Honeymoonin'

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I hope it's the beginning of a super fun week. After all, it is EOFY (End Of Financial Year) and I remember what a rush/push/hectic/stressful time that can be from my days working in Insurance all those moons ago {looking whistfully at the sky with chin sitting on hand... actually no, it wasn't a career I was contemplating!} But in Pathology EOFY means absolutely nothing, so it's pretty much a normal week for me :) I can't believe we are really on the downhill slide to Christmas though, man that's gone so fast!
I love these pics of Will and I doing our "Happy Tourist" jump in front of the Capitol Building in Washington DC! It was so much fun!! I wanted to do a page that would capture our sillyness, enthusiasm and all the giggling we were doing, and I think this really busy floral paper conveys that mood pretty well! I love this crazy paper and have been wanting to get it out of my stash and into my album. Hooray!!
Don't work too hard for EOFY!!
:) C

Mini Class Samples

Hi all! Happy Friday! Hooray for Friday! Friday! Friday! Friday! {happy dancing in the lounge room}. The weeks seem to be sliding away so quickly! Already it's only 6 months til Christmas! What the?! When did that happen??
Felicity is hosting a mini Stampin Up party tomorrow so I've made a few sample cards with the Fox & Friends and Little Angel sets from the current Autumn/Winter mini catalogue. We're only going to make one card at the party then have some free-play cos all the ladies will be bringing their children so concentrating on making a structured card is a bit of hard work with so much distraction! I love the little animals in this set, they're all so so so cute! You know I love owls, so clearly can't get enough of them, but the little monkey and the fox are my faves from this set :) They're great for little boy cards, which are so hard to find cool stamps for. Plus the sentiments from Little Angel set co-ordinate perfectly too. The Pumpkin Pie/Choc Chip and Baja Breeze combo of the first card would be great for little boys while the Pretty In Pink, Pale Plum and Certainly Celery combo makes such a sweet baby girl card!
On this third card, Kraft, Choc Chip, Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery combo, I hand cut the tree and drew some growth rings on with my SU Chocolate Chip marker so the fox & owl would have something to hang around on this card. I inked the fox in Pumpkin Pie then used my Chocolate Chip marker again to colour the tips of his ears and tail before stamping him on white. I think it turned out fantastically! I tried it again with the owl and used my real red marker to do a swish across the Perfect Plum ink on the wing and the ear tips., also successful :) Look at that cute little face on the fox, he's so sweet!!
Hope you have a wonderful Friday! Hmm... I think I might go do some baking before work!
:) C

Mmm... nothin' better than a cooked breakfast!

I really should stop cooking breakfast, otherwise I'll be fatter than a crazed tourist in a Magnolia Cupcake shop (I could have eaten them all you know. No joke.) I made Will and I French Toast on Monday morning, complete with Banana and Maple syrup! OH SO GOOD!! I used that French Bread Stick that was torturing me with it's delicious smell on Saturday and it made for awesome French Toast. Will was suitably impressed and declared that he'd keep me as a wife, which is nice of him {snicker}. If you'd like to pop over for breakfast some time just let me know! I'm really good at making cereal, porridge, bacon & eggs, have become somewhat proficient at scrambled eggs in the microwave (thanks for the training Dad), waffles (mighty fine!), dutch pancakes and now can add French Toast to my repertoire! If only I could eat breakfast for every meal! {Fatty fat fat fat fat fat fat.. I hear you singing!!}
:) C

Some Xander Pages!

I finally got my act together and have scrapped some pics of gorgeous little Xander! He was born 6 1/2 weeks early so had to spend 2 weeks under observation in the Special Care Nursery at hospital and we weren't able to visit. It was odd to visit Alicia at home during that time, see that she wasn't pregnant anymore, but there not be the baby around either! It was such a joyous occasion when he was allowed to come home and we could have our first cuddles with him! He was born while Will and I were on our Honeymoon- we were shopping at some factory outlets on the drive between Vegas and LA when I turned on my phone and got this message.. "Well who would have thought a June baby would be an April baby. Yes, you guys have a new nephew! Sorry he couldn't wait until your return but in typical D + A style he has kept us on our toes. He is in special care and will be named shortly. xo" I was gobsmacked! Well, we went straight off to all the baby shops in the outlet centre (Gymboree, Baby Gap, The Children's Place etc) and got him some special little clothes. Cos he was sooooo small cos he was early he's only just grown into one of them! I wanted to do a typical little baby boy page (above) but also wanted to do a more modern page cos Xander is a very modern baby. After all, Alicia is his Mum! I realised I don't have many black and white pages in my stash though (Xander's nursery colours), but I did find this SEI coloured spot on black. It pays to look at the back of double sided papers too, cos it might have what you're looking for! Maybe I should turn all the double sided papers in my stash around to their other side for a while, so I get a fresh look at them!
When David (baby daddy) saw this pic of Xander, he called the pose "Stylin" so I knew that would be a fun title for this page! Isn't the X man just the sweetest little baby!
Hope you've had a good weekend!
:) C

{insert Pirate voice} Agrrrr... It's my Show Booty!

Happy Saturday!
I've stopped for a tick, in amongst my groceries which are sitting in the green Woolies bags on my loungeroom floor (can you tell I'm easily distracted?), to share some pics of the Booty I picked up at the Sydney Quilt Show at Darling Harbour. (I have to point out that the French Bread Stick I bought it absolutely killing me with it's delicious white bread- fresh baked- smell that's permeating the house. Heaven! I wonder if Yankee Candle have that smell in a candle melt?!) Amywho... I went to the show on Thurs with Mum and Aunty Julie, and we had a super time searching for bargains and inspiration and being renewed in our enthusiasm for crafting! Going to the craft shows is a special thing that Mum and I always try to do together, and I love it! Having AJ along just made it more fun :) As we walked around we chatted about this that we saw that we could make, that over there which was just so sweet, this fabric which I'm sure we've got in our stash some where, that desk and cupboard that would just make my crafting space so much more usable etc etc!
I got lots of fun stamps, like the awesome Hero Arts Cloud BG stamp, the Hampton Arts flip pack of Woodland stamps, which includes a woodgrain tag and scalloped border (super cool), a Hampton Arts Footlong pack of Woodland stamps too (cos you can never have too many Owl stamps), some really fantastic Scrapmatts Bird'scages and candelabra laser cut chipboard die cuts which I hope to use on something awesome like pages of our wedding pics, lots of bling, Martha Stewart tiny sticks glitter, birdcage cuttlebug embosser and lots more. The pink thing is a Happy Birthday felt banner with butterflies and felt flowers, so cute! I always spend all my money and then some on credit too, but I had so much fun and have lots of plans for all these goodies!! Mum and AJ I'm available for Craft Room purging days when required!
Thank you Mum and Aunty Julie for a wonderful day! Can we make it a date for the Stitches and Craft Show in August too?!
:) C

An Owl Lot of Fun!

Ok, that title doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's Friday so my brain is allowed a little brain fart now and then right? Right?! How do you like these little Owlies? Well, they're not that little actually, they're about 20cm tall but they were so much fun to make! {Insert Will: "What are those Racoons doing there?" LOL!} I got the pattern off My Owl Barn, in a very convoluted way, linking to another page and another page etc.. anywho... here they are! They have a different fabric front and back, plus the tummy is a different fabric again. So cute! I made a black and white one for Xander, and another one for a mystery little person (keep your fingers crossed if you're a little person cos it might be for you! Though little persons can't usually read so wouldn't know to expect one... hmm...what a conundrum).
Of course I chose the worst time of day to take these pics, but in Brownsville the sun is only out in full between the trees between 9:00am and 9:02am. Ok, not true, but sometimes it feels like that. I had to use the flash, so they are much less stark and quite a bit cuter IRL. Oh well. Keep you eye out for them at Mum's sale later this year!
Hope y'all have a good weekend!!
:) C

A bit of Chilly scrappin.....

..........cos Baby it's COLD OUTSIDE!! Oh man has it gotten cold this last week especially. When I finish work after midnight it's a quick run to the car and I've gotta turn on all the de-misters cos the windows are so foggy! Will is still wearing shorts and a t-shirt though, it's those strong Asian genes {wink!!} I've even got a wheat bag sitting here at the computer with me to keep warm!!
However, it's not quite as cold as when we were at the Grand Canyon and it SNOWED!! YAY!! SnoW!! Can you tell I was just a little bit excited {clapping hands together!}. It was the first time Will had seen snow and we had such a hoot taking pics in the snow and freezing out butts off! It was fun tasting the snowflakes too... they do taste really fresh at the Grand Canyon!
It was also fun making the page cos I dug out all my snow themed scrappin supplies! I found this snowflake metal square that I've had for absolutely donkey's years and the cute little mitten and ear warmer stickers I've been keeping for a snow page.. HOORAY!! I got to use them!! And some snow themed paper too, to top it all off :)
I hope you're having a fun long weekend!!
:) C

Up in the Clouds..

I don't do a lot of paper piecing (stamping on patterned paper then cutting around the image and piecing the stamped images together to make a pic) and I'm not sure why, cos I think it looks so cute! I made this card for Tassy's birthday with some Hero Arts stamps and I love it's bright and cheery colours! The clouds I have found so versatile, I have used them for baby cards mostly but then got this bright idea for some funky coloured paper pieced clouds and I went to town on it, adding the rainbow and some flying birdies to finish it off! The rainbow is glitzed up and there are a couple of sparkles amongst the clouds too just for a bit of fun ;)
I hope you had a great birthday Tassy! I had lots of fun making your card!!
:) C

Honeymoon fun :)

Just a quickie page from NY! This one is rather boldly coloured, so you might need your sunnies! The story: I really wanted a street donut from a cart on our walk around lower Manhattan but Will told me not to cos I'd probably get salmonella, then he spotted this Hotdog Stand on Wall St and it was Game On! What the?! In fact, Will was so hungry he ate 2 of these delicious $2 hotdogs with sauerkraut, ketchup & mustard! We didn't get sick {wink!} and they were fantastic! I wanted to scrap the pics in the same bold colours of the Hotdog stand, I hope it's not all too much! LOL!

I did go back for that donut BTW, and it was mighty FINE!!

:) C

Happy Baby Shower Xander!

Can you believe Xander is 6 weeks old now.. and he's still not even due yet?! And as we missed our chance to have a Baby Shower for Alicia before he was born we had one today, and it was so much fun! The X Man is such a cutie and behaved so well, being handed from visitor to visitor, all the loud lady chatting and poking and patting... he took it all in his stride! I made a paper bunting name banner for him which turned out really well! I attached it to some ribbon from our Myer Gift Registry gifts! (Recycling... YAY!) The ribbon is so thick and luxurious, I shudder to think of all those uncrafty people who receive the gifts and throw out all the yards and yards of free ribbon! {throwing hands up in astonishment!} I also made some fun little "eat me" tags for the tiered cake stands and the candy jars (2 from our Wedding Candy Bar- hooray, second use!!)

In true Kingman tradition we've all spent the last couple of days baking. Alicia made gorgeous cupcakes with X's on top and bananca cupcakes, Mum made her super moorish spinach triangles and mini quiches, Felicity made delicious gooey carrot cake and anzac biscuits and I made mini cupcakes and my ever-popular White Chocolate Chunk & Macadamia brownies. Plus we were supplemented by some Choc caramel slice and Marshmallow log from Alicia's MIL. Don't you wish you came? LOL! I know you do. There was so much food and I happily came home with a container of treats! The food table got a lot fuller than the top pic once all the food arrived, it looked just like a Mad Hatter's Tea Party!Alicia is super sleek and fashionable so she had a black and white Alice in Wonderland theme for the party. Her bestie from work made all the awesome AIW inspired cardboard cutouts which must have taken her FOREVER! They were so fantastic! She made doorways with a pic from AIW stuck behind, running top hats, teapots with hearts cut out, playing cards etc! It was the coolest wall art! I was so happy cos Alicia said the Baby Shower was just what she wanted and everything looked so fabulous! YAY!! Success!

I seem to be rather pooped now though, and just fell asleep on the lounge and woke up with a tiny stream of drool populating the cushion I was leaning on. Hmmm... hope I'm not getting sick! It may have been Will's decebel 10 snooring coming from the bedroom that woke me though! Apparently I'm not the only tired one around here.

Anyway, it must be bed time so here's a pic of Proud Daddy (who chose not to stick around for the day but managed to come back in time for the present opening and to finish off a whole bunch of sweet treats for us! LOL!) And of course Beautiful Mummy who doesn’t have a tummy at all again! What a stunner! And such a proud Mummy too! Congratulations Alicia and David, Xander is such a joy and we can't wait to see him grow into a gorgeous little man!

:) C

USA goodies!!

Yvette asked what the Scrapping shop was like in the Vegas, so I thought I would share with you all a delicious pic of the goodies I got!
The shopping was a bit more expensive than it was the last time I was there, only it still worked out cheap for us overall cos the Aussie dollar was about 92c while we were on our honeymoon! Awesomeness!! I mentioned to Will that I thought the global financial crisis hit the scrapbooking industry cos the prices were higher than last time! It's probably true. The independent store in Vegas had a large selection of papers and stickers, and some nice embellishments though they didn't have any American Crafts thickers and only had 2 things from the Dear Lizzy range which was a bummer cos I really wanted some of that! I had a bit of trouble finding funky, cool style embellishments, they seemed to have a lot of traditional stuff, it may just have been the store I was at. I still bought lots and lots at Michaels too though! They had the Martha Stewart picket fence punch which I have seen used and LOVED! Plus I got some more marvy punches which I am super chuffed about, and an EK success journal spot punch- keep your eye out for it on cards and LO's coming up! I had to really watch my weight limit though cos I had already bought heaps of stuff and didn't have too much room left in my bag! If I didn't have so little weight left I would have gone nuts on the punches, LOL!!
If there is anything in the pic you want to know more about, or want a description of cos you can't see it properly, just ask!
:) C

A Wedding Page :)

Hello! Happy Tuesday :) Will's not doing OT today so we're lounging at home watching Bear Grylls and I made waffles for breakfast using Betty and the Waffle Iron we got for our wedding. YUM!! Talking about our wedding... I've done a Wedding page. Hooray!! I bought this gorgeous lace edge cardstock in Las Vegas, isn't it so pretty?! I hardly ever use shaped papers, I mean I have a lot, but I keep them in a different place to my other patterned papers so I rarely use them. But this one was out in full view and I was inspired! I must remember to move my shaped papers so they stare me in the face every time I sit at my desk! I had fun collecting all the wedding themed items from around my stash, some old and some new (the heart shaped journal spot I got in Vegas too). Love it! Did you notice I changed my blog banner after our Honeymoon too? {wink} I can't help smiling when I see our wedding pics, they're such great memories of our special day!
:) C