Kim Archer | Mindful Living

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Show and Tell

Just a quick show and tell layout...

A very old photo of the kids. Capri's only a few days old - so tiny. And that grin of Jamison's - always so mischievous!

Lots of layers, gel medium and paint on water colour paper, masking tape, hand stitching, book paper and fabric..PLUS this great HOUSE DESIGN packing tape I received from Mardi through the week - I LOVE it. (thanks Mardi!!)

Quick catch up

Ok, yes, you're all too clever and that WAS me - the top photo. I can't see Capri in that photo at all but some of you thought it looked just like her. I was quite the little chubby baby!! Thanks for dropping by and saying hi - always LOVE to get comments!!

Here's what happened in our week..

I have spent since Tuesday night hobbling around after pulling a stack of three saucepans and a frypan onto my foot when i was trying to cook dinner. What agony. I couldn't believe the pain and couldn't walk on my foot at all for the first 24 hours! I have been pretty much immobile for the last part of the week and I hated it. I relied heavily on my parents picking kids up etc as I couldn't walk very far - in fact I could barely walk from room to room inside the house let alone do my usual rushing around with school and sport drop offs and pick ups.. THANKFULLY I am much better now but still limping along.

Mojo lost his mojo and had a little operation on Thursday. He's has been sooky and crying and whining ever since but is much better today. And he's wearing a cone thing on his head in a lovely fashioanble orange colour. Roxy's gone to stay with my parents for now while Mojo heals.

I got one of these...yippee.

I've wanted one forever - just ask Debbie and Ken because I have been talking about it for months and months!!!! It hasn't cost anything to upgrade from my old phone to this which is great! Certainly quite a novelty to see a picture of who is calling me and to be able to quickly check emails or read a couple of blogs while waiting in the car.

And lastly, I have been working on a new project. Something BIG. Something all consuming. Something I am living and breathing at the moment..Something I can't WAIT to share. But can't. Not just yet...but soon...very, very soon..

Guess Who?

Sooo, we had to bring along a photo of each of us as a baby and attach it to our present for Trudi at her baby shower on the weekend. Well obviously, its easy to guess family photos and Trudi easily guessed who we all were, although initially she did get me and mum as babies mixed up.

Here's the photos we brought along of the three of us..

So if anyone is still out there reading this thing, which one is me?

Baby Shower

Well Sunday was the big Baby Shower day in Sydney for my cousin Trudi! Her first little baby!!! Mum, Debbie and I drive down to Sydney yesterday and arrived just after 12noon. We had deliberated over a present FOREVER for Trudi and after many shopping trips, finally found some lovely things at David Jones, Target and Borders!!!

Here's what we bought...all neutral tones as Trudi doesn't know if she's having a boy or girl..although that relaxation CD sure looks pink in the photo.

And I wrapped it in cream paper and whacked on a big fabric bow...

And I made a Trudi poppet card to go with our pressie. Isn't she looking stylish!

 

 Here's the guest of honour.

Trudi's friends had worked very hard to get everything ready for the baby shower.

The food was fantastic. And everything looked great.

Oh look. It's our present!!!

The gorgeous cupcake tower..

and some family photos..me and my cousin Jacki.

and Trudi..is it a BOY or is it going to be a GIRL..hmmmm? My bet's on a boy.

and here's the family together..me, Kristy, Aunty Lynney, Jacki, Trudi, Mum, Debbie, Aunty Chris, Julie (my cousin Brett's wife) and baby Ella.

I also got to meet my cousin Brett and his wife Julie's new little baby girl Ella who you can see in the photo above. Capri and I had fun the day before the party shopping for pink gifts for Ella! There's so many cute things out there in babyland and we ended up with some "bits" from Pumpkin Patch.

I also whipped up a card to go with our present.

Had a lovely day....mini cupcake anyone!

And then the party was over and it was home time...

A little video..

Here's the link to a quick video I put together of photos and some footage from the NZ weekend. Click the image below to view:)

 

Autumn Escape - NZ 2009 from Kim Archer on Vimeo.

NZ wrap up...

So Sunday dawned and I headed back to the scraproom after another lovely breakfast in the restaurant..

The weather was quite nice..cool but still sunny and only really one day of overcast and miserable weather which was Saturday and I was inside for the entire day anyway.

Taupo is lovely. So pretty. And surrounded by snow capped mountains. Here's the view as you drive into Taupo.

The resort was about 5minutes drive north from the Lake.

Sunday was more scrapping - not that I did any while I was there. More make and takes..More shopping. More giveaways!

And the announcing of the winners of the name tag and album competition.

Each participant was invited to create a name tag for themselves and then enter it into the competition to win a prize. Everyone went to SO much trouble and each name tag was SO detailed!!

It was VERY hard to choose just one winner. I decided on a happy, fun name tag by Andrea. I loved the colours and the fun layering!

And special mention must go to Suzz, Jo, Pat and Harriet who made a matching set of name tags, table place cards and drink bottle hangers to hold lollies and chocolates. So much detail!!! They won runner up prizes!

And then it was time to judge the album competition.

Each participant was given a timber Kaisercraft "arrow" shaped album when they first arrived back on Friday night. And they had the weekend to decorate it and turn it into an album on any theme and using any products they liked.

I was floored that SO many completed and beautifully detailed albums showed up on the judging table by lunchtime Sunday! It was amazing!!!! And made my job much more difficult as I had SO many albums to choose from.

A gorgeous wedding album jumped out at me. So much attention to detail, beautiful photos and a classic black and white theme was what made me choose this one as the overall winner.

I don't have a clear shot of the album but you can see it in the lower left hand corner of the top photo showing some of the albums.

Now, if it was ME creating with that "arrow" shape I would have instantly turned it into a house - I do have a thing about "houses!!". I didn't even SEE it was an arrow shape. To me..it was a house. So I was surprised that NO ONE made a house album!!!!!

BUT. One girl made this piece of gorgeousness!!!

Isn't it delightful!!!

Now, technically it wasn't an album which was what the requirements were for the comp BUT I could NOT go past this and she got a special mention and a prize as well.

And finally, another special mention went to another girl, Jo, who created an Autumn Retreat album. Already! She had brought along her own little photo printer and had already printed out her photos from the weekend and added them to her album! Talk about speedy!!!!!! Very impressive.

Here's all of our happy winners!!!!

We then headed outside for some group photos..

Thanks Nic and Lucy for a wonderful weekend!

Saturday Workshops - NZ

Ok..NZ post overload but I want to get all of these photos and memories down before too much time goes past and then I forget details...

We were up early and ready to go with the workshops on Saturday morning. Nic and I taught two workshops each and all classes ran for 2hours. I didn't have to start until 11am so we had time for a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant.

And then off I headed for my first class. Now this was my Fast, Furious and Fabulous class which was causing me some stress as I had decided that perhaps I was a tad too ambitious with the projects and the expectation that we could achieve creating THREE layouts in only two hours.

Here's the classroom after Nic had finished teaching and just before my class started...

It was a great classroom space actually and we even had another row of tables at the front of the room that you can't see in this shot. Lots of space.

And then everyone started arriving...

And we were off and racing..

Everyone worked SO hard and kept up.

And here's the only photo of me teaching...well this one and a hideous photo Nic took of me with my eyes closed and a stupid look on my face..

I had such lovely students in both classes. And they kept up and almost everyone completed all three layouts. I was shocked but also thrilled because I had been so worried that we wouldn't get finished. 

I then had a break of several hours before my next workshop. It ran from 4.30-6.30pm. It was a more relaxed class and not as fast paced which was perfect because I think there were some very tired ladies after a full on day! And I was feeling weary too!!!

Nic taught her second class after lunch and before me . I must make special mention of it as I loved the idea and I thought it was a truly excellently designed class concept.

Nic's class was called her Card Buffet class which she has taught at other retreats and conventions with great success. She set out a magnificent buffet of product!!! It looked excellent all lined up on the table at the front of the classroom.

She had jewels, buttons, flowers and ribbons.

And she guided the girls through the process of creating five different cards using a class kit and then she let the girls loose to create as many cards as they wanted to. The record was 15 cards made!!!!

After the classes wrapped up it was off to the scraproom for more festivities and frivolity and a 2am finish!!

Friday Night Games - NZ

Friday night ran through until midnight and Nic and Lucy had plenty planned for everyone. Besides shopping and scrapping the girls had designed some make and take mini workshops plus some fun games.

One of the games Nic organised was a memory game based on a British tv show that I hadn't heard of but all the NZ girls seemed familiar with! Basically, a name was drawn out and then we had 15 or so "helpers" who were each given a product or item to display.

We had blow up toys, scrapping products, cake mix packets and all sorts of wildy wonderful objects!!! The chosen participant had a small amount of time to walk along and memorise everything on display.

Then everyone turned back around to hide the products and our contestant had 45 seconds to remember as many things as possible. As she guessed each item, that person turned around again. Whatever she remembered she won!

I tell you what, ALL of the contestants had excellent memories and remembered a good deal of what they saw. Me? Well I would have felt the pressure of those 45 seconds and walked away with that blow up pink thing and a cake mix!!!

The make and take tables were very popular throughout the weekend. Each make and take was sponsored by a scrapbooking manufacturer and the girls all had the opportunity to come along and learn a few new techniques and make some cute things! We had small groups of girls per "session" and they all crowded around to "make" and then "take" their finished item back to their tables.

We also had a few Stampin' Up demonstrators there (I LOVE their stamps and bits!!) and Delys taught how to make this gorgeous little stamped bag!

Such a cute project modelled here by Pat!!

Nic and Lucy also taught a Tattered Angels make and take and the girls got busy with the glimmer mist!

and created these cute butterfly tags..beautifully modelled by the lovely Kate and Tanya!

Saturday was our BIG day of workshops!

Mother's Day '09

Just interrupting my NZ posts to add in a Mother's Day post...happy Mother's Day to my mum for yesterday:) Here's a quick Mother's Day card I whipped up before we headed to my parents place for brunch.

Here's mum's pressie - looking all glamorous in gold wrap and a fabric tie..inside was a new handbag ...

and I also gave her a mini memories book (from our MINI MEMORIES WORKSHOP) filled with photos of the family. Here she is with Capri as they looked through the mini book together.

My day started early with ALL of us in the bed..and boy, are those boys getting TALL..we could barely ALL fit in there anymore..in fact it started off as a fun morning but ended arguments and the typical pushing and shoving....

I was very spoilt with pressies.. an iPod dock/speakers (which I LOVE!!) and Capri outdid herself at the school Mother's Day stall this year - candles, a photo frame with a photo of the kids in it plus a beaded bangle.Brandt gave me a groovy CD holder and Jamison gave me fluffy slippers.

Capri also made a gorgeous card filled with lovely words AND she made me a little envelope of "coupons" which I can hand in to her in return for various things like breakfast in bed and even cleaning my side of my bedroom - seems Capri is sick of looking at the boxes of stock lining our bedroom wall too...Not sure what she thinks she will do with it all!

Here's mum with the kids...

Here's Jamison's brunch..yes, yes, that's BBQ sauce on that toast. Creative isn't he?!

Unfortunately I have terrible cold sores caused by all that stress about flying before NZ! No cold, flu or anything else..just the cold sores. Very attractive.

Here's a few photos of me and the kids..taken by my mum!

The only half decent one of me and all three kids. Jamison was trying to be tall..well, I mean he is already tall..he was trying to be the TALLEST!

A favourite photo of capri - even though the hair is wild and messy!

Happy Mother's Day 2009.