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...

Put this together last week for a competition on Scrap-Tastic where you had to use 50% 7Gypsies products. Think I managed, didn't win though but had fun playing with such vibrant patterned papers. mixed them with so Daisy D's. I love how my daughters hang out to make things. After seeing what Eli did on Mels blog they explored the art website & decided to do some quilling. Alicia was quite the expert & was coy about the fact she had already done it at school. They made some fantastic flower pictures. Thanks for that link Mel - it's going to be a life saver as it continues to get colder down here (& we need more firewood!!!!) and we do lots of inside stuff. Have spent time this evening sorting the photos I hope to scrap this weekend @ ARSC. I can't believe how many layouts I have that I want to scrap - hopefully I'll make a dent - if I'm not talking too much! I've been exploring my first scrapbook books over the last week. Read Clean ...

Here it is Karen - inspired by thunderpants! Had fun doodling. Love that I found that quote - fits the pic very aptly! Got my hands on clean & simple the sequel by Cathy Z today - such a good read so far!!! Also got a letter from Pride Publishing - they want one of my A-Z Lo's for publication in issue 44 - so exciting (just wish I live with a bunch of scrappers who understand what this means to me - but then I 'd have to share my stash!). Donna also got a letter - congrats Donna! (her links down to the lower right of my blog) To all those scrap camping - this weekend - hope it's a good one at whichever camp you are at. I'm looking forward to mine next weekend! 

My cousin had a baby boy over a month ago! I have created this for her & him - just have to alter a box for it to go in then get it posted!! Loved playing with the Daisy D's stuff & throwing in some BG fibres! Most pages are blank for her to add little pics of her wee man! Really busy at the moment. This week in particular is really full on & it's taking it's toll. work as usual but had a Te Whaariki (NZ early childhood curriuculum) seminar in Wanaka on Monday & facilitated a course 2 basic communication Playcentre workshop in Clyde on Tuesday night. We had people over last night, Jase is out to a Playcentre meeting tonight (I might squeeze some scrapping in - cause I'm feeling sever withdrawls!!) and we have our date/video night tomorrow night with Rugby to watch on Saturday evening (so not a rugby fan & will scrap with the hostess but couldn't miss the finals!!). then the week starts all over again. Plan to do a challenge from twopeas...

Really enjoyed my workshop with Nic H last night! Like what I achieved for my first Scrapbook Workshop (only other was with a 'home class' through a particular company). Thanks for the opportunity for an LSS challenged scrapper! I didn't get the product pack for the class but put together my own - used Urban Coture (BG), wholy cow bg rub ons - girl - white, Maya Road Chip flowers & cactus pink chip letters, mm pink paint & some delish paint - pale grey & Bazzill CS. My pic is bigger than the one recommended -but when do I do what I'm told? I had an altercation with the rub on - not sure it loves textured CS much! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!! (my wee sis) Thanks again!

Had these fun photos of Ethan to play with & found some fun papers to add to the fun. Finally used some of the BG Frog stuff (what's with that?) Enjoyed using some paint again - haven't used much for ages & my foam stamps too. Made the dots with cotton buds - trying to emulate those in the Cactus Pink patterned paper. Love the 'I'm not handsome' Lo - just cause Ethan is always so worried about not being handsome - I thought it was girls who worried about their appearance? Have been doing some Scrapbook Outlet DT work - enjoying the stuff I have to work with - love that they aren't colours I would normally pick so really stepping out of my comfort zone! Got some cool Delish paints from SE - loving the tins & the creamy texture of the paints - know I could mix in the white/cream to make the different shades myself - but they look sooo pretty! Got the latest Up2Scrap today - way cool - great to see some familiar names in there - other than the E...

Rach set a challenge as a flow on from National Scrapbooking Day @ The Scrapbook Outlet . I looked through my first album & have always loved these photos of Katya so I decided to re-scrap them. I had to scan in the photos cause I didn't want to look through all my negatives (digital is sooo much easier). Once in my computer I played around with them - lifting the colours for 'the blanket' and removing colour apart from Katya in 'fairy'. It was a great challenge - thanks Rach ! & I find that in re-doing them my journaling takes a whole new direction & I feel it is much more meaningful - especially as back then (later part of 2003) any journaling was the 5 w's & an h or two - though the 'fairies' LO isn't a good example of that kind of journaling - I had used a quote feeling that the photos spoke enough of my cute daughters. I'm looking forward to some bits arriving tomorrow -7 Gypsies, Bazzill & some Chatterbox (to help ...