LOAD 31

Here it is, my last layout! I'm off to Invercargill for the weekend. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

LOAD 30 - Pruning

Here is my second last layout for the month. I can't believe I have actaully done 31 layouts this month. I have a backup one just in case I can't complete a layout before heading off to Invercargill.

This layout is a digi layout created for Jessica Sprague's Now We Are Rockin' class. This is the fastest I have ever scrapped photos because all these photos were taken this morning. The cute thing that James said this morning just tickled my fancy.

The journalling reads:

January 30th 2008

James was in the bath for a hairwash.

He asked if he could stay in until lunchtime.

Of course you can James.

It didn't take long until a little voice called out

"My foot's pruning, can I get out now?"

LOAD 29

Here's my layout for today. I liked the idea in Simple Scrapbooks magazine of choosing a day & taking photos for the day. I have chosen the 8th day of the month. The journalling tag really inspired this layout though, because how easy is it just to fill in the times with what you did. So this was our day on Jan 08 2008.

LOAD 28

Here is yesterday's layout. The digital kit was created by Linda Rechtin of digitalscrapbookplace.

The journalling is inside the vellum pocket & can be read at full size.

28 July 2007.
The Christchurch Arts Festival is underway. Part of it is a display in Cathedral Square. The big poppy like flower is actually an inflatable peice of art.

LOAD 27

This was James' christmas decoration in 2006.

The journalling reads:

Your decoration this year was Neptune in a sailing ship. It seemed very appropriate for you given your love of boats.

LOAD 26

James in his waterbaby swimming class back in 2002 & 2003 is the layout for yesterday. This layout is created from a sketch by Lara Moss.

LOAD 25

Here's yesterday's layout. It is actually a backup layout that I have had sitting here just in case I get a day like yesterday when nothing gets done.

This is one of the pro photos of Brent that we had taken in 2004.

Photo of the Week

I have a beautiful magnolia tree down the back of our property. It should be beautiful, it's roots are encroaching in to the lush, nutrient rich vege garden, & the flowers are the white ones that smell lemony.

I just love the texture of the middle part of the flower.

The not so Best day ever

Yesterday was not the best day ever for Brent. After having fun at his friend's house he came home & started playing with James. Then he ran inside saying he had a sore eye, I told him not to rub it & he went & laid on his bed. During dinner he really started crying & screaming so Scott took him to the doctor. Brent has scratched his cornea so now he is wearing an eye patch. We have drops to put in his eye every 24 hours & he is allowed pamol to kill the pain.

We were going to go in to town & watch the Buskers today but I am not sure how up to it his eye will be. I imagine his one good eye might get rather tired, so I think we will have to play that one by ear.

LOAD 24 - The Best Day Ever

This simple layout is about the time when Bruce took James to drive in the digger.

LOAD 23- Rose

This is today's layout. I am doing Jessica Sprague's Now we're Rocking digital scrapbooking class & this is the end result of lesson 1. The photo is supposed to be sepia with the colour on the rose. I think I need to do some more owrk on changing photos to sepia because this doesn't look as creamy brown as I thought it would.

Journalling

Wednesday 13 December 2006
It was the first day of the school holidays & you were pleased just to be at home on a Wednesday. You went out into the garden & decided to pick a rose. You brought it in to me but the stem was too short so I couldn’t put it in a vase. You picked another rose but its petals had fallen off by the time it came inside. You then picked another rose & asked “will this one do mum?”
Yes that one will do. A beautiful yellow rose on a nice long stem.

LOAD 22 - Carol Service

This is a digi layout using Linda Rechtin's All that Jazz kit http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7411

The inside of that heart shaped journalling box had what I think is a stylised angel in it. As soon as I saw that & the musical notes I knew which event I wanted to scrap.

LOAD 21

Here's the next layout. There is a book of me challenge happening at http://www.clubscrapchat.com This is my layout about my name. Really it is more about my feelings about my name.

The journalling reads:
Here I am at 9 weeks old in a family christening gown.
I was christianed & baptised KATRINA JANE FRANCIS
My mother wanted to call me Kirsten, but my father said that Kirsten's have blonde hair & there was no way I was going to have blonde hair, so there was no way i was going to be called Kirsten.

I never really liked my name. I was the only person in any of my schools with the name & really I am not a person who likes to stand out from the crowd. I didn't like the way my name sounded either, with the very hard kuh sound. i was always asked how to spell my name, is it with a K or a C & even then people got it wrong putting an O or an E into it.

It wasn't until I went to Russia that I ended up liking my name. Katherine the Great was a huge influence there & the Katherine isn't spelt the same way as we spell it. It was spelt more like my name & the people said my name so nicely. Then I worked with a woman who was Maori & she told me my name is a Maori name & she pronounced it & it sounded beautiful. So over time I have come to love the fact that my name is a multi cultural name.

Isuppose the funniest thing is that now I have a surname that is harder to spell & it starts with a kri sound.

LOAD 20

Here's today's layout. This was a challenge from http://www.scrapbookessentials.co.nz/

It was to use a blue & orange colour scheme, old stickers (older than one year old) & use the title Summer Days.

This is what I created using the latest kit from them as well as the very first stickers I ever bought (the blue lettering ones).

The journalling reads:

5 February 2007

We drove into Lake Taylor really hoping to get into Loch Katrin to pick up a geocache first to find. It was very hot by the time we got to Lake Taylor so we stopped & had lunch by the lake. Luckily the boys had brought their togs & we were able to let them play in the lake before & after lunch.

What better way to spend a Summer Day than in the water!

LOAD 19

Here's todays layout. I have done another one today as well but I'm keeping it just in caser I need it for later on in the month.

This is a digi layout made from a couple of digi kits from http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/

It was really late last night when I was posting this & I couldn't be bothered to put my journalling down here, so here it is now.

As a treat for the school holidays we went to Orana Park.

We missed seeing the giraffes being fed but we did see the rhino get fed.

We also got to see the cheetah run for its food.

We stayed nearly all day because you both really enjoyed it.

LOAD 18

Here's today's layout.

This is an all paper layout about Brent way back in 2004.

LOAD 17

Here's today's layout. It's a digital one using the Weathered Blooms kit from Lauren Bavin at digital scrapbook place http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7377&zenid=6ec620c374d9929015fae8d4580f2af6

The photo was taken by Brent. Well done Brent that's a fantastic photo you took.

Journalling reads:
That Thumb!
He's bored, in goes that thumb.
He's tired, in goes that thumb.
He's grumpy, first the pout, then in goes that thumb.
He's sad, first the cry, then in goes that thumb.
That thumb is always the same one, the one on his right hand.
That thumb is a source of comfort.

LOAD 16

I'm on the downhill side of this challenge. I can't believe that I have done 16 layouts in as many days.


This is James way back in 2003 eating his favourite car snack, a "pink biscuit".

Journalling reads:

Every night we used to pick dad up from work. To keep you happy while we did the car trip I would give you a pink biscuit. If I forgot to give you one when we set off, you would quickly remind me to get out the "pink biscuit".

LOAD 15

I can't believe I am nearly half way there.

Here is today's layout. It's a paper layout so I will be able to put it straight into my empty cruise album. I feel good about the fact that I am scrapping some of the cruise already.

All paper is Club scrap.

Things that make me smile

Write a list of things that make you smile -- which I know we've done before, but the twist is that each of our lists should be unique. So make your list, then when you read the others' posts, if both of you list the same thing, strike it out on your list. I want to see how many distinctly creative things we can come up with today!

- the cute things that my son says
- a hot cup of coffee & silence in the house (Tinks beat me to it)
- the first daffodil blooming in spring
- the smell of freesias (Glynis beat me to it.)
- seeing monarch caterpillars on the boy's swan plants
- butterflies flocking to my buddleia tree

LOAD 14

This is a digital kit using papers made by Linda Rechtin http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7402

The word art is by Tina Chambers http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1939

The snowflake is a freebie from Flerg.

LOAD 13

Once again it is old paper, old photo & old embellishments. These LOADs are really good for using up some of my old stash.

The journalling reads:

17 June 2002

It was night time & I looked outside to see snow. Knowing that snow doesn't last long in Christchurch I got you out of bed & we made a snowman. There was not much snow & you were a bit bemused by it all. I am pleased I got you out though, because it was all melted by morning.

LOAD 12

The good thing about this challenge is that I am going through my photos & scrapping some old ones. This one is of Brent back in 2001.

LOAD 11

I really like this layout. It's a paper layout based on a sketch provided by Trina at http://scrapbookoutletnz.co.nz/

LOAD 10

I used up some of my very old stash in this paper layout.

Load 9

It's getting harder to do a layout a day. There is always something else that has to be done. Last night I did a quick page from Templates n More.

LOAD 8

Here's the layout for day 8. I think this might be the title page of the album for our cruise.

All elements are from Linda Rechtin's Crazy for You kit here
http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7343

Favourite Photos of 2007

My favorite photos of the year were:

None of these photos are my favourites because they have any technical merit, nearly all of them are really portraying a personality & that's what I love about these photos.

First off there's this one of Brent. Why do I love it? Brent seems to love being the centre of attention & if there is a camera trained on him he puts on a show & hams it up. I love that he likes to do that but I also like to get non "look at me" type photos of him. This was taken from quite a distance using my zoom lens & I love how I got a photo of him just being natural. There were very few of these type that got taken last year & it seems to be even less now as he is really turning into one of those smart alecked, "look at me" kind of boys.James. How could I not love this photo. I actually took it for a photography class that I took with Vicky Gibson http://www.thesneakypirate.blogspot.com The point of the exercise was to get in close & so I did. James was swinging on the swing & I was standing right in front of him so he was swinging towards me absolutely loving the fact that he could very well hit me. This photo seems to show James as my personality plus child.

I always find it difficult to get a non posed photo of both my in laws & my mother. They always seem to want to be posed or at least know that they are having their photo taken. I really like this photo of my FIL & I am really pleased we have a photo of him in his police jacket since he's coming up to retirement this year.

Weird photo to have as a favourite of Scott. There are photos of him, usually he is in photos with the boys, & there is the odd individual one but this strange one is the one I love. Why? Because when he was younger, before kids, he had this goofy side that I loved. That side seems to have been covered up in responsibilities, life, work. It's a side that rarely comes out to play anymore & I miss it. This day we went to the mountains to play in the snow. He was showing me "running man" on ice.

This one is my all time favourite. It was my birthday & we were on a sunset cruise at Raitea'a. I love how we look so happy together. Of course this photo has already been part of one layout but it is going to appear in many more.

LOAD 7

Woohoo I have managed to do a layout a day for a whole week, that's pretty amazing stuff for me. Other amazing stuff is that I've just noticed that I've hit the 3000 visitor mark, of course that isn't 3000 different people, but still it's kind of neat.

Here's the layout using Scrapbook Outlet NZ's December kit

New Year, New food

Is there a new food you want to try this year? Or a new recipe you want to make?

I think I am pretty adventurous when it comes to food. There is not a lot I won't try at least once. That is how I was brought up & I still seem to follow that pattern now. I think it has stood me in good stead & so I am now bringing up the boys the same way. They have to at least try the new food & if they don't like it that's fine they don't have to have it.

What I might baulk at would be eating those outragoeus things that they eat on programs like Survivor. I would have to be pretty hungry I would imagine to be able to stomach things like balut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut That just looks icky, but then mind over matter or hunger might win out.

LOAD 5 & 6

This layout is an all paper affair using up some of my very old stash of all sorts of papers & embellishments.
This digital layout is created using all paper from Club Scrap Digital's Surfs Up kit & a template from www.jacdigital.com
This was my birthday last year.

LOAD 4

Here is the first page for my cruise album. It's not the title page but maybe it will be the end page.
Most of the elements are from Lauren Bavin's Mulled Memories kit
http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7247

New Year, renew an old activity

Is there something that you used to do and enjoy that you would like to start doing again? Tell us about it.

I love swimming so I just can't wait to get back into that again. At the moment it is all on hold until the boys go back to school. It will be nice when the boys are older & I can leave them at the pool by themselves. Actually come to think of it, I probably won't do that because I would be still worried about them. They both do swimming lessons & even if Brent & James were in swim squad I don't think I could totally leave them unwatched.

I used to do cross stitch & sometimes I seriously wonder about taking it up again. I have several unfinished peices sitting around that should be finished off. Maybe I could take that up again when I am sitting in front of TV rather than just blobbing.

Other Layouts

I went to my friend Vicki's place on saturday for a bit of r & r & that always involves coffee & scrapping. I managed to complete 3 layouts while I was there.

This is a layout using club scrap paper from the Chapter One kit that shows James interacting & copying Brent from a very young age.

Another Club scrap layout using the autumn splendour kit.

The last layout is also on club scrap paper, from the Refresh kit, showing Brent doing his last few swimming lessons where he needed a person in the pool with him.

LOAD Day 3

This is the layout I have completed for Day 3.
This is a digi layout made with elements from Linda Rechtin's Happy Chic kit

http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=7299

I loved the word art so I used it as a jumpstart on what I wanted to scrap.

New year, new scrapping goals

What new scrapping technique do you want to try this year? Or do you have a goal with your scrapping this year?

My main goal with scrapping this year will be to just have fun & keep up to date with the calendars that I give out each year as christmas presents. I am going to do both digital & paper layouts, as I have found that I have a different style with each medium.

I am participating in the LOAD challenge at Big Picture scrapbooking so I really hope to accomplish 31 layouts this month.

I would like to experiment making different sized layouts, not always the sqaure layouts. I received a heart shaped cardstock months ago in a kit so maybe there's an out of the norm shaped challenge I can take up. Obviously that shape lends itself to more romantic or loving photos, but I have a few of them that I would like to scrap.

I would like to create a few of the page projects as well. Maybe some of them can be used as presents for people too.

My main goal is to have fun & do a little bit of scrapping every day.

New Year, new routines

This week's theme is "New Year, New You". What is some new activity/hobby that you want to try this year?

I have been thinking this over all day & still can't come up with an answer. I think what I really want to do is get myself into a good routine of incorporating housework, fitness & scrapping as well as time spent with family. In all honesty I don't find it easy to incorporate all of them into a day satisfactorily. I am hoping that once the pool & gym near us opens again I will have some more free time, so I won't be travelling 30 - 40 minutes one way to do the exercise I want to do.

Speaking of that pool, today was the perfect day for going to an outside pool., what a shame the pool isn't open until July. It was 30C degrees according to the weather people but I reckon it was hotter than that in the sun. Of course they are predicting rain for tomorrow but if that comes we will be pleased because we really haven't had a lot of rain.

More Layouts

I have signed up to do the Big Picture Scrapbooking Layout a Day for January class.

Here are my first 2 layouts. One is paper & the other is a digi one using Marcee Duggar's Jessee page kit.

Yay! A new layout for me!

This is the first layout that I have completed in a long time that is really for me & not to be put on a calendar & given away.

This was a free quick page created by angelfaye of http://www.digitalscrapbooking.de/joomla/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

Calendar layouts

These are some of the layouts I made for the calendars that were presents this year.