Scrappy Kea

If not now, when? Rhonna asks! There's lots that I can't say when to, with three young children & an income that will only go so far things have to be prioritised! I want to get back boarding on the mountains that I see every morning on the way to work & when I look out the window @ home - but then I'd need a baby sitter, a board, lift pass.... One day! Things like spending time with my children can be 'now' rather than 'when'? I guess I have dreams but reality kicks in at the moment and maybe in 2, 5, 10 years things might be different and my dreams can be realised, till then though, I'm happy! My middle daughter is nuts - check out the bare legs in the snow - she didn't complain about the cold once! Not like the other two whom J & I took to Mardi Gras in Qtown tonight - "I'm cold" "I wanna go to the car now" "Can I have candy fluff?". K is at Granny & Pa's having a great time...

There's something about six - it's soo grown up. We had a fun party with lots of young children - treasure hunts, chocolate games & pass the parcel. The 21 Challenge - have been plodding away at this. Using the quotes as inspiration for journaling. They have challenged me to think of what my dreams actually are, the choices I have, what difficulties & challenges can mean if viewed right & used appropriately for growth and about using words creatively and the importance of journaling my thoughts. A couple of things - check out the cyber crop in the forum at the Scrapbook Outlet. There's also a couple of challenges happening there - a weekly one (scrap your summer pics) for a SOS kit & blurry pics for the June comp. Huge Congrats to Beverly for the design comp @ memories-revisited . & have a go at the June comp @ Scrapbook Essentials . Big weekend down here - Winter Fest opening tonight - too cold to take the children out to watch what would have been stu...

We brought flylady back to our house on Sunday night. Here is my sink getting filled with hot water - before I added a cup of bleach and letting it soak for an hour, scrubbing it with chemco & steelo & shining it with window cleaner - it looks fantastic - thanks fly lady! Had my eldest dd's 6th birthday today! Lots of young people at a party, great food, games & good company. Went well thanks to dh & MIL who spent a lot of time setting up & getting food ready while I was at work this morning. Huge congrats to my friends who had their second baby this morning (Ali & Charlie have the same birthday!) & to Taite who is now a big brother - you were great when you stayed with us last night - we enjoyed your company Taite now you have to look after your wee brother! I have decided that 7 people staying in a 2 1/2 bedroomed house (the half is walked through to get to our room) is a tight squeeze. My MIL & Taite stayed last night so we had a bit of a ro...

Spent last night in Invers. We had a family dinner for dh's Nanny. We did a brief shop @ Farmers (none in the Wakatip) & went to Splash Palace this morning & BK for lunch (there's no BK here either!). Here are my 21 Challenge pages for the last three days. The hardest one was the Eleanor Roosevelt quote as I'm not sure what scares me - other than a lingering death while my children are still young, or one of them or dh being harmed in some way but even then I have a faith that gives me hope & assurance of a future. So I decided to apply this to my art or my creating - to try something new each day - even if it scares me. Day 4's quote was a goodie - I find that I make decisions all the time & this confirms that I am 'qualified' to make them. I used the pic of Katya for Day 6 as her blowing dandilion heads across the play area indicates this freedom & exploration of the world around. Watching her reminds me of the beauty & wonder al...

OK - up to day 3 of 21 . I'm enjoying the chance to play with my stash & put together something quickly - having a chance to play with ideas I wouldn't be comfortable with straight on a LO. I have decided on my habit - it's for some 'me' time each day. This me time includes daily bible reading & doing something 'arty' (this challenge) - two things I really enjoy. There were so many other things - like getting up earlier, going for walks (have you felt the temp down here!!) washing the dishes every night (we do this anyway).... nah, too menial! Actually starting this art journal is a part of my 'habit' I've toyed with this idea for a bit anyway! Always wondered what to do with so many BG tags. 

Here's the cover page I did last night. Don't think I'll be adding on white bits to too many more pictures. Enjoyed mixing up my foam stamps though (those delish paints are soo nice & creamy to use!). I've also done day 2's challenge - playing with colour & patterned paper scraps - needed some 'vibrancy' after my muted cover & day one challenge page. As I think about this quote - there's a lot I can take from it. It's not about our past, it's about our future! Why worry about finding the me that once was but embrace the now & look forward! We can't go back only forward! Have enjoyed checking out some other 21 day challenge pages - thanks for sharing these everyone & thanks for the comments too! I now have to go & do my housework & get myself prepped for facilitating a celebrating cutlure workshop for Playcentre tomorrow before crawling into bed. 

So I'm going to try to do Rhonna Farrers 21 Day challenge this time round. Here is day one! A few other NZrs from the Scrapbook Outlet are giving this a go too. I'll try to add in their links (after I've made a list of them). Let me know if you are doing it too so I can check your blog out! 

Wasn't the moon fantastic last night? Just had to try & get it on camera - think I achieved it. Love the night sky, the moon & stars, night lights & tiny speckles in an amazing universe! Think I might need to clean my camera lense though (the dot lower centre of the pic isn't what I could see). Did a scrap needs class with Chris Millar last night - heaps of fun & this is what I came up with. As per usual I did my own thing & just paid for the class (have so many bits I couldn't justify buying a kit however cool it was! Liked what I came up with thanks for the inspiration Chris! Busy week ahead with Playcentre 'Celebrating Culture' Workshop I'm facilitating in Clyde for five hours on Wednesday, Playcentre meeting on Thursday night & Jase has stuff on Tuesday & Wednesday night too. Then I think it's off to Invers for Nana S's birthday on Friday evening! Better enjoy & make the most of tonight & tomorrow nigh...

someone was asking about using HS tapes & the fact that they are not terribly easy to come across for NZ scrappers - heres a layout that I used some on. 

OK Karen - here's my stamp! I have done a different design to the RAK one just incase the monster one day feels guilty & returns it! Cath was fantastic to work with - drew my design, scanned it & emailed the image off within the week back comes a rubber stamp (the sort you attach to mounting blocks) all ready for use! Soo cool! My stamping skills are in development but you get the picture. Luckily Lynley left her heat gun @ scrapcamp (cause I borrowed it) & I was able to have a go @ embossing my name. still really tired - think I'm coming down with this horrible cold my children have got - they are in different phases of loosing their voices & are tired & grumpy (Jase would probably say I was always getting sick if these were the only symptoms) but at least my headache is fading. Looking forward to my scrapneeds class with Chris Millar on Saturday night - love these online classes for the LSS challenged like me!  

A Royal Scrap Camp 2006 is over. But there will probably be another next year & an escape in October this year too - so we can do our Christmas stuff. Here are some of the 17 LO's I managed to complete & a photo of some of us scrapping. All up we completed 116 pages & 82 Layouts. We had workshops on interactive pages, using scraps & scrap canvas. I now have a fantastic headache - think that's from the peace & quiet of a child free weekend to the pressures of a five, a four & a three year old @ home! Jase just chopped some more firewood so we can turn the heaters off again - nothing beats the heat of a roaring fire. Loving my freestyle book & had a play with some freestyle LO's in the weekend. Also reading photography for scrapbookers by Tracy White which has some great suggestions. Tip 5 is to read your camera manual - every six months! On the Scrapbook Outlet Forum someone asked what i define as 'freestyle' - anyone got a great de...