The Kim Archer Blog

Happy birthday to Brandt

Brandt turned 21.

And we had a mega party at Soho on Darby! Was huge. And fun. Note to self, don't wear new platform ankle boots to an event without wearing them in first. My feet were in total agony by the end of the night!

More photos etc later but for now, here's the DVD I made for Brandt which we played after the speeches and cake cutting! It's a glimpse into the last 21 years in our family and has video footage from over the years and photos etc and I thought I would add it here for some of the family who didn't make it to the party as well as family and friends who want to watch it again...and any other readers who may be interested..

Take particular note:

• it's worth watching the whole thing just to see the "family bloopers" at the end of the video! The two old dudes are my dad and my uncle!
• Jamison did not really have a mullet haircut when he was about 6 - he's wearing one of my mums wigs, although he said he might grow a mullet after watching this DVD *joking*
• thank you to my cousins and their kids, aunties and my mum for their lover-ly rendition of happy birthday at the end of the video. Take special note of my cousin Jodi (on the left) and her very special dance moves!
• warning - really bad early 90's hair styles!
• I left out one of the most important tv shows from Brandt's childhood - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Cowabunga dude!
• In the blink of an eye, that teeny tiny baby is a grown up. It does my head in!
• I love that I had so much video footage and photos for this little DVD!

 

a little Friday morning shop, shop, shopping

Just wanted to share with you a lovely little Etsy store called The Greatest View, run by Gail Lindner. It's a store filled with the cutest embellishments...like this

these

and the loveliest little paper banners like these...

and for a splash of colour..how about these

or these..

Find Gail's shop here or learn more about Gail and her craftiness here on her blog..

Happy shopping.

Meet The Support Team - Mardi Winen

------Mardi Winen------

1. What craft do you like to do curled up on the sofa in front of the tv (if any).

I always have my crochet alongside my chair, so if I'm not finshing off handstitching on a stitched project, Ill usually pick up my crochet.

In winter I love to crochet hats. But a few weeks ago I started a crochet bag - and I'm currently working on that.

2. Is there a craft you would like to try?

Like most of us crafty souls, I've tried just about everything known to mankind.
I have never really played in mixed media art though so perhaps down the track I'd love to have a play.

I'd also love to try my hand at beading. Although my previous attempts have all ended dismally as I'm not very patient with fiddly little things.

3. What's your earliest crafty memory?

I remember in my early childhood spending time with my Grandma Grace. We lived on the same farm so I had plenty of opportunity to spend my days with her.
She was very crafty and created the most beautiful fine crochet and tatting.

Grandma Grace sewed beautifully on her old tredle sewing machine...and I remember her making me little dresses from leftovers of floral fabric she had made her blouses from. I used to love to dress in matching clothing with her.

She was also very  involved with floral art and her sewing / craft room was full of wonderful and exciting things. I think my love of craft was instilled very early on and I have no doubt she would be thrilled to see me enjoying craft as muich as she did.
 
Just a little more on the topic...
I feel so very lucky to have the most gorgeous crochet table cloth crocheted by Grandma Grace. In fact the story f how I came to have that crocheted table cloth gives me a lump in my throat every time I think of it.

Grandma Grace had started and worked on the crochet cloth as a gift for my 21st birthday for many years but then very sadly, during my teens, she became unwell and she knew she was going to run out of time to finish it for me. So she contacted my other Grandma - Grandma Lorna (who was an amazing knitter but had never crocheted) and she asked if Grandma Lorna could finish it off for 'their granddaughter'. So my Grandma Lorna taught herself how to crochet and she finished it off on 'their' behalf....and gifted it to me from both of them at my 21st ..9 years later and after Grandma Grace had passed away.
 
4. Have you always been crafty?

Absolutely. I think I was born that way BUT if you asked if I liked to cook, you'd get a totally different response though...lol

5. What other crafts have you dabbled in?

I learnt to knit and crochet as a child. My Mum taught me to sew and in my teens I sewed a lot of my clothes. As my own kids grew up I continued to make clothes for them, often with appliques on the front.

I also tried pottery, and still have a few pieces which I love and I dabbled in oil painting even exhibiting at our local art exhibition a few years in a row and selling some of my paintings as well. I was obsessed with paper tole at one stage as well as cross stitch and tapestry...and almost every other craft I can think of.

6. Do you consider yourself arty or crafty or a bit of both?

I'd have to say I'm more crafty. I have dabbled in art but I have a lot more confidence in my abilities with craft than I do with art.


7. Where do you get your craftiness from? Does it run in the family or are you the only crafty person in your family?

It runs in my family. Both my Grandmas loved their craft and although my Mum can sew beautifully, she chooses not to. My gets her enjoyment from spending time in the kitchen....I certainly didnt take after her in the cooking department.

8. Finish this sentence.."I am most happy surrounded by...."

Like minded crafty people.. warmth...good coffee... yummy food....and great music.
 

9. What crafty or arty projects are you working on right now?

Right now I'm handstitching fabric owl bums shut and working on some notebook covers. I'm crocheting a shoulder bag and playing with some gorgeous papers and photos for a scrapbooking commitment.

10. Besides the Suport Team girls, who would you love to sit and chat and create with ..if you could choose three people? Ok....seeing as the Support Team girls would normally head my list, I'll have to say my Grandma Grace (who passed away when I was about 12 years old....and I miss her), Ashley Campbell of AshleyAnn photography - I'm always amazed by her photos..not posed...just capturing real moments and Jennifer Johner....love her scrapbooking style....and knack of home decorating.

Mardi's @Home gallery   
Mardi's Blog
Mardi's Dudley and Grace Etsy Store

hoppy easter to you

Wishing all our @Home readers a safe and happy Easter.

 

get on with it

Stop thinking so much and just get on with it.

This has been my mantra the past week or so as I do have a tendancy when I am  busy, to procrastinate, get sidetracked, fluff around on facebook and generally find plenty of other things to do besides the task at hand..

It's something that Michelle Bridges would tell us during the 12WBT program I did last year and it REALLY helped me with the exercise part of the program. In fact it was like a little lightbulb moment for me with my walking of a morning. I would whinge and whine (to myself) about having to walk and Michelle's words of "stop thinking and just go into robot mode and get on with it.." would push me out the door each morning.

I was reminded of that little saying during a conversation with Janelle recently and so I made a little reminder poster for my noticeboard near my computer to keep me on task through the day.

And it's been working :-)

 

A bright spot in my day

Monday morning I woke up to a lovely email from one of my team members Mel who sent me this photo...and said this gorgeous creation will be making it's way to my place very soon!!!

Isn't it CUTE! Mel went to a local craft market on the weekend in Victoria and had this custom made especially for me and my business...Isn't she thoughtful!!!

And I LOVE it!!

Show and Tell

Well we have been having a great time over at the @Home site in the January Snippets workshop. And now with February Snippets open, it's great to see so many joining in for February as well. Book in here:)

I have been taking lots of daily photos - I'm not as diligent as some of you who are managing a photo a day, although I wish I was.. But I am happy to say I am not too far behind. The Snippets class isn't really about having a photo for every single day. The monthly projects are designed to capture a snapshot or review of what you did, who you saw and where you went during each month.

Here's a few of my January/February photos..

February 5 - here I am with my lovely Canteen ladies. I am very fortunate to be on canteen with such nice mums every month..Leesa and Nat..at Capri's school.

Capri's been home from school sick with a sore throat and a cold.

And she made some of Janelle's infamous THREE INGREDIENT scones..

and our lovely neighbours gave us some homegown organic cherry tomatoes! Delicious.

I'll be back later tonight - I have some scrapping to share..finally!!

Slumber Party Puppies

Sooooo much to catch up on it's not funny.

We have crammed a LOT of stuff into a short space of time. And now it's time to add it all here so I remember it all down the track.

Let's rewind to the 19th December which was the day after Capri's birthday and it was her sleepover night! She had her main friends come over for a sleepover party to celebrate her birthday.

They arrived earlier in the afternoon. They gave Capri such beautiful pressies including jewellery, the Miley Cyrus CD, a game and a Smiggle gift card which Capri was most excited about. She loved all of her presents.

And such lovely cards - girls certainly take their time creating cards and writing sweet messages - unlike the boys!

Roxy the wonder dog was showing signs of getting ready for her impending birthing (yes, she was pregnant and the Vet had only estimated her due date so we had no real clue when she woudl go into labour!!) and I laughingly said to Ken, "You watch..she will have her puppies during the slumber party."

Which she did.

Roxy's heavy belly was the topic of discussion amongst the girls and that she could have puppies that night was a very exciting prospect. It also opened up a lot of questions,  about HOW the puppies were going to get out of Roxy, "do they just fall out of her?" and would they have to do anything to help Roxy. I reassured them that none of the kids would be expected to play midwife!

So, anyway, back to the party.

I took the girls over to mum and dads for a swim.

Bridie and my friend Marie then arrived. Bridie could only stay for a short time as she had some other stuff on and she wasn't able to stay for the sleepover which was a shame.

We headed back to our house for more party fun and games!

and I managed to get some photos of Capri and Bridie together. These two have known each other all their lives!!

Chelsea then arrived along with Debbie and Jake and they came bearing more gifts!!!

And then Bridie had to leave. We fed the kids a quick sausage sizzle dinner and then it was time to head out for....LASER FORCE.

We then took the girls plus Jamison and Jake to Laser Force.

Now, this was Capri's first choice for her birthday activity. She dismissed ice skating, the movies or ten pin bowling and was adamant she wanted to go to Laser Force. She had never been before but the boys have and she has been desperate to go there for ages!

Only a few of them had even experienced laser shooting before and several of them were quite scared of even going!! I assured them that if they got scared they could come out and that if they really didn't want to do this they didnt have to.

But they were all very brave!

The boys on the other hand were beside themselves with excitement about having a few laser games.

As luck would have it, their session only had the girls, Jamison and Jake and another little boy and his dad plus a young girl about 13. The next session had a large group of 18-19 year old boys and I think the little 10 year old girls may have freaked had the big boys been with them.

They were kitted up in their very attractive and stylish Laser Force fighting gear.

and off they were sent into the dark depths of laser force.

Now, we could see parts of the maze on little tvs in the waiting room and we waited to see if we could spot any of our kids as they made their way around. Look closely..on the right is Chelsea, followed by Capri - yes, you will need to look VERY closely!

We had to wait for a while. There wasn't much activity at all.

Suddenly onto the screen,  Jamison jumped into view, scooted around the corner, quickly followed by Jake, both in full action mode with laser guns poised for attack! Both looking like something out of a cop show.

And then trailing like little ducklings came the girls.

They were in one long line, and some of them holding hands and they looked like they were skipping off to a picnic instead of in a battle zone. It was hilarious.

And the verdict! They all LOVED it and wanted a second game. Afterwards we took them all home again. They enjoyed pass the parcel.

and more food.

And the birthday cake which was accompanied by a very loud rendition of happy birthday.

and then movies. And popcorn. And more food.

And chatting. Laughing. Singing. Dancing. And all those things girls do at a slumber party. And just when they were all ready to settle down and go to sleep. Yep. Puppy time.

But I will save that action story for my next post.

An afternoon with Heidi

Capri's birthday coincided with Heidi Swapp's visit to Scraploot in Sydney for their grand opening. It was a big deal for me to flit off to Sydney for the afternoon on Capri's birthday but she said that was ok and she didn't mind and we had lots of birthday celebrations before we left PLUS a sleepover party for her the next day!

Janelle and I headed to Sydney at about 1pm.

We managed to get lost trying to find Prospect but arrived with 10 minutes to spare thankfully. We actually even had time to duck into Flower Power which was opposite the scrapbook store and pick up some Christmas bargains marked down by 50%.

The new Scraploot store is great!

Spacious and welcoming and loaded with the latest and greatest in scrapbook products! We were ushered into our seats and we all received a cute little pink and white goody bag.

Heidi came bounding into the room brimming with enthusiasm and energy. She really is charismatic and has a vibrant personality.

We listened to Heidi talk about a book called She (which Maria gave to me for Christmas last year) which has had a huge impact on her and caused a change in direction in her life several years ago. She talked about positivity, gratitude, energy etc and as Janelle and I are up to this point in our lives too..(The Secret, the universe, the law of attraction etc), Heidi's speech did strike a chord with both of us.

Then one lucky attendee was chosen to have their photo scrapped by Heidi - sadly it wasn't either me or Janelle!!!! It was interesting to watch Heidi scrapbook a page for someone else in 30mins!

(photo courtesy of Janelle Wind)

We then had a pink afternoon tea!

(photo courtesy of Janelle Wind)

And then it was meet and greet time.

Heidi generously chatted with each person, posed for photos, signed books and answered questions. She must get SO tired of smiling and chatting and having her photo taken but she took it all in her stride!!!

We were also fortunate to meet Chanel who, along with Heidi have been busy bees organising and running the Brisbane and Melbourne Create '08 conventions over the past week.

Chanel was lovely!! no photos though:(( I enjoyed our conversation and getting to know her better and could have stood there all night chatting away!

Heidi had very generously invited me to attend the Brisbane Create '08 which was very exciting. And for a while there it looked like I was going to get to go. But sadly it wasn't to be and I couldn't make the trip to Brisbane which was such a shame.

BUT Chanel and Heidi VERY, very, very generously gave me the class kits anyway which was fabulous!!!! Chanel presented me with the gorgeous silver tote bag packed to the brim with Heidi goodies!!!!!!!! I can't WAIT to dig in and start creating during the Christmas break!!

It was nice to catch up again with Heidi - we first met a number of years ago when we were teaching in Melbourne and we have had emails back and forth over the years and of course she has her own little Capri now too.

And Janelle's brainwave was to get Heidi to sign the 18th page in my December Daily Christmas album which I had with me to show Janelle on the trip down..

So now I have TWO pages completed plus some journaling for the 18th in my December Daily album.. And yes, I am very behind with my photos/pages but i have good intentions of catching up soon!

I also got to meet up with the lovely Alison and Belinda..

and lastly, Heidi signed a gorgeous clock and ceremoniously hung it on the Scraploot Heidi Wall!

and Janelle and I drove home again! BIG day. Both tired out but happy

I am SO not good at tags and things...

I started a post ages ago.

In fact it was so long ago I am embarrassed to even look at the date on the post, sitting there in my drafts here on the blog...So today, triggered by this award ....

from the lovely Wendy..I decided to actually cut and paste my original post and add to it and actually press UPLOAD!!

Soooo

Ages ago......Very exciting...I received this award...

from these people...Yvette, Rozzie, Lucy and Mardi. THANK YOU GIRLS!!! I then received this from Janelle - the Arte Y Pico award..(fancy name)

 

And this one:"Blogging Forever Friend" from Jacqui (yes waaaay back in July!!)

And now it's my honour to pass on all the awards..Each award has it's own set of rules and number of recipients you nominate etc etc SO as I am just going to do ONE BIG ROUNDUP I decided to make up my own rules and nominate eight Aussie blogs I love to read regularly..

1. MY SUPPORT TEAM girls...Mardi, Yvette, Janelle and Helen always inspiring and all close friends and they all have such chatty blogs...LOVE IT!
2. Kate Mason LOVE Kate's style and theres always so much crafty goodness to see but I also love Kate's writing style and her ability to share the story of her family and girls and the journey they are currently on.
3. Jane Mrs Crafty Matters I always love to see what Jane is up to - love her Crafty Matters range and seeing what projects the girls come up with using Jane's ceramic products! Having worked in the ceramics industry for so long before scrapbooking, it's always a blast from the past to read what Jane is up to with her ceramics and to see what comes out of her kiln!!!
4. Tamar love the Tarisota kits, Tamar's photos and more recently enjoyed her Australia's Next Top Model reviews(seeeeeee told you this post was from ages ago...Top Model finished months ago!!!) and cooking projects with her girls!!!
5. Kylie - my lovely friend who creates loads of gorgeousness ALL the time. We met on the Elite Team and have remained good friends. Always love seeing what she has been up to!!! Make sure you check out her gorgeous cupcake creation here..
6. Rach Richter - I've known Rach for a long time now and I love, love, love her photos and the twinkle of humour in her posts!! I've watched her boys grow up over the past few years, waited with everyone else on Aussie 3D (my first Yahoo group) for her to hurry up and have baby Kaden and now she has her beautiful little girl Aria.
7. DO IT NOW - Personal Growth - my new favourite blog. I love Tosca's writing and all the universe, living in the now, organic foods, positive energy and law of attraction stuff is all stuff I love..
8. And my crafty/arty award for Aussie blogs wouldn't be complete without adding in the delightful Mel Goodsell who always has an overflowing blog filled with all sorts of crafts and activities!! And I have joined her latest swap which is her Gratitude/Stationary Wrap swap!!

Phew. That feels good to get all that done. THANK YOU for my awards. I truly appreciate them all and was chuffed to receive them!!!!!