Bad blogger

Yes, yes I know, bad blogger, slack blogger ... why would anyone read a blog that's never updated LOL.

So perhaps I need to schedule a day each week, just like other regular activities, to update the blog, what do you think?

Anyway, here's some creating from recent weeks, not much but something at least.

First up this was a "just because" LO and also using some old MME papers from the Red Earth Scrapping shop (which I thought were gorgeous but didn't sell well LOL). I also threw lots of embellies from my stash on there too although I'm not sure I got the placement quite right, looks a bit like someone threw up on it in places, but oh well, it's another memory recorded I suppose.

Then there's this one also using products from the RES shop (which sold better though LOL) - Cosmo Cricket "Togetherness" range ...

So next up, using yet more old stock from RES, I wanted to try painting a background to "soften" the base pp so I swiped this Fancy Pants pp with white paint but really thin so you could still see the colour and patterned behind. I splattered a bit of trust Maya Road Mist there too and used some scraps of the FP paper from the same "Wishful Thinking" range, popped on an odd assortment of embellies and there you have it. Just not happy with the buckling paper from having painted it though.

 

 

I've also been doing some card making workshops at home with some wonderful local ladies and here's what we made recently (focussing on using just 1 sheet of patterned paper and utilising our Cuttlebug machines and folders/dies etc) -

Having had 2 successful and enjoyable sessions we're now going to try and meet every 6 or so weeks on a Saturday afternoon. Next time we'll be doing some male/masculine cards so I need to get my A into G and get the samples and instructions done.

Dont you agree part of the beauty of hobbies is sharing with other like minded crafters? I get such a happy buzz from creating with others who enjoy and appreciate the same things. I love introducing people to the joys of paper crafting and seeing them create their own masterpiece of which to be proud of.

So that's the creating news from me, but what else has been going on? Well, the children have started their very first season of soccer! And there's a story with this too ...

which I put on a LO (funnily enough) ...

 

I hope you can read the journalling, it's a great story of how Caitlin's first week's efforts (i.e. chucking a wobbly and not playing a single second of the game) turned completely around for the second week (i.e. joined in training AND played the whole game AND had fun .. AND ... received her team's player of the week trophy!).

Here's my little soccer star (week 2).

And here's my other little soccer star (from week 1). Ciaran took to it like a duck to water and had so much fun. I was so proud of him too, going off happily with the group of little 5 year olds, listening very intently to the coach and doing every thing he was told. They have a fun skills training session followed by a mini game. The second week's little game was hilarious as the kids were all running intently after the ball, kicking it along but neither team realised they were suppose to be aiming for their goal, they just kept running and kicking, all the way along the entire length of the soccer fields, past (and even through) about 3 other little games ... it was just too funny and cute.

Well there's the update for you, perhaps I'll set that weekly task now 'eh.

Thanks for stopping by.

KEITH!!!

I know I am married - happily - to the love of my life, my soul mate, my everything - MARTY - but ... OMG Keith Urban sets my heart all a flutter too LOL.

We (the family - hubby and both kids) went to his Sydney concert on Thursday 14th April and here's just a few pics I took on the night having smuggled my DSLR in my handbag (sadly not the big lens but I am so glad I did take the camera because they didn't have a souvenir program).

First up was the awesome group Lady Antebellum and wow, do they have a fantastic sound and great songs.

Then it was the great man himself, my Keith ... LOL, I'm sounding a little obssessed dont you think, whoops. But really, honestly, truly, it is his music, his musicianship, his musicality that I love and admire and respect. The music he creates and how he delivers each song, each performance, is something that makes my heart sing and stirs the soul. Plus he's pretty hot!!!

And look how close he got ... he came up our side of the arena and I skipped down the stairs from where we were sitting to get these pics, he was just metres from me ... bless his sweaty cotton shirt, he was just so wonderful.

So that was Thursday night in Sydney. On Friday we wandered around Darling Harbour and the kids and I went to the Aquarium while Marty went over to the Maritime Museum. After a late lunch we headed out to Parramatta (OMG I dont know how people live in the city, honestly, the traffic on that relativly short drive drove us totally NUTS and it probably wasn't what a local would call busy) and did a bit of shopping before checking into our hotel there. On Saturday we went to the Royal Easter Show - it poured rain almost the whole day but thankfully I packed rain coats for the kids and we had umbrellas so we were actually pretty dry and warm and had a fabulous, fun, interesting day.

The kids had their first Merry-Go-Round ride ...

And first Ferris Wheel ride ... thankfully this was a very modern one, fully enclosed and even air conditioned which, considering it bucketed down while we were on it, was very nice indeed compared to the old fashioned one.

They had ice creams, fairy floss and got a show bag each and the night finished with a great fireworks and laser display.

So that was our school holiday get-away and now we're just hanging out at home for the rest of the holidays and Marty is getting ready to start sowing this year's crop - the oats are in, the barley is going in and shortly we'll get stuck into the canola then all the wheat.

I have lots of Red Earth Scrapping "work" to do plus I am desperate to get some creating done for myself too. I'll be back with some of that next time.
See you then :-)

Scrap With Red

Come on over to RED EARTH SCRAPPING this weekend, we're having a Cyber Crop - our theme is all about the inspiring women in our lives. Lots of fun, awesome challenges, plenty of chat and of course there's always prizes up for grabs. Please come and join us, everyone is most welcome!

Here's some more of my recent efforts ...

Just a quick post today but thanks anyway for stopping by.

Busy, busy, busy ...

That's life for everyone these days isn't it. No exception here.
I took things pretty easy after my little op the other week but suddenly life is once again full on, lots of things to do each and every day (although my list is not always "done" LOL).

So apart from the usual house work, kid wrangling and running around a mother and farmer's wife does, here's what I've been able to squeeze in creatively speaking.

Sunset photography ... I played with the various settings on my DSLR to get some beautiful shots. Still working out all the settings and numbers, too confusing for this little amateure sometimes though LOL.

I pulled out some Echo Park "Summertime" papers (there are still stocks of these in the Red Earth Scrapping shop - go to the next page for this range as well as "A Walk in the Park" which is equally gorgeous) and scrapped all the pics from Australia Day which we spent at our friends, mostly swimming, eating and drinking LOL. I did 3 pages but 1 was snapped up for publication by Scrapbooking Memories mag (happy dancing here) so here's the other 2. Aren't they so bright and happy.

This one is for our Red Earth Scrapping March sketch challenge using Stuck?! Sketches March 1st sketch plus our CT member, Linda's, extra criteria of white/black/green AND the handmade fabric spiral flower.

Pics are of my 2 with Susanne's 2 girls taken at the Orange Adventure Playground when we met up for the day in January this year.

This one is for March Scrap The Girls challenge which was to use one of the "she" quotes ... so once again using summer pics (when Susanne & I met) and the divine Echo Park papers, I came up with this.

This page is, yes, very different LOL, all distressed and a bit grungy, but it's for the March Scrap The Boys challenge - this challenge blog has just started up again - and you had to use a "moment in time" as your subject and heading.

And lastly, this one is for the March 123 Challenge challenge.

I've got a couple more projects in the pipeline ATM so when I get some pics I'll do another blog post to show you. In the mean time, thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll leave me some love :)

Scrap Share

Since my surgery last week I've been taking it easy so I enjoyed a weekend of scrapping which was bliss. Here's what I created ...

This is my take on the Kraft It Up February challenge - I haven't entered a LO over there for a while so thought I'd better have a go. This is definitely different for me, the paint and mist and collage of various bits and pieces but I think I like it ... I think LOL.

This is for the Stuck Sketches February 1st sketch - used up some older Bo Bunny papers plus last year's special Pink Kit from Red Earth Scrapping with the apple blossoms, thickers, heart pins and felt flower shapes. See the circle on the right side with the 2 owls? It's a Pinkie Pinkie button made by my lovely friend Kate. When I went looking for a few more little embellies I was so excited to find one of Kate's buttons from the exact same paper, how cool is that.

And this one, again using the BB pp's (and some more matching Pinkie Pinkie buttons which are so cute) is for the 15th February sketch at Stuck. Over at RES we use teh Stuck Sketches (with permission) as our monthly sketch challenge with a twist of 1 extra criteria on top of the original sketch - Linda's challenge to us this month was to include strip journalling.

I also made a few cards over the weekend to add to my stash ...

I was inspired by a sketch from Card Patterns.

And it's always great to use up scraps!!!

So that's all for now. Thanks for visiting :-)

This & That!

Thankfully we seem to be back into the preschool and school routines pretty well now. We still have to hurry a certain child along who seems to think the world will wait for her LOL but it seems that personality trait is here to stay. Her Kindergarten teacher even commented to that effect, albeit nicely, in the end of year report. Sigh ...

Red Earth Scrapping is keeping me busy which is great. I am thrilled with the growth and development of the business and am really working hard to make sure it keeps going in the right direction. It will never make me rich, and at present I'm really not making much because it all goes straight back into building up stock, however I am lucky to get most of my personal supplies via the business so my habit is still going strong LOL.

Here's a look at my recent creations ...

Yes, I've done some 8.5x11 pages - they're for the Red's Random Challenge over at RES this month set by Mel - I was inspired by her challenge so I did 2 LO's while the mojo was firing.

Well the first half of my kid-free day this week is over so it's time I stepped away from the computer. Tomorrow I'm off to Orange for day surgery to have my "tubes tied". Suddenly today though I'm rather nervous about it all - I hate doctors and hospitals and medical things at the best of times, but I made this decision ages ago and finally got around to booking in for it so there's no going back. Wish me luck.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Back to "normal"

What is normal, really??? Rather a rhetorical question I know ...

Well, firstly I'm so excited to tell you that harvest is FINALLY finished. It dragged on and on for some 3 months, with rain interruptions and subsequent downgrading of the grain quality becoming the bain of our existence. But it's done, over, finished, complete!!! The header is just awaiting a wash down before being retired to the machinery shed until November.

I think "normal" is also getting back to a daily routine and now that school and preschool is back I'm feeling more organised already. The holidays were great in many ways, some sleep ins, chance to do what you want, when you want, go here and there, but they soon wore out their welcome I can tell you. The kids played together great one minute, then were fighting the next and I hate that.

Here's Caitlin's first day of year 1 yesterday ... happy and ready to go.

Ciaran was more than happy to be at preschool this morning and headed straight to the sandpit. He will do 2 days a week this year but is so funny trying to explain that to people - he has absolutely no concept of time in days/weeks/months/years so everyone is left completely confused when he tries to tell them when he'll be at preschool each week and that he's only got this year before going to "big school" LOL. Such a funny kid.

I will have 2 days a week to myself (can you hear me cheering LOL) and will be focussing on Red Earth Scrapping work, some farm office work, and SCRAPPING!!! I'm excited and hope to achieve lots on my kid-free, peaceful days at home. Can even catch up with a girlfriend for coffee sometimes, do some shopping without little people tagging along, annoying me. Oh the joys ... although maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, after all it is only 2 days out of 7 ... sigh ...

Anyhoos, I'd best share some pics and some scrapping before I go on too much longer.

The kids got special chopsticks for Christmas from Aunty Dan and they just love them. The pull them out every opportunity they get. When we were at Batemans Bay in mid January we had Chinese one night and Ciaran asked for "chinese sticks" and promptly started eating with them - holding them correctly and successfully getting food into his mouth! Not bad for a 4&1/2 year old.

We had a morning horse riding out at Aunty Nese's and Uncle Ken's just recently - Caitlin had a little ride some weeks ago and loved it so this time we made a morning of it with Ken's grandchildren who were staying. Such fun and a great experience for the kids.
Caitlin rode both "Blue" and "Willow" and Ciaran rode "Blue".
I also rode both horses and despite having not been on a horse for some 16 years, and only ever doing some trail riding when I was a teenager, it felt really good.
No, we are not getting horses any time soon though LOL. Way too much work. We'll just visit the rellies and ride theirs I think.

Lastly some creating to share ... firstly a "Prima overload" effort LOL and the second one is using the January 123 Challenge criteria plus some of our RES swap goodies from last year.

Thanks for dropping by. Til next time ... xxxxx