You Are So Beautiful To Me

Hellloooo!!!!

Long time no post! LOL! I hope everyone had a lovely Easter however you spent it. And I hope that everyone is enjoying school holidays! We have enjoyed the break, I can't believe it's basically over. Tomorrow is the last day at home then the kids are back to school. And we'll all be counting down till the next holiday's! I love having the kids home, and always miss them when they are gone!

Over the Scrapsidaisy we have been taking part in the the April challenge. I loved the challenge so much that I did two pages! This is the first page I did ... Immi at Mum and Jeff's wedding last year. Her job was to give the rings over during the ceremony, she took the role very seriously! Tay did a beautiful reading of a poem and Nick had the very important job of walking Nanny down the aisle and giving her away!

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked! As I said, this is a layout of Immi. She loved her long pretty dress and I really wanted to do a page showing the detail of the back of it. When I saw the Dusty Attic Bodice I KNEW I wanted to use it with these photo's. The Dusty Attic Candelabra went perfectly as well. For the flowers I knew I couldn't go any further than the exquisit Jules Gems! Of course for any of the yummy Dusty Attic of Jules Gems products head over to scrapsidaisy.com/shop so you don't miss out! I am in total love with both these yummy products!

I used a little Tattered Angels journal card behind the photos, and added ribbon and pearls to the bodice. I gave it a heavy spray of Old Lace Glimmer Mist, oh I love this colour! The 'Beautiful' rub-on is a Crate run-on I got from Scrapsidaisy quiet a while ago and had hiding in my stash!

And don't you just love the TPC Studio Ancestral range .... YUMMY!!!!!!!!

The second page I did for the challenge is following this post ... so I will let you head to that now!!!!!!!

I Hope You Dance

This is the 2nd page I did for the April Challenge over at Scrapsidaisy! The title is a song by Lee Ann Womack and has what I think is a beautiful message for your children, and what you would hope and wish and dream for them for their future.

I have used a piece of TPC Studio Ancestral PP (I was lucky enough to get my hands on 2 sheets of the TPC pp when it came into Scrapsidaisy a few weeks ago!). I knew I wanted to do something 'vintage' but wasn't sure what until this challenge came up and I knew I wanted to use these papers. I have also used a Dusty Attic piece in the top left corner, the chandelier. These products are SOOO yummy, I just love everything about them. You can get your hands on some of the yumminess that is Dusty Attic over at Scrapsidaisy (scrapsidaisy.com/shop). (Forgive me I still haven't worked out how to attach a link as yet!)

I didn't have the 'perfect' flower for this corner, and I KNEW there was one of the exquisit 'Jules Gems' that would be perfect at Scrapsidaisy BUT I was too impatient to wait till Monday so I made my own flowers and am really happy with how they turned out! I love the little clock that I shrinky dinked when I was experimenting weeks ago with Shrinky Dink! It is a Kaiser stamp from their Duchess collection! There is also a little Jules Gems flower hiding in there as well!

On the Chandelier I have used Old Lace Glimmer Mist. I inked the flames of the candles with gold ink, painted some gold dust on them and then put a coat of Dimensional Magic on them for a bit of shine. The lace was orginally white so I stained it with tea to get a vintage colour for it.

Thanks so much for looking.

Enjoy what is left of your weekend,

Hel xo

A quick page .......

Good Morning Everyone!

Just wanted to quickly put up a page of Tay that I did on the weekend, while I have 2 seconds to spare!

This photo was taken at my step-brother's wedding in QLD in April and I just love it! I have used more of the June Bug range which I just LOVE. I really thought I would have liked the Lemonade range more but I was so drawn to June Bug which surprised me to be honest! I couldn't go past the bright, happy, rich colours! I have just bought the Eskimo Kisses collection as well so can't wait to get into that! All from Scrapsidaisy of course!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday's - I can't believe they go back to school on Monday - I need more time with them! I love having them home and hate it when they have to go back ... I can't wait for the Chrissy Holiday's which are only 8 1/2 weeks away!!!! ARGH!!!! Not really organized for that just yet!!!!!!!

Hope to pop on again soon with more layouts, thanks to anyone still dropping in here!

Love Hel xo

Still learning ...

Hi! Just wanted to let you know that the below 2 posts are supposed to be around the other way!!! LOL still learning how to work out this blog stuff!!!!!

H xo

But wait ... there's more!!!!!!

Still not sure how to get more than 4 pictures to post at a time so here is another creation ... I made this for my new niece ... inspired by a Christmas creation Jules made at the shop! Iv'e just converted it to a baby plaque instead! I bought the frame from Scrapsidaisy, along with the gorgeous stamps I have used as well.

I hope everyone is well, I will try take photo's very soon of my other things from the weekend!

Cheers, Helen xo

Card Crazy!

Hi there!

I'm so excited! I spent the weekend scrapping! Haven't had a HUGE scrap for AGES and I LOVED it!!! I haven't taken photo's of everything I did just yet but here are a few things I've made ......

The card below is actually Mum and Jeff's Wedding Invitation that I made for their wedding in August ... just hadn't got around to taking a photo just yet! The colours are much better in real life too, shimmer cream card stock with white lace ... and white rose printed vellum inside with all the wedding details!

My Step-Sister had a baby girl last Monday so the next 2 cards are for them ... one for our niece Jazmyn for becoming a big sister, and the other for the baby!

Each year the kids send my Nan, their Great Grandmother, a thank you card for their Birthday presents ... this is this years TY card!

MIss Immi turns 7!

It is so scary to think how fast our babies grow up, but they seem to do that right before our eyes.

Our 'baby' of the family, Imogen, turned 7 yesterday and it only feels like yesterday that she was a tiny baby. I miss having her at home and knowing that she will grow up before we know it, yet at the same time I love watching her grow and learn more and more.

We had a 'friends' party on Sunday afternoon at the local PCYC. Immi LOVES the Kindy Gym parties they do - this is the 3rd year running she has had her party there and I'm thinking I might just book her in for next year now!

They do a terrific job with all the kids teaching them the basics of gymnastics and having a go on a lot of the equipment. The kids love it and get a lot out of it - keeps them going for 2 hours!

I asked Immi what cake she would like and she decided on a Dolly Cake! Without wanting to spend the almost $40 on a Dally Varden cake tin, I ended up making a Dolly Ice Cream cake using a mixing bowl from home! Immi was impressed and happy with the end result! She fancies herself a little bit of a princess!

The gorgeous candles I got from Scrapsidaisy! Just love them and haven't seen anything like them around anywhere else.

On the scrapping front I have been doing some bits and pieces but haven't organized myself to take photo's yet! I will try get onto that in the next few days!

I don't know that many people would still be around looking at my blog (I'm very slack I know!) but if anyone does, thanks for dropping in!

Love Hel xo

Almost the end of ... April!!!

Hello there to anyone who might still be around!!! (Donna?? LOL)

Once again it is AGES between posts .... and once again no excuse other than 'life'!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter (!) - it feels like forever ago, I can't believe it has come and gone and now Anzac Day is here. I always get so emotional on Anzac Day watching the Parade. Do you know the McDonald's ad. where the girls serves the Returned Soldier a coffee and he says 'thank you' and she turns around and says 'no, thank YOU' ??? Well even that gets me bawling on Anzac Day ... we have so mucn to be grateful and thankful for - I hope my children realize this and rememeber this for the future. Our life could be so different today if it wasn't for all the brave men and women who went to fight hard for us ......

We've had a very busy few months. The kids happily started back to school - Nick is doing so well in Yr 7, Tay is loving Yr 5 and we are finding Immi to be very happy in Yr 1. So far so good with all the kids!

We've had 2 wedding's this year - my step-bother was married in QLD and then 3 weeks later a very dear friend was married in the Hunter Valley Garden's. OMG so gorgeous there - a perfect setting for a wedding or something special.

I've been on a 'girlie' holiday to Tassie for a special friend's 40th birthday! Talk about FUN!!! It was great! We saw a lot, learnt a lot, ate a lot, drank only a little (LOL) and had a fabulous time!

Phil has not been so great with 2 trips to hospital recently! One visit was while we were in QLD for Justin & Lisa's wedding and the other time was only a couple of weeks ago on a Wed night ... talk about giving us a scare!!! It's a really drastic way to get attention!!! LOL ... he's been to one specialist and is off to see another in Newcastle in the near future - he'll be fine though I'm sure!

We are in the middle of MAJOR renovations now so that seems to be taking any spare time that we have. It's such a huge job but will be more than worth it in the end!

So, now we are on school holiday's, or at the tail-end of them, and I'm finding there are not enough days to do all that we want to do! We have had 3 days camping which was fantastic. Luckily we didn't get the really horrible weather the coast got otherwise it might not have been so much fun! The kids had a really great time and we enjoyed kicking back with our friends and doing 'nothing'. Phil is not used to taking 'time out' so it took him a while to get into the chill-out mode!!!!!

Not a lot of time for me to scrap lately other than a few cards here and there, but I recently had Immi and her great buddy Clare in for a kids class while I was at work one day. Here are a few photo's of them concentrating really hard on their creations!!!!! And one at the end of the finished product ... which they designed all themselves!!!! LOL

Immi (L) and Clare (R)

Immi

The final product! They were very proud!

Thanks heaps for looking and I will try really hard to be back on here again soon!

Love and hugs, Hel xo

Reflecting ....

It is so hard to believe the last few days of complete devestation and heartache that the entire country has seen with the Bushfires in Victoria. It is something that we could never imagine in our wildest nightmares and yet so many people are living it.

It has been incredible though to see how we as a country have totally pulled together to support the victims the the fires. It makes me so proud to call myself an Australian ... to know that we are all there wanting to help any way we can and sending love and kindness to those affected by this tragedy.

For myself I know it has made me hug my children a little tighter at night and makes me so thankful for all that I have. It could easily happen to any one of us. I know I am telling the people I love and care about that I love them and appreciate them.

Leisa at Scrapsidaisy has come up with the most amazing idea of doing bundles of handmade cards to send to Victoria. Have a look at the scrapsidaisy blog for more details http://www.scrapsidaisy.typepad.com/ I am going to do what I can to help ... it is a good feeling to know that I can physically do something to help out.

I have been VERY slack at blogging for a while and I have had the blogging 'police' onto me!! LOL Kristy and Leisa!!!!

So, I don't have photo's of a lot of recent creations but I do have photo's of Christmas presents for Tay's teacher last year!!! Is that super-slack of me to only be posting them now??!!! LOL yes it is! Anyway, the 2 posts below this are of the presents I made for Mrs O'Conner. I haven't yet worked out how to do a HEAP of photo's on one post and it would only let me do 4 at a time, thus the reason for seperate posts!

Thanks for looking anyone who is still around!!!!!!! I will try and be back sooner next time!

Hoping you are all safe and well .... love Hel xo

Gifts .....

Last year we were lucky enough for Taylah to have Mrs O'Conner as her Yr 4 teacher. Mrs O'Conner showed Taylah so much kindness throughout the year and often went the extra mile for Tay's particular health requirements. I wanted to do something really special for such a special and caring teacher so I decided to make her some gifts that (hopefully) she could treasure for years to come.

I made a little desk calendar for school ... I love the verse on it (even though it says 'he' it means the same thing!!!!)

More for Mrs O'Conner ....

Late last year I went to another fabulous class at SCRAPSIDAISY being taught by the very talented Kim Archer. We made gorgeous little Christmas decoration and I decided that one of these would make a fantastic gift for Mrs O'Conner. This is the one I made for her and just a few of the pages throughout it ... I left spaces where she could add her own photo's of her family if she felt like it, or maybe write something special in it.

Our Wedding Anniversary

Tomorrow Phil and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary. We have been together for 18 years (!) and tomorrow will be our 11th Wedding Anniversary! It is so hard to believe so many years have gone by ... time flies when you're having fun!!!

I made this quick card for him for tomorrow - it's a little 'girlie' but it's hard to make a romantic card in masculine colours so this will have to be ok! I'm sure he'll love it - he's always complaining that I make cards for everyone else and not for him!!!! So here is one just for him! I just need to do a bit of searching for a nice verse to print for the inside.

We won't actually have a lot of time together tomorrow so we're going to try and have breakfast out before the day begins! The kids are having a sleep-over tonight at Nanny and Poppy's as we are off to the school P&C dinner so I think we might be able to manage breaky out if it's just the 2 of us to get ready!! LOL

Other than that we will do something nice for dinner with the kids! We are trying to think of somewhere budget AND kid friendly - other than McDonald's!

Have had one of 'those' days today ... Immi fell off the bed last night (she was being one of those monkeys in that song and she was the one who fell off and bumped her head!) .... so it was decided that with a lump on her head and possible headache she would stay home. So, off to school I took the other 2 ... a girlfriend rang and suggested a quick coffee at Bent on Food after we dropped kids off ... well of course I could squeeze that in (!) and thought Immi might like a milkshake (well, she wasn't technically SICK after all) ... so off we went for our morning tea.

Getting in the car after coffee I realized that Phil had called my mobile SEVEN times ... hmmm a problem possibly and I didn't hear my mobile ... well there is Scarlet Fever AND Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease at the school ... so Taylah needs to be brought home as with her immune system she cannot be around any 'diseases' or virus' .... so off to the school I go to pick her up ... she's not impressed as this can mean WEEKS away from school for her. We then find out the sick children are in Immi's class. Fabulous. She's exposed. Fabulous, I did reading on Wednesday, I'm exposed. OK ... what this means for Tay for the moment we will wait and see.

Immi then decided she feels MUCH better and would like to go to school .... I decide she's already pre-exposed so it makes no difference so OK .. if she's asking she can go! Home we go to get her dressed (which is 10 minutes away, not around the corner) ... back to school she goes. OK ...

Then I decide to get petrol ... so excited as it's down to $1.24 ..... fill the car up and $77 later ... reach for my handbag ... it's not there. Good god I left it at home!!!!!!!

Go in and beg forgiveness from the lovely lady behind the counter ... leave all my details ... race home AGAIN ... grab said bag ... BACK to Wingham ... pay and leave red-faced .. then HOME with no more stops so as we don't jinx ourselves!!!!!!

So far so good the rest of the day has gone ok! So, after a quick trip up to the school to drop the kids off this morning in my house clothes and not a scrap of makeup on my face, I finally walked in the door at 12.15pm ...... you just have to love those sort of days!! LOL

So, hoping everyone has a fabulous weekend! Apart from our Anniversary we also have b'day parties to take 2 of the 3 cherubs to! One of those running around weekends I think!

Sorry for my above 'ranting'! It's just funny where the day sometimes takes you!

Enjoy your weekend, TFL

Love and hugs xo

Not a lot of scrapping going on!

Well the weeks are flying by and I feel like I'm running around in circles not getting much done at all, but finding the hours in the day just aren't enough! I'm sure we're all starting to feel like that with the countdown to Chrissy pretty much on now!

Haven't had a chance to do a lot of scrapping lately - am supposed to be doing paperwork for Phil! When I say supposed I really mean it and now the deadline is here and, well, I shouldn't be on this that's for sure! A downside to having your own business! All that paperwork!!! LOL

Anyway, it was recently World Teacher's Day so the girls went off to school with these quick cards and a beautiful notepad for each of their teacher's. I couldn't quiet convince Nick to do the same for his teacher! Must be too cool in Yr 6 to do something like that! LOL

Hope you're all having a good week - TFL

Hugs and kisses xoxoxo

Better Late Than Never!!!!!!!

Well, these challenges are from WEEKS ago over at the Scrapsidaisy Forum ... but I have been able to get to them eventually!!!!!! Haven't had a lot of spare scrapping time lately ... there always seems to be one thing or another on .... but hopefully this weekend will be a little quieter than the last few and I might get some things done that I have scrapped in my head!!! LOL

Challenge #14

This first page is of Immi at the school Book Week Parade. The poor little thing she had been very unwell for 2 weeks and had lost a LOT of weight (she doesn't have a lot of weight on her so any loss is noticible poor thing!) .... anyway, we ventured back to school for the Parade as it was her first ever being in Kindy this year! She had a ball and was very much a Royal Princess in every way!!!!

This second page is challenge number 15 (I think) and is of Phil, Nick and Uncle Andrew at a Newcastle Knights home game against South Sydney ... we (Knights) totally flogged them!!!!!! Is that even correct 'footy-speak'???!!!

Hope everyone is having a great week ... thanks for looking!

Hugs and kisses, Helen xo

Tory's Day ....

We recently had the weekend in Coffs Harbour where we officially became 'God-Parents' or 'Guardians' to our gorgeous God-Daughter Victoria Anne (Tory). Tory is the baby sister of our other God-Daughter Alexandra (Ally) and these gorgeous girls belong to our Best Friends, Donna and Marty.

I had planned on making a book for everyone to sign on the day but Leisa had these fabulous tins at Scrapsidaisy so I decided to do something with one of them ....

This is what I came up with ... I thought it was so pretty with the pink and butterflies - they were COVERED in glitter as well which you can't really see from the photo's ....

I then cut out little tags and had them on a ring and I got everyone to sign a tag with a little wish for Tory for her life ahead of her ....

The inside of the lid ......

This is the 5 of us with Tory .... how CUTE is she!!!!!!!!

And a RARE family photo! Donna and Marty also had a professional photographer on the day so I am really excited about getting some shots from him as well ... we haven't had a proper family photo for YEARS ... great thinking of them to do that!

I have done a couple of pages recently but haven't had a chance to photograph them yet so I will get to that this weekend hopefully!

Enjoy the weekend ahead ... TFL ... Me xo