A Creative Life

Frantic Beginning...

Well I have had a frantic beginning to my week!  I have created 9 LO's this week plus a card!  I am officially up to date again!  The weight of the world has lifted off my shoulders!  I can breathe again!  Maybe I can go back to making those adorable flowers again now that I have nothing pressing to do!

Now amidst all the chaos of getting all those projects finished, I totally missed the fact that I have had my 50 000th visitor through my little blog.  I was planning to do some lovely RAK but have not yet had the time to put anything together, but come back, now that I am up to date I will put a little something together and take a picture of it!  I am thinking I might just have to make some of those lovely flowers to include in it!! I will get there. 

This coming week will be filled with creating class notes for Creative Edge, and starting to make up the kits for it as well.  I find it hard to believe that it is just over 2 weeks until this event.  After months of planning, stressing (still stressing as my Prima order hasnt been shipped to me yet!  Eeeek they are aparently sending it on the 28th, which is Saturday for me), Dotting my i's and crossing my t's that I have everything I need to make up the kits!  Like discovering that I am one glimmermist colour short!  So yet another order needs to be placed to get this little sucker in!! Cant believe I missed it and it was for the class I am teaching! Which is probably why it was an oversight! My poor laser printer will be in overdrive next week printing out all the class notes! Lets hope I do not run out of toner in the colour cartridges during the process!!  That would just be my luck at the moment!  Kind of like my sewing machine getting a gremlin in it as well and the bobbin spinner not spinning! I swear I have the kiss of death on electrical appliances lately!

We were given a challenge for the Prima DT to see what we could create in 30 minutes.  I have decided that I am not so good at this!  I failed miserably on my first couple of attempts, usually taking 1-2 hours on the layouts that were supposed to be quick!! Finally I managed to do this within the 30 minute slot!

  I really had to try and simplify what I usually do.  Had to eliminate a lot of the hand cutting I do as I have discovered that is a very time consuming part of the way I scrap.  How sweet is that picture though!  I can never imagine getting a photo like that of my brother and I as children.  At that age I remember my brother throwing rocks at my head and one of them making good contact with my scull!  Not so good rocking up to school with your hair matting together with blood!!  So glad my kids seem to play a LOT better together than my brother and I ever did.

Just a quick update today.  Dont forget I will get that RAK organised by my next post! Should go off and look through the stash for some lovelies while miss K sleeps!  TFL

More than 3's!!

Ever heard the saying things come in 3's, well what if it is more than 3's and its the painfully annoying stuff!!  Talk about a week from hell!

1. I guess it started with our deluxe coffee machine (an indulgence that we purchased as a joint gift for each other about 3 years back!) well, the milk frothing part of this went caput last Sunday morning.  Luckily it still grinds our shots for us but now we have to heat the milk for our capuccinos in the microwave and there is no lovely froth on top.  So that needs to be repaired.
2. Then Pauls car ended up with brakes that were metal on metal, 2 days before it was booked in for a service! Lots of money later it now has lovely new brake pads!
3. Paul works 2 jobs, because I am a slave driver that wants to be a SAHM, so he has to earn my income for me as well!! Not quite true but makes for a good story!!  He looks after the computer network at a school and they are having major construction happening now which causes a lot of unexpected power failures.  Well somehow it corrupted the network!  Many, many very late nights later (like 3am!!) he still hadnt got to the root of the problem, just when he thought he had fixed it the gremlins would get in again!  That started monday and it wasnt actually fully fixed until Friday!!
4. Then to add insult to injury, Paul went into a shop on the way home from work, when he went back to the car his remote would NOT open the car.  It could arm it locked but not unlock.  Now it should have been easy, he had the keys in his hand, just open the door with the key, but NO the key has never been able to open the doors since we got the car, only start the engine!  He was very effectively locked out and no amount of trying to break into the car was working.  So we had to get the RAA out and as we had to join up to do it.....$180 later!! eeekkk.  A bill I wasnt expecting!  Since then, the central locking has been working perfectly.....Go Figure!!! Oh and Miss K kept me up till 4am that same night!!
5. So just when you think the bad stuff should all be over with.....well I thought wrong!  Friday, I began to prepare a baked cheesecake.  I put the oven on to pre-heat and went about getting the whole cake ready.  Went to put it in the oven and the oven was blowing cool air at me after supposedly pre-heating for 1/2 an hour!  Oh the fan force, the on light were all working just fine but it appears that the heating elements have died of natural causes!  I CAN NOT live without an oven!  I cook a lot, this is a complete disaster and if we cant just replace the heat element in it we will have to buy a new oven pronto!!

So I just sit here typing away and hoping like crazy that the bad stuff is over with!  Add to that a bit of stress about product still not arriving for Creative Edge and the company not replying to my frantic emails as to when they are going to send it.  All in all another week passes! Which in some ways is good as it means I am one week closer to actually being able to bend down without feeling like a baby is trying to exit out of my rib-cage!!

I am also getting through all the layouts I need to which is a good thing, but still have more to go.  Bring on the brain waves of creativity I say!!  Now because my week was brutal on the finances I went ... what the heck and purchased myself 3 more divine Prima stamps!!  I mean the budget had been seriously blown on things we hadnt accounted for, isnt it perfectly natural to throw caution to the wind and spend more money to deal with the stress of feeling broke!!  OK that might just be me, but I have a sneaking suspicion I am not alone in this!!! Come on fess up if you are the same!!!!

Kerry  came over again on Friday night and as she had Miss M with her, we took another couple of photos.  I had purchased some lovely fabrics to use as backdrops for my photos so it was a good excuse to try them out.  I also discovered that Paul had ordered me a backdrop stand and it arrived this week too.  Yes, these purchases were prior to all hell breaking loose in our household, but like I said the finances are up the creek this month, so if we are going to have massive bills, well, what can you do about it!! So here are a couple of pics.

So this is the black backdrop that paul purchased. I much prefer the lighter backgrounds for pics of kids but I think this could look cool with my boys jumping as if they are suspended above the big  black hole!!

Now before Kerry arrived with Mikayla, My kids were jumping in front of the camera, pj's and bath hair to boot!  Miss K kept coming over to look at each picture! Very cute, but she just wanted me to keep on taking pics of her.  What a co-operative little darling. I just wanted to see how different backdrops were going to look!

So this background is a delicate pink lace that I wasnt sure if the colour and pattern would come up that well. but I quite like how delicate it is. Never thought I would see my very boyish boy holding a pink umbrella!! The things he does to amuse his little sister!  Now check out my very bright blue backdrop!! And check out miss cheeky chops!!! That is just pure mischief right there.

Lachlan wanted a piece of the action as well! check out those glamorous pyjamas!!! LOL!!  Kaitlyn insisted i take so many pics!  The thing is will she really want me to scrap all those messy hair pj pics for her album??  Paul even caught her in the act of try to set up the studio lights the other day!  Definately not camera shy! Now if you are wondering where the youngest boy of the family was....taking every opportunity to play the xbox while his brothers were occupied!!  He knows when he is on a good thing!

And it wouldnt be a post without me sharing a LO!  Did this one quite some time back now.  The papers are really old prima baby girl ones that I have had in my stash for quite some time and just think are so pretty!

 

and this is a layout I did around 4 years ago!!  Yes it is VERY old now, but I have never shared it! It is of Lachlan as a 2 year old!!!  Wow time really flies!

OK, back to the layouts that need working on!  I cant even cook to procrastinate! Maybe I will get more done this week then! TFL!

Another Shoot!

Our friends Miranda and Derek's baby girl turned 1 this month and as I still hadn't packed away the lights I suggested that I take some pictures of Gracie at 1.  Yes I am still working on the principle of doing as much as possible while I am already set up!! I took the photos in less than 15 minutes as she was getting a bit grumpy and very very squirmy and I knew I already had quite a few nice shots that they would be happy with. So here are a few that I really like:

This last one is my favourite!  How adorably cute is her little face!! Now I just need to find a way of having my bird up the right way on the parasol!!  But short of hanging it (which I just cant manage!) the jolly thing ends up sideways, but I love the splash of colour and interest that the print adds to the background. Oh well!

OK, I have finished 4 layouts now! Bit by bit I am getting through all the things I need to.  With any luck I will have another 2 finished by the weekend!  That is if I can keep my eyes open today while Miss K sleeps as she gave me another one of those nights from hell, last night!  It started earlier, around 11.30pm (of course I was still up!) and she didnt go back to sleep until 4am!!  3 hours sleep is not enough for me either!!  Tough love, I had her up by 8am!!  Mummy's revenge!!

Now I can share one of those LO's that I have done!  Of course it was an optional layout!! Yep, I am a great procrastinator when I want to be!!  It was for the colour challenge over at Aussie Scrap Source Blog, but I had to do it as the colours were so beautiful and inspiring!!  Bright yellows and pinks! Stunning.  So here is my LO.

 

Lots of sassafrass paper on this as well as a touch of scenic route paper.  I used that great flower tutorial, once again, to create these pretty little flowers!  I am so addicted to making these little beauties, but my fingers are definately having a workout from hot glue gun burns!!  I have found I like using the hot glue gun for them but when I do fabric (you know the type of flowers heidi swapp makes the glue goes straight to my fingers, so there is lots of ouch, ouch, ouching going on as I shape them while the glue is still HOT!!

Well, I am off for some excersize...very rare for me...but the most I get is a short work to my local post office and supermarket while I push Miss K in the pram, she loves to get out in the fresh air!  Besides, I think that the kids will love a bit of lemon chicken for tea tonight, so I need a few things!  I am going to be so popular at tea time tonight!  I swear I will hear....You are the best Mum....thanks Mum, this is great.....the things you have to do to get a bit of love in a house of boys!  The stomach - love connection starts so young with them!!  TFL!!

Rare - Hair Down!!

It is not often that my little girl gets a picture taken with her hair fully down!  I still have not had it cut since the day she was born as it is such beautiful, curly hair but when it is all down, it hangs all over her face, reminding me of "cousin it".  She looks so different with it down, so much older and grown up!  A lot older than her tender age of 2 years!!  So here is the evidence...

My goodness word are inadequate for how much I adore this little girl!  Mind you a couple of nasty traits have been developing!  She is now fighting with her youngest brother!  Her preferred method is biting, closely followed by scratching!  But really she is the sweetest little thing!  I went searching for her the other day because the house was WAY to quiet, you know that silence which means they must be up to no good.  Well, there she was in her room, bottom drawer open and she had pulled the entire contents out and unfolded the clothes, then laid them neatly one on top of the other for a very high pile.  She then proceeded to stuff them all back in the draw!  At least she was attempting to tidy up after herself!  But I still had to go in and re-fold it all and put it back neatly!

I took the above photos because I had the equipment all set up after taking a few pics of  Kerry's daughter Mikayla the previous evening.  Well due to my state of "hugeness" I figured I needed to get some more use out of the lights before putting them away!  Similar to the principle of being older and getting down on the floor, you may as well see what else you can do down there!!! Here are a couple of the pics I took, Kerry has more on her blog.

Well I have managed 2 pages from the 10 that I have to do!!!  Cant show them yet, but it is progress!  I am just relieved that the mojo hasnt totally deserted me yet.  Often when I am this pregnant, I am devoid of all mojo!  But just because I can not show you those 2 layouts, doesnt mean I cant show you this!!!

Just my 20 week scan pics of the hitch-hiker!  The 3D image looks so alien!  I decide to mix both stars and flowers on this LO.  I really love those new prima pearl centres, cant wait to get my hands on some more!!  Thought I would have them by now but my order seems to be taking its sweet time.  I think they put a hold on it as some trellis roses I ordered for Creative Edge were out of stock until the 18th of this month, so I am crossing my fingers that it will be shipped later this week!

Back to the grindstone, as there is still no rest for the wicked! TFL.

Exhausted!!

Do you find yourself stuck, by your child, watching their dvd of choice!  The look of contentment on their face being your reward.  But in this process, you become very familiar with storylines from these DVD's!!  Well, right now I feel like part of the story line from Madagascar 2!!  You know the bit where Moto Moto and Gloria are in the pond and she asks him why he likes her.  Dont you just love his response!!  "Because you're HUGE baby, you're so chunky, you're enormous!!!  Well it feels like an adequate description of me right now and I still have 8 weeks to go!! There is literally no space left in my poor little belly, it has been taken over by the little hitch-hiker and he is nestled right the way up to my ribcage.  I may not have thought he was any bigger than my other babies in the past, but I may just have to re-think that!  I keep thinking the reason I have already passed my full term weight gain of Ethan and Kaitlyn was because of the generous deposits of back fat I am sporting this time! (I would put in LOL at this point if it wasn't so depressingly true!!)  I am beginning to think he may be a bigger baby, I may actually go over the 8lb mark this time!  I certainly dont think I will have one less than 7lb like the last 2 were!! Oh well!!  (Can you feel the big sigh I am letting out at this point that acknowledges my resignation to this fact?)

Well...because of this previously mentioned state of hugeness...I am not sleeping as well as I would like.  It seems that 5.30am has become the new time to wake up for me!  I am sooooo NOT happy about that as I cant quite get myself together to go to bed before 11.30pm-12am!  Which doesn't leave that many sleeping hours in between!  I think I may have worked out why I wake up!  Cramps in my legs!!  You know how you get more restless in your sleep the closer it is to morning, I have this suspicion that I am stretching and pointing my toes!  BIG mistake as my legs automatically start to cramp when I do this.  All stretching must be done with a heel down approach, but in a delerious sleepy state you are not exactly thinking about that!  So lets hope I can stop sleep stretching and stay asleep!!

Going back a couple of posts I was gloating about not having any pressing deadlines......how a couple of weeks can change all of that!!  I have gone from being up to date to finding myself with over a dozen layouts due before the end of the month!  ??????? How did that happen?????  And yet, here I am creating a blog post in my quiet time instead of scrapping.  Procrastination....don't you just LOVE it!!  So there will be plenty more LO's to share with you all very, very soon!!

In the meantime, I am going to share my altered Ikea candle holder with you!!!  Keep in mind that Off the Page and me is often a laughable scenario!  My mind does not usually think like that, but I LIKE having a little girl to create things for!  I like adding flowers to things and when Prima send you a big bag full of massive roses, that are totally divine, but very big, it can inspire a girl to decorate things!!  So here is my pretty little creation that I am oh so happy with!! In fact I love it so much you will just have to wade through heaps of pics from different angles! I am unappologetic about this!

    

 

So many flowers, so much hot glue, but it looks so pretty in Kaitlyns room!

While I was in the 'oh I don't have any pressing deadlines' phase of this month I decided to try out a colour combo on Aussie Scrap Source Blog for some inspiration.  It was a very unusual combination that I found really hard to find appropriate colours of paper in my stash for.  And my stash of printed papers is VERY large!!! Admittedly I was trying to keep to products that ASS wholesale so that did narrow down my selection. In the end I came up with this little LO about my niece.

 

I had a couple of happy mail parecels this week as well!  Dont you just love getting things in the post.  I received the brand new paper pad by Amy Butler that is available at Michaels in the US this week.  From the moment I saw someone post an image of it on 2 peas, I knew I wanted it but had no idea how I could get my hot little hands on it.....until a poor unsuspecting lady left a comment on one of my layouts on 2 peas about where I got all my napkins from.  Now I didnt just pounce on her to start with. I actually just suggested places to look for napkins, but she had no success!  And then my mischevious little mind went into overdrive and I thought, I could help her out with a few napkins and if it wasnt too much of a hassle for her, she could get me my coveted Amy Butler paper book!!!  Needless to say there was a lovely happy ending and both Sue and I got what we wanted!!!  Actually, I got a little bonus, as I am spoilt!  Sue also sent me the cutest little newborn outfit for 'un-named' ones arrival which has the most adorable doggy on the toosh!!    Of course my rascally older boys suggested that the brown dog on the butt would make it look like the baby had a poop on his bottom!  They are evil, I tell you! Pure evil!!! LOL!!  So thanks Sue!!!

OK, enough procrastinating and updating my blog for now!!  I MUST get onto some layouts today!  So much to do, so little time (hmmmmmmm.... I am craving trifle (this could explain the deposits of back fat!).....I wonder if I have time to throw one together for myself before starting on those LO's????!!!  Me??? Procrastinating more??? NEVER!!!  TFL.

Lucky!

I am so lucky to have such a cute little girl to spend my days with!  She is so easy to look after and really does the cutest things!  I am loving being a SAHM, and spending all day with little Miss K!  Today, we walked up to the shops and as we are walking along, the little voice from the pram keeps saying, flower, pretty flower!!!  I picked a few sour-sobs (her pretty flower or should I say weed, of choice right now) and let her hold them.  She points to the birds in the trees, birdie, she says and when a dog barks she looks around everywhere for it, doggy, doggy she says.  I have to explain to her that they are behind the fences in peoples yards!  I really enjoyed the walk, if only I had some fitness and didnt puff the whole way up the hill!!  The days are getting a little bit warmer and a little bit more sunshine, so I hope we can go for a few more short walks before the baby comes along!

The other cute thing she is saying lately is..."I'm a girl" and she repeats this quite regularly!  I always smile when she says it like a badge of honour!  I tell her, 'yes you are a girl and so is Mummy! We are special, because we are girls!"  It really is so adorably cute!

Now, while I am dealing with such cuteness from one child the eldest one is sending me more insane!  Please note the emphasis on more rather than just insane!!  I really believe I have reached that level already and now there are just degrees of insanity to deal with!!  Sometimes I wonder how much is his personality and how much is his age that causes this behaviour, but he just argues and then throws full on tantrums like a toddler when things dont go his way!  In stark contrast, I can tell Cam off, send him to his room for the exact same incident (of which both of them are involved in) and he accepts it, goes to his room and will apologise if I request it of him)  The only time he will argue with me is if he honestly feels like he has been wrongly accused of something!  Mr Lachlan on the other hand will argue and crack a hissy fit even if 2 or 3 other witnesses say the same story as to what I thought went on!  Aaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!  How am I ever going to deal with the teenage years!!  I am really starting to think that the wise soul that once told me "little children, little problems, big children, big problems" really knew what they were talking about!!  All I know is that I need a triple dose of patience to deal with this!!  Alternatively, maybe I could just make him reside in his room with no interaction with his younger brother!!!  Tempting, but not actually feasible!

OK, just sharing another layout I have done using lots of lovely Prima.  Yes that bird paper is definately one of my all time favourite prima papers!  It is funny, the teal prima flowers were not a style of flower that I fell totally in love with the moment I saw them, I liked them but there were others that took my breath away, but I have to say I have used this style of flower a lot and just LOVE them!  They just have this amazing texture and look on a page.

 

I have been making loads of those pretty flowers and creating some really pretty decorative items for Kaitlyns room!  I have never been much of an off the page sort of girl, but having a girl to decorate up a room for is actually quite inspiring.  I have completed one project, 3/4 finished another and have a 3rd idea I havent started yet, so actual scrapbooking pages have taken a back seat while I create these other pretty projects.  Hopefully I can share at least one of these items in my next post.  But I may be able to put a bit of a sneak up....

See all those pretty flowers, they were made using the tutorial from the previous post!  I used a lot of older prima hydrangea flowers. Many of them I had to remove the stamen first and it may tear the inside of the flower a bit, but that doesnt matter when they get created into little stunners like this!  I now wish I had a heap more of those hydrangea petals!  I find I am using 4-5 flowers to create one of these.  So much fun!!!!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!  Refreshed to start a new week. TFL!

Grey, Not so Gloomy!

Over at Color Combos Galore it was Lydell's turn for combo #130. Now let me tell you, when I first saw these colours I just sat there with a blank, you have got to be kidding me stare on my face!  Yes it would certainly have been funny to be a fly on the wall and got a look at that face!!  It wasn't because I disliked any of the colours in the combination it was just putting them together, on one LO!! 

You can probably see from my previous post that I LOVE colour!  I love contrasts! I adore both brights and pastels alike, but I am a little afraid of monochromatic! It freaks me out a little bit!  Now I am sure that I can do it. In fact I have managed a monochromatic layout in teals before, so why was I freaking out!!!! Now you are probably wondering what the combination looked like?  well here it is....   See it is just a few greys with a lavender blue thrown in for good measure!

Well Lydell referred to this combination of reminding her of an English Country Garden!  Now my reply to this was probably out of line, but it was the first thing that jumped into my head!  There was no green, no pink....I said it reminded me more of a cemetery!  But it was this slightly incensitive remark which allowed the cheeky side of me to get creative!  You see I went straight to my only source of grey papers, my K & Co Amy Butler paper book!  I LOVED this line! And then I remembered the dark grey transperancy that was release to match...perfect and my brand new Prima Stamp that I had recently hunted down!  It was this stamp set, that really spurred on creativity for it has the most wonderful wrought iron fence stamp and the mischevious side of me couldnt help but think it was a little like a graveyard fence!!  So of course I used it!  And the results......well it is one of those LO's that I just love! I am so very happy with it. For me there is a certain type of magic in the moodiness that the combo creates, almost haunting, and yet still pretty and feminine! 

Now that massive lavender blue flower once looked like this....  Different colour but you get the idea, it was massively high...4cm and I had to work out a way to make it flatter, as Prima blessed me with a large bag of these beauties and I am not much of an OTP girl and really needed it flatter to fit more than 2 LO's in an album! LOL!  So I drenched it with water to soften the adhesive between the petals, pulled them all back and yanked out the centre! Cruel, aren't I!!  I then spent a LONG time with my heat gun, re-invigorating the petals to dryness and re-shaping to its current shape. Once dry I added a gorgeous new Prima Raja centre to it!  I LOVE those things!!  But for photography purposes, this is how the above flower turned out: This one I added a smaller flower that I had velvetised the petals and glimmermisted as well as added stamens, and now it is less than 2cm in height and flattens down with pressure as well.  OK it doesnt look like a rose anymore, but it is still pretty!!

So, getting back to what I was saying about the combo, I just want to thank Lydell for pushing me past my comfort zone and delving into a more monochromatic scheme. If you hadn't challenged me I would never have created this LO, and I am so glad I did!!

Now speaking of wonderful flower tutorials......I found this on Nicole Aspinall's Blog and have to say it is such a fabulous idea I have to share it here!!  I have been going crazy making lots and lots of these flowers as I have so VERY many small Prima flowers and I soooooo ADORE the texture and dimension that can be created by doing this to them.  In my previous post I was saying I was at a loose end as to what to do....well guess what, making these little babies has taken care of that!  I figure I will just make a whole heap in different colours and sizes and put them into a jar, ready to be used when I am creating a LO!  Thanks so much Nicole for this wonderful inspiration, it is my favourite find this week!

Now for a very amusing story!  OK it may only be amusing to me, but it kind of made my day!  I had my ante-natal appointment this week and as I was walking back to the car, pushing Kaitlyn in front of me in her pram with a distinct 7 month pregnant waddle going on....a car drove by and someone wolf whistled!!  Now I looked around for its intended recipient, only to discover I was the ONLY person on the street at that time!!!  I mean, what was he thinking??? Well I am presuming it was a he, or should I say hoping it was a He!!! LOL!!  I've got to say, when you are way closer to 40 in age than 30, you are pregnant with no less than your 5th child and feeling decidedly unglamorous, it sure brings a smile to your face!!  I had a little giggle when I told Paul and he was so laid back, saying, yeah, pregnant women are really sexy!!!!  I raised my eyebrows in my best "you have got to be kidding me" look and he re-inforced the fact that a lot of men find pregnant women sexy!!  So..... the mystery is solved, this is why he was happy for us to have another baby, he finds me sexy while pregnant!!  What a pity it takes such a toll on the body afterward!!! LOL!!

Just as an aside....I am typing up this post while my ever so sweet daughter is bringing out every soft toy from her bedroom, naming them and then plonking them on my lap, on my chair, in fact anywhere she can find a spot on me for another one!!!  This is actually a regular occurance and if I ask her to put them back in her room, she quite distinctly tells me NO!  Not angrilly, just very matter of fact like I had better respect her wishes OR ELSE!!!  Just another little trait of this girl that makes me smile!  Gosh I love the age she is at!  I have thought this everytime I have had a toddler!  To me it is a magical age that I find captivating.  And really, it isnt that hard for me to grip all those soft toys a little harder, even some with my chin and wander back into her room with them, once she looses interest!  The ones that fall by the wayside....she usually picks them up once she has forgotten her original purpose for them and is more than happy to help Mummy!!

OK, I just woke up this morning, early I might add due to a certain 2 YO!! to find that my Prima BAP is layout of the day on 2 Peas!!  Now that is a FIRST!!  I am excited like a kid in a candy shop!

I hope the little tutorial on flowers is as inspiring to you as it was to me! TFL!!

Thanks

Just let me say thank you to all those that have left comments with name suggestions. It really is amazing how many names that were suggested that I had never thought of!  At least it gives more options to mull over, during the coming weeks. So thank you to those who left suggestions for me!

Well the boys came home with a letter from the school today stating that they had 2 confirmed cases of swine flu at the school. Of course one of them is a friend of Camerons!  Now I am not too worried about this, but DH very sternly told me he would like me to go to the doctor and get the swine flu vaccine.  He really was quite adamant that I do it sooner rather than wait for one of our kids to get swine flu and pass it on to me.  Apart from me being a stubborn soul who hates anyone telling me what I should or should not do, I was actually quite touched by his concern for me!  Aparently the World Healh Organization is urging pregnant women to get the swine flu vaccine as it seems that we are at greater risk of complications from it than most.  I told him I would raise it at my next ante-natal appointment and if they thought it necessary then I would.  He gave me the look!  You know the one, the one that has "what, you can't just do this for me" written all over it!  Mind you it does give me that warm feeling inside knowing how much he cares for me!

Now I have to register a complaint about this little hitch hiker!!  You would think that by 30 weeks this little boy wouldnt be doing that much turning, but sure enough he has managed to go from being head down to head up or more transverse and consequently his kicking has found my bladder!  Oh I can not tell you how utterly uncomfortable this is!!  It has to be one of the most uncomfortable things you have to endure!  I mean kicking under your rib-cage is painful at times but this takes the cake, like fingers down a black-board sort of uncomfortable! I actually find myself squirming with the ticklish, irritating feeling of it! I am sooooo hoping that he will turn again, very soon and then get wedged into the head down position!  Kicking up higher is kind of endearing, a reminder of life inside, none of this dancing on my bladder business...please!!

OK, onto scrappy things.  Here is a layout I did a while back using a lot of my Prima scraps.
Just love that pic of Miss K, she looks so happy and angelic I had to add a set of pink sheer wings to her as she really is my little angel!
Here is another LO for good measure as well!
This pic of me was taken when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Kaitlyn.  It really makes me look far more glamorous than I look IRL!! I also love the unusual mix of the hot pink with the mustard that you get from the life in colours range of Prima papers.

I am at a bit of a loss this week.  I have no scrapping deadlines to meet, I am completely up to date and as sad as this sounds I want to scrap but dont know where to start!  I think I have become so accustomed to having a colour combo each week or a Prima LO to do that I at least know where to start, but when there is nothing that HAS to be done, but the desire to create is strong....I feel at a bit of a loss!  I have so many papers I would love to use that I find it hard to make a decision as to what one to use? Gosh I am sounding sadder by the moment!  That is why I love the colour combos so much as it makes me go through my stash and choose papers by colour rather than by whim, so it narrows down the choice and once I have chosen the papers I kind of work from there with whatever inspiration the paper gives me as far as design goes.  Maybe I should just try something new today, an arty technique or something to focus on...I can do it!!  Or maybe I should just clean my house! The latter is necessary, but oh so unappealing!

Before I bore you with my procrastination.....I will just say thanks for looking and be off to do something productive! Hmmmm....like make a delicious vanilla slice! It is kind of like housework!!

Feeling Lazy!

I am not ordinarily someone to sit still and leave things to do later on.  I am a here and now kinda girl!  But this last week, I am going to admit to feeling VERY lazy!  I am trying very hard to shirk my house cleaning responsibilities, however no one else will do it so at some point it does end up being done by me!!  Now in my defence, vacuuming the house and washing the floors leaves my back in such a state by the end of the day that I can barely get up from a chair and walk, so that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!!  Dont worry, I am not totally negligent, the dishes are being done each day, the washing is being done and the floors swept or vacuumed, just not all in one day, well the dishes are being done each day or I may have no plates to use!   I am not sitting totally idle either!  I have found solace in my newly cleaned scrap area and have created 3 LOs this week.  OK it is not in the league of the 7 or 9 I have done in times of past, but I am still happy to just be able to sit and create.

So what have I been creating lately??  Well the Prima August BAP has gone up and I have a VERY bright LO on the blog for that!  So, put your sunnies on, because here it is!
This LO has so much dimension in it.  I find that I love the look and feel of all the dimension, but my albums are getting a little too full, a little too quickly because of it.  Here is another shot to show a bit more texture.
I also had a layout go up on Color Combos Galore last week.  Just a quick fun one of Ethan. Funny how undimensional this layout is in comparison to the Prima LO!!  I am often finding that I have a lack of really cute embellishments for boy pages, or I am just not as creative as I once was when doing them as they are alway flatter than my girly pages!  I think I have just become lazy as I am so accustomed to using flowers for my Prima work.  Dont get me wrong, I ADORE all the flowers, but there was a time before Miss K came along that flowers were a rarely used item from my stash!  Hard to believe now! Anyhow...here is the layout.

The little monkey is actually a stamp by Melissa Francis!  I bet you wouldnt have picked that manufacturer for such a cute little monkey stamp!  The other animals on the set are just as adorable!  I often find myself searching my stash of stamps for embellishing my boy pages.
Now I have also been wanting to do a bit more scrapbooking but I have found I really love having colours to prompt me so I have decided to give the Aussie Scrap Source colour challenges a go.  Now I have done the colours that have gone up for this week, but will share the layout in the next post.  I am not sure about when I can share, ie before or after they post the layouts for the colours, so I will wait.

OK...Miss K update.  She is cutting those 2yo molars and she really is being very good about it, but I have noticed an increased dependance upon her dummy so I decided to look into the depths of her mouth to check on those molars.  Oh the poor little girls gums are a MESS!!  You can see little bits of white tooth protruding through the gums in both the upper and lower left side of her mouth, but there are skin flaps of gum going on, blood, and lots of swollen redness, it really looks so unbelievably sore!  What is more amazing is how good she has really been through all of this as it must hurt so badly!  Hopefully they will be fully through soon and she will be out of the pain.

HELP NEEDED!!!!! I have 10 weeks to go before this baby is due and DH and I have yet to come up with a name.  Now I have 2 names I like, but DH is not convinced!  One name he likes but knows to many kids that he considers to be total brats with the name and therefore considers it now, unusable!!  The other name I love, well, a distant cousin already has a child with that name, which wouldnt be so bad if she didnt already have another son with one of our kids names as well!! When you are onto picking out your 4th boy name, it gets harder!  We would also like it to end with an N as without realising when we began naming all our kids, they end with an N!  Lachlan, Cameron, Ethan, and Kaitlyn!!  We figure by this point we should probably keep the tradition (that we didnt realise we had started) going!!  So please feel free to leave a comment with your name suggestions as I would love the help!!  Thanking you in advance, and TFL.