Hills' Angels - this is where my time has been going!

Well I have mentioned a few times that I have been doing some fundraising amongst other things keeping me very busy. It is now time to share what has been going on.
Earlier this year, March in fact one of the girls in our mothers group had a seizure. After a lot of investigating and time, they diagnosed a brain tumor. When she went in for her initial surgery in June, we were unsure of a diagnosis, after the surgery and some testing the worst possible diagnosis was given, we were told our dear Hilarie had 12 months to live.
Still unable to fathom the diagnosis and what it would mean, we swung into action, as best we knew how. We all got together and had a few meetings about how best we could help. Of course money is always an issue in these situations add to the mix a self employed husband and a four year old little boy who requires looking after. This meant that Hil's husband had to stop work to both support his wife and care for their little boy. This has now become our focus, and with Hilarie's guidance it has been decided that we will be raising funds to secure the future needs and education of her son, something she will not be there to do herself.
Enter HILLS' Angels - Help Involves Love Laughter and Support. We decided that we could make a fundraising group with the short term vision of helping our Hilarie and the long term vision of helping other families in similar situations. We worked very hard to decide on a name and logo that worked with our vision of supporting mums in need.
All Angels have worked tirelessly from that moment on towards our first event, Hats and Heels for Hills, a ladies only breakfast held last Saturday at Stillwaters Restaurant, Davistown.
Some of the ladies enjoying breakfast.
Watching our hard work come to fruition, and to see all of the amazing women who had come to support our Hilarie was really a dream realised for us. We had worked closely with Dominique, the owner of Stillwaters and Hilarie's boss and dear friend, to plan our first event. We were honoured that we could hold it in a place so dear to Hilarie, as they were to be able to have it there. An army of pink angels arrived to set up the tables for our guests. Balloons and floral decorations were provided by L and A Flowerland, Ourimbah.
They have been honoured to be able to help in any way they can. The room looked stunning. And then guests started arriving.
As much as I thought we would be nervous, I don't think we had time, we just set to work doing our jobs. The morning unfolded very quickly for us, pouring champagne, seating people, and tending to their needs. The guest of honour arrived, and the out pouring of love for her filled the room, many guests were friends, some were meeting Hil for the first time, having only shared her story from other Angels before today. The kind words that have been said about our Hil truly reflect the amazing, caring, patient and selfless person she is. She joined her table for a quiet rest and to enjoy the festivities. While the morning passed in a bit of a blur for us Angels, and a lot of tears, here are some of the highlights. This is Hilarie and her mum, Meryl.

Lisa, one of our Angels spoke, giving an overview of why we were there and what the morning would include.

Breakfast was served. The first of the raffles were drawn. The best Hat and best Heels were judged and awarded. Some more raffles were drawn. Our Hilarie and her Mum said some beautiful words.

There was musical interlude where Dani Carr sang. At this point we were offered breakfast, we all sat to eat, really just out of habit, as beautiful as the food was I don't think any of us could focus on that.

Next we announced that any raffle tickets left could be put back into the major prize draws of Michael Hill Jewellery, a Hair Straightener and a hand made quilt. This caused much excitement amongst the women. Those prizes were drawn. During this time some more announcements were made including the fact that the kitchen boys had pooled some money to donate, and that the entire staff had donated their wages for the morning. At this point, while on stage I might add, the tears welled in my eyes, this meant that our entire event was pure profit, as we had learned the day before there would be no charge for the catering. This is a true testament to our Hilarie and how much love there is for her at her place of work. I still have tears as I write this.
To end our morning there was a some money offered for Dani to remove his shirt, after a bit of crowd encouragement it was accepted.

And one of the guests, Narelle sang Hey Big Spender, while Dani proceeded to remove his shirt. This impromptu performance bought our event to a close and us Angels headed to the doors to thank our guests.
So many had such kind words for the effort we had put into the morning, it was very flattering to here from friends and strangers that we had done so well. Our reply was just how could we not, we had to do something and this is it.

Angels from left to right, Lisa, Susie, Shannon, Larissa, Dominique (owner of Stillwaters), Hilarie, Linda, Tracey, Natalie and Bec.
After the event we have continued to receive such lovely praise, some of which you can read here.
So after a long post, where I am sure I have missed out some things, I will end with the fact that the morning was a huge success. You can visit the website I have been setting up here, it is still a work in progress. You can grab a button from above on my right side bar to support us. And I will be back to share more about our next event - and try to scrap about this last one somewhere in between!

Who takes 473 photos in one month.... me apparently

I was going to blog a little later, but I am taking a break from looking at photos to edit. I just looked at my folder for September and there is 473 photos in there, what was I thinking? Must be spring. I had been trying to take less photos, it was working, but not in September apparently!
I am going to share the last few pages of my scrapathon. Thank you all for stopping by to have a look, and for your lovely comments about Katelin's sleep. I will share some more of her saga at the bottom of this post. I feel I need to document it, it is so much a part of my day at the moment!
Here are my pages, thanks again to Di for her pages that gave me inspiration! And as always from Nicole too.
I loved Nicole's circles on this post. I really must get my own circle punch. My photo was smaller in size but I was determined to make do, and I am fairly pleased with the way it turned out.
These next two are very similar and I enjoyed doing the same LO twice, it was quick, just changed the journalling a little, and the strip of pp on the top of the love one is there to create balance, my journalling came out too high up and there was no way I was reprinting!
Lastly this is a favourite, I think because I like the photos. And if you are wondering the one with no Katelin in there is because I need to print another shot, it is just filling space until then!
Lastly today Katelin told me she was tired, so I thought she would go down well, it must have worn off before she got to bed. She played for a while and thankfully at least she worked out she needed to sleep.

So with her pillow under her bed, (her cot mattress is still under her bed currently) she climbed in and snuggled down and fell asleep under her bed with her hand in the air! It was a great improvement on the last few days so very thankfully!

A very scrappy week

Ok so I have had another scrappy afternoon. It has been much needed me time after my harrowing week. I mentioned Andrew worked the long weekend, and I had a lot of trouble with Katelin sleeping, I didn't tell the story of my wardrobe, just a shelf and hanging rack, but professionally installed when we built our house just fell down on Thursday when I was getting my clothes out. Not on me, I wasn't hurt but it was a lot of clothes and a great big mess. Will share more when I take more pics. After a week of clothes everywhere we have finally got a small hanging space sorted and the other clothes are in apple boxes, used as shelves. Will take photos and write more. It is funny now but wasn't at the time and very frustrating when you want the item on the bottom of a very heavy pile!
And on Saturday, I had all my lights go out. We worked out how to get half of them back on, but a house in half darkness is difficult. I finally worked out we had a leaky roof by walking in water, Andrew climbed up to stop the water getting in, but as for fixing it, that only happened yesterday when he came home early to fix it in the daylight. So add to my week no lights in half the house for 4 days, LONG WEEK!
On a happier note, I have been very scrapping organised - and my house is mostly tidy - will call a wardrobe fitter soon. I have started Ali Edwards' Yesterday Today and part of the first week was to look through your albums and write what you love and what you would change, I have worked out I really like simple pages with lots of journalling about the time, it is great to go back and read older stories! After I did that I filed away the pages I have been working on. I have done 20 pages this week, and only of them were 12 x 12. I have found 8.5 x 11 very quick mostly anyway. Agata, when I did those pages in an hour and a half I must have been having a good day, no interruptions quick decisions etc. Most of my other pages took longer.

I am putting the pages between my words to break them up, I have a lot of little tidbits to share in this post. As I was filing these pages I worked out 2009 seems to be the year of the collage in my albums so far and I am having lots of fun with them. I like looking back at them. Also as I have been filing, I put them in rough date order in my albums, not always exact - doesn't work. I write in lead pencil on the back of each page the date the photo was taken. I get this from the digital photo files. I find this helps later on. On the odd occasion I don't journal the exact date on the page.


I have enjoyed scrapping these few pages and I found working from a small pile made me feel better, and now I know August and some old pictures from my mobile phone are all scrapped. I am going to pick out and edit photos from September before Harvey Normans 12 c sale finishes on Sunday. Don't think I am up to date then either, I have another pile from earlier in the year I pull out and work on too.

I have not yet come up with a solution to the blurry photos, they are fine before I post them. And Di yours don't look blurry at all to me, I can click on them make them bigger and read the journalling just fine.

And a final note, thanks for the comments about Katelin's sleep, we will keep working on it and see how we go. I know she needs the sleep because if we are in the car around sleep time, or if I take her for a drive when she won't sleep she nods off in like 5 minutes and when I bring her home she sleeps for at least 2 hours if not more. Cheeky little monkey. I will let you know if she improves. I have a few more pages to share tomorrow, these ones are ones I did on Sunday. Happy scrapping.
PS sorry if there are grammar errors no time to check off to pick Noah up from pre school now.

More pages .... a scrappy long weekend

Ok so lets start at the beginning of my story. In NSW this is a long weekend, and originally my husband had this next week booked as holiday's, as it got closer his holidays got cancelled and he told me he would have to work the whole long weekend. I knew this wouldn't go down well with the kids, as they haven't seen their Dad much this week. I have been good at outings to distract them, but myself I have been going crazy. I start with a story of having trouble getting Katelin to sleep. It is a vicious cycle of lack of sleep, sleeping late and waking early. And it is doing my head in, especially without another pair of hands around.
So I took these photos on Friday, before most of my troubles escalated. I had just watched my first video lesson on Yesterday and Today and I realised that Katelins not staying in bed and going straight to sleep was a story I needed to tell. This story starts with Kate waking at 5am, cold and unable to go back to sleep. I thought since she had been up so long she would go down well at lunch time, but no! First she got up and came out and wandered outside, then to go to the toilet, then again to see me and I took a princess away, then she put in a dvd, and I took millie away, then she played and I took her blanket away, then she had all her toys out so I took them away and gave her Millie back. 7 checks 3 bottles of milk and numerous discussions she finally went to sleep, after an hour and a half. She had read some books and used her basket to climb up to turn the light on.

So that is just one sleep, try this every day for the last 3 days for a lunch sleep and a night sleep. Tried skipping lunch sleep things just got worse, and Andrew didn't even come home last night. So I have had a hard weekend, so I needed some me time and I haven't had a husband around so I have been super scrapping.
Here are some of my pages, this has been the same as the formula on my last post. I have been loving the quick pages and I feel great actually getting some done. I have worked through my pile for August and some old pics too.

So this page below I finally did the journalling for, it is my attempt at Nicole's sketch challenge before last. I will have a go of the last sketch too when I have a little more time.

So I am off to finish the last few pages. Then I need to shop at RW they are on sale until midnight tonight,10% off. After that some photo editing, I hear Harvey have 12c prints at the moment.
Enjoy your Monday!


PS Sorry images still blurry, not sure why, more homework required, they aren't blurry here. I think it is something I have accidentally done to blogger. Hard to find a solution when I don't know the problem.

Some Pages

Hello again,

Is anyone there? My loyal commenter's have not said anything on my last post, so I am wondering is anyone listening? I have almost finished my Me the abridged version album, I am up to Y and Z. By finished I mean the journalling. Once I finish my last two letters I am going to print and assemble the rest of my album, the pieces are all cut ready to go. And I am not going to do the pictures in a hurry. I am going to look at each entry and think a little before choosing my pictures, I know I actually need to take a few too. But to me it is almost complete, and I finished in the four weeks. I didn't think I could do it!
So while I have been working on that not much other scrapping has been going on. I visited Di's blog the other day and noticed she had some new images in her flickr gallery. Her new additions inspired me, they were clean and had some awesome patterned papers, and great colour co ordination. So after scrapping Noah's chores page, from my last post I got to work on some new pages.

I grabbed the latest photos I had printed, starting at the top of the pile, picked a matching LO of Di's and got to work. I found quick decisions helped me, I just went with my first instincts. I got these three pages all done in an hour and a half, yes seriously, totally done ready to go in their albums. What do you think?

Today I sat down and did two more, not quite as quick, but same method. I was a bit slower today as I got some email and phone call interruptions. But it feels good and they are done. I am very happy.

Tomorrow I will share the sad story of my wardrobe, it collapsed on me this morning and now there are clothes all around my room - I think a trip to ikea is in store!
Just one last question, are these images blurry to you or is it just my laptop?