Art on canvas

These Prima patterned papers, flowers and leaves are absolutely stunning. I picked up the papers at last week's craft show here in Brisbane knowing they would be perfect for this project!

These canvases are for the Hillsong eXchange art and film festival. I have had four photographs shortlisted in the show and was able to create canvases to showcase two of the photos. The art eXchange features films, photography and artwork that feature these Easter related themes -
SACRIFICE / RESURRECTION / FORGIVENESS / REDEMPTION / FAITH / HOPE / LOVE.

My four pieces are formed around the themes Faith, Hope, redemption and Love. The festival will be a fantastic night so if you are in Brisbane this Easter weekend, come along and experience a family friendly night of art, film, photography, food and fellowship :)There is a program for the kids too!
 More details here.

My baby is six!

Six years ago today this little man emerged from the world sunny side up. He was destined to go against the grain from the very beginning and has stayed true to form ever since.

He lives his life in costume and character, playing with his Lego and weaving elaborate stories and games.

Happy 6th Birthday Master Connor.

Connor leveled up in swimming this week and has conquered his fear of diving into the deep end! This has been quite a big deal seeing as he wouldn't even step into the water a year ago!

We had an early family birthday party today with all of the little cousins and assorted Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents in attendance. We had pizza and cake in the park with a dose of soccer thrown in for good measure. Connor had a blast and loved all of his presents. The Toy Story Lego sets were a hit and are already sitting proudly on his shelf :)

While at the park today, my gorgeous nephew Lachlan showed off his newly acquired walking skills, enabling me to snap a few pictures. I struck gold with this little beauty!

Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen with his little puppy? Rich says he looks like a doll in this shot with his porcelain skin and pused little lips...love it! 

Here he is demonstrating his other new love - pointing. He ppoints at everything and is rather happy with himself ;)

And just for fun - a sweet photo of the birthday boy and his long-suffering sister at swimming lessons this week. Mikaela has graduated to squad this week and is a very happy little swimmer.

Mind you, seeing as this is how she spends a good portion of her time there, I have no idea how she leveled up....she's such a shy, delicate little flower *sigh*....

Well I'd better go...I have presents to wrap and cupcakes to decorate. A mother's work is never done.

Sack Racing, Russian dolls and other Random Events...

I love this new range by Sassafrass called Apple Jack. The gorgeous colours and prints lend themselves beautifully to all of those photos from Lachlan's circus birthday party.

A couple of weeks ago I flew to Sydney for a few days to attend the amazing Colour conference as I do every year. It was a brilliant weekend escape and the line up of speakers were awesome as usual. I especially adore Priscilla Shirer who I have seen a couple of times now. She is simply incredible.

While there I picked up three new families to bring home. These sweet little Russian Dolls were at Paddys Markets. Very basic little sets but they fit in here just fine. The third set was snaffled by Miss Mikaela...the pink set, naturally ;)

Yesterday began as a truly horrid day. It was a series of one dismal event after another resulting in us being late for school and way beyond frazzled. I was indesperate need of a good coffee and a Nurofen cocktail.

I managed to find not just good coffee, but GREAT coffee at the French Twist Cafe in South Brisbane. They have multiple locations throughout Brisbane and supply the most velvety Latte I have ever tasted.  Thanks to my friend Jill for this discovery and also for taking me to the Queensland Fine Foods trade show.

I swear I sampled so many foods that I rolled out of there. I ate about 100 samples that well and truly what added up to a full meal.

This was my favourite little sample of the day.

Who doesn't need an emergency cookie now and then! Especially a Peanut butter and Choc-chip one...bliss! Needless to say after the way yesterday started out...that cookie was gone by last night ;)

Jillian has a fantastic new food blog for any fellow foodies out there. I have worked casually with Jill in her catering business for quite a few years now and she has some gorgeous recipes and ideas. Check her out!

Anyway, back to regular programming...the house looks like a scene from Beirut circa 1982. I am channeling Martha today in the bid to get this place in order. I can not tell you how excited this makes me *sigh*... 

Clowning Around

Little Scrapbook Shop's Cybercrop was held this past weekend and I designed a step by step paper pleating tutorial for my challenge. You can find the steps here if you'd like to give this simple, effective technique a go :)

And just for fun - my latest self portrait and Facebook profile picture. I get sick of looking at the same picture for too long so I played with some Fresco filters to create this image. Love that canvas texture :)

Treasure tins and other things

I was lucky enough to have a little crop day with Shan last week and managed only one single layout between chats, coffee and lunch LOL! It was so lovely to catch up though which made the lack of creating quite OK ;)

Don't forget to join us at the Little Scrapbook Shop cybercrop on March the 12th. Loads of good, bad and ugly challenges to tackle if you need a little creative push :)

Yes, that is my gorgeous daughter in the poster below. Such a shy, delicate little flower she is!

This sweet film tin is for a new class I am teaching at Scrapbooks etc. I haven't taught much OTP stuff before so this is a little daunting for me! I have to dmit it stretched me to create an OTP class after teaching layouts for so long so I hope it goes OK!