My Birthday Breakfast :)

Hi y'all. Two posts! What a special day it must be today!
On Sunday I had my Birthday Breakfast with my family minus Yvette (missed you!) at Flower Power at Enfield and we had a lovely lovely morning! I wanted somewhere that the children (Cooper, Sienna and Xander) would enjoy and could play around at which would still be nice for the adults and I think it was an awesome spot. They have a big open outside eating area with lots of gorgeous fountains, gardens, statues and a big bird Aviary which the children loved. I wish their breakfast menu had been a bit more extensive though, but for the position and the interesting things for the kids, it was great! After my disappointing experience with Peabody's 20 week Ultrasound (remember- they didn't let me look at the screen and didn't talk at all about what they were scanning and didn't send us home with pics??!!) my family all put in for an "A Peek for U" ultrasound for the baby as my birthday present! How cool is that?! It's like glamour photography for Peabody {giggles} cos we will get the Ultrasound (non diagnostic), four 4x6 prints, a CD of still images and short video clips and a DVD of the session! I think it's a wonderful present and it means we will get to see Peabody again and have some good pics of him/her inside! It was Felicity's idea, who said she cried when I told her what a bad experience we had and couldn't help but think we'd missed out on such a great experience. I am so keen to have the ultrasound and see Peabody again, especially if they are able to do 3D or 4D ultrasound and we get a good look at the face! I wonder if Peabody looks like me or Willy?!
Mum also made me some things so I would have something else to unwrap on the day (thanks Mum!) so she whipped up this peg bag/sock holder and toy bag from some bird and apple fabric I bought at Spotlight and gave to her with Peabody in mind, and she embroidered some gorgeous grub bunnies and grub mushrooms on a singlet and socks for Peabody. Oh so cute!
So I had a wonderful birthday breakfast and am looking forward to my actual birthday in Melbourne next Monday! It will be super fun!!
:) C

23 Weeks!

Here we are, 23 Weeks already. One more week and Peabody would have a chance of surviving outside my tummy. Man, that's a scary thought! He/She must only weigh about 400-500g. So tiny! My sister Felicity is a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse and I remember her once bringing us a can of tomatos and saying the baby she looked after that day weighed less than that can. Wow {scary daydreaming about having Peabody too early!} But I'm not worried about anything like that, Peabody is certainly moving around and being super active and enjoying the space inside my tummy!
This week's milestone is Peabody reacting to Will talking to my tummy. He always kisses my tummy goodnight and lately he's been talking to Peabody more, his mouth to my tummy. Last Saturday I realised Peabody bumped the spot where Will had just been talking so we've been experimenting to see if Peabody is reacting to Will or bumping randomly. And yesterday Will got a punch in his ear! He had been talking to Peabody and I told him to just wait at my tummy after he stopped talking, so he put his ear to my tummy and got a punch right in his ear! LOL! I think Peabody is getting to know Daddy's voice, which is awesome cos it means Will gets some interaction with Peabody which he is really proud of!
:) C

Christmas Pages :)

Hi Y'all!
Well Mr Mojo appears to be on an extended holiday with me cos I've been creating up a storm lately! I hope he stays for good, cos it's doing wonders for my New Year's Resolution to reduce my patterned papers by 20%! I've already used (or partly used) over 15 papers already. Sweeeeeeeeet!
This first page is of my gorgeous niece Sienna and her first word (after dad dad and mum mum) which is "bir!" And you know how much I love birds (and owls especially) so I just love seeing her extend out her arm with it's tiny fingers pointed out at any bird she sees (real, printed or jewellry!) as she punches out the word... "bir!" with such enthusiasm {smiles}! Granny made Sienna's gorgeous Christmas dress with Christmas birds sitting on a wire and Felicity has a bird in a cage necklace which Sienna just loves! I had fun digging out a couple of Christmas themed birds for this page :)
The second Christmas page I did (which is no mean feat for me seeing as I never do Christmas pages and I have no idea why seeing as I have a pretty good collection of Christmas items!) is of Will and my first Christmas pic with Santa. And Peabody makes a show in there too! Isn't that snowman paper just sooooo cute! And the American Crafts journal spot I just adore! I did get to use up a couple of older Christmas items like the bottle cap (remember when they were popular- I was still working at Fantasia so that was at least 6 years ago!) and the MM metal stocking. I think it's even older {sigh} it's embarrassing when I think about just how old some of my stuff is! At least I'm finally using it right?! Right????? LOL! And who makes rub ons, like "i believe" here on this LO, in such a boring font? I have a hard time using them cos they're so boring! Luckily it fits the spot quite well here cos it blends in with the snowmen :)
Well I hope you've had a super week! Got any plans for the weekend? I'm having a Birthday Breakfast at Flower Power with my family on Sunday cos Will and I will be in Melbourne for my actual birthday (January 31st, don't forget! LOL!) Looking forward to it!
:) C

Something soft for the girls...

Isn't this Elephant stamp just the sweetest?? It's from the current Mini Catalogue and I just LOVE it! I am always in need of baby cards in my box so was inspired to use this stamp along with some soft pink and cream paper I got in a pack at BigW. It went really well with the bright Regal Rose pink from SU and Pretty in Pink ink. Also, it's time for me to use through my massive stash of ribbons! I love ribbon, but honestly I could make the most creative "Mummy" costume if I ever have a halloween party again, I have enough ribbon to wrap everyone in this house in a Mummy costume! Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm going to stop buying it, I'm just going to start using it on more and more things! I have already begun using it on more scrapbooking LO's which is fun! This pink organza ribbon is one of the first that I bought for card making and I think it really suits the softness of this stamp and paper. And as usual I made 2 similar cards at once, changing the second one up a little so that it has pretty soft pink paper flowers and jewels and a different PP accent as well.
It's time to get downstairs and start creating again!
:) C

22 Weeks!

Oh wow, I'm posting my 22 week pic on the actual day Peabody is 22 weeks! {cheering from the crowd at my punctuality!} I feel this week I have really had a blow out in size (do I say that every week?) and it is quite obvious that I'm pregnant now :) Can you see the red mark on my tummy? We went to the beach yesterday with my work friends and I got a little sun burnt :( Well, Peabody (the bump) copped a bit of sun at sometime yesterday without me noticing cos when I took my swimmers off I realised my tummy was so red! My tummy never burns... ever! I could be red all over but my tummy will be bright white, well not today! Poor Peabody! I wonder if he/she can absorb the vitamin D right through the uterus wall, cos they would have gotten a good hit of it yesterday!. LOL! Nothing is as red as my poor lower legs though, I had forgotten to put suncream on them til half way through the day, which evidently was too late. Poor legs! I'm spraying them with Aloe Vera after sun spray every 2 hours cos the skin feels really tight {frown}, I even woke up in the middle of the night and had to spray them! Hopefully they will soften up soon!
Have a good week!
:) C

Hawaii Pages

Hello!
It's been a pretty good week on the crafting front for me. Mr Mojo has stayed all week, I hope he's moved in for good! I am highly motivated by my New Year's Resolution to decrease my PP supply by 20%, it makes me want to scrap and start using through some of my supplies! I still find I want to buy more and more but I've come up with a theoretical shopping technique that works really well. And in fact, Alicia mentioned the same sort of theoretical shopping technique to me yesterday in regards to clothes shopping, and I thought I was the only one who used it! Ok, this is it: Go online to your fave shopping site e.g. 2Peas, cruise around the site with a cuppa in one hand and a yummy biscuit, fill up your shopping cart with all the beautiful things you see and must have, get hugely inspired by all the products and ideas and once your cuppa is done, close your cart without buying it all, head off to your craft room and use all the similar products you no doubt have in your stash and have forgotten about or weren't inspired to use, and voila! You've saved money and used up your own stash! Trust me, it works. I constantly fill up my 2peas cart, shuffle stuff around, add and remove items and only buy when they have a totally awesome sale. I recommend it!
So I've been getting stuck in to my Hawaii pics in scrappin this week. Sorry the pics are so crap, I took them at night under my lamp and they didn't turn out so well! I hope you can still get the gist of it. We had such a super awesome holiday in Hawaii and I want to reflect just how relaxing and fun it was through my pages! I hope you get an idea of how much we enjoyed ourselves {grins}. I would go back every year if I could!
These pages use up some old papers I had in my stash for ages! YAY! The funky flower one on the top page is a Kangaroo and Joey paper I've had for over 7 years I'd say! So nice to use up that one ;) And the brushed blue BG on the second page is probably at least that old! The parrot rub-on I bought especially for Hawaii pages, its so cool!
I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! It's time for me to have some lunch and get back to my scrappin I think!
:) C

21 Weeks!

Once again I managed to be in my Pyjamas for this week's pic! I think you'll think I am never dressed in anything else! My tummy is really coming out now, I can't really hide it in normal clothes anymore. Unless you think I've just been eating too much pie! This week my fave lady at the BigW photo counter asked me if i was putting on weight or if I was pregnant. Not much tact there! LOL! I happily told her I was pregnant, she was very happy for me :) It's nice to still find people that don't know I'm pregnant, or haven't seen me with a tummy {smile}. And just to prove I'm not the only one who gets around in Pyjamas, here's our latest "family photo" and Will's in his PJ's! LOL! Can someone come over to our house and take some semi-professional pics of us when we might both be dressed in nice clothes!!
This week I have been feeling Peabody lots, I commented once that it feels like a Shark swimming in a tank, sometimes brushing the sides and sometimes bumping the sides! It feels just so funny! Will has been feeling Peabody more too, which is cool! I had a bumper time at the Target baby sale yesterday with Alicia, I got a couple of 3 pack bodysuits which worked out at about $2.15 each! You can't beat that!! I am still on the lookout for "woodland" type clothes (e.g. deer, squirrels, hedgehogs, rabbits etc) Felicity gave me a gorgeous bodysuit with hedgehogs on it! So cute!! I have lots of owl things actually, so I'm pretty happy with those too!
:) C

Christmas Booty!

Hi y'all!
Did you think I'd forgotten to post a pic of all my Christmas booty? {giggles} Remember my childhood family tradition of laying out all your presents on your bed and taking a pic? Yeah, I'm still continuing it. You don't realise just how useful it is to look back on the pics and think "Oh wow, I've had that [insert name] for ever!!" It's really cool to look back on everything too and see how fashions, tastes, interests have changed over time! :)
Well I finally gathered all my gifts together, and ones for Peabody too, and here they are! I got some maternity tops and maternity underwear (hooray!), cooking books, Fa la la la felt book, Gold Class movie tix, hat, shoes, chocolates etc! Yes I was totally spoiled! And so was Peabody, who got an embroidered singlet, socks, knitted booties by Granny, gorgeous Gymboree socks and bib, a book, photo frame, giraffe toy and more. He/She is spoiled already!
I hope you're having a good week, I'm so glad it's hump day already!
:) C

Sing sweet Birdies!

Hello y'all!
How was your weekend? We went to Pancakes at the Rocks today with our work friends. Oh so yum {drool!} I had the all-day breakfast of Pancakes, Egg and Hash which is delicious (and so American cos I put Maple Syrup over pancakes and the Hash!) Hope you did something fun as well!
I made these cards last weekend using the Stampin Up set "Aviary" which is from the new Summer Mini Catalogue. I was SO HOPING that this set would become available in Australia cos I had seen it on Splitcoast stampers and loved it and wanted it! Of course all things birds and birdcages are hot at the moment, which suits me cos I have lots of bird stuff and I love it! I dug out some Heidi Grace paper and paired it with SU's retired colours Cool Carribean and Groovy guava which matched the PP perfectly! The sentiment and label shape are from SU's set "Great Friend". I love stamps that look like handwriting and this "for you" sentiment is one of my fave's. It's also a super versatile phrase cos it means you're not locked into using the card for one event it could be used for anything e.g.birthday/anniversary/thanks etc. I dug out some organza ribbon and pearls and voila! The Cards are done! I love this set cos it has a few different birdcages and the birds are separate stamps so you can put any bird/birds in any cage. I already have heaps of ideas flowing around in my head for more cards, I hope the pain in my back (possibly a tiny foot or some of my internal
organs trying to work their way out!) gets better soon and I can sit for longer at my desk! I did make the 2 similar cards at the same time which is what I always do cos it's so easy as you've already got all the stuff out kicking around your desk!
I hope you have a great week!
:) C

20 Weeks!

Peabody and I are 20 weeks this week- that's HALF WAY! Man how time has flown {dreamily looking out window}. It's time to get down to the hard stuff.... the growing massively phase with the big job at the end! LOL! Last week we ordered a pram, I got a Nappy Bag and a Peanut Shell baby sling. So things seem to be coming together well! Today I hung out with Alicia and Felicity popped in as well and we talked about my baby shower. Sometimes I forget that I will have a baby at the end of all this! It seems so unrealistic to me up to now cos I haven't had morning sickness and I am only just starting to really feel Peabody poke and jab in all ernest. But it's all very exciting too of course!
This week I had the morphology ultrasound, which I was really looking forward to! Peabody is all there, albeit a bit stubborn because he/she was facing backwards and I had to go out twice for a half hour walk around the block and a coke to try to get Peabody to move to a more ultrasound-able position! Peabody didn't move incidently so the profile shot is not very good. Also, the whole experience was a real let-down cos the crap ultrasound place I went to (sorry but it's true- I don't recommend Ultrascan at Auburn at ALL!) did the whole ultrasound with the screen facing away from me, even after I kept asking for a look! They'd say "oh in a minute" but only stopped to show me the feet and once to show the profile. And the whole time they were mute and I kept having to ask "What are you seeing up that high", "What's down there?", "How does it look?". (Ok, I may have been a tad annoying!) Then when I asked for pictures to take home they said "they'll be in with the films" which they weren't when went the next day to pick them up and when I asked they said "Oh, we don't have that machine anymore". WHAT THE?? Don't let me look at our baby then don't give me pictures either? They suggested putting the films up to a window and taking a digital print. Well that's what I did cos that was the only option, so here is a super cute pic of Peabody's feet and a rather awkward profile shot cos he/she was facing the wrong way. At least I know I will get to have another ultrasound at 28-32weeks because of my Diabetes, so it's not our last chance to see Peabody before they're born. And you can rest assured I wont be going back to Ultrascan!
And no, we are opting for a surprise in regards to the sex, so don't ask cos we don't know (and couldn't have found out anyway cos Peabody was so camera-shy!)
:) C

Make a Monster!!

Hello y'all!
Well I had a very productive weekend while Will was out fishing and at work. Mr Mojo popped in and hopefully he will stay a while! I've done 1.5 scrap pages and I made 7 cards! WOW {high fiving all around the neighbourhood!} I started off with the idea of making some boy cards so I mounted one of my brand new sets I got from the new 2010-2011 Stampin Up catalogue called "Make a Monster". I paired it with some SU papers from the retired packet called "Jersey Shore" which was one of the packets I found when we were moving and realised I had to include it in my New Year's Resolution count! D'oh! But then I immediately thought of it when I was inspired to make cards and thought it would pair really well with "Make a Monster" and I think the cards turned out pretty good! I used Pumpkin Pie and Wild Wasabi cards and ink and Pacific Point ink as well. The lined stamp is another one from the current SU catalogue, it makes fun backgrounds when I'm not sure what else to use. On the second card I used one stamp from Circle Circus (the rounded honeycomb kinda stamp) which co-ordinates well and the Birthday Wishes sentiment is by Hero Arts. I really like the green big spot paper on the 3rd card which is also part of the Jersey Shore packet. I know the colours are EXTREMEMLY primary and not everyone's cup of tea, but they are for boys and boys like the simpler things {wink!} And I had fun making them and that's all that matters right?!
I hope Mr Mojo hangs around a bit longer and keeps me inspired {excitedly fluffing pillows and smoothing doona's in the hope that he likes what he sees and stays around}.
:) C

Last pages of 2010

Yvette recently asked me if I had done any pregnancy pages yet, and I have to admit I have only done the one, and it was this week! So I'm a bit behind on recording anything about Peabody, in scrappin at least. I have emailed myself from work when I think of something scrap-worthy and when I first found out I was pregnant I sat down and wrote a whole page and a half about what I was feeling and how I came to find out I was pregnant (a bit of a surprise, I assure you!) If only I could find that page....
So this scrap page is about something that has been making me laugh lately, and that's the fact that I can look down and see into my belly button when I'm laying down! My bump is very low, so when I lay down it's below my belly button which pushes it up toward my head. I snapped these pics almost 2 weeks ago and I'm glad I got them when I did cos it doesn't quite look like this anymore. Isn't it amazing how fast your tummy changes? It still points at my head but all my organs have pushed a little higher, and I'm sorry but I thought I had stomach muscles at some stage? I dunno where they've gone!
Then I also did another page this week {slapping hand on cheek in shock!} about Will and my Christmas Tree. It's just a little tree, but I love it. This week I very sadly found I only have half a purple Mickey Mouse head glass bauble hanging on the tree! I think the aerial man knocked it off the tree and it broke so he just put it back up again {frowny}. He was supposed to put the plug on the total opposite side of the room so I wasn't worried about the tree! Then when we got home from work it was next to our Christmas tree. So weird! Poor guy had to shimmy himself through the unpacked boxes on our floor in order to get to that tight corner next to the tree, so I guess I can't begrudge him one small broken bauble. I did tell Will he should take me back to Disneyworld to get some more {wink!} He said he would, just don't hold my breath. LOL!
:) C

Happy New Year! Bring on 2011...

I think it is with a touch of sadness that I farewell 2010! It was a year of big celebrations- First there was our Wedding, then our American Honeymoon, the birth of Xander, Mum & Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary, finding out we're having a baby!, Mum's 60th Birthday, our trip to Hawaii, Sienna's 1st Birthday and moving house. What a year!! I don't think there are many that will top this year for busyness or fun! Will and I spent NY's Eve at work (as usual!) but rocked these cool hats to bring some New Year's Spirit to the workplace! We did actually get an early mark and make it home in time to catch the fireworks on TV. Did you see them? Pretty awesome. There was so much smoke around the bridge from the fireworks that you couldn't even see the finale on the bridge! I joked to Will that I wouldn't be surprised if the bridge is melted this morning. And in this heat I would believe it too! Right now it is 35.6ºC with a forecast high of 34ºC (take that weather bureau!) I'm powering down the water today!
So here's a recap of my 2010 New Year's Resolution - remember I want to reduce both my Patterned papers and my scrap papers by 20%. Well guess what... I didn't make it this year! I blame the ultra busy year! And also I was not motivated at all during my 1st trimester with Peabody. I would sit at my desk for about 10 minutes looking at everything, picking things up and putting them down again and then just walk away {nervous laugh}. It wasn't productive at all! So instead of using up 20% of my PP's I only used up 11.4%. (mostly cos I bought a whole bunch more in America and Hawaii and from 2 peas!) At least that's better than actually having my stash grow! And I missed out on using up 20% of my scraps too, and I only used up 16.6% (yes very technical numbers I know!) And then in the move I found a whole bunch more papers that I hadn't included in the count for 2010, so my aim for this year is actually to use way more papers than in the previous 2 years! Wish me luck! For 2011 I have to use up 74 papers without buying any new ones (I have a total of 372 papers- how many do you have??!) and I have to use 500g of scraps (I have a total of 2.5kg of paper pieces). Do you think this is excessive?? How reachable do you think my goal is when I will be having a baby in May? I hope i can do it! Maybe I should get down to my scrappin space and get a head start now!
Happy New Year!
:) C