Pieces of my life

Sometimes things take priority....

Sorry for the lack of updates lately but I've been spending my time with the girls before they headed off to school today to start the 2012 school year. It's hard to believe that both my girls are in 'big' school now and I felt a bit down this morning after leaving them at school. However they were both excited that they would now be playing in the same playground - we'll see how long that excitement lasts!! So here they are on day number one:

Daddy bought them flowers for their first day of school awwwwwwww!!!

And this is one year ago exactly!

I guess I'll actually have time to do some scrapping now that I don't have to play entertainment director all day everyday to two little princesses so I'll be back very soon with a proper scrappy update. In the meantime - Scrapmatts have loaded some new chipboard up today and it is yummy!!!!!!

Sonia x

A High Tea kind of day...

While the girls are still on holiday we are enjoying all the things that are hard to do when they have been at school all day. So my Mother in Law treated us to an afternoon at Tranby House and a delightful High Tea. So with the princesses all dressed up, off we went to a plate full of finger sandwiches and cakes along with a cup of tea (the grown ups) and strawberry milkshakes (the not so grown ups!)

I recently posted on the Scrapmatts blog and if you didn't get chance to head on over (which you should as the inspiration at the moment is fabulous!), here are my projects for January:

This is an 8 x 8 canvas which I covered with a napkin and then had a bit of fun with white paint, ink and Rock Candy crackle. The Scrapmatts chipboard used are the gorgeous Dress Form CB6052, Assorted Words CB4050, Leaves CB1115 and Heart Spray CB5054,

Using Scrapmatts Wings CB1120, Card Borders CB1018 and Heart Spray CB5054. The paper is from the Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings collection.

Finally I did a layout with Miss Isabella celebrating birthday number 6 and boy was she excited that two hands are now needed for her age!

This gorgeous pearl flourish is one of the new Chloe flourishes from the fabulous Flourish with a Bling

Using Scrapmatts Assorted Words CB4050, Ornate Frame CB5001, Leaves CB1116, Birds CB1087 and Wings CB1120. The paper is from the Kaisercraft Sweet Nothing Collection as well.

To all you Aussies out there, have a wonderful Australia Day on Thursday :)

Sonia x

My coffee buddies...

One of the good things about school holidays is having coffee buddies around. It was something I missed when both my girls started full time school so during holidays it's wonderful to head down to the local coffee shop and spend some chatting with my girls! It's hilarious to watch them pretending to be 'grown up ladies' and sipping away at their strawberry milkshakes or baby cinos!

On the scrappy front, the new issue of Scrapbook Creations magazine is out so I can share the mini album I had in the Christmas edition SC90. It's full of Scrapmatts goodies and on the front cover is my favourite Reindeers (love them!) along with the Nested Frame and one of the little Doves. The album was filled with the traditions that we have at that wonderful time of the year:

 

I copied the girl's letters to Santa, then reduced them to fit in the album and printed them out on photo paper.

Well I'm off to plant some flowers that we bought at the nursery this morning - the girls spent ages choosing from all the potted colour. Let's hope they last and the heat doesn't get to them :(

Sonia x

How long are these school holidays?

I really shouldn't complain as in the big scheme of things the girls are pretty well behaved - but can the bickering please stop?!! It's amazing what they will find to carry on about and I can tell by the looks on their faces when we have 'discussions' that they know what they are doing is silly but they just can't stop apparently!

Luckily the bickering stopped while we went to a friends birthday party - it might have had something to do with face painting, balloon animals, pass the parcel, bubbles and a whole lot of fun!

I also have just posted my first blog post for 2012 over at the Scrapmatts Ning site so you can pop on over if you'd like a peek at these!

One of them got me nice and messy - so much fun!

Sonia x

What a way to start 2012!

You know when you have those moments when opportunities arise and you're soooo excited and you can't believe it's happening and then you start thinking about it and the enormity of it makes itself apparent? Well that's me at this moment in time. I am incredible excited to say that I'll be teaching at the Scrapbook Expo in Brisbane in June this year with Scrapmatts - eeeeeeeek (just quietly!!)

The unbelievable talented Angella will be teaching 2 classes each day and I'll be teaching one class in the Scrapmatts classroom.

 June 9th to 11th 2012

Angella and I have been working away with Andrew and Sofie from Scrapmatts and we're sure that you will just love the new products that they have come up with. As soon as they are ready (and we've been given the OK!) we'll let you in on some sneaks. So exciting but at the same time rather daunting ;) I've headed over to the Expo for the past two years and have just had the best time catching up with some of amazing people. So the plane tickets and Hotel are already booked so now I'd just better get this project done :)

I hope to see you there!

Sonia x

Favourite 11 of 2011

There's nothing like the start of a bright and fresh new year to get you reminiscing about the one just gone. When I went looking through some of my projects from 2011 I didn't want to try to choose what I thought were the 'top' or 'best' from the year but the ones that were my favourites. They aren't necessarily the ones that I thought came out looking the best of the lot but the projects that made me feel the best - whether it be from having fun making it or the memories it captured. So bear with me while I have a quick wander through the year that was:

This layout actually is straight - it's the photo that's crooked sorry!!!!!!

It's funny when I was looking at my layouts I realised that a lot of the ones that I wanted to choose where not necessarily the 'pretty' ones but the layouts where I had put a story down on paper. Guess which way I need to head with my scrapbooking this year ;)

Sonia x

Welcome 2012...

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope it's going to be a good one and that it doesn't go past quite as quickly as 2011 did ;)

I'm not one for making resolutions but I am going to pinch Nike's catch phase for this year and 'just do it'. I'm a master at procrastination so it's time to just get whatever needs doing - done! One thing is to get back to my scrapping. I haven't done much over the past few weeks with everything going on and I've been missing the 'me' time. So it's time to hit the stash and get playing again.

However I did get time to make a card for Scrapmatts January challenge set by Ilene. For this month the challenge is to make a card using black Scrapmatts chipboard. The prize is a very handy $25 gift voucher to go shopping and stock up on all that chipboard goodness! I took out the black ink and came up with this (I'm sneaking in early with a Valentine's card!):

Using Scrapmatts Ornate Frame CB5071, Doves CB1113, Hearts CB1068 and Heart Spray CB1109

Have fun!

Sonia x

 

Merry Christmas (a day late!)

So Christmas has been and gone for another year and we had a fabulous family day! The girls were spoilt as usual but it was the smiles and laughter that made the day. Boxing Day is going to be a lazy, recovery day and playing with all the new toys of course!

Just before Christmas I managed to have a play one evening but never got around to photographing the canvas I came up with, so here it is...

Using Scrapmatts Holly, Joy word, Birds, Heart Spray, Wings and Reindeer. The paper is from a Memories in the Making ATC paper pad that I've had hanging around in my stash for a while.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful in whatever way you celebrated it. Now I need to see how to squash all the boxes and wrapping paper into the bin...

Sonia x

4 more sleeps...

Yes it's only 4 more sleeps until Santa visits so I hope everyone is organised and ready for the big day! We've had a busy time with end of school and getting organised for Christmas and on top of all of that Isabella was in for an operation last Friday. It all happened very quickly with the poor little thing needing her tonsils and adenoids out and grommets in her ears. Still she is recovering incredibly well and I'm struggling to keep her quiet!

Unfortunately scrapping time has been few and far between (more like not happening al all!) but I'm itching to get going again so I'm hoping to get in some playtime tonight. In the meantime here are my Scrapmatts Christmas projects that went up on the blog the other day:

I find the annual santa photos as hard to scrap as the good old school photos so I took the pain out of it and chose one of the gorgeous Scrapmatts frames and who can go past a dove at Christmas?

I didn't get the time to make many Christmas cards this year which I'm disappointed at - maybe next year I can be more organised :)

Using Scrapmatts Holly and words (peace)

Last but not least a couple of tags which were so much fun to do!

Using Scrapmatts Christmas Tree, Words (Merry Christmas) and my favourite Reindeer

Using Scrapmatts Words (Merry Christmas), Reindeer and Holly

I've pulled out a small canvas and a whole lot more of my Scrapmatts Christmas goodies so I'm all set to play - now I just need a couple of free hours!!

Sonia x

Blog? What blog?....

Yes it's beginning to feel a bit neglected around here but it's only because of all the end of school year events with the girls and time has not been my friend lately!! I seem to get up in the morning and before I know it, bedtime has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Still it's been days filled with fun and a visit to Santa last Sunday, Christmas Pageants, Nativity plays at school, final assembleys and of course the class parties. I don't know about the girls but I'm exhausted!

During our trip to see Santa we could see a few children in the line who where unsure about seeing the man in the red suit - somehow I don't think my girls were!

Of course now it is the middle of the month which means its Scrapmatts time for me. We've had a theme of all things Christmas this month (of course!) so here is a sneaky of what you'll find over at the Scrapmatts Ning  site:

Well the girls are on their Summer break now until February so I'm expecting a lot of mess and fun around the house for the next few weeks. Lets hope my patience levels are at full capacity LOL!

Sonia x