Cards from Fliss's :)

Hi Y'all!
I woke up and it's raining! I thought it was supposed to be a real hot weekend, I didn't know it was going to rain! I do love waking up the the sound of the soft droplets on the tin roof next door, it's quite soothing. At least the only plans we had for today is to go to Balmain for breakfast with our work friends. YAY! I love breakfasts out at a cafe, so much fun! I wonder what I'll have..... probably pancakes! {drool!}
Here are the cards I made during my cardmaking day with Felicity on Thursday :) {hugs Fliss} it was a fun day! I looked through my card box and decided that I needed more wedding/engagement/anniversary cards, especially beautiful, elegant ones. So that's what I set about doing. How do you like them? I do love light blue and brown for elegant wedding colours and on this first card I combined Baja Breeze and Soft Suede and used the medallion from Artistic Etchings to add a bit of interest. I love that set! The ribbon on this one is one of my fave's too, it's very elegant with it's 2 colours of satin ribbon with organza between.
The next card uses the beautiful Congratulations sentiment from {} set. The font they have used for these stamps is just soooo pretty! I embellished with some ribbon and sweet little Kaiser pearls. The small flourish is also from Artistic Etchings. This is a very simple card, but I really like it as a wedding or engagement card, especially cos the SEI paper is very chic too.
And while I was at it I made a second similar card! I also love this cream embossed BG paper that Yvette gave me. I love it a lot, but I'm finding it a bit easier to use up papers I like, instead of hoarding them! I know I have a lot of gorgeous papers and there are always nice ones to buy! It was the last of that brown and pink spotty ribbon too, hooray {cheering} cos I hardly ever use up ribbons! I have hundreds in my collection and I really need to start using up more of the older ones too. {Sigh}, I'm going to need to do crafting 36hrs a day (yes, a day, not a week! I need 1.5 days in one!) to put a dent in it all!
And just one more card.... I made a "man" anniversary card! I figured most of my customers are women and they probably need to get anniversary cards for their husbands so I made a man coloured card! I hope you like it!
:) C

27 Weeks!

Here I am, it's Friday and I'm 4 days late with my weekly post! Oh dear! Either it's cos I've been super busy this week.... or its just that time is flying past toooooooooooo quick and I can't even believe it's Friday already! Can you? I have been a day behind all week which is a terrible feeling, cos tomorrow is Saturday and I'm probably going to wake up thinking it's a Friday! I guess it will be a nice surprise when I do realise it's actually Saturday! {giggles}. I'm looking a bit puffy in this pic- I actually just woke up and threw some clothes on so I wasn't in daggies for this week's pic, but then I'm puffy and my hair is pulled tight back so it's still a disaster, LOL! I guess I can't win!!
I'm going shopping at Parramatta with Alicia tomorrow which will be fun. Alicia is famous for her shopping "missions", once when I first moved to Sydney I spent about 4 hours at Parramatta with her while she tried on like 40 pairs of black pants in 20 different shops and none were what she wanted. Come on, black pants?? Aren't they all the same? Evidently not {slapping hand to forehead}. But it introduced me to the finer details of clothing (those belt loops are too wide, those belt loops are too narrow, I don't like the placement of these back pockets, these aren't black enough, I don't like the metal detail, I wanted narrow leg, I don't like the skinny legs, these are too short, these are too long, they just aren't right.... etc!!) Phew, it's tiring just remembering! Tomorrow we are up for work shoes, but I am a much more experienced shopper now and she has taught me so much and I love shopping with her now, so I think I'll cope!
:) C

Card Making!!

Guess what I'm doing? I'm at Fliss's for a card making day! I haven't made cards with her since before we moved to Hotel d'Lam so that's been at least 3 months! Sienna is even getting in on the action, good to start them early! Lol!!
Hope you're having a good day too!
:) C



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Some class samples..

Hi y'all! I'm sitting at my desk watching footage of the Christchurch earthquake & thinking of the people of NZ. Could any other natural disasters strike this side of the earth?! I think we've had our fair share now!!
I'm making some class samples for an upcoming Stampin Up class using some sets from the current Summer Mini Catalogue. I love So MANY sets from this catty! I'm hoping they carry on over to the main catalogue cos I just love them and want to keep using them for classes! And I love challenging myself to use sets, like Love Defined which is essentially a Valentine's set, for cards other than the obvious theme. So I've made a condolence card and Anniversary card using Love Defined and I'm really happy with how they turned out! Plus i made a sweet card using the Aviary set which I LOVE! It's one of my faves :) Hope you like them!
:)C


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Week by Week picture pages.

My sister, Yvette, has been very encouraging in her wish for me to do some scrapping pages of Peabody and I thank you Yvette for the motivation cos I know it's really important but it is so much easier when you have someone reminding you! I am really happy with the pages I have done so far, 2 more of which you get the delight of seeing today :) {high five!}
Remember the week by week pics of my tummy that Will has been taking for me? Well, I have decided to scrap them, 3 weeks to a page, with a little snippet of info from each week with the pic! I got the info by trawling back through my Facebook account to see what I had updated my status as (a super idea if I might say so myself cos I thought of it) and also what I had emailed to family and what I had written down. I got heaps of good info that I might have otherwise forgotten about, so facebook is obviously a good Peabody "diary" for me! It might bore all my friends to death but I like posting updates about Peabody! {giggles!} At first I wanted to keep the pages in quite neutral colours but seeing as I have way more pink papers than any other colour, that idea kinda went out the window. I have tried to use a mix of colours in my embellishments though, so that it doesn't look too girly if Peabody turns out to be a boy and these pages need to go in his album! Thanks to Yvette for the gorgeous hand-dyed doily pieces she sent me for my birthday! I {heart} them! I have already used them on 3 pages! These pages might help me to get through my massive stash of tags and journalling spots too! LOL! But I love journalling spots! Its also nice to get them out of the stash and on to a page though {slapping hand to prevent further hoarding!}. And YAY to using a whole slab of green sticky fozz felt too! {blowing on hooter!}
Hope you're having a good weekend!
:) C

The beginnings of the nursery....

Hey y'all!
It's HOT! Yes, its another one of those nights at Hotel d'Lam where I was paralysed by the heat and it's still 10:45pm! Will just turned the air con on cos I couldn't stand it any more and I was finally able to get up and sort some washing out cos I'd cooled down a bit. It's amazing how much I can't stand the heat any more, now that I have the little incubator inside! I mustn't be the only one cos tonight when we drove through Auburn we saw 4 (yes, count them... 4!) pregnant women in one short block out for a walk cos obviously it was too hot inside their houses too! {giggles}. No wonder Auburn has the highest baby birth rate in the state!
Last weekend we finished the first baby thing to make it's way upstairs to the nursery corner of our room... the baby change table. Here I am at Best Price Furniture at Manly where we bought it. I wanted a piece of furniture that could "grow" with Peabody, and wouldn't always look like a baby change table and when I saw these drawers I fell in love! They are the same height as the "proper" baby change tables they had at the shop and it is a good height for me (when I fake practiced changing a baby) and I love it's little "legs" so I am uber happy {happy dance!} It was $150 less to get it in raw rather than already painted white so we did the leg work (or rather, arm work seeing as it was painting) and painted it ourselves for the bargain price of $40 for paint and brushes from Bunnings, and we've got extra white paint if it needs a touch up. Plus it was a special thing for Will and I to do together to start preparing for Peabody! How exciting!
Now at Hotel d'Lam I very quickly learnt that it is most important to do all your day to day tasks (and some special ones too) in your pyjamas. Like when Will had to shovel 2 tonnes of dirt from the front of their house to fill the hole in the backyard and he did most of it in his funky monkey flannelette pyjama pants. Needless to say they didn't last the journey... But anyway, you'll have to understand I am merely "fitting in" by painting in my PJ's! {snickering}.
So the drawers started out raw, we gave them 2 coats of white, and an extra coat on the top work surface for durability and... voila! A gorgeous white timber baby change table. Hooray {cheering!}. Doesn't Will look proud presenting it in his Pyjamas (see, another milestone made while wearing PJ's!)
And then I had the awesome fun task of filling it with baby things! I wanted to put the Nappy bag and baby sling away so they got the joy of being first things in the drawers! It was so much fun to sort out all the tiny baby clothes (both girls and boys cos we don't know which one!) into the drawers and I have a whole drawer of tiny shoes! Oh I can't wait for the real Peabody to come!
:) C

Does this blogging from iPhone thing work?

Hi y'all!
I'm trying out this new blogging tool I got for my iPhone! Is it working? I hope so :) I'm hoping to do some mobile blogging once Peabody is here, so I don't have to always make time to sit at the computer! Here's what I'm up to today... Just sat down at my desk to do a little scrappin


while Will sleeps in a bit cos he finished at 5:30am! Poor Willy!
:) C

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26 Weeks!

Oh WOW, 26 weeks along?! I just caught a glimpse of my baby counter on this page and I realise it says I only have 97 days to go! Isn't that totally crazy?! Where has this time gone??????? Less than 100 days? Double wow!
We have really started preparing things for Peabody now. We picked up our pram (and free high-chair- ask me about it when you see me, it's a long story) last week and I also came home with some Nappies from the BigW baby week sale! How exciting to be buying nappies! LOL! Will and I also spent 2 days last week painting our baby change table/drawers that we got for a bargain at Manly. I will post more about that later... And today we booked in for antenatal classes and breastfeeding classes at the hospital in April. Its all coming together now! So exciting! I still haven't read any books... I must get on to that!
:) C

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope you got a Valentine's from your Valentine! I did {kisses Willy!} Will surprised me at lunch today with a bunch of roses. It was so sweet! He had them hidden behind his back and I thought the look on his face was pain and he was rubbing his back, but he was just trying to get the flowers all the way around his back without me seeing them til he was up close! LOL! I made Will this Valentine's card this morning (he was still sleeping cos he's working 4pm-4am for the next 4 days! Poor Willy!) I used a new set from Stampin Up's current Mini Catalogue. It's called Love something, but seeing as I'm upstairs and the set and mini catalogue are downstairs you'll have to look it up if you want more info (sorry, but stairs are tiring at 1:45am!) Those Flamingo's are just the sweetest! They, along with the tree with heart shaped leaves, which I stamped on the inside, are the reason why I bought that set, I love them {heart!}
As we were both working tonight we dolled ourselves up and had our Valentine's Dinner last night, and went to "Prague" at Pott's Point which is a Czech Restaurant. I had Pork Knuckle and Will had Pork Neck with sauerkraut (which he doesn't like so I helped him with that!) and a pork sausage. It's delicious food and a really different place for us to go. It was lovely! After we had eaten dinner and we were on our way back to the car we passed a garden that had some paintings dumped in between the plants. Now Will has been after a painting for a while, checking out etsy, markets and any op shops we pass but as yet hadn't found anything that he likes. And yet there, amongst the bushes and dirt, in the misty rain, stood a painting that was worthy of bringing home. Will dived into the garden and emerged with a giant grin and this painting.... Which is actually quite cool! We quickly returned to our car, giggling at Will's "garden art". Will did say he was a little disappointed that it doesn't have the signature of the painter on it, (yet he wasn't disappointed that he had to scratch off a couple of clumps of dirt before he hung it- LOL!) But I'm pretty sure he's quite proud of his Valentine's find!
I hope you had a great Valentine's Day too!
:) C

Peabody Pages!

Yes, I have done some, it's just taken me forever to post them! Here are some scrap pages on Peabody! Yay {clapping hands and doing a happy dance around the room}. This first page is about Willy and Peabody, and these pics were taken about 6 weeks ago now so my tummy is no-where near as big as it is now! It is just so sweet how Will kisses my tummy goodnight every night, right after he rubs the Apricot Oil on (which has done it's job so far, I haven't gotten any stretch marks yet!) Will is the one who has read all the pregnancy books and tells me what things are going to happen next (I probably should get a look at some books myself seeing as the date is getting closer and closer and I haven't read anything yet!), he reminds me to take a new pic of my belly every Monday and he loves to ask me, any time I eat dairy, if it's pasteurised or not {which can get quite annoying, but I know he does it out of love and care}! I am planning on putting all of these pages into Peabody's album once he/she's born so we can look back and see the whole journey. Wont that be fun?!
And the second page is of the (dodgy) pics we got at our 20 week Ultrasound. The pics don't actually look as bad now that they are on a scrap page! I just LOVE those little feet {swoon}. I hope we get some good shots like this on Sunday! I get butterflies wondering if Peabody is going to be a boy or a girl, it's so exciting!
One of the girls at work told me she dreamt Peabody was a boy last night. I think I have been told more often that people think it's a boy than a girl. I'm wondering if that's because most of the people at work who have an opinion are from an Asian background and it's always luckier (in their culture) if you have a boy first. We'll see what Peabody is once May rolls around!
:) C

25 Weeks!

Hi Y'all!
Peabody and I are 25 weeks along our journey together :) So far so good! Will and I are really looking forward to the 3D ultrasound this Sunday! It will be awesome to get a good look at Peabody!
Now I am having to put away lots of my normal clothes, even the baggy non-maternity clothes are beginning to be too tight across my belly! It's so exciting to see it get bigger and bigger every week! Did I mention I am one of 8 girls in my department to be pregnant or have already had a baby in the last 12 months? What a record!! There was only 2 in the 6 years I've worked at the lab before that! There is something in the water {giggles}! One of the ladies in another department (not counted in our 8) is pregnant with her second child and she told us her age yesterday... she's 48 this year! WOW! She's Asian so I'm blaming their strong genes for her late baby making ability :) She said she admired my energy, so I guess it puts it in perspective for me, when I'm tired no doubt she's tireder!
:) C

My Birthday Day in Melbourne

Hi Y'all!
So I've been absent in the heat, its just too hot to sit at the computer in 40 degree heat with a little incubator inside you! I have been just vegging on the lounge with the fan pointed straight on me! Thank goodness we had a cool change last night and we could all sleep well. I like hot weather, but I don't like it when it is stinking hard-to-breathe hot, especially when you're trying to sleep!! When I checked the weather Saturday night at 11:30pm my phone said it was still 39ºC! That is unbelieveable!!
For my birthday breakfast in Melbourne I wanted to find a "Melbourne-type" cafe to eat at, and I found it at Cafe Issus off Little Collins St (near Degraves St). Melbourne CBD is full of these cool little alley ways with dark, tight packed, funky cafes, very different to the usual Sydney cafes which sprawl out onto the footpath from bright interiors. This is where I had the awesome French Breakfast from the previous post. Highly recommended!!
My birthday was our last full day in Melbourne so we had already done lots of tram-riding, CBD shopping, we'd been to St Kilda and Chapel St, we went to Fitzroy after breakfast, so all that was left was to go to Docklands (and we were also on the lookout for somewhere for dinner). And what should we find at Docklands but Costco!! You know I have been so excited to watch the Costco be built opposite my usual Spotlight at Lidcombe, (still a few months off completion- boo!) so to actually get inside and see what it's all about had me very (unashamedly) excited! LOL! {giggles} Who would get excited about visiting a bulk-buy supermarket on their birthday? Me. Yep. Loved it. How do you like this giant bottle of Salsa?! Would you like a car-oil can sized bottle of BBQ sauce? Look no further! How about an industrial sized jar of Mayonnaise? I know where to find it :) It was so much fun wandering around seeing what they had. We couldn't buy anything cos it's a member-only shopping establishment but we could peruse the aisles with our visitor passes. They have everything from TV's to alcohol, nappies, outdoor furniture, frozen food (including pre-made frankfurts wrapped in pastry that you just chuck in the oven), Kitchenaids (yep!), giant slabs of cheese and butter (3Kg patty!) and huge Mud cakes and apple pies (only $20, bargain!) Anywho, it was awesome and a highlight of my birthday. LOL!
After checking out the restaurants we returned to Degraves St in the CBD to another funky Melbourne-style cafe for lunch :) Look at how packed in the tables are! The atmosphere here was soooo coool! We shared a delicious wood-fired Pizza and kept our tummys open for our dinner back at Docklands at the Lounge Hotel. How beautiful and glass-like is the water at Docklands! It was weird getting used to the sun setting so late in Melbourne too, I forgot that it was so much further West than Sydney, cos the sun didn't finish setting til after 9pm! It meant that while we ate our dinner we were able to watch all the lights come on at the CBD, it was lovely! And I ate ribs. YUM! I am such a carnivore. Poor Peabody had to shift over to one side to fit all the ribs in. LOL!
Once back at our hotel a little while later I finished off the giant piece of delicious Chocolate Nougat cake I had bought at Seasons Providores in Lygon St. It made for a beautiful birthday cake!!
So overall, we had a great time in Melbourne, despite the heat and cankles (where your calf meets your ankle due to swelling! ew!)! It was fun and great to get away from Sydney for a couple of days with Willy! We certainly enjoyed the trams and the food!
:) C

Birthday mini-break to Melbourne!

Hi y'all!
We're back from my Birthday mini-break to Melbourne and we had a great time! We spent 3 full days exploring Victoria's capital, neither of us had been there before too which made it extra special! My favourite things were having breakfasts in the small alley cafe's and riding the trams, trams are so much fun! The new ones are so smooth and cool, I wish we had trams in Sydney, they were awesome!
Some pics are taken with my new iphone so they are a little grainy, but we had fun taking pics on our phones and uploading them to facebook straight away! I also downloaded an awesome app for my iphone called Tram Tracker, so if you have an iphone and you're visiting Melbourne (or live there!) you should definitely get it, it made catching the trams so easy!
This first pic is my delicious French Breakfast at Cafe Issus near Degraves St. It was French Toast with bacon and 2 tiny delicious breakfast sausages, then all covered in maple syrup. OOoooohhhh yeahhhhhhh!! {drool} Sooooo gooood! (Did I emphasise that enough?) Another place you have to try in Melb is Lord of the Fries, if you like Fries that is. They are a totally vegetarian take away (Will was not so impressed by the fake beef patty on the burger) but their chips are awesome! You can choose from about 12 different sauces and we got Indian, which was a mild spiced mayo and French-Canadian which was cheese and gravy. Oh they were so good!! Ok, we didn't just eat in Melbourne (though by the pics I'll post up you may be forgiven for thinking otherwise). We did some shopping, mainly looking really, cos it was 40ºC on Sunday and 35ºC on Monday so they were not good days for shopping! Also my Peabody tummy doesn't fit under too many normal clothes at the moment! They have some pretty cool street art in Melbourne, like this giant clam handbag and cool wooden carved wombat! I do like a good bit of street art! And we saw some street performers doing hip-hop, popping, beat boxers, spray can artists and more. It's such a vibrant city!
So I'll do a separate post for my actual birthday day in Melbourne but until then... here are some more pics for you to enjoy!
:) C

24 Weeks!

Here I am, 24 weeks along! Had an antenatal appointment this morning, all is going well. I will have fortnightly ultrasounds at Auburn hospital, supposedly until Peabody is born. I am hoping they are better than my last experience at Ultrascan, which you will remember as being total crap! It doesn't matter anyway cos we booked in for our "A Peek of U" 3D/4D Ultrasound that I got off my family for my birthday {cheering}! We're going for that on Feb 13, and I am so so so excited {happy dancing around the room}! Finally someone who will take time doing the Ultrasound and actually care about what the parents think about wanting to see the baby! I know the hospitals/medical ultrasound are only concerned about the size and wellbeing of the baby, but I want to see too! And we'll get some pics to bring home and a CD/DVD so I hope Peabody performs and gives us some good pics!
Oh I am suffering from some pretty hideous cankles yesterday and today. You know cankles- where your calf meets your ankle and they are so swollen that there is barely any shape? That's me. Gross! After spending 4 days walking around Melbourne in 40ºC heat my feet were like stringed ham in my sandals! Ew! Then we caught the train home from the airport yesterday and it was like at least 45ºC in that rolling tin can with no air con and windows that barely open. I nearly died. Luckily Will carried my bag home from the station (cos we had to walk) {sigh}. Sometimes I forget pregnant women aren't supposed to hang out in heat and do excessive things like walk around all day in the heat! They are looking a bit better now that I've been resting up today!
:) C