NEW ADDITIONS...

to our little family. Meet... well, we actually don't have names yet. And you are going to have to be patient; I couldn't pick less than 5 photos!!

Aren't they just the two cutest little kittens ever??!! I didn't mention it on my blog, 'cos we were pretty devastated at the time, but our beloved Bengal cat, Charlie, passed away a couple of months ago. He was only 7 years old, and died of renal failure. We decided it was time we got some new kittens, to keep us occupied. Charlie was a pure breed Bengal, which we got because I am usually quite allergic to cats, but Bengals have a special coat, apparently, and I wasn't allergic to him. This time, we decided not to go that route; much as we loved Charlie and his quirky Bengal personality, we think that pure breds might be more prone to illness and disease. Much as we would have liked to get a cat from the SPCA, with my allergies, it was pretty much not a go. So, we decided to get a mixed Bengal and see how we go. These kittens' mother is half-Bengal, so I am hoping like hell that is enough to keep me from being allergic!! So far so good; when we first visited, I rubbed my face all in their fur, and no problems, although our vet says an allergy can develop over a couple of days. I don't know what we will do if that happens... although for once I am being positive and have decided that it is all going to be fine (or is that called 'denial'??!!). They are so sweet; the one at the top left is a wee girl, and on the right, her little brother. He is so sweet and snuggly, and loves to follow us round and 'talk' to us, but he is also very boisterous and bossy! She is very quiet and independent, but very sweet. They love to climb all over us, and at the moment, they are both fast asleep on my DH! He is having great difficulty not disturbing them as he works on his laptop, lol!

Anyway, we are having huge problems deciding on names, and I thought you guys out there could possibly help us. So, we are asking for suggestions. Please no more than 4 suggestions per person, and if we do use any of the names you have mentioned, you will receive a very nice RAK from me - and if you are not a scrapbooker, I will make it a non-scrapbooking RAK!! Can't wait to hear all your ideas!

I have another photo for you; one I promised a wee while ago, from the Sketchbook Retreat:

And yes, don't we look ridiculous. After procrastinating and leaving things until the last minute, we threw together some outfits for the theme "what you want to be when you grow up"; I decided to be a SAHM. Hence the baby and frypan of food. Lol. The others, for those of you who don't know them, from left to right, are: Liz (scrapdizzy), me, Danice, KimA, and Amanda. We had a great time, and some of the outfits were absolutely fantastic! Actually, you can see more photos here. As usual, I got hardly any scrapping done, but that was partly due to feeling decidedly unwell for the Friday night/Sat morn, big bummer. It made me quite grumpy, and I spent a lot of the time sitting and whining whilst holding Kim's hot water bottle to my tummy!! But I still had a fantastic time, lol!

And last, but not least, make sure you check back here on Saturday, or visit the Scrappin' Patch blog, as we are celebrating America's National Scrapbooking Day, which we have decided to change to (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day. Something fun is being organised as we speak... and anyway, it's going to be crappy weather all weekend, so what else are you going to do??!!

I'm A Style Star...

I totally forgot to blog about this, but a couple of weeks ago, I won a competition!! Yes, me! And an International competition, no less! I was so excited I nearly wet myself. It was a one-layout comp over at Scrap In Style, a 'Style Star' search, and the theme was 'Spring Green', to interpret as desired. The winning layouts were picked by Creating Keepsakes magazine too, which is so super exciting; to think that the people who publish CK picked my layout (along with 2 others) from hundreds of entries!!! Here is my winning layout:

I really love this layout; those photos of Aurelia are just gorgeous and show her personality - and I love that green dress! And those Websters papers.... just LURVE Websters... and Prima. You can read the announcement here. I won some cool stuff too, including a couple of CK books, and some other stuff from Scrap in Style, but I don't know what yet. Too cool!! Can you tell I'm excited? The funny thing is, I originally intended the page to be for a Scrap Tech Tuesday for Scrappin' Patch, showing paint lines for journalling, and I only entered the layout in the comp at the very last minute, on a whim, never dreaming it would get me anywhere. So there you go, a lesson for you all that you need to submit your pages, 'cos you never know what might happen.

I am currently in Tauranga, visiting my sister and her family, but heading home today. Unfortunately, I seem to have picked up a bit of a cold, so feeling a bit miserable, but I guess I'll live. Looking forward to my own bed and not being woken in the night by a crying baby and naughty toddler, but otherwise I am very sad to be going home. I always miss my sisters. Oh well, not long until the next lot of school holidays when we can visit again. We have had mostly lovely weather here, until the last 2 days, but now it seems winter has finally arrived. I'm sitting here in quite a few long-sleeved jumpers...

Oh, and I know I promised a photo from the Retreat, but you are going to have to wait until I am home again, sorry! Will blog again soon, I promise! I am looking forward to doing some scrapbooking; I never scrap at my sister's place; too many children running round and not enough space or time, but it's a good break anyway, and hopefully I am inspired to get stuck in when I get home again. Although I have a list as long as my arm of stuff I have to do, like paint our bathroom, backup photos and home movies, and move all my photos to my new external drive, as our computer is running out of memory... what? Doesn't everyone have 10,000 photos of their 4-year-old sitting on their computer??

Talk soon!

Some more stuff...

that I designed for Scrappin' Patch. A couple of cards and a small decorated box, using an Autumn Leaves stamp.

I really like this card. Not so fond of the next one, but it's ok:

but I'm really happy with how this little box came out - someone's going to get something nice in this!

Here's a closeup:

Can you believe it's the school holidays already? We'll be going to visit my sister in Tauranga for a bit, so should be heaps of fun. And off to the Easter Show tomorrow.

Keep an eye on the Scrappin' Patch forum tomorrow; I'm going to be posting some Easter inspiration!!

Ok, back soon. Hope you are all eating lots of lovely Easter eggs!

Check It Out...

Hi everyone. Well, I've really had my head down and working hard the last week or two, (except at the Retreat, but that's a story for another day!) creating layouts with my new DT kit from Scrappin' Patch. I used very pretty papers from the Ruth collection by Scribble Scrabble, and these were the two layouts I created.

I love this one; my little darling and my darling Sister, and I think it's so pretty. I love that border punch too. Oh, and I was very happy with how my butterfly came out; I haven't used my Glimmermist on much, but it came out the perfect colour for this layout - Pink Taffy Glimmermist sprayed directly on chipboard.

This layout is a cute one about one of the funny things my little darling does; she just adores looking at herself in the mirror, so this home-made 'computer' was perfect for her - she could 'type' away, and look at herself at the same time; hilarious! They were not perfect photos to scrap, but I really wanted to tell the story. The page has not quite come out how I had initially pictured, but never mind, Aurelia loves it. And it has helped me to finally click that, even if they don't make for really beautiful layouts, I still need to scrap the not-so-good photos, that ones that tell a story.

Oh, now before I forget, you gotta get yourself over to Scrappin' Patch, and spend some money - they are having a 30% off everything in stock sale!! I've already made another big order...

Now, I know I owe you lots of info and goss on the Retreat, but you are just going to have to wait, 'cos it's after midnight and I'm exhausted and need to go to bed. But if you are lucky, and patient, you may just get a photo of my group in our dress ups before the end of next week...

Have a great Easter!

Another Quick One...

... 'cos I am so busy trying to get organised for the Sketchbook Retreat in... 2 days!! I have my Design Team kit, so am just trying to pick photos that go with the lovely products I have been sent by Adrienne and Pauline over at Scrappin' Patch, plus I have to organise a couple of technique projects and an Easter layout, so at least I won't run out of things to do whilst I am there. I'm freaking out a little, actually; at the last retreat I didn't even manage to complete a single project, but this time I have to as my DT kit stuff is due next Wednesday... gulp! So I am just gonna have to get over myself, put my head down and just scrap instead of my usual procrastinating. I am really looking forward to spending some time with some of my closest friends, and meeting others I have 'met' online.

Oh, and if you have nothing else to do between now and Midnight this Friday, please please please have a go at the sketch in my previous post... getting desperate now; with only 3 entries so far you have an excellent chance of winning the RAK... lol.

Keep your eyes peeled on the Scrappin' Patch forum too from this Friday; lots of exciting new challenges going to be happening.

I will leave you with a pic of my gorgeous sister, Nick, who never sends me emails.... (hint, hint, nubee...), and all her nieces and nephews... most of whom belong to our other sister, Lee - mine's the little dark one on the end! It's from when she was over from London in Jan, and we had a fab time. Miss you, babe.

Can't wait to see some of you at the retreat this weekend!

Shock, Horror...

... my second post in as many days!

I forgot to say a huge Congratulations to Liz, Lynne and Beverley in my last post. They are the winners of the Stars in Their Eyes competition that finished recently over at Scrappin' Patch. I think the winners were definitely well deserved, and I am especially happy that my good friend, Liz, came first - she is awesome!! Congrats, Liz!

The Sketchbook Retreat is in only a couple of weeks; Liz, Kim (my friend), Amanda (Liz's friend) and I are all going together. So excited; can't wait!! Just not sure I am going to have anything organised to do...
Oh, I had to post a sketch challenge over at Scrappin' Patch; I have only ever done one layout from a sketch, and I have never made a challenge before, so my first attempt is at left.

Ok, now you have to forgive my awful drawing, but I couldn't figure out how to make a computer sketch on either PSE or Sketchblog - is that what's it's called? Or is it Scrapblog... anyway, so I had to quickly do a sketch and scan it. You can see why I never became an artist, lol.

And at left is my take on the sketch. Not sure I like this page very much; it is very simple and linear compared to what I have been doing lately, but the photos and paper were quite busy and just needed some simplicity, I think. And it was pretty quick to do, which was a bonus. I love my little hand-stitched felt clouds!

So, if you wanna play along with me, visit the Scrappin' Patch forum here for more details. Would love to see your version of it...

Ok, that'll do for today; need to go make an Easter layout, and sort out a couple of techniques, so that should keep me busy for a while. Oh, and expecting a HUGE parcel from Scrappin' Patch early next week, including my next DT kit, so can't wait to get that and have a play. Have a great weekend!

Ooops, I Did It Again...

... it's been nearly a month again since I blogged!! Goodness, where does the time go?

First of all, a huge thanks to the lovely Lynne for giving me my first ever blog award! Now, I have to nominate others ... who to pick!! I suppose, the blogs I visit most often:

Liz

Danice

Serena

Sandra

Trace

Annelie

Hannah

... and my good friend, Kim, who has finally joined the world of blogging! Yay!

I love all your blogs, ladies, so thanks for all the interesting reading. This is what you need to do:

1. Add the logo to your blog.

2. Link to the person from whom you received this award.

3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.

4. Leave a message on their blog, letting them know they are “One Lovely Blog.

Also, Annelie has challenged me to a photo post; the 6th photo in my 6th photo folder...however, I have lots of subfolders, so I just kept going through picking the 6th folder until I got to a photo, and this was it, pure and unadulterated (in other words, no photoshop!!). Just me, no idea how old I am, having a bath. Obviously enjoying it! One of the very few photos from my childhood.

So there you go. Now, I need to nominate 6 others to do the same, just post the 6th photo in your 6th folder on your blog, then nominate 6 more people:

Liz

Danice

Serena

Sandra

Kim

and Lynne.

Ok, now for some scrapping stuff. A couple of weeks ago I posted the following layout for Scrappin' Patch, with instructions showing how to make the tissue paper flowers using Glimmermist. I had lots of fun painting the Prima Paintable with Twinkling H2Os, and I even tucked a bit of the Glimmermisted tissue paper between the Paintable and the scalloped border. It looks very cool IRL; I was very happy with how the flowers turned out; give it a try yourself one day - and show me the results if you do!

Here is a close-up of the flowers (only the pink and blue ones); if you want the technique for making these, go visit Scrappin' Patch on the blog or forum.

Ok, that's all for today; I'm off to dinner with DH tonight, while the lovely Kim looks after Aurelia and gives us some time to ourselves, yay! Looking forward to getting a bit glammed up, actually. Might even get Kim to take some photos...

Have a good one!