A Creative Life

Cute Conversations

Kaitlyn is captvating me with her cute little conversations. They do not necessarily even have to be with anyone other than herself!  Often while I am driving, I hear her counting away in her carseat.... 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,6 (what????) 7,6,2,3,4,6 (yes there it is again, the number 6!).  Now, just when you think she is a sweet girl, comes the repetition of the same number, 6,6,6! Maybe she is secretly trying to tell me she something!  I have no idea where the fascination with the number 6 comes from, but if you ask her how old she is, more often than not she will say 6!  Sometimes I think she is 2 going on 6 but that is a whole other story!

She sings to herself all the time and just loves to sit on my lap, or climb behind my back while I am sitting on a chair and ask all sorts of questions. Over and over again. Yes the same question, over and over until my patience is worn completely thin and I tell her, I have answered that already. Needless to say I have to repeat that answer several times as well!!  Now I studied primary teaching for a couple of years and one of the techniques I remember being taught was the broken record technique, just keep repeating your request in the same tone, over and over and over until the child gives up.  Well, I tell you what, Miss Kaitlyn has that technique down pat with me, I swear she could out "broken record" me any day of the week.  It becomes mind numbingly aggrevating! Sometimes those little conversations are not so adorable, but that is part of the journey of parenthood!!

Now while I am on the antics of the children, take a look at this face, but I warn you, don't believe that those massive big eyes are totally innocent!!

This little boy is not fooling me with this fake Mr Innocent look!  In one week he has been caught out bullying, lying, swearing and forging parental signatures along with trying to fill his pockets with the bag ties at the supermarket!  OK, the latter is not stealing an item you have to pay for but it is the principle that counts and trying to stuff a handful into your pockets counts as deceiptful behaviour.  I am at a loss as to what is going on in his brain!  On the flip side of all of this he can be adorably loving, and a real little comedian.  Hopefully this time of angst will pass and the adorable boy will take up residence once more. Crossing my fingers!!!!

This week has also seen Cameron buy his ripstick with his birthday money and then I have endured the fights about him not wanting Lachlan to use it!! Brotherly Love at its best!!  Mind you Lachlan got his own back as Cameron had to go to school camp, so he hasnt been home for the last few days, so Lachlan had the opportunity to use it!  But irony of irony, Lachlan ended up with a bout of tonsilitis and has been too sick to make use of this situation!!

I decided to take a couple more pictures of Ashton this week as well.  He has really taken to sitting up by himself now, but has that very unsteady style of a baby just learning a new thing!!  I sat him up in his sleeping basket as at least if he fell backward it would be a soft landing!  I then dragged it to my front door again, for that beautiful natural light and took a few pictures of him! 

 

 

 These last couple of pictures show that he is well and truly in the oral stage of Fruedian development!!  Every single thing makes its way into his mouth and gets well and truly slobbered on.  He still looks pretty cute in my opinion and oh so much like Cameron did as a baby!

I have had a whole new batch of DT assignments given last week, a mag commission, a guest DT request and a whole lot of other things including teaching a Prima class.  I feel suddenly swamped by a whole heap of work but it is over a couple of months, but for some reason, I always feel like they are pressing on me immediately.  Talk about living the saying, no rest for the wicked!!! LOL!!  But like all of these things, most of this work will be a long time before I can share it, besides I have to do the pages first!!

I have had a few things I can share though!  I had to do a LO with Rose Moka Pique Nique range for Aussie Scrap Source blog. It was so very bright and I used a lot of black to break it up and help each of the colours pop on their own.

 

I have also had a couple of layouts on the Prima site too.  I tried to create a digi inspired LO by using lots of Prima stamps and layering them.  This was so daunting to stick together after I had designed it!  Somehow I pieced it back together and I was quite happy with the results.

 

I was also asked if I could decorate up a piece of clothing using the new Prima foam Stamps by Donna Downey.  These are big stamps and they really are quite lovely for stamping onto fabric. I quickly did this t-shirt for the Prima blog.

 

I used both versacraft ink for the flowers and a special fabric paint for the leaves and stems.  I have to admit that the versacraft inks give a nicer result in my opinion and once ironed they are colorfast and wash and wear very well.

Now i mentioned earlier about being asked to teach a Prima class, well it is for SIA in Sydney in May!  I will be teaching a fabulous class filled with great technique for the retailers attending SIA, there will be techniques involving paintables, colouring Prima innoscence flowers, texturising paper and even a bit more!  It is a pretty, girly LO and should be a lot of fun!!  So if you are attending SIA and doing the classes I cant wait to see you there.TFL

Slack or Just Busy?

Sometimes I feel like this little blog of mine has been a bit neglected of late.  I find myself thinking I am becoming a bit slack and then I remember how busy I am. So I will stop thinking I am slack and remind myself of all the things I do in a day.  It just isnt one of my highest priorities, so if you feel like I am taking my time between updates, I apologise and if I can squeeze a bit more time out of a day, then I will update it more regularly!!

Ashton, Ethan and I have all been sick last week.  Ethan had a couple of days off school.  Sometimes I think kids find being sick a bit of a treat when they get to stay at home insead of going to school!!  I couldnt help myslef and got this snap of Ethan with his 2 little siblings on the couch watching television!

I had my camera set up on a chair and took the picture without using the flash.  I am surprised I got this even slightly in focus since the shutter was open for so long, I had to hope the kids didnt move too much!!  Several shots were just a blur of motion! I wish I had a shot of Ashton and Kaitlyn as the focal point as well, you would think I had just done her hair in this shot but I hadnt, I tell you she is just blessed with the most amazing hair!

Then last Friday, the boys all had a day off school and Paul took the 3 oldest boys to the Clipsal 500, a car race around the streets of Adelaide.  I decided to Put Ashton into childcare that day and have a Mummy/daughter day with Kaitlyn on the Friday while the boys did their thing.  Kaitlyn was so cute, she kept saying, Mummy, we are having a "girly day".  We went to the shops, had coffee together, make that a "babycino" for Miss K and bought a few things. It was so lovely to just have some one on one time with my little girl!!  I have to do it again in the future.  After she had her sleep, we went outside and I took a couple of pictures of her out the back, but the light was difficult and I didnt get many that turned out that well.

Now just have a look at how much different light conditions can make to a picture!  This photo was taken behind my house with the sun to the front of the house.  Then the next picture was taken on the side of the house with a bit of late afternoon sunlight filtering through.

The leaves behind are from the same tree, but just a different angle.  It really is amazing to see the difference light makes with your photos. I just love the warm glow the  extra afternoon sunlight gives this picture.

Now the boys were going to be going to the races over the entire weekend, but I didnt like the thought of being alone on the Saturday night while they went to the "sky show" of fireworks, so I decided to join them and we went as the entire family. Paul took his camera, the big monster D200 that I never use as I feel like it is too heavy for me! :) He took most of the pictures that day, but I did have a play with the camera and must admit it is much quicker than mine to focus.  While we were there, Paul took this photo of Kaitlyn on a carosel and I really love it.

Love the motion blur in the background!! I need to look at a few of the other photos he took and edit them up to put on a layout, hopefully there is a sequence of shots that enough are in focus to look fabulous on a LO together. The enjoyment in her face here is truly priceless!

I have had my March BAP LO go up on the Prima site this week. I always enjoy doing the BAP LO's, I think it is because I love having a bit of help with the original inspiration and I find it quick and easy to put together a LO.

  I love my cheeky little girl and the way she tries to avoid the camera at times.  Sometimes you just have to document it!!

This LO has not gone up on the Prima blog, but it was another one of the layouts I created for the Prima Booth at CHA.

Love this picture of my eldest and youngest boys together!  It is hard to believe that Ashton is now 5 1/2 months old now and can even sit up by himself (with several cushions around him in case he topples over). He has very good back and neck control and is possibly the youngest of the 5 to be able to sit up! 

I also had this LO go up on the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  It was created on a brief of being inspired by a single flower.  I had a BasicGrey rubon that I used to enlarge on a photocopier to the required size then I used it as a template to create this paper pieced flower.

 

Now please notice that there were 2 Ashton LO's in this post!!  It isnt all just LO's of Miss Kaitlyn!  I really do try and keep up with his album!!   Now that I have finally done an update, I declare it is way past my bedtime (yes that is the only way to find more hours in your day, just stay up a whole lot later!!), but at least it is done.  Thanks so much for looking!

Sweet Boy

I have been feeling a little bad for not taking so many pics of my baby boy.  I took so many of Kaitlyn as a baby, but she was the first girl.  So I decided this morning to take a few quick pictures of Ashton.  I dragged a couple of chairs up to my front door and threw a white backdrop over them so I could use the natural light in the doorway.  Then I literally lay on my front door mat to take these few pics!!

I wish that the last pic was a little bit more sharp in focus, but I just love the sweet look on his face.  And look at that little bit of curl in his hair.  He is the only one of the 4 boys to have a hint of curl in his hair and I think it is adorable.  His Daddy says nothing a no 2 haircut wont fix!!  Bla, bla, bla, I am not listening, I love his little curls.

He is now 5 months old and I can not believe where the time has gone.  How did that newborn get all baby chubby on me with those adorable blue eyes and sweet little smile.  He is, however a very serious baby most of the time.  All the other kids were giggling like crazy by this age, but sweet little Ashton only occasionally lets out giggles.

I mentioned back when Ashton was only about a week old that  he rolled over 5 times, well he had not rolled again since then until I lay him on his belly to take these pictures, then he decided it was time to do a whole lot of rolling!!  He thought it was a great new trick and kept on doing it, making it quite difficult to get a picture of him holding himself up on his arms when he kept rolling from that position before I could get the camera in focus and take the shot!  Hence why the first two shots he is off to one side of the pic as I desperately snapped the picture before he rolled over.

I have been frantically scrapping as well over the last week, most of which I can not share just yet but I do have some that I can share. Like this one of Ashton and Lachlan together for Color combos Galore.

I had a bit of fun with some leftover strips of fabric from an outfit I made and thought how it would be perfect for this LO.  I have actually been keeping up with Ashtons album, maybe because I haven't taken as many pictures of him as I did of Kaitlyn!  LOL!!  That is one way of keep up though!!

Now I also havent shared my last BAP for Prima on my blog.  I am getting a bit behind in sharing all my creations here!  Probably because I am not updating anywhere near as often as I should be, but life is just crazy busy and updating this blog keeps escaping my mind.

Then I had several up on the Aussie Scrap Source Blog.  These ones I have actually done quite some time ago, shortly after Ashton was born.

  This one was done using the Jenni Bowlin front porch collection.

This one was for an inspired by flourishes brief. Love all the vibrant colour in this one and the cute pics of Cam and Kaitlyn in their pj's.

I got my LO's back from Prima that went over for CHA and they returned them with some extra stuff.  Like every sheet of paper in the new release!!! The new Donna Downey stamps as well as her canvas pieces!!  So very very exciting.  My only problem is that I am too scared to decorate up the canvas items just in case I stuff them up!!  I know, I should get over it, but I just cant help it, I always worry about making a mistake.

Well on that note, I have to go and tend to the little guy who just woke up!!  Thanks for stopping by my blog and I will try and update more often.