Thought i'd come and show off the pages from the story journal i did for Fiskars. They will be using some of these in their new advertising campaign..i have no idea which ones or how many, but here they all are in all their glory.
I was a little peeved that they managed to not only spell my name wrong (it's not that hard people) but i now apparently come from NSW and not VIC...hopefully the changes can be fixed before any printing happens but I'm not holding my breath . . .
Yes, seriously...there is such a day...it's a very American idea but there is nothing wrong with us Aussies embracing the idea as well. There are lots of wonderful things happening in the scrapping world this weekend. Blue Bazaar are having a mega sale and crop tonight and Scrapniques is also offering 40% off old papers stock and kits.
I embraced the day by making this mini journal/album and decorating some of the pages. Charlee unfortunately got to it before me and decided to add a few of her very own - rather amusing- caricatures of fellow family members. But i just embraced the additional art work and made it part of the book. The journal was made by just gluing a whole heap of scrap bits of paper together in a glue bound margin. It has held together surprisingly well actually and looks like a proper bound book you'd buy in the stores. I also used up some of the pile of printed yet un-scrapped photos i have accumulated over the past few years.
there is about 30 pages in total so i haven't covered them all but it will be an ongoing journal of general day to day things.
I also thought i'd share some photos of charlee i took yesterday. My little snuggle-puss.
i was also surprised to discover the other day that i was featured on Todays Creative Blog. It's always nice to feel appreciated and get some praise from complete strangers. And if you are hear visiting my blog for the first time thanks to that article then hello and welcome :)
I'm booked out pretty much every weekend from this point for the next 4 weeks so i thought i'd make the most of this one and do absolutely diddly-squat LOL. On Thursday i met up with Dannii and her girls and we headed over to the park for a while. 
Then that night we headed over to Dannii's house again for a Stampin up party which was good fun (VERY hard to resist not buying stuff but i'm trying hard to stick to a budget this month LOL). On Friday we didn't get out of bed until well past 10:30 and then bummed around the house and today has been pretty much the same. Luke went out last night and saw the Foo Fighters, so i had a quiet night at home knitting in front of the TV.
Here is a progress pic of the cardigan i'm making Charlee, the wool is gorgeous 100% organic 8ply from here and the color is divine. It's so soft and squishy as well...i want one for myself LOL
if everything goes according to plan this is what it should end up looking like
You can download the pattern for free from here but you may have to register first before you can see it (it's free and quick).
Just look at the glorious autumn-ness outside my back door... and my sweet pussy cat as well, just because she was there.
And just because i thought this post needed more photos, here are some recent scrapping pages
That's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow with some sneak peeks for a recent client.
I made this one last week (which is why he already looks quite well loved)
I finished this guy on Monday. I completly improvised the pattern and was quite pleased with how he came out. The ears are a little odd in places but i am planning on fixing that and making up a few more to sell when i restock Charlee's Closet in a month or so.
And we came home from the shops to find this little guy on our front step. I thought he was dead at first but he started to crawl away from me when i tried to poke him. So Charlee ran inside and scooped him up in her bug catcher. His wings were already a little damaged so i don't think he will last very long but she has been talking to him for an hour now, and i let him have a crawl on her before. 
I've said she can keep him until it's time to get Koby at 3 and then we
need to let him go...probably for the best because i don't think she
would take it very well at all if she woke up tomorrow to find our
little friend has moved on to the big butterfly house in the sky....
Well Mondays use to be known as Mummy Daughter Mondays but for ages now (at least 12 months) i've had them all to myself. MIL now takes Charlee to playgroup and then to her house for the rest of the day and most weeks they even go and pick up Koby from school for me, so from about 9:30 am till 8ish at night i am a free woman. Most weeks it involves lots of shopping and banking and post office visiting and the occasional Op shot wander but today i am broke so i'm sitting at home doing nothing.
Don't get me wrong i actually have a lot to do - mostly cleaning related - but as usual i'm procrastinating LOL.
So here is a few photos...
First a top i crocheted for charlee. The fitting is a bit off, it sits funny at the front mainly because i was using the wrong type of wool. It was all i could find at home after the terrible "day of the lost knitting supplies" , but it'll do.
I actually had a bit of a happy-happy-joy-joy moment last night when i pinched all of my mums knitting needles and left over wool. She has issues with her wrist and can no longer knit so i promptly swiped her entire stash so i'm back in busines YAY!
and just to even things up a bit here's a few photos of the boy
Speaking of photos i'd like to thank everyone who has taken me up on my Autumn/Winter special. I've had a great response but there is always room for more. The details can be found here and also on my website in the Specials section.
I also came across this great resource for people considering having custom photography done with their family. It is really helpful in explaining the differences between hiring someone like myself as apposed to going to a cheaper alternative at a shopping center.
a consumer guide for custom photography
I caught up with Dannii and Jodi the other night and did some scrapping. We had a "crap scrap" night which was Jodi's idea, basically all brought along out crappy old supplies that we have never used or finished using and had to create pages using mostly what was brought. We all shared around our crap and had a good night. I think i got home just after 1am (luke was not impressed) but i managed to get through a whopping 7 layouts and i was really happy with all of them despite the crappy old supplies that were used. Anyway i have keep a few aside for some other projects and one was for Blue Bazaar, so here are the ones i can show off.
Well that's about all i can think of for today, i should get up and do something more constructive....
A few months back i created somethings for Fiskars. And a few weeks back i did an interview for Living Creatively. You can now read the interview over here . It's in the pink section on the right of the page titled Truely Madley Deeply. ( i had a giggle about the reference to me living in "rural" Victoria...i'd hardly call where i am rural PMSL, i'm only 30 min from the city for goodness sakes)
Well school is back and things are settling back into a normal routine. Koby has slipped back into school with no problems. Charlee is missing him more so than before. In fact the last three days she has cried all the way home in the car after dropping him off. I'm having to spend more time entertaining her than normal but hopefully she will get use to it again soon.
I made her a new top yesterday, i'm starting to get stuck into her winter wardrobe and i thought this plaid flannel top was a perfect way to start. Luke says it makes her look like a bogan (especally when paired with her new bright pink Ugg boots) but i think it's quite trendy, and super comfy. I'm gonna make a few more tops like this soon. 
We had a play over at the reserve across the road today to burn up some of her energy
I also have some Scrapniques DT pages to share. There were made with the April kit which is now available
Nothing else to share at the moment. I managed to rummage around my craft room the other day and found a spare crochet hook and some wool my sister gave me ages ago so i have been happily crocheting away in front of the telly at night again. It means i'm not quite as desperate to drive all the way back to Venus bay for all my other knitting stuff...i think i can hold out for at least one or two more weeks anyway. . .
time to get my boy....
sorry, i'm going a bit crazy with the blog posts lately i know, this will be the last one for a few days i promise LOL. I just had to share some photos of the Bolero i finished for Charlee. She actually wore it yesterday but refused to take off her pink jacket so i could take a photo so i had to drag her outside this morning instead.
I'm really happy with it. My next project is a pair of leg warmers for her (yes i am re-living my 80's child hood a bit there but i reckon they will look oh-so-cute).
I don't have the patience to make anything big enough to fit me just yet. I get bored with things that take longer than a week or two and although I'd love to make a nice woolly jumper for myself i reckon I'd get sick of it half way. So the key to me finishing projects when it comes to knitting is to keep them small and relatively quick.
oh and big happy birthday to Dannii for today. :)
What a great day...hot but fun. I managed to win prizes in three raffles (gift voucher, scrapping backpack and a bag of embellishments who hoo!) I also scored some bargains on the trash and treasure table and i also got 6 layout's done (i know, i'm a machine...). If you didn't go this year then you HAVE to come to the one next year.
One of the layouts is for a SC project so i can't show it but here are the rest in no particular order.
this one is a bit bumpy so it didn't scan very well (the ducky stamp along the bottom was designed by me and can be brought at scrapniques)
In other news Luke's cricket team won the grand final today, but even better than that it means no more cricket until October YAY! i have my husband back on Saturdays (and Thursday night).
School holidays start next Thursday...i don't think i'll be able to cope to be honest. Since starting school Koby is so reliant on being constantly entertained and stimulated that i know he will drive me bonkers for the whole two weeks... i'll need to start planning activities and days out now to fill up as much time as i can i think...hopefully the weather will cool down a bit by then and we can go outside.
Sydney people: i'm still working on the proofing from the trip I have finished the first 3 out of 7 sessions and will endeavor to find the time to upload your galleries in the next few days then get onto the rest of you.
Anyway that's all for now, gonna head to bed because i have a session early tomorrow.
Isn't he perfect!! I have been waiting on this book from Amazon for aaaagggess and it finally arrived last Friday. I popped down to spotlight yesterday to pick up some supplies and started making this dude for Koby yesterday. Love him already. So nice to find something to make him that isn't "girly" or "wussy". Of course now that he is a big school boy he has come home with all kinds of extra attitude so i am even more determined to keep him a baby for a bit longer (i know 5.5 year olds are SO not babys...), He is loving school by the way, he has made heaps of new friends (mostly girls but that doesn't surprise me. He has always preferred to play with girls, i think it's because they are able to carry on a more intelligent conversation than most boys his age. Mind you in most cases he manages to convince said girlfriends that they should play star-wars or ninja turtles with him...).
He is not very informative about what goes on though..usually he just talks about what he does at recess and what he wants to have for lunch tomorrow. He is obsessed with the canteen and thinks it's the most brilliant thing ever. And he saves up little bits of money he finds during the week (usually the odd .20c piece he finds laying around at home) and takes it to school on Friday and gets a slushy drink from the canteen. He thinks it's great.
I totally blew his mind last Friday by giving him a lunch order. He loved it because instead of having to give the canteen ladies money for a slushy drink they sent a card with his lunch order that had a picture of a slushy on it and he just hands it over and he gets one.... blew his mind.
So far i have established that his favourite subjects are PE and music (because you get to play lots of games), he hates German and the library because you have to be quiet and listen too much (although he does get a kick out of borrowing a book every week) and he is also not too keen on Art but he does love using the computers during free time.
and of course i have to mention Charlee, i was SO proud of her on Friday. She had a really great time at kinder. She was a bit upset again when i left her, but the teacher managed to distract her quickly and apparently after about 15 min she was ok and even joined in with a few games and activities. And when i went to pick her up i could tell she was so proud of herself for not freaking out. She had a huge grin on her face and said "i miss you mummy but i didn't do crying this time"...
