Kim Archer | Mindful Living

And hello. I'm back. Again.

So, well, yes it's been a while. Not quite a year, but certainly a very long time between posts.

I'm not going to waffle on about why theres been such a long time between posts, life gets busy blah blah.. I'm just going to dive right back in.

J's 21st

We had another kid turn 21 in our family the other week. The middle one. And in true J fashion, his party was left until the last minute to organise. In fact, it was the most thrown together party you could imagine - but somehow everything came together and turned out, well, turned out great!

He was adamant that he wanted it at Soho on Darby St (where Brandt had his 21st).. Brandt's friend has since bought Soho and they no longer have functions past 8pm as it turns into a nightclub after that time! Which meant a 4pm-8pm party which was a bit weird but turned out great as it meant the family could all be there and then J and his friends could then head off for a night in town..

He's a bit of a no fuss kinda boy old Jammo and hates the limelight HOWEVER he asked for a photo board and a photo book that everyone could sign AND could I please take lots of photos on the day and make sure I go around and film everyone saying happy birthday messages to him. Oh-kay then.

This was also last minute.

I had a few days up my sleeve and the great PHOTO BOARD project was set in motion.

I used an existing canvas I have here and blue tac to add a ton of photos and it was time consuming but came out so well! AND didn't we find some photo gems!

Saturday was a crazy day -- well not for the birthday boy -- but for me and Capri! We raced around picking up the cake, ordering and picking up balloons and racing to Charlestown to pick up cupcakes from Fifi LeFemme and then to Typo to grab a last minute blank notebook to turn into a birthday book for the guests to sign.

Meanwhile our Canberra guests -- Ken's mum and our lovely friend Lyn and one of her kids Steve -- arrived and we had lunch while I quickly printed out photos and whacked together a VERY basic guest book!

And then it was on with the show!

Capri and Tegan (Brandt's girlfriend) happily posed for photos - in fact big claps to all the Archers who were very (unusually) obliging for my camera!

And now, heres the photo overload..

And the family -- yes J is the tallest in the family -- by a mile!

The cousins -- all grown up these days!

Lifelong childhood friends Natasha and Sam with Capri.

Despite the big age gap, these two get on exceptionally well!

The birthday boy with me and Ken and also with his Aunty Debbie and his nan!

And yeah, this is typical of our family when the camera comes out (photo to the left).. it takes a while to get everyone to cooperate.. although, as I said, well done to the Archers for being so obliging at the party!

On the right is cousin Jake with Brandt and Steve -- life long friend from Canberra. For long time readers of my blog, Steven is the son of Rob who was Ken's best friend since they were 5 years old and who tragically passed away in 2008. I know lots of readers followed along with Rob's story on my blog..

On a side note, Steven has grown into a beautiful young man who is so kind and lovely and supportive of Lyn as well as such a great mate to both my boys and always, always has looked out for Capri!

In fact, after the party, Capri was off to an 18th for a few hours and Steven decided to go with her.. they have a great rapport and friendship those two!

And our long time friends Rob and Karen (yes another Rob..) We have known these guys for so so long!

And these kids really did grow up together.. as kids, they spent a LOT of time together...

Time for speeches!

And cousin Jake is in BIG trouble for forcing this tradition!

and cake cutting time.. we ordered this from Euro Patisserie which is also where we bought Brandt's 21st cake from -- their cakes and pastries are delicious!

and thank you to all our party guests!! Marg and Tracey came along.. sisters I have l known since I was ten! And a nice pic of Brandt and Tegan although that mo needs to GO!

and of course all of his friends..from all areas of his life! I won't overload all of the friends photos here as I don't have their permission to post them.. but it was great to see some of J's friends from primary school come along.. all grown up!

Was a great party! Although there were a few sore heads the next day!

 

 

 

Um, hello?

It's been an entire YEAR and a few weeks since I last updated this blog.

How sad is that!

So let's see how this goes.. but I am dipping my foot tentatively back into the blogging world. I've been pretty active with Jot stuff but the world continues to whip by way too fast and I can't seem to catch my breath long enough to even think about adding in some stuff to my neglected blog.

I have pulled out the craft supplies again, fallen in love (again) with my PictureMate and dived back into Project Life-ing. I must admit, once I started, I remembered how much I love this whole concept..

Yeah, yeah, I am only up to Week 2 of 2015 however, that's okay. I am enjoying the process. No pressure.

 

What I'm still doing:

• including a Week in Review card. It's very simply done by printing it onto plain white card.
• adding lots of digital elements to my photos before printing - eg: the date, simple journaling or a title.
• printing all my photos via the PictureMate
• keeping embellishing simple - machine stitching, flair buttons, chipboard letters and a few little elements here and there.
• keeping the process pressure free - I have no expectations to "catch up".. I am just enjoying each spread and not feeling overwhelmed or stressed out that I have a LOT (and I mean, A LOT) of gaps in my album.
• using various apps on my phone to collect photos + stories so I know what we did when and where and who with..
• enjoying the process.

Life is going too fast

I tell you what, I feel like the world is spinning too fast at the moment. I can't seem to keep up with everything and here we are almost in JULY already.

And updating this blog fell by the wayside a while ago! Here's a snapshot of our June. It was a whirlwind of activities including a fabulous overnighter to Sydney staying at The Darling Hotel within the Star Casino. Very swish and a really good 24 hours away!

Ken was taken to the State Of Origin with a client and was very well looked after.. and Capri and I (we both have zero interest in football) tagged along and spent the time exploring Sydney, shopping and eating!

I so love Sydney and could easily live there. Or visit all the time.. I just love it.

Capri and I spent the time power shopping (we had limited time!) and picked up a few bargains but really, we didn't buy that much at all and sight seeing before heading back to the Hotel to finish off our night with a decadent Adriano Zumbo dessert each. A mini lemon meringue pie for me and Capri bought a 6 pack of macarons that she shared.

And just like that, the night was over and we were heading home again. And back to reality.