Last post for 2008

Over & out.......hope everyone is enjoying the fireworks & the festivities wherever you are celebrating!

See you on the flip side....lol!

And so this is Christmas..................

YAY!!!!!!





PS Santa was very good to us all!

Merry Christmas to you all.......

.........and Happy Birthday to me!!! (in just under an hour anyway, yes I'm a Christmas Day baby)

Hoping everyone has a safe & happy Christmas Day filled with lots of fun & cheer.

The MAD month of December

Lots of goings on here in the Perry household & not too much scrapping but I did have a page published in Scrapbook Creations (#61), which was great as now I have been published in all three of the major Aussie scrapping magazines.

Lots of proud parent moments too with Lily doing really well at school, receiving awards at her school's presentation day, getting an awesome report & a few other bits & pieces including Craig's birthday, our night out to see Billy Joel, Luna Park Christmas Party & The Wiggles!

Merry Christmas & best wishes from the Perry Family!

A big welcome to the world today for Lachlan Bradley born this morning in the wee small hours. Congratulations Bronwyn, DJ & big brother Brayden!!!!!

Looking forward to meeting Lochie & having a cuddle in the next few days xxx.

Happy 7th Birthday Lily

Today our big girl celebrates her 7th birthday.

WOW 7!!!

Really can't believe where the time has gone. She is growing into such a fine young lady so quickly & of whom we could not be more proud. She's clever, funny, polite, very talented & above all has the sweetest, beautiful, kind heart.

Lily, wishing all the very best on your special day today & always.....hoping all your birthday dreams & wishes come true, now & forever. We love you so very, very much. Hope you enjoy your day. All our love & lots of hugs & kisses from Mummy, Daddy & Mackenzie xxxx

Here's a few photos from her party on Sunday & then one of her opening her presents from us which she did last night so Daddy wouldn't miss out, having to be at work all day, of course.

She's already given her Cuttlekids a workout before school this morning & made us a wonderful little thank you card, just so sweet.

Where has this year gone?

Not long now til our gorgeous big girl turns 7, 2 weeks & she's counting!!!!!!

Hard to believe I have been a Mum for 7 years. Doesn't seem like a long time but when you compare it to the 10yrs service I had with State Rail before kids, almost 9yrs of marriage & the 18yrs I've been out of school, it's not hard to see where the time has gone & I've loved it all, the highs, the lows & wouldn't change a thing.

Who can believe there's only 7 weeks til Christmas.....51 days to be exact & only a few more after that til we hit 2009?

Lily will go on to Yr2 & Mackenzie is going to start preschool.......can't believe that I'll be having a child free day during the week, actually we've been putting off sending Mackenzie as we aren't sure whether she'll go to big school in 2010 or 2011 because of her age.

I don't think I've been ready to let go of my baby just yet, I'm going to miss her the days where she's not around but, yes of course, it's only for a few hours a day, and the time definitely is coming for her own development.

Here are a few recent snapshots from the life & times of the Perry household.

Lily & Mackenzie went to the school disco dressed as little witches the other night.
Mackenzie these days is pretty much into going full speed ahead wherever & whenever she can on her "special big bike" as she calls it.
At Terrigal in The Haven on the day of the Food & Wine Fair
Lily must pull faces whenever there is a camera in sight
Mackenzie & Craig making a slice........Mackie has developed a real love for baking & cooking recently
Lily & Cheetah sharing a cuddle in the shade
Nippers time again.....Lily picking up a flag at the end of a race
Meeting a crocodile at a local fair


Moving on to some scrapping, here are a few random challenges I've created for the Silent Auction & 12 Weeks of Christmas at 3AS

& last but definitely not least....... BOTS has finished now with the winners being announced.......CONGRATULATIONS to Melleny, Rach & Julie, 1st, 2nd & 3rd place getters respectively & also CONGRATULATIONS to Ellen for having her kit chosen for sale in the 3AS store. Well done to you all & enjoy your prizes!!!!!

Here are my entries for the competition.

My Round 1 entry:

Round 2:

Round 3.....a deep & meaningful mini album:

& Round 4:

Thanks for stopping by & please leave me a comment if you've got the time!!!!

Good luck to anyone having a flutter on the Melbourne Cup today......I drew #14 "Gallopin" in the Secret Auction sweep, hoping he's good at exactly that & I may just earn myself a few bonus $$$ for the auction which has me more intrigued by the day!

Have a great day xx

Some scrapping to share

I've got quite a mix of different projects I recently completed for a variety of reasons. Hope you enjoy looking at them.


Some invites for Lily's party next month

Some easy cards using SU! stamps & my Cuttlebug

Love this L/O of random memories from 2008, I created it for Deb's challenge at 3AS for the GWI Cybercrop they held to raise funds for the Cancer Council

This little cupcake I made for Heike's challenege

& this little altered magnet was made from one of those daggy old promo magnets I had hanging on the fridge.......much prettier now & thanks for the challenge Melleny

I'm very proud of this one, my decorated styrofoam tree which I made for one of the "Twelve Weeks of Christmas" challenges running at 3AS.

This is an inchie card, also for a challenge at 3AS a little while ago

These are the 2 cards I made with Rachel Greig at her make & take stand at our LSS on World Cardmaking Day...........oh & for those of you who are interested & have read a few posts back, Rachel's great tip for tying ribbons & having them look great with very little effort is to tie the knot first using both ends of one piece of ribbon, then when you're happy with how the knot is sitting, snip the ribbon in the middle & attach to the to the card on the back. None of this mucking around with DS tape on the front of the card & trying to tie bows & knots using small pieces of ribbon.......for how simple a tip this is I can't believe I hadn't worked it out sooner!

& last but not least, this is what I created for my challenge at 3AS for the GWI challenges.

In other scrapping news, I've had another page accepted for publication in Scrapbook Creations, my 2nd acceptance with them, I think my first page should be out in either next month's or December's issue so looking forward to that as well

Will also be able to share all my L/Os & projects for the BOTS challenge at 3AS which is drawing to a conclusion with the overall winners being announce on their blog on Friday. Good luck to all the lovely ladies who took part, throughout the competition, the standard of work was just so inspiring for me during this whole competition.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous day & thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Jayne

..........for those of you who don't know her, she manages her quite sizeable team of Stampin' Up! demonstrators known as the "Inklings". My upline, Fiona, is one of Jayne's downlines......just so you know where I fit in to the whole thing.

Anyway, Jayne is celebrating her birthday today, the 29th of October & Alana thought that it would be a lovely surprise to throw Jayne a virtual surprise party.

My contributions to the party are some melt in your mouth Chocolate Chip cookies

& some gorgeous little goody bags.........(non SU! but I think they are still pretty nice)

Happy Birthday Jayne, I hope you have a fantastic day!!!!!!!!

I'm going to try & link as many of the other party goers blogs as I can find in the next little while & then I have to get Lily off to school & canteen duty for the morning.......so I will be back!

Thanks for the virtual invite Alana & I hope everyone enjoys blog party hopping.......go & check out what everyone else has brought along!!!

Alana

Merryl

Carol

Jo

Teneale

Kari

Margaret

Lin Mei

Beth

Karen

Kim

Jayne

Happy World Card Making Day

I'll be back later to share a couple of creations I made today at my LSS that were make & takes using Rachel Greig's Darkroom Door Word & Filmstrips, even learnt a neat little ribbon tying trick........boy have I been doing it the hard way for far too long.......LOL!

Had a fun time thanks Rachel!

Hope you all managed to get some time to make some cards.

There's some great challenges set for today over at 3AS which I'll get to tomorrow. Also while you're over there check out the special Cancer Council Pink Cybercrop they've got going next weekend. I've been asked to set one of the challenges (#10 actually) so if you're interested in some great challenges, they are $2 each & all monies are going to a fantastic cause!

Will add links later.

Now off to get ready for a BBQ, we have friends arriving here shortly.

Thanks for stopping by!

A bit of an update.

Good morning, thought I'd drop in for a bit of a catch up & share some photos.

Buster.......what can I say there......he's a puppy, a digging destructo machine & growing up so fast! We had him desexed the other week, 6mths old now & 15.1kgs Here's a couple of photos of his handiwork yesterday!



I've taken these 2 photos recently from trips we've had down to the local beach. How cute is Mackenzie, she's definitely going to grow up to be a surfie chick.....check out her style!



Lily's big news is that she lost her 2nd tooth on Sunday.......another visit from the Tooth Fairy & a different smile.......so sweet!!

Life is pretty well smooth sailing around here at the moment & on the down hill slide to the school holidays.

This term has been quite full on with lots going on & Lily even did her first ever project on the Redback spider........(that brought lots of memories from my own days at school).

It's the last week of Term 3 & a pretty hectic one for all the kids. The school is performing their whole school musical this week. Lily' s in 2 performances on Thursday, a matinee & then a show at night. We are going to be in the audience for the matinee.....can't wait to see her on stage!

Another 2 Rounds have passed for in the BOTS challenge at 3AS & still can't share those......soon though.

I was lucky enough to pick up the runner up prize for round 2 which is a lovely bonus because I don't scrap to be competitive but I love joining in with challenges from time to time, a little bit of outside influence & a deadline are sometimes a great motivator for the creative juices.


Round 3........there aren't many words short of SPECTACULAR & just down right AMAZING that you can use to describe the entries for this round. The love & sentiment within each one is just so beautiful & special. Well done to everyone & good luck too.


It's down to the final round & this next one is a doozy........you have to design your own kit to the value of $40 from stock which is for sale in the store, then create 2 L/Os plus an OTP or card & the instruction. Check it out here if you like. Will need my thinking cap screwed on nice & tight for this one.....lol!


Other than that I've made a few cards which I didn't photograph so can't share them and I've finished & sold a few more Kaiser Craft mini albums.

Don't forget to check out the links in the side bar for information about any of Stampin' Up!'s fabulous promotions or catalogues & feel free to contact me to place an order, to book your own party or for any further information.

Hope everyone is having a great week & thanks for stopping by.

Just a special note to my friend Nat, we're all thinking of you & your family xx.