Glamour Puss

Just quickly... a beautifully cool and rainy day yesterday provided me with the perfect excuse to scrap,
so i gave tcr palette a go this week.  A bit scared of it at first, but when i saw it on the black cs bg,
i was much more confident! ....
and i've been just busting to use these delicious little feathers... aren't they sweet?  :)

The Coredinations black cs with a pale pink core was ideal in this case to scratch a messy border into too.

Here's the palette:

... and here's my take:

cheers, and hope you all have a great week!

jules

x

My Bad

No, i haven't blogged this last week... but i have scrapped!

Bit of a mixed bag kinda post really, so i thought i'd start with this...

... the last washing of the bibs.  The soccer season is finally over {{big sigh}}!!

oh, i love that the kids are passionate about it...

and i love the camaraderie that they experience from it...

and i love that it keeps them fit and active...

and i love the social interaction...

but i also love that we get a break from it for a little while too! 

The big trips to attend carnivals and the constant pick ups and drop offs and training for

three out of the four kids do take their toll.  Just last weekend Troy traveled 2.5 hours

to get to a carnival with 2 of the kids, refereed and watched games all day,

then had to drive the 2.5 hour return trip at the end of the day.

Big Committment!

But it hasn't been all work and no play this week   :)

Over at the Boxx, we played a bit of a game with a 'Scrap Build'.

A group of 10 ladies progressively added one element or 'step' to complete a page.

Each time a step was added, each player posted a photo and instructions for that step.

It was really fun to play and amazing to watch all the different lo's completed,

especially considering we all had the same instructions!!

This was what i came up with...

go and check out the amazing range of lo's for yourself.

The fortnightly challenge over at the Boxx was to use up your scraps.

Absolutely no fresh sheets of patterned pp were to be harmed in the process...

which was really easy for me!  i could use scraps on the next 20 lo's and still have mountains left... :)

Here is what i did...

... and finally...

i just scraped in with the second Scrap the Boys lo this month...

a lo using ribbon.  I scrapped an old pic of my eldest boy Cooper...

(can't believe i've never scrapped this one before).

Not wanting to take anything away from the blue of his eyes in this pic,

the only other blue i used was a little cluster of ribbon at the top left and bottom right of the lo,

using the ribbon and Coop's pic to create a visual triangle with colour.

Hope it worked  : p  ...

oh .. and i'm not sure if the 7Gypsies Gaffer Tape counts as ribbon, but i accidently

ripped some to start with, and i quite liked the effect... so i just went with it  :)

hope u like:

... and the journaling up close...

thanks for stopping by ... 

jules

x

Perfect End

Yeah... what a perfect end to a really busy week!  I've pretty much scrapped all day, thanks to my
little 11 yr old babysitter who has just played beautifully with her (not so) baby brother during
his waking hours today.  Apart from the odd nappy change and messy cleanups,
I've wandered back and forth from my scrappin alcove all day....   love that!

The other half of our little brood are all in Emerald playing soccer.
Claire's team couldn't get a team together to travel...
(not enough people prepared to travel 2 and a half hours to get there i guess!!)...
so we got to stay home for the day... secretly didn't mind at all...
after a 16 hour day (predominantly on my feet) at the polling booth yesterday,
i was happy for a rest day!!

It seems as though that all i've got to show lately are little sneaks, which is a little frustrating,
but kinda exciting at the same time...  :))

This lil sneak is for a fab blog hoppin' whisper, so ssshhhhh.....

...ever since the awesome cyber crop over at the boxx last month

i've wanted to do another layout using feathers...

(the challenge set by the asbolutely fabulous Jodi Butler)

I wasn't really happy with my original feather layout,

so i was really happy when i found the feathers in this whisper layout....

just gorgeous! i got some other little darlings that i just can't wait

to get glued down on a page as well...

i'm soooo looking forward to a slower, more peaceful week this week....

and of course, a more creative one!  :)

hope you had a great weekend,

and thanks for visiting..

jules x

Cheeky Sneaky

Real cheeky ... can't show it off yet, but I had so much fun with this...

... thought I would get this done today as the rest of the week will be a boring

mix of household jobs and online training for the election this weekend

.... trust me to do the fun stuff first!  :))

also.... had to share just a small grateful moment of yesterday.

Claire doing the wiping up without being asked!!!

The second thing I did (after picking my jaw up off the floor),

was reach for the camera to document this momentous occasion....

she didn't appreciate the humour ... lol

gotta be grateful for the little things right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jules x

I'm Back

Sorry, I did fall off the grid a bit this week.

Unfortunately I had to fly down to Tassy to attend my Nan's funeral, which I should add was just lovely.  Not the normal adjective for a funeral I know, but it was a wonderful celebration of her life.... not the usual sad or maudlin affair that we would normally associate with funerals.

At 89, she certainly led a full life...a strong woman who just adored all of her kids (the grand and the great grand variety).  I thought it was quite fitting that I take Lachlan with me then ... he managed to keep the mood light and entertain the masses.  During the funeral service he even started singing along to Ave Maria, by Il Divo.... who knew of his operatic prowess??? ... lol.  I'm sure Nan was looking on and giggling tears of joy at that!  She'd have loved it!

I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted when I say how utterly exhausting it is to travel with a toddler....

up before 3:00am to drive over 2 hours to Mackay to catch the red eye to Brisbane... connecting flight to Hobart... two nights in Hobart with all the rellies... fly to Brisbane... o'night in Brissy with my sis... direct flight back home!  I was so utterly exhausted last night, I couldn't even speak properly.  Lachy was fairly good considering all the to-ing and fro-ing, but he did have his moments... as you would normally expect!

Back into the routine now and into full swing!

Amazingly, before I left for Tassy, I was approached to participate in 2 separate challenges!!

Two offers in one day! 

Totally blown away.... and of course I can't say much more just yet, but I'm so excited and looking forward to getting stuck into them ... will reveal more when I can!!

Not only that, but I agreed to work the election because they are so understaffed out here,

and was allocated the 2IC position!  I've been trying to get my head around the online training all morning,

in addition to the briefing session this afternoon....

splitting headache as a result, as I'm sure I haven't yet caught up on my sleep yet!

hmmmm... no rest for the wicked I guess!  :)

Promise to blog more scrappy stuff soon...

thanks for putting up with what I just realised was a very long and procrastinated

record of events....

much love

jules

X

More on the Boys

OK... so the girls are missing out a little bit lately.... the scrapping balance has certainly been tipped in the boys favour.  I'm sure there'll be a catch up some time soon ... :))

I've had the idea for this one rolling around in the vast {and ostensibly empty} void between my ears for a while now... :))  ... so I decided to put it into action for the next Scrap the Boys Challenge.  Scrap the boys using flowers.  Not normally much of a flower user at all, I decided to sprinkle a few little rosettes on the lo, using them to help direct the eye across the page. 

Hope you like...

oh... and check out this fabulous giveaway at STB also!!  Lots of yummy goodies in there!

thanks so much for stopping by ... :))

Happy Dance

Real quick ... doing a little happy dance!

I was featured in The Colour Room again this week... woohoo!!

Sorry - just had to share...

Have a great weekend!

:)))

She

Just a quickie...

This week's palette at The Colour Room was a bit of a struggle for me.... not colours i would normally put together.  Sometimes though that can result in a layout that i would not normally put together, which is a good thing... just something a little different.

Here was the palette:

...and here's my page:

the background cardstock is really brown, although it came up rather dark in the pic.

Again... i don't really like lavender (i think i had a really hideous lavender shirt as a child...sorry mum :)),

but i still managed to slip a little bit of it in there.  And i made my own flower!!!  woohoo!!

Whilst i didn't actually use the sketch, it certainly gave me a little inspiration.

.... and of course, the close ups:

thanks for visiting  {smiles} xx

Blah

I've had a bit of a 'blah' couple of days ... spent most of it here:

{{sigh}}

... comes with the territory I suppose.  4 kids (including one very messy toddler),

3 lots of soccer uniforms twice a week, 3 lots of school uniforms every day,

togs and towels from squad TWICE A DAY!! DH work uniforms...

and all the extra bulk from winter clothes and all those layers!

I'm not complaining ... in fact I'm grateful.

Grateful that the kids are all able bodied enough to be

so active and accomplished on the sporting front.

Grateful that we are in a position to afford all this sport and activity.

{in fact, we would go without other things to make sure these needs were met}

Grateful that the kids are happiest out running around rather than locked in their rooms

playing electronic games ad nauseum.

Grateful for all the wonderful friends they have all made through sport and school.

A couple of days of blah is such a small price to pay!

Cheers... sorry about the waffle

 i hope you too can enjoy your blah days

:))

Art Day

I've had sooooo much fun this last couple of days!!

Thanks to the lovely Miss Jane .... the new boss lady over at the Boxx.... and her 'fauvism challenge', I've taken some serious me time and created a canvas!!!

Yep, me!  A canvas!

I'm so pleased with it and the whole process has been wonderfully cathartic.  Something totally devoted to me... not for the albums, not for prosterity, not for the kids to enjoy in years to come .... just me!

I've been up to my elbows (literally) in paint and glue and texture paste.  And I LOVED it!

The challenge dictated that we choose a piece of fauvism art and use it as inspiration for a page/project.

This is the piece that I chose:  Cefalu Seaside, by Elise Palmigiani.

Something about the colours and technique just jumped out at me straight away.

To start with I glued down lots of ephemera to do with my creative life.... from receipts of arty purchases to packaging from supplies and letters from scrapbooking magazines.... stuff that really has meaning in my creative pursuits.  Then I started out trying to reproduce the piece over the top, but decided that wasn't really what I wanted.... so I painted over it, leaving lots of the background still showing through... (very appropriate considering the quote.. :)).  The rest just kinda evolved and appeared from somewhere!

I used old MM foam letter stamps, Kaisercraft number stamps, old transparencies I'd forgotten I had, chipboard circles that were unnamed when I bought them so I don't know where they are from, gorgeous Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies Tape, Heidi Swapp polka dot mask, paper scraps cut into circles, old rubons, dressmaking pattern pp, Kaisercraft chipboard letters, texture paste..... and lots and lots of paint!!

I'm not sure if it's done yet.  I think I'll live with it on the wall for a while before I call it done.  I may still cover the J in dressmakers pattern pieces.  Actually, on second thoughts.... I might rip it off, paint it red and hang it beside the canvas  :)).  One day, when I'm all grown up and have a room of my own...
it will no doubt take pride of place above my workspace  (hehe) ...
for now, it will live on a wall somewhere in the house!

Here are some close ups:

...thanks for visiting and thank you Miss Jane for such a fabulous prompt,

or I may never have discovered I could have this much fun with canvas!!

Cheers and bye for now...