Happy Birthday to me & Merry Christmas to all!

Firstly I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas & best wishes for a safe & happy holiday season.

To my beautiful family, thank you all for a fantastic & very special day. I love you all with all my heart. xxx & to quote a line from one of my all time favourite movies "You complete me", I'm sure everyone knows that's from Jerry Macguire

Just a little piccie of Lily & Mackenzie cuddling under our beautiful & very real Christmas tree. Lily sat & made the paper chains all by herself a few weeks back using strips of wrapping paper & a stapler, clever little chookie!

We started our Christmas Day celebrations today as usual, by attending Midnight Mass at the local church, it's brand new & was lovely for us to be there to celebrate the birth of Christ in such beautiful surroundings. It was about 2.30am before we all got to bed & of course today we were all up bright & early due to the constant stream of telephone well wishers for my birthday & Christmas.

Christmas morning was oh so magical with the excitement & joy of both Lily & Mackenzie when they saw Santa had left them their very special gift, as per Lily's letter to Santa- a trampoline with a net for herself & Mackenzie to share (she was very certain that it had to have a net to keep her little sister safe).

After quite a few hours of tinkering in the backyard & praying for the rain to stay away, the trampoline masterpiece was complete & ready for action although by this stage both girls were quite weezy as they are both suffering with croup/asthma again........our kids seem to be allergic to school holidays.

For lunch we had a fabulous seafood buffet, a turkey roast & garlic bread. And for dessert, several hours later we had a very delicious chocolate cake which Lily & Craig had baked especially for my birthday. I took this photo in timer mode using my awesome Christmas present- a tripod, which I have wanted for so long. We had the most awesome weekend leading up to today. We had Christmas lunch with my parents on Saturday, then spent the night with some friends in the Blue Mountains to celebrate with them before heading into Sydney to see the "Pop Go the Wiggles" Show. That was just so much fun & the we all enjoyed it thoroughly. The Wiggles as always put on a fantastic performance.
I'll leave you today with a couple of piccies from the show. Thanks for stopping by & please feel free to leave me a comment or some Christmas cheer.

Where does the time go?

Well now there are just 5 days until Christmas.......how does that happen?

Only 5 more days til I am 35!

The last few weeks have gone by so fast & have seen us do some very fun & exciting things.
Lily has had lots on at school including her first ever Presentation Day & Christmas Concert.

This photo is of her receiving her Premier's Reading Challenge Award from Mrs Bennett.


Last week she brought home an absolutely fantastic & flawless report card & has been bringing home all her text & work books for us to keep. We are just so very proud of her accomplishments in Kindergarten this year & after tomorrow she'll be on school holidays having a well earned break, although she's already counting down the days to when she will be in Year 1!

A couple of weekends ago we went to Luna Park for a Christmas Party, we had such a fabulous day & both girls even sat on Santa's knee.

And now I'll just share a couple of my recent L/Os, haven't done a great deal of scrapping lately as I was seriously concentrating on making cards to sell and also some samples for demonstrations and "make & takes" for Stampin' Up! workshops.

These 2 were for the Word Inspiration competion at Scrapworld.

This one was done for the last CC over at 3 Angels Scrapping


Good news is that I managed to sell about 90% of the cards I'd made at the markets & to friends & acquaintances. I had just enough left over to send some out to our nearest & dearest family & friends so it worked out well on 2 accounts.


It's certainly full steam ahead to Christmas for us here. This weekend we're off to celebrate with my parents & then catch up with some friends before heading into town for this year's Wiggles Christmas show at the Entertainment Centre. I'm really looking forward to that as Lily still loves The Wiggles & Mackenzie is now showing a great deal of interest in them & their music, so it's going to be great I think seeing the experiencing the excitement of a live show with both of them. Mackenzie was just that little bit too young last year to appreciate all the festivities at this time of the year.


PS The lovely Alison tagged me ages ago but I just haven't gotten around to responding. Will definitely aim to do that in the next few days, just got to think of some random facts about myself .......LOL!

A little scrapping & a publication!

I've just had my second L/O published this month in Scrapbooking Memories Vol9 No6 which was a bit of a buzz! I was very excited to see my page in the Summer gallery as well as on the contents page!!! They must have really liked it. Lily of course was thrilled to bits as it was a L/O of her again.

Hooray!! I've scrapped a couple of pages for the Word Inspiration competition running at Scrapworld. Haven't done my Week 3 page yet but got my photos ready. The word for this week is "remember". The words for Weeks 1 & 2 were "bright" & "new" respectively. Having fun with this comp & at least I'm getting to scrap a page a week with everything that's going on in the lead up to Christmas, birthdays etc.

Other than that I've been busy again making Christmas cards to try & sell at the markets...really hope the weather improves for Sunday!

3 Angels Scrapping have their CC on this Saturday night, looking forward to the challenges & chatting the night away with my cyber buddies.

Also had my second L/O published this month in Scrapbooking Memories Vol9 No6 which was a bit of a buzz. I was very excited to see my page in the Summer gallery as well as on the contents page!!! They must have really liked it. Lily of course was thrilled to bits as it was a L/O of her again.

Just awaiting the next issue of For Keeps (61) as I had a L/O accepted for the Christmas gallery.......almost starting to regret subbing that one though as I sent it away ages ago & it's well & truly past the time period they estimate for the return of L/Os. I've been too afraid to call up & inquire as I'm really still hoping it'll turn up safely anytime & really am not prepared at this point to hear that my L/O has gotten lost in the mail.

Happy belated 6th Birthday to our gorgeous "BIG" girl Lily!

......no we didn't forget to celebrate with her, I just haven't updated my blog in a few weeks, so I thought I best start by wishing my big girl all the best for her birthday which was on Sunday 18th November.

It's hard to believe that I have been a mum now for 6 years....WOW! Have loved every minute of watching you grow up & am so proud of the wonderful, kind & caring girl you are becoming.

I know she had a great day as did we all. It was a fairly relaxing sort of a day, as we needed some rest after a day of excitement & lots of driving on Saturday when we went to Jamberoo to celebrate our god-daughter, Kate's, 7th birthday. The water photos above were taken in the wave pool. That was awesome fun. If you're ever out & about in the Wollongong area & need something to do Jamberoo is fantastic, there's so much for the whole family, even little kids can go on almost everything with adult supervision, which was so great as we got to enjoy the place together as a family, not just one of us with Lily & the other having to sit out & watch over Mackenzie. As a consequence though I really didn't get the opportunity to take all that many photos because as the Jamberoo slogan says- I was "controlling the action!"

Back to her birthday- after Lily opened her presents we took her out for breakfast at a cafe in Erina Fair, did a little shopping where Lil bought a scooter with some of her birthday money, came home & Craig assembled her bike (pressie from us). She was a bit afraid to ride it as it's larger than her little bike but after a couple of sessions in the wide open space at the park, she's cruising along nicely!

In the afternoon we went down to the beach for a twilight Nippers session which was great, then back home for a BBQ with her friend from school & her family.

Happy Birthday & love you always princess xx

How time flies......

We're definitely on the countdown toward Christmas now, this year seems to be just flying by. Only 11 more days & Lily turns 6 and boy is she excited! There's only 6 more weeks of school for 2007 as well, so hard to believe she won't be a little kindy kid anymore, she'll be moving up into Year 1 in 2008. It's been the most amazing year so far with lots of fun & celebrations still to come.

I'm so proud of Lily, she received another merit award from school at assembly today bringing her total to 7 for the year so far plus the extra special "Aussie of the Month" award she received in May. It's been a remarkable year for her & we really couldn't have asked of more from her & it's so special to have her be not only commended for her efforts & achievements but also be very highly spoken of & thought of within the school community.

Pity about the latest interest rate hike today though, that'll just make finances a lot tighter for many people just like ourselves I suspect. Frustrates me that we work so damn hard at doing the right things & you just can't seem to get ahead on one income with kids.

A few more cards

As you may be aware, I've been quite busy lately putting together a selection of cards of cards to sell & also to use as demos for card Stampin' Up! workshops. I managed to sell quite a few on Sunday although I am yet to crack that elusive first party booking without having to run the workshop myself. It'll happen I'm sure & my goal in 2008 is going to be to try as hard as I can to tap into the local market.

I was very happy though to receive a lot of compliments & interest from ladies wishing to buy Christmas Cards at next month's market.

Thanks for stopping by & please comment on my card creations, I'd truly appreciate the feedback.

More cybercroppin'

Did a little scrapping on Friday night for the 6x12" sketch challenge designed by Dee Heath at Scrapworld. Really love how this one turned out & even got to use my BG Phoebe PP that I'd been procrastinating about using for so long as I just could get around how best to use the pattern in my head.....kind of had a mental block of sorts as I've seen so many amazing L/Os done by other scrappers. Also hoping to get a chance to do a page for the Pink Ribbon challenge they still have running.



Then on Saturday 3AS had their cybercrop & although I didn't scrap for it on the night as I was busy making cards & preparing for my stall at the markets, I did get 3 of the 4 challenges done before last night's deadline. Got the OTP to still do, a cute little felt bag to store cards & other Christmas knick knacks, hoping to get around to that in the next few days.

Market Day

If you happen to be around the Penninsula area of the Central Coast on Sunday, why not drop by & say "hi " to me.

I'll be at the Lions Club Car Boot Markets on Ocean Beach Rd, Woy Woy.

It's quite a good little market that runs on the last Sunday of the month. Lots of interesting stuff new & old.

I'll be selling handmade cards & gift tags as well as trying to promote my Stampin" Up! business in our local area.

Nippers & cards....

...........that's what we've been up to.

Seeing as we are living near the beach now, we thought it would be a great idea for Lily to join Nippers at the local SLSC so she can learn some beach awareness & survival skills. Great for a bit of fun & fitness too. The kids all seemed to be having a great time & poor Lily ended up with sore muscles in her legs from all the running in the sand after the first week. She's pulled up fine after this weekend so it just goes to show how adaptable & resilient kids' bodies are! Gone for now are our Sunday morning sleep ins but with the weather the way it has been the last 2 Sundays, no complaints from here! Even got in the surf myself & had a bit of a boogie board. I'm really settling into this whole beach lifestyle now, can't imagine ever going back to live in Sydney (not even the Blue Mountains) & anyone who really knows me knows that's a huge call for me to make.

I've spent a fair bit of time using my Stampin' Up! stuff to make lots of cards too lately, some of which I donated to my friend, Sonja, who generously hosted a fundraising "Girls Night In" at her place on Saturday night. All the proceeds of the night are going to the Cancer Council to help in the fight against womens' cancers.

Also been making cards to sell at some of our local markets in the lead up to Christmas. It's going to bit of a joint venture with a friend from school who has lots of wonderful handmade wares to sell. It'll be great to have company for the both of us as neither of us has done this kind of thing before. Looking forward to the challenge & hope to make some sales & maybe even make some workshop bookings, that'd be really neat!

Images © 1990–2007 Stampin’ Up! Artwork by Susanne Perry

Workshop projects & a bit of fun

Here are my samples of the cards/ projects we made at my card workshops last weekend.

Special thanks to Heike for allowing me to use the template of the cute little hand bag for the class.

The first two cards were made using cardstock, inks & buttons from the Bold Brights colour family & the "Wild about You" stamp set.

Next up some simple Christmas cards using cardstock & inks from the Earth Elements colour family, Very Vanilla & Whisper White, the very funky "spiral punch" & "Wishing You" stamp set both available for a limited time in the Spring mini catalogue. The background was stamped in Versamark ink using the gorgeous & very versatile "French Script" stamp.

Lastly there's the cute little bag decorated using the "Bold Butterfly" & "Tagger's Dozen" stamp sets, "tag punch" & inks from the Bold Brights range.

A very easy to make, pretty friendship card using the "Reason to Smile" stamp set which is one of the stamp sets exclusively available to qualifying hostesses rounds out the collection. The scalloped edge on the Cool Carribean cardstock was created by using the "slit punch" & a single hole punch. I also really love the "Print Pattern" background stamp that I've used with So Saffron ink from the Rich Regals colour family.

I've had some very positive feedback, got some orders & thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone have fun creating their own cards & how proud they were of their finished projects. Thanks to everyone who's helped & supported me so far getting my Stampin' Up! business up & running!

Images © 1990–2007 Stampin’ Up! Artwork by Susanne Perry



Here are a couple of shots of our girls enjoying a play in the snow. We were actually quite fortunate in the end to get just a short amount of time outside as Mackenzie managed to get quite ill with croup & the wind chill factor up at Perisher Valley was incredible even though it was a bright, gorgeous sunny day.

Our little Mackenzie seems to have a not-so-secret mission from the "Fun Police" as she has managed for 3 school holidays in a row to come down with croup, poor little thing spent most of the time violently coughing & trying to catch up on lost sleep from her persistent coughing.

We rugged her up & made a snowman with her, she tasted a bit of snow & then was straight back in the car thoroughly exhausted from less than 15mins of activity, not exactly the trip we planned on but it was great to get away & even better that she's fully recovered just over a week on.

Cybercroppin'

Although I was unable to be there on last Saturday for the CC at 3 Angels Scrapping due to attending a wedding, I managed to get 2 of the 3 challenges done. Thanks for the great challenges Heike, great job hosting your 1st CC! I'm definitely going to give that mini album a try when I get some more time too.

The first photo is of the cute little bag Heike supplied the template for & we had to decorate. Lily loves it. I made it for her whilst she was a school. Used up a few of my scraps with this one which is always a good thing too & those beautiful blue florals were part of a RAK I received a while back from the wonderful Jo & Rosy

The second photo is a a free-standing chipboard picture frame, again Heike provided all the measurements as part of the challenge & we had to decorate it. I've had this particular photo in mind to scrap for a long time but just never figured out how I wanted to do it. As Lily's hair is getting longer & thicker (finally)and also due to the fact that she is a very restless sleeper, her bed hair really amazes me some mornings......this photo was taken on one of those days! I used my Stampin'Up! Wild about You stamp set (featured in the 2007-2008 catalogue) & also Round Tab punch (featured in the current Spring Mini Catalogue). I really love how this turned out & it's already on display in my "office"

It was great to do some actual scrapping again too. I've been spending most of my free time assembling my new Stampin' Up! stamp sets & getting some samples together for my card workshops running here at my place on the 5th & 6th of October to coincide with World Card Making Day. I've had lots people showing interest & it's looking like there'll be quite a few people attending over both days, which is great. I'm really looking forward to it!

What a Day!

After much tinkering, many hours & of course some help from my wonderful hubby, Craig (he's the one in our family with the brains for computers!), I've managed to add a slide show & links to the blog! I'm really happy with how I've got it looking now, please feel free to leave a comment & let me know what you think- I promise I don't bite!

I made a mini album for my Guest Design Team spot at Scrapworld this month. I really love how it turned out. Loved using the kit. Thanks for the opportunity Melissa.

My Stampin' Up! News

Exciting news too for my Stampin' Up! venture! To launch my business & to coincide with World Card Making Day on October 6th, I will be conducting two cardmaking workshops at my place on the 5th & 6th of October 2007.

I'm hoping for a good turn out over the two days & to gain some confidence as a demonstrator & have invited lots of friends both new & old.

I'll pop up some sample cards when I have them made.

The cost will be $15 per person/workshop (for the supply of materials to make 4 cards & light refreshments).

We'll be kicking off at 11am for a couple of hours of fun & afterwards if the weather's nice, who knows we may well adjourn to the beach.

Contact me for any further information or to book yourself a place.

RSVP 29-9-07

As an added bonus Stampin' Up! are offering 20% off any Simply Sent card kits (pg 18-20) purchased from 4th October-8th October 2007.

A few more layouts

These are some more of my layouts for the "Back to Reality" competition that was running at Scrapworld over the past 8 weeks or so. I managed to pick up a weekly prize for the last L/O- a deck of Heidi Swapp playing cards. I've never actually used them before so very excited about getting them.

There were some awesome scrappers in that comp & I had heaps of fun creating a L/O each week. Big CONGRATS to the winner Anne Marie, 2nd placed Alice, 3rd placed Christie & also Melissa Corbett for winning a place on the DT.

Also currently have the mini album which I made for my Guest DT spot at Scrapworld on their DT blog. Will share some piccies tomorrow. In the meantime I will try to to figure out how to set up links from my blog to the blogs & places I love to check out.

My fave haunt is a lovely forum 3 Angels Scrapping run by the lovely Jo & Rosy. It's got a fantastic store with impeccable service, a friendly forum, great competitions & CCs, a seriously awesome DT & a very inspirational gallery!

Go check them out, you're sure to love it.