Sunday, January 25, 2009

Getting Organised!

On Friday my Hubby and boys went off to the cricket in Sydney with some friends for some "boy" time, so that night after I tucked the girls into bed (after a lovely "girly" day followed by a really nutritious meal of crepes with suar & lemon juice and reading a few chapters from Mikayla's fairy book) I locked myself into my playroom for some guilt-free scrapbooking :)

I've had these clipboards sitting on a shelf for ages waiting for me to spruce them up. My idea was to make one for each of the kids to hold their job charts. So, with back-to-school being just around the corner and a serious need for some organisation in our house I set to work making up some job charts as well. I found this fabulous site where you can make personalised job charts for kids. You can take a look at it HERE.





I covered some pencils with matching paper and attatched them to the clipboards so there's always a pencil at the ready and no room for excuses!! So now we're ready to go, only thing is I think it's going to be a shame to cover these up, LOL!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sale-A-Bration

Join the Sale-A-Bration!

It's Sale-A-Bration time again at Stampin' Up! and free product is what it's all about!

Every year Stampin' Up! gives customers, hostesses, and new recruits the opportunity to earn fantastic, FREE, limited-edition stamp sets they'll enjoy for years to come.

Here's how Sale-A-Bration works:

Customers
When you spend $100 on Stampin' Up! merchandise, you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration reward. There's no limit--for every $100 you spend, you can select another free Sale-A-Bration reward!

Hostesses
When you host a workshop of at least $600 (before tax and shipping), you'll receive a free Sale-A-Bration reward--in addition to all of the regular hostess benefits!

Recruits
During Sale-A-Bration, anyone who joins as a demonstrator can choose any stamp set--a value of up to $79.95--from our current Idea Book and Catalogue!

The Sale-A-Bration promotion starts on 1 January and runs through 28 February, so don't miss your chance to earn free products! Talk to your demonstrator today to book your workshop or learn more about this promotion. Your demonstrator has a full-colour Sale-A-Bration brochure full of beautiful project ideas you can make using these limited-edition Sale-A-Bration sets. You can also view the Sale-A-Bration brochure online.

Wedding Bells...

Our lovely friends Chris and Rachel got married on the weekend at Gerringong. It was the most beautiful wedding, simple and elegant. The church was at the top of a little hill and overlooked the ocean - it was just stunning! When Rachel walked down the aisle I don't think there was a dry eye in the church - she looked absolutely beautiful. The reception was great and we all had a really fun night. I made two cards for the occassion as I was unsure about the first one. But as it turned out, Rob and Paula preferred the first one. So here's the reject...


I felt so good making this one because it used all scraps! I didn't cut into a new sheet of anything for this one - don't you just love those cards!
And yep, you guessed it...I didn't take a photo of the other one before I gave it away!!

Colouring-in is not just for kids!!

The other night I treated myself to a bit of relaxing with my good friend Coral. I stamped up some images from my "Summer by the Sea" stamp set onto water colour paper and then spent the evening chatting and colouring with water colour crayons and an aqua brush. It was so relaxing and colouring these particular images took me right back to our recent holiday at the beach...



I did make a third one which was probably my favourite but promptly gave it away to our neighbour to say thankyou for fixing our leaky toilet!! Note to self - photograph cards before giving away (I am notorious for doing this with everything I make!!)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I'm Back!

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year. My sincerest apologies for the lack of posting. We've actually had three weeks away in sunny Queensland with family - 2 weeks in Brisbane and 1 week in Coloundra. We got back a week ago but that week was filled with a variety of dramas and I haven't had a chance to post anything!
Our holiday was lovely and it was wonderful to spend time with family and friends and the kids especially enjoyed being able to catch up and play with their cousins. It was so nice to see them play together and amazing to see that although there are many miles between them they can just pick up where they left off last time.
We had a lovely Christmas and a fun filled new year with my sister in law Ang's birthday and Jordyn's 4th birthday thrown in there as well, so the week at the beach was a great way to unwind from the busyness of everything. The kids just loved being able to swim in the pool and if they weren't in the pool they were watching everyone else in there from our balcony! The beaches were lovely (although our very first day at the beach included a blue bottle sting for Jake) and the weather was just perfect.
But after 3 weeks of living out of suitcases it was great to get home. I tell you, there's just something sooo good about sleeping in your own bed. The first couple of days of being home my kids didn't wake before 9am and one of them 10am (yep Jordyn!!) so they too were loving being in their own beds - and I'm sure Noonie is enjoying having her bed back to herself!!
So since being back we've had to buy a new washing machine (so glad I've ordered it as the old one finally died today and being without a washing machine with four kids is not good) and a new kettle as that had decided to give it up while we were away too. We also came home to a leaking toilet, kitten poos in our bedroom and the christmas tree stripped of decorations and smashed on the floor also care of the kittens - NICE!!! All of this after a sixteen hour car trip. Our neighbours welcomed us home with the house taped off like a crime scene and the outline of a body on the driveway - thanks Tim!! But despite all of our dramas it is still so good to be home.
So now I'm absolutely desperate to get back into some stamping and scrapbooking using all of our lovely photos from our time away. Fingers crossed, I might get a bit of "me" time tonight and have something to show you soon.
xxx