Thursday, July 29, 2010

Where does the time go?

So my little baby boy is now in a cot, how did this happen? I still remember thinking how long this pregnancy is, how it seems to last
F O R E V E R and all of the sudden he is 11 weeks old and can't fit in the bassinet any more! Why is that when your pregnant time seems to go so slowly? I do have rather uncomfortable pregnancies, getting extremely large, having problems holding my pelvis together, having to use crutches, not being able to stand, sit or lie down. Add to that the fact that only one of my beautiful children has been under 4.5kg and the last 2 over 5.3kg, so you can see pregnancy isn't easy for me, maybe this is the reason it seems to last so long. So why as soon as my babies are born does time need to speed up? I mean really after going through all that can't they just stay smallish for a little while? Why do they feel the need to grow up so fast? I have been telling the older kids for years to stop growing, but they refuse to listen to me! They would laugh off my silly games of not letting them have their next birthday or mixing them up a magical potion that stops them from ever growing up. That was until Michaela came along, all of the sudden the older 3 children have noticed how fast she has grown up, how quickly she has gone from being a baby to an independent, chatty if not extremely bossy little girl! Now with Eli they think time is going even quicker, he was smiling and 'talking' at 4 weeks old. He was trying to roll over when he was still in the hospital, he has been holding his head up and looking around, following everyone and acknowledging all of our voices since he was only a few days old. This isn't fair, I want my baby to be a baby for as long as possible. It seems as though it wasn't that long ago that Curtis was a baby and now he is in year 5 and almost 11! Is time really going faster? When I was a kid, a year seemed to go on forever, it was ages between birthdays, school holidays seemed to last for ages and now it feels as though it comes around faster all the time! Why is this? Is it just that I'm getting older and have been around a bit longer? Or is it that I try to cram so much in, try to do to much, over schedule and over commit myself that I don't have time to enjoy everyday? Maybe it's a bit of both. Maybe as you get older time does seem to go faster, I know my grandmother in law tells me that all the time. Maybe I need to slow done a little, enjoy every day, not get to hung up on what I still need to do and appreciate what I did get done, even if that is only that I got up, got dressed and survived the day with all children still in tact! I have always enjoyed the kids, I love spending time with them, playing silly games, reading countless books, doing craft, cooking, and having deep and meaningful discussions with a 6 year old, but I really think I need to appreciate it a little more because they grow up way to fast!


Miss M, out to the world in her "Big Girl Bed"

On a side note I have been doing a bit (or trying to) on my A to Z album, here is a few more layouts. I have done others as well but Blogger won't let me upload any more photos so I'll post them on another day.


E is for Eli, self explanatory!

D is for Dress ups, we love dressing up and costumes, maybe even more than the kids!

C is for Curtis, another self explanatory one.

A is for Ashley.

Well I'm off to try and get another layout done before I go to bed, hopefully you've had a good week and enjoy your weekend!

P.S please feel free to comment so I can see if anyone actually reads this..................


Friday, July 23, 2010

Cute as a bug!


Well last month for our Kaszazz team meeting our challenge was to use something from the May new products release. I had purchased the cute as a bug stamp set and was really keen to use them but unfortunately I don't really have any photos that would work with them and what I had in mind. Thankfully a wonderful friend of mine, whom I know takes beautiful photos of her daughters, dressed up as bees and bugs and all sorts of creatures in the gorgeous costumes that she makes for them let me steal some photos with the promise that she could have the layouts when I 'd finished! So this is what I came up with, a gorgeous stand up frame using Raven and Red bazzill with a little bit of smooch! As well as:



This double page layout again using the same stamp (with a few extra bugs!) the same colours but adding some extra embellishments including shrinky dinks (love them) and scrunched flowers!

Both projects were a hit so I've decided to submit them as workshops to Kaszazz, these will be the first projects I've submitted and I'm currently finalising my instructions. Which I must say to look a bit more work than I first thought! Anyway I'm going to run a tester workshop in a couple of weeks, will let you know how it goes. Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Housework...........Blergh!



Okay so I know most people don't like housework, I know there is those strange few that do and I really wish I was one of them but unfortunately I'm not. I would much rather be playing with kids, doing some craft or spending time with friends, but with 5 children housework is inevitable. Yesterday as I stood looking at all the washing I was wondering if anyone else has the same issues as me or if I'm just a terrible housewife and suck at looking after the house? ( after a bit of thinking I decided it was a bit of both.) You see whenever I go to visit friends, including friends with children (i.e the bulk of my friends) their houses are always clean, tidy, organised. No mount washmore covering the lounge. My place, not the case. There is ALWAYS dishes in the sink, even if I only cleaned the kitchen 2 minutes ago, There is ALWAYS books on the floor, as Miss M insists on reading an endless mountain of books everyday. More often than not there will be school bags, homework, readers, library books, notes, instruments or a soccor ball wherever there was a clean table or bench to put it on as starving children rush in after a long, hard, food deprived day at school. This is all on top of the mountain of washing covering the lounge.

On the upside the washing (yes washing is what annoys me the most, no idea why!) was all clean, the kids are all well feed, well loved and well cared for. They are happy, healthy, beautiful children that for the most part are really good and very helpful. So I figure that as my husband works long hours, ( I do realise that many parents are single parents and manage to do everything by themselves, all the time and my hat goes off to them!) and I'm the one looking after all the kids, the house, the cooking and after school activities as well as trying to still hang on to *me*, that a pile of CLEAN washing, some books, bags and toys lying around the house isn't the end of the world. It's a lived in house! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it anyway.

On another note I just wanted to share how wonderful my 8 year old Miss A is. Yesterday I was having a difficult day, little miss M was being a grump and Mr E hadn't been sleeping or feeding very well since he had his 8 week old injections on Friday, needless to say I wasn't getting anything done. After having mr E awake for 4 hours ( not like him at all) and finally trying to put him back to bed I was attempting to get dinner started. Miss M decided that that was the time to start throwing a tantrum and screaming at the top of her lungs that she needed to cook, I tried letting her do her own *cooking* as I was cutting up Lamb and she couldn't help with that. Nope that wasn't good enough, she had to do the same as me, she let me know this rather loudly. As anyone who knows miss M would know she only has 2 volumes, loud and really really loud! Hence she woke up her brother. After coming out from resettling him I discovered that miss A had taken Miss M off to get her shoes and beanie on and was taking her outside to play "so Mum can get dinner ready without your help." As miss A put it. She than brought in the washing before going back out to finish pushing Miss M around on her scooter. So okay it was only about 20 minutes or so, but I was so proud of her for not only helping me out and playing so beautifully with her little sister but also for doing it without being asked. For showing enough maturity to see what was going on around her and being able to realise that she was able to do something to help. And that makes me smile, to think that my little girl (who is growing up way to fast) is able to take control, she doesn't need to be asked to do things. That she is kind and thoughtful, and likes to help others. She is Awesome and I'm so proud of her - Which I did sit down and tell her last night.



Miss A entertaining Miss M the photo isn't the best as I took it through the glass doors not wanting to disturb the playing!



Miss A and a friend during their sleepover including Miss M in their games.

Don't get me wrong the boys help a lot too particularly with cooking, and I'm really proud of all of them, I just wanted to share how proud I was and how the smallest things can put everything else (including the HUGE) pile of washing into perspective!

Have a great Day!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Another layout or 2!



Z for Z's as in snoring! I really liked how this layout turned out, I'm also a little bit bias as I think the photos are sooooo cute!


Back page - I haven't done the journalling on this page yet, I'm thinking to leaving it till last! I guess that would make sense to most people anyway!


On Wednesday night I went to a friends place and did a Kaszazz workshop where we made these four cards. I think they are so cute. And Miss A loves them!

We've also been busy doing more school holiday activities including a couple more sleepovers, a trip to monkey mania, playing boardgames and enjoying being able to cuddle up and watch movies whilst it's raining outside! Enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A few quick layouts!



I just wanted to share a few of the layouts I've been working on over the last couple of days, obviously not all completed but you can get an idea. As you can see I need to buy some more "A"s!


P was for Park
I was pretty happy with this layout even if I didn't like the design and papers before I started!


N is for Netball



H is for Halloween
I just love these photos, particularly of miss A!


B is for beach
What else could it be for!

I have a few more done but I'm having trouble uploading them, so I'll have to share them later as I'm just about to take the kids to Monkey mania (indoor playground).
Hope you have an awesome day!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A to Z album


Well recently I decided to make an A to Z scrapbook of our family over the last couple of years. I had previously looked at doing it as Kaszazz have this as one of their projects, but the task looked TOO daunting. After hearing a few friends and fellow kaszazz gurus discussing their albums I decided I should really give it a go. They informed me that it wasn't daunting and the key to completing it was all in the planning!
On Friday night A friend came over and helped me to get organised. She was here for about 4 hours (not leaving until about 11.30 :-) ) and I think I got a lot done, even if there were many interruptions, trying to look at little people's colouring in, mediate arguments, monitoring computer usage, get people into bed and feed a little baby that had forgotten to wake up for a feed earlier in the evening! In case your not sure what an A to Z album is, it is a album with a double scrap booked layout to correspond to each letter of the alphabet. I'm really pleased with my progress so far, even though I haven't actually started to scrap any layouts ( hopefully today). What I have done is organise all the letters, photos and paper ranges, as well as put together a list of things I need to complete the album. Kaszazz do have an A to Z kit which includes everything you need (and more) to complete your album as well as all the easy to follow instructions, it's great for people that are just starting to scrap or people without much spare time. As I need to put in an order to get 1 or 2 (or a few more!) things I'm thinking of having A make and take demo at my place. If you haven't herd of a make & Take demo it involves a bit of a get together where a consultant (in this case me :-) ) comes and shows some products and projects, demonstrates how to make 2 quick projects and than everyone gets to make something to take home. It's a great way to have a bit of fun, learn some new techniques and see some fabulous projects and products. If your interested and live in Canberra let me know.

I'm off to put 2 little people to bed and then hopefully start some layouts, if I get some done I'll try and share some photos tonight!
Have a great day!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A few pics!

So a few things that I have been trying to get done over the last few days. Number 1: Finishing off the kitchen floor. We used to have a horrible brown and orange lino on the floor, we FINALLY got rid of it and last week we put down the new tiles, followed by the grout and I finally finished the sealer the night before last! Floor - check!

I've had these 2 pairs of pants out for a couple of weeks to turn into bags, unfortunately they are both still sitting there. My excuse is that my sewing machine has decided it doesn't want to work but in reality I guess I could have still cut them out and had them ready to go. Maybe next week?

Finishing off some more felt monsters. A few weeks ago at BWG (Brindabella women's group) I made a felt monster for the kids (super easy) since then we have had to make a few more, the kids are making their own as well. The blue one is Master K's. Monsters - Check!


A bit of experimenting with Flock, it's not really my thing, flowers and butterflies! So I'm out of my comfort zone a bit. First a bright card- not sure if I'm happy with it or not.



And then a layout which is still a work in progress. Flock 1/2 Check

Anyway at least Ive done a few things in between watching dvd's, playing games and doing endless amounts of washing! How are your holidays?

School Holidays



Ok, so I know I said I would try to write here regularly but as with everything I start it's not always the best of timing. As most of you would know it's school holidays here in Canberra and having 3 school kids home is not giving me any time to sit down for more than a couple of minutes, to think about what I'm going to write. So I thought I'd share what we have been doing over the last few days.

We had some visitors from Wollongong over the weekend which we haven't see in almost 2 years, it was great to catch up with them and reminded us of how much we miss having them live next door. While they were here they took the kids to visit questacon the science and technology centre in Canberra. Afterwards Master C treated us to a great meal of Roast lamb followed my Pavlova, needless to say our visitors were rather impressed with his cooking skills!
Monday saw a quiet day at home, Miss A and Master K had gone to sleepover at my sister's place so Master C and I went and got a few grown up DVD's. I know many people have very different opinions when it comes to letting their children watch older movies eg. M rated but as Master C is almost 11 we decided he could watch the spiderman movies whilst there was no younger siblings around (as Miss M was in bed). He loved them all, and kept telling me how good they are compared to the cartoon (as that was all he'd previously seen). Monday night also saw a special treat of me and Master C taking a late night trip to the shops for some movie supplies, namely chocolate, ice cream and creaming soda. Yes he did have to make a spider to drink whilst watching the movie and followed it up with a freddo frog! All in all a very happy boy!
On Tuesday we went to see Toy Story 3. The queue was huge, as Tuesdays are cheap days and it was the first Tuesday of the holidays it wasn't really surprising. Thankfully I had purchased tickets on line, I had been whinging at having to pay an extra dollar per ticket for booking online but when we got there and saw the line, not to mention the fact that the movie was sold out I decided it was $5 well spent!
Wednesday saw us picking up little people from my sister's followed by Master C having a friend sleeping over. As always sleepovers involve movies, ice cream and choc chip pancakes. It seems to also be involving dodging copious amounts nerf bullets!
Today hopefully I'll get a few things finished and I thought I'd share a few photos of what I've been working on over the last few days.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

My first blog!

This is my first blog! I've decided to venture out to the blog world after reading and enjoying many blogs, some written my friends others by people that may be friends of friends and some by people that I've never met but now feel like I know. I've also just started uni studying education and the first subject I took was a literacy course, a found this subject fantastic and my tutor just amazing. During the course something that was repeated constantly was that to become a better reader you need to read and to become a better writer you need to write. Well I have the reading down, I love to read, but writing, writing is a problem. I never write more than a shopping list on a regular basis and I wasn't sure where to start writing. Hence the blog.

So I thought I'd start by telling you a bit about me. I am a mother of 5 children, Master C -10, Miss A - 8, Master K- 6, Miss M - almost 2 and baby E - 8 weeks. I also have a wonderful husband, a dog and 5 chickens with live in the ACT, Australia. As I said I'm currently studying Education at the University of Canberra, and love to spend any spare time being creative - my creativity is something that has developed over the last couple of years. Last year I joined Kaszazz - an Australian papercraft company and I love it! I have really gotten into the world of scrapbooking and papercraft. So you can see this is going to be a bit of a 'this and that' blog.

Well here is to my new project, hopefully I'll write here often, share my creations and meet new people along the way!