Kim Archer | Mindful Living

WEEKEND...OVER ALREADY!

Monday already.

*long post below...be warned:)*

Busy day today finalising workshops today for Lisa and her A Passion 4 Scrappin retreat which is on this weekend at Lake Keepit, just outside Tamworth!

So. The weekend.

It was busy actually. Lots of family stuff really.

Saturday footy!!

And Jamison's team WON the final game of the series which means they are at the top of the ladder.

He was beside himself with excitement, (although he certainly doesn't look it in this photo!!!!!!!) as IF they win the grand final he gets a jacket. And this is obviously a really BIG deal because he keeps talking about it!!

Saturday night I went out for dinner with my friend Marie (who is celebrating her birthday today...and she's sick :O( So *HAPPY BIRTHDAY* Marie and get better quick) for another friends birthday.

Was a fun night when we FINALLY GOT THERE!!! I had serious shoe issues!

I arrived to pick up Marie and the ENTIRE heel and sole of my 'going out at night favourite black chunky high heel shoes' came off as I was walking to her front door - great timing as we were already late!!!

Her hubby, bless him, said in ALL seriousness that he had some gaffer (spelling??) tape for me but as it was flouro orange and I didn't really want to start a new trend out there on the Newcastle nightlife scene, we drove ALL the way back to my house to get another pair!

Which delayed us even further.

Soo, we were late. And I was running out of petrol. And we decided to risk it and not stop for petrol.

And we couldn't find a park...Darby St was packed!! and so then I started getting anxious about not having any petrol to get home and not having any petrol stations open when we would be coming home.

So we headed back to almost Hamilton (which will mean nothing for non Novocastians) and THEN we headed back to Darby St to find a park. And of course we drove around and around and around and around and ended up a dodgy dark street (almost at NBN - again this will mean nothing unless you know Newcastle!!!!)and I said we can't park here - someone might get us!!!!

So we kept driving and driving and driving. The girl organising the 'surprise party' for her sister (our friend) wouldn't answer her mobile so no one knew where on earth we were!!!

We were so late (I HATE being late so this was causing me a HUGE deal of anxiety) that we missed drinks at The Delaney before hand and missed the 'SURPRISE' bit of the night. Ooops.

But we made it to the dinner and everyone was waiting for us as they wanted to order! And it all turned out ok.

Sorry, that was a looong story. Hope your eyes aren't all glazed over or that you are asleep in your seats!!!

So, onto Sunday.

We went to Ken's work's family tennis day.

Yee ha.

We are not a particularly BIG tennis family. In fact we were trying to even think of a time Jamison and Capri have even picked up a tennis racquet!!! Brandt played for a few years when he was little but the other two have little interest in the sport.

I LOVE watching the tennis and I did the usual mums with babies tennis club thing when Jamison was a baby plus lessons when I was younger (although you would never know!!) but I will admit I am pretty hopeless.

I *thought* that it would be a social hit and laugh type day. Um, nope.

There were some SERIOUS tennis players out there. 

They reeeeallllly wanted to win. There were trophies and everything. One guy who thought he was pretty HOT with his little tennis collar pulled up and his brilliant white tennis outfit on competed against Ken and Jamison in their second match and he was pelting it at Jamison unfairly, just so he could win! I mean Jamison is ELEVEN years old. Give him a break.

But thankfully there were also families like us. With kids. And NO idea what they were doing. We stuck with those people:)

Ken and Jamison joined forces. Ken had this great ???? idea to dress in daggy matching blue hawaiian shirts they bought from the discount shop several years ago as a joke! They were called the A Team. Ken thought they were sooo funny. Ken and Jamison that is, wore the shirts NOT all of us!!!!! Thought I should clarify that one)

I just secretly hoped people wouldn't think they were serious with the shirts.

Jamison isn't *quite* up to that stage of being conscious of what he looks like so he was happy to play along with his daggy dad's idea of a joke!!! Although he ditched the shirt after a while. Unfortunately Ken kept the hawaiian number on ALL day. Honestly, he has so many nice clothes and had to wear a pair of shorts that are 100 years old and I'm sure he found them at the back of the cupboard plus the nerd alert shirt!

BUT there were others there in black afro wigs and all sorts of other things so it wasn't that bad I guess.

Now, the tennis. Jamison took to the game as if he's been playing all his life. it was totally surprising to see him play. And play so well.

Ok, so he belted it cricket style a few times with some great power shots but on the whole he was good. i think he even surprised himself. He was really capable! And determined!

(I'm loving my camera!!)

Now Capri on the other hand, our little I'm going to dance my way through life fairy floss daughter was lucky to make the ball connect with the racquet,let alone get the BALL OVER THE NET!!!

But she had fun. and made new friends. And certainly looked the part:)

And I even played. Sort of:)

Check me out. Look at that GREAT tennis pose. That style and grace. That, 'oh my goodness, did that ball go over the net this time' pose. Ha.

And check out the SERIOUS guy on the other court. He was the one in his tennis whites who was slogging it at Jamison just so he could win! Forget the daggy hawaiian shirts my guys were wearing THAT guy was the nerd alert!

Have a great week everyone.

ONLINE WORKSHOP WITH MISS FIONA

Tonight the tables were turned.

I was a STUDENT!! And it was fun. I did Fiona's online workshop over at the Boxx. Thanks for a great class Fiona:)

I did change my layout a bit and converted it to 8.5x11. Plus I had to keep adding bits and also add in some machine stitching.

here's the result:

LOVING my new white pen (thanks for the tip Janine...)

WEDNESDAY ALREADY!

The week is flying by....here's a quick summary of what's been happening here..

• I met Fiona in Sydney for lunch today..and she brought me some cool new ribbons. She's so generous:) You MUST check out her new ribbons - grosgrain mix it ups... just uploaded to her site..check them out here...
• Fiona had the new Elsie book to show me. I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!! I loved it. Wanted to take it home with me but Fiona wouldn't let me!!! So I am ordering that one from Maria as soon as possible. It's so bright, fun, colourful, inspiring..I NEED it desperately.
• Got a mammoth amount of DT packs from Maria at the Boxx! All such wonderful goodies and I can't wait to get started with my projects for the next few newsletters. PLUS I got the new Ali book. Love it. So impressive!
• I have been in talks with Sonia from Forever Always and have been busy creating classes for her retreat in September. Check out the retreat details here. Sonia has also opened up day packages for those who don't wish to stay the entire weekend. I've got some cool classes in the pipeline! Contact Sonia for more details:)
• BIG BB night tonight. Oooooh. After the shock eviction on Sunday of the two girls I have NO idea who will go tonight. My instincts say surely one of the new boys will go but who knows!
• Kiwi Scraps - um, who has started their homework for Ali's classes???

I had this weird dream the other night that I forgot to pick Renata up at the airport on the Thursday night, Julie and Janelle kept telling me that the classes were now on on the Thursday and I kept saying I wasn't ready and insisting that the classes were on FRIDAY not Thursday!!!!!! and I had brought my printer with me(um, as you do!) to print photos out in my room.

I kept trying to make my printer print nine photos out for Ali's Today You class and I couldn't make my printer work. Fiona was there trying to hurry me up. It was very stressful. Soooo I thought I had better print off the info and at least READ what prep work I need to do...I think it's only 3 weeks tomorrow til I leave???? Is it that soon???

And I think thats all for now. Have a great night everyone..

CLASSES, CLASSES, CLASSES!

Taught another class for Sally at scrapshop.com.au last Thursday. lot's of fun. great kits that Sally pulled together and organised.

We used the A2Z papers designed by Kate Teague which everyone loved(especially me!)  and next time I will make sure I advertise the class early as I know the class kits booked out quickly and there were a few who missed out.

At this stage I don't have any plans to run the class again but I have lots of ideas for more classes with Sally so stay tuned.

Here's my project. You can check out the girls layouts in the gallery over at Scrapshop..

Had a busy weekend.

Left for Sydney late Friday night with my mum to stay overnight at my aunty and uncles home (hi Aunty Chris and Uncle Ray and thanks for having us!!!!!) in Sydney. Always so nice to visit family. So familiar and welcoming:) We stayed up late chatting, drinking cuppas and eating raisin toast!! And our beds were ready for us with electric blankets turned on and toasty warm!!!

We had an early start the next morning so we headed off at about 8.30am for Wollongong. Mum and aunty Chris came with me and they headed for the shops and to explore Wollongong while I taught two classes at Addicted 2 Scrappin.

What a great shop.

Melissa Martin owns A2S and I have known Melissa since I first started out in scrapping as we were on online groups together in the early days. PLUS we both taught at the very first Pride convention, way back in December 2003. Her work has graced many Aussie magazine pages as well as heaps of magazine covers and I have always loved her style of scrapping!!

Her store is loaded with samples - many from Melissa. All these gorgeously created mini books and layouts and beyond the page projects are everywhere!! And such a well selected range of products! Melissa knows what hot. what's new and what scrappers want!! I bought some new SEI iron on transfers (very cute) and some new papers - SEI and 3bugsinarug! Very nice indeed!

Now, you must check out this girl. Her work is exceptional.

Her name is Janine Kaye. <------here we are together.

I was SO impressed with her class ideas and her samples but mostly her absolutely gorgeous beyond the page projects displayed in the store.

She teaches lots of classes for Melissa along with Kim and there were heaps of classes I wanted to go back and go to!!! Like Janine's reverse patchwork class!!!

I taught two classes.

Such lovely ladies.

VERY friendly and welcoming and by the second class we were all like old friends!! I must say hi to Renee from Scrapboxx who came along to see me and to Leanne who travelled up from Nowra! Thanks guys! As well as huge thanks to ALL the lovely ladies in the classes.

And we all are..some ladies had already left to go home but I do like to get my group shot!!

Thanks Melissa for inviting me to come down and thank you ladies for making me feel so welcome!!!

Next classes - TAMWORTH RETREAT! More about that one tomorrow.

CHECK OUT THE GALLERIES

<------------------------------ Make sure you check out all the gorgeous new work from the Hour of Power #2 workshops as well as a couple of layouts in the I Remember gallery. (to the left and down a bit...)

ALL just beautiful!!!!

ANOTHER ONLINE CLASS AT SALLY'S SCRAPSHOP..

[edited to add: due a flood of bookings this morning my class for Sally is now booked out. *THANK YOU* to all who have booked in. I look forward to seeing you in class on Thursday night ]

I'm doing another online class for Sally over at Scrapshop THIS THURSDAY NIGHT starting at 8pm. Yes, THIS Thursday night which is short notice and SO typical of me!!!

Class is run through one of my blog classrooms as per my usual online classes BUT bookings are made through Sally's site.

Check out details here.

We have a few seats left. Kits include postage and can be mailed out if ordered before Wednesday and include the IMRPESSIVE A-Z paper range.

Now, I hadn't heard of this paper range when Sally approached me about doing the class BUT since receiving them I am suitably impressed!!! They are great quality, great designs and colours AND printed on both sides which is always handy!!

Here's a sneak peek of the class.

And look!! Don't fall off your chairs but this is my second post TODAY!!!!

WE'RE BAAAAACK

We're home.

And right back into the school/work routine!

Kids are back at school today. Ken's back at work and I am confronted with a huge to do list, samples that are overdue and an overflowing inbox:) *oh the joys*

So, a family recap.

Sydney was wonderful. It was great to catch up with my cous Jacki and her family, although the visit was waaaay too short. 

The kids all got along well, although it was a bit of a boys versus girls thing happening with Jamison and Jack joining forces against Capri and Livvy. 

 

Jacki and Mattie are SO welcoming and it's always so relaxing and such a pleasure to visit them even though they were right, smack in the middle of a VERY busy weekend and we gave them little notice we were coming!! Mattie works full time shift work plus they both own and operate a busy newsagency plus they had 45 people coming for lunch the next day and still they welcomed us with open arms and abundant food and conversation and it was as if nothing else was happening but our visit.

My other cousins (Jacki's sisters) called in to visit us as well with their partners. And it was a lovely family visit:)

Sunday we packed up (and my goodness our car was packed to the rafters - you would think we were going away for 6months with the amount of stuff we had!!) and headed to Scrapabout at Parramatta to meet up with the one and only Miss Julie.

Ken and the kids explored Parramatta while I went to Jen's Christmas in July workshop with Julie and her friend Leanne. Lots of fun. Didn't finish my layout - oh well - I WILL finish it though Jen and share it. I am happy with how it's coming along. I modified Jen's sample to suit my usual 8.5x11 scrapping size and it was a juggle to fit everything on there but I managed!!! Just some machine stitchign and a few details to go.

THEN we headed to Canberra. Ok. It's cold in Canberra. And I forget HOW cold until we go back each time to visit. And then I remember! Big time.

And then I got sick. The flu. We were all coughing and spluttering as the kids have been sick as well. But we are all on the mend now.

We stayed with our friends on their property firstly. The ones we saw recently at The Entrance. Always great to catch up with them! And so many 'farm' toys for the kids to play with!!!!

And Brandt had his first driving lesson.

Um, who stole my child and replaced him with a teenager who IS NOW OLD ENOUGH TO GET HIS DRIVER'S LICENCE!???????

Rob & Lyn's place is so peaceful and rural and relaxing!! A lovely place to recharge the batteries!! Check out their view. This is only a mere fraction of their property.

The kids always get along well. Never any arguments really although bed time was full of frivolity and no one would settle down early and GO TO SLEEP!!! But that's the fun of staying with friends and being a kid!

AND then we headed to Ken's mums for a couple of nights.

Brandt celebrated his 16th birthday with lots of pressies, a trip to the skate park at Tuggernong and we went to APK at Woden for dinner and YES, I had my usual garlic king prawn with mango salsa pizza. MMMMMMMM Love it.

We sat at table 16 for Brandt's 16th birthday - how tricky!

And then we headed home. A looong trip with three kids crammed into the back seat and arguing and fighting ALL the way home. ALL five hours of it.

We had a great time away but it's always nice to get home to your own bed!!! Although it's back to reality this morning and back into the school routine!!

And I owe emails left, right and centre. I am getting there though so if you are expecting to hear from me, you will....soon. I promise:)

BOXX NEWSLETTER, HAPPY FRIDAY AND HOLIDAYS!

We're off for a few days holiday tomorrow.

Am I organised! Goodness no. I am a last minute gal. I will still be throwing things in suitcases at 5 to midday tomorrow! But I am part way through washing what we need to take.

We head to my cousin's home in Cronulla tomorrow and will stay overnight there, then onto Parramatta to Scrapabout where I am meeting up with Julie (can't wait) for Jen's class on Sunday.

Ken and the kids will explore the shops and have some lunch somewhere!! Have I sorted out my photos and materials for the class. Um. nope.

Then we are off to Canberra to visit family and friends:)

Soooo, I am trying to sort through emails and sort some things out before I leave but I have a mega long list so please forgive me if I don't get to your email!!

July Scrapboxx newsletter came out this morning. You can check it out here!!

I had heaps in there this month!! Lots of fun kits and bits and pieces to play with:)

Here they are:

 

We also had a quick visit this afternoon from Fiona and the girls. Always lovely to catch up, although it was such a flying visit:)

Anyway, happy Friday everyone.

See you in a week.

LUNCH @ THE BEACH

[yesterday's news - started this post yesterday, got sidetracked with the online class and a million other things but still want to document our day]

Took the kids to meet mum today for lunch during her lunch hour. We grabbed pies (Darby's have THE best pies!!) and ate in the car park overlooking the beach with 50 thousand other people!!

My three crammed into the back seat of my little car (cute car but not particularly practical) juggling pies and drinks and cakes. And didn't they go on. Arguing. Whinging. Whining and complaining. Hardly a pleasant lunch enjoying the beautiful beach before us. So consequently it was a QUICK lunch.

The ocean was SO blue and SO beautiful and I could visualise the kids standing there smiling nicely with such a beautiful backdrop. Perfect picture op.

Yeah right.

Jamsion couldn't move out of the car! Too full. And no wonder. He downed THREE pies(the shop lady gave us an extra by mistake and Jamison declared he was SO STARVING so he ate the spare!!), a lamington and a bottle of orange juice.

Brandt was too cool for posing.

But Capri was willing.

Only thing is she kept running and didn't stop and I didn't have time to adjust the camera settings (cause I am SO slow with this camera!!!!!!) and so my photos are blurry.

But I guess these couple capture the moment. Cause it was windy and she was carefree. And running fast! And finally released from being wedged between her brothers while she ate lunch for 20minutes!

So it's Brandt's birthday in exactly one weeks time!!

And as mum was with us we headed into town to have a quick look for a present for him. Brandt has such specific tastes and finds all these little shops I wouldn't even THINK of looking in. So it was good he was with us and could choose things he wanted:)

First stop - a teeny, tiny building called Drift. A cycle shop. He frequents this one. Knows the bike mechanic and loves fossicking around in there. He has ordered all sorts of bits and pieces from them for his bike.

We waited in the car while Brandt and Jamison explored the shop. Apparently the bike mechanic friend was in there and Brandt asked him to show Jamison his tatt - some fancy, huge trendy tattoo on his shoulder. Jamison was suitably impressed and I was glad that for a small smidge of time the two brothers were together, sharing a moment and NOT at each other's throats!

Anyway, Brandt chose some new fangled tyre for his bike. Mum and I looked with raised eyebrows at that one. A new tyre for your bike??? Are you sure you want that??? He couldn't decide as he had a few other things in mind. So we kept looking.

Next stop was some dodgy little building down a steep side street alley way, behind the mall, right in the middle of Newcastle. It was one of those shops you can't see into. It's just a doorway leading into goodness knows where. This time Brandt was after a belt buckle he had seen(goodness knows HOW he found the shop in the first place..but I guess teens know how to find what they want) and had to have.

Again we sent the boys in and we waited in the car.

It wasn't until after a few minutes I realised they had actually gone into a TATTOO AND BODY PIERCING place. Mum freaked a bit. Told me they had been in there long enough and rang Brandt's phone to check they were ok.

Which of course they were. But I must admit, I thought it looked dingy and dodgy too.

I joked that perhaps they were taking so long because they were bonding as brothers and getting tattoos together.

Capri was bored out of her brain  in the car and started climbing around outside.

I was too lazy to get out of the car so took some pics inside, through the windscreen! eventually the boys emerged, without tattoos :) and Brandt bought the must have belt buckle. So mum achieved one present which was good and had a few ideas for some other things.

It was a noisy trip back to the office for mum. Jamison singing. Capri complaining that Jamison was singing. Brandt complaining that Capri was complaining that Jamison was singing. And mum and I trying to compete with the noise and have a conversation!

School holidays. Love them!

POGO STICK UPDATE

Mmm, ok, so I didn't know did I?

...that pogo sticks SHOULD have a rubber stopper thingy on the bottom instead of bare metal which when boing-ing on the stamped concrete driveway can cause little dents and chip marks. Ooops.

I got some good photos though before we discovered the fact:)

But sadly, no more pogo-ing for Jamison.