Hope You Had A Happy Mothers' Day...

whether you are a mother or a daughter. We had a nice lunch out with Robin's Mum, and I did a bit of scrapping in the afternoon. In honour of Mothers Day, I made this layout below about my Mum, who passed away 5 years ago. It's the first layout I've done about her, and so it was really important to me to make it really special... it's not quite as awesome as I pictured in my head (they never are, lol!) but I think it's quite pretty. I ended up not journalling quite how I wanted, so will probably scrap this photo again, maybe next time in sepia or something, with more journalling that's a bit more... I don't know, heartfelt. I really wanted to express how I feel, but it wasn't easy. Anyway, here it is:

As you can tell, I'm still loving the Prima, Melissa Francis and Websters, all available in the Scrappin' Patch shop!! Now, if you want to do a Mothers Day layout, shabby chic style, visit the Scrappin' Patch forum here, to get the details on Annelie's Monday challenge, for which I entered this page as an example.

In other news, we finally picked a name for our new little darlings... drumroll please... Felix and Lucy. We had the hardest time deciding, but we liked these names the best. I don't think any of you suggested these names, but I need to go have another look at the comments...

Oh, and had a really nice, quiet day at Trace's crop on Saturday, too. It was so nice to meet Jane and Angela, people I had seen online but not IRL. Good to catch up with everyone else too. And yes, as usual, I got next to nothing done, but that's ok; I'm beginning to accept it now, lol!

Nothing much else to report at the mo, so have a good week.

Another Post...

I'm on fire! Yes, another post! I have had a bit of a crappy weekend, just because I've managed to completely block one of my ears, and I have had a headache since Saturday morning. All my own fault though; I just can't resist sticking those cotton buds in my ears... I'm gonna have to visit the Dr, I think. I've also had this blimen' cold for about 3 weeks now; it's not too bad but still not 100% well. So, all in all, I am pretty pleased I managed to get this layout done:


It's for a Product Challenge over at Scrappin' Patch; the challenge is to use 'bling' on your layout. Come on, everyone loves bling, so come over and play! Here is the link to the details in the forum.

Here are some close-ups:















Now, I have to say, I am a little disappointed in how the photos turned out; I'm really happy with it IRL. And such different colours for me, but I really like the pp, from 7 Gypsies. I also really wanted to use one of the Prima felt gates, so I Glimmermisted it with Graphite to make it darker, and it turned out so cool. I actually used heaps of my new stuff from the shop. And cute photos too - actually taken 2 years ago; time is just going by so fast.

Oh, and I wanted to thank you all for your comments and name suggestions for our darling kitties; we still haven't decided but will let you know as soon as we do. Actually, in regards to your comments, I am pretty sure that sometime soon I am going to move my blog over to Wordpress; I would love to be able to reply to your comments, which I can't do on blogger. So that will be exciting! Well, for me, anyway...

I'm off to Trace's farewell crop this coming weekend, which means I really must put a kit or two together - who am I kidding, I probably won't get anything done, as usual, lol. Am going with my good friend, Liz, so should be lots of fun. Lucky Trace, moving back to my home town of Christchurch - although, I'm not sure I could cope with the cold winters anymore! Best of luck, Trace!

Ok, you've probably had enough for today, so have a great week!

(Inter)National Scrapbooking Day...

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Scrappin' Patch's (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day!

Adrienne and Pauline have organised a challenge for this weekend to celebrate Scrapbooking Day, and that is to create a layout based on a 'recipe'. That is, a list of items you need to have on your layout. The twist is, to get the list, you need to visit the Scrappin' Patch blog, and also the blogs of the rest of the SP Design Team and Guest DT. You need to read the first post on each blog to get a clue, which will lead you to one 'item' that needs to be on your layout. The item will be highlighted with a lightbulb, just in case you don't quite figure out the clue! You will end up with 7 items that need to be included on your layout.

OK, so my clue is: Kiss Kiss. And another clue, it might not necessarily be on the first page, so you may need to click on 'older posts' at the bottom of the page. Look for the lightbulb for the next item to go on the layout list.

Once you have my item, you need to visit the other DT and SP blogs; all the links are just over on the right-hand sidebar, under Scrappin' Patch DT Blog List. Then you create your layout, and post it in the gallery by Monday 4 May by 9am. And be sure to read the Scrappin' Patch blog post well, as there are other ways you could win a RAK too...

Have fun creating your layout; I can't wait to see all your awesome pages. Happy Scrapping Day!!

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!