Project Life - In Progress

Just keeping it real here but showing proof that Project Life is happening -even if not much blogging happening I hope to be able to share some photos soon. I am preety much done up to Week 5 and 5-8 partially done Which isn't bad as it is week 8 now. Way more time consuming then it looks but it is journalling, photo album and scrap s0....

The hurdles I have experienced have been

- getting photos developed regularly and the right size and orientation. Solution -I succumbed and bought the sweetest little photo printer The Selphy CP800 bargain and so easy to use.

- Too many photos for Week 4 when we went camping so I did an insert page and again I succumbed and bought some 6x 12 page protectors (These only arrived yesterday) so that slowed me down a little too.

- As a result of buying a mixed pack of 60 pages from Project life I have had a group of pages with 4 square pockets which there is nothing in the Project life core kit to fit in them. Again I succumbed and having just used some blending scrapbook paper to start with I have bought some Project Life paper to do mini scrap layouts in these pockets.

- My supplies of alphas and embellishments is low so I am going to have to (you guessed it succymb one more time).

_One other hurdle I have come up is being smack bang in the middle of term and well and truly in routine I am finding it hard to find reasons to take photos. I am playing with a few different journalling techniques but wary of it becoming junky.

Anyway thats how it stands I have also kept completely up to date with my one line journal (soooo much easier) and I am slipping madly behind in my housework sighh. So embarassing have just had a tradesman out and I felt like I just kept moving Piles of junk around. Could so do with some enthusiasm to spice up the idea of tidying some of them up but sooo hard to find that mojo.

Cheers

In My Kitchen Today

I have just put the icing on some Lemon Slice for the families lunches - not for me :(. I make lemon slice a lot -it is a family favourite and has no eggs in it so is very popular. Unfortunately the recipe uses 1/2 a can of sweetened condensed milk and a little bit mmmm what to do. Usually I throw it out or Darling Husband has a shot at it with a spoon and then I throw it out but last night I quickly googled and found some recipes for condensed milk cookies. Divided the recipe by three (figured I had 1/3 of a tin left) threw in some old choc chips and oh my how they expanded (not to self can roll them much smaller) Condensed milk cookies for lunches too. SO quick and so easy - I hope they are yummy too

Its nearly time for my lunch but I will leave you with this slightly blurry picture of something new I bought this morning Do you know what it is? I can't wait to use it

Cheers

New In my Side Bar

Well I have bitten the bullet and changed my sidebar from Finished projects to goals of things to start and finish - I am trying to find some structure to the new year and stay on top of stuff. I found it so good last year to have all the Christmas stuff done in July and so on , so I want to keep the momentum. I am aiming small with ensuring Project Life stays on track and adding in some sewing and scrapping. After all there is more to life then craft and blogging and there are oh so many ways to spend the hours -like cleaning :( and cooking :( .

Any ways keep me honest and see if I get them done

Cheers

On the way home - The final Chapter

So as we pulled out of the caravan park and turned to drive to Goolwa for the 4th day straight it started. Bethany wrote her first song - set to the tune of Go tell it on the Mountain with an Australian twang ala Colin Buchanans Go tell it to Australya.

It went I dont want to go to Goolwa (over and over) it fit well and we thought it was hilarious.
In Goolwa we went for a 1 hour cruise on a steam paddleship the Oscar W it was cute and freezing after the other hot days and we had no jumpers but we had fun exploring the little old ship watching the workings of it and seeing the Murray River from a different aspect. Then it was time to go home, unpack and back to reality before the big return to school


Hope you enjoyed our little trip
While i have been catching you up I have also been working on some sewing projects (gifts) and my Project Life I am also right up to date with my Post card calendar which is good to.


More soon
Cheers

Our Last Week of Summer Holidays Part 3

Now the great thing about camping is the time you really spend together. Once the kids get settled we spend some time playing games together. Game of choice this holiday was Rummikub which I believeis Gin Rummy without cards. The only problem is that I am very competitive and seldom lose On the third day of our trip we drove to you guessed it Goolwa and rode along the Encounter bike path all the way to Port Elliott (where we ate ice cream well except for me:() It was a 20 km round trip so we were all tired after that.

Whilst relaxing Sir TP and I read The Key to Rondo which is an excellent young persons book and we will be looking out for more Emily Rodda. Hubby is working through Wicked (which is quite difficult reading) and I finished reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to the children.

Tragedy did befall us when Miss B took a tumble off her bike and onto her head leaving a nasty graze and a lot of very loud tears and also the bandage she has been sporting for the last week.
But alls well that ends well and we packed up on Thursday to go back to not home, but you guessed it Goolwa on the way home.

We had one more little adventure there, But I am afraid that that is another story

Cheers

Our Last Week of Summer Holidays Part 2

Even though we stayed at Milang, we seemed to spend most of our time in and around Goolwa. We didn't have any plans (thats how hubby likes it). We just mooched around and did what happened - it is summer holidays after all. Darling hubby thought he would try his hand at 4WDing and go down towards the Murray Mouth. We had a few little exciting mounds before he lost his nerve as we were travelling alone.

This is hubby letting the air out his tyres before he decided to turn back -chicken but at least we didn't have to pay to be towed out. To calm our nerves we all stopped for an ice cream (well except me because I am being good sigh :( .

Then we thought we would check out the beach. There were lots of people looking for cockles or pipis which was something I had never done. After a couple of tries we found heaps of them it really is not hard. The children thought this was heaps fun and we lined them all up and had races to see whose cockle would dig away from us the fastest. Miss B wouldnt let them get away she kept a firm hold and was quite strict with her cockles. We decided we would come back better equipped the next day and catch some to eat and have a try as none of us had ever eaten cocklesThe wonders of our modern world meant I could google how to prepare and cook cockles so we trekked back to Goolwa beach the next day and this time we swam and collected cockles and dug holes and made castles. We boogie board with some half decent waves (unlike the other week) until mummy got a little nervous and Sir TP got a little confident. Little Miss B worked on her handstands and cartwheels and here are our two buckets of cockles for our teaUnfortunately by the time I cooked them the children wouldnt try more than one as they were too fond of them and their little sneaky digging tongues oh well Hubby and I had a nice appetiser/entree.

Cheers

Our Last Week of Summer Holidays Part 1

Just to reduce the photo heavy post I will slowly update you on our adventures of the last week of our summer holidays. After everyone had recovered from their cycling efforts we packed up and headed off on a little coastal camping expedition. We struggled with Sooty our cat to get her into the cage . Loaded up our ute and trailer and headed off to the Milang lakeside Caravan Park.

(Look sideways at our very disgruntled cat)

The whole family helped to put up the tent, chairs table and kitchen we were quite late arriving so I busied myself with preparing some food and watching and taking photos. This might seem a little lazy to you but it is my little luxury that as I am a five star kind-a-girl (with a 1 star budget and a family who loooove camping) I get pampered in the work department.

(Our Holiday Home)

Then we set in for some relaxing holiday time together with minimal interruptions from work and electrical appliances. We did allow the kids to bring their DS' but only as it was going to be so hot we knew we would have to spend a bit of time just sitting and being and it does help to keep them amused. But we also have heaps of other stuff. Bikes which are always popular and we just love the freedom of the caravan park and ridingup and down and around with minimal supervision. On the really hot days (Monday and Tuesday were both 37 degrees) This is how we spent our mornings. After big sleep ins the Corellas woke us up with their screeching. We ate breakfast and then chased the shade while playing with Beyblades, Tech decks and Club Penguin cards . When I wasn't involved in the card playing I got to spend lots of time reading on my E-reader (gotta love that) When the afternoons came and our shade disappeared we headed off to look for adventures

But that is another story

Cheers

First Day Of School 2012

The first day back to school is always bittersweet. Sure it is great to get routine and normality happening but those sweet little hands have been held over summer and are getting let go of once more and as the years go by you wonder how much longer you will be allowed to hold on. So once again Sir TP and Little Miss B have trekked off to School -one into Grade 4 how grown up and one to Grade 2 way to grown up. They each have good friends in their classes, lovely teachers (new shoes!) new stationary and dreams to fulfill - good luck little ones - Ireally must go clean the house

Oh I can hear you wondering about that bandage - it is kind of another story from our adventure last week and they will be coming I promise

Cheers

Back to School preparations

The last few days have been busy busy getting ready for that big first day back at school. It has been a bit quiet on here as a result of this and a little camping trip which I will share with you this week. The weekend just gone has seen baking some yummy pink slice to share with family to celebrate a birthday

Covering a mountain of books in Ben 10 contact and Hello Kitty contact and labelling pencils rulers and so on. #4 books covered in total I reckon I had that many books for my whole high school education and I'd place bets on how much comes back only partly used sigh But it is an achievement and great to tick off.And even more baking done today yummy scrummy Anzac biscuits -very hard to resist and I must because I have my eye on getting an iphone but I have to be my goal weight which is still a little weigh away (tee hee my little joke). Now I am blogging to avoid vacuuming cleaning and tidying which I promised I would spend today doing sigh I wish I could wiggle my nose and it was done I have a big list of more fun things to do but feel stuck by the chores. Time is ticking and school will be done so must dash

Cheers

Bupa Challenge

Yesterday morning I kissed my darling husband goodbye on his own little adventure. He has been training for 5 weeks to do the Bupa challenge as part of the tour down under. So I dropped him off at 6 in the morning in Norwood to ride 130km to the town of Tanunda. He did it arriving there at 1:30 and he says he didnt have to walk up any of the hills. We are all so proud of him and think he looks pretty good in lycra even though he swears he will never wear it again
Now I feel I owe him something should I run or cycle for him mmmm. Perhaps a sewing marathon would be more my style

Cheers

ProJect Life Week 2 In Progress

Again I still have a little tweaking and some smaller strip journals i want to print onto photos but I need a little time and I really need to find somewhere I can print small 1/2 sized photos nearby. I think Big W or Kmart does them I will need to investigate. Page Left again I stamped the date onto the title card but i dont think I will always do this. I added the yellow week 2 stickers on and coloured one of the words on the title card yellow to match. I journalled typed font on computer about our exciting trip to the movies and I have the movie ticket stub there I will also put a little picture of the movie above it and zig zag it all together on my machine.

Page right I still have to do the top Journalling card and I would definitly like to be able to put a collage of animal photos instead of just the stick insect. The glare is hiding ourr Chorus Line Ticket. I used a bi fold journalling card to frame a cropped self portrait Sir TP took of him and BP. Week 3 is underway and is looking like being my fav week so far - I need to get a little more adventurous i think but I dont want to make it too hard. I am hoping that we will have enough things to take photos of in say week5 of term hmm we will have to find adventures - not just school dance gymnastics bed , school dance work bed etc

Cheers

Project Life week1 -In Progress

Heaps excited about this so I wanted to share -excuse dodge photos and lack of finishing. So I decided to do Project Life - looked into the product and thought it was uchy pricey to get in Australia then realised when converting from NZ dollar to here it was really heaps good including shipping. So I bought a mixed packet of page prtectors and a core kit - I want to keep it easy as. They came in three days tracked all the way. So I have had them for about a week. I have done a title page but it hasn't got its photos yet so I wont share. The Core kit comes with suggested bits for the front and back page just slide them in done. Then there is a title card for each week and assorted journalling cards and filler cards. So my challenge especially being a little challenged in this aspect is to put my own twist on things. That is why I am calling it A WIP I am still fiddling and printing out photos. As yet I havent been able to print any small photos none of my local machines do this cheaply and I am contemplating needing my own camera printer for ease. So Week 1 left I have stamped the dates on the title page and used some stickers and transfers to tissy up the heading. I have printed out some goals for the family a story about January 1 and the week. I am printing on the cards using my printer which is easy.

Page rt I have put in the score card from our mini golf game, I also want to add some additional journalling words onto some photos as so much happened I ran out of room I am thinking this will settle down when school goes back even though we are having a very quiet and lazy holiday.

Cheers

Miss B goes to Art class

Little Miss B trekked off today to a School Holiday Art class. We would dearly love to do this for a term but it is ouchy pricey and hard to fit in around stuff. This time I thought we would steer away from another gorgeous canvas and try for something different. So Miss B tried her hand at sculpture and made a wire and clay ballerina. I think she is happy with the end product (I got back to class near the end to help out with tutu design (I think the teacher felt a little under the pump to get the last one finished on time). It was possibly a little ambitious for B's age group but her and the other younger girls all ended up with something a little respectable if lacking the willowyness of most dancers. I think doing classes like this would be my idea of a dream job which is funny as I never did art at school after year nine (I apparently did the Suicide 5 for year 12 -noone told me that was what it was called!!)


Cheers

Family Beach Day

I guess probably once a year we do a mandatory trek down to the beach for the children to have a play. So after Church on Sunday and after lunch we headed off on a long drive to go to one of our beaches where you can drive your car down on to the beach- so much easier then trying to find a park and carrying all the gear down. Because of my lack of pigmentation we pooped up the sun tent and then off to play.
Little Miss B loves the Boogie board -she even had a go at standing up on it and was quite successful. Sir Tp tried his hand at snorkelling but still struggles a bit with his rhythm

28 sandcastles were made - and the Police were kind enough to drive around them later on in the day to preserve our efforts

And we had a fine effort at getting the kite up in the air good wind- good kite.

Little Miss B and I both got a little pink in spots (despite me hiding in the tent for periods sigh and being there after three) but all in all a fun sun day

Exciting Packages {Project Life}

During the week I was excited to make a purchase from CraftHouse NZ and with the wonders of DHL tracking I new exactly where my parcel was at all times. This was fabulous as I hate worrying about them being dumped on the door step and stolen while I am out. I watched it sit in Sydney airport all day Tuesday leave at 2am to fly to Adelaide and by 8am it was on the truck coming to my door.When it arrived I couldn't open it even though I was busting to as we were on our way out to see Alvin and the Chipmonks 3 (which we all loved). But here is my big challenge for 2012 -please help me stay on track.

Thats right I am jumping -leaping -falling on board with Project Life like a lot of my fav bloggers(who says marketing/peer pressure is just for kids)I am heaps excited and hope to make something to cherish about our family life for the year.An occasional reminder wouldnt hurt though.

I will try to get started ASAP so I can share alittle more of what is happening.

Cheers

Our New Blythe Arrival

Little Miss B was very fortunate last Christmas that the big red guy from up North bought another Blythe doll to join our family. Her name is Holly and she is an Encore Prima Dolly Ashlette. B loves her long hair and her side part and those boots which are a little tricky to get on.

So this is our Blythe family Angel, Holly and Gwen. What a lovely little family. Now I am under pressure to sew clothes and quilts and so on yeeks best get my fingers moving

Cheers

What I wore Wednesday

Well I am not sure if joining in with this posting will help my self esteem or not but here I go - first photo of me in years I suspect and I apologise no makeup or this wasn't going to happen - we are all moving so slowly these holidays. Today is absolutely freezing in Adelaide where we have had all 4 seasons worth of weather for the first two weeks of the year.

So we have top and tights - Target
black ballet flats - Kmart
skirt - finished sewing from earlier this week pattern is from Made it Perfect.
And you can just see the litle maching Black flower brooch I made from Janelle winds pattern.

Now the making of this skirt is part of a huge journey which I will share with ou over the coming weeks. My girlfriend made this skirt pattern to wear to Inspired Stitches earlier this year. When I looked at the pattern and took my measurements I was mortified so I have only just made it now - 6months later. I probably wont wear it with this top normally but have I mentioned it is freezing here, Well I must go now as we are all dressed up

Cheers

Whirring away the hours

I feel I have got right back into the swing of things this year with no loss of my sewing mojo -hooray. This has partly been because of a huge clean up in the sewing room and partly the crazy mixed up weather we are having. Thought I would show you what I am working on under both my machines

I am looking forward to sharing more later this week it is so exciting for me

Cheers

Whats happening this year.

Last year Father Christmas popped this into Little Miss B's stocking and so I have been helping her to fill it with her secrets (earth shattering stuff like she doesnt like spicy food and her brother is mean to her (that one goes both ways). The main thing I want her to experience out of this is keeping a little journal something all mums try to get their daughters to do and which I failed dismally. Not my gift I'm afraid.So we have started this year trying to write one line a day not too hard of something that has happened or we are doing .Seeing this idea pop up on my favourite blog HERE made me think I should be doing this too

SI thought I would tag along with the girls - trudged down to Officeworks - bought some cards, a stamp and this cute little box which matches my sewing space/office and my family room and set to work. I wonder how I'll go -please everyone ring me in September and ecourage me as that seems to be when the wheels fall off around here

Cheers

Ways to cool down if its hot

We were lucky enough to have a party to go to on Friday night after a warmish day to help us cool down - an ice skating party. This involved skating and some snow play at one end of the rink and later some ice hockey. The rink has a dedicated party time slot for 2 hours and this night there were probably only 5 parties so it was almost like having the place just for us. Obviously Sir TP was the king of the mountain This made up for his lack of prowess on the ice - still. Who knew that physics would be his downfall and that he would fall whilst trying to hita a goal with a puck. Annoyingly for Sir TP LIttle Miss B looks like an Ice Queen. She has good technique although slow and hesitant - but she hust looks naturally graceful. We didnt lose any fingers - we had a great ice cream cake and home to bed.

The weather here has gone extremely cool - we have had hot, cold, humid and stormy and just dont know what to do or wear. So today I am in the sewing room having some fun

Cheers

Oops

Something seems to have happened - and I haven't blogged for months. So the choice needs to be made today to blog or not to blog. But being open to all things being possible I will once again start anew. Let me assure you there has been tons of fun stuff happening, piles of learning and making smiles and a little sadness. There has even been time to blog but it hasnt happened sigh. Oh well today is a new day with no mistakes so lets pick things up from here and over time you might even get an update or so. Just so I could put in a piccy -here is a card Little Miss B has made for her cousins birthday (ice skating party) and a cover I have made her for her christmas ipod in her favourite colours -hope she likes it. She has already had her major present but thought I would give her a little something tonight too. Also keeps with my intentional/relational ideas that i have developed over Christmas (but that is for another day). The case is one of Janelle Winds paterns from her book (i love love it) .
Will blog again shortly

Cheers