Kim Archer | Mindful Living

THE DAY AFTER THE DAY AFTER BOXING DAY:)

Just trying to capture in pictures what we are doing each day of the holidays...

So today we visited the neighbours (Jemima's family:), had afternoon tea at mum & dads which turned into an extended stay and BBQ dinner and lots of pool fun!

Love these shots of Jamison..

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by and left me comments...always love reading them, have been trying to reply personally, but am a little behind with my emails (what's new I hear Julie and Janelle saying!)...

Have a great Thursday! Although lately, every day feels like a Sunday! Lazy holiday mode here and I love it!

THE DAY AFTER BOXING DAY..

Enjoying the holidays.

Ken's home for several weeks which is rare for us at this time of year. Although in saying that he ducked into the office this morning for a few hours to finalise some stuff. BUT he's growing his 'holiday' beard so it does truely feel like he is on holidays! What is it with holidays and beards! My dad always did the same when we were kids!

Mum, Brandt and I headed to the shops for our annual after Christmas sales trip. I love going and soaking up the buzz and the noise and the atmosphere.

Charlestown Square was packed!

BOTH entrances to the Myer carpark were closed as it was FULL! Already! At 8.50am! We had to park a mile away in the cinema carpark!

Mum got heaps of bargains! Like some tailored work pants from Sportsgirl marked down from $80 to $20! LOVE bargains like that! I bought a few things. Just some clothes from Just Jeans!And Brandt spent some Christmas money. I wanted towels from Myer but the lines were so long and so I decided we didn't really NEED towels, although they were lovely colours and 50% off!

Ken took the kids plus Jemima and his mum to the beach but all the beaches were closed.  Being from Canberra Ken's mum was desperate for a swim in the ocean but sadly for her she didn't get to as the weather has been so weird during her visit this year! the water has been too cold and rough for swimming!

Ken's mum headed home very early this morning and we all waved her farewell as Ken drove her to the station before 7am this morning! The kids are all back in bed and haven't stirred yet!!

SO we went out for dinner last night to Blue Water Pizza on the Foreshore. Such a great outlook. Great food. Very noisy. Lots of people.

Here's some photos..

Ok, so in the photos we all look so happy hey! But in reality the kids fought and argued over the most TRIVIAL things all through the meal. Brandt flicked water through a straw at Jamison. (obviously at a loose end).  Jamison stirred Brandt. Brandt stirred Jamison. Capri wouldn't sit still. Marie can't hear at the best of times but throw her in a room alreay NOISY with other people and she is a lost cause. I gave up yelling a conversation with her after the first five minutes.

BUT the night ended nicely with a trip to Jims. A family favourite! [edited to add: Jim's is the local ice cream place and has been around for years!!!! As long as I can remember actually!]Although Jamison and Capri fussed around for ages and wouldn't settle for bed once we got home!

I guess they are still in the over excited Christmas mood!

MERRY CHRISTMAS..

We are all tired out.

Here's our Christmas day in photos...

Capri & Jamison were up at 5.30am but we held them off for an hour which wasn't too early a start!!

Our musical maestro got an electronic keyboard, our dancing queen got a Singstar and our teen got an ipod Nano! Plus an assortment of clothes, books, dvds, toys, cds etc..

All presents were hits!

Mum, dad and Ken's mum here for lunch! Lots of food - always is at Christmas time!!

Nothing like a thumping big cold sore on your lower lip for Christmas day photos! I need to eat more veges! In fact, after the past few days of Christmas eating I need a detox! I am determined to stop eating rubbish, walk every morning and drink more water.

I am just downloading some new high energy power walking songs to my iPod so I can head out in the morning armed with lots of new music to keep me motivated!!!!

wish me luck!

Hope you had a great Christmas everyone..

CHRISTMAS EVE

One more sleep.

VERY exicted kids in this house...especially Capri. She is jumping out of her skin and I predict it will be hours before she falls asleep! *sigh*

My shopping is finished. I must admit I did head back there today...one last trip...and ran into Mishell:) as well as saw the local news crew there filming the mad last minute shoppers. I quickly got outta there. I did NOT need to be seen on the news...'last minute shopper escorted from Charlestown Square declaring...'I just need to buy one more present!!!' I was embarrased I was even AT THE SHOPS on Christmas Eve!!!

I am about to make more little Christmas trees (we ate the last batch last night as we had the neighbours over for Christmas drinks...) and everything is all but wrapped.

I followed Julie Love's cue and bought pjs as a little surprise for the kids tonight...Capri was obliging and put hers on immediately (as did Jamison) AND she happily posed for photos!!! Jamison wasn't quite so obliging for my camera though...and Brandt got a good laugh out of the extra long pj shorts I got for him..

I tried to send a digi card today to a group of friends but somehow the message wouldn't go through and apparently some of you received a weird text message within the email and no pic attached. Sorry about that!

Here's the card anyway!

Merry Christmas everyone...

KIM

ALMOST CHRISTMAS....

You will all be pleased to know I AM ALMOST FINISHED my shopping! Almost.

Wednesday we spent a lovely number of hours with my friend Marie and her children Bridie and Nick. Some of you may remember Capri's friend Bridie who has featured in layouts before. Sadly, Bridie left our school after kindergarten but the girls are still firm friends and will go to high school together eventually!

We met for breakfast at McDonalds - nothing like dining in style!! for a get together for Capri's birthday as well as for Christmas. I loved Bridie's card for Capri's birthday as on it she had written..'...besties forever Bridie xx'  which was just lovely:)

Love this photo of them.

Marie and I had a good catchup. You know you 'click' with someone when you talk and talk and talk and never run out of things to say! And that's us. No matter if we have seen each other the day before we still never seem to stop talking!!

I also ran into my dear friend Cathy who was dropping her son off to a birthday party at McDonalds. We went to school together and she was one of my closest friends at school. We haven't seen each other much this year and so we had quite a few months of news to catch up on...I was SO saddened to hear about Cathy's best friend Alison who passed away suddenly way back in May this year. In fact I was shocked as Alison was our age and had three children and while I didn't know her personally I knew all about her and her family as Cathy over the years always talked of her friend Al. And then it clicked later on when I got home. This was the same girl who Cindy talked about on her blog back in May. And i read that post and had NO idea it was Al she was talking about. So sad.

Marie gave me the most beautiful Christmas tree ornament...and it must have been the day for ornaments because I came home to a great package from the one and only Miss Julie who gave me this hip and happening tree decoration (and yeah, there I am laden with shopping - how appropriate!)!! Thank you SO much Julie...

Love it. here they are:

And then!! More surprises!!

A beautiful package from Fiona...I haven't photographed her present yet but its this gorgeous wire mannequin. I love it!! It is very much me and fits in with our decor here (not that I have mannequins all over the place LOL) but you know what I mean... My kids thought it was weird and asked but what do you DO with it????? and Fiona said her girls were the same but I just love it!! Will photograph and post it here over the next day or so..

And then more surprises...a pressie from Janelle as well. Janelle's stitching is exquisite. She has the most beautiful workmanship in anything she creates and this was evident in the present she sent me..

It is the most beautiful little stitched bag and inside is a mini book! How cool is that!!! Isn't is gorgeous!!And I love the colours and fabrics!!

So I have been very spoilt!

So what else has been happening...

Capri and I made the chocolate trees that Megan had on her blog..and they turned out wonderfully. Very easy. Very effective. And very tasty indeeeed.

Anything with condensed milk in it is a hit with me! Love the stuff.

I finished my Christmas cards. Have sent most of them. The others will go over the weekend.

Nothing like getting a Happy New Year card because thats when they will arrive. But better late than never. They are THE most simple card. not much to them at all but they are still so time consuming. I had quite a production line happening..

photo is bad but you get the idea...

Photo on the card of us all is one from ourphoto shoot with Rach! Thanks so much!!

Ken's mum arrived for Christmas late today from Canberra. We picked her up from the train station and then did the quick dash for a Santa photo at Charlestown. Got a park without any trouble. No lineup for Santa! it was great!

Home again for dinner. And then off to Bar Beach for a visit. The lighting was great and I got some photos..shame my kids MOVE SO MUCH! as I had a lot of blurry ones!

Will share tomorrow as I am worn out!

Up early tomorrow for a walk! I need to exercise! Desperately..and then it's..yep you guessed it..back to the shops but only to pick up Ken's present and some wrapping paper and then I am FINISHED!!! WOO HOO.

Have a great weekend everyone and if you read this entire post then THANK YOU!

WEDNESDAY..

I am over shopping.

I envy my cousin who had one day, one window of opportunity to buy EVERYTHING (weeks ago I might add) and she finished 80% of her buying in that one day! How good is that!

Sadly though, I relate more with her sister who went out at 9am and got home at 5pm and bought..wait for it..a headband for her niece! Now, that's more like it.

We aren't hitting the shops today.

It's DAY ONE of the holidays here for the kids so we are meeting my friend Marie and her kids Bridie and Nick for breakfast this morning as a Christmas get together as well as to celebrate Capri's birthday! So that will be fun!

School is over for another year.

Both Jamison and Capri have been told their teachers for next year already! And we are happy with the classes they will be going into. Jamison's staying with his current teacher which he was happy about and Capri is moving into year three with a lovely lady teacher who Jamison had a few years ago in year 3 also.

It's a little sad to move on from Capri's most gorgeous teacher from this year. We have been blessed to have had a great run with teachers for her since starting school. Jamison, well, not so lucky but thankfully this year was great(teacher wise!) and we are thankful he has the same teacher again next year (and that the boys giving him trouble have moved onto high school!!!).

Anyway, here is Capri on her birthday with her teacher from this year who also taught her in kindergarten. We have had a long history with Cathy who taught Brandt in year 2 and her husband taught Brandt in year 1.

 

She is one of those teachers who you can SEE just loves her job. She greets the children with a huge smile each day. She makes learning fun. She is approachable and welcoming and friendly and happy. She is firm and strict when she needs to be and she's just a damn good teacher.

On Monday, Capri's birthday, when I was taking this photo, Cathy was telling Capri about how she remembered the year Capri was born and she was teaching Brandt at the time. Then school finished for the year but I hadn't had the baby at that stage (I had Capri the day school broke up) and she was wondering what we had had and how everything was! She didn't find out what I had had until weeks later when she ran into one of the mums out and about in the school holidays and I had had a little girl called Capri.... and here we are 8 years later and she has taught Capri twice! How cool is that! I want to do a layout about that!

Anyway, must keep moving. All kids having a HUGE sleep in and no one is out of bed yet and with less than an hour to get us all up and dressed and out the door for our breakfast date I should get off this computer!

Have a great day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAPRI

Today Capri turned eight.

Finally.

She has been counting down the days until her birthday for the past few months desperate to be eight like her friends.... And she was up bright and early and eager!!

Check out the nice Christmas paper! Ooops. Forgot to buy birthday paper! But Capri didn't even notice! She got lots of pressies - a portable CD player, the Pixel Chicks car, books and some Clickits...and she loved them all!

Here's her card...whipped up last night...

She didn't have a party this year with her friends but will have a couple of friends over in the holidays for a sleepover. Mum & Dad came for dinner tonight and we had a small family party..plus Jemima:) who is like part of the family..

Mum and dad gave her the cutest Cabbage Patch baby called Juliana with the same birthdate as my mum!! Plus a stack of other great presents..

We got together with my sister and her family yesterday for Christmas as we won't see them Christmas day and the cousins celebrated Capri's birthday then as well..

It was a lovely relaxing day...great weather so the kids had a swim. Great food and lots of it! And great company.

Capri got this cool little gadget from my sister..it threads jewels onto strands of hair and the girls spent ages playing with it..

And one of my favourite shots of the day..

My shopping is still going..

I am over it all but still haven't finished...my dad doesn't understand how time consuming it is to shop for presents. He doesn't get that you have to make sure you are getting a good price for something and you can't just go to the first shop and pick up the first present and buy it..oh if only it was that easy...things like DVDs can be $30 in some stores and $12.88 at Big W!!!! for example...He doesn't get why mum and I can go out for 5 hours and come home with only a couple of presents...

In fact WE don't get how we can do that either!

My brother in law is the same as my dad.

My sister took him shopping to choose some PJs for his mum for Christmas. After Debbie checked out a few racks, Jason waiting impatiently, said, 'just get these!' triumphantly holding up a pair...

'Ah, yeah sure....' Debbie told him...'for a start they are a size 10 and your mum is a size 16 and secondly, they are winter pyjamas and we are in the middle of a Summer heatwave!'

So tomorrow is my last day with the kids at school. I am hitting the shops AGAIN straight from the school drop off...and this time maybe, just maybe I might finish off that list so I can use the rest of the week to make my Christmas cards:)

Have a great Tuesday

and happy birthday to our little poppet.

LAYOUT SHARES...

Some projects I have been working on...

The Boxx of Scraps this month over at Scrapboxx...

Love this shot of Ken and Capri. It was one of those shots I didn't plan or set up and say, hey, let me take your picture...it was just me having the camera pointed at the right place at the right time!

And this is for the December Take 20 at Scrapboxx...

Everything needed for the Guest Book is in the kit. All new Li'l Davis stuff - love the papers (they are double sided!!) and especially love the big chipboard letters which are all glittery but you can't really tell that from the photo..

And lastly..

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the one and only Miss Suz Doyle's very first online class for the Pink Locker Project. The Pink Locker Project is the brainchild of Steph and Amy and you can read all about it here..

Over the coming months they will be holding online classes....with ALL proceeds going to Women for Africa through the Women for Women International charity.

Suz was first cab off the rank with a gorgeous double page Christmas layout. We stamped onto plastic page protectors or transparencies to make our cute little Christmas baubles!!

And it was lots of fun. Great to be a participant too! So thanks Suz for a lovely class..heres my layout..I converted it to the smaller size and changed things around a bit and I am so happy with how it's turned out..

Now, wish me luck...mum has the day off work today and we are heading to the shops at 8.30am and not coming home until our lists are all crossed off!

Well, hopefully..that's the plan anyway!!

CHRISTMAS..

Well the festive season has well and truly kicked in.

Until today I had only bought one present (not including the beach bag I bought myself a while ago). I admire those who can be so organised as to have their shopping finished and wrapped AND under the tree.

I'm so not one of them.

We have Capri's birthday in the middle of everything, my side of the family's get together this weekend for Christmas and Ken's mum arriving next week to spend Christmas with us this year.

And I am seriously lacking in the present department. Each morning Brandt and I have braced the crowds with great intentions only to come home with very little! I now have bought a BIG total of 3 presents. woo hoo.

I remember writing something similar last Christmas. But you know, it wouldn't be Christmas for me unless I was running around at the last minute, battling the crowds, spending 30minutes finding a park, tailing people with parcels and praying they are hopping into a car conveniently where I am driving and promising myself that NEXT year I would be the organised one and avoiding all the mayhem!!

Lots of end of year school stuff happening too.

Jamison was voted Sports Captain for 2007 which is a HUGE deal for him. Very exciting news indeed. We were so pleased for him and suitably proud.

We celebrated the end of year school Mass last Friday. I didn't take my camera! And Jamsion got an award for Band. I take my camera everywhere so I was kicking myself that I missed that photo op! I didn't realise he would be getting an award! Both kids got excellent end of year reports which was great!

Today Capri and I made button trees for our Christmas table. I LOVED Tia's pink button tree over at 2peas.. So we decided to give them a go.

Click on image for larger view:)

A VERY easy project for Capri. We ran out of pins so eventually we will add in the remaining buttons when I grab some more pins from the shop. They are teeny tiny foam cones from Spotlight with lots of buttons pinned into place..

And..I made a layout. Not for ANY reason other than I loved the photos and needed to create just for me.

This is Capri with baby Mason..Ken's cousin Corrine's cutie pie little boy. No matter how much persuading we did, Mason just wouldn't smile! he looks so serious!!

Other news: I taught a home class for a friend of mine Karina, her sister Rachael and their friends last Wednesday night. Lots of fun. Very friendly and welcoming girls. No group photo to share as I didn't take my camera!!!

And I taught my last class of the year, a Christmas one, at Paper & Stuff in Cooranbong on Sunday! We created a Christmas tin and a single layout using our scraps..

Here's the only photo of the day...courtesy of Janelle's blog..just a couple of bag ladies!

Isn't it a gorgeous bag!!! Custom made just for Simone by Janelle. I LOVE the denim and colours in this one!! Very nice indeed!

And Simone won the lucky door prize in my live layout class last Friday night..her name was pulled out by Capri and her friend Jemima...soooo, Simone being the generous soul she is..made up some little cookie packs for the girls...

Here they are opening their gifts...

thankyou Simone...from the girls:) The cookies got the thumbs up!

And lastly, the Extravaganza is finished. Although the classroom will remain open for the girls for a little while longer. It was a HUGE week for me last week and the week before trying to get everything organised! And it went so well I have plans for more!

Thankyou again to my Christmas Elves Mardi, Janelle, Julie,Yvette and Roz for their hard work and beautiful creations! It was very satisfying to pour my heart and soul into a big project and see it through from the early stages when it was just a teeny seed of an idea right through to completion.

AND also importantly..thanks to all of you for your participation, support and generous comments and emails! Because without so many of you guys, there wouldn't have been an Extravaganza!

happy Christmas shopping everyone!

ANOTHER CATCHUP..part 2

I don't know where the days are all going...and it's now December 12 and I still haven't finished uploading pics etc from our weekend away for the family reunion weeks ago!

So, where was I?

Oh yeah, I've talked about Brandt's formal, Brandt's graduation, the Family Fun night at the school, Capri's trophy night for dancing and the first part of our trip to Wagga for the reunion...

So, here's the rest...

The reunion was great. I hardly knew anyone but that didn't matter as they were all so friendly and welcoming.. So many relatives and cousins and kids! And it was fun! Fun to get to see Ken's cousins interact and great to see our kids getting to see their cousins from Canberra as well.

Here's some photos...

from the top, left to right...

1. a big group shot..2.Ken's mum in the black top on the right (doesn't she look GREAT for 72yrs old) and her remaining siblings 3.Capri and Mason, 4.Mason again (Ken's cousin Corrine's little boy), 5.Melissa (Ken's cousins daughter) and Jane (Ken's sister debbie's daughter), 6. Ken and his cousins. 7. Brandt, Jamison and Ken's sister Debbie's boys Andrew and Thomas.

And I liked this photo of Brandt, Jamison and their cousin Andrew..

Got back to the motel late. Oh what fun you can have with the camera on self timer and everyone in a festive spirit, shoes kicked off and kids who should really have been in bed!

here's the ONLY semi decent one..

and a collection of not so good..

and then the next day...more self timer photos..Capri set these ones up and then did the mad dash to get back into the photo..

..and then off to the Botanical Gardens to meet up with family, lunch with friends Craig & Michele from Albury and then we spent some time browsing around the markets held in the main street of Wagga...

before finishing off with a milkshake and a quick hello to Ken's cousin and partner in their cute little mobile coffee van!

And so then began our long trek home. We packed SO much into two days it wasn't funny and we were all EXHAUSTED!! when we arrived home...