MissyMuh

New October Afternoon

I had a box arrive on my doorstep with another new range of papers from October Afternoon called Hometown, it is very cool and i shall be having a play with it this weekend at the retreat.

Here is a little sneaky peek

 

Back to normality

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....

Scrapniques kit

It was my turn to have a play with this months add on kit. It is deliciously vintage and i managed a couple of layouts and a mini book with it. You can get them here but be quick because there are limited numbers. They are only $15 with us a super bargain. Here is what i did.

and some pages from the mini book about charlee's birthday.

Catching up

Sydney: Overall it was a successful weekend. I met a heap of lovely people and super cute kids. I stood in line for 45 min at the airport waiting for a taxi to take me to my hotel on Friday night. There were no less than 100 people in front of me when i got there. I finally made it just before 10pm and flopped into bed. I managed to get a lovely sleep in the next day though because my first session wasn't until 11.
Overall it was a good weekend. I have only just started looking at the shots. The weather was lovely on Saturday but not so nice on Sunday morning...in fact when i woke up it was literally bucketing down and my heart sank. But i had to remain positive because it was either laugh or cry at that point. But thankfully by lunchtime the showers had cleared and all was well again.

The kids were ok, Charlee apparently had some troubles. She was really upset and over tired on Friday night when they got home after dropping me at the airport. Apparently she screamed for a few hours and refused to go to bed. And Mum said she was a bit upset over the weekend while they stayed with her. And she didn't leave my side all of Monday but she has perked up again now.

Life: We are going through a very stressful time at the moment trying to apply for a car loan. Both our cars are literally about to blow up on us and no one wants to give us any money because
a) luke doesn't quite earn enough on his own to borrow the amount we need
and b) i'm self employed.
I won't elaborate too much but it's been a right PITA and i am well and truly over trying to prove my income to everyone... We spoke to the bank again this afternoon and hopefully there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry for the whinge, it's all i ever seem to do on here at the moment LOL...in real life i'm not really as depressing (am i girls??)

Scrapping: I've had quite a bit happening over the past months that i haven't spoken much about. i still can't really say that much but it involves a major advertising campaign with Fiskars (which was a challenge to say the least, but also a lot of fun) and also Kerry-Anne Kennerly of all people... anyway i still can't elaborate that much but it has the potential to be VERY interesting indeed.
I have finished up some pages for Scrapniques, here are some sneak peaks because the add on kit hasn't been released just yet.

Speaking of Scrapniques, they have their stamp maker all up and running and are able to create custom stamps for you. I have already designed a couple (one will be included in an up-coming kit) and it's lots of fun. There are a few designs available in the shop (i made a cute set of little duckies that i am hanging out to find an excuse to buy) or you can email a image to them and they will give you a quote.  I'm gonna get them to make me a stamp with my photography logo on it so i can stamp the back of prints and packaging, but the possibilities are endless.

I think that's enough for one night the kids need to be put into bed and American Idol starts in a little while....

(I've been tagged as well and i'll come back and do that tomorrow - i haven't forgotten Ingrid) 

Catch up time

School: the first week went really well. He seems to be settling in well now and was thrilled that he had a turn on the school computers on Friday, i swear it made his week. Charlee had her first full kinder session on Friday as well, and she was also fine. Apparently there were a few tears when one of the other kids accidentally ran into her, but she was ok after a few min.

scrapping: Been doing a few things here and there. I had fun working with the new Scrapniques kit. Head over to the site to pick up one, great valentines colors and always good value. Here are two of the pages i did, you can see more on the site and the other DT girls have also been working away. 

The design team over at Blue Bazaar are also back in full swing this week. Check out the home page to see our layouts for this week, the theme was "Top 10" and the girls have created some great pages. I am doing the Poppy ink newsletter again this month and got my kit the other day, it is a GORGEOUS kit and right up my alley, so i am itching to get started.  I'm catching up with some girls tonight to  do some scrapping and i can't wait.

And while you're there you should take advantage of the sale they are having, i picked myself up a nice big fat pizza box full of goodies most of which were more than half price.

October afternoon is also gearing up for their CHA release. I have had a sneak peak at the two (yes TWO!) new ranges coming out and they are stunning! Nothing i have ever seen before, and i can not wait to get my hands on some and start working with it. It's gorgeous.

Work: All but one of the sessions in Sydney have now been filled, thank you to everyone who has contacted me about having their teens photographed as well. I only had a few times free and they were all snatched up pretty quickly. I'm looking forward to it. I should probably get organized and book some flights huh LOL. I went out with some of my sisters friends this morning and did another mini shoot, it was fun and i am editing the shots now.

Family: in the past two weeks my dad and brother in law have both been involved in car accidents. Thankfully in both cases the cars were in worse condition than the people and neither were badly injured, but it has me thinking that these things always happen in threes, so i'm just waiting for another to happen any minuet.

That's about all i have to update with at the moment. I don't even have any photos of the kids to share because i honestly haven't taken any of them since the photo-a-day ended last month LOL...besides that it's been a bit to dreary around here and i really can't be bothered. Koby is playing his PS2 and Charlee is busying herself with playdoh.  They are both looking so grown up lately though, especally Charlee. :(

*cluck cluck cluck*  :p

Been scrappin

I headed over to my mate dannii's house last night to do some long overdue scrapping and chatting. I had a very productive night and managed to complete four layouts. I have switched over to the 8.5x11inch format over the last week or two. I am liking this size and it makes a nice change from the regular 12x12 that i do. I am thinking it might also encourage me to put some more layouts into folders considering this size will fit into a standard A4 pocket.

Anyway here are the layouts. The first two are for October Afternoon.

Heading over to mums today and lukes parents church is putting on a carols by candelight thing tonight, so if it is not raining we will head on over to that i think. Hope you all have a relaxing Sunday. :)

It's Scrapniques Kit time!!

The new December kits are up at scrapniques..this month not one but two full kits are up for sale. They are great kits with kinda christmassy papers but not really LOL.. you can use them for non christmas layouts easily as well. Here's what i did with the Red kit (there is also a Blue version)

I also made this cool little door hanger thingy-ma-bob for charlee's room with the mini canvas that came with the kit. Very cute and super quick to make...good christmas prezzie idea as well...

Been busy proofing photos and trying to track down various client orders. My Pro lab is a bit backlogged due to a rush of Christmas orders, so I'm hoping like mad I'll get all my orders back in time to get them to the clients before Christmas. I think i should be ok, i rang them this morning and worked out how far along my orders are. 

I busted the kids ransacking my scrapping stash the other day. *gasp* i managed to catch them before too much damage was done, but they did manage to ruin three photos i had only just printed ready to scrap, and unfortunately several flowers and HS ghost butterflies were lost in the carnage. . . I really need to hide the glue and good stuff a bit better. It's hard though, because charlee is VERY into scrapping right now, and i don't want to diminish her creativity. But she forgets to ask or tell me when she is heading out there and if i forget to pack my stuff away properly it gets snipped and glued.  I brought her a mini scrapping kit from target the other day but she has already gone through it all.

I was a bit naughty and broke water restrictions the other day and let the kids have a water fight. We have had really hot weather lately, and they needed to cool off so i filled up a tub with water (only half full) and gave them some water pistols. Once the water in the tub was gone that was it. Naughty i know, but so worth it. They had a blast.

Even Oscar got to join in on the fun, even though he is not much of a water fan and spent most of the time running away from the kids lol

I told him that if he wanted to live until he was old enough to drive a car, then he should think twice about squirting mummy's $2500 camera.... thankfully he made the right decision

** shamless plug**

My Christmas book Kit is now available for purchase at Blue Bazaar. It's a funky little kit with new American Crafts paper. It's a little Christmas journal that you can make in advance and fill with photos and journaling after Christmas (or during if you are really motivated).

You can read more about it in this weeks newsletter here, or you can go strait to the Kits/Classes section of the store and order it. I am still perfecting the class instructions but i will have them ready by the middle of next week hopefully.
Here is a sneak peak of the cover.

cute cute cute

The race that stops a nation...

...doesn't stop me. When i was younger i use to love watching the Melbourne Cup on TV, but it doesn't really interest me much anymore. So much so that i couldn't even tell you who was racing. 
Instead of watching horses race on TV, i decided to take the kids to the park.
A. to get them out of the house,
and B because this is the nicest day we have had all week and i wanted to play around with my new lens some more.

Needless to say, because i wanted to take their photo, neither child wanted to cooperate. Naturally. So i didn't end up with many keepers. There were people everywhere as well which didn't help. Everyone looks at you strangely when you walk around with a camera these days and mine isn't exactly discrete LOL. I gave up with the photos in the end and just let them play on the playground, then treated them to an ice cream each.

In other news i had two layouts that i have done with the October Afternoon products accepted for publication in SC the other day. Kim didn't say what she wanted it for, but told me to reserve them for her and she'd get back to me. Here are two of the most recent ones i have done. The first one is one that was accepted. 

And for all those hanging out to get their hands on some, i have it on good authority that Blue Bazaar's order has hit the country and they are just waiting for it to come through customs. So they should be loading it into the store sometime in the next week or two. is now in stock and available in the store!!!

I have also been doing layouts for Scrapniques. Here are my two layouts for November, i got to use some Sassafras lass papers this month which are all in the store as we speak.

I can't believe how cheap Dannii is selling some of her stock, it is incredible. Go and buy something quick before she realizes and changes her prices LOL ;P
She also has a great new kit up especally for the little boys in your life. It's full of bright funky Cherry Art papers. Marni has done some super cool layouts with it for inspiration as well.

I'm happy to say that i have finished 99% of the Christmas shopping for the kids. I put the rest of the things (as well as charlee's B'day presents) on layby yesterday. We just have to get one more thing for Koby. He really wants the new Ben10 PS2 game, but it hasn't been released yet so that will have to wait. Anyway, that's all i have to share for now. Might go and do something crafty while Charlee is watching ABC KIds and Koby is playing his game.

rejects and not so much

Well i got my Awards for Excellence layouts back in the post the other week...all five of them. Which means that i was well and truly rejected by For Keeps LOL. I was upset about it for a whole...oh...five minuets. I do admit looking at them now that they are probably not all my best work. I only really like two of them still, but it would have been nice if they had wanted to keep at least one of them to be published later. Ah well.. you win some, you loose some..
So here they are in all their glory. Some scanned a little funny because they were a bit bumpy.

and now, just in case you hadn't had enough, here is another page i did today with some OA product.

This is the first weekend in ages that i haven't had to work, so i'm just chillin at home. Been scrapping a bit and making my sister a dress for Oaks Day. I was gonna take the kids to the park but the weather is a bit dodgy, so we will see if it's better tomorrow. 

Oh and i also went to see the ENT specialist the other day and i don't have to have my tonsils removed just yet, which is good news. he said if between now and July i continue to have more than 2-3 cases of tonsillitis then i will need to be reassessed, but he is hoping that the bout of sickness i have had was just a bad run. And that i will be over it soon. So fingers crossed.