Monday, April 27, 2009

Me & Her




















Loved this idea from Ali Edwards. Couldn't wait to do my own! Love it - no words needed.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Easter Show

Ok so I am borrowing the idea, but I really love it. Ali has posted a couple of times recently, a story in photos. So I am going to give it a try, to share and so I can use it for journalling.
I took both my children to the Sydney Royal Easter Show yesterday, by myself, yes an almost 2 and an almost 4 year old!
So once we were packed up we got in the car and started on our journey, after running back in to get a jacket for me! I should have taken a photo at the start but was getting frustrated so got in the car and left. Kids had been up since 6am and we left at 9am.
Thankfully there was some sleeping in the car about 40 minutes each, and once I had nicely parked the car and turned it off I was greeted with "that didn't take very long Mummy!"
So we headed into the grounds past all of the rides, where Noah mentioned some like the merry go round or carousel horses looked fun.













I decided on a show first to sit and watch and have some snacks after our journey, so we went to see Wow Wow Wubbzy! Noah was extremely excited to see in person a character from television.













There was some eating of cookies, some dancing to the songs, some applause which was very cute to see and then of course a crash off the chairs onto the concrete, complete with graze and bruise, to Katelin.













Pie making was next to see and Noah was most interested in watching the man as he made the pies asking about the processes, he didn't really follow the man telling the story as it was not simple enough for him. So I explained as I was hearing the information myself. This was followed up with "I would like to eat a pie Mummy" or would you like a sausage roll, "no I asked for a pie!" I questioned because he doesn't normally eat pies, but he was certain.



















Enjoying the pie while waiting for a milking demonstration. He finished the whole thing, it was only small though.













The working dairy was fun to learn about, for the kids, and I have childhood memories as my Aunt and Uncle had a dairy, and I spent many holidays there, they only farm beef cattle now and it is not the same. "Why isn't he throwing me one" Noah said of the man giving the demonstration. He was handing our squeezie yoghurt's, Noah's favourite, to children that answered questions correctly. Noah was a little young for this, but he did try and he got a yoghurt.













One of the few shots of the day including myself, since I went alone it was hard to drag the camera out a lot too.
From here we needed a toilet stop, which was important as Katelin (not quite 2) has toilet trained herself recently and she wasn't distracted, she remembered to say when she needed to go even if it was in the middle of the milking demonstration. And she went all day like that I am so very proud of her. Next we tried to watch a milking demonstration but that was full so we sat early and watched a shearing demonstration.













There was patting of the sheep dog, and Katelin was very proud of herself patting the ram who walked around on a lead type thing. Noah was amazed at the fuzziness of the sheep and that what was cut off the sheep was the wool, a bit like what was displayed in front. He wanted to have a turn of the shearing so we qued up and waited for ages, and missed out by two people as the sheep had had enough. "I want to have a turn. I missed out, too many kids had a turn and I missed out" I felt sad for him he was really keen to do it and quite upset he missed out.













Off to que up for the racing and diving pigs next. This was a bit of a que so it took a while to get in, about 15 mins. The kids were great waiting and while we sat inside and waited for the show to start we ate some sandwiches that I packed for lunch. After some instructions for the crowd to cheer the piggys came out. The races were over very quickly but the kids thought the piggys were funny.













As for the diving it was over in two blinks one pig came out jumped and missed the water and landed in the net. Noah was confused. The next pig came out and jumped and this was all I got. Noah then understood what was meant to happen and he said "one piggy missed".














Noah had remembered the sack race from last year and he asked to do it again. "I want to go to the sack race". Katelin was keen to try, but as you can see she couldn't hold her sack up for my photo. So the kids jumped. I helped Kate and Noah fell over, he got up and kept going, we only did half way and the other kids were coming back so we turned around and headed back. The kids got another free squeezie yoghurt for participating.



















What little boy can resist hitting something with a hammer. After watching several other children have a go Noah decided he wanted a turn to. He had a few goes on his own and then I helped him. Apparently I am not particularly strong, especially when assisting an almost four year old. But we both had fun trying. We walked past this several time so we had a few more goes as the day progressed, not much improvement though.













Collecting our second squeezie meant a stop in the car and a picture, think this should say something about not drinking and driving - not sure yoghurt is against the law though!













No trip to the show is complete without a visit to the baby animal nursery. Both Noah and Katelin ran around patting all the animals walking around freely. They were both so excited, Noah kept patting the sheep and saying fuzzy. Katelin walked around and quickly patted an animal then stood up with a huge grin and looked at me. It was very cute to see. There was so much excitement while we were in there. We walked around and looked at the different animals, the baby chicks hatching and the ducklings going down the slide are always a favourite.













Noah was keen to see sausage making, after all it is one of his favourite things to eat. The two butchers doing the show were having fun with it so it kept Noah very entertained. There were lots of antics the above shot was filling the sausage skin. They did it too fast and sausage came flying out then the skin popped and meat went every where. Noah thought this was hilarious. "It made a splat on the roof and the floor, they were going crazy!" Noah was also fascinated with the linking together of the sausage. I am glad we chose to watch this.













After some walking around Noah asked if we could "go on the big rounding wheel" we had seen earlier. This was the only ride he had asked to go on so far, and it turned out to be the only one all day. So I was happy to take them on. I love this shot they are both looking around in amazement. "It was very high up, look at all the things around" We all loved to see the park from so high up and I took a couple of photos I really liked.













This one captures the day well, a bit of drizzle on and off all day, but we managed to stay dry.













And one of the old Ferris wheel, such an icon of the show. I love it!

For the rest I did not take photos we just wandered around, looking at the food displays and having dinner and looking at the crafts. The kids were great. Noah asked for a light sword. Katelin got a spinning light wand. The only other thing Noah asked for all day. Then we headed into the main arena for the night shows, and because it was raining. We watched some horse polo type game, not sure of its name. Then the amazing story of True Blue, an Aussie cattle dog, and he chased sheep, cattle and horses. Noah loved that. Then we sang some songs. The precision driving cars were cancelled due to the rain, such a shame as Noah would have loved them. But we did see two crazy little cars driving around which Noah thought was quite funny and they started off the fire works. Katelin fell asleep in the pram by this time. We watched the fire works and they were awesome, they went for ages too. It was a great end to the day and the kids had been fantastic all day. We headed home, on the way out I snapped this as we walked past.













Noah liked the look of the lights on the big wheel we had been on earlier. As we went past all the rides which were now closed Noah said "oh I didn't go on the horseys" but that was all. He fell asleep too on the walk to the car. We then drove home and arrived at 10.30 what a day!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Some Layouts and Bunny Ears

Well perhaps I should have taken some photos of my Easter layouts from last year and shared those. Instead I am sharing what I have been working on during Easter and this past week. I didn't take a lot of shots this Easter, I am trying to catch the moments, not so much the events. So there are a few of the egg hunt, but mostly of Noah and Katelin sharing. It was beautiful to see. I have some great video footage which has captured what I want for my journalling. Here are my bunnies this year, we made ears at mothers group.






































I am inspired to take more bunny type Easter shots after reading Jo's great post at RW, hop on over and check it out! I love the idea of taking one each year as they grow!
Now my pages I have been working on. I am happy with them as they are somewhat my own. I started with an idea of a page in my head, usually one I have seen before and I just worked it out on the page. They all came together really well and I am pleased. I usually sit for ages trying to put a page together on my own, and these ones were quick. I love that. When you are playing catch up you have to make the most of your time!



















The first one is one of my all time favourite shots. I love the page and the photo just makes my heart smile. I am a little unhappy with the journalling. I can get the words on the page, but at the moment I feel a bit repetitive and that I am not getting the impact I want with my words. I was so inspired by Tara Whitney's post, apart from her always amazing photos, her words just got across the message so well. I need to think a little more about my words and try being a bit different.



















Before I go further, yes the pages are straight in real life, just not my best photo taking. While on things being wonky, my printer died a few weeks ago and I have been borrowing my parents. It does not like cardstock and prints slightly crooked on it. Now I am worried about getting a new printer and it doing the same. Does anyone have a printer they love? Mine is a HP and was great till it stopped working.
Back to my page, I tried to channel Tara a little here with my words, I am happier with this one and it really was all about the story this time. I love the page but my words just don't have the same impact as Tara's "this photo makes my HEART BURST INTO A TRILLION PIECES OF TINY HOT PINK GLITTER." taken from her blog post linked above.




















I love this one, it is loosely based on a page I had seen Ali Edwards do. I just made the photos and letters work together, and some hand written journalling to fit where I wanted it. This one is all about the moment and the title says it all. Love how this turned out.



















This last is the same as I shared last week I just did one for Katelin. I have had many photos lately which are a sequence telling the story so this has been a great way to get them all in. Love how the page turned out. And I am really loving pinks and oranges at the moment.



















Lastly this is Noah wanting to read Katelin her bedtime story the night before last it is moments like this that melt your heart. Got it on video too, will refer back to the video for my journalling.
Also I wanted to share that I love the way Ali Edwards just shared her Easter Sunday on her blog, such a great way to tell the story and get the words down, and then refer back to when scrapping the page. Enjoy the week.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter ..... Eggs and scrapping!

Well I know it is Easter but it has been quiet time at home just our little family this weekend. Something that we needed I think it has been a long time and lots of busy weekends lately. So hanging at home means spending time together and playing lots. It also means some quiet time for me while the kids have rest/sleep time. So I have been organising my photos on the computer and editing and finally printing some of my first shots of 2009! I know I know April is half over! But I have been scrapping madly, just older stuff and I have really been enjoying reliving the moments.
When was the last time you just sat down and looked through some of the memories you have created? It is really great to do. I have been doing it a bit, working through the old shots, organising the albums and taking shots of some favourites to upload to my flickr gallery.
Anyway onto the few things I want to share with you. My favourite page of the moment. I love how it looks but I am particularly proud because it was my own idea, it came out of my head and onto the page and I still really like it - doesn't always happen like that!



















It really is all about words, pictures and glue for me and some good cardstock thrown in. The more simple the better. I love it! I am thinking of making the top strip a scalloped edge, with the Fiskars threading waters punch, when I get it, it is on order.
Next is my page on Noah's room which I promised a couple of posts ago. I decided to go with the same LO as for Katelin's as I would have done them the same if I did them at the same time. I will do a different on for Noah's room when he first moved in. I haven't done that yet.



















I am pleased with how it turned out and that his story is captured. Now onto my collages of the last few days. Nicole suggested a collage idea and she posted about it here. So I tried using photoshop to create what I was going to try manually and I love how it turned out.



















It took a little while to create this first one, but I have saved it to use as a template and it was so quick to change out the photos. It is an 8 x12 photo, obviously I have covered some of it with cardstock, I wanted the width and not so much height. I think it looks great and it captures the moment of the day well. My last two are using the same collage structure one is just rotated. The first one is a direct lift from Nicole's post above.



















I Love the colours and how well they all worked together, I am so happy with how it turned out. Sorry the picture probably doesn't do it justice! And I am so pleased with the collage option as I have so many pictures at the moment that are a series with a story to tell. This was Katelin climbing into her empty suitcase (as most kids seem to do) when I was trying to pack for our holiday. And the last one is same idea, rotated and scrapped on 8.5 x 11, also from Nicole's post above, I just used a collage picture instead.



















These pictures are of Katelin and how she likes to lay down and do snow angel type movements in the sand, I think she likes the feel of it.
I have to say I love how quick these are to scrap once you have done the work in photoshop, especially with the handwritting! And I love the Bling paper RW has at the moment, it is not shown well in the picture but it adds a whole new dimension.
Hope you have all had a great Easter and I am sure many of you enjoyed chocolate eggs for breakfast like in our house.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Quick Post

So I said I had been flat out with parties and organising etc. Well I think I have it all under control now. I have a tea party venue booked. Invites are being written out and finishing touches ordered. Non party at the beach is easy, only requires a cake, have made invites for that. Booked one night away for wedding anniversary - and well Mothers day is not my job. I think I have sorted what I am getting my Mum and Mum in law - no sharing in case they pop by. I will do a post sharing the cool things I have found for Kate's party and the invites next.
Since I am being quick I just wanted to share the few layouts that I did at the same time as Noah's second birthday ones, but obviously they are for Katelin. Mostly so you can see the different colour schemes. I have been trying to highlight the person that is the focus of the story and I am pretty happy with how they turned out.




















This first one is of my daughter and how I was feeling about her. I like how it turned out. Sorry the pic has some reflection on it, we were running out of light.




















This next one is of Katelin being held by one of our close friends, so I decided to write about how special she is to them and how she is included in their family, I hope it helps her to understand who they are to us, and I love the photo. Love this pp I have been using the reverse side it is pink, and this side just happened to be the colour I needed, but this is the last of it and the store has no more :(




















This one above is just simple, not sure if I like it, one of those that had the right idea in my head but didn't make it onto the paper the same way. I have done a LO of the same pic about Noah being a big brother and I love how it turned out. I am just waiting on some letter stickers to finish the title. Otherwise I would have shared that too.


















This last one went into our family album as it is one of the first pics of all four of us together as a family, I really love the colours here, they are loosely related to some Sharon just posted here. I really like the colour combo.
And on that note Sharon here are a couple of pics of my lounge room and the mat. Hope they give you some inspiration or at least confidence in the rug. Also I have been working on LO's of Noah's room. I just have to get them printed and then I will share.
Sorry if there are any grammatical errors, the kids are now climbing all over me wanting their dinner. Gotta go. Happy Easter to all.



























Sunday, April 5, 2009

Some recent favourites

This week has been insane, and I feel like I haven't got much scrapping done - but I have - just not as much as I could have. I haven't been feeling very creative and I haven't had the time either.
For some crazy reason I thought it would be good to have two babies born around the same time. I had good reasons, same maternity clothes, same neutral baby clothes as they would be roughly ther same size at the same season - now these were perfect ideas and it is how it worked out. However someone forgot to tell me that this also means their birthday's are close together FOREVER! And they are closer than I thought they would be! Two weeks exactly apart. So I have been preoccupied planning their birthday's not quite parties as such. So start with one tea party for a two year old (morning tea at a cafe and taking tea set) add in one tenth wedding anniversary the following weekend, and don't forget Mothers Day that same weekend, then finish with a 4 year olds party the following weekend. We are having a bring your own lunch gathering at our local beach - no presents required! As you can imagine May is a busy month in our house every year - none of those events change and Mothers Day is always thrown into the mix. But it is fun! Once it is all planned that is.
So I will just share a few of my recent favourites. I am also trying to upload pages to my gallery. I have been taking photos of pages as I do them and adding them in, as well as older pages from the current album I am working on. I am making slow progress.
At this point I will add in a disclaimer, pretty much all of my LO's at the moment are straight lifts of Nicole or Di's work. Sometimes I change them, sometimes I reuse a page of my own which originally may have come from Nicole or Di - this is why sometimes I forget their origins!
This first one is of Noah's second birthday (Note we are about to have fourth birthday!) There was no time for scrapping then, one new baby, home for 1 week, hold two year old party - think I was insane or still on a hormonal high!



















I am really pleased with how this one turned out. I have also been having fun with the colours. Here is another from the same day - different story though. I had a lot of little things noted down that had changed since Noah turned two.



















I am happy with this page too. I have also scrapped a few pages today from this same day. 2 for Katelin's album and one for our family album. I have had such fun choosing different colours for the same photos. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow and share - bad light today and camera was flat! Lastly this is a page I had wanted to do justice to and I am really happy how it turned out.



















I Love this picture so much and I have been wanting to do it for a while. Black and white is always fun - choosing any colours you want. I let the pp I chose guide me. Funny thing about my LO was that a few days after I did it I happened to watch an episode of a current renovations show that I had taped from a few weeks ago. It has a feet picture like ours, hung on a wall the same colour as my cardstock (lakeshore, in case you wanted to know) and feature canvas' with a similar design to my pp. It was so strange for me to see I said to my husband that looks like my LO - blank look in reply. After I showed him he agreed.
So hopefully I will have a quieter week this week and I will make some more progress on my catch up scrapping. I do have to try and get some current shots printed too - so I don't continue to stay behind. Hope your week is creative.