2 New LO's...Including a Double!

Another share from me tonight, 2 new LO's. The first one I completed was a double LO, which I haven't done any of for a long time. (I now remember why! lol) This LO was the last of the SBT50 CC challenges, where we had to use our answers from an earlier quiz and include them on our LO as journalling. The questions were all relating to the month of May. We also had to use at least 3 photos and a product or two from our favourite store. (I had nominated my2angels.)

"Moments in May" - LO completed for "Quiz Answers Challenge" for the SBT50 June CC.

The second LO I did was for one of the SBT50 June challenges - the sketch challenge. (View the sketch here.) I decided to remain as true as I could to the sketch, and as such, was taken out of my current comfort zone, with my LO ending up very symmetrical! This LO reminded me of just how much my style has evolved and also that I don't really like neat and even any more! I am fairly happy with the result though, and really love the colours.

"Us" - LO completed for SBT50 June sketch challenge. Pic is of Shannon & I celebrating my 30th birthday.

Another LO!

Just a quick share from me of another LO I've done for the SBT50 "Tiaras & Crowns" Cyber Crop. This one was a colour challenge, and we were provided a palette of "grunge" colours and asked to choose 3 to do a grunge LO. I chose black, brown and red. Having never done a grunge LO before, I made a list of techniques and elements used in grunge before I started. I then tried to incorporate as many as I could. Techniques I used included tearing, scrunching, distressing and inking. Elements included metal, corrugated cardstock, mesh, a 'ransom' style title, and a black & white photo. (We also had to use our SBT50 avatar pic as the photo.) I really enjoyed this challenge and am happy with how it turned out.

"The Key to My Heart" - LO completed for challenge # 3 (grunge colour challenge) of the SBT50 June CC.

I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by the lovely Anthea! Here goes...

8 things I look forward to:
going to bed
payday
my holiday to townsville in october
getting a haircut
finishing all the LOs I want to do this month
warmer weather
taking Brielle to the park
going out for a night

8 things I did yesterday:
got up early
scrapped a LO for a CC challenge
made Shannon cook his own dinner
talked to my sister on the phone
took Brielle for a walk
more washing
made a pudding for dessert
spent too much time on the computer

8 things I wish I could do:
sleep in every day
get out of debt
shop for scrap supplies with no budget
scrap without interruptions
get my hair and nails done
go on a family holiday
move to a bigger place
rid the world of child and animal abuse

8 things I've watched lately:
State of Origin (go Qld!)
Masterchef
All Saints
The Footy Show
Play School
In the Night Garden (unfortunately)
Thank God You're Here
Sunrise

8 people who I tag:
I am not tagging anyone, as most of the people I stalk (ahem), I mean visit, have already been tagged. (You may all breathe a collective sigh of relief now!)

Exciting News!

I just had to share my exciting news! I have been named as a Creative Team Member for a fabulous new sketch blog called Scrapability Sketches. The blog has been developed by Rebekkah Mitchell, a very talented sketch designer, and is perfect for scrappers looking for some inspiration. The first sketch has already been posted and I am looking forward to sharing my first LO as a member of the team for July. I must admit, I am very proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and applying for a CT position and really look forward to the challenges it will bring! So for anyone else who may be considering having a go at something they never thought possible, I say GO FOR IT!!! You never know...

Cute PJ pic!

Just had to share this pic of Brielle in her "big girl" PJs I took the other night. So cute!!!

A couple of CC challenge entries!

I have managed to complete another 2 challenges for the SBT50 Tiaras & Crowns CC. The first was for a "Cook Off" Challenge, where we were asked to select 5 ingredients from a list provided. Each ingredient was then matched to a technique or element we had to include on our LO. My criteria was 1 word title, inking, fabric & ribbon, journalling and circles, no more than 4. The most difficult part of this for me was the fabric, as I don't have any fabric lying around. I did manage to find some felt scraps and used those.

"Star" - LO created for SBT50 "Cook Off" Challenge. Journalling reads - 'You love music & dancing. You saw this microphone at a birthday party and loved it. You're such a STAR!'

The next challenge I completed was an Off The Page challenge. The item had to be for our "drama king or queen" so I chose to make a treasure box for Brielle. (For her royal jewels of course!) I chose to use my favourite colour combo of pink and black and now it's finished I'm thinking of keeping it for myself...

"Treasure Box" - created for the SBT50 June CC "OTP" Challenge.

1, 2, 3 Challenge entry & a cool photo!

Just a quick share from me tonight. I completed a LO for the 1,2,3 Challenge Blog today. The criteria was to use fabric, handstitching and buttons. I must admit, I was really intimidated to submit it after I saw the standard of work there, but am happy with how it came out.

"Easter 2009" - picture of Brielle wearing her bunny ears on her first Easter.

I also have to share this photo I took this afternoon out the front of our place as a storm rolled in. (You can see the top of Mount Coolum in the background.) Sometimes nature is stunning in her fury...

A scrapping share!

Just a quick scrapping share from me! I am currently participating in the "Tiaras & Crowns" CC happening over at SB Top 50 and there are some great challenges and prizes on offer. Added to this is the great range of monthly challenges for June...it's scrappers heaven there at the moment...now what to do next?

Here's my share...

"Royal Dummy Spit" LO created for challenge # 1 of the SB Top 50 June CC. It was a colour challenge, and I chose red & purple. Also had to include a crown charm supplied by my2angels. Photo is of Brielle during a recent tantrum.

"Happy Birthday Little Princess" card created for challenge # 2 of the SB Top 50 June CC. Had to use same colours as 1st challenge to create a birthday card. Also had to include charm from my2angels.

"Finding Your Feet" LO created for "Make and Bake" June challenge for SB Top 50. LO had to include exact ingredients of 2 photos, 1 alpha, 5 flowers, 8 brads, colour green and word 'new'. (Tick all the boxes!) Photo is of Brielle practising her walking at Coolum Beach.

On the boardwalk!

It was a beautiful day here today. Much warmer than it has been for the last few days, so we took full advantage and took Brielle for a walk down the boardwalk at Coolum. It turned out to be a great spot for a new walker to test out her ability! She surprised Shannon and I with how well she did and how long she could keep going without stacking it! (Even with shoes on, which she is not used to at all.)

Here are a few of my favourite shots from today...

How cute is my girl??? (And she loves a camera!)

One foot in front of the other...this is easy!


Daddy's girl!

My first blog award!

I received my very first blog award from the lovely Tracy at my2angels. Thanks Tracy!

Here are the rules:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I'm only only a new blogger and don't have that many people to pass it onto, but am going to send it to these people whose blogs I sticky-beak at:

Charmane

Anthea

Retta

Beth

Dina

Judith

There would be many others if they had blogs!

Runny noses & scrapping!

Well it's been runny noses all round here for the last few days. Brielle has had her first real cold this week and was miserable for a few days. Shannon then came down with it and I am now beginning to feel it coming on. (Oh no, pass the tissues!)

At least I finally managed to squeeze in some scrapping last night and completed the first of the June challenges for SB Top 50. This one was a "Lyric Challenge" and we had to choose a line from a song provided and include it on our page. Mine was "and you won't believe, that girl was me". I really enjoyed this one and am pretty happy with the result.

"1976" - LO of my christening photo completed for SB Top 50 June "Lyric Challenge"

Well the countdown is on to the SB Top 50 "Tiaras & Crowns" June Cyber Crop...only 4 sleeps to go! There is so much that is going to be happening during this CC, with lots of challenges, games & prizes on offer. Can't wait!

Not much scrapping, but I have been baking!

I've done little scrapping for the last few days. Life just seems to have gotten in the way. Every time I go to scrap, there is something else that pops up to distract me. I did manage to complete one LO for the SB Top 50 May Sketch Challenge though. I have also made 3 cards recently (Mothers Day, Shannon's b'day and Deb's b'day). Really enjoyed doing the cards as it was something I could complete in one short sitting. I am kicking myself that I forgot to take a pic of Deb's card though. (Black and yellow - she loved it.)

Brielle had a chance to see her Nana & Poppy last Thursday when they came up the coast for lunch. They took us to Coffee Club and Brielle was great. Sat in the highchair and just ate the entire time...typical! Mum loved her Mother's Day card when I gave it to her (I hadn't posted it as I didn't want it squashed).

I also did quite a bit of baking on the weekend, making a heap of ANZAC biscuits. They were for Deb's b'day and I put them all in a lovely big jar. (It took about 90 biscuits to fill it!) As we are so broke, I thought it would be nice if I made something instead. (Although I did buy the jar.)

I also found out I won a Heidi Swapp craft knife today from the SB Top 50 newsletter - I'm sure I will put that to good use! (I haven't got a decent knife.) Also can't wait to use the new Rose Moka pps I got from MY2ANGELS. They are DIVINE! Check them out here.

"Outakes" - LO created for May Sketch Challenge for SB Top 50. Happy with this - gave me a chance to use some left-over Xmas pics of Brielle.

"Mothers Love" card - Mum loved the BG pp I used.

Shannon's Birthday card - still masculine, even with flowers!

Another win!

After being away for the weekend, I had a wonderful surprise when I got home and found out that I had won another challenge from the SB Top 50 Mothers Day CC. The challenge had been voted on by members and was for my LO "forever..." (see pic in earlier post). Even Shannon loved this LO and suggested we frame it and hang it in Brielle's room. Anyway, for winning the challenge I won not one, but TWO $20 vouchers! The first is to Scrappybitz, and the second is to HoneypotKids Crafts. Can't wait to spend them and get some new goodies!

I'm sure that the new supplies will be put to good use during the upcoming "Crowns and Tiaras" CC happening at SB Top 50 (June 10th-16th). For anyone wanting to join SB Top 50, simply register and go here to introduce yourself. (Don't forget to mention that you were referred to the site by Soupie as there is a comp running.) If you want to check out the details of the upcoming CC, you can read all about it here. There are going to be some great prizes on offer and its sure to be heaps of fun!

Our trip away on the weekend was great. We had a chance to catch up with all of Shannon's family and Brielle had a ball with all her cousins. It was so cute to see her with her cousin Lucas, who was born the day before her. As soon as she saw him, she just wanted to follow him everywhere. (Lucas is the son of Shannon's twin sister. It is amazing to think that these 2 bubs were due 7 weeks apart and ended up being born only 1 day apart - it's gotta be something to do with the twin thing!)

Brielle & Lucas - the cousins born one day apart!

My winning OTP creation!

Well the Mothers Day CC has finished over at SB Top 50, although there are still 2 challenges that are being voted on by members. The remaining festivities have wrapped up though and I am excited to say that I won something! Challenge # 2 was an OTP project (something I've not done many of) and the criteria was that it had to feature family portraits and be a pen holder. I decided that my theme would be the girls in our family and included pics of me, my mum, my sister, my niece and my daughter. I used an old wafer tin that I had been keeping for just such an occasion. I started by painting it black and then used lots of pink embellishments. (Well I couldn't resist using my favourite colour...which just happened to go perfectly with girls!) The prize is a $20 voucher from online store MY2ANGELS, so I can't wait to spend it and get a few new goodies. MY2ANGELS are also sponsoring the Tiaras & Crowns Cyber Crop at SB Top 50 which starts on June 10th...can't wait for that one!

Here is my (winning) pen holder...

"Girls of our Family" pen holder which won the OTP challenge for SB Top 50 Mothers Day CC.

In unrelated news, I have dropped another 2 kgs, making 6kgs so far. (And that was even with being lazy the last couple of weeks!) If I lost another 15kgs I'd be happy...

Happy Birthday Babe!

Today is my darling man's 33rd birthday and exactly 8 years since our first date. (I still maintain that I was the best birthday present he ever got!) It's been a fabulous 8 years and we've had lots of fun and wild times. Although things have changed dramatically since there's been 3 of us, this crazy ride aint over yet!

Love ya babe!!! XXX

First steps!

What an exciting day! Brielle took her first unassisted steps today when she let go of the coffee table and took about 6 steps over to me. She was so excited when she did it, she clapped herself. I was even more excited, and immediately started yelling to Shannon to come and see. I then got her to do it another dozen times - it was so cute! We had thought she was getting close, as she had started to let go of the furniture every now and then, but she really took me by surprise today.

It's been a pretty good week. I took Brielle for her 1 year old needles on Tuesday morning which wasn't too bad. She was a bit unsettled that day, but has been fine since. She has also finally started saying "mum" (hooray), so at least now I don't have to listen to "dad"all the time! On Friday we had a lovely day at the park with some mums from our Mums Group. The weather has been gorgeous here the last few days and the kids had a ball playing on the grass and in the sand. Last night we stayed over at Shannon's mate's place after a BBQ and a few drinks. Brielle was perfect - she loved being around all the kids and went to bed fine and slept all night. (Woke up her hungover dad at 6.20am with a good loud yell...cop that!!!)

The other highlight of my week is that I won a prize from SB Top 50! It's a paper punch pack worth $50!!! Woo hoo! Should be here in the next day or so. I also received in the mail some cute Bella stickers for winning the SM Forum April Sketch Challenge. (Now that's the kind of mail I like!) I managed to complete another LO for the Mothers Day CC. This one was a colour challenge using grey, pink, blue and yellow. Not entirely happy with the result, but didn't want to spend any more time on it. (There are 2 challenges left to do...hope I get time to do them!)

"Mothers Day" - LO created for colour challenge (grey, pink, blue & yellow). Pics are of me with Brielle at 11 hours old.

More CC LO's!

I have completed 2 more LO's for the SB Top 50 CC. The first was for a Basic Grey challenge. We had to use pieces from a BG range no bigger than 4x4cm in size, with a maximum of 10 allowed. This criteria made me think of a quilt, and I knew I had the perfect photo. I chose the BG "Blush" range, and used Sweetie and Eternity papers.

"Quilt of Love" - LO created for Basic Grey challenge and features picture of Brielle on her special quilt.

In the next challenge, we were given a list of random words to choose 3 from. Each word was coded to a type of embellishment and we were limited to using the ones our words meant. Mine ended up being chipboard, ribbons and rub-ons. I wanted to keep in theme with Mother's Day so chose the rub-on: "A mother holds your hand for awhile and your heart forever" and the LO began there.

"{forever...}" - LO created for special Mother's Day challenge and feature Brielle's hand at 5 months old. (I have since found out I won this challenge.)

Mothers Day Cyber Crop

It seems I joined SB Top 50 at the right time, as there is currently a Mothers Day Cyber Crop running there. There are a lot of challenges to take part in and I have just completed my first one. (Luckily I have until the 20th May to get as many done as I can!) The first challenge was to do a LO and include the quote: "A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take". (How true!)

Here's my LO...

"One of a Kind" - pic of Brielle & I. (Love how great the flowers look here!)

In an extra bit of scrapping news, I won the April sketch challenge on the SM Forum the other day! I am so excited, and grateful that other scrappers liked my LO enough to vote for it.

Just checking in...

Just checking in after a few days at my mum's place last week. I had a chance to catch up with my sister, (down from Townsville), before she jetted off to L.A. with her hubby for a couple of weeks. (Lucky duck!) Brielle was excited to see her cousins (Madeline, 3 and Jackson, 2) and we had another birthday cake for her while there. Then it was back home again for the weekend so we could attend another 1st birthday party (the last from our mum's group). Phew! Thank goodness 1st birthday party season is over for the year!

I am hoping to get some scrapping done over the next few days. I joined Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia yesterday as they seem to have a great variety of challenges on offer. I am hoping that the challenges may push me to scrap more and it's always nice to make new friends!

Jackson, Brielle & Madeline - you've got no chance of them looking at the camera when there's icecream cake!

My baby is one!

It's hard to believe that my baby girl is now a big one year old! We celebrated Brielle's birthday on Saturday with a party at the park and were blessed with spectacular weather. In true form, Brielle spent most of her time eating, and lapped up all the attention. I made her a cake in the shape of a pig, as she has inherited my love of pigs. As soon as she saw it on the table she started snorting at it, which had everyone in fits of laughter, and had Brielle giving herself a round of applause. She lasted until quite late in the afternoon before she got tired, and I then took her home for a nap. (Daddy stayed at the park to have a few more "celebratory" beers.) We then attended a BBQ that night for another 1 year old birthday, making it a HUGE day. It was such a big day, we didn't do presents until Sunday morning, so Brielle was able to appreciate them. It really was a happy birthday!

Here are some pics...

Brielle Rose - my beautiful birthday girl!

Birthday cuddles with mummy.

Let me at it...snorting with delight at her pig cake.

Yummm!

Is this really for me? Quick dad, get it out of the box!