boxing day

We were lucky enough to get to spend Boxing Day with 2 of the grandies (Levi and Isaac) in Kalgoorlie.
Lindell painted their faces, Katie and Levi were both puppies.




It was really HOT so the kids played on the new water slide....




and we celebrated Levis' birthday with THIS fabulous cake, made by Lindell. It looked amazing!

flower power

I have made ornaments with polystyrene balls before, but this has to be my fave so far!

It was REALLY EASY and pretty quick, cost hardly anything to make. I used a whole pkt of 2cm Kaiser paper flowers but they were only $2 for the pkt. The pearls were leftovers from my stash (HOW MUCH do I <3 Kaiser???) and I bought the pkt of balls several years ago, intending to do wondrous things with them :(

Thanks for looking.

Daily in December

Oh, I seriously doubt I will get a daily entry here but never mind, day one is done

We are doing this challenge over at AD...
The idea is that each day I will take at least one photo to document our daily life in December. Daily life here, it has to be said, is pretty mundane. But I'll do my best.
This photo shows the advent calendar, which is likely the most exciting thing that will happen today (unless we won Lotto last night)
Tomorrow is pretty cool though -- our 9th wedding anniversary!!

advent calendar....

Our advent calendar was finished last night (whew!) after a mammoth effort yesterday -- my own fault, I've had the kit for weeks but kept dithering about doing it.
Anyway -- as with ALL Kaiser kits, the frame went together beautifully, the only hitch being that I ran out of burgundy paint and so the coverage isn't that flash. I would like to give it another coat, so I'll have to remember to put paint on the next Kalgoorlie shopping list.
The papers I used to cover the boxes are Kaisers' Dear Santa range, very traditional Christmas colours and patterns.
I also used a Hot Off the Press PP for the background of the mini-LO, plus a KI Memories sticker. The photo was taken last Christmas Eve, using the timer.

I really loved doing this one, except for the dratty paint LOL Christmas is SO MUCH FUN for craft junkies!!

9 years....

It's our wedding anniversary on Wednesday. 9 years. I wish it was 29.

This is us, in Busselton, on the 2nd of December, 2000.


And this


is my anniversary present. It's a frangipani, my favourite flower, and it's mother of pearl... just beautiful! I feel very spoiled and treasured =)

DECEMBER ATCs

WE are running an ATC swap at AD for December.
If you haven't seen ATCs before, they are little cards, measuring 3.5 x 2.5 inches, and you would normally make a 'set' (usually 9) and swap with other scrappers and artists.
Well this month we are doing ours based on the famous Christmas poem -- The Night Before Christmas -- yeah, you know, 'twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse'....
... turns out there are 14 verses!!! so we choose just one verse and then make 14 cards based on that verse (all the same or close) and send them in. Once the swap is over, we will each have a set of 14 cards, depicting the whole poem.
It sounds like a lot of work, but if you get a little production line happening, and do a bit at a time, it really is quite quick and so much fun!
So if you would like to have a go, we have several spots left. Hop over to AD, register (very easy process) and then look up the ATC section on our forum.
I have nearly finished mine and will post a pic later.

more Christmas scrapping.....

Kaisercraft have these gorgeous advent calendars out. They come as a flat kit which you put together yourself, but they are so well-made that it's a very easy process.
I bought these as a kit with the papers (Christmas Carnival), paint, bling etc all supplied, and I have made 2 for the grandkids, and have yet to do the one for our family. And I havent shown the LO in this calendar as it is a gift for someone!
I havent been able to get a good photo of mine, so I'm including 2 pics from the Kaiser website as it shows the raw calendar, and the example made by Melissa Kennedy.

been busy crafting......

I've been busy with Kaiser!
I've had these gingerbread men in my stash since last Christmas but I couldn't think what to do with them. In the end, I decided to try Tim Holtz alcohol inks (caramel and ginger)which worked beautifully though the inks are designed for non-porous surfaces, and the chippie sucked it up like a thirsty man at closing time! I used half the bottle of caramel to do 8 gingerbread men. Still, the inks allow some texture to show through, and paint wouldn't, so I'm really pleased with the result.
The currants are Kaiser bling (black), and the icing dots are Kaiser pearls (Blush)
I used scraps of ribbon as well, and the backs are papered with leftover bits of Christmas papers and I also used K&Co chippie alphas that I've had forever.
These ones are made to hang on the tree, but the men have little holes in their hands so you could string them together as a garland, or join them to make an album if you preferred.

LOOK what just arrived for me!

The card said
Surprise! happy late birthday!

that's all.

So I have NO IDEA who they came from, but THANKYOU Mystey Sender, they are absolutely GORGEOUS!!!! XXX

my champion kid!

Jules and Jack have been playing chess almost every night for the last few months. Jules said right from the first game that he would never 'let' Jack win, and of course he lost spectacularly in the beginning. But he improved quickly and soon was taking Jules' queen almost every game. Well, finally it happened! last night, Jack won for the first time, fair and square! I don't think there was one 7 yo in the whole country with a bigger chest! (or a prouder Dad, for that matter!)

happy birthday to me!

I've had a lovely day! I woke up to kisses and birthday wishes from my husband and kids, then more wishes on-line from AD and Facebook, phone calls from friends and my mum, flowers from the DT at AD, presents in the post from friends I've made on-line-- gee I love the Internet!!
My wonderful husband gave me this GORGEOUS Edwardian brooch which was made 100 years ago.


So being 44 doesn't look too bad so far....

my grandson.....

This is Levi. Doesn't he have the most gorgeous eyes?

the sun is coming.....

cat naps rule

Our kitty dreams of being SuperCat -- up, up and away!

while you were at kindy today....

Dear Katie,

while you were at kindy today, I waved my Magic Wand and turned this:



into this:


Now I wonder how long it will stay that way??

whinging rights

For those who havent yet heard the yelps of pain, the latest news is that I have pulled or strained or broken the muscles in my chest wall -- from coughing so much and so hard!
I gotta tell you, if childbirth is a 10, this pain would rank a 7 or 8. OMGOSH it has been awful, not game to breathe in or out, couldn't sit, stand or lie-down without help, have to sit down to put on clothes -- I told Jules I am practising for my old age.
The solution is to rest and swallow painkillers, no argument from me.

September ATCs at ART

The September ATC theme at ART was "Famous Women" and we had to keep to a vintage style. I really wanted to use the Eiffel Tower and the yellow/purple/brown background, so I decided to try it for this swap and picked Coco Chanel as my Famous Woman. Not at all sure how this will stand up against everyone elses' work but I'm very happy with it.

still coughing....

... and I've finally given in and made a Drs appt for this afternoon. Bet he says 'rest'.
Anyway to take my mind off the constant coughing I worked on these inchies today. They're for the Scrap the Girls vintage swap.


I haven't done much else the last few days, been reading Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell, fascinating read (oh, and I SOOO understand all the techie stuff about flying a rocket NOT) and watching Grand Designs DVDs. How CUTE is Kevin McCloud????

update

The weekend in Rainy Beach Town was not without its' drawbacks.
The weather was dreadful most of the time so fishing was out (not that I really mind but the boys were disappointed)
Fabio starting feeling quite sick and spent most of Saturday napping while I tried to keep the kids quiet -- mmmyeah not easy when they couldn't go outside for fear of being blown away.

Early Sunday morning (3am) I was woken by some drunks returning and letting themselves back into their unit with lots of laughing and drunken encouragement. Took them a while to quiet down while I lay there plotting how to silence all drunks permanently.

Sometime later (4.30am) I was woken by the sounds of my husband yelling loudly and I propped myself up on my elbow to see him wrestling with a strange naked man who had mysteriously appeared in our unit. He handily tossed the man out (King Gee stuff) giving him a good kick in the arse on the way, then rang the police, so there went any hope of further sleep.

He had to give a statement and all the rest of that sort of thing, which took forever.

I asked him what had happened and he said he felt a hand on his leg and thought (with his sleeping mind) that it was one of the kids, but then realised that the hand was too cold and too large and it was reaching for his butt! so he rolled over and saw this naked stranger looming over him!! SCARY!

We figured later that the guy was probably one of our drunken neighbours who had staggered out for a piddle (because it is so much trouble to open a bathroom door and lift the ring in the middle of the night) and let himself back into the wrong unit.

I don't know WHY our door wasn't locked! We think the kids might've opened the door without one of us noticing, and for some reason we didn't check before going to sleep.

Anyway, no harm done I guess, so we packed up and came home, but poor Fabio just got sicker and sicker and then the kids started coughing and snobbling and running temperatures, and then I did too and we all went to bed and coughed and vomited and felt sorry for ourselves and that has pretty much been my week since then.

The doctor's thinking swine flu but of course there is no way to know for sure since they have stopped testing for it.

Hopefully we are all on the mend now though..... the kids have missed 5 weeks of school with illness so far this year!

weekend in Esperance