14 Weeks!

Ok, well we cheated a little and took the picture today which is 13wks and 6 days, but we're almost at 14wks, I think you'll forgive me. I had a laugh at the Dear Lizzy blog the other day when her husband hijacked it and posted for her and asked why people always say "WE are pregnant", he said he wouldn't walk up to a group of people and say "WE'VE been chewing on our toe nails" LOL! Good point! But Will did want to show his solidarity with me by doing his best "pregnant" pose. I think he might still actually beat me! Hehehe. Today my tummy has been really sore after I did some box moving and stuck-box-pulling-out-from-under-the-bed this morning, I didn't realise my tummy muscles were so weak now! It's crazy! We are gathering, purging, packing and moving over to Hotel d'Lam next weekend. Yes, C-Day is almost upon us (that's the day I officially become Chinese, by moving into the Lam family home) {sigh}. We're packing up at Brownville (farewell Mr Puffy. He's actually been laughing us to sleep at night lately) and moving over to Multicultural Town (where I will experience what it feels like to actually be a minority!) It is, at the same time, sad, kinda happy, welcoming, awkward, negotiating, overwhelming, sacrificing and saving. We'll see which one win's the biggest emotion award {double sigh}.
On a happier note, Mum and Dad are coming to stay on Tuesday, I hope they are not as claustrophobic with boxes around as I was yesterday! Phew that we got some moved over to Hotel d'Lam today!
:) C

Holiday Scrapping!

OOhh, it's so gloomy and rainy here today. What happened to "Summer's on it's way!" I think it got lost!
It is a good day, however, for sitting at my desk and doing some scrapping! I haven't been overly creative lately, it seems I sit at my desk and just watch TV from there, rather than actually doing anything creative! {sigh}. I didn't think I'd be this tired so early in my pregnancy, I thought it came later when you were big and heavy! Not sure if its worse cos I work nights.... anywho, enough whinging! I did manage to do this page of Will and I enjoying our virgin Pina Colada's in Hawaii! I thought, seeing as I couldn't have alcohol in my drink I was going to enjoy it out of a pineapple instead! I loved it!! It was so much fun to grasp that giant fruit with 2 hands and take a sip! I did joke that I ate so much pineapple on our holiday that Peabody was going to never want to eat pineapple ever again! {giggles} Either that or it's all Peabody will want to eat! I bought this pineapple paper on our honeymoon, specifically with Hawaiian pages in mind! Isn't it so cute :)
And cos I haven't posted in a while, here is another page (bonus!) that I did of our Applebees meal on our Honeymoon. Yes, all I seem to do is scrapbook pages about food! I can't help it, I love taking pics of my meals when I'm overseas! Especially in America, cos their food is so massive and delicious! Check out all the food you get on your plate for $20! Bargain {wink}. I did take a bunch of food pics in Hawaii too, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more food pages!
Hope you're having a good monday! I'm off to (hopefully, if the TV doesn't distract me too much) do some more scrappin!
:) C

Baby Clothes Galore!

Well here it is: The pic of all the Baby Clothes I got in Hawaii!

I think the Carter's stuff is my fave over all- like the "sleepers" all in ones on the bottom right with their big owl, deer, squirrel and Lamb (for our Little Lam- LOL) and the Turkey Bib. Ok we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but who doesn't need a Turkey bib. Not our baby! In the boy stuff on the left, my fave outfits are the onesie that says "This is How I Roll" cos Will and I say that to each other a lot! And the Beaver one that says "Busy being Cute". I'm sorry, I don't view Kangaroos and Koalas which as much fondness as I do Beavers and Squirrels. Don't you always want what you don't have? Kangaroos were a dime a dozen where I grew up so maybe they've lost their luster for me! And I always thought only Japanese tourists bought clothes with Koala's on them. I bet if Carters did a Koala line I'd love it though. Hmmm... maybe it's not the animal, it's just they need to draw it in a really cute way. Cos those Polar Bears are so darn cute! Alicia thinks the Polar Bear dad on the onesies looks like Will! LOL! I had to get 2 pieces in that collection cos it was just SO CUTE!
As you can see I also got a million pairs of tiny shoes. So my shoe love has spilled over into baby shoe love (I'd already bought some tiny shoes the last time I was in Hawaii so I don't think you can blame Peabody for this love!) But they were just so cheap! The dinosaur slippers for a newborn were only $5. CHEAP! And those little Grandpa plaid slip ons were $7.50. BARGAIN!
Talk about bargains- see that Pink Panda print at the bottom of this pic? It's a onesie and it cost me $1. Yep! And believe it or not, it wasn't the cheapest baby item we got! Alicia got a chambray denim shirt for Xander for 88c! YEP! I had to go back and get one cos that was ridiculous! I did buy almost every item of baby clothing with an Owl on it. LOL! At least I haven't stopped loving owls :) I love all the woodland animals, so cute! I love the Rabbit talking to the bird on the onesie in this pic. CUTE! And of course when I saw the Cupcake bib I had to have that one too! {heart} Aren't the little purple Baby Gap ballet's the cutests! They were only like $7. I just couldn't help myself! And there are more of those Old Navy slippers- this time rabbit ones for a little girl. I also got Owl ones and Polar Bear ones. Our little one will never be without shoes!
And if Peabody turns out to be a girl I've got some really cute Size 2 Metallic Gladiators for her to wear at Darlington Park next year! Now that's planning ahead! LOL!
:) C

BIG news....

Hello y'all!
Its Saturday and I'm up early (what the?), I'm blaming the fact that at 8:30am it was already stinkin' hot. I don't have a thermometer so you'll have to believe me. Apparently "stinkin" is the level of hotness reached before I'm able to stay asleep. I've quantitatively researched it. Believe me.
So.... some BIG news in our house. Currently residing inside me, somewhere inside my pelvis is this little one:Hehe, that's right- Will and I are having a baby :) {patting tummy lightly} Can you believe it? Yes, it was a bit of a shock for us too {hands slap either side of cheeks}! LOL! I had been told we would probably need some assistance having a baby cos I have PCOS, so we thought we'd start preparing cos you need to be trying for 12 months in order to do IVF. Well.... surprise! It turns out we didn't need any assistance at all and it all happened in the first month! WHOA! I had a pain in my side on and off for about 3 weeks and thought one of my cysts had burst, eventually I went to the Dr cos the pain was intense- turns out it wasn't a cyst, but a baby inside! Talk about surprised!
We had our 12 week scan last monday and everything is looking well, Peabody even waved at us {giggles}. Baby is called Peabody cos the first time we saw it on ultrasound at almost 6 weeks, it was just a little flashing pea!
So that's our big news!
Stay tuned for the other photo of my Hawaii booty- it's all the baby clothes I bought! Hehe, I may have gotten a little excited and bought a lot. I mean A LOT! I can't help it- it's so cheap in America!
:) C

Some Hawaii Booty!

Hi Y'all!
I thought you might be interested in a quick post showing my shopping Booty from Hawaii!! I have to post twice cos there are 2 categories of shopping, but here is the first pic. He he, there's a lot of stuff! I filled up my suitcase and the extra bag Will had taken with him (I gave my extra bag to Mum to pack in to! We came well prepared with extra bags- we've been to the US before and know how much shopping we like to do!)
What can you see in the pic? The Pumpkin Pecan waffle mix from Williams-Sonoma? Yes, you can get that back into the country! Just remember to declare everything and let customs decide. We didn't lose anything, not even the wooden pineapple shaped bowl! Can you see the taco? It's a zip purse. LOL!! Hillarious! I bought the Bare Minerals makeup kit at Sephora for $63, the exact same kit at Myer is $180. Can you believe it???? The pink folder at the front is a recipe folder for sweet recipes like cakes, biscuits etc. It has plastic sleeves that hold the small recipe cards and I bought some extra Christmas themed recipe cards so I could easily identify my Christmas bakes in the folder! Cool idea hey! I got plenty of sprinkles for cupcakes in different themes (Christmas, Autumn Leaves, pearls etc), I got lots of clothes, though there was all winter items in the shops so it was hard to get excited when we are coming into summer! And I did get a little bit of scrapbooking/stamping stuff, though the store was not that great- it was a lot like an old scrapbooking store in Australia. {sigh} but I still managed to spend $100. LOL!
Well, we had a great time! Wish we could go back now!
:) C

ALOOOOOOHHHHHAAAAA!

Aloha {said as I hula across the room}!
We're back from Hawaii! We had a super awesome time, it was fun to be away with (some of) my immediate family-sorry to Yvette and Felicity who couldn't come :(. Just looking through the pics and it seems all we did was swim, shop, eat... repeat. LOL! It was great :) And it was good also cos Will and I had only been there 2.5yrs ago, so it was like we'd never left! For Mum and Dad though, it had been over 20 years!! Quite a bit had changed in their eyes. Dad said it seemed a lot busier now and I said maybe it really wasn't it's just that when we had visited 20 years ago they had a family of 3 teenage girls and one primary school age girl at home and life itself was probably really busy, it wasn't that Hawaii was less busy! But now they are retired and it's just Mum and Dad at home Hawaii does seem a lot busier! Logical? LOL!
We stayed at Waikiki, swam at Waikiki Beach, shopped at the beautiful Ala Moana Centre for hours at a time, snorkled amongst schools of fish at Hanauma Bay, enjoyed the show at the Paradise Cove Luau, searched for a bargain at the Waikele Factory outlets, experienced the excitement of Waikiki at night through the International Marketplace, floated and danced the night away on the Ali'i Kai Dinner Buffet Cruise boat, squeezed ourselves on to the Waikiki Trolley, caught a couple of waves on an Outrigger Canoe, drank drinks out of pineapples, got some culture at the Iolani Palace and ate a whole bunch of awesome American and Hawaiian Foods! YAY! Once again, lucky I wasn't born in America or I'd be a fatty fatty fat fat! Ohhh, ribs! And fries come with everything! And portion size, Oh my! I also got to indulge in my favourite treat- Cinnabon. YUM! I did lots and lots of shopping too, whoever said you don't go to Hawaii to go shopping? Of course you do! America is so cheap, especially with our fabulous exchange rate at the moment too! We needed the extra bag we'd packed (hooray for Hawaiian Airlines- 2 bags of 32kg each person! YAY!) to bring all our purchases back. Hehehe!
Bummer though, it's back to work today {sigh} and Will got called in tonight so we must be busy. At least that means time will go fast! I hope I don't fall asleep at my desk though!!
:) C
P.S. Enjoy some more pics of our trip!

Worst month of posting ever!

hello!
Yep, October has turned out to be the worst month of posting ever! Well, I did post less in April this year but thats cos we got married then went overseas for 3 weeks, so I can be excused there! Well, lucky us are going overseas again, YAY! Very shortly we will be sipping Mai Tai's and hula dancing in beautiful Hawaii! {cheering!!} Remember we visited there 2.5 years ago? Well, everytime I have been telling people we are going back they say "Hawaii Again?" Come on! It's been like totally forever! I mean look how short my hair is!
Mum and Dad are already soaking up the sun on the big island and will meet up with us on Oahu. I am so super excited! I have so much shopping planned (I have only packed 10kg of luggage- I can bring back 2 bags of 32kg each! YAY!), we are going on a dinner cruise and a luau and have pinpointed lots of delicious restaurants to visit and some of our faves to revisit! I am so ready for some relaxing on the beach and swimming with the fishes too! (Not in the mafia way {giggles}).
So needless to say I'm sure I will be better at posting all the news when we get back {wink!} seeing as there will be so much to share!
:) C

Teddy Bear's Picnic!!

Hi y'all!
Hope you had a fantastic weekend! I know I did :) and a tiring one too :) Firstly with Mum's Sale on the super windy Saturday, her sale went really well despite the wind so we were thrilled for her! Then on Sunday with my sisters,brother-in-law and niece and nephews at the Teddy Bear's Picnic at Rosehill Racecourse. It was SO MUCH FUN! Last year Will got me to Volunteer with him and we spent 5hrs making Playdoh balls at one of the Preschool stands, but as I was monotonously rolling the balls I watched all the little kids having the most fantastic time, and I thought "next year I'm going to get the girls to come and we'll bring Cooper!" Well, since it was on last year both Sienna and Xander have been born so it was a good time to get all the troop together and head off to the Picnic! If you haven't heard of the Teddy Bear's Picnic before, it is a fundraiser for the New Children's Hospital at Westmead (remember Sienna spent a week there earlier in the year?) it costs $20 to get in for each person over 1yr old, but it is truly worth it cos you don't pay for anything else (except food/drinks) once you're inside and the money is going to a worthwhile cause! There was a petting farm, a giant sandpit, face painting, hair spraying, an Ambulance, Fire Truck and Police car/motorbikes, a giant slide, jumping castles, spring-free trampolines, playdoh, Bunnings kids DIY stand, massages, dance shows, wandering characters (including an ancient "Clifford" costume that was totally pinned down the back with giant safety pins!), miniature train rides, miniature fire engine rides, and more! What a day! Cooper LOVED getting balloons and got a total of 5 during the day (though some didn't make it home) he gave Bandaged bear a beautiful hug (much to Felicity's surprise!) and he had no qualms bypassing the line for the Fire Truck and climbing straight up the ladder and into the front seat! Felicity said he must take after me with that {giggles!} Sienna loved to watch the miniature train rides, straining out of the corner of her pram cos she wasn't quite at the right angle to see! LOL! She's growing up so fast :) And Xander had the BEST smile on his face when Alicia put him on the Police Bike and the nice policemen held him for the picture! I tell you, those Policemen must have been the most patient people, the line up to sit on the bikes was endless and he still had a smile on his face! LOL!
Will's volunteer job this year was to be a wandering Character! I was bummed I didn't get to catch up with him while he was in the Myer Bear suit, but apparently he was sweating rivers {ew!} cos it was a beautiful warm spring day :) He would have been so funny as a wandering bear with those short legs and giant torso!!
There was so much to see and do there that we didn't even get to see and do it all before Cooper was pooped and it was time to go home! I can't wait for next year when Sienna and Xander are old enough to be interactive and really enjoy their day!
So next year when you see the Teddy Bear's Picnic advertised (it's usually this same time of year) I hope you can gather a collection of children and whisk them off to have some fun, cos it was a fantastic day and I loved it!! Going to leave you with a couple more fun pics of the day so you can be inspired for next year!
:) C
P.S. Sorry, can't seem to work out why these pics are overlapping, you'll have to imagine what Cooper looks like driving the Fire Truck... he's very happy :)

I'm here!

Hi Y'all!
We had a fabulous time in Grafton, it was so relaxing to go to sleep in the total dark (it NEVER gets very dark here in the city), wake up and hear the mountain of birds in the morning, take a walk around the veggie patch and visit the chickens {sigh}. It was perfect! My friends were busy trying to convince Will and I to move into the empty house at the end of their street! If only.... {daydreaming out the window}. Will would take a little more convincing :)
I am such a slacker though, the WHOLE WEEKEND I did not take ONE PHOTO! How could this be?? We were so busy running around town, helping get the baby shower ready, and the baby shower went so super quick I didn't get the chance to take out my camera. I mean I didn't even get a pic of Vicki pregnant! I'll have to email and get one sent up. I am so slack!! The only pic all weekend was one of me eating a Hank's Chocolate Eclair that Will took on my phone, but I can't seem to get it off my phone and onto the computer. BOO!
I was just about to make White Chocolate Chunk and Macadamia Brownies for Mum's sale this weekend, but I realise I only have one egg and the recipe needs two. How annoying! Better go make something else then :)
Happy Thursday! It might be a Subway night tonight I think!
:) C

Baby Shower Road Trip!

Will and I are off on a Road Trip to Grafton tomorrow! YAY! Back to my home town. That means Hanks Pies, a small chocolate Moove and a Fresh Cream Chocolate Eclair (best EVER! If you're ever in Grafton you have to go to Hanks Bakery- it's in the Main Street- Prince St- near the National Bank- you'll totally thank me forever), it also means Jacaranda flowers all over the car wherever you park it and singlet tops and thongs, cos it's always warm there. Hooray! {cheering}. And it means the day off work (also Hooray!) It's my old friend Vicki's Baby Shower and I've just baked Macadamia and White Chocolate Chunk Brownies for her, and now have a Pear and Walnut sandwich cake in the oven- I haven't made this one before and I ad-libbed the recipe a little so if it turns out I'll take it to Grafton, if not, Will and I will enjoy it! LOL!
So I made this card for her yesterday. I bought the elephant paper from Fantasia a couple of weeks ago and honestly it cost like a million dollars. No wonder I never buy papers in Australia any more! It was really $3. Can you believe it? I bought 3 papers and it cost me $8.50 and it's not like they play a tune when you press them, or they magically fold themselves into an origami crane. They're just flat paper. It's just that this one has a bit of gloss on the occasional elephant. $3. Whoa. But I was the sucker who bought it. Cos it's just so cute!! The bunting flag stamps are one of my new sets from Stampin Up called "Party This Way". Love them! I stamped them on baja breeze card in pacific point ink, stamped letters on with daffodil delight ink, strung them on some red string and stuck them on the expensive paper and voila! Well, I didn't want to cover up too much of that paper after all! Hope she likes it! I think it's sweeeeet!
:) C

Diggin' out some old pics...

I haven't printed pics for Scrappin in about 6 weeks, what the?!! How could this have happened? This means I'm working through the pile of pics I have stashed all around my scrap space. But actually this is a good thing as the pile of photo envelopes keeps sliding off my desk and all over the floor cos it's too high! I guess it's time to use some up then!
So rewind 18 months and I've done some pages of Japan (incidentally it was the first photo envelope I reached for and felt inspired- Hooray! Thanks Mr Mojo!) And it's also good cos I have some scrappin supplies that are particularly asian inspired and I was keeping them for pages of Japan, but hadn't gotten around to doing Japan pages for ages. So yay, they are out of my stash now! Do you like Will's outfit? He was trying on the Complementary Traditional Gown and slippers in our hotel in Tokyo.. though he didn't quite get the placement of the belt right! Hahahah, my own Ninja. Or Mr Miagi!
Then I dug out this old PP, which was helpfully located at the front of my paper keeper these days with all the other "I can't believe you still have that paper" papers and I had a pile of pics from the Ginkaku Pavilion (spelt it wrong on the LO- honestly I really think it should have 2 "L's") in Kyoto. Now this was a truly beautiful serene place, I loved the raked sand garden, the traditional ponds with little bridges and the amazing walk through the mini forest. There was no grass but an amazing moss lawn, we even saw an old man sweeping the leaves off the moss lawn so there was not one hanging around, out of place, on the ground. Amazing! Such a beautiful beautiful place. I'd love to go back to Japan! {sigh- day dreaming out the window}. I had fun going to town punching out all the butterflies from my Japanese book paper! Hehehe, fun!
Happy day-after-the-long-weekend! Another good reason to work nights- my working week still wont start til this arvo. Yay!
:) C

Cupcaked to death...

Hello!
I didn't think it was possible but I may not want to make cupcakes again for a while... but I certainly am enjoying the left overs! It was Mum and Auntie Julie's 60th Birthday party on Saturday and I made 90 large and 30 small cupcakes to adorn their cupcake birthday tree. I filled every decent sized tupperware container I had, plus borrowed 2 from Felicity and even had to buy a couple more! When I finally iced them and had no other containers to put them in I put them in baking trays to transport! Ingenious {patting self on back}. My cousin Megan's friend owns this cool acrylic cupcake tower so we filled it with as many cupcakes as can be squished on. That, it turns out, is only about 70, so I ended up not even getting to put them all out! Then, because there were other desserts too, only about 60% of the cupcakes got eaten so I sent some home with Mum, Yvette and AJ and I have a mountain left over! Anyone want to come over for cupcakes? I have 4 flavours to choose from- Coffee with Coffee Buttercream, Vanilla with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing, Strawberry swirl with Pink Vanilla Buttercream and Chocolate Mudcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache ! Once again my work friends "score!" some baking {cheering}.
I may have just sneakily eaten a cupcake while preparing dinner- mental note- eating a chocolate mudcake cupcake is not pleasant when your hands still smell like freshly crushed garlic. Ew! I wondered what that odd smell was.
So... Happy Birthday Mum and Auntie Julie! I'm so glad you had a wonderful time at your party, I know we did! And I hope you enjoy your leftover cupcakes too!
:) C

Happy Birthday Felicity!!

Hope you have a super Birthday Felicity! Here is her birthday card, hope she likes it! Also hope she doesn't read this post within the next 2 hrs before I meet up with her and get to give it to her! We are going to Rouse Hill for a foot spa & Pedicure {cue dreamy music!} followed by lunch. Luckily I had a hypo this morning which woke me up nice and early {sigh} so I should make it on time... it's only 7:50am and I'm totally not usually up for another 2 hours! It's cos of my night shifts, not a giant case of the lazy's. I'm thinking I still might have time to nip back to bed for a little snoozie.... oh sounds good!
I broke out my Butterfly punch for Felicity's card, which I hadn't used for ages and went to town punching them out of some of my fave spotty and stripey papers. I wanted them to look as though they were flying out of the card, therefore it can't go in an envelope or they'd get squashed! I kindyglitz'd their bodies and stuck a jewel in the middle so they are nicely blinged! I love how it turned out :)
Also, here is what I came up with for Mum's Birthday Card with my new Awash With Flowers set! Do you like it? It's fun to do some 2-step stamping :) I started with the "watercolour" image which I stamped in Groovy Guava (retired) and Daffodil Delight (one of the brand new colours) then stamped the outlines with Rich Razzleberry (returning "in-colour") I can just imaging stamping a whole beautiful garden with these flowers! They are sooo pretty and so much fun to use :) I blinged it up a bit with kaiser pearls and punched the SU sentiment out with my SU scallop oval punch. And the flowers are stamped on the SU top not die cut shape. It's my fave shape! So this was a fun card to make, can't wait to try more cards with Awash with Flowers!
Happy Friday!
:) C