What a Cutie!!

Page number 3 from holidays is about a cute little guy and the cute little outfit I bought him in Hawaii! Man Cooper has grown so fast, but I'm pleased to say I saw him get plenty of wear out of these cute little trackies and comfy top from Carters. I love the little penguins and was sold by the fact it says "I'm Cool!" How awesome is that! I especially love the tiny My First Volley's that I bought before he was even born, I love baby shoes so much and have a little collection of my own!! The gorgeous Nike hat is courtesy of Aunty Alicia and completes this cool boy's look! I had to stock up on some new boy papers cos my stash has always been pretty minimal and since doing pages of Cooper it's pretty non-existant! Now if only people would invite me to a wedding every weekend for the next year I might finish my stash of "sweet, romantic" papers too!

Now for some holiday snaps:
This is Will and I at the lookout at Maclean (in the Northern Rivers of NSW if you're an out-a-towner!) I love this lookout, it has the most beautiful views across the Clarence Valley and out to the Pacific Ocean. I think we are blocking the view of Yamba though, which is where we were heading. Look at that gorgeous weather, now can you imagine swimming, fishing, shopping, lazing by the pool etc in that weather for 2 weeks?

Yep, it was bliss!

And here is my crazy guy doing his "Cabbage Patch Kid" face. Have I mentioned that Will is extremely hard to take pics of?! His usual face is a clenched teeth scowl, which he calls a smile, or a cheesy grin with one eye shut. At least with these sunnies on you can't tell if he's shut his eyes! But this CPK smile is a Willy special, and at least it makes me laugh. Believe it or not, this happens to be his smile on his licence.. and he's stuck with it for 5 years! HAHAHAHAHA {massive belly laugh!} Life is not boring with Will!

:) C

Page #2 from my Holiday Scrappin

Check it out! It's the second page I did while Will and I were away on our Road Trip/Beach Holiday Adventure and it's of the most delicious American snack ever!! It's me eating a Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll, and look at the pure bliss on my face!!. These rolls are beyond belief, so soft and silky, it's like eating velvet! Only with a delicious Cinnamon flavour :)

I used a Kaisercraft paper for the BG, with some snippets of other fave papers by Sass Lass and American Crafts. And I got to use the knife and fork motifs from my American Crafts thicker shapes pack.. I thought I'd never use them!! {chuckles to self}. The journalling is on a MM Noteworthy journal piece (they have been the best buy, I love them!!) and I embellished with a Doodlebug paper frill (from Yvette... thanks!!) and the Life Is Sweet sticker is from my new favourite Colorbok line by the same name. I love all that line so much! Keep your eyes peeled for more of that line in some up coming pages ;)

Now for some more holiday snaps... We had great weather for all but 2 days on our 2 week trip, but unfortunately Darlington Park served up some of it's best weather for us, which included hail. Yep Hail!! The size of Cricket Balls too (did you see it on the news?) DP is famous for hail, when we were there in about 1985 they had the biggest hail storm I've ever seen which stripped the trees of leaves, killed all the birds, punched holes in the tops of caravans, smashed skylights (including the one in our caravan), smashed car windows and dented everything that couldn't get undercover. Well, this hail storm wasn't quite that bad but we did quickly run out and put every single material item from out cabin over the car- this was 2 blankets, 4 doonas, 1 comforter and 6 towels. Will started to take the sheets out too, but I was like "We need something dry!!" The car didn't end up with any damage but others in the park had smashed windscreens and some minor dings.

I love this pic of Will enjoying the storm, cos he certainly wasn't enjoying it when the massive hail was pelting down on his car!!
:) C

I'M BAAAAACKKKK!!!!!

{Sob Sob Sob, boo hoo!!} Yes, I'm back from hols :) and we had an AWESOME time!! It was sooo relaxing and we had heaps of fun hanging out, fishing, swimming, shopping, watching TV, catching up with old friends and generally enjoying being out of Sydney!! I just thought I'd post a quickie before heading off to Alicia's to check out the fantastic decorations from her Halloween Party that I missed out on last night (bummer, cos it sounded like fun!)

I'll share the pages (as well as some fun stories) from our trip over the next few posts so be sure to check back and see all the cool stuff we got up to!

This was the first page I completed on holidays, it's of my favourite feathered friend "Mr Puffy" who comes to visit me on the verandah here at Brownville (I tell you what, it was nice to get out of Brownville for a while, and into the wide open country with all it's colour!! I miss the wide open spaces, and cows!! Lol!) I used 2 specialty papers by Chatterbox- brown embossed and cream glittered, that Yvette gave me {hugs!} and I scalloped the bottom edge of the cream one with my Threading Water punch. They are beautiful papers and their texture is cool to touch. I love the artisan shape too, which came on a sheet of cowboy die cuts I got in America in 2006 (happy to have that out of the collection and into an album!!) The big swirl is from the same collection. Oooh, a double whammy for that die cut sheet!!

I wanted to share this favourite pic from our holidays, which is of Will and I all dressed up for our friend's wedding in Maitland. We stayed at Maddie's B&B at Bolwarra, which was lovely, and they have the most beautiful gardens out the back with this flagstone covered walkway and amazing gates. One of our friends took this pic (with some creative direction from me, LOL) and it is one of my fave's from that day. So beautiful! The difference in heights of Will's and my bum is hillarious!! {grasping tummy with laughter!} I love the pic anyway :)
Oh, back to work tomorrow {utter sadness that holidays are over}.

:) C

Hello From Holidays!!!!!!

Hi Y'all! You missing me? Hahaha {laughing while lying on a banana bed on the beach and sipping on a Mai Tai.. ok, maybe not, but I am laughing!!}
I am blogging along to the "Ting Tings" (...That's not my name...) in a cool music cafe in Yamba, see I told you I'd think of you all!
We are having a fabulous time, the sand, surf, sun, suntan, suncream, icecream, whipped cream on top of my breakfast pancakes, beesting cakes, choc eclairs (from Hanks of course), pools, shops, lots of time, swimtime, beachtime, freetime, markettime, foodtime, crafttime, fishingtime, booktime (I've finished one novel already).. you get the picture. I've made 7 cards and 3 scrap pages so far, not too bad I think, seeing as we've done lots of beaching and stuff as well! Also I am LOVING Austar!! I love Discovery Travel and Living, I can't get enough of it!! And after watching so much Miami Ink I want a tattoo again.. don't tell Mum! Lol!!
Wow, we have been on hols for a week already and have one more week to go.. that's soooo cool. It's nice just to have days with no plans and no responsibility.. I LOVE IT!! Lol. Beats 12hr days at work... What? What's Work? Ha! Haven't thought about that place for a while.. thank goodness!!
We are still here for another whole day and then we are off to Grafton- my hometown. We have already dropped in there, and there is a fair bit that has changed. I that, I want it to stay the same, but it never does. I miss it terribly and driving past all the farms and rusting sheds and falling down fences and beautiful farm vista's makes my heart ache. I know it's not my home anymore, but boy do I miss it. And poor Willy must be sick of hearing me say that!! Poor guy. I have been bashing his ear as to how I love it!
Anywho...
It must be about time to grab a milkshake and walk back to our hotel where Will is lapping up Discovery and Fox8 and swimming in the lovely pool. Yesterday he swam while I finished my book while swinging on one of those garden chairs overlooking the pool. Just as I sat down a Kangaroo jumped past the pool fence. Ha!! So country.
Take care and I'll tan up a little for you all ;)
:) C

HOLIDAY!! CELEBRATE!!

Woo Hoo!! After 52hr working weeks for me, and 60hr weeks for Willy, we are finally on holidays as of tomorrow!! {Cheering loudly and waving arms like a crazy woman}. We embark on our Road Trip Beach Holiday after our friend's wedding tomorrow, and we are freeeeeeeeee for 2 weeks :) Happy Days.

"What does this mean for me?" I hear you ask? Well you get to dream about lazing on the beach, reading Crappy Women's Mags (think New Idea, Woman's Day, Who etc), soaking up the sun, relaxing, swimming in resort style pools, walking alond the beach at sunset, shopping, eating out and enjoying the sites and sounds of beachside living... and I'll do it for you :)

It also means I probably wont be posting for 2 weeks, but since I am taking some Crap... oops, sorry... Scrap Stuff, away with me I should have many goodies to post and share with you when we get back! Yay!!

In the mean time I'll leave you with these cute Mini Cupcakes I made for Cooper's Baptism last weekend! They were the perfect size for all the little children at the party (no finding a cupcake wedged under the lounge with only one bite out of it!) and Mum suggested the decoration- a Tiny Teddy swimming in blue frosting. So cute! I used the Rasperry Swirl cake recipe from Woman's Weekly Cupcakes and the cake itself was so soft and fluffy, like eating little clouds! I loved them.. although a normal cupcake mix ended up making 48 of these little darlings!!

Well, have a fantastic 2 weeks and I'll see you back here later when I'm all relaxed and refreshed!!

:) C

And another Midnight creation...

Yep, there I was at midnight, stamping, cutting and colouring away! And Yay for me cos I think I just used up the last of that Chatterbox blue ribbons paper {hallelujah!!}. I'm with you Yvette, paper scraps multiply when you're not watching!

I used my cute Hero Arts Good Things sentiment again and this time paired it with Hero Arts Baby Pram stamp. I coloured the image with SU inks (Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and So Saffron) and blender pen and glitzed up the spots on the pram hood with Stickles. I gave the Pram wheels "spokes" with my Spica gel pen but they're not very obvious in this pic.
I also rounded the edges on the sentiment piece with my corner rounder punch and mounted it on foam tape.
I'm still practicing how to make a perfect corner with the Threading Water punch (on the blue chatterbox paper), this one is a little tiny bit off, but Yvette sent me a link to some good instructions here.
Hope you're having a great week! It's almost holiday time for me {WOO HOO!!}
:) C

Quickie Boy Card

I was inspired (and not too tired cos I didn't have OT) when I got home at Midnight last night so I sat down and made this cute little Baby Boy card. My box is a little empty of baby cards and this one came together quite easily with all the scraps that were sitting on my desk!
I love the Hero Arts sentiment stamp which I got at the Stitches and Craft show! I love that it's within brackets (one of my fave graphic icons) and the font is really pretty. Plus it only cost me $5, and I love bargains!
I haven't decided if I should colour the people in or not, what do you think?
I do have to get some new baby boy papers though... I am SO over these ones! Are the scraps multiplying? Why don't I seem to be using them up?!!
Unfortunately I have OT today, and my room is a total mess, wish I could stay and clean up, but no-one pays me to do that!
:) C

Finally!! I got something done!

YYYAAAAYYY!!

Happy days to me today, I didn't have overtime at work so had some time to whip up this cute little page of pics from when I stayed with Yvette!
I used some new Cupcake/Sweets themed products from 2 peas- the stickers in the top left corner, the epoxy cupcake and the "laugh out loud" cut out are all from Colorbok's "The Sweet Life" series and I just LOVE them!! {hugging them tightly} They are so my kind of products :) I love the big die cut sheet of frames and journalling stuff, it's so cool!
I used one of Yvette's journalling spots from her etsy store, this time I oriented it on the side with my journalling going vertical. I never do that, but I thought it was time I 'switched my style up' (thank's 50 cent) and I think it's kinda cool.
I love this pink spotty paper, it's my last piece and I'm glad I got to use it on such a fun page!
The cupcakes were sooooo delicious too, and I have plans to do a page on us making them as well as another page of all the fancy cupcakes I've made over the last 18mths so I've got plenty of subject matter to use my fave new products on!
Got so many more plans for this day with no OT, but Dr Phil's already on so that means I'm behind! Betta run...
:) C

Yay for Council Cleanup!

Who ever says they never have anything good on council cleanup?!! Ok, usually it's me.. but not any more! I now have 3 fantastic finds from Council Cleanup and the latest was cleaned from the streets in an early morning raid by Will and I this morning!

I had to pick Will up from Granville this morning after he dropped his car off for a service. On our way to Maccas for breakfast we were passing through a particularly dodgy neighbourhood with lots of furniture on the street and I spotted a really funky chair! I was like "Oooh.. nice chair!" but didn't really think about stopping to get it. But during breakfast I couldn't stop imagining the chair in my house and seeing as it was only a couple of blocks back we went to pick it up! :)

What a great chair it turned out to be!! It has a pretty ugly cushion but that can always be changed and it's totally solid wood in a really nice stain (quite unusual for the dodgy neighbourhood from which it was liberated). The next challenge was fitting it in my little car, but the seats folded down in the back and the chair slipped in like a dream! Happy days! Although seeing as there was also a side table and a TV on the street I did think maybe someone had just moved their whole living room outside like that guy on the TV ad! So I was like.. "quick Will, grab it before anyone stops us!" Lol. They didn't, incidently, which was good cos they probably would have knifed us for stealing their chair, so is the nature of that neighbourhood!

How do you like the cute little purple cushions? (which go really well with my purple lamp!) Council Cleanup! HA!! I picked them up after Will and I had been for a run at the local park, threw them straight in the washing machine and now they're a feature in the lounge. Sweet as!! Lol.
:) C

Ladies...

I love the Ladies and Gents images (you know, the toilet ones.. Lol!) and they even make an appearance on my Blog banner! I love that in the Honolulu Airport the Ladies and Gents people on the toilet doors are wearing a MuMu (spelling?) and a Hawaiian Shirt! Ha! So I was happy to find that Scenic Route have them in acrylic stamp form :) {happy happy!}

So I made this card for a little fun..

I got to use my Fiskars Threading Water punch for the first time here too, it's so cool! I predict I will use it a lot! Or just enjoy looking at it on my desk which is what happens with most of my stuff! {sigh}. I stuck a cute little heart jewel in the centre of the "Ladies" Lady's chest, I was going to put it off to the left like a real heart but I thought people might have thought I just didn't stick it on straight. Haha. So in the middle it went. The ribbon is so pretty IRL and is just tied in a knot in the middle.

Then I made this quick card cos I had a wee bit of time left before I had to blog, shower and get to work!

How cool is the zig zag down the side?!! It's a Martha Stewart border punch Alicia brought me back from Walmart {love to you (Alicia and Walmart.. LOL!)!!}. I love it!! It's super funky. I got the gorgeous pink ribbon at the Stitches and Craft show and it's so luxurious! But I forced myself to use it cos I have just so much stuff I can't hoard it all forever! The cute sentiment is from Studio G and I bought it specifically for this Bella, she's so cute!

Gotta run and shower!! Happy Hump Day of the Week BTW!

:) C

My Purging is Over!!

Well, the purging is over for the moment anyway, and my shelves are finished!! I am so happy with how they cleaned up and are no longer the disgusting eyesore they were before (in full view of everyone!) How terrible {hangs head in shame}. But.. all they needed were some gorgeous baskets and a big throw out of all my useless crap and here is the finished product!!

The "Before" pic:

And the "After" pic:

I am so impressed with the neatness and co-ordination and hope it stays with me!

"I did have a problem finding a suitable basket" {Lol, The Scarlet Pimpernel}. I went all around the local suburbs, 3 different shopping centres, a nursery and Bunnings looking for nice baskets that didn't cost a mint. But even at Eastwood (the home of Crap Shops) they were $25-$30 and were terrible quality. I ended up finding these 2 square baskets and the 2 shallow green lined baskets in Carlingford and did a massive Happy Dance in the middle of the shop!! The 2 square ones only cost $18 ea which I thought was a good price but the shallow dark baskets were only $14 ea, what a steal!! I also tidied and sorted all my SU stamps and they look pretty impressive now!!

I was so happy to have purged a lot of stuff, and I mean a lot!! I got rid of all my old CK mags from 2002-2006 which I hate just hanging around! They went off to Mum's Playgroup girls, hope they can use them! I don't really care if the kids just end up cutting them up! Some of the stuff in them is sooooo bad by today's scrappin standard (I know that sounds really bad, but it's so true!!)

So from now on I will be so much more creative cos I have a nice space in which to be creative!! Lol, lets see if that works!

:) C

Sitting here, getting nothing done!

Sorry for the no-posting for a couple of days thing. I have been super busy!! It was Mum's birthday Tuesday so i was out all day before work, then I did two 12 hour shifts and I have another one today so... no time for creativeness! I can't wait for Saturday! Bring it on!! I was going to go shopping but maybe I should just stay at home and create!! :) It'd save pennies too! Plus I haven't finished cleaning and purging so my scrap area is a total mess.. gotta do something about that!

So here we go with an old page I'll share, just so I can post something up here! I did this at Yvette's when I visited her in May to do an SU party. I love that bluebird rub on! It's part of the tattoo art collection from Creative Imaginations, so cute! And I was totally Chuffed when I realised there was the word "Will" in my confetti words packet, which meant I could write a whole sentence in them and include Will's name! Ha!!

I need to get out in the sun and build my tan cos he's so black already, just from one visit to the beach! Argh... I'm looking so pasty beside him!

:) C

MISSING ALERT!!

Missing: One desk, approx 1m tall, 1.5m wide, medium build, often seen hanging around with a blue desk chair.

Where is my desk??!!

Somewhere here, under all this junk is my desk. Yep, the messy desk is back!! It has been 1.5wks since I was in Canberra with Yvette and yet my stuff is still in the bags I took it away in! Why can I not seem to keep this area tidy? All those scrap rooms they profile in CK really put me to shame, especially since this month the chick had a gorgeous room off the living area which she keeps totally tidy. And here is mine, also off the living area (I have the most patient flatmate in the world!!) in full view of everyone. Luckily my friends/family are understanding (well, they at least understand I'm not going to change easily!!) and no-one mentions how messy this is.

So... further to my urban renewal I have bought some really nice baskets to make my scrap area a bit tidier and more acceptable!! Mostly the shelves really, which are off to the right, and by cleaning them up I can sort out my desk a bit more. That's the plan anyway!!

And happy days.... I am actually purging a whole bunch of stuff.. WOO HOO!!! I found stuff I have been hoarding for years that I don't like, so its going. YAY!!

Wish me luck!

:) C