This is what school holidays look like....

We have been having lots of lazy days these holidays with cooked breakfasts, baking, DVD's, trips to the park and not enough housework ;)

I am starting to spring clean today with some much needed sorting and storing of winter clothes (it is 31 degrees here today!), bedroom cleaning and kitchen scrubbing. The washpile is slowly shrinking and there is the smell of vanilla and pink grapefruit in the air....lovely!

This is a layout I managed to fit in amidst all this domesticity for the Scrapbooking Memories Cybercrop on Thursday. I even managed to win BINGO on the night. My amazing Making Memories prize pack arrived today and it is fantastic! Using it will be my reward at the end of the big spring clean I think.

This layout was just for fun late the other night when I was supposed to be cleaning my scrap space. This uses more of the yummy Sassafrass Lass products I love!

OK, back to the cleaning...I have procrastinated enough. I even bought some funky polkadot rubber gloves to get me motivated....hopefully they'll work their magic ;)

I've had quite a few people asking here, and in other galleries, where I bought the little boy/girl icon tickets. This is where I bought the girl ones and the boy ones I bought at the Scrap Convention here in Brisbane earlier this year. The store I linked to has them both :) Aren't they cute? There are other designs in the packs though...they are not all the icon ones. Other designs included are stars, hearts etc...very cute.

Two to share..

Just a couple of layouts using the photos from my last post. The first one is lots of fun :) Those pics sure did capture them perfectly LOL. There's no wonder I call them the Feral Four!

This photo of Jarred is a rare one. He is always dodging the camera and is not usually this co-operative in being photographed. It is such a good shot of him too! More of the yummy Basic Grey Ambrosia papers..Mmmmm.

The Quest..........

.....for a few nice photos of the kids for Grandma to take overseas to show her family. *sigh*...taking a decent photo of four boisterous kids is like herding cats.
My hat goes off to any photographer that can manage to get 4 kids looking in the same direction at any given time with a semblance of a smile...or at least a grin. My photo shoot resulted in hair pulling, stacks-on and ant bites.
Looks like Grandma's friends and family will get a true glimpse of the feral four at their very best.








Thankfully I got some reasonable individual shots...sort of LOL Maybe I could merge them all in Photoshop to look like they love each other!

Connor - 4


Ethan - 6


Mikaela - 9


Jarred - 13

Aye, blow me down it's the weekend me hearties!

Join me over at LSBS where I am hosting this snap weekend challenge! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day today so we need to celebrate!

Here's a Copy and Paste of the instructions -

1. You must talk like a Pirate today to someone who is not an immediate family member. Answer the phone with an "Ahoy there Ya horn swogglin' bilge rat". Telemarketers will run a mile! Answer the door with an "Avast Ya lily livered scurvy cur"...watch your Mother-in-law scurry away in fear . Post your efforts here...with some pirate-speak for emphasis of course.

2. You must make a layout. It can be 8.5 x 11 or 12 x 12.

3. It can be of any topic or theme you wish.

4. It must contain six products (including brands), colours or techniques that start with the letters of the word PIRATE. For example, my layout below uses the following...
Patterned Paper
Inking
Ribbons
American Crafts Stickers
Thickers
Eyelets

A couple of new layouts

I bought some of the new Sassafrass Lass papers this week and I love them! This first layout is made using them. I use a lot of green so these appealed to me for this photo LOL.




This one is my BIL and Jarred (13). This is the way they express their love for each other LOL! Jarred adores his uncles and they are so good to him. It will be interesting to see what happens when Jarred eventually puts on a few more kilos and a few more inches ;)



I am working on some DT projects and some mag stuff which is keeping me busy. I have some yummy things to play with this month and am looking forward to sharing some projects soon.
Good news on the digi front...if you want some new digi kits, my sister Rachel is going exclusive, designing for Scrap Orchard! Vist her blog and see what she has coming up. Lovely, lovely digi things!

A quick digi

Just a quick digi layout to share from my first downloaded kits onto this new computer. I didn't transfer any of my old digi elements from the old computer yet so downloaded a few new freebie kits tonight. This kit is the Shabby Princess Spontaneous Delight kit which is available to download. I love her stuff :)
Photoshop runs so fast and smooth on this new laptop...what a breeze :)

Cybercropping

We are Cybercropping over at LSBS this weekend if you are after a challenge. Pop over and see what we are up to. Big announcements are being made with some of our fave designers moving on and a new one moving in!
Big hugs and kisses to my friend and fellow Designer Lisa Pate who is moving on from the DT at LSBS. You are an amazing scrapper and awesome friend and it has been a privilege to get to know you and work with you. I love you my Scrap Sister!
A big welcome also to Tracy Wyldman who is coming onboard to join the team. Tracy is well known in her work for Scrapbooking Memories and is one talented scrapper. Pop into LSBS and wish her a warm welcome.

I designed the sketch for this month's cybercrop sketch challenge. With the 'Saying Good-bye' theme for the CC weekend I scrapped a layout farewelling my baby days.



This layout is an older one I haven't showed yet. It is Tayla, my cousin Susie's little princess. Only 3 weeks old in this photo. Isn't she so pretty!



This is an older one too. My BIL and my niece. He is so amazing with all the nieces and nephews and of course his own little girls. Love this photo! He is always reayd with $5 to give to the child that will eat the jalapeno or extract their own wobbly tooth...gotta love that LOL.

More Basic Grey

Here are a couple more layouts using the new ranges from Basic Grey. Basic Grey ranges always impress and these ranges are no exception to that rule. The Offbeat range is fun, fresh and funky while the Ambrosia range is decadent and sophisticated. Love them!!
Little Scrapbook Shop carries the full ranges of the new Basic Grey ranges right now for one stop shopping :) Pick up some of the yummy Carolees Creations mini alphas while you are there...they have tons of colours and styles. I love them!

Basic Grey Ambrosia.....

....is delicious. I love this range and the colours are divine. I bought some of the Off Beat today too...can't wait to play :)

Magazine Shares

The new Scrapbook Creations arrived today and I have a layout in there. I love the photo in this layout and was so happy to see it in print.
They also printed this one in the contents again :)




This is my layout from Scrapbooking Memories last month. It also features my DH and the kids...actually the photos were taken on the same day...just with two kids in each layout. Quite funny they appeared in the almost the same month but different mags :)



I also have a couple of layouts and a project challenge in this next issue of Scrapbooing Memories due to hit shelves any day now. Can't wait to see how the project challenge turned out in print!

Extreme Makeover

No, not me personally, but my blog. Thanks to my talented Digital Designer sister Rachel, I have a new look blog. She surprised me last night with a facelift :)
I love the newspaper print background and the tree is adorable.
What do you think? Does it suit me?

Cuppycake Love

Today my very good friend Michelle married her sweetheart. She has 2 gorgeous boys and deserves every happiness in the world. My gift to her was to make the wedding cupcakes. Yesterday my sisters and I had a fab day together making a mass of caramel filled cupcakes. The brief was 'Cupcakes that look like little gardens".

By the Bride's reaction today, we filled the brief :) They are as yummy as they look if I do say so myself..I should know, I ate 2 hehe.

Big thanks to my little sisters who did such an amazing job :) Thanks for a great day!