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