More Scrapping :-)

Popped around to my sisters last night for a night of scrapping and did this page. Its one I have had in my mind for a while now, glad it is finally done.

Finally had a go at scanning pages as this one is A4, so much better, still a little wonky though (just like me).

Riley is still sick now complaining of a sore throat and ears. He keeps waking tonight crying that it hurts . I guess we will be back at the doctors tomorrow.  Matilda seems to be on the mend and we seem to have finally got rid of the head lice Phew!. Declan was about to get his head shaved!.

Take care everyone. 

Helen xxxxx

Look what “I” made……

I had an idea a little while ago that I wanted to make a “nappy clutch”, its a little pouch used to hold a couple of nappies and a wipes container so they are not hanging out of my handbag for the whole world to see whenever I am out and about. Anyway after looking around on the internet (and with mums help) I came up with my design, and purchased the material. That was a few weeks ago now and I finally got around to finishing the project.

On Sunday afternoon I cut out the material for my sister to sew when I decided “I can do this!” and out came my $50 portable sewing machine I purchased from Safeway for scrapbooking!!!!.

To cut an already long story short, after about 5 minutes of frustration I remembered that I cant sew and this is when my darling husband Steve took over (I am going to get in trouble for this)  and look what he made.

How clever is he?.  I know it could do with an iron mum but those creases are from when I ironed the seams!!!!! Anyway Steve refused to let me take a photo of him creating this masterpiece, afraid it would somehow make him less of a man but I am very proud of the work he has done Nothing wrong with a man that can sew!  I know there are 101 things that we have done “wrong” but I am proud that we have made it and think it looks pretty cute.

Whilst I am in a sharing mood, here is another item I made a few weeks ago at the Scrapping Retreat.  Its an Easter 2008 mini book. The plastic cover held some junk mail from the bank so I recycled it to make this little book (I had 2 but threw one away, ooops).

 

Have a great week

Helen xxxxx

So much is happening.

Life seems to plod along and then all of a sudden WHAM!, your little kiddies have a burst of development and seem to get 1 year older in just 1 week. Here is a quick update on them

Declan -

Can now tie his own shoe laces   He has been trying for a long long time and finally mastered it!! He is so proud of himself.

He is now cutting up his own dinner. Maybe this is something I should have pushed earlier but to be honest it was just an automatic action to cut up his dinner every night.

We had our first parent teacher night at his school though they call it a “Student Led Conference” where Declan presented us with his “portfolio” for the first half of the year????. How grown up is that! It went great and he is doing really well at school 

He is in his second week of swimming lessons with school and can now confidently swim across the pool

 

Riley -

He is starting to write his own name.

He is learning also to cut his own dinner up. We find tea time a battle with Riley and this is really making him eat more!. He is so focused on using a knife I dont think he realises he is eating as well.

His swimming lessons are starting to go well. After a battle for the first few months he now enjoys his lessons and is starting to do a few activities without floaties. He seems to be over his fear of the pool which I totally understand as I had the same fear as a child. Its a huge step for him

He has been sick with croup (sp??) again so has been pretty quiet the past few days.

 

Matilda -

She as also been unwell but seems to be getting on top of it all now.

She can climb on the “jumpalene” by herself so we discovered last week!. We have a step there to make it easy for the boys and well it makes it easy for Tilly as well. The only trouble is she does not know how to get down “safely” so have to be really careful with that one.

She has learnt to call out to Butch our dog when there is something she does not like on her plate or she drops something on the floor, so so cute.

She is still NOT WALKING, starting to think she will crawl for ever.

She has a good little groove going, her dancing is all in the hips and looks so funny.

Here are a few pics from the weekend . The one of Matilda and I was taken by Riley. He did a good job.

and yes we did make blue cakes. I have started something where I let one child pick the colour of the cake and the other pick the colour of the icing.  This week it was blue cakes, with either purple or red icing and yellow and white sprinkles. I am afraid I will never be allowed to make a “normal” coloured cake again. What have I done?.

Helen xxxxx

A Change…….

They say a change is as good as a holiday and with 6 weeks still to go till we head off for our little break a change was the next best thing.

Last night I scrapped A4 for the first time. I have already learnt that you don’t trim your paper to exactly A4 because by the time you add all your goodies the page wont fit in the album

Yes they are not so “wonky” in real life!

For all you bargain hunters out there, if you like the journal tags I used, they come in assorted packs of 21 from the Reject shop for $2. What a great deal!. I got 3 packs, couldn’t resist Its so quick to do pages of this size. I am converted!!!. Will still do 12 x 12 for pages with lots of photos as I am still not into doing double page LO’s.

Another change around here is my garden looks a little different and not due to anything I have done either. We have new neighbours behind us and they decided to take down 2 HUGE conifers which were growing along our fence line. I have had a love/hate relationship with these trees, I loved the privacy they gave us and hated everything else about them. They made a huge mess on our pavers, took all the water from our garden, blocked out the morning sun and were ugly. They were just getting way too big and when we found out the house was on the market we were hoping the new owners would take them down.   Well after a lot of noise yesterday they have gone!.

BEFORE

AFTER

It makes our whole garden look so different and our house is much brighter inside as well. The neighbours are going to put in some new plants along the fence line so it wont look bare for long.
We are very happy campers

This is the view from our pergola area, not too bad at all!.  Was glad to welcome the morning sun into my house today.

Not much planned for the weekend, a little work around the house and might even wash that new car for the first time…. then again, maybe not.

Take care
Helen xxxxx

My Boys.

I got to spend a very cold and windy morning with my boys today. No, not my hubby and not my “other” boys U2 but my “other” “other” boys, the Collingwood Football Club   Declan attended a Collingwood Superclinic with Auskick today. Gee it was soooo cold but definitely worth it. Most of the team were there and Declan now has a footy jumper with loads of autographs on it.  His group spent most of the time being coached by Scott Burns. Declan didnt seem to grasp the fact that these are the same guys he watches on TV  and had no hesitation going up to Scott to tell him some other kid had pushed in line!.  To him Scott was just another teacher and not the team Captain!!!!

It is so nice to see these professional sportsmen take the time out to teach our children a bit more about the game. I joked with mum that maybe it was punishment for last nights performance but honestly it seems that most of them really enjoy doing this with the kids.

Lets hope there’s a next time,

Helen xxxxx

Some of my work…..

from last week, finally. Sorry its taken so long for me to share (I know you are all on the edge of your seats   ).

Here are a couple of LO’s I completed.

This one would be my favourite from the weekend.

This one is soooo simple but with the “busy” photos that seems to work

Not so keen on this one but hey, atleast its another story told

and this is just the cutest photo ever!. Riley and Miss Piper aahhhhh.

As you can tell, I still cant take of straight picture of my LO’s . Might have to start doing A4 pages just so I can scan them.

 

Here is one of the 2 mini books I completed.  My SIL Gill gave me a few folders so decided to make the theme of this one “family”. I used up some of my stash of general shots of us together as a family, no real story to tell.  I really loved scrapping in a different size. Not only did I use up some old photos but also managed to make it entirely out of my scraps of paper. Love the way it turned out. Still plan to add a couple more pages as not many have Matilda in there so will keep adding to this one. So far I have 10 pages

So thats about half of what I managed to achieve last weekend.  Will share the rest next time.

I Plan to spend tonight in front of my new TV, watching the footy and scrapping the night away    It will be my reward at the end of a horrible day as this morning I discovered that Declan has HEAD LICE!!!!!!!  YUK YUK YUK YUK. Never had to deal the with horrible little critters before and they are just so awful.  I get all itchy just thinking about them. Washing machine and Dryer is going flat out. Lets hope the rest of us stay Nit free.

Hope you all have a great weekend,

Helen xxxxx

Back to Reality…………

Well I have just had a tough weekend. First I had to take a trip out to Warburton, then I had to scrap like mad, stopping only to eat a meal that I didnt prepare or to get some sleep, all of this whilst my children were at home driving hubby crazy and not me! .  I know, its tough but someone has to do it hahahaha. 

Had a great time (guess you all knew I would). Got so much done (8 LO’s and 2 mini books), I am amazed. Have not taken any pictures yet so will share my work next time.

Thanks Jane for a lovely weekend      

Today I was snapped back to reality with the start of term 3. Luckily we had some super amazing weather which made the early start and walk to school more tolerable.  Can you believe that we are literally in the middle of winter and we have had weather like this????.  19 degrees!!!!!!!

The kids and I made the most of it and spent the afternoon hanging out in the garden.

Note the last picture, I have the first blossom out on my tree (probably a little confused by the mild winter we have had). 

What I want to know is why Matilda refuses to walk when she is on solid ground yet put her on the Jumpaline and she stands and tries to walk?. That must be the hardest place to learn.

Not much planned for this week. Need to catch up on the housework, do my tax (yuk),  Declan has Grandparent afternoon at school and a Collingwood Super Clinic for Auskick this Saturday, Riley is really looking forward to Kinder, not sure about swimming and Matilda will be tagging along to all of the above.

Hope you all have a great week,

Helen xxxxx

Better late than never :-)

To start off I have to say………

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY PIPER

Hope you have a wonderful day

xxxxx

Ok its only taken me 2 weeks but here we are.  The holidays have just flown by. We have done very little and loved every second of it!. We all needed a rest and the bad (or should that be good?) weather had made it easy to stay at home. This rain is just lovely, you can just hear my garden doing a little happy dance.

Here are some pics from the past 2 weeks.

There has been lots of lego, dvd’s, computer games (the boys fave at the moment is the lego site), jumping on the “jumpalene” and cars with a little housework thrown in.

Matilda is still not walking (grrr) a few steps here and there and thats it. She has also take to escaping out the doggy door in the laundry (see above) and drawing me lots of lovely pictures….. on the wall.

Last Sunday we did head up to Healesville for the Mid Winter Cruise. The Chev ran like a dream, except for when it ran out of petrol. Luckily we had some extra in the boot so were soon on our way again. Found a great little market, had a picnic lunch and just enjoyed the beautiful surroundings.

Well seriously, that is all that has happened over the past 2 weeks, boring huh   I know next week is going to be a huge struggle to get back into the school routine again. Not looking forward to it at all.

Better run, I am leaving my family for the weekend and heading to Warburton for a few days of scrapping and a little R&R (I hope). My lift will be here in 2 hours so need to finish packing and organising my family. Please keep Steve in your thoughts as he is going to have a “full on” weekend with the children and 3 birthday parties.

Till next week..

Helen xxxxx

News Flash!!!

My car now has a new home…. in a very good way. I have a spot in the garage!!!!!!.  This is something I never thought would happen.  Since getting my lovely new car Steve has decided it needs a safe and secure home so after 3 very longs days he managed to clear a space for my car.

I know its a really bad photo but you get the idea.  Oh I am just so excited. No more loading kids up in the rain and no more racing out and putting the aircon on 15 minutes early just so we can get in the car in summer.

As for that proper post, well its on its way, I promise

Helen xxxxx

Hello…..

Yes we are still here……..been in forced hibernation as my car was in for a service and a couple of minor fix me ups (all at the car yards expense so all good).  The boys have stayed in their PJ’s for 2 of the last 3 days, They spend a lot of time on the computer at the moment so I dont get much of a look in. Will do a proper post shortly. Still recovering from the toy sales last night. Got in at 2:30, remind me to never ever ever do that again!. It was complete chaos aaagh!. Good chance to catch up with some girls kid free though.

Bye for now

Helen xxxxx