We're off to Hawaii!!

Guess where we're heading to tonight??

HAWAII!!!!

YAY!! I am so so so so so excited!! We love Hawaii, and it is such a family friendly place, it's easy to get around and we love the shopping and the food! And the beaches, of course! 

We were last there in November 2012, when Jaimeson was 18 months old. He had a great time and we loved going there as a family. I look forward to going as a slightly bigger family now! We are staying 4 nights at Aulani Disney Hotel, and then 6 nights in Waikiki. I am SO looking forward to the Disney hotel, their facilities look amazing and I love everything Disney! I think Jaimeson will really love it too! YAY!!

 

Jaimeson is a good traveller, and I hope Flynn proves himself to be a good traveller too! He's usually a calm, flexible and patient baby, so I hope he travels well too :)

Catch up with you soon!

Follow me on Instagram if you want to catch up on our holiday in real time! I love instagram! Find me under "thehoursbetween"

Aloha!
:)C

My little man, Flinders.

Hi y'all!

I'm finally sitting at my computer with all the photos on it, which means I can do a post about Flinders!!
Remember, almost 5 months ago, I had a baby? Yep, it's been 5 months of joy and love with this little guy, and now I can't imagine our lives without him! He has slotted in so nicely to Lam family life, and I have settled into being a Mum of a newborn a lot easier second time around. I think it's cos I was already used to broken sleep, stinky poops, and a little person clinging on to you all day. LOL!
Flynn is very patient, flexible, calm, he brings such joy to our lives! I love that you can see his face light up when he spots Jaimeson across the room. You can see they are brothers who love each other so much! I hope they always stay that way!

Here are some recent pics of our newest little (8kg when we weighed him last week!!) Lam!

Chewing... he does this alllllll day. I thought it looked like he had a tooth coming through, but after 2 weeks he's still munching on everything that comes within 1cm of his mouth and those little chomping gums are tough! No tooth yet.

He loves playing under his playmat. And he's so patient, he'll play under there for a good 20mins while I feed Jaimeson or get our lunches/dinners together. His favourite toys are the giraffe and the racoon hanging from the gym. He smiles and talks to them, with such a happy face!

 Other fave toys are the roly clown and roly penguin beside him in this pic. Check out that happy happy face!

 He actually likes the Bumbo, which is something Jaimeson HATED! I love that it gives him another view of us all, and he can sit up on the bench to watch us cooking! Haha, I love his crazy expression here, it makes me laugh!

 What a beautiful boy :) Oh my heart warms just looking at that sweet face! If you lay down beside him that hand always reaches out to you, trying to touch your face. {hearts rising from head}

Don't you love a sleeping baby? Yep, me too! He's just gorgeous!

 And he fits in quite nicely to this crazy family!! What a bunch of weirdos he must think we are. Hahahahaha!! {belly laugh!}

I'll give Flinders a big hug from you!
:) C

Card lovin'

Some more cards that I whipped up at the end of last year, that I loved but never got the chance to blog about!

 This one was Felicity's birthday card. I used my Hexagon punch from Stampin Up to punch out different coloured scraps of aqua Patterned Paper and I love it!! The sweet little owl juuuuuusssstttt fit inside the hexagon, so he had to be included too!

 Next I broke out my hexagon embossing folder (also from SU) and thought I'd mix it up a bit by cutting along the embossed line to make an interesting edge. I'm so happy with it! I had this really sweet red patterned paper with a very baroque image on it, and I had no idea how to use it so you could still see the image. Well, when I mounted it behind the hexagon panel, it was perfect! I added the sentiment, some ribbon and a paper flower and voila!

 And cos it was so good, I made another one, just slightly different {wink!}

 I Love Hot Air Balloons! Do you? I'm loving this set from SU, and it goes so perfectly with the tiny Memory Box cloud dies I bought! Don't they cut such cute little clouds?! I embossed a piece of grey card with my chevron embossing folder and this card has to be one of my faves!

 Here's one that I threw together using all the scraps left over on my desk. I love when these cards practically make themselves! Cos I pick up all the bits, throw them down and just tweak the placement a little and I love it! The colour combo on these 2 cards- grey, aqua & yellow is gorgeous too, you can't go wrong!

 And for a totally different colour scheme I went with pale pink and aqua for these next 2 cards. I embossed 3/4 of the pink card so the top of the card would be patterned but the bottom 1/4 would be plain so you can see the pattern on the paper. Me muchos likey! It's quite interesting!

 And I made another one, similar. Hehe.

 Here's another fave card (have I said that about all the cards today?? {giggles}. The background paper is sooooo cool! Its from a pad of 12x12 paper, maybe even an Aldi one. Love it! I used some hexagon embossed aqua card, silver glitter washi tape and a punched shape for the sentiment. I love the colours and the patterns and the texture on this card!

So again, I made another one. {smiles}. This colour scheme is perfect for a modern wedding card, but for birthdays, babies, thanks, anything!
Have you been making cards lately?
Thanks for dropping by!
:) C

Project Life, Weeks 35 & 36

Hi y'all!
Its hot here, stinkin' hot. Like melt your ice cream in 5 seconds flat hot. And it's only 30ºC. Imagine how much I complained when it was 40ºC! {belly laugh... while sweating}.
Time for some Project Life!
Week 35: LHS
Unexpected Breakfast date cos Marg locked her keys in the car at a local shopping centre so we had to take the spares and rescue her! Thankfully there was a yummy café open so we had breakfast out! {high five!}
A dinner shot- it's fun to see what we were eating in what season :)
A funny little story about how Jaimeson will walk along the drain cover after his Swimming Lesson and when he gets to the end (which is where he is in this pic) he says "stuck Daddy!" and won't move on. LOL! What a funny little chap; Potty training; A visit from Granny & Papa; Buying a new pram and car seat for Lentil (who turned out to be Flynn {wink}!) Thankfully I have a Ford Mondeo which has a Serial-killer boot, you know, big enough to stash a few bodies in {giggles, reservedly} so we could fit it all in in one go.

Week 35: RHS
Having an Ultrasound- what a tummy at 31 weeks!; a visit to Blaxland Riverside Park with Felicity, Alicia and the crew; a little story about an amazing Op Shop find- check out my gorgeous Kookaburra vase I bought for $3. It's worth about $1000. Yep, that's the correct number of 0's! One thousand! It's a Grace Seccombe vase from about the 1920s I think, totally collectable, but just so gorgeous with that little Kookaburra. I couldn't believe it was worth so much when I did the research! {belly bump!} I joked it's Jaimeson's College Fund! See Op Shopping does pay off! Hey look, Father's Day, talk about being behind in posting! LOL!
Week 36: LHS
Some sweet Jaimeson love for Lentil!; Jaimeson changing the car tyre for Daddy. This is why you have Children right? LOL!; we were lucky to be able to go to Reptile day at Felicity's playgroup! Cool!; Jaimeson's poor swollen eye from a Mozzie bite! Poor little guy gets quite a bad reaction whenever he gets bitten & swells right up, which we found out after this bite! Ouchie! Not a great condition to have when you live in Australia. {giggles}.

Week 36: RHS
Look at this gorgeous hand crochet rug I got for Lentil/Flynn at the Auburn Hospital Auxiliary after my antenatal visit. I love the colours- turquoise and white- gorgeous!; Jaimeson drawing with Uncle Vincent; Big 32 week tummy!; Banana Bread Pancakes from Pintrest- so very good! Must be time I made these again!; Voting, ugh Tony Abbot, who voted for him?? Not me! {shaking head}. This campaign "If he wins, you lose" was my favourite of the election campaigns, so I kept one of the 6 million flyers that came in our mailbox to include here. It's folded over so you can still read the whole lot if you take it out of the pocket. A family lunch with Will's family at Vince & Nat's new (now old, cos they've moved back with us again, lol!) place.
Thanks for dropping by to catch up on my PL with me!
Hope you have a super week!
:) C

Project Life, Weeks 33 & 34

Hi Y'all!
And yet another post, I'm on a roll!
Catching up with posting my Project Life 2013 pages, so here are some more!
Week 33, LHS:
The week includes a list of Jaimeson's favourite books at the time, which is awesome to look back on, cos he has different faves now! That's another awesome reason to love PL, it's a diary of my year, without having kept a silly diary (I get like 2 pages into the year and never write in a diary again, yet I managed a whole year of PL!) There is also an Op Shop Adventure, Granny & Papa calling in on our playgroup and some texted pics from Will of Jaimeson at swimming, cos he has lessons on a Wednesday when I'm at work. I love including the pics Will texts to me, cos it's showing life from his perspective too!
Week 33, RHS: Something we all have to do, every year.... Tax Time! I snuck a pic of our accountant while he was crunching the numbers. Hehe! Then we always celebrate not owing extra tax by going out to lunch in the city afterwards. {High Five!}
My growing baby bump; another texted selfie shot from Will for the album; hanging out with cousins, watering their garden & yum cha with Ye Ye. Yum!
I also want to include more of the pretty filler cards I seem to hoard in my stash, like this "hello there!" card by Echo Park. Me likey!
Week 34, LHS.
Top left pic is one of my favourites of Jaimeson, oh he's a gorgeous boy! And that was my favourite whale applique jumper that hes sadly grown out of. Can't wait to do some more shopping for gorgeous clothes in Hawaii in 3.5 weeks! YAY!! (Did I mention we're going to Hawaii? Yep, all 4 of us, for 10 days. I am so so excited!)
Other pics this week: playgroup, coffee date with my boys & a photo bomb by Willy!; growing baby bump; putting in my maternity leave form at work! {belly bump!}I hand sewed the red heart onto the turtle card, I love how it turned out!; lunch date with my boys at New Star Kebabs in Auburn. Yum, kebabily good!
Week 34, RHS
Jaimeson's newest quirk- sleeping with his blanket pulled up over his head!, playing hide & seek in our washing basket!; Jaimeson's first check up at the dentist! He did so well, was calm and did what the dentist asked, such a good boy!; is your sugar sprinkle collection as big as mine? I hope so, I love them and I love having a wide range of gorgeous coloured sugar yummies to decorate my cupcakes and cakes! A couple of food shots: Mini loaves and Pyrex in action! And a typical Sunday in our lives, Church in the morning, followed by grocery shopping.
That's our life! Hope you've enjoyed another fortnight of it!
:) C

New cards!

Lookie here! I'm posting twice in one month {gasp!} Don't fall of your chair! {giggles!}
Since having Flinders, and since Jaimeson gave up his day sleep (I nearly said since Will gave up his day sleep.... hahahaha! He wishes he got a day sleep!) I have had to be more efficient with my time, and do what I can when I can. Lately I have been getting to have some creative time once the boys have gone to sleep at night, so that means after 8pm. But after being up once overnight for a feed, then having my day start at 6 or 6:30am, means my creative juices aren't flowing so well by that time of night! I have mainly been doing Project Life, cos it's like a double page spread of little projects. My poor little card box is feeling very neglected! I can almost fit a closed fist in the box now, and usually they are jammed so tight in I can hardly fit any more!
So these last 2 weeks I've been trying to channel my nightly, drained brain's last ounces of creativity into some cards, and I'm happy to say it's been working quite well! Also, Will kindly distracted both the boys for an hour and a half on Sunday, so I got to have some crafting time {hugs Willy!}.
I just realized there's a bit of pink here, maybe that's to balance all the boy stuff that's going on in my life at the moment. LOL!
Baby Cards. Can't get enough of them. Can't make enough of them! It seems people are always having babies {tongue in cheek!} and these cards are always running thin in my card box.
I am still loving bunting banners, it's such a sweet way to show off a few patterned papers on one card, use up all your scraps, and get a bit of sewing on a card too! The gorgeous elephant is from Stampin Up & so is the sentiment.
Then I went ahead and made the same card in a different colour-way. Yeah for time management! Two cards are quicker than one! And it's not like people get together for a chat and are comparing my creativity, like "Oh look, she made us the same card, only in different colours!" LOL! As if!
Then I had this leftover piece of printed scalloped paper after I made an envelope using my new WRMK Envelope Punch Board (love it!) {hugging punch board quietly in the corner}, so I decided to try to use it in a clever way. I came up with this cool Blimp card, do you like it? I love it! I stuck the giant scallop paper over the top of some hot pink tiled paper I've had for, oh, about 400 years. Seriously. It's ancient. But I loved it, cos it's bright, funky & geometric. Just my kinda thing! Yay to have finally stopped hoarding it, and getting it out to use it! I put the pink & purple pearls around the scallop and it reminds me of the rivets on a submarine window, so maybe that suits a blimp too!
And then I had another weird shaped bit of paper leftover, so threw together this sweet whale Birthday Card which is my favourite card of the year so far! Plus the fact that I managed to tie the best bow I've ever tied with that pink ribbon. High Five {slap!} I love that whale, he's just gorgeous. Another Stampin Up set!
After a quick look through my Card Box I realised I needed more Thank You cards too, so here's one to add to the box. I love this paper, which came from a beautiful paper pad from Aldi of all places! Dad would be proud, he loves Aldi! I embossed the "Thanks" with a gorgeous American Crafts ZING glittery embossing powder. I think the pattern on the paper,looks a bit Scandinavian, is it the little birdies? Sweet anyway.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my latest card creations, and the fact that I've blogged again! LOL!

:) C

Project Life, Weeks 30, 31 & 32

Hi y'all!
Long time no see! Totally my fault, I haven't been posting in soooo long! So sorry about that {eyes looking down towards floor}, I know that makes me a bad friend! I hope you can forgive me. I hope to post more often, but then I think I always say that. How bout I try to make it a reality this time? {cheeky smile!} Come on, check back again soon & there will be another post. I might even try to post on a regular basis! What'd that? LOL!
Lets do some Project Life catch up shall we? Care to see what I was doing in July last year?! Hehe, that was a while ago! We are up to checking out week 30 of 2013:
Wk 30, LHS
Hahaha, look how short Jaimeson's hair is in that top right pic! Such a little fella with short short hair!
And that bottom left pic was Jaimeson trying to "unlock" my pregnant tummy with a key! Isn't that the sweetest!
And I love the pic of all my work food laid out on the bench, its gonna be awesome to look back on it and wonder what I used to take to work to eat, I don't think my sandwich tastes have changed that much since High School though!

Week 30, RHS:
Mmmm churros. Who doesn't love churros?? If you've never had them, seriously, you're missing out. Delicious crispy donutty sticks dipped in melted chocolate. {Drool!} Let me just pick my tongue up off the floor. YUMMO!! We are lucky to have a Coco Cubano at Parramatta, it's fantastic. If you're ever near one, try the Dark Chocolate Mocha, oh. so. good. {double Drool!}
There is Jaimeson playing with the gorgeous Vintage Fisher Price house we got for $1 at the Chester Hill Community Garage Sale. He loves it, and so do I! And that was the beginning of our awesome Vintage Fisher Price Little People town, dubbed North Lamville Valley Heights Town. LOL! You know that place up in the Blue Mountains called Valley Heights? It always annoys me, cos how can you be both the Valley and the Heights. Worst town name ever. Anyways, now our Fisher Price town is a little ode to it! LOL!
This week it was also Elmer's 40th Birthday party, and check out Lentil/Flinder's growing bump in my pretty white floral maternity maxi! I do love having a bump!
On to Week 31: LHS
Brunch out at a café is one of my fave things to do, don't you love it? I love bacon & eggs & pancakes and delicious coffee, and someone else cleaning up {wink!} Espresso Organica at Concord is so awesome for breakfast, they do a mean Eggs Benedict, but being pregnant I had to opt for the Bacon & Egg roll instead. It was LOADED with deliciousness, Loved it!
There is our little family of 3 pulling faces again. Now we're a family of 4, we still love the selfie! How are we gonna fit 12 kids in the pic? Hhahahahahahahaha! I joke! We will not be having that many! Maybe 11. {collapses on the floor at the thought}.
Week 31: RHS
Playdate over at our friends Alex and Samira's house. Alex is a kid still, even at 28, so he had no probs entertaining Jaimeson!
Check out Jaimeson's face in that middle left pic! He really hates it when Tai Poor (Great Grandma) touches his food! I don't blame him, she's a compulsive toucher, she moves anything she stands near, even if it's only 5mm. She just has to touch it all! And she ain't the cleanest fork in the drawer either, which Jaimeson has obviously picked up on, cos he pulls this face when she comes near his food! It's sooo funny!
How about another week?
Week 32: LHS
Yum Cha with Benny. Isn't Jaimeson such a cutie, feeding his little horse some dumplings. So sweet! Have you been to Yum Cha? Yum Cha is to Asians, what a baked dinner is to the whities. It's a celebratory meal, or the family get-together meal. Some months we have been 3 or 4 times! You do tend to get sick of it after a while, but we haven't been for a while now, so it's time I marked it on the calendar again and we got some delicious Steamed Pork Buns, flat rice noodle with beef & Egg Tarts into us!
Oh yeah, after Yum Cha this week we walked up to the new Westfield cos they had the "Make your own Magnum" stand, where you paid $7 (totally worth it) and could customize your Magnum with add on nuts, honeycomb, coconut, biscuit pieces, rose petals (!) etc then have it drizzled in chocolate of your choice too. Man it was sooooooo yum! {more drooling..} Does it seem like my PL is full of food to you? Yep, me too!

Week 32: RHS
Check it out, there is Lentil!! Look at sweet little Flynn, relaxing inside my tummy! Wow, to think that was about 6 months ago now, it goes so quick!
Hey, it's a coupon dinner date too! Now night time dates don't happen too often around here, as you can imagine! Mexican is my favourite food too, and this awesome restaurant at Glebe- Baja Cantina, is soooo YUM!
Did you know there is a Williams-Sonoma at Bondi Junction? Love it! It's my favourite homewares shop in the USA & I love visiting there when we're on holidays. I was chuffed to know there was one opening in BJ, so Jai and I took a trip there while Will was doing the City2Surf. Doesn't the world seem like a smaller place now these overseas chains are in Australia too? Though, the prices are still a bit higher than in the US!
Talking about the US: Guess what, 4 weeks til we go to Hawaii!! YEAH {fist pumping the air}. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooo very excited! We are gonna swim in the ocean, snorkel, laze by the pool, drink cocktails, shop, shop and a little more shopping, eat yummy food and chill out and relax as our little family of 4. I love our special holidaying time together, so I am sooo excited!

I hope you enjoyed catching up some weeks of my PL album for 2013! More to come!
:) C
(this one's for you AJ, thanks for the reminder to blog!)

Cards!

Its been a little while since I posted some cards, so here they are! A little selection of some of my fave cards from the latter part of this year :)

This was Alicia's Birthday card, I love the hexagon stamp set and punch from Stampin Up! And it was fun to include some sequins on there too!

I am also loving Hot Air Balloons and I have this gorgeous set from Stampin Up. I think doilies on cards are so pretty too, so you'll see them quite a bit on my cards at the moment!

There was something about this patterned paper that I really loved, and there are those hexagons that I love again! This time in Embossing folder form, I have fallen in love with my Cuttlebug again recently and have been embossing and cutting out heaps with it! I love it! I also pulled out my old Circle Circus set and stamped them for some added interesting patterns. Loved this card!

 This card was super quick to make cos I used all buts and pieces off my desk! I love when a card comes together so easily!

 More embossing! More hexagons! This one was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest. Man I love Pinterest!

And so I made the same card in different, more muted colours cos I loved it! There is a different embossing folder. I think I've used my embossing folders more in the past 4 months than I have in 4 years! I love actually using the products I have, and not hoarding them! {tongue in cheek!} YOu know I'm a hoarder but I'm breaking the habit!!
Hope you like my cards!
:) C

Project Life, Weeks 28 & 29

More PL catch up! Gotta get through posting a few more weeks at least before the end of 2013! Otherwise I'll have to hang my head in shame at my slackness!
Week 28, LHS
Will made it on to the OH&S Board at work, so I took a pic of his mug shot up on the noticeboard at work! He was so proud to be part of the committee. LOL! Good on him!
Check out Jaimeson's bomber jacket and black cord pants! Dressed by Daddy!
Growing tummy!
What a gorgeous sleeping boy Jaimeson is!
Oh Boy, you should see my Veggie garden now! I have spinach coming out my ears, as well as basil, tomatos, beans and corn & Cucumber on their way too. It's so lush and green from all this rain and warm weather! Its so funny to look back at this pic and see how our hard work watering and fertilizing has paid off!
Week 28, RHS
Will is the one who always takes Jaimeson for his hair cuts, cos Will gets one at the same time. this cut Will came home with a tissue filled with Jaimeson's cuttings, so I was able to include some in my PL! That was awesome!
Oh! Super rare Date Night! They wont happen around here for a while! LOL!
This week also we had lunch at Noodle HOuse and dinner with Ye Ye and the Lams at a Thai Restaurant in North Strathfield. It seems PL is full of food this week!
Week 29, LHS
For the title card this week I got Jaimeson to draw on a 4x6 card for me! I love including little bits of his artwork. So cute!
Op Shopping this week & we had a few scores! How cute is the little ceramic horse?
Baking for Playgroup, and Jaimeson doing a beautiful painting at Playgroup! His first real artistic effort! I love the giant painting smock on him, he looks so small!
Another selfie of Jaimeson!

Week 29, RHS
Coupon lunch date (love lunches with my boys, so they appear quite often in my PL!), a playdate to Alicia's, a selfie of Jai and I, crafting time for Jaimeson and a bike ride for Will.
Once again Will provided the biking pic for my PL! I am so impressed with how he likes to be included in PL! And at least he fakes interest when I show him my pages. {giggles!}
Nearly the weekend! How is your Christmas season going? We're going to Felicity's tomorrow for a Gingerbread House decorating day! I'm so excited! And it will make a great entry into December Daily!
:) C

Project Life, Weeks 26 & 27

Hi y'all!
Boy, December already? Who stole half the year? I can't believe 2014 is nearly upon us!
I had anticipated posting some of my December Daily Album and the foundation pages I've made for it, but I haven't photographed it yet {smacking hand for slackness}! So you'll have to make do with some Project Life pages instead :)

 Week 26, LHS.
Mmmmm... photos of food. YUM! {drool} LOL! How I love Pancakes!
My weekly tummy shot, this week I was 22wks pregnant. Tiny little Flinders was in there! (He ain't tiny any more!) I loved that "mommy" card by Studio Calico, despite it being spelt the American way!) and I was hanging out to use it in my PL!
Oh look at little Jaimeson being fed by Will in the high chair. He doesn't sit in the high chair anymore and decided one day that he wanted to sit on a big chair at the table! Oh! {wiping away a tear cos he's growing too fast!} It was quite convenient cos it was about a month before Flynn was born, so we didn't have to worry about Jaimeson not wanting to give up the high chair for Flynn! He did it himself!
Week 26, RHS
This pic of Will and Jaimeson loving my growing tummy is one of my faves, and I love seeing it in PL!
Also this week was a playdate at Felicity's, a coffee date and the start of the Tour de France. I also included a bookmark that was given out at the funeral for Ric (Jaimeson's Godfather's) Mum. That was a nice way for her to be in my PL, rather than a pic of the cemetery!

Week 27, LHS
A morning coffee outing with Will & Jaimeson, meeting up with Bunny (Granny) and Papa at Chullora for Sergio's morning tea and an Op Shopping adventure complete with delicious morning tea (apparently I go out a lot for coffee, LOL!).
Week 27, RHS.
Little boys do love their big machinery, and Jaimeson is no exception! He loved the big Digger that was knocking down the house around the corner from us, and so we walked by it a few times and watched it "BANG!" the house down! How exciting!
Will took Jaimeson to the park & texted me a few pics to include in PL! I love that he helps me out with pics on the days when I'm at work! It' nice to see what the boys get up to when I'm not there {smiles}.
The king of Selfie's first shot of himself! And he hasn't stopped taking selfies since!
Amelia Charlotte is born! She is the baby of good friends of mine, and is named after me! (Well, the Charlotte bit is {wink!}) so High Five! I don't mind sharing my name!
And it was Jai's friend Piet's 2nd Birthday Duck themed Party & afterwards we called in to see Daddy at work.
Have I mentioned how much I love PL, for remembering the simple everyday things, like a selfie, the digger or the park, but also for big things like new babies & birthday parties?! What an awesome album it is to look back on! I love it! And I most certainly will be continuing on in 2014!
Are you Project Lifing next year?
:) C