Day to Day

Finished.

Aren't these ribbons sweet?!  The one in the middle is Snow White and the seven dwarfs and at the bottom - Little Red Riding Hood.  I plan on sewing Bella a red cape edged in this one for her dressup box.  They are beautiful quality - available here from Ribbons Galore.

The Autumn scarf is finished.  I opted for no fringe as most of you suggested.  Perhaps the next one may include a fringe or pompoms - I really loved the pom pom idea, thankyou!

Onto questions:

Helen: Thankyou for your lovely comments Helen.  I really only started sewing when my James was about 5 (so 7 years ago). I bought a sewing machine to stitch dressup clothes for him and pretty much guessed my way through the patterns.  Mum always encouraged me to do crafting when I was growing up, but it has only been the last few years that I've sewed on a regular basis.  As for knitting - James' blanket that I started a few months ago is really my first project, so I'm only just learning.

Brigitte: I counted up my albums for you and I have 21 scrapbooked 12"X12" sized albums and a huge variety of mini albums :))

Something else that I wanted to share with you is this book, Brave Little Bear.  Bernadette lent me a copy of her book last week and it is a truly inspirational story about becoming a Mum at 16.  I'm acquiring one for our bookshelf and if you know anybody affected or going through teenage pregnancy then I strongly urge you to visit Bernie's website.

This is what I love.

This is what I love about scrapbooking - seeing James and Bella together giggling and reminiscing about their albums and pages. Love. Love. Love this.

Oh yes, there are plenty of dodgy pages in there...but that's the fabulous thing - James and Bella think they're awesome, cool and possibly the best pages ever created! That's one of the reasons why I've never rescrapped any of my layouts.  I do regret the early pages without any journaling whatsoever though (especially in James' baby album because his was the first one that I scrapped) but I do plan on adding a few pages in the back for him that are purely writing and no photos.  The most important thing for me though is to see that both of my children appreciate and adore looking at the pages I create. 

Which leads me to this really cool idea that Nic is doing on her blog.  I'm going to join in and make an 'all about me' album for James and Bella.  You can read all about it and sign up here. 

I took my first lot of photos for the album this morning - one of Bella holding up seven fingers and for James' page he's going to be holding up a sign that reads '12'....now I just need to squeeze in some scrapping time :))

It looks like the scarf is going to be fringe free, judging by all your comments.  I do like the pom pom idea, but that might take a little more wool than I'll have left - but I'll see how I go once I'm finished.

Lis - I'm really looking forward to seeing your knitted blanket and the colours you've chosen. I'm also knitting mine, just crocheting the squares together and it will also have a plain crocheted edge all around it.

Sue - The butterfly was a die cut from the Honey Pie range.  I just machine stitched the middle down onto my page and lifted the wings slightly.

Tiffany - I just made up the pattern for my son's blanket.  I cast on 30 stitches and then knitted 48 rows in garter stitch.  It's going to be 7 squares in width and 10 squares in lengt (Actually they are more like rectangles than squares).  All the edges are crocheted together (front and back).  I've since seen some beautiful designs in shops (in pattern books) but because I'm only just learning to knit this was all I could muster and it seemed a nice quick, easy option.

Autumn Scarf & Easter scrapping

We're off to Sydney for a week soon - 3 days visiting my brother and his family in Goulburn and 4 days in Sydney to shop and take James and Bella to Taronga Zoo.  The weather is cooling down a little at my brother's house so I thought a warm scarf might be in order for Bella, something nice to match her predominantly red and black wardrobe of clothes.

Being the beginner knitter that I am (no idea how to read patterns yet) I cast on 21 stitches (7mm needles) and began with 8 rows garter stitch and then I moved onto moss stitch for the bulk of the scarf.  I'm half way done and really pleased with it so far - I'm loving that it's knitting up super quickly. 

I'm not sure as to whether to add a fringe or not.  I guess it will mainly depend on how much wool I have left - but what do you think...fringe or no fringe???

Here's another couple of layouts that I scrapped for the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  These ones were Easter themed - Suz has a couple of delicious Easter layouts for the post too.

This first one uses the Honey Pie range of papers, diecuts and alphabets from Cosmo Cricket - very sweet and pretty...I really love the diecuts with the tiny chickens - super cute.

Thanks for dropping by :))

Printables

This morning delivered another dreary, rainy Autumn day.  Whilst blog hopping during my morning breakfast I discovered these printables which seemed like a perfect way to fill in the morning with Bella (I found the original link on Craftpad). 

So, we printed out the picnic set and a few other pieces of food, Bella cut them out and then we laminated them together (using my Xyron 510).  The large placemat was too large to fit in the laminator so we glued that onto strong chipboard and cut it out.

We set up a quilt on the lounge room floor and there was a discussion on which monkey might attend the picnic.  But, the sky cleared and the lure of that new treehouse drew her outside....where she stayed until finally coming back in to announce "Mum this was really cool and thankyou for making it...but i think i might use it another day".... and now she is lying on the floor making a button person so I can photograph it and email it through to Phoebe's Mum.  It's a present for Phoebe (well the photo is, I don't think she's getting the actual buttons lol)...which makes me realise just how much I love her spontaneity and what fun it is to be able to jump from one project to another when you're small. 

Yes, ofcourse you can use it another day my sweet.

Brrr.

Here's another quick Easter card that I created for the Aussie Scrap Source blog.  I know Easter is all over now, but this one could be easily adapted to any special day by replacing the wording on the front.  The pretty ribbons are by Strano and the paper, flower die cut and wording strip are from Scenic Route's new range - Lynden. 

Here's a layout that I also scrapped for the Aussie Scrap Source blog recently - all about James and Bella making badges for themselves.  I've been emailed a few times and asked about my use of flowers or floral papers on boy layouts and how I go about deciding which ones to use.  On this page I used hot pink Basic Grey and Lil Davis papers to match Bella's pink top in the photo.  It doesn't bother me that there is a boy in the photo - lol - I just use what I like at the time and try and have fun with my pages.  If I think the shade or pattern looks okay with the photo then I go ahead and just use it. 

It's raining here and the temperature has dropped quite a bit from yesterday (brrr).  I don't think there will be much treehouse playing today unless the rain clears this afternoon.  It looks like a great day for staying indoors and doing a bit of baking.  I might make some of this or these.

Oh and here are some more cool links for you -

Button Card templates: I thought these were super cute for cards and so easy to print out.

Today's Homemaker: Sarah motivates you to clean :))

Lollipop flowers: These are supposed to be for Valentines Day, but how cute would they be for birthday partie!!?

Fabric clothes book: I love this and I wish I had one!

The treehouse {part 2}

They started off the day early, making paper hats out of their new favourite book (Dangerous book for boys).

Mid morning saw a trip to the hardware store to stock up on a little more wood and screws. 

Auntie Beth and Uncle Malcolm called in for a surprise visit which equalled more Easter eggs  :))

Then it was treehouse building time - followed by the first coat of paint - wow, I didn't realise that tree houses could be built so quickly! They are all pooped now and yes, James had fun scrubbing all that fence paint off his face.

Building the tree house.

Yesterday we went on a picnic to Richmond with Richard's Mum and Dad.  The weather was glorious and the highlight of the day for James and Bella was pottering through the maze there.  I find mazes a bit frustrating so I very happy when we finally found the middle!

Today we spent pottering, eating Easter egg chocolate, dinner at Mum's and late in the afternoon before we headed off, James started reading out the index in his Dangerous Book for Boys.  He mentioned that he'd really like to make a tree house, so Rich (Daddy of the year -well, we think so) jumped up and said 'let's go and get started then!'

They spent an hour dragging some wood to the front yard around the silver birch (goodness only knows if this will kill the silver birch lol) and screwing the base of the cubby into the tree.  I've never seen them both so excited and they have all sorts of plans now for lists, spy notes etc.. that they want to create ready for when the tree house is finished.

I'm still plodding along with James' blanket...slowly crocheting some squares together.

Oh...isn't she cute!!?

Happy Easter everyone :))

and then there were two!

Twice as much fun now for the little story writers :))

Easter raffle

I have two excited children because Bella won one of the Easter raffle prizes at school - lots of yummy bunnies and eggs :))

I thought I'd share a couple of Easter links too -

Rabbit templates,

the cutest bunny envelopes,

and this gorgeous Spring tote - too yummy!

Random things

Just a few random things. 

Our little swans swimming away happily - no idea what the bush is called that we picked these from, so we just call it our 'swan tree'.

Bella's tiny fairy fire - a selection of rocks, sticks, Tarisota tissue paper and blue-tak.

The Easter cupcakes that I made this afternoon.  I copied Fiona's idea and dropped a chocolate egg inside each cupcaker prior to cooking.

A layout for Aussie Scrap Source of Bella at the beach.

One of the Easter cards that I made for Aussie Scrap Source.  You can see the rest of my cards here.