that I could only use what came in the kit, with the only exception being that I could add my own alphas. I am such a products girl, that is often where the inspiration for a LO comes from, but I did my best, but I must admit I kept eyeing off my massive stash of flowers like they were taunting me, willing me to use them, but I stuck to the rules!!  I made 5 LO's and a card from the kit so in my opinion that makes it good value!  So here are my creations.

These first 2 are of my niece Summer and my SIL Leanne (DH's sister).  I literally cut away the kraft lined paper from where the patterned paper went to maximise paper use!  I was barely left with any scraps after these were created.

This is of my other SIL (my brothers wife) and my niece Emily.

I even snuck in a boy LO!  I really need to do more of my boys! Flowers are just more fun though!  I did all of these LO's in 2 days!  I think I was scrapping like a woman posessed!!

OK, now onto the drawing of the RAK!!!  I printed off all the comments, folded them neatly and put them all into a bowl, then asked for a trusty assistant!  Well Lachlans response was "what do I have to do?" Like, there is no way I am doing it unless there is something in it for me!  Cameron immediately says yep, happy to help.  There is an insight into their individual personalities right there!!

So......drum roll please......

So, it is very hard to read but it says Judith!  So if you are the Judith that posted on Sept 1, you are a winner!! Just email me with your address details and I will post you out your package of goodies!! I may have even added a couple more items today as I had to ransack my scrap space to find something and in doing so threw a couple more things in the box!! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!  I am now off to scrap some more! Well, after a few household duties I can not put off any longer! Like clean up my ransacked scrap area!!!