Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas & New Year.
We have had a wonderful family Christmas, the boys are very happy with there presents.

We bought them a new trampoline, which they just love.
The weather has brightened up, which means Summer has finally arrived!!  It is still hard to become festive in the sunshine but it sure does beat the snow & ice.
It is hard to belive that only a couple of weeks ago our street looked like this........

Our whole street flooded because the catchment pond in the next street burst it banks because of blocked drains!  Michael & the boys thought it was great fun because they could kayak up & down the street.

So much to share but not enough time!  Catch up soon.

Two days of Athletics

We have just spent the latter part of the week watching our boys enjoy their athletics day's at school.
Aston's was cancelled for the first two days, due to rain, so it was third time lucky.

Jensen & Myles had their Athletics day together.  They were split up by year groups.

They actually got to use a real discus & shot put, not like the juniors, they get to throw bean bags, I guess it is less dangerous.  I can assure you that even the year 3 & 4 had problems throwing within the lines!  I had to duck at least twice.  lol

Prima say it with Crystals, Fancy Pants Acetate & stamping

Here is a layout to make you think of Summer!
I designed this for an on-line challenge, I didn't win but I love the finished layout.

Backpack & Cards

Here is a pic of the class in a kit I made for Better Scrapbooking.
I used a Dilmah tea box for my template, this made my backpack big enough for card storage.
I've used Fancy Pants papers, die cuts & Kaisercraft brads.

Upsy Daisy Unwritten Layout

Here is another layout I designed for Memories Forever, using the Upsy Daisy Unwritten papers.

Designing with Upsy Daisy

While at CHA we came across an awesome canadian scrapbooking company called Upsy Daisy.

Here are some of the cards & layouts I created for Memories Forever once we returned home.

Scrappin Patch Challenges

At the beginning of the year I took part in The Scrappin Patch Stars in their eyes challenges.  Here is a pic of my Emily Falconbridge style journal.
I really enjoyed this challenge, it made me create something I wouldn't have normally done & I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I have so much to share

I have ten months worth of creating to share, where do I start?
I guess back to the beginning of the year.  lol

I created these layouts for The Better Scrapbooking DT that I am on.  I was lucky enough to be asked to stay on for another year.  So I have several layouts to show over the next few posts.

Monty Loving Trees

Just had to share some photos of our new cat Monty...well he is not so new now as he is 8mths old.
He is loving our trees at the moment.

This is what he looked like when we first got him.

MIA for too long! But I'm back now.

I need to get this blog up to speed with what has been happening in my life. It has been such a long time since I last blogged.
So, what happened to me after the 18th Jan, well shortly after that I was lucky enough to go to Winter CHA In Anaheim!! It was amazing, I loved everything. I managed to complete 9 fantastic classes. CHA was everything I had expected. I would love to go again.
I'll upload photos of some of the projects I made later.
We went to Disneyland too, can't have a trip to Anaheim without Disneyland! I told my boys I was going to check it out for them, just to make sure it was suitable. lol

What has happened .......

We have been having such wonderful weather, dare I say it has actually been too hot some days!
I feel a little guilty saying that..just a little. lol As when I spoke to my parents in the UK, they are having an all time low of -12, I don't ever remember it getting that cold in the 28years I lived there. The weather seems to be at extremes.
Our rabbits have been enjoying the sun, they love their run. They are such time wasters as they are fun to watch. I've heard it is a great honour to be licked by a rabbit, it means they trust you. Emily the white Netherland dwarf has licked me a couple of times now. She is so cute!
But what has happened to the weather tonight? Rain!!, well I hope it is dry again by morning. lol
What is happening in the scrapbook world too? I hear Simple scrapbooks are coming to an end but they will now go back to being included in CK magazine.
Fiskars are going to stop selling consumables like paper & rub on etc & concentrate on tools again. They do make awesome tools but I was enjoying Heidi Grace & Cloud9. But I guess with the current downturn in the economy some things have to go.

Back to normal......

My darling husband had to return to work today after the long Christmas break. I think he would have been quite happy if his holiday was for the whole of January. lol
The kids & I had a lazy day enjoying the sun & splashing around in the pool.
So life is back to normal after the Christmas holidays have finished but the kids are still on Summer holiday from school, so we are not really back to 'normal' just yet.

We booked our trip to the UK over the weekend. Off to visit all the family in April. I have finalized the cottages we are staying in, which is a great relief. I was getting overloaded with details.
We have one in the forest by the sea & one in a town close to my parents, both will be ideal for relaxing.
We are returning via Hong Kong & stopping at Disneyland, I'm sure the kids will love it. I am looking forward to meeting the Characters. I've been told they don't speak, which is good in a way, as they kids will want to know why they don't speak like the cartoons/movies!
Apparently Hong Kong Disneyland is smaller than the one in the states & doesn't have as many rides. But hey, we will still have a ball :-)

Why is it so hard to say goodbye?

Yesterday was a very sad day, we had to say goodbye to our dear cat Eddie :-(
He was approx 16yrs old (we don't know his exact age as my Husband rescued him from the SPCA 10.5yrs ago) Eddie had lived a very happy/healthy life with us until approx 4mths ago when he was diagnosed with feline aids. We were told that he could live up to 2yrs but would need antibiotics whenever he got an infection. This worked for a few months but eventually he didn't respond to the antibiotics & became very frail.
After lots of cuddles, brushing & a full tummy, we took him to the vet as he had an eye infection, the vet recommended euthanasia as the only option as Eddie had become so unwell. It was a very hard decision to make but one we had discussed in depth over the last few days.
The boys said their goodbyes but how do you explain to a 4yr old that their never going to see their beloved cat Eddie again? As I type this, my youngest is outside calling for him to come home!! :-(

What have you been up to today?

It has been such a wonderful day our boys have had fun on their bikes, then when they were all hot & sweaty they had fun relaxing in the sun & jumping around in the pool.
What a great way to spend the day.
Those Intex pools are the greatest pool set if you can't afford the real thing. :-)

I'm still playing around with blogger learning as I go.

Five start Blogging

My eldest has started reading Enid Blyton's Famous Five.....can you tell?
I asked for a title & this is what I got. lol
Well there are five of us, so let see if we can have just as much fun.

Just testing for now.