Musings & Memories: Loads of pics in this post!!!

Hi friends, thanks for dropping by. I've got lots to share this time. I really should post more often, but you know how it is ... anyhoo ...

So the above pic is of the newest additions to our family, yep chooks!!! Woohoo, I've been wanting chooks for years and years and my wonderful, clever husband finally built the Taj-Mahal of chook pens and we got this assortment of fluff-balls from some friends just the other day.

The big white fellow is the rooster "Johnnie", the brown hen is "Brownie", the cream hen is "Hillary", the black hen is "Stevie" and the 2 bantams are "Henny Penny" combined.

This morning the kids collected 2 eggs!!! Dad cooked "dippy eggs" for breakky which went down a treat.

Onto other things ... scrapping to be precise. I've managed to squeeze in quite a bit lately which is fabulous. Some are "just because" and others are for challenge blogs, or for Red Earth Scrapping.

This LO uses October Afternoon "Thrift Shop" pp's which I got from Michelle at Divas a while back - I love them and the page came together really easily. And what do you do when you haven't got quite the right matching embellies ... make them from the pp scraps of course. Have been enjoying making these concertina "flowers" lately although I have had trouble when fanning them around ... the trick however is smaller folds. Originally I read somewhere about scoring every 1/2" on a 12" strip and folding, but I've found they need to be narrower than this so it fans out better. The hot glue gun is excellent for holding everything firmly in place too.

This 8&1/2 x 11 page is for the November Sketch challenge at RES and is also the 1st sketch over at Stuck?! Sketches. See that cute heart button? It's from My Little Bit Of Whimsy which, after popping in and out for a look a few times, finally decided to treat myself to some yummy goodies.

This next LO is my version of Mistra's October challenge over at RES which had to include that particular quote, fabric, ribbon among other things. I've had this Websters Pages paper calling out to me and I was in the mood for lots of flowers and bling and a lumpy-bumpy full on page so this is the result. I am particular proud of my Dusty Attic chippie - you like???

Using the fabulous Mistra's "Chipboard 101" technique which she has shared in the RES forum, I achieved what I think is a passable result for a "chippie virgin" LOL.

Thanks Mistra, mwah xxx.

This page is for a "scrap whispers" challenge for October over at Scrapbook Top 50 - always good fun joining in with something like this.

This bookmark and card are designed for children to make - I am going to hold a couple of mornings in December at the CWA hall in town for children (and adults) to come and make some simple christmas cards etc. So far I've made up about 2 dozen kits of each and I have more ideas. I hope the mornings are successful both for my business but the participants too.

These next 2 LO's are using products from the RES shop which I've been eyeing off for a while - The Girls Paperie "Paper Girl" range. Every single thing on both these LO's (with the exception of the Dusty Attic chippie windmill sorry) are from this range. So pretty aren't they, and I think, so adaptable to any style of page.

This was a "just because" page and it was great to deliberately reach for some older stash and finally use it up. I'm such a terrible, terrible hoarder ...
Oh and good to finally scrap some older pics too.

This page was using the Stuck?! Sketches second October sketch and it was also our sketch challenge over at RES for October with the added criteria of using lots of pink. Afterall it was pink month in support of Pink Ribbon Day over at RES.
Do you think there's enough pink here? LOL

And lastly, here are some christmas cards I whipped up for the school fete - I popped them all in a little plastic bag and also included a slip of paper saying "Handmade by Helen Kinsela" and I put the logo and details of RES too. Bit of free advertising cant hurt right?

Speaking of the fete I am about to head up there right now and grab a sausage sandwhich for lunch. I also have to take up my other contribution - 2 dozen apricot & honey Rock Cakes and 2 dozen Blueberry Muffins which I cooked up this morning.

Think I've done my bit for the fete dont you?

It's all good though, I actually enjoying making the cards and cooking so I dont mind.