Coast Trip #2

While away we caught up with friends for the day at Nowra. Jen and I visited the Jindyandy Mill Scrapbooking shop while the boys and kids played mini golf. We got together for lunch at the Plunkett Street park. We then visited Hanging Rock and walked along the river bank and through the rocks on Ben's Walk.

After the walk the kids were so lucky to be offered a motorcycle ride by this lovely biker. The kids had so much fun zooming around the look out on the back of a Yamaha!


We also went swimming at Wairo Beach at the end of Lake Tabourie and just near Crampton Island. Such a beautiful spot :)

Canvas Art

Here is my latest completed project. A mixed media collage canvas. Am super happy with how it has worked out. 8x8 using some photos from our holiday to Malua Bay in 09.

Un Regalo...

... para mi prima Macarena. No tengo una foto completa con el marco.

Scrapbooking 'Stillness'

"Stillness": created using a $3 scrap kit from the Reject Shop, scraps of cardstock & black ink.

...I actually completed two projects this weekend. Yay me. I helped String Bean make a sign for her classroom (homework task) and I made a gift tag for a friend's daughter (which I'll post once she's received the gift.)

I feel that perhaps this maybe a way to reinvent scrapbooking for me. Scrap with String Bean. She loved it and already had excellent design ideas. She is a natural.

Hobbies.

You know you do these hobbies, mostly in my case, to connect with people. Being a Gemini and all I don't really like doing anything on my own, least of all crafty pursuits, which I view as purely an excuse to socialise with a few layouts completed as a by product.

So it is quite disappointing really to realise that a UFO (unfinished object), in this case a layout I started the last time I scrapped with a 'friend' is still sitting in my lounge room.

It sits in a scrap frame, taunting me, a reminder. That particular layout has sat there for about a year now and every time I eat a meal or have a cuppa it is 'there', in that space... unfinished. I am going to finish it this weekend, probably on my own, reflect on whether this hobby still makes me happy and why I choose to spend time scrapbooking. Because realistically I haven't for a long time now.

Just in case

I'm pulling this off the lovely Ainslee's blog and popping it here, as I would hate to lose it.

Photos courtesy of Ainslee Mc.

Card Stack

Cards designed by Nicola Denny!

I caught up with an old friend who was visiting on the weekend. She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator and we participated in a Christmas Card Stack night. It was pretty frenetic and fast paced but I learnt quite abit of new technique and got some lovely cards to send to family and friends out of the evening. A really fun evening with friends.

Love To Stitch layout class with Ainslee McCallum

On a sadder note Scrap Junkie closed it's door for the last time on Sunday. Sob where will I go now to find all the pretty things? and avoid postage too? and get good customer service? :-( Just so sad that things didn't work out for the lovely Ainslee. Just seems so unfair. But Canberra doesn't seem to be very kind to scrapbooking stores in general

I was fortunate to book into the very last class that Ainslee taught last weekend and completed a gorgeous hand stitched layout. I will always remember the fun times and the lovely Scrap Junkie shop when I look at this layout.

So proud...

Look what String Bean made tonight......a turtle habitat. While on the shopping extravaganza I bought String Bean a turtle magnet. The whole way home she prattled on about making a turtle habitat.

She spent about an hour after dinner making this. She put in so much effort and she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She incorporated the bottom of the shopping bag that my natural soaps came in. Great recycling happening there. Used rocks, tanbark from the garden and left over scrapbooking ribbon for the flowers.

Pretty cool huh?

Oh dear!

Today I put the wrong memory card in the camera. Today was a big and important day. Today was Fuzzy Wuzzy's birthday surprise day. Today we went on the Heritage Train out to Bungendore and back. Today would have been a great day to take photos......argh!

Oh well. I made good use of the 7 photos I could fit onto the 32MB card. It meant reviewing every single photo, every single time I took one. Making sure everything was OK. I do after all have to scrapbook these photos, so they had to be good ones. 7 good ones.

Unfortunately the birthday boy is still going through his: 'Let's Impersonate Jim Carrey' phase (it better be a phase is all I can say). And well, his photos are not great. But after the 10th take of this shot I'd had enough. Not that you can tell at all. I look all smiley and happy lol.

I ended up spending heaps of money. *blush*. But there were so many cool things to get. I found a great shop owned by a large family mum who makes hand made soaps and creams that are all natural, organic and chemical free. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. So I bought a Berry Body Butter, 3 soaps and some bath crystals for the kidlets. I wanted to support such a cool, groovy Mumma to 5, by buying her lush products. I saved on postage and her products were cheaper than the online prices I usually pay....gee I'm good at justifying my impulse buys.

I also picked up a gorgeous 5 stranded beaded necklace from the half price area of one of the craft stores. I just had to have a gorgeous Dragonfly decoration for our front porch, which is so drab hehehe. We then ended up in the retro store, which had a great vibe but not much chop. String Bean, smart cookie that she is, summed it up perfectly. "Well there is not much to see here, but the music is good". How cool is that! My girly likes Nick Cave. Love it. That will def. be going onto a shopping diva LO very soon.

Oooo how exciting!

My layout is up on the Scrap Junkie Website. Ainslee actually said it was sensational.....feeling quite chuffed about that, as her standerds are very high.

String Bean and Ms Farnham

I'll also share a photo of String Bean and her gorgeous teacher on their last day together.

Just abit sad tonight....

Canvas For Ms Farnham


It is String Bean's beautiful teacher's last day at school tomorrow. She has had to resign due to medical reasons. If I think about it too much, I just start to cry. She has been so supportive of us and our need to talk. Her room was always calm and so much good learning was taking place. String Bean has improved so much this year, in so many different areas and I'm sure she has played a big part in it. It just seems so bloody unfair that such a wonderful teacher is having it all taken away. When you truly love teaching, the thought of not being able to do so anymore, is just heartbreaking. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult tomorrow is going to be for everyone involved. String Bean made her a beautiful card and even knew what "sentence" she was going to write. I made her a small gift, celebrating her important role as an educator. I hope that it will convey how much we appreciate her efforts.

Wishing her all the very best for a speedy recovery and fingers crossed, you will be doing what you love again soon.

Brads and Butterflies Class

I decided I needed a treat, so booked myself in for a class at Scrap Junkie. The teacher, Tracey, was fantastic. Beautiful layout using gorgeous new product from the SEI Chocolat range.

I picked myself up a new Heidi Swapp craft knife, so much better than my cheap Kmart one. Excellent ideas on how to incorporate brads into my doodling and how to avoid flat LO's.


LO completed in a class by Tracey Cavanagh.
Thanks Tracey!

Teaching

I've been asked by a friend to teach a scrapbooking class to her Girl Guide group: The Monkeez. They are a lovely group of girls aged 14-18 years of age. I am so looking forward to this opportunity. Scrapbooking became my biggest time sink in 2004 and means that I've been doing so for 4 years.... how quickly time passes when you're engaged creatively. But in all that time I've never been asked to teach a class.

What a set of mixed emotions. I'm fairly confident this will be an OK night for the girls. Maybe better than OK. The strict $20 spend for 8 girls was challenging to say the least. The class is part of a 4 activity rotation, so can only last for 1/2 an hour! Ouch.

So I have planned a simple layout using products from my dealer (opps supplier & friend). Together we raided her sale stock and she very kindly let me take a whole heap of stuff to play with and make packs out of. Oooo how exciting.

In my usual anal style, I have already completed a sample layout to show the girls on the night, have made up 8 packs of supplies, packed up the surplus to return and packed all the necessary tools that we'll need.

I just hope that I haven't underestimated how much girls of this age group can do. I'll be back with my report tomorrow night!