Scrappity-scrap

I thought I’d share the layout I did last night for the Fornightly Sketch Challenge over at The Sketch Book.

Here is the sketch:

 

And here is my take on it:

I replaced the bracket square and flower embellishment for something a bit more “boyish”, by cutting the cogs out of patterned paper (Cogsmo by Cosmo Cricket).

Oh, and I forgot to share this layout last week! It was for The Sketch Book’s very first Friday Night Challenge. We had to use a blue/green/white colour scheme, polka dots, stripes, brads, photo corners and a bird:

 

On Sunday, I will be posting the first Book Of Me (BOM) Challenges at The Sketch Book. There will be 4 challenges each month, with the option to pick one, or do all 4. The BOM Challenges are a great way to scrap more pages about yourself, and get you thinking “outside the square” a little.
 
I have also signed up for the “So You Think You Can Scrap” competition at Scrapbook Studio, which starts today.
Not sure what makes me think I will have time for it, as I am already extremely busy. But there’s no harm in giving it a go. If I can’t complete all the challenges, at least I will have had fun trying!

The wrong kind of surprise

This is what I saw when I returned to my parked car this afternoon after getting some groceries for Mum & Dad (who are both sick in bed):

 

And the moron who did this just drove away!!!

However, I am very grateful to the 3 witnesses who saw it all happen and wrote down the licence plate number for me.

I drove straight to Rob’s work and cried all over him, before washing my hands of the whole situation. He finished work early, rang the insurance company, and then went to the police station to file a report.
I love that man!

The police will be making a phone call (or a visit) to the offender in the next couple of days, and hopefully our insurance company will sort out the rest.

As you can see, the damage is pretty severe. The photo doesn’t show how bad the dents are. They are so bad that I’ll definitely need both doors replaced.

But at least the car is still driveable. I told Rob that people keep staring at me when I drive past. He said perhaps it’s not because of the banged up car, perhaps it’s because I’m hot.

Did I mention how much I love that man?

P.S. When Ethan saw the damage, he said, “Mummy, I don’t want to make you feel sad, but the white bits actually look quite cool. They look like lightning!”

Little Guy

My Little Guy is now 6 (SIX!) years old. I can’t believe it! It seems like only yesterday he was starting school.

Last night we had a family dinner at my parents’ place, a combined birthday dinner for Ethan and my sister. Despite Mum, Dad and Tyler all being sick, we had such a fun evening. I think the highlight of the night was playing Chinese Whispers around the dinner table – we were all in hysterics and the boys just loved it!

Last night Ethan opened his presents from Nana & Grandad. He got The Bee Movie on DVD, his very first “chapter book” (Nim’s Island), a colouring book, and this:

Mum made him this VERY special Treasure Box. Ethan just loves collecting and keeping little “treasures” and at the moment he has most of them in shoeboxes. Mum wanted to make him a special box for his most precious things.
Ethan loved it so much, and I was really touched by his response. He said “I really love it all. I love it very much. I will keep this forever and ever”. I saw tears glistening in his eyes, and asked him if he was crying. He said “I’m happy crying”.
Needless to say, I had tears glistening in my own eyes after that.

He received Junior Scrabble, felts and a book from Aunty Leah – absolutely perfect gifts for him.

One thing that I LOVED this year was hearing Ethan read aloud from his birthday cards:

“To Ethan, You are a very special boy and we hope you have a very special 6th birthday. We are very proud of you. We love you. Love from Nana & Grandad xxxxxx.”
“Dear Ethan, I hope you have a very, very happy birthday! Yay, 6 years old!! I love you lots. Love from Aunty Leah xox.”

Then this morning, he read our card aloud:

“Ethan, Happy Birthday number 6! We love you sooo much little guy. Have a great day. Daddy xxOo.”
“Little Guy, I love you more than you know, and I’m so very proud of you. Lots of love, Mummy xox.”

He read each one word perfect. My heart was welling up with pride as I listened to him read, and as I watched him open his gifts with so much gratitude in his heart.

We actually had to wake Ethan up this morning, because Rob wanted to say “Happy Birthday” and watch him open his present before going to work. We sang to him and put the present on his chest, but he still didn’t wake up! He was soooo sleepy, but eventually he stirred and realised it was his birthday! He loved his present, but most of all, he was excited about ordering his lunch at school today!
For both Rob and I, getting a lunch order at school was a really special treat. In Rob’s family, they were only allowed to order their lunch on their birthdays, and we decided to carry on that tradition. So today he is getting:

*American hot dog with cheese & sauce
*Cookie Time cookie
*Milk with a chocolate Sippah straw

This afternoon I am taking some cake into Ethan’s class for his classmates to share. Only SpongeBob’s pants & shirt got eaten at the party, so Ethan’s class will get to eat his body!

And tonight Ethan has requested pancakes for tea.

Happy Birthday, little guy!
You are amazing and I’m so proud to be your Mummy. You are sweet, kind and absolutely delightful. I love watching you grow, and I’m proud to see the way you are maturing into a totally awesome little boy.
I love you SO much! Mummy xox

Star struck …

Check out The Sketch Book for more info!

Ethan’s Party!

Ethan had his 6th birthday party yesterday, although his actual birthday is not until tomorrow.

He had 6 friends over for the afternoon. The theme was SpongeBob SquarePants! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea … 

* There were presents.

* There was party food.

* There were games.

Pin the tie on SpongeBob was a lot of fun. I had drawn a giant SpongeBob on a piece of polystyrene, which was super easy for the kids to push the pin into.

Rob put together SpongeBob’s Treasure Hunt and he did a fantastic job. No surprise there, as this is truly his element. He loves kids, games, and having fun! All the clues related to SpongeBob and his friends who live in Bikini Bottom.

He also had the brilliant idea of tying all the boys together on a long rope while they did the treasure hunt. Each person had a turn being the “leader” at the front of the line, and they got to read the clue to the others. Then they would go to the back of the line and someone else would have a turn at being in front.

And of course there was the old favourite, Pass the Parcel.

* There was marshmallow toasting on the back lawn.

One of the mums commented on this activity being “such a boy thing to do” when she came to pick up her son. It was Rob’s idea (of course!) and all the kids loved it. They were so surprised when they went outside and saw the fire! Definitely the highlight of the party.

* There was cake.

I was happy with how the cake turned out. Ethan thought the nose was wrong (it should have been “sticking out”) but other than that, he was really happy with it.

I should probably mention the small crisis involving yellow food colouring (or lack thereof).
Tyler and I did the grocery shopping on Friday and bought all the party food. I was positive that I already had yellow food colouring at home, so I didn’t write it on my list. But when I got home, I discovered I had red, blue and green liquid food colouring (3 bottles of each?!), as well as red & black powder food colouring. No yellow. So after school on Friday, I stopped by the local cake shop to buy some yellow powder. They were all out of yellow. I went up to Foodtown later that evening and they had SOLD OUT! I rang mum; she didn’t have any yellow. I rang Christi; she wasn’t home.
I was feeling slightly panicked. I knew I had NO TIME the following day to go on a hunt for yellow food colouring, because I was going to an all-day seminar. The next closest supermarket to our house is 15 minutes away. I didn’t want to drive all the way down there and find they didn’t have any either, so I rang first. Luckily they had plenty, and I was able to nip out during the seminar lunch break and pick some up. Phew! 

* And at the end of the day, there was a very happy (albeit tired!) little boy tucked up in his bed, looking forward to Tuesday.
Looking forward to finally being 6.

P.S. I have to wish a big Happy Birthday to my little sis! Leah, I hope you have an awesome day! I love you so much – see you at Ma & Pa’s tonight.

New hangout

Remember I posted about Scrapbook Essentials closing at the end of the month?

Gutted by this news, my fellow Design Team member Megan Renfree decided to start a brand new site called The Sketch Book.

To top it off, Megan asked me to be a contributor, along with the amazingly talented Beverley Warwick! I am really excited!

So what is The Sketch Book? Well, it’s a unique online community where scrapbookers can come to chat, learn, and be inspired! It comprises an online forum, gallery and blog. However, unlike other forums, The Sketch Book is not affiliated with a particular scrapbooking store.

There will be Friday Night Challenges, Fortnightly Sketch Challenges, BOM (Book Of Me) Challenges, and much more! There are also spots to promote products and to advertise contests, Design Team calls and crops!

If you haven’t already signed up (and let me just say that almost 40 people had signed up within the first 12 hours of the site going live!) then you need to head over there NOW. And remember to add The Sketch Book blog to your Bloglines list or feed reader!

It’s definitely the new cool place to hang out.
See you there!

Family matters

Family. That’s where it’s at right now.

On Saturday night, I went on a date with my Dad. We went to see U23D.
It. Was. Awesome. Almost like being at a real live U2 concert. Almost.

Before the movie, we had dinner together. Then we browsed around Borders for an hour or so. Dad quickly found a book he liked the look of, and that was the end of his “browsing”. When it was time to leave, I found him sitting in a chair, reading the same book. He never made it upstairs to the CD/DVD section (his favourite section). If you know my Dad, you’ll be laughing right now because this is SO typical of him!

Anyway, while Dad was engrossed in Mark Ellis’ autobiography, I was having a good time flicking through Scrapbooking mags (the ones from the US or the UK that are too expensive to buy) and stumbling upon these little beauties:

They were on sale. One was $11.99 and the other was $9.99. Each book has over 500 pages. Score!

I’m really keen to try out some of the things in these books. The Stencilling and Stamping one has hundreds of templates in the back, ranging from flowers to flourishes to cars & trucks. My brain is ticking over nicely with ideas of how to use them on my layouts.
The Papercrafts book has over 300 projects using paper, including templates and instructions for making all kinds of gift bags and boxes.

Um, where was I? Oh, right. Family.

It’s my sister’s birthday next Monday. She’s turning 27. The next day, Ethan turns 6. Yep, he was born the day after my sister’s 21st birthday. He was 11 days overdue. Up until 3 days before her party, I had been doing all I could to “flush him out”. But as the day drew closer, I realised he needed to stay put if I wanted to be at her party! There were some mixed emotions that week, I can tell ya!

The day after Ethan’s birthday, my niece Georgia turns 2. Then 2 days after that, my nephew Brock turns 2.

May? Is FULL-ON.

We’re having a small party for Ethan on Sunday. He has invited 5 of his friends from school. The theme is Sponge Bob Square Pants, and I have been requested to make a Sponge Bob cake. The request was submitted shortly after Ethan’s 5th birthday, so there is really no excuse for being unprepared. Next year’s cake request has already been submitted :: Mickey Mouse.

As I am attending an all-day (9-5) seminar on Saturday, my sister’s birthday dinner on Saturday night, and church on Sunday morning, the-turning-a-cake-into-Sponge-Bob will have to be done between the hours of 11.30pm Saturday and 6.30am Sunday. It should only take about 3 hours. Who needs sleep?

Ethan, bless him, has helped me out a LOT by writing a list of the party food he would like to have:

I know you’re all wondering why we eat hedgehogs in our house. Well, we don’t. This is something Ethan saw on TV, and he wants me to make them. They are oranges with faces drawn on them, and toothpicks sticking out of their “backs” with little bits of cheese, salami, tomato, etc on them. Sounds pretty easy, I hope I don’t screw it up.

Oh, and according to Ethan, “the Coke is for the Mummies”. Hmm, perhaps I need to cut down on my Coke Zero consumption …

Random facts

The lovely Angella has tagged me for a meme. I have to list 6 random facts about myself.

I have previously done a similar meme, requiring me to list 7 random facts about myself. You can read it here. I thought it would be a bit naff for me to rehash the same list, so I’ve put in the hard yards to think of 6 MORE random facts:

1. I really dislike changing toilet rolls. I dislike it so much that if I head into the downstairs toilet and see that the roll is almost empty, I will go upstairs to use the other bathroom!

2. I HATE bananas. I hate anything that is banana flavoured. I even hate the smell of banana. One of my ex-work colleagues loved bananas, but knew not to put her discarded banana skins in the trash can between our desks. That’s how bad I am!

I remember spooning banana baby food into my babies’ mouths and almost gagging because of the smell. I have definitely developed more of a tolerance to them after several years of peeling them for clumsy toddler fingers and retrieving bruised & battered skins from school lunchboxes.
Or perhaps I have simply learned to hold my breath whilst doing the deed?

I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t feel this way about bananas. Therefore, I’m chalking it up to a traumatic experience with mashed banana when I was a baby.

3. The cushions on my couches MUST be in a particular configuration at all times. Nobody else on the face of the earth knows the proper pattern. My husband certainly doesn’t.
We have 2 couches in our living room. One is a 3-seater and the other is a 2-seater. Both are red. On the 3-seater, there must be one grey cushion at one end, and one grey cushion and one brown cushion at the other end. On the 2-seater, there must be one grey cushion and one brown cushion at one end, with nothing at the other end.
Oh, and the brown cushions must always go on top of the grey ones. Always.

I already know I have OCD, so you don’t need to bring that up. M’kay?

4. I like reading Prison Break fanfic. I’m so addicted to Wentworth Miller the TV show that I need to read “fiction about characters or settings written by admirers of the original work, rather than by the original creators” (definition taken from here).

My favourite story on this particular site is called “Izzie’s Dad”. It’s sweet and fairly innocent, albiet a little soppy and cheesy at times. However, it provides me with a nice MiSa fix when I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms (MiSa stands for Michael+Sara for those who don’t know).

The author is currently writing a sequel called “Izzie’s Dad 2″. I am enjoying it, but not as much as the first one. Perhaps it’s because Michael Scofield is about 50 years old in the sequel? He loses some of his hotness by being a similar age to my father. Ahem.

5. I am a huge puzzle fan. Crosswords, Wordfinds, Sudoku, Kakuro … I love them all.

Recently, I discovered Pixel Puzzles. Basically, it’s a block-placing puzzle based on a grid with a pixilated picture hidden inside. Using logic, you determine which squares are shaded and which should remain empty. Eventually, the hidden picture is completely exposed.

A puzzle combining logic and art! What could be better? I am definitely hooked on them. I bought a whole book of them and did the first 10 puzzles in about 2 days!

This website is a great place to go and give them a try. On here they are called “Pic-a-Pix”. You can do them online, or download paper ones to do while you’re watching TV.

6. I can’t whistle. Even my 5-year-old can whistle – and he could from the age of 3 or 4! As you can imagine, he finds it quite hilarious that I can’t do it. Just the thing to start off a “why my mum isn’t cool” list.

The ride is over

Two years ago, I signed up for an amazing ride. I joined a fantastic new online scrapbooking store, forum & gallery called Scrapbook Essentials. Owned & managed by the wonderful Meg, it soon became a huge part of my life.

It was here that my scrapbooking really grew, and I made many new friends. I was inspired, encouraged and motivated. Eventually, I was given the amazing opportunity to join the Scrapbook Essentials Design Team. And I have to say, the last 6 months have been amazing. I have loved every minute of my time on Meg’s team. Her kits are always fabulous and the other DT members are beyond awesome.

On Thursday night, I received some sad news. Meg has made the gut-wrenchingly hard decision to close down the business. Scrapbook Essentials will cease trading on 31 May. I know this decision has been incredibly hard for her, but I understand completely and I support her 100%. At the end of the day, it all comes down to priorities. Meg is putting her 3 young children first, and that is definitely the right choice. I am in awe of Meg’s courage, and have nothing but admiration for her.

How do I feel? I actually felt pretty numb for the first 24 hours after Meg phoned me. I was mostly sad for her as I know how much she is hurting. Reality finally hit me last night, and I had a wee cry. I haven’t felt able to blog about it until now. I didn’t really know what to say.

While I am unbelievably sad that Scrapbook Essentials will no longer be part of my life, I have absolutely no regrets about jumping on board for this amazing ride. Even if I had known it would end like this, I still would have strapped myself in, with my crash helmet on.

I am grateful for the opportunity that Meg has given me to be on her team.
I am grateful for the wonderful friends I have made on the forum.
I am grateful that most of these friends have blogs, and I know we will keep in touch after the forum is gone.

The ride itself may be over, but the memories will last forever.
Meg, it’s been a absolute blast – the ride of a lifetime. And I’ll never forget it.

Urban Rhapsody

Forget sneak peeks – today you can see it all!

Here are the Design Team layouts I created using Urban Rhapsody, the May kit from Scrapbook Essentials:

BEAR IN THE FRIDGE

You might remember my post about Beer and Hail. Rob asked Tyler to put a beer in the fridge but he put a bear in there! I used my blog post for the journalling on this layout.
Instructions for how to create this layout are in the kit.

YOU & HIM

To create the flower effect on the left hand side, I used my Heidi Swapp “Hibiscus” mask as a “stencil”, by drawing around it and then hand-cutting the design with a craft knife. You could do the same with any mask or stencil.
To make the title, I applied letter stickers, then drew around them with white pen and peeled them off again. I used Glimmer Mist (love this stuff!) as a thin “paint” and painted the inside of the letters.

Journalling: Love the bond you two share … it’s so special to see … Ethan & Rob @ Wenderholm 1/1/08.

{30}

I had heaps of photos of my 30th birthday party, but most needed to be cropped to cut out clashing backgrounds & random people who weren’t looking at the camera! So I decided to create a photo “montage” effect.

Journalling: Turning 30 was awesome. None of this “Oh, poor me, I’m sooo old” business! My lovely hubby threw me a fantastic party, complete with BBQ tea, marshmallow toasting, cricket and SingStar (until 2am even!). 30 is great so far. I feel young and look young, life is good, and I am happy!

DREAM

I wanted to keep this one nice and simple, to make the photo really stand out. I absolutely love this photo of Tyler! The “dream” rub-on was perfect. No further journalling needed, really.