Saturday, December 30, 2006

the first five days....

here goes.... check the blurb at the end of the next post titled 'twelve days'.



continued below...

twelve days

and the rest....







I've done a few more than the 12 layouts - but at this stage (while still not home yet!!!) I'm just putting up the ones that relate to the fantastic themes set for us! Thanks again Janine for the extrinsic motivation to actually begin & complete this project! Once again digitalmax came through & my photos arrived just in time :-)

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Stuff

Busy, busy, busy! Looking forward to a six week break starting Thursday this week. Have a 'Christmas at the Beach' planned & then off to Christmas Camp till after new years. I've done a couple of online classes this week - on Wednesday with Nik & last night with Chris - the inside of the tin I did in Niks class is the first pic on the colage below - can't show you what I did in Chris's class last night as it has bare bottoms! The pics from Left to right starting at the top (also on the bottom right corner) - Niks online class tin. My trusty wooden cake box. The kids reading a new book. Firt Ribbon night at the Arrowtown Pool. The gingerbread house I didn't win. The kids with santa (who is their dad!). Looking at some of our beautiful scenery. Alicia on the water slide at the Chefs Association Barbecue & Niks tin again!

I have been busy creating these for Andrea - it's been fun playing with different versions of 'the boot' & playing around with the Maya Road tins & fruitcake & dasher papers. Must finish some gifts & get some Christmas cards made & sent!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

well...

a few competitions:
Keep an eye on the Scrapbook Outlet for the next monthly competition & for the new theme for 'Get Real'.
Check out Evana's Blog (links on the right hand side) for a cool comp & check out what's happening on Janines blog (this is the reason for today's post - but later...)

Also a cyber crop at the Scrapbook Outlet this coming friday so get your name on the list. These are heaps of fun with fantastic prizes for games and layout challenges too! Might mean an early Christmas present :-)

Can't wait to see the new out of the closet stuff at Up2Scrap either - I have some to play with & love it!!!

OK - the 12 days of Christmas... Have myself and 8 x 8 Maya Road Binder for this one & intend to make a kind of album that spells out some of what Christmas is for our family. Janine is setting the daily themes & I just can't scrap them till I get photos from Digital Max (my printer gets choked up if I put anything thicker than paper in!!!) so I'm going to add some notes in here every now & then so it's not such a tough job before the 31st of December!

Day 1
the Tree - the kids loved getting all the decorations out of the box & finding places on the tree to put them. Alicia & Katya diligently placed the decorations on the tree when we found a spot to put it. I miss the 'real' trees & how they smell - but wandering down the road, lopping one down & walking home with it isn't so easy here as it was on the farm... Each year the children get a special decoration each - so that when they leave home they'll have things to put on their tree... I'll be able to have a designer one then LOL. They have also made things to go on the tree and these are displayed proudly too. Our angel sits on top. A few of my special decorations were given on a 'hens' night leading up to my wedding where instead of 'kitchen' things I was given decorations for my tree, I love putting these ones up the most!

Day 2
Baking - the cake. We have a wooden cake box & the cakes that come out of it are sooo moist & delicious we have to make another as it's gone within the fortnight! We are making some smaller ones also to have as gifts or to take to friends when invited around for pre-christmas get togethers. This year the fruit was soaked in port (no brandy or sherry to be found!). I went to make the cake but we had no brown sugar so I'll leave the fruit soaking for a bit longer & make it during the week!

Day 3
Presents - Why does Christmas always end up being about what we want? I think I like the giving side better, trying to think of things that would make the recipient smile & I like gifts that keep on giving like mag subs or a family pass on the gondola or earnslaw. The kids 'wants' change every other day but for this layout I'm going to have to sneak into 'santa post' at Playcentre and find Katya's & Ethan's list & get Alicia to write one - it was so cute seeing miss 4 sound out the letters of the things Ethan wanted on his list & then write them for him! He wants a 'gun' & I can't say I like the idea much - his dad wants one too mores the pity! I think it will be water pistols for Mr 3. Katya loves bugs so we are wondering about a microscope but she also loves building with lego so maybe some of that and Alicia wants a bike. Even though these are 'individual' gifts the focus for us at Christmas is 'family' so each of the Christmas gifts are to be shared. Alicia is the only one without a bike so we are getting her one so we can go on bike rides together!

wonder what Janine has in store for day 4?