Ta Daaaahhhh

I have been scrapping! I know ... this is major!! Ummmm the last time I actually wanted to sit down and scrap would have been early September last year!!! Yesterday I sat down and did 3 LO's :-) (can you tell I am excited?!!! (doesn't take much does it!) LOL)

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At Scrap-n-Crop's Art Retreat last Saturday Iris had made a LO using the scraps from our mini album project. So I decided to do the same. Actually the only thing I did the same or similar as her LO was brown cardstock, the cream patterned paper which was in our kit and the wording strips. The rest I just used bits and pieces left over from the kit stash. I am attacking the pile of photos I got printed from our NZ holiday last year :-)

'Spring' LO is for Scrap-It-Lah's January challenge. It's a sketch this month from Jessy. I've used October Afternoon patterned paper and the chipboard flower was left over from my SnC art retreat kit! (that kit is going to go a long way!).

'So Happy on a Swing' LO is for Scrap The Girls challenge site. It's also a sketch. So I finally opened my stash of Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers that have been calling me for ages!!!

And today is a sad day for the kids because their little friends Yara & Senna are moving FAR away! :( So they are having little farewell parties at school today. I popped into Yara's one this morning with the camera to get some pics ... here's these two having a hug for the camera!! (there's another little boy in the class that kept wanting to join in the hug too heheee - rather amusing for me!!)

So that's me ... you can think of me answering 10 million questions over the next few days/weeks why Aaron can't go and see Yara and why she can't come to play at our house anymore!!!

Mini Album

So here's my mini album I did in Iris Babao Uy's class last Saturday at Scrap-n-Crop's art retreat. Please look at this as my work, not as a reflection of Iris's work or her teaching!

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I didn't following exactly what she did because I didn't realise there was a theme to the album we were creating at the time I chose my photos, (a trip to Doubtful Sound) and it didn't fit at all with the theme of "what we treasure most"! So I made do hehehee. Pleased with how it turned out and Iris was so lovely in not minding me doing exactly what she had done. Her mini album was absolutely gorgeous (as all her work is) and had lots of dimension to it ... I have filled the envelope pockets with information and brochures from our trip, so my album is bulging at the seams - I couldn't add much extra dimension! One of the papers we had in our kit was a Websters page with hot air balloons on it. It was neat, but didn't suit what I was doing at all (I mean it was pouring with rain at Doubtful Sound during our trip and the majority of my photos are grey ... not hot air ballooning weather heheee).

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Cover ... mini Maya Road chipboard alphas (with 3 different colours of glimmer mist till I was happy with the colour! and even then I had to sponge the edges with spiced marmalade distress ink to make them stand out from the blue on the canvas). The blue & green lace we dyed using paints. Chipboard bird has been painted with crackle paint. Cream chunky lumpy border around edges of canvas is acrylic paint mixed with gel medium (fun fun fun!) :-)

We pleated lace for the spine of the album.
Chipboard branch & leaves has been painted & heated with heat gun to make it bubble & pop :-)
All the edges of the chipboard & transparent pages were edged with gel medium & paint as well.

Envelopes were stamped on using paint (I used mesh & a splatter stamp) then cutouts from the patterned papers. I also stamped (dye ink) on most of the envelopes as well with little leaves & plants.







So there you have it. Learnt lots and had fun. Now ... I just need to do the journaling and behold I will have a mini album that's actually finished! LOL

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Thanks for visiting.

Tired ...

It's been a busy few days!

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I tidied my craft room this morning ... put away all the stamps & class stuff that's been floating about on the floor, the couch and under my desk for the past 3 months or so! Lyndon informs me tonight that he can't tell I have actually done anything! (how rude!) But I know I have and it's a nice feeling knowing my stuff is back in it's proper place.

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The art retreat on Saturday with Iris Babao Uy at Scrap-n-Crop was fantastic. Really enjoyed it. We created a little mini album with canvas covers and used all sorts of different techniques and products. I learnt lots and this afternoon I have finished putting it together (I think!), just have to add the journaling and maybe some more embellishments. But it's pretty much done. I will take some photos tomorrow afternoon and show you.

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We've had some late nights (so have the kids). It's showing!

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We are looking at buying a new bed - we've had this one for nearly 15 years ... and when there's a big bloke on one side, a beached whale on the other and then two little kids decide they want to get in ... there's not much room for the whale! ;-)

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Aaron started music lessons after school today :-) It's just an hour a week in a combined class (8 in the class). They are learning the keyboard. Today was just a trial run so I could see whether it was worth paying for the whole 10 sessions, but I think we will. First of all he told me he didn't like it because it was too hard!!! (snigger) But I took him back to the class to meet the teachers and asked how he went and while we were talking he was fiddling about with the keyboard pushing buttons and playing the notes he learnt and was pretty happy with himself! So his excuse of it being too hard is just that ... an excuse! Hope he wasn't expecting to learn how to play the keyboard in a one hour lesson! LOL

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Tomorrow we have a hospital visit (at 9am) !!! Gulp ... going to be an early start I think. Half the time I'm not even ready to take the kids to school by then!! Should be interesting to see where "bump #3" is going to be born.

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And the best news of the week ... we have our first niece :-) So cool ... Aaron and Maddison have 6 little boy cousins and now there's a little girl to add to the ranks. Wonder when we'll get to meet her!! ;-)

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Okay, that's enough random information. hehehee I'm off to bed for an early night. Be back tomorrow afternoon to show you my mini album.

Snippets from Yesterday & This Morning

from the mouth of Aaron!!

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Last night we were with a group of friends and we were talking about kids behaviour etc (as you do sometimes!) ;-) Anyway we got onto the subject of things kids say, so we said Aaron has trouble telling the difference between brother & sister, him & her, etc. and that he calls Maddison his brother! snigger snigger

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A bit later one of our friends asked Aaron "Aaron where's your brother?"

And Aaron pointed to Maddison and said "he's there".

"Oh, well where's your sister?"

Aaron gave a big grin and pointed and my tummy and said "my sisters in Mummy's tummy!"

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LOL ... if this baby is a boy it might need counselling! hehehee

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This morning Aaron was mucking about eating his breakfast and he kept telling me all sorts of reasons & excuses why he didn't need to eat it, like:

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"My tummy's too big"

"I'm big enough now"

"My legs are big and strong enough"

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LOL When he told me his tummy was too big, I said "well Mummy's tummy is a lot bigger than yours and there's still room for her to eat up all her breakfast"!! heheehee (He gave me a funny look when I told him that!) He did eat his breakfast though :-)

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In other news ... next Saturday I am attending an Art Retreat at Scrap-n-Crop :-) with Iris Babyo Uy. You can read all about it here on SnC's blog. So looking forward to it. Haven't done any scrapping or proper craft related stuff for months!!! So hoping that this will kick start the creative juices and bring back the mojo so I can get stuck into those PILES of photos waiting to be scrapped (might even get that pile of half completed mini albums finished!!).

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Okay - have to get going and actually get some stuff done while the kids are at school this morning. Suitcases haven't been unpacked yet and there's a pile of washing still to do (it's never ending!).

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Thanks for visiting & for all your comments on my last post :-)

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p.s. the beard has gone ... I have a clean shaven hubby once again :-) :-)

Can we go back to the beach???

That's what we have been hearing from Aaron since we have been home!!

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So where to begin to tell you about our week away? (don't ask how long this post has taken me to do ... far too long and too many photos, but so much to show!!) We took just over 900 photos (ahhhh the editing! I need to get more ruthless at deleting shots I know I won't use!) and I've put 71 of them in this post. Decided there was only so many beach play photos you really wanted to see hehehee!)

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We went to this resort at Cherating, it's about 3.5 - 4 hours drive from KL (depending on traffic!!). It's VERY close to the beach ... just a few metres walk and was weird hearing the surf during the night ... the first couple of nights I was sure it was really windy!

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So here's a couple of pics of the beach (looking left & right).

and then back towards the resort.
The sand was like this in places.
The surf closest to the beach was like this! (great for exfloliating I tell you!)
Closest to the water there were two layers of sand really - the top layer was the grey and the next later was the coarser golden colour (sort of like crushed biscuits ;-), clung together like soft brown sugar. Was different to NZ sand).
Most days we spent some time at the beach ... usually straight after breakfast till nearly lunchtime and if the kids were up to it then we went back late afternoon before dinner.

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So much excitement!

NO throwing sand! (yeah right!)
Why Aaron felt he needed to pull up his short legs I have no idea ... but every time he was in the water that's what he did hehehee
The kids had turns going out into the surf with Daddy ... Mummy only went in the water a couple of times - the rest she sat with the camera clicking away ;-) hehehee (main reason ... togs were a very very tight fit!! lol)
Sunday afternoon Maddison & I had a snooze after lunch and the boys went up to the lobby and did some internet surfing!
After our snooze we joined them for some ice-cream :-)
Or in Lyndon's case, the hugest ABC that we have ever seen!

LOOOOK at that wave!
Getting that sand in just the right place takes a lot of concentration and ones tongue must be just so!
This was funny, I called out to Maddison to look at me and she looks up and goes "WHAT?" and gives me this look hehehee So I asked her to smile at me!
Ahhh that's better :-)
Burying Daddy in the sand ... Maddison is pouring sand half over his face hehehee
So Aaron helpfully tries to brush it off (and puts it further into his eyes!).
See what I mean about Aaron & his shorts hahaha
Monday morning sunrise (well about 7.50am!) Couldn't be bothered getting up before then ;-) I just took this from our little balcony as I was still in my jammies!

Monday we drove into Kuantan, from memory it was over an hours drive (traffic was busy). Aaron grizzled and moaned the whole way that he wanted to go back to the beach! So was a delightful trip really. We got there around lunch time so just randomly drove around looking for some place to eat. Ended up going to this shopping mall and had to just ignore all the stares! We were the only (I kid you not) Westerners there and it didn't help that 2 of us had red hair so it made us all the more obvious!! I decided I didn't really like being a novelty LOL. We had lunch (chicken & rice) at the food court because there were some kids slides there, so the kids burnt off some steam.

Then Aaron saw this Toyland sign so we went to investigate ... it was really a games arcade, but there were several rides they enjoyed. I bought a sun hat then we headed back to our resort!
Tuesday ... more sand & surf fun :-)


The beach was lovely for digging & playing in, but we didn't feel comfortable about the kids going in the water on their own. The beach is quite steep for the first bit so when the tide is in it gets deep real quick, and when the tide is out there's still an undertow. I sat at the edge of the surf with one of the kids while Lyndon took the other one out to the breakers and (this is where the total body exfoliation comes in! Amazing how much sand could fit in my swimsuit when there was hardly room for me in it!!!) at one stage I got spun around even with Maddison on my knee and we were only in a foot or so deep of water!

Wink wink!
I saw this lots ... Maddison taking hold of Daddy's hand and leading him off somewhere :-)
She was ever so helpful when Daddy was trying to make sandcastles as well! Waiting ... waiting ... waiting ...
SQUASH!!
One afternoon the kids rode their bikes (well Aaron did, Maddison couldn't be bothered!) . Daddy had to fix the wheel on Aaron's bike first though.

So while that was happening Maddison decided she would pump up her tyre hehehee

Bikes got abandoned for a stick fight ... love the expression on Aaron's face heheehe
Ouch ... you got my chest hehehee
Then we discovered this little playhouse :-)
Also had a climbing rope
and swing.
The path we took from our room to the beach.
Lyndon got up a little bit earlier than usual on Thursday & Friday mornings to capture the sunrise ... unfortunately the weather wasn't very co-operative, but he did get some cool cloudy beach shots :-)
Thursday, since the weather wasn't so nice we decided to drive to Kuala Terengganu. What an interesting trip!!! So much to see. Was a bit of a drive - just over 100 kms I think, but took us over 2 hours to get there and more than that to get back!! THANKFULLY the kids slept on the way there so we only had a short way to listening to Aaron moaning! :( Lets just say that at Kuantan we felt a novelty ... well it was MUCH worse at Kuala Terengganu! Hardly any English was spoken and trying to find someplace for toilet stops and lunch was a mission! We ended up having lunch at McDonalds (sigh) but they didn't have toilets! We had to cross the road to this bus station sort of place and pay 20 cents to use these most disgusting smelling toilets!! (I don't mind paying to use toilets if they are halfway clean ... but these were just gross.) Anyway we had lunch, got back in the car and headed back to the resort!

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I just randomly took pics out the window of the car as we were driving along. The traffic was pretty heavy so we only made a couple of stops ... at a place for sale (pic to follow later) and an ice cream! :-)

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Fishing boats.
Construction ... this is a pretty standard sight anywhere around Malaysia. We just look and wonder to be honest! This pic is only showing probably half of it ... I needed the wide angle lens on.
Hehehee ... wouldn't see this on the main street in NZ ;-)
Some holiday chalets ... they didn't look finished actually.
And this was along side ... I'd say this one was past finished!
Flash places like this one would be alongside ...
places like this!
and this ...
Oh and this was for sale, so we drove in :-) Classic ... think it's been for sale ever since day dot! It had access to the beach, even a pineapple tree down the back, but boys was it in a sad state! But think of the possibilities! Kids sleep on one side and parents on the other :-) heheheee
View from the back ... the stairs and verandas were quite badly rotten.
Road sides had lots and lots of these little mamak stalls selling all manner of things, from food, fishing bait, beach toys, hand crafts. You name it you could probably find it along there somewhere!
Country living ...
Friday ... back to the beach :-)
Daddy dug a pit each for the kids :-) hehehee

Aaron's sandy toes.

Maddison has some of Grandma's fossicking genes I think!! ;-) She carted Daddy here there and everywhere up and down the beach and came back with this little pile of treasure :-)

Friday afternoon was kite flying! Oh the excitement when Aaron discovered the kite was a spiderman one!


Maddison's turn ... she's off and look at the glee :-)
Aaron helping get it back in the air again.

This morning ... kids were not happy about going back home, so they spent the time watching Tom & Jerry while we packed up!

And I thought I'd show you the bump at 22+ weeks!
And a certain someone wondered if he looked like George Clooney or Sean Connery with a beard! LOL
If you have made it to the end of this post without falling asleep then you should reward yourself with some chocolate! ;-)

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Right ... on that note I have been here far too long, so off to hang out a couple of loads of washing and head to bed. Might even have to sample some chocolate myself :-)

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Thanks for visiting.