Yesterday

So it’s been a tough week …  Wesley’s funeral was a perfectly fitting occasion to celebrate an extraordinary life … although kinda sad. It was a beautiful day – weather wise – and the helium balloons looked amazing floating away in a clear blue sky. It’s also been a year since Grandma died … so just not such a nice week all round really.

The blue skies and sunshiny days have been a welcome thing though. And yesterday I made the most of the weather and spent some Jessi and Mummy time out in the sun with my camera.

Once, not so long ago, I was taking photos daily … lately, not so much. Not sure if it’s because I’m not scrapping as much, or maybe I’m not scrapping because I’m not taking photos. Whatever … all I know is that they are two things I enjoy doing, things that make me happy and I need to find that happy place again.

So … after checking out a craft show … Jessi got to play, while I enjoyed a coffee and took photos.

This is about the point when I remember why living in Wellington is not so bad … check out that view I enjoyed while watching Jessi play.

The water called to us and we just had to cross the road to get closer … if she wasn’t busting for the loo I’m sure I would have had a great deal of trouble getting her to leave here.

We then did a spot of tree climbing (and more photo taking) … the trees were perfect for climbing and it was good to see that at least one of my children hasn’t inherited their father’s fear of heights.

It soon became evident that we should perhaps buy the little miss a new pair of boots … it wasn’t that long ago that these were new … now … they are just well loved!

So, now that I’ve got the photos … might just see what I can do about scrapping a layout or two.

In Memory of Wesley

… who passed away earlier this evening.

Now walking with Jesus in Paradise … and free from pain.

I created this layout last year after watching Wesley fight cancer for the second time, so brave, so full of faith and so able to talk in intellectual circles around the whole ‘faith’ concept … will miss those Wesley conversations.

Murphy’s Law …

…. I guess that’s what you call it when a box of Prima goodies arrives the same day as the credit card statement … which happens to be the very same day in the holidays that I’m working and dh is at home looking after the kids.

It’s very nice prima stuff though

And totally worth it for the layout opportunities.

Don’t you think?

Have used the Prima Build a Page Sketch for July … seems sketches are entirely useful when you don’t have much scrapping time and need a good place to start.

Been experimenting with a few other crafty ideas this week, playing with spoons and dominos and getting my fingers inky … fun! Plan on doing more of the same this weekend … probably a good thing considering how cold and wet it is outside.

Blue Skies and Sunshine.

I hadn’t realised just quite how much I’d been missing the sun until it returned this weekend.

Have enjoyed being outside and walking again. Yesterday I spent the afternoon wandering along the Wellington waterfront … enjoying some ‘me’ time (a welcome thing at the end of the holidays). The weather was perfect … it doesn’t get much better than eating sorbet at the edge of the water while watching the world go by … okay so I may have equally enjoyed a peaceful afternoon here at home today … lying in the sun while reading Janine’s cloth paper scissors mags. Life is good!

Still haven’t got the layout on my desk finished … sometimes it’s just nice to take these things slowly, enjoying the process instead of rushing for a deadline.

Can share this one though …

And it’s a double too! Not many of those in my albums. I actually put this one together for a beginner scrapbooking class I took the other night … wanted to show them that you could take a single layout and flip the design to add another page and make it a double. It started as a page maps sketch.

Not sure if you can read the journaling but just wanted to record that it was on this day that we got to know Michael’s birth mother … the ‘unknown Grandma’ as the kids referred to her. Just noticed that I haven’t yet added the date … will have to do that!

Jessi is currently having her 5th meltdown since she got home from school …. I think an early night will be necessary tonight! Better go give her some attention.

10 years of parenting.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

For a start this girl turned 10.

Check out the beautiful weather we had in Wellington today.

A good day to buy a bunch of balloons and do a photo shoot with my new 10 year old.

Unfortunately her new ‘10′ year old attitude showed through in a lot of them.

We had a ’sleep-over’ party last weekend … not much sleep was had of course. Lots of high-school musical singstar, party food, dvds and other such fun party stuff.

I’ve been practicing my crochet skills. I thought I’d jump from making wobbly little flowers to making a hat … even followed a pattern, Jessi was pretty happy with it.

Then I made another hat for me … don’t have a pic of that one though. It’s been fun … but I still have a need to scrap (it keeps me sane) so can’t see crochet taking over or anything.

Speaking of scrapping … I have a layout partly finished that I’d like to stick down tonight … hopefully will be able to share in a day or two …

First it was crochet …

And now …

So besides the lack of a perfect 50’s housewife body … and maybe the fact that I don’t clean, cook and dust as often as I should … I think I could pass as a 50’s housewife. (Apron is actually polka-dotted but my camera didn’t seem to like that.)

Okay so maybe I’ll stick with being a 2009 housewife!

It’s been a busy weekend, besides the 50’s party there was a baby shower for a friend …

I made a quick canvas for a gift.

All ready to add a photo once baby is born.

And Rebekah went to a sleep over party …

I made a quick cell-phone cover as part of the gift … and also a beaded necklace.

It’s been a fairly creative weekend … sewing, needle felting, beading, scrapping … no wonder my desk looks rather trashed right now!

Looking forward to a week of holiday fun … and a bit of child training … they need a bit of a reminder about manners, kindness and cleaning up after themselves.

Nana Lessons 101

So maybe I passed 101 with the nana naps … I’m good at those … but check out what I can do now!

Yep … I can do the crochet thing! Thanks to Sarah and her patient tutoring (and her warm house and comfy chairs). So I may need a bit more practise but I totally ‘get’ it now … Nana would be proud.

Don’t think I have any other creative stuff to share this week … it feels like I’m working on a million little projects but nothing’s finished or worth taking a pic of yet.

We are struggling through the last week of term … kids are tired, it’s cold outside and we are all sick of the morning routine. Looking forward to having a few days of sleep in’s and not having to pack lunch boxes. Bring on the holidays!

And yet another week comes to an end.

Not quite sure how it went so fast but another week is over and it’s Friday again.

So what have I done?

A bit of creating for Fiskars … can’t share any pics yet though.

A bit of planning/preparing/shopping for Movie night at Rally … it went well. Although I now want to see the rest of Kung Fu Panda … all the bits I didn’t see while making popcorn for hungry movie goers.

I did catch the end though so I think I got the general idea … and I noticed the Panda guy has just as much trouble climbing a flight of stairs as I do these days!

A bit of wedding album stuff … yes I finished the big album but I had lots of pics left over so came up with a brilliant idea of making a mini album for her parents to keep at their house … a fabulous idea if it wasn’t for the time it’s taking me.

A bit of shopping with Janine.  In fact we managed to spend the whole day on Wednesday exploring Newtown … op shops, second hand shops, a fabbo fabric shop and a cool shop called Juniper which had some very inspiring handmade items. Best buys … a nice warm jacket, some good thick canvas fabric (dreaming of a canvas album), a ball of very cool wool in an awesome blue/green colour which matches my new jacket perfectly.

A bit of knitting … yep … somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday I found time to knit my blue/green wool into a scarf. Unfortunately it’s a bit short so either I need to invent a way to make it longer or I may just unknit it and use the wool for something else … still thinking about that.

A bit of scrapping. Last week at crafthouse I put together a whole lot of page kits using mostly Fancy Pants stuff  … no instructions but just lots of yummy perfectly matching papers and other bits. Each ‘kit’ has enough stuff to make one typically layered ‘Beverley’ style layout or add some cardstock and maybe some alphas from your stash and make two or three layouts. Anyway … I decided I ‘needed’ to take a kit and make up a layout.

‘Scuse the bad layout photography … not much natural light around this morning and since taking the photo I then decided to add a little more stitching to the rip in the bottom left corner … but you get the general idea right? This particular kit comes with a whole thingy of embroidery thread … so plenty of stitching possibilities.

It was nice to work with happy, cheerful summer colours … oh sun how I miss you!

And that about sums up my week. Of course there was a bit of housework (not much actually), a bit of parenting, a bit of netball coaching, a bit of cooking … all that general stuff one tends to do every week.

Yay for the weekend.

Today

Grateful for … the rain (netball is cancelled)

Enjoying … french toast and banana for breakfast with my girls (boys are at soccer (in the rain))

Wearing … my new winter pyjamas (nice and warm)

Feeling … just a little bit tired (late night scrapbooking … had to finish the layout!)

Dreaming … of a weekend trip to Sydney to meet up with the SOF team (dreams are free right?)

Inspired by … Donna Downey (have you seen those aprons … I simply have to make one!)

Wishing … I could get my hands on a Prima Canvas Album (and a bunch of other prima stuff)

Making … cupcakes, again. (For baby Liam’s first birthday party this afternoon)

This layout is one I’ve been pottering on all week … haven’t been real enthusiastic about it and not really happy with the end result … but the photo’s cute!  I’ve used the Prima Build a Page Sketch … not that you can tell after all the stuff I’ve got on there!

Enjoy your weekend

It’s quiet round here

… so what’s been keeping me quiet?

Well … besides an icky little cold … I’ve been working on this:

The single most biggest paid scrapbooking project I have ever worked on. My cousins wedding album.

Such a huge job … which I probably underestimated just a tiny bit when I first agreed to work on it last year.

From getting the photos printed in different sizes, organising them into some sort of order, picking out papers and other bits and finding an album to work with … to actually scrapping the photos … I guess you could say a fair bit of time was taken on this project!

I am now really, really hoping that Karen and Malcolm will like it … when I figure out how to get it to them in Aussie.

What else has been happening?

Rebekah and Alexander are performing in J Rock tonight, which is the primary school version of Stage Challenge. I’m officially over practices and notices and all. Hopefully they’ve had a good day today … they had to be at the venue at 8.30 this morning for dress rehearsals and other activities. The concert is at 6.30 tonight … so it’s a big day for them.

I’ve been spending a bit of time at Kiwiscraps lately, designing and packing project kits. The down side to being there so much is that it’s really hard to not notice yummy stuff arriving in at the shop … and some stuff simply must come home with me!  Like this … and this … ahhh Fancy Pants! The on a whimsy journal pad is especially cool … will be used on a layout or two in the near future no doubt!

Don’t think I’ve shown you these yet either:

I decided that it would be a good idea to teach the Rally kids how to finger knit … and then of course I needed to find a use for a long string of finger knitting, so I made brooches. We’ve also been making sherbet and marbling paper … it’s been a busy term. Next Rally night is our annual movie night where we transform the church lounge into a movie theatre and break out the pop-corn, jaffas and fizzy drink. The kids bring their friends and families and just generally have lots of fun.

Right … Jessi and I going to grab a bite to eat before the concert so I’d better go convince her to put some warmer clothes on.