bunkered down

The last week or so for us has been about bunkering down and holding on. It included an er run with our sweet Tyler ( how is it I had never visited an emergency room for a child until I had him?!?) and dramas with the refinancing ( which we are still waiting on settlement - it would blow your mind if you knew how long we had been dealing with it. Bunkering down required softer crafts - crochet to be exact.

And for the first time I have had a lil girl to crochet for ( the boys are not so much fans.....),

And little girls require two things - granny ripple rugs and silly hats.

And the silly hats must only be photographed by the iphone while you are pulling silly faces for the smile and therefore paying no attention to the actual photo you are taking. but as you have your mummy goggles on it looks really cute anyway!!

Ps teething sucks!!

Take My Hand-Shane Latham

I dont normally share songs etc on here. But this one is personal to me.

This is written by Shane Latham (my brother in law) when he found out he had a terminal brain tumour. He wrote this for his amazing wife - Meagan.

He is almost at the one year mark, something we were told repeatedly that he would not make and his last scan showed the tumour was stable. Something uncommon in his type of brain tumour.

We pray each day it stays that way and he is the minority.

I feel the need

Well, actually my camera does.

It feels the need to let me set up a shot and then die - just before I press the button.

I think my kids taught it how to misbehave......

Well, it certainly was not me - Mum said I was perfect....

Hey Stop looking at me that way.

I really am!

So anyway - iphone photo of my layout

( please forgive me [ i know not what I do... ill be singing that all night now] if I get my act together Ill swap it out)

My hands were missing mess.

But it seems to be a far more organized mess then Im used too!!

Im apologizing in advance for the journaling, it seems Ive caught a far more serious dose of dadjokeitis then first thought

Ps Im hoping my kids deify convention and crash early tonight. Im missing my blog reading.

What the heck did we do before blogs?!?

PPs Ive been really stressed lately, but no panic attacks - im really proud of that. We are refinancing our home loan and it has scary papers.

Why can they just not use simple english.

is it totally necessary to scare people by using big words,

And I LIKE my big words, but come on........

Its time for my close up Mr Director

I had take the last layout down for publication, so thought since I was asked and emailed on the circle strip a close up of that instead.

Easy Peasy

My trusty circle punch took on a mind of its own, whilst I was chatting so when I looked down and saw a pile of circles, My brain went into batman action time.

Boof, Bam, Whack!!

I just folded the opposite sides in just a lil and lined em up!

I did one the opposite way cause thats how my brain works...

Ps I wish I had my pre child brain back. I miss the figure too, but id really like my mind back

key to my heart

Out for publication

He looks really sweet right? Innocent? happy?

What they dont tell you is he is DANGEROUS!

This kid could trip over a tree root on the moon.

The extra horrible thing - he gets it from both of us. The Poor kid never stood a chance...

Ps Today Joshua forgot his lunchbox and his timetable - he gets that from me as well!

PPs - what the heck does this layout need, I know it needs something. To early to figure it out though.

PPPs - ok think I worked it out, now just to find time today to change it!

Simple and sweet

Out for publication

My style has changed a lot lately.

I seem to be going less fussy, its just the way my hands want to put things.

Im not sure about my new style though. But I think the photo I have used just speaks for it self.

I love it, its one of my favourites.

Tyler has always loved his little siblings (well when they are babies at least, I heard him tell Cooper that he was driving him up the wall and down the road last night — no idea where he got that from *whistle innocently *whistle innocently)

Ps - Who knew toilet rolls could be so fun?!? I got the lil heart idea from Prudent Baby Blog. Its meant to be as lil kid art — oh well, small things....

PPs - I lied, I cant whistle to save myself> Im sort of jealous of those that can though. Esp the embarrassing finger ones they do at kids football games. I was embarrass my kids that way!

PPPs - this one is just for Leanne - ( a very fantastic scraper by the way!)

Hope this is enough Ps'ess?

PPPPs - What the buggery is the plural for ps? Can initials have a plural. Now this is going to bug me all day!

Love Lives Here ( all year long)

In Australia we dont really do Valentine's Day in any big way. The kids dont give each other Valentines they dont do a big thing of it in school etc ( though I do remember getting a rose or 2 in high school — they sold them to raise money for the year 12 formal). And that makes me a lil sad.

After all how could a day that celebrates love be a bad thing?

( Plus I really really really love chocolate!)

Maybe it will come about like Halloween - the last 2 years my kids have been trick or treating and I have gotten to great the cutest lil witches at my door. I hope so.

But I wanted a touch more love in my house. And a lil something I could have year round.

So I made some. ( Crafty People Rule!) And guess what I needed nothing fancy!!!!

Yep Im not about to tell you to go get photoshop , etc.

The fancy program I used is....

wait for it...

Open Office people!!

Hell you could even do it with stamps if you didn't have a printer!

All I used was

* Open Office ( or Microsoft word. Im a Mac and choose not to pay for word when there was this amazing free product to fill my need)

*An old magazine

*Scraps of black cardstock

* An old frame

* a free font and a free clipart from here

( insert stamps here if you dont have or dont want to use a printer)

I went with Love Lives Here as it did not scream valentines, but was still on the mushy side

(Apparently this is important for Valentine's Day..)

and played around with the size of the words until I was happy ( size 72 I chose)

and inserted my free clip art heart and played around with that size to fit comfortably underneath

I printed it on my old magazine ( my magazine paper fitted perfectly in my printer, but I have used a bit of double sided tape to stick cardstock on printer paper for my journaling)

As it had a bit of a sheen I gave it a few minutes to dry.

I cut around the words and mounted it on black card stock and coloured the heart with a touch of watercolour paint that I had lying around from earlier in the day.

And then I placed a new sheet of magazine paper on the backing board of my frame and placed ( I dint stick it down incase I decided I wanted to swap it out for other holidays.)

And closed it up.

Add a heart candle a cute little girl gave you for sewing her preschool sheets and a heart origami you found when looking for some jumping frog origami for racing with the kids and wallah! A touch of Valentines!

Easy right! It probably did not need a tutorial, but as I have a sleeping baby on me who is cranky whenever I move, so you got one.

P.s I dont have a p.s. for you today. Dont cry Im sure I will next time!

linking to HomeMaker on a Dime

The Girl Creative

Todays Creative Blog

Someday Crafts

Whipperberry

Art?!?!

I think many of you know my mother is an artist, and while I can draw and I love doing that

Its serious art.

I have also always loved the more "whimsical" art

Mixed media pieces etc. That are out there a lot these days.

SO ( big brave deep breathe - big girl panties on.....)

I tried some.

Not sure how I feel about it. But Im sharing anyway. Why the heck not.

I will be linking up at Paint Party friday. In hopes for some tips.

Ps its giving me a seventies vibe - like creepy arse op shop paintings......... The ones you find way, way, way at the back......

Scrap it real good!!

There has been scrapping!

OMW alert the masses!

Out for publication

Bright arse colours! Now brights scare me just a little, but I thought would try my hands at it. And I think I like it. It was fun stepping out of my comfort zone.

The lil itty bitty banners I made with some homemade clay, I sort of winged it from other recipes online. Needs a little bit of tweaking I think. But I only used what I had in the house. I tried the non glue one, but thinking it would help to stabilise it. I used a candle wax paint pen to colour them.

My funny lil guy grabbed Joshuas formal tie and decide dthat a swimsuit wa sthe perfect accompanyment. As you do.

He gets his dress sense from his father.... The cuteness is alllll me!!

I wish, spitting image of his dad and his pop so everyone keeps telling me. Dont you love when people say

"oh he is so cute! He must take after his father...."

Thanks, thanks a lot.....

and whats this?!? A card?!

Just a lil note for a special friend

I made a mistake with the ink, so it got some extra inking on the bottom, I wish it didnt....

Ps - excuse crappy photos, its raining and windy out there and good enough was close enough today!! ( I take my photos on the front porch). I know Im a slack arse. I prefer to suffer for my craft in other ways ( staying up very late and being blurry eyed the next day...)

PPs Mum - yes I know I said arse twice ( three now) - Im sorry...

Super Mega Famous Baby

Ok - warning Mumma brag ahead!!

You all remember my super mega cute baby girl, right?!?

Yep she creeps in to your heart and tugs hard on those strings.

Now she is super mega cute on a national level!

And because even they think she is mega cute, they added an itty bitty one, on the contents page.

Ps - Autographs are available - they come in dribble flavour only though.....