Bit of this and a bit of that

Where to start!! This morning I found this photo in my inbox from my Mum!!! Help us ... a week tomorrow we leave for New Zealand and parts of the country are looking like that?? I think I will be feeling the cold ... just a little! (probably a huge understatement!). Sure looks pretty though doesn't it :-)


(By the way it was 35deg at 11am today!! Temperature has dropped now though as we've had a big storm, it's now 28deg!) :-)
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Every day Aaron tells me he doesn't want to go to school, he wants to go in the plane to see Taylor & Mitchell hehehehee. I am doing the countdown with him ... it's only 5 more days of school left THEN we can go in a big plane! It's helping, I think, because he trots of to school happily enough after that :-)
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Speaking of school I have spent a few hours there this week with my camera taking pics of the 5 kids that are in their classes (3 in Aaron's and 2 in Maddison's). I don't have enough to do you know, so decided I would make the 2 teachers a little mini album with pics of the kids. It's been a bit of a laugh trying to get halfway decent pics, but they aren't too bad. Tomorrow afternoon Aaron's little friend's mother is coming to help me put them together, and we are going to do one each for ourselves as well. Basing them on the little pink friendship album (with the tulips on the cover) that I made at Scrap-n-Crop's art retreat with Rachel Greig. Making these ones a little bit smaller though so I can get 6 photos per A4 page instead of 2 like the ones for that album!
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Here's the pics of Aaron & Maddison that are going in the album.

(yes she had been doing the taste test!!)

What else ... oh yes ... today I finished off one of the canvas's I did with Donna Downey at Creative Escape in Singapore. Still have 2 more to finish, but they need paint and messy stuff, so they will have to wait till I get back from holiday.

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This one I just had to add a few eyelets and write in the smaller words. I actually would have got this complete in class, but I was having trouble setting my eyelets. I have the Cropadile Big Bite, which is fantastic for punching holes anywhere in a 12x12 area, but when it comes to setting eyelets I have found it a huge disappointment. On this canvas in particular all it did was just squash the eyelet and scrunch it up, instead of splaying the back out nicely. I set the last 4 with my old "manual" eyelet setter and hammer and they worked beautifully. Does anyone else have that trouble with setting eyelets with the Big Bite, or is it just me? Is there a special technique that I don't know about?

So this canvas ... the pink/plum coloured flowers are actually drops of alcohol ink. I found it quite difficult to do neatly as you can tell by the random splatters all over the place and on the big flower as well! :-) hehehee ... but they are supposed to be like that you know! It was purposely done LOL The big flower is made up of hole punch cast offs from cardstock and pages from a book. (Fancy keeping that sort of paper waste for treasure!)

I've also been working on Scrap-n-Crop's June kit ... here's a sneak peek. Been working with some old photos again :-) Love these pics of Aaron with his shaggy hair doo heheehee

I'll leave you with some things the kids have been saying ...

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Last night we were at a friends house and just before we left Aaron was running around like a wild thing in their garden (he'd been sitting nice and still for an hour, so was burning off a bit of steam!). Next thing we heard him crying and it was a hurt cry. He told me the tree hurt him! What happened was he was running around it and tripped on a tree root. I told him he was okay and I'd look at it in the car. Well when I got him in his seat I could see why he had been crying! He had a very nasty graze and lump which was already bruising on his shin! He was very brave though and stopped crying (cookies helped!) and when we were all in the car ready to drive off he pipes up from the back and says "it's really really painful Mummy"! :-) LOL Lyndon asked me if I had taught him the word painful. Nope - must have been from school. Sure enough when he went today (with the bandage still on so he could show it off!) 3 teachers one after the other asked him if it was painful!! LOL I just grinned to myself because Aaron very seriously with a little frown on his brow said "yes, it's really painful"! hehehehee

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Maddison runs up to us and demands a "uggggg" every now and then! Ugggg is her word for Hug! :-) She's also saying sish (fish), book, Bob (Bob the Builder) and alright! You ask her to do something and she says "awwright". So cute.
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Oh and if you like Graphic 45 papers, check out Kinda Sweet's blog here. They have put up pics of their new stock! Very nice :-) I have my stash already ... it's coming with me to NZ. Hopefully I will find/make time to have a play with it while huddled next to the fire!! LOL