December Daily 2012

Hi y'all!


Seeing as it's the last day of the year, I should post up my December Daily album pics! Where has this year gone? {searching out the window for the disappearing months!}

I very much enjoyed making my December Daily album again this year! (You can see last year's album posts HERE.) I gathered up a collection of odd shaped Christmas-themed pages, using a Kaisercraft acrylic 4 page album I got on sale at Spotlight for $5 as the foundation. I like how hap-hazard it looks when it's all together! And I feel a lot "free-er" scrapping it, cos it's all different sizes with no constraints to stick in a certain size or layout. It's like scrapbooking relaxation therapy. LOL! {giggles}

This year the main colours in the album were Red, Lime Green and Blue.I love the acrylic pages cos you can see through to the pages underneath pages!

 Day 1: IT was a super busy day for us! We started out at Luddenham with Granny, Papa, Aunty Alicia, Xander, Aunty Fliss, Cooper & Sienna, riding the miniature Thomas trains. Jaimeson had a BALL! He loved it sooo much, and Papa made us a DVD of the day and he watches it all the time. Jai is a little Thomas obsessed these days!
Here are some extra pics from the day, for you Mum!

Then that night Will and I had our work's "Cirque de Sonique" circus themed Christmas Party at Convention Centre in the City. It was an awesome night! About 70% of the guests were dressed in theme, I even saw 2 people dressed as Circus tents using hula hoops on their shoulders and a pointed roof that sat atop their head. What an uncomfy costume! Though, some of the costumes were slightly disturbing- like lots of 50+ women in fishnets. Whoa! {shocked look on face!}

Here I am in my outfit!

My heels make me a little bit taller than Willy! LOL!
Then on to.....

Day 2: Putting up the Christmas tree! This year the tree only has unbreakable ornaments on it! I think that might be the way for the next few years actually! Though Jaimeson was really good, and only pulled off 2 decorations which I had put down low for him to look at- a photo bauble with Daddy and Jai and Mummy and Jai in it (so he was interested in the pics) and some train decorations from Granny, which he loved to carry all around the house cos he's train obsessed! Don't you love the little "Jolly" square frame sticker on the right page? I love it! IT's Studio Calico, it was a pain to get the letters off the backing sheet though, but I think it's so cute!
Did you do December Daily this year?
:) C

Merry Christmas Baby!

Hi y'all!
I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and got to celebrate with your loved ones!
We had a fantastic Christmas, though it was super cold- only 17.5ºC (said Dad's new Weather Station he got for Christmas!) and a bit drizzly so we had to be inside all day. It was still lots of fun though, and the kids all played together really well, and the adults enjoyed our delicious Christmas lunch wedged inside beside the Christmas Tree.
Prepare for the photo onslaught!

So this was Jaimeson’s first Christmas where he was actually more interested with what was inside the present, rather than just the paper and ribbon! 

Being 19 Months old, we knew he was going to love all the toys and books he was getting, and we weren’t disappointed! He learnt pretty quick how to rip the paper back from the exciting thing inside! And there was lots of “ooooowwhh!” as his response when he opened something fun!

He LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine, he loves to watch it on TV, to play with his Thomas trains from the Op Shop (Yep! LOL!), and he really loves when we see trains in real life on our afternoon walks around the neighbourhood. So he just loved his pull-back James from Granny and Papa, his Talking Thomas from Aunty Fliss and his Sir Handel and carriages from Willy and I. He carried around all 3 in his hands all day! LOL!

Here he is, so excited, to be opening the Talking Thomas!

And holding James while opening other fun presents!

Books with sounds are always a winner, and draw a curious audience.

And when your own presents are finished, it's perfectly acceptable to find someone else who will let you open theirs. Like Daddy.

And I was very spoilt with vintage things from Willy and Jaimeson again! Like these 3 Agee Pyrex bowls which are in absolute mint condition! Love them! And some more retro Staffordshire cups and saucers.
Next stop.....

Christmas Food! Like these Gingerbread flavoured and shaped Peeps Marshmallows I got at Target USA. So cute!

And here is Christmas lunch! A traditional fare. I {HEART} our Traditional Baked lunch! Yum Yum!! This year we had baked Lamb, Pork and Chicken. Awesomeness!

You know those one-size-fits-all paper Christmas hats from inside the Bon Bons? Yeah, they don't fit all heads!

So we had a wonderful Christmas with our little Santa Toddler!

Or was he a Reindeer?

And cos I know you're curious, and like to see what we got, here is my annual Photo-of-Jaimeson-with-gifts.

And here are my presents! So Spoilt!
I hope you had a fantastic Christmas too!
:) C

An exciting new Scrapbooking Project for 2013!

So for next year I've decided to try it.. to do it... to jump in and just have a crack.... I'm gonna do a Project Life album! {High Five!}
Have you heard of Project Life? It started out as a simplified way to Scrapbook, with divided page protectors that you can just slip in your 4x6 pics and some 3x4 journalling cards, and voila! It's all done! Becky Higgins is the brains behind it (remember her? Yeah, you probably bought a few of her books years ago!) and her website tells you heaps more about it. You can check it out here. But the system has evolved into a cool way to show your everyday life, using some cool products and (hopefully) quicker than doing a whole LO for each event.
I'm excited because it means I'll be scrapping a week at a time, lots of the menial everyday things, as well as the big events! I'm excited to think about looking back at it over the year and seeing all the little things that made up our day to day life!
I have a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to Project Life! Go check it out to see what I'm really talking about, there is a whole new world of scrapping out there!
You can buy complete easy kits for it, with precut cards that slip right in the page protectors, but I'm gonna start out using up my stash and with some free cards I downloaded on the net. Luckily I made the decision to try PL before we went to Hawaii, cos I was able to buy some We R Memory Keepers divided page protectors from Target for it, and in my latest 2peas order I got some Echo Park papers to use in the pockets (ok, I couldn't help myself from buying a few new dedicated products!) as well as some more page protectors. I'm so excited to get started! {clapping hands!}
The only thing I have to focus on is getting each week done, and not getting too far behind! Lots of the blogs that I've been reading up on for inspiration, have mentioned how everyone gets behind, and just do as much as you can. I have still been taking a pic a day for my Project 365, I just haven't been posting them on here. Maybe I should get back to posting them again, or you'll think I never stick to a project! LOL!
Wish me luck!
Are you doing Project Life in 2013? Come join me! Apparently American Crafts will begin selling some of the official PL products next Autumn, which hopefully means Spotlight will pick up the products too! That will be awesome if we can just pop down the road and buy them!

In the mean time, Merry Christmas from this little gorgeous Santa!
:) C

A little bit of shopping!

To say we (mostly I) did a little bit of shopping in Hawaii is massive a understatement! Our bags were JAM PACKED full, we could not fit a single extra item in any of our bags! I pity the American TSA officers who opened my suitcase full of food and had to fit it all back in again! (I know they opened it cos they put a courtesy note in it. They didn't take anything though!)

By far, the place I spent the most amount of money was Target USA.
I just put everything I saw that I wanted into the trolley. It was very luxurious, but I knew I had saved the money for this purpose, and shopping in Hawaii had been a big motivator for me to be back at work! So I had fun spending it all! When we got to the checkout, it took the guy about 15 mins to put it all through! LOL!

Lets just say, it was a few hundred dollars worth!

The other place we spent a bit of dosh was at the Waikele Factory Outlet Centre. We laden up Jaimeson's pram with all our goodies! Yes, there's a baby under there somewhere!!

Here are all the kids stuff I bought on the trip. Lots of size 2 winter things, cos winter clothes were in all the stores (even though it's tropical in Hawaii and they don't get winter!) There are also some presents for my nieces and nephews in this pile :)

I got 7 pairs of shoes for about $200! Including 2 pairs of Nine West boots! You pay almost $200 for one pair of Nine West boots here, so I bought a pair of boots and got 6 free pairs of shoes {giggles!}

And here are all of Jai's shoes :) Goldfish Vans in size 5, then Converse in size 6,7,8 & 9! You can't pass it up when they are $15 and under!! And some Moose slippers :)

And finally, all my Scrapbooking stuff!!!!!!!! I had lots of fun gathering stuff at Scrapbook Clubhouse in Aiea and Target, and I have come back with lot of cool stuff to renew my stash with! I've got my Mojo back! YAY!
So, farewell Hawaii! We had an awesome trip, and I can't wait to go back again! Someday ....... :) {smiles}
:) C

Food, Glorious Food!

Hey! Yeah, I'm still here. Isn't December just the craziest month? Soooo busy! {watching the clock hands fly around!}
I hope you're not hungry, cos I've still got more food pics from Hawaii to post!

HOw about a tiny Hot Dog on a Stick? Well, it was really a cheese dog on a stick, with melted cheese core covered in batter {licking lips!}

When we hired the car and drove to the Dole Plantation, we went on a little further to the North Shore for lunch. We had lunch at Kono's, Will had a pulled pork plate and I had a pulled pork burrito. Did I mention pulled pork is the bomb? SO AWESOME!

On our second day with the car we went to Whole Foods in Kailua. I love Whole Food's hot food and salad bar, and this was where we had our Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner (for lunch!) You pay by the pound, and the boxes cost us about $13 each, but that's not bad for a lunch box packed with turkey, cranberries, mashed potato, sweet potato bake, pasta salad, egg salad, nachos, fried tortillas and more! YUMMO!

Here is my half-eaten lunch box. Looks appealing doesn't it? {giggles!} But it was so yum!

The family that Jamba Juice together, stay together!

Hard Rock Cafe.... YUM!! I had a hickory beef burger with fried onions on top, super yum!

Here we are at Cheesecake Factory! When we went in 2010 and Xander was only 6 months, as soon as we sat down the waitress said "Bread and Bananas for the little one?!" what fantastic customer service! So when we were taking Jai we were excited to see if they would offer it to us too, and they did! YAY!! They bring is straight up too, to help distract the little ones while you wait for your meals.

And of course, we had to have Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!! I don't even like cheesecake generally, but there is something about Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake that always sways me! MAybe it's the fact that you can have a Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake? Yep, it was awesome!

YUM!
Are you hungry now? LOL!
:) C

A little bit of Christmas..

Hi y'all!
More pics from Hawaii, YAY!! {party poppers going off!}
If you've ever been overseas at Christmas time, you'll realise that in Australia we don't really "do" Christmas much at all! Christmas is not all about the cartoony Santa that seems to be on everything in Australia, it's about relaxing family time, giving, eating, and above all, Jesus's birth. I love Christmas, I love to be surrounded by beautiful decorations, singable Christmas songs, delicious festive foods, all the things that remind me of this beautiful time of year... and for some reason, America does all that the best! When was the last time you heard a Christmas song on Nova? Yeah, like never. Get in the spirit Australia! I think we should take a leaf out of America's book.. as follows...

This is my Egg Nog Latte from Starbucks. Firstly, the printed paper cuff was so cute!

Then I realised the cup itself was also printed! I alternated between an elf and a snowman for my Egg Nog Latte, Gingerbread Latte and Pumpkin Pie Spice Latte. {licking lips}. Wish they had those flavoured coffees at Gloria Jeans!

Here is the inside of Starbucks, their "Rekindle the Season" theme carried through the store too. So cute!

Friendly Christmas Rabbit.

And then there's the food in Starbucks, to go with your delicious Egg Nog Latte (and it totally was delicious too!) How about a Salted Caramel Cake Pop? Don't mind if I do! Lucky I found this on my last day or I would have had to have one every single day & would have ended up in a Diabetic Coma. This cake pop was fantastic! Soooo yummy. I've never had Salted Caramel before. Trust me, if someone offers you Salted Caramal, take it and run and hide somewhere quiet so you can devour it all on your own. Awesome stuff. They also had Peppermint ones, but who likes to eat toothpaste {screwing up face} Yuck!

Then there was the trees. Big trees in public spaces. They love them. This one was at the Royal Hawaiian Centre. And had a few giant gifts to go with it.

And the gorgeous white tree inside the gorgeous Moana Surfrider. (Look, I have a Gingerbread Latte again!)

I seem to have misplaced my giant Nutcracker, have you seen it? Outside the Queen Kapiolani by any chance?

And just to make sure we remember it's Hawaii, Ala Moana Centre had Hawaiian elves in thongs and Hawaiian shirts! So cool!
Come on Australia, next year I'd like to see Egg Nog Lattes and Christmas Carols on the radio! Please!!
:) C