Goodbye 2011

2011 has been a great year for us, and I guess I'd have to say that I've loved pretty much every crazy busy minute of it! Sure, there have been some ups and downs. We had a heartbreaking death in the family, and a bit of a health scare and hospital stay for me, but on the up side, Jack is the healthiest he's ever been, with hardly any asthma at all this year, and just a few of his nasty migraines. The kids are both happy and healthy, and doing really well at school, and that's pretty much all it takes to make me happy :)

One thing that did kind of suck this year, was not having much time for scrapping. Although, I did do around 80 layouts, so I guess that's not too bad. Here's ten of my faves, in no particular order...











Ahh...I've missed scrapping these last few months...most of these pages were done in the first half of the year! Most of my spare time this year has gone into Purple Pumpkin, and scrapping has had to take a back seat. Hopefully I'll be a bit more organised with my time in 2012 to make time to scrap!

With only a couple of hours left of 2011, it's been so nice to look back at some of my photos from the year. Here are some of the highlights of our 2011...

LOVE this pic of the kids with their cousin, when they were flower girl and page boy at my brothers wedding :)



Jack turned 10 this year!


And Emmy turned 8...



Love my mum and dad! Family time is always the best :)


We got 4 beautiful new family members :)


Jack is famous! So excited to have my layout on the cover of SBM.


We had a holiday in Sydney. SO MUCH FUN!


Waiting for New Years fireworks on the beach tonight...


And of course, no NYE is complete without sparklers :)


Happy New Year! Hope your 2012 is wonderful xx

Our Christmas 2011

As it always does, Christmas day seemed to come up way too fast. There were so many things that I had planned to do in the lead up to the big day that never happend, but in the end, it didn't really matter. We had a great day!

On Christmas Eve, the kids dad came up to stay the night, along with his little puppy who peed all around the house. But he was so cute that we all forgave him. The kids were in bed by 10, but not before they left out a special snack for Santa!


I was pretty impressed by the earlier than ususal xmas eve bedtime this year, but Em was up at 4am, ready to open presents! She dragged me out of bed to show me all the pressies under the tree, and off to the side there was a desk and 'spinny chair' with her name on, with a cute little fish in a pink topped tank, just for her. (oops, forgot to get a piccie of those!)

After she showed me the stocking hanging on her door, stuffed full of goodies, I managed to convince her to lay down for a little while longer, and not to wake Jack up just yet. So I staggered back to bed for a little while, but before long, both kids were up, and ready for Christmas morning to begin!


Hmmm...I tried to get my usual Christmas morning photo of the kids in front of the tree, but they were too busy singing and swaying in time, for me to get a decent pic, so this is it!


Then it was time to rip into those pressies! Jack was thrilled to finally get a Wii, the look on his face says it all :)



And Em was so excited to get the Powerwing that she had wanted sooo badly :)


And that's where I put my camera down this year, for Christmas morning at least. I just wanted to enjoy the kids opening their pressies, instead of watching it all through the camera lens. And it was awesome, and over so fast. Jack of course was pretty happy with his Wii, and he got 5 games for it as well, including the Skylander game that he REALLY wanted. He got a couple of big legos too, and some DS games, some board games, ds accesories, touch screen MP3 thingy, water pistol, and some other stuff that I can't remember. And that was just from mummy and Santa.

Em was thrilled to bits with her desk, her little fighting fish, which has been named Santa Fish (the kids are not sure how Santa transported him from the North Pole, but they were pretty impressed), her powerwing of course, a TONNE of art and craft supplies, DS game, a couple of Barbies (she got 5 new Barbies all up this xmas, they are taking over the house!!) Hmmm...what else was under the tree...a touchscreen MP3 thing, board games, hula hoop, pin board for her 'art'. I should really have taken a photo of it all like I usually do!

A bit later on, Em had to try out her new scooter...


And then it was time for the kids to open their pressies from Poppy and Gek.





Portable Dvd players and DS games for both of them, as well as more Barbie stuff for Em, and clothes and shoes and I can't remember what else. Lots of stuff!

And lookie what I got from my gorgeous mum and dad...


OMG, I have never been so excited in my life!!! My first DSLR camera! I think I nearly died of shock when they gave it to me. Best present EVER!!

So in the afternoon, my little brother and his family came over, and there were MORE presents, and lots of time to just hang out together :)





Mum saved this pressie for all the grandkids for last. 3 monkeys for the 3 little monkeys...


The kids were so happy to have their cousin sleep over for 2 nights, and on Christmas night, the girls didn't go to sleep until 1am! It was such a great Christmas, the kids say it was the best Christmas EVER (they say that every year though), I think I have to agree though, I loved every second of it, but at the same time, I'm glad it's over for another year :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too :) I am looking forward to getting my house back to normal now, and seeing as the kids have gone to spend a couple of days with their dad, I'm hoping to get some scrapping done too!

Today...

Only 3 days to go, and it's feeling a lot like Christmas!!


We didn't end up going to the zoo the other day like we'd planned, but we did today! I even took a Santa hat with us, in the hopes of getting a Christmassy photo of the kids. But someone else was feeling a bit festive, and was more than happy to pose for a Santa hat photo :)

Hehe, actually, I thought he'd hop away once we popped the Santa hat on his head, but he couldn't care less, lol!


We only stayed at the zoo for a couple of hours. We've been too many times this year, and the kids are a bit bored of it all. The highlight for the kids today, was the little 3 week old piglets! Omg, I could have popped one in my bag and taken it home, they were SO cute! They were all running around like puppies, with their little tails wagging, and when we'd pat one, it would just freeze. With this one, Em scratched his scratchy spot on his back (just like a dog!), and his little legs buckled, and he just laid on the ground enjoying a scratch. As soon as she stopped, he was up and running again.


The best part of taking the kids to the zoo for me, was that I actually got a half decent photo of the kids!! The older Jack gets, the harder it is to get any photos of him, so even though he's not really looking at the camera, and looks like he doesn't want to be there, I'm pretty happy about this one.


After the zoo, we went to see Arthur Christmas!


It was actually pretty good, and I didn't mind sitting through it at all :)

And lastly, another Christmas layout...


Em was so tiny there!! I've used all Imaginisce on this page, including some coloured foam tape! I sure am going to miss getting all those parcels from Imaginisce, but I'm soooo looking forward to no more scrapping deadlines for a while :)

Hope your day was a good one!

Christmas Cooking

It's one of the things that the kids look forward to most in the lead up to Christmas...making all the yummy treats! So today we made a start on it, and first up on our Christmas cooking list is this marshmallow shortbread...


Next to Caramel Truffles, this is Emma's absolute fave, and it's soooo easy to make. I got the recipe from friend ages ago, and can't remember exact quantities, but basically this is how it goes...

1 pack of Arnotts Scotch Finger biscuits (crushed in food processor)
1/2 pack of Pascalls Marshmallows (chopped) - you could also use mini marshmallows
3/4 tin of condensed milk
60g melted butter
Dessicated coconut

Place crushed biscuits and chopped marshmallows into a bowl, and add melted butter and condensed milk. Stir until combined, then roll about half of the mixture into a log shape. Place it on baking paper that is covered in coconut and roll up and put into the fridge (repeat with the other half of the mixture too)When it has firmed up, cut it into slices...yum!

You could also just press it into a tin and sprinkle coconut on the top, then cut out some shapes with cookie cutters, like we've done here...


So far today we've also made some fruit and nut truffles, and at the moment Jack is making peanut butter cookies. They're not really part of our Christmas cooking, but they're Jack's fave, and the kitchen was messy anyway, so I just let him go for it. He's just put them in the oven, and they smell sooo good!

We're also planning to make rum and raison truffles, rocky road, caramel slice, shortbread, and a few other bits and pieces. Oh and of course, the gingerbread house! Probably save that for Christmas Eve. The kids are looking soooo forward to decorating it. I can't believe we didn't do our first gingerbread house until last year. Here's a page (one of the doubles I did for Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine) about last years gingerbread house...


Oh, I hate how double pagers come up so teeny tiny on the blog!!


And just because the oven just dinged, and I had to get Jack's cookies out (he never likes to get them out himself!), here is a pic of them...


He was so impatient to try one, that by the time I'd turned around to grab my camera and take a photo, the little greedy guts had cracked off a corner of one of them! Still, it's nice that he is able to cook things on his own these days, so I guess he is entitled to do that :)

Well, I guess it might be time for me to go and cover the truffles in chocolate. (mmmm...melted chocolate!). Hope you're having a fun day!

She's got the Christmas Spirit

Well, so much for my plan to wake the kids up early. It's heading towards 9 o'clock, and they are still asleep. It's just so nice and peaceful this morning, that I couldn't bring myself to wake them! We are heading to the zoo later on, so hopefully that should tire them out for tonight, lol.

So I have another double pager to share today, using the very cute Imaginisce Santa's Little Helper range...


I really do love this range, the little die cuts are just the cutest! I've used a Purple Pumpkin flower on here too...



Em is just as obsessed with all things Christmas again this year. She keeps accusing Jack of not having 'Christmas Spirit', because he gets tired of listening to Christmas carols all day long! Every night when I tuck her in we have to discuss all aspects of what things might be like at the North Pole, and whether I'll let Em sleep in the lounge room this year, so she can ask Santa for a ride in his sleigh (that's all she wants for Christmas!) She would also like to make Jesus a birthday cake. This girl has enough Christmas spirit for all of us!

1 Week To Go!

Well, here we are, just 1 week away from Christmas!!! I am looking forward to a week of doing nothing much but hanging out with the kidlets, doing lots of craft, making loads of scrummy treats, and watching Christmas movies. I love Christmas week!!

My plan for this week, is to get the kids up early each day, so they start going to sleep a bit earlier. I want them TIRED for Christmas eve. Last year they were too hyped up to go to sleep, and I was terrified i would fall asleep before they did. Omg, imagine that!! So the plan is to get them out of bed at 7am, instead of letting them sleep until 9. Let's see if I can stick to it, lol.

I'm hoping to squeeze in a little bit of scrapping this week too. I've kind of lost momentum with my December Daily album. Really need to get back into that. Em is doing one too :) And I really want to do some real scrapping, but I feel like I've forgotten how! Here's a layout I did a little while back though, for Australian Scrapbook Ideas magazine. I had to do 3 double page layouts with a Christmas theme, and this is one of them...

Click the photo for a closer look!

I find double layouts a bit of a challenge at the best of times, so to have to do 3 of them was pretty full on! I'll pop the other ones on here another day :)

And before I go, here are a few pics of what the kids have been up to...

Jack has claimed all of the Christmas crafts that require sewing. He really enjoys it, and is even in the Needles and Threads club at school!

And I managed to convince Em to pose with a bit of tinsel so I could put the pic in my December Daily. Jack wouldn't do it because it's too itchy, lol. Don't blame him either!


Hope you have a fun Christmas week!

What the?...It's December already?

Hmmm...this year sure is flying by! I can't believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away! The kids finished school on the 1st of December, and it has been so nice to just slow down a bit. I LOVE school holidays!! I might have changed my mind about that in a few weeks time though, once they start fighting, but at the moment they are both in the Christmas mood, and are trying to be very good, in the hope that Santa is feeling generous this year.

We've been busy crafting and cooking pretty much every day, and I've been trying to sort out my scrap room, and really organise everything. I got so busy with Purple Pumpkin this year, that scrapping really took a back seat, and I'm a bit bummed about that. Not that I'm complaining. I mean, what started out as a fun little hobby for mum and I to do together, basically turned into a full time job for both of us. I absolutely love it, but...I miss scrapping. The only scrapping I seem to do these days is for dt commitments, so I decided to finish my term on the Imaginisce design team at the end of this year, and just scrap for me for a while. Which is why I've been sorting my scrap stuff. I found so much stuff that I forgot I had!! I don't think I'll need to buy anything for at least 5 years. (although I'm sure I will, lol)

I've missed blogging too. When I started this blog, I used to write heaps about what the kids were up to, and things that I wanted to remember. Really need to get back to that. If I don't write it down, I'll definately forget it! Think I might have to go back through my photos for the last 6 months and get all those memories down!

Oh, and I promised a winner for the Get Picky thing from a few months back!! For a PP embellishment prize pack. And the winner is...



Eek! Sorry for taking so long!! Just email me your addy so I can get your prize out to you :)

Well, I do have a lot of layouts to share, that I haven't had a chance to put on the blog lately, as well as my December Daily (yay! my first one!), but I think I'll leave that for another day. The kids are asleep so it's time for some secret Santa business ;)

Get Picky 1st Birthday Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Get Picky 1st Birthday Blog Hop!

We are celebrating our first year with a very exciting reveal as we unveil our 13th Sketch with you today and share the beautiful creations of both present and past designers from our first year! Some of the team members will be offering prizes so you will want to visit all of the blogs to increase your chances of winning a prize. We are also offering a major prize along with the chance at a Guest Designer spot for the month of November if you visit and leave a comment at all of the blogs in our blog hop and participate in Sketch Challenge #13. The Blog Hop starts today and will remain open until midnight (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on October 28th so this will give you all plenty of time to visit everyone’s blogs and create a layout for the sketch challenge.



And here is my layout


And some close up! Buttons and flowers are from Purple Pumpkin...





As we mentioned, there are lots of great birthday pressies up for grabs along our hop today. Some of our designers will be offering a RAK of their own and of course there is the chance to become our Guest Designer for November....but what's a celebration without that very special gift.



We are so very excited to also announce that Imaginisce have been kind enough to sponsor us with an awesome prize for our very special birthday celebration.



Included in the prize is....... the two latest collections with embellishments and stamps from both Geek is Chic and Bon Voyage plus an i-bond cordless glue gun with glitter glue sticks, a d-stress tool and a box of fabric flowers.

I am also offering a prize of a mystery pack of Purple Pumpkin goodies, but you have to comment on this post to be in the running! Once the hop is over, I will choose one random winner.

Get Picky is the first stop of our birthday journey where you will find the complete list of all blogs in case there is a glitch along the way. If you would like to play, just follow along the blog path in order so you don’t miss anyone.

Remember, if you want to be considered for the Guest Designer spot in November, once you have visited all the blogs and uploaded your entry for Sketch Challenge #13, please make sure that you go back to the Get Picky Blog and leave a comment on the challenge post.

The blog hop begins here: Get Picky Blog

Your next stop is here: Taj White

Thank you so much for joining us for this very special birthday celebration and for your continued support!