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Something big is about to be launched. Something I have lived and breathed for the past few months and worked toward for ages!!! Something I am really excited about and eager to share.. But you will have to wait, just a teeny, little bit longer until the unveiling...coming very soon...
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Another whirlwind week! So. What's been happening?
Jamison left for a school camp this morning.
His first school camp! Very exciting. He was up early and all packed! They had a long list of what they needed to take and it took both of us to jam everything into his suitcase. And as he sailed out the door he told me he'd left me a note in his room.
This is what I found taped to his bedroom door!
So we got to school with plenty of time to spare. Marvelled at how much luggage everyone had. Commented on how cold it will be where they are going. Worried about whether they had enough warm clothing and most of the mums, including me admitted we would miss the kids. Except for one mum who was waving her scarf around in glee as the bus sailed away from the school!!!
Before they left, during assembly I noticed someone with their head down, visibly upset and several girls comforting someone as well as attention from both the Principal and the teacher! I almost fell over when I realised it was Capri!!!!!
She was upset because Jamison was going to be away!!
I mean, these two had already had a major fight that morning before school so I didn't even consider she would be upset that he was going on the camp! But then she is very soft hearted, likes her family all around her and does get along well with Jamison when they aren't arguing and when Jamison isn't tackling or trying out his wrestling moves on her!!! I should have anticpated she would be affected by Jamison going away!!
So just before they left Jamison came bounding over to me as he had forgotten to pack his runners! MMMM.
SOOO typical of him to forget his shoes! Thankfully the Principal overheard and offered to take them up with her as she was heading to visit the happy campers later in the day so I treked home and grabbed the runners, slid a note in one of the shoes to say MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LOSE BRANDT'S CAMERA!! and added in a beanie - even though he doesn't usually wear a beanie and it's unlikely he will start now BUT it made me feel better to know I had included something warm! And I passed another mum who was heading to the office with her son's whole mess kit which he left behind - plate/cup/bowl etc!
So we weren't the only ones to forget something!!
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other news:
I taught a great group of girls on Sunday at Club Macquarie here in Newcastle. A fun, welcoming, friendly and relaxed group. Here's a few happy snaps..
And I LOVE to see everyones finished layouts so this time I took some closeup shots of the girls with their layouts as well as the big group shot..Hi girls:)))
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And..I was asked by Lianne if I would like to contribute to a brand new blog..a TEENAGE BLOG!! I LOVE that idea. A place to showcase and share layouts all about our teens!! SO I jumped at the chance to be involved. You can check out the blog here..
..and here's my layout..of Brandt...please excuse the food in the mouth shot but thats his latest trick when I ask for him to smile for the camera!!!
And finally...
I HAVE BEEN WORKING VERY HARD ON A BIG PROJECT THAT IS JUST ABOUT READY TO BE ANNOUNCED...Tune in tomorrow morning for a little clue:))))
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Today was the athletics carnival. It was a hot and looong day and I am sporting a very attractive sunburnt face. beeeautiful.
Kids had a good day.
We started the day off with the usual marching!! Here's Mr Sport's Captain holding the flag! Jamison's last athletics carnival at our school:o(
Here's Capri about to race in the 800m.
Such a long race for little legs! And she made it!! And did very well - arriving across the finishing line in about the middle of the group which was a great effort. She went in every event possible but didn't place in anything. Bless her. But she always had a huge smile on her face, even though she REALLY wanted to win a ribbon but she didn't!
Jamison on the other hand gets himself so worked up over a race. He felt sick this morning before school. He was so nervous and anxious and worried and ended up placing 2nd in the 100m and 3rd in the 200m!! Which was fantastic!
So after school we headed to the newsagency because we had heard that the new For Keeps was out! VERY EXCITING! Because Capri is on the cover!! It is weird to see your child smiling out from the pile of magazines!!! And Capri has been waiting anxiously for this issue to hit the stands. Not just because of the cover BUT because her first little article appeared!!
A few months ago Julia from For Keeps rang me with a new idea they wanted to run by me. She wanted to start a kids column and was wanting Capri to be involved. It would be aimed at kids and be on a different theme per month and she wanted Capri to write the text and me to create the background layout and come up with some tips.
Julia wanted us to take some time to think about it and talk to Capri before making any decisions. I was hesitant at first as I didn't know how it would go and it was a BIG deal to allow her to do this. BUT Capri has embraced the idea and it's been her enthusiasm that ended up making our decision to allow her to be involved.
So she gets to write a little column each month. For now. And so far she is finding it fun. She is one of these kids who loves craft. She is always cutting and pasting and making things. BUT she hasn't done a lot of scrapbooking. She is still learning. But she has a little album now and has been making some layouts!! And Julia has said that if at any time she wants to stop she can. There's no pressure on her to keep doing this which is good. So we are taking it all month by month for now.
The text is hers. She is starting to get the hang of it now but to start with she needed a lot of prompting from me and I would ask her questions and get her to write down her answers. The tips are mine, although they have been edited and added to by the magazine. And the background is mine as well. I was OVER the glitter by the time that article was mailed off I can tell you!!!
So we have been keeping that little secret quiet for a few months now and Capri is very keen to take the magazine to school tomorrow as she is very excited about the entire thing. Which is great!!!
And the best reaction I have heard...Janelle's daughter Emily who is Capri's age, read the article word for word and now wants to add glitter to her layouts SO it seems the article has hit the target audience for which it was intended!!! Which is great!
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So, an ENTIRE WEEK has gone by! This is just a quick checking in post. Here's a few photos of what we have been up to this past week. Sport. Farm visits. Guinea pigs. Fishing. School stuff. Canteen.
I taught another class for Kim Wood on Saturday. A BIG roundup of people. It was a fun afternoon. We created a cute little BIRTHDAY BOOK and got messy with paints and masks! Lots of faces from last time and a few new ones as well as some friends...Janelle, Jenny, Sharon, Judy!! Great to catch up with the girls! I'm booked in again for late June!
Happy wedding day to my cousin Brett and Julie...who escaped to the Hunter Valley yesterday and GOT MARRIED!!!!!! Woo hoo!! Congrats to you both and welcome to our family Julie:)))
Thats about it for now!
Still loving BB!!!! Addicted. Loving my BB chats with Julie and Janelle too and my mum and sister!! We're all as bad as each other with our BB addiction!!
have a great week!
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Lot's to share.
Firstly, a belated happy Mother's Day for all the mums for yesterday!! We spent a lesiurely morning at home and then spent the afternoon at mum & dads for afternoon tea with Debbie and her family. Was a nice day! And I got some lovely pressies:) All the usual little soaps and candles and lip gloss from the Mother's Day stall at school. I always love seeing what the kids choose for me!!!!
Here's Capri and Chelsea out the front of my parents house! They happily posed for like, oh, 5minutes for some photos ...
So. Other news?
Well I taught the workshop for the Italian site www.scrapbookiando.com on Saturday night.
It was a HUGE learning curve, nervewracking to start with BUT was fantastic. What a totally welcoming, warm and friendly bunch of girls! I had no reason to be nervous about the language barriers because together we worked things out! I had my little googletranslate.com site open so I could understand their questions and I taught half the steps in Italian, half in English and Lory and Simona, the site owners, were there to translate the rest!! Lots of the girls tried out their English also and it was FUN!
And I was totally fascinated by the fact I was here in Australia, sitting at my computer teaching girls on the other side of the world, whose first language isn't English and we were all understanding each other and they were scrapbooking!!!! Their finished layouts are starting to appear into the gallery and you can see them here: I am so proud of them all for embracing the class and welcoming me as well as creating such fantastic layouts!!
Grazie ancora Lory e Simona!!!
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Other news:
Have a happy Monday!!
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[edited to add: not sure what's happening with the blog but Typepad won't allow me to accept comments for this post??? I'm looking into it! thanks for the emails to let me know:))]
Another workshop for Kim at Scrap Direct.
We're using a heidi mask and creating a birthday book from chipboard, paper and some KI Memories product...booking details are in the sidebar to the left...
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Another newsletter for Scrapboxx is out..you can read it here
Here's my layout from the newsletter:
I found my 1982 diary recently which prompted my STEP BACK IN TIME online workshop..I then decided to incorporate some of the diary entries into a layout. Throughout the diary theres lots of scribbling and love hearts and doodling so I included those on my layout also. Photo is of me and my sister(who is hiding up the back!!) and my cousins. The little blond one at the front is Kristy - the one who got married recently and her two sisters Jacki and Jodi!!!
I would have liked to have fitted in more entries but space was limited so I plan to add another page and more entries eventually! Most of the diary entires are full of rubbish! Who loves who. And stuff from school and the bus. I really did go on and on!!
But it's interesting to look back and read about our school camp to Gunnedah. And that I was deeply in love with Paul. And that I got a Mr Frosty - so embarrassing - for my 14th birthday(I had wanted one for soooo long but by the time I got one I was a tad too old!!!). And that we gave my dad a packet of cigarettes, a packet of tic tacs and some slacks (mmm niiice) for his 38th birthday! What a selection of stylish presents!
And that I went to the movies to see Creep Show with Margaret and we were scared out of our wits and had to leave early! We were so brave. And that I was in year nine and my roll call teacher was Mr Farrell and I sit next to Melissa! And so on.
Maree - you will find this all interesting:) This was the year we were both nominated for Sports vice captain for blue and you got it!!! And I didn't :O((( So sad. LOL
Today I had an unusually social day! Breakfast with my friend Tracey and then lunch and the movies with Marie! I rarely go out like that for the WHOLE day so it was nice. But I have a stack of work which is still waiting here for me. I owe lots of emails..but I am working my way through them all:)
Marie and I saw Because I told You..I think that was the name of it. With Dianne Keaton (she is great!!), Mandy Moore and the girl from the Gilmore Girls. Was a nice, light piece of escapism!
have a great Tuesday.
PS if you can't read the journaling, let me know and I will type in the journaling into this post.
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Some catching up to do..warning! warning! another mega post below...
Here's my latest layout for Scrapboxx...it's using the Boxx of Scraps..great kit - chosen by Zina! Loved the papers and colours plus a fun stamp from Zina thrown in as well. Check out the kit details here:
And my layout using the kit:
Ok. Other news...I am teaching in Italy this weekend..well I'm not physically teaching in Italy..but ONLINE TEACHING IN ITALY! for the lovely Lory at scrapbookiando.com . I am teaching my CELEBRATE YOU workshop. You can see some pics about the classes here on Simona's blog as well as on Lory's blog here
AND Kerrin will also be teaching a workshop - a very cute felt project!
The workshop is being held over at scrapbookiando's forum this weekend and Lory, thankfully, will be working as my interpreter as I know few Italian words!! It's quite amazing to think that I can teach a class online to students across the other side of the world without leaving my house!
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We had a HUGE weekend.
Jake & Chelsea had a sleepover at mums Friday night and they all came in to watch Capri play netball early Saturday morning. Jamison and Ken left half way through the game to head up to Malabula for Jamison's footy.
They both lost their games on Saturday :(
My sister and kids stayed and visited for a while on Saturday. Girls played singstar. Boys played the computer. Was relaxing. Fun. An impromptu visit which are the best kind of visits!
Jamison went for a sleepover at a friends. Capri stayed with mum overnight and we went out for dinner!
We met up at the Maryellen Hotel for dinner with my school friends (well some of them as a few couldn't make it!!) and their partners. Was GREAT! These are the friends who are VERY comfortable to be with. It doesn't matter how long since we have seen each other, we ALL slip back into that easiness of feeling like we see each other ALL the time.
The downfall - the band was TOO loud. We were yelling to be heard. It was packed! But it was a fun night. great meals. I took photos. Lighting was bad so they didn't turn out very well :(
SO, SUNDAY - I headed to Paper & Stuff again at Cooranbong for the calendar class. You can check out some photos here at Cath's blog.. Got to meet Peta who always drops by and visits my blog - was lvoely to meet you Peta!! A few first time scrappers but they coped SO well and created some beautiful work!!! And it was great to catch up with Simone and her cookies LOL as well as Janelle!!
Here's the group..now you see them..
now you don't!
Stay tuned...after a few requests I am looking at organising an online calendar class very soon:)
So home again late Sunday and out again for me and Capri as we had to go to the school/church for our first Confirmation lesson for Capri. I was SO tired I could hardly concentrate in the meeting. Home again. Ken cooked a delicious stirfry which was just as well as I had NO ideas for dinner and NO inclination to cook anything!
I then curled up and channel surfed between the Logies and Big Brother. I have seen Greys Anatomy or I would have been glued to that rather than anything else. And I felt sad for Rove and sad to see Belinda Emmett and Steve Irwin on the screen being remembered during the Logies..
And I did some knitting. Two teeny tiny little baby bonnets so far, for my friend Jenny who is the organiser of a committee of knitters who donate packages of teeny little knitted items for the families of stillborn or premature babies born at our local hospital. And my mum and I are helping out with some knitting.
So that's about all from the weekend...if you read this far..BIG claps for you:))) and thank you for taking the time to do so!!:))))))
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I love Fridays!
So ages ago Julie (who I might add has unlocked her blog so you can access it again without a password...yay!!) and I did a photo swap. I am embarassed to admit HOW long ago our swap was. I have had my beautifully created layout from Julie for agggggess now..and it was about time I got my act together!!
Well I did get my act together and here's Julie's layout....
and also a layout of Capri and Roxy.
We sent Roxy for a cut and style the other week and again, she came home with more cut than style!!!!! We were VERY specific about what we wanted and didn't want her shaved almost back to her skin...which is what they did.
She wasn't knotted or matted as we had been really good at grooming her - well Ken was! So I was SHOCKED when I picked her up afterwards and discovered her face was still fluffy but her body looked like a skinned rabbit!!!! She looks quite hilarious although she needed that inbuilt fur coat as the weather is getting cooler....but it will grow and in the meantime...she is sporting a VERY fashionable and stylish knitted coat!
And also on this layout is one of Zina's new journaling stamps!! Very cool!
have a happy Friday!
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What a HUGE day we had on Saturday.
At the last minute and after lots of juggling and to-ing and fro-ing about whether to go to Kiwi Scraps, I ended up going for the day with Jenny Richards, one of my friends and the wife of infamous Newcastle surfer Mark Richards. I just think of Jenny as, well, Jenny my friend and fellow scrapbooker and I never really think of her with her Mark Richard's wife tag!
Until I came home and in the Sunday papers the next day was this HUGE write up about Mark and all he has achieved in the surfing world over the years and it sank in HOW well known Mark and his family are. How much he has achieved and what a HUGE profile he has. Jenny has lived this life of travel and experiences and fame but she is the most gracious, lovely, generous, grounded and unassuming person you could meet. As is Mark. She is involved in many charities and gives so much of herself to several different causes that are close to her heart. And one of these causes i am going to be helping with - which is very exciting...and Megan and Libby...it involves KNITTING!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, I digress....
So, we booked into three classes. KIM HENKELS Forget me Nots, EMILY'S Shiny Happy People and TIA'S Weaving my Way To Constancy. We left Newcastle early..7am which was quite a feat for me to be ready and out the door at that time!
Our first class was Kim Henkels..where we created a cute little felt envelope..I LOVED this class. Kim was great. She's such a gentle, lovely and friendly tutor. In fact ALL of the tutors were approachable and welcoming.
Here's our project..
Kim's idea behind the felt envelope is to keep it in your handbag at easy reach so that you have latest photos of the kids, doctors appointments, birthday reminders etc at your fingertips! Very cool!
It was a small class which I liked and we had PLENTY of time to complete the project. This meant lots of chatting which was great! It was such a relaxed, casual, easy going class. And the perfect class to start with really!
I got to catch up with Fiona Leehane again and I also got to meet Annette from Blossies as well as Karen from Scrapbook n Bits - both of these stores I am teaching at later this year!
Here we are with Kim..
Photo taken by Fiona Leehane..thanks Fiona:)
Ok, so then we had a break. Grabbed a cuppa. Said hi to lots of people and then lined up and waited to go into Emily's class.
This time we created lots of shiny happy people layouts using inks, paper napkins, stamping, painting, sewing and Kindy Glitz! It was FANTASTIC.
Now, I went along to Kiwi Scraps thinking freestyle wasn't really my 'thing'.
I almost didn't go. BUT I am SO glad I did. You see, I had this preconceived idea that freestyle was this arty, out there style of scrapping where you whack angel wings on your kids photos or doodle over the entire page or add weird stuff to your page. And it CAN be that. If you want. But after a chat with Emily and a sudden revelation, I realised freestyle is just about doing what you want. It's about creating what and how you want and having fun.
And having NO rules!
Emily reminded me about a class I taught which she was in waaaaay back in Melbourne several years ago where we ripped up cardboard boxes, used mod podge and tissue paper and gold lumiere paint to create an arty frame for our page. I had momentarily forgotten that! I am big on the NO rules thing in my classes. I say it to my students ALL the time and yet somehow I had gotten off the track a bit myself!!
And I suddenly realised I AM freestyler. And it is my 'thing'! I had the wrong idea about it all and I have come home brimming with ideas and a new attitude:)
Here's my finished layout from Emily's class...
We tie dyed the serviette which then became the base of the layout, painted the words onto cardstock, outlined them and cut them out and then added some Kindy Glitz dots. Added more painting, sequins, felt, stamped journaling and lots of stitching!
So then we had a big break. Jenny and I organised it that way so we would have time for lunch. Last year we spent all of the time rush rush rushing to classes and we barely ate or stopped and relaxed the entire time.
It was lovely to sit back, chat, have some lunch and not feel rushed.
Our last class was Tia's Weaving class which had no actual weaving in it but was all about weaving/including lots of different elements onto your page. Another GREAT class. I loved it. I haven't quite finished that sample but will share it here when I have. Lots of inking onto vellum, stitching onto vellum and creating this supersized, textured, layered flower using lace, a Heidi flower and a wad of dress pattern tissue paper! So effective!
Tia was a madcap crazy personality who talked fast and had an enormous energy about her. It was hard NOT to get sucked in with her enthusiasm, happiness, humour and spirit. I have emailed with Tia lots of times during my Urban Lily days as she did some layouts for us so it was lovely to actually meet each other in real life!!
So, there's our day in a nutshell. Most disapointing part of the day...learning last night that Yvette was THERE! and we didn't get to meet each other. Retracing our steps and realising that she was going INTO Emily's class as I was going OUT and we didn't see each other!!! We couldn't believe it!! Disapointing!
ok, so this post was another loooong one..thank you if you read through it all...but..
wanted to also announce two other things... firstly, I was asked to be part of a great new blog site...the SKETCHES OZ site as their first guest sketch designer. Check out the site and also the impressive Design Team here. And see my sketch and layout as well as all of the DT's versions of my sketch here!!
And YOU can be part of this new site as well.
Create your own layout using my sketch, email it through within the next 2 weeks to Tatum and the sketches girls at [email protected] and be in the running to win a prize!
And lastly, URBAN LILY HAS A BLOG!!!! yay. This has been in the pipeline for so long and I am glad its now all up and running. Check it out here... and stay tuned for lots of great stuff happening over there:)
have a great Tuesday..I am loving Big Brother SO much. I am addicted. Already! And caught up in it all! And the big Dancing with the Stars finale is on tonight. Go Fi Fi. I am so sad I am at a meeting tonight at the school and will have to tape all my shows...
I know. Pitiful hey!! but I don't care. I love my reality TV!
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