A Creative Life

Wonderful Things

Well Kym is finally here!!!  Tuesday night turned into a 2 hour phone conversation with Kym and we joked about it only costing a local call (once I rang her in PNG and spoke for 28 mins and it cost me $75!!  DH informed me that it would almost be cheaper for me to fly there for a visit!)  Boy can the two of us talk!  During that time Kym made me cry tears of happiness when she asked me to accompany her for the delivery of her child if it decided to enter the world before her DH could make it back to Australia. (he doesn't get back until a week before the due date).  I was so totally honoured to be asked this and it would be an absolute joy to be there if the need arises.  For Kym's sake I hope this is not necessary and she wont go into labour until Steve makes it back to Australia, this is one of those special moments in life you really need to share together.

Kym and I then spent yesterday afternoon and evening together, once again using up our frequent talker points!!!  What I adore about our friendship is that we can go months without seeing each other and then when we catch up we can chat for hours like we have never been apart.  It really makes me realise how much i have missed her over the years.  Such close friends are hard to find and when you do, it is the most wonderful thing. 

Kym even endured an hour of going through my albums, the best part was Kym didn't just look she wanted to read all the journaling on them, how sweet is that!  I was also able to show her the prototype invitation i had made her for her baby shower.  It is very simple, as I will have to make quite a few, but here it is.

I have also been inspired by Sally M , who challenged us all to make more cards out of our scraps.  Trust me when I say, I'm not a card maker!!!  But I have been dutifully leaving my small scraps of paper on my desk and at the end of the week I try and make cards out of them.  I keep them extremely simple but I am beginning to create a few that can be stockpiled for the future.  Most of the time I just work with the shaped offcuts that I have!  I made an 8x11 wedding album for my parents so I have heaps of offcuts of the background cardstock.  I whipped up this engagement card from those leftovers.

Bit Excited!!

So why am I a bit excited??  Well.........my best friend Kym, arrives back in SA on Monday for 8 weeks to have her baby!!!  (she has been in Papua New Guinea for the last 3 years) So not only will I get to see her but I will get to meet her new little bundle at the end of May!  Mind you, she had better not go into labour while I'm at ISC!!!!  I am actually really worried that I will be in QLD while she is back in SA having a baby!  I absolutely have to make her a little mini album for the baby, but I don't know if it's going to be a boy or girl. 

Back 12 months ago, I helped Kym to do her first page and she had a great design eye and enjoyed creating a layout, but due to study and work committments (she is the Acting Director for a Development and Relief Agency in PNG and her husband is the Education Director for the church school system over there as well, so they are extrememly busy people) she has found it difficult to get much time to play, and hence hasn't been completely addicted to this artform just yet!  I say just yet as I plan to immerse her in it for 8 weeks! LOL!!!  By the time this baby is born she will be as addicted to scrapbooking as myself, (okay, that could be a little hard to achieve as I am beyond obsessed!!!) but she will know the difference between a linen, a crisscross, and a washboard texture piece of cardstock.  She will learn to love chipboard and ribbons!  Printed papers will become the newest fashion item!  Yes I am on a mission!!  I will post back with indoctrination updates! LOL!!!

Still doing HAPPY DANCES around the place and I will keep it up long after she arrives!!!

Little Bits

Well yesterday was an exciting day!  My friend Lydell received her first acceptance for publication!  I differ with her on this point as she does have one going in the Awards Book!!!  Lydell has such an artistic approach to her work, you must check it out.  She is an absolutely lovely person to go with it!!!

I registered for ISC and booked my classes, it was great to get into all the ones I wanted to.  Now I just have to book flights and accomodation.  Should really try doing this.  While i was on the ISC site I got a real buzz....why??  Well the picture next to Ngaire's bio was a layout of mine!!!  How cool was that?  Then I proceeded to read the class descriptions and when I opened the one on Bling....lo and behold there is a textural shot of my sequinned layout from my article.  OK I admit it was a complete buzz.  Pity that Pride lost the orange layout that was featured!  Very sad.  At least i have a scan of it.

Other things - I have a layout in SM this month.  Feels a bit strange since I haven't had a layout in that mag for many months now due to being contracted to FK.  Here it is:

I found the photo in an old box I hadn't looked in for ages.  It was taken on a cruise while we were in Fiji on holidays.  Lachlan just looks irresistably cute in the picture.  I originally did the layout for a Scrapbook Station DT project where we had to use the Imagination Project papers.  I really loved the colour combo of these papers for a boy page.  when I asked Lachlan the questions, I was originally a bit dissapointed with the answers, but then as I read them over, I had to chuckle, this is such an insight into his 7 yr old brain.  I thought it was well worth creating a page from his thoughts.  he will get a good laugh in years to come. TFL

I See the Light!

I know, I have been somewhat of a bad blogger over the last week, but i think you can all forgive me considering the extenuating circumstances!  Ethan took his time to start improving.  We ended up taking him back to the hospital twice after he was released as his breathing was so bad, but as he responded well to the ventolin, we were able to bring him home.  He still has a very bad cough, but that is eased by ventolin so i hope he isn't developing asthma.  They say that pneumonia can weaken the respiratory tract and lead to asthma, I hope not but only time will tell. 

To all of you who left me messages here on my blog as well as personal emails checking to see if Ethan was alright, I thank you very much for your kind thoughts and concern. 

As I haven't had a whole lot of time to scrap this week I thought I would share this layout I did a couple of months ago for the shop.  It uses the Heidi Grace papers and embellishements.  I had so much trouble with printing this photo in colour, it was always way to dark

  and the colours were always off, so in the end I gave up and printed in black and white.

I also want to say that Donna Wild has now joined the Scrapbook Station Design Team.  This team just keeps getting better and better!

Not Again!

It’s 1am and I have just returned from the hospital after my youngest has been admitted with pneumonia!  That’s right, I have had 2 kids with pneumonia in less than 2 weeks!  Just to top it off DH has had a fever for several days now and wont stop coughing!  I am strongly urging him to see a doctor as well as I am now suspicious that he has it too.  Pneumonia is not supposed to be contagious, it's a bacterial infection, not viral! 

Ethan was so cute in the hospital, he just kept talking non-stop, you wouldn't have believed that he had been crying and clingy earlier that evening.  The wonders of Panadol is all I can say!  Take away a fever and the kid thinks he's fine again.  Hopefully the antibiotics he's been put on will kick in fairly quickly and they will let him come home tomorrow.  Here's hoping, for my sake.

New DT at Shop

For the past 8 months I have been wanting to update our website and include an uploadable gallery as well as a messageboard.  The plan was to have it up and running by this weekend to co-incide with the appointment of new members to our DT!  Well change is a slow process!  But the wonderful layouts of the DT have been uploaded to the homepage of the site.  It is well worth a look as the talented ladies have done a supurb job!!!   www.scrapbookstation.com.au

Members of the DT are Steph Caskey-Devlin, Kate Mason, Samantha Dorn, Lydell Quin, Jenni O'Connor, Nicole Wood, Susan Johannes, Trish Reid and myself.

This is my LO for the DT.  The paisley and the diamonds along the side are created using Plaid dimensional paint.  I love the effect this paint gives and it is even more fun to run your fingers over the surface once it is dry!!! 

This is my little nephew, Ben.  He is such a little cutie and I do scrap pages of him from time to time, although his sister certainly gets more pages done of her, being my only baby girl pages outlet!!!

TFL

Thank you to all those that left comments of support for Lachlan.  He has responded well to the new concoction of antibiotics and no longer has temperatures and is back to teasing his brothers!!  Still has a nasty cough,but even that is improving.