Love,hate,love,hate,love

BEFOE I START THIS IS A LONG POST SO GO AND GRAB A COFFEE OR IF YOU"RE LIKE SUSAN SOME CHOCOLATE.

Yes that was my feeling towards Project Life. A love/hate relationship.
I started in the beginning of this year which was great and easy as i am always on holidays, i had the kit  i had the photos as it was New Years and there is always lots going on. I was doing a two page spread, easy peasy

Then i went back to work and things became more difficult, some were of my own doing.
I like the fancy stuff, i like the cute stuff, i wanted my pages to have lots of embellishments, i like making my own embellishments. (ok i know that you DONT have to do this and its all about the photos and the journalling) but i LIKE it.

I get to use lots of these

and these and but wait there's more - these

I have cute little pots on my desk and old tea boxes to store all my bits in (die cuts and pins from Leena)
Ok by now you have probably guessed that i spend way too much money on "STUFF" but hey i like it.
Digressing as usual
By about week 15 i was not liking this PL thingy very much. Stressing to get photos, then it took me one night to print the photos then at least two nights to do a two page spread.
stressing, getting behind,stressing, getting behind,stressing,getting behind.
and if you know, me as strange as it seems if i get behind on something i don't sit and catch up (that comes later) but it puts me off doing other creative stuff as my brain is saying you cant sew or do a 12x12 Lay out as your Pl is not up to date, so nothing gets done. Zip,nil.nada, O, nothing.

So something had to give and let me tell you it wasn't going to be my 12x12 LO's as i had only just discovered what i am going to call my scrapbook idol SHIMELLE and it wasn't going to be my sporadic card making or my even more sporadic quilt/patch-working, it had to be my PL....BUT....
ho hum when i sat down and started doing it i loved it, my kids and Andrew love it, even my non crafty friends ask to see my albums, and where else could i go to see how many times Joe had got badly burned or badly cut at work (its quite funny really looking back throughout the year seeing all of his injuries each one seeming to be worse than the last one).
mmmm what was one to do
then i had a light bulb moment
i will only do one page a week
so week 37 was my last double page spread

and hello Project Life LOVE LOVE LOVE 
yep this works the best for me and i love it, one page a week, it takes me one night to do so that leaves me with plenty of time to do other crafty pursuits.

I add in two pages here and there as i am very lucky my kids and husband are well trained and always bring me back paraphernalia from whereever they have been which i love to stick in

So there we are, i am up to date, stress free (ok don't mention the monthly quilt kit which is still waiting to be cut and sewn) and loving Project Life
So i say, "Bring on 2013" i am ready for you.

and that is week 51
phew if you're reading this you made it to the end
have you had enough of my ramblings, hope not coz my next post is all about Journal Your Christmas
thanks for stopping by.
xx

At Last

 Well things must be pretty bad when even Joe is telling me that i have not done a blog post in ages. (i never knew he actually read my blog, so there you go i learnt something)
So here are a few photos to fill you in on our life right now.

Caitlin and friends went to Bali early December

 She had a great time took lots of photos for me to make a mini.

We celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary with a luncheon at the new french restaurant at the Crown called Bistro Guillaume

Food was nice but it was missing the wow factor that so many restaurants at the Crown have.

Joe finished TAFE altogether-only one year of his apprenticeship left and that will all be down at the Crown

If i haven't mentioned before Joe and Simon (pictured above) have been chosen to represent Australia in an international cooking competition for apprentice chefs. This is an event organised by Technical Colleges world wide, so although he has finished TAFE Joe and Simon will still be going to practice the dishes that they will be cooking.

Caught up with my two craft buddies for lunch, chat and present swaps, always so much fun.

Our craft get togethers seemed to disappear in the latter part of this year which we must rectify from here on in.

and we had our work Christmas Lunch at yes the Crown again (I love that place, purely coincidental that Joe works there) This time we were at the Atrium

and yes Joe popped in from Nobu and yes Andrew tagged along coz there is no way i could go to the Crown without him. Michelle being Michelle would not have her photo taken.

Our christmas was here this year and although that meant heaps of cooking on Christmas eve for me, the day was awesome and we all had heaps of fun. Boxing day was a day of rest for me as i was exhausted and it has been so hot.

Now i have ventured back into blog land i will post my Project Life update and outlook tomorrow followed by my Journal Your Christmas adventure.

Stay cool or get warm where ever you are in this wonderful world.
xx

Miss Morgan

Hi all
just popping in to share a LO i did of Caitlin and her class. For those of you that don't know Caitlin has just completed her third year at University studying to become a Primary School Teacher. Only half a year to go then she will be qualified.
This year her prac was close to home and her class was year 6. Her first lesson to teach was ANGLES.
(maths was never caitlin's strong point) never mind she did very well and got a great report from her Uni assessor as well as her mentor teacher.
I call her "The Pied Piper-ess" as children, any age adore her and she adores them.
'Anyway here is my LO, the children's faces have been erased for obvious reasons

This LO has just about everything: misting, die cutting, layers, stamping. The vellum envelope, title and report card where cut using the Cameo. How cool is that report card its a "print and cut" from Kerri Bradford studio. Had a blast making this and again used five different papers from five different companies. (learnt this from my Shimelle class which is still going).
Here's a little close up

The apples were cut with a die from PTI and I put a couple in the envelope.

If you've all got cast iron stomachs i will post a photo of Joe's thumb tomorrow as he sliced the top off at work on Monday night, the medics at Burswood thought he may have nerve damage or need a skin graft but it's all ok, i must say its pretty impressive.
Thats been our week amongst other things hope yours is going great
thanks for dropping by
Linda
xx

Christmas cards

Well after much thought and designing going on in my head i think i have come up with the family Christmas cards for this year.

Not that quick to mass produce but if i start now i can at least get my overseas ones finished and posted. I even did some masking and made my own glitter paper.

The tag and stamps are from PTI and the paper is from Authentique/Festive collection.

Off to attempt a chicken and mushroom risotto in Joe's Thermomix. I never have much luck with things i make in the thermomix apart from dip and cheese sauce so wish me luck.
xx

Another Remix LO

Still loving Shimelle's class and in this prompt we had to choose five different papers from our stash, we were given the sizes to cut them and then use them on a LO. I surprised myself and chose five different papers from five different manufactures, i think they all mix-what do you reckon.

Matching papers is one of the things i find the hardest and Shimelle gives you heaps of tips to make this easier. I pulled out the multi coloured heart paper first then went through my stash finding papers to match. Even all of the embellishments come from different company's.
The only plain card stock is for my photo mat. Oh i remember when i went to a beginners scrapbooking class many years ago and we had to choose TWO different coloured card stock and ONE patterned paper to match the photo and the only embellishment was the title and a circle or a flower or two. Nowadays i hardly ever use card stock on LO's and if i do its either Kraft, Cream or White.

By the way that yummy looking sandwich on the bottom is the BLT with three types of bacon from the new "Merrywell" restaurant at the Crown. I spent a happy couple of hours there with Caitlin and Joe on the school holidays.

Hope you are having a great week.
xx

Life

Hi there and happy Sunday to you where ever you are in the world.
Have i said lately that i happen to have a scrapping crush on Shimelle , well i have and at the moment am doing a wonderful online class called Remix with her. I'm learning to mix new papers with old papers and use up some of my stash, there's tips for using all of the embellishments we seem to collect, all that chipboard that i have hiding in trays and if you can't find anything to match then make your own. Nothing new i guess but sometimes its good to get a little reminder.

One of the prompts this week looked at using a 12x12 piece of patterned paper that had a motif on it. i had been hoarding this particular paper because a) i liked it, it is sparkly and b) i had no idea how to use it, so this is what i came up with

It has a lot of "white" space but i like white so that's OK and for once there isn't any journalling as the title says it all for me and i didn't think it was necessary.
here's a little close up

it came together really quick which was a bonus.

Joe and i are on a quest to make the perfect pate, although in my opinion nothing will compare to the Duck liver pate at The Little French Winery. Here is our attempt from yesterday

mmm yum getting close but not quite, although our pate is made from chicken livers i will have to try and find somewhere that sells ducks liver and breast as at TAFE this week Joe made duck rilletts which i really must show you as it looks mouthwateringly scrumptious and i really want to make it for Christmas (or get him to make it-that would be better).

Off to have a little pate snack
see you later.
xx

Sunday

Hi there
just popping in to share a LO i had heaps of fun making, i used one of my Studio Calico kits and just about used all of the elements on one page.
The photos are random ones that i took on the weekend and are probably more suited to a Project Life album but i felt like doing a 12x12 page and this will go in my PL album.

here's a few close ups

oops made a boo boo on my tag.
So yeah that's our exciting Sundays although this coming Sunday will be different as we are out for a BBQ in the arvo.
Have a great weekend.
xx

Block of The Month

I am likey likey this programming function on blogger. Usually i post from my iPad but today (being Sunday) and i have some free time i am on my Mac instead and doing a week load of posts oh this is fun. See when i don't post for a while it doesn't mean that i haven't been crafty it just means that i have been too lazy to post. And now with my baby driving (oh more grey hairs) i hopefully will have extra time to post.
Anyway DIGRESSING as usual
I really only wanted to share my last block from my monthly block quilt (another collection)
Its titled Breezy Afternoon by Angela Hoey.

"Look"," look" every point matches, i really take my time with these and ensure everything is perfect (ha thats not a word that goes with me and sewing).
I love these colours-way out of my normal choice
I love just doing one block at a time
I even love cutting out, ok no i don't i cant lie
I dont mind that to complete a quilt this way it costs more but thats ok Im having fun.
I love that i don't know what the next block will look like.

I'm just enjoying this whole block of the month thing.

Going thru my photos now to see if there is any other crafty goodness i have not posted and if there's not i feel like doing a LO so see ya.
xx

Playing

Another tool i have added to my collection is the Silhouette Cameo and with all things new i like to make sure i can get the most out of it so i have been doing a couple of online classes at Jessica Sprague and i have learnt lots.
So taking a little bit of my knew knowledge i had fun doing a random LO and i mean random.
So here is My LO titled Apple Love

I cut lots of apples from a piece of card stock and used the negative as my back page. The Heart comes from the Silhouette Online Store and was resized to take up the whole page.
I made a collage photo from images on the web and then typed a journal card and added bits and bobs.

Do you see that 'in our house tab' i am very proud of that as its my first print and cut that i have done on this wonder machine. I coloured it and put text on it and even figured out how to put that little white line on the inside (all thanks to my class) and yes small things amuse small minds but i am so proud of it.

Here's a close up of the background and my apples, i was going to put some coloured paper behind this apple to high light it but i decided to colour it with my copics (see another collection) instead.
All in all its not my best LO but i had fun doing it and learning to play with my new machine.

xx
any hints on what i can do with 30 or so different sized apple cutouts?

Fig Tree Club

Hi all how are you? We down under in Perth are having a beautiful Sunday, its warming up and some people are lucky to have husbands who love gardening so their wives can sit inside and craft or blog or whatever. Any way as per usual i digress, this is not a post about gardening.
I am a collector as you all probably know by now. I collect tools, paper, machines, kitchen stuff, craft stuff oh just about everything. Sometimes...OK a lot of the times i just like to collect stuff like this Fig Tree Quilt club that i am a member of. Every quarter each year i get sent a kit and the intention is to turn the kit into a quilt.Hmmm here comes the collect part, when one gets busy as you do you don't get time to make the said kit so you quickly get a collection of

one

which soon becomes two

and then becomes three
and then before you know it you have six or seven. Well i thought instead of collecting i would actually make one. One of the kits was a table runner and as i love table runners and they are relatively quick and easy right i would zip one up. Ha not the case i had to choose the kit with teeny tiny triangles and lots of cutting out and lots of sewing so it sat under the dining table for months half cut out, then i decided enough is enough and gave it a fair old whack (that's Aussie for trying to finish) and get it done
hence i will now introduce you to Fig Trees Club Pattern No19 March 2012 Button and Blooms.

and from another angle

and here's a block for you to see

this kit even comes with the backing, so pretty

so all i have to do now is sandwich it, quilt it and bind it, that shouldn't take me long right? Yeah!!!! In all honesty i was going to start today but alas not enough wadding.
And when i have got nothing else to do i can always start on one in my collection And guess what? I am due to get another one at the end of this month. Oh i love Fig Tree.

hope you have a great week
love me.
xx

Ok four days in a row

Well hello again.
I just had to show you my card I made
love love love it

Every week the Silhouette Online Store has a free shape you can download and use. This week it's a Thanksgiving card, for once I thought outside my little box as I am a visual person this doesn't happen often and turned it into a Christmas card.

Here's the pieces I cut out



And here's the finished card



Kinda looks better IRL
Here's another view



So so easy
Well I'm now well and truly blogged out
Thanks for visiting
Xx
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bennett Springs Drive,Beechboro,Australia

Practice Makes Perfect

Yes three days in a row.

I have had a heap of fun playing with my new Silhouette Cameo and learning lots from Shimelle so I thought I would make a layout.



Everything I used came from my Studio Calico kit.



I cut the apron and spoon using the Silhouette.



And the chefs hat (it comes with the little moustache)

I loved the way it turned out although I can't decide if I need to add something to the bottom right blank space, maybe a retro mixer...what do you think?
Xx
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bennett Springs Drive,Beechboro,Australia

Some Cards

Hello again, yes two days in a row-amazing I know.

I took a class called Kick Start from Online Card Classes and was inspired to make some cards. So here they are



Colourful, love these little wood stars from here.



Obviously I was in a inky rainbow mood and with the second card I wasn't sure of the age so I covered all bases and used a number stencil.

I really enjoy taking these classes, this is the third one I have taken from Online Card Classes and learnt lots(I will never look at a catalogue the same way again..inspiration is everywhere)
And this has nothing to do with craft but Joe is working at
Nobu at the moment and here are some dishes he is cooking


Salt and Pepper squid



Soft Shell Crab.
And yes I may even be back tomorrow
Xx
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bennett Springs Drive,Beechboro,Australia

From my desk part 2

Hello again
Last week I finished another project that I started last Christmas. As it was our long holiday break I had heaps of time to play and came across a you tube video on how to make a mini album with 1 12x12 piece of card stock ( no cutting involved) and as it was so long ago I didn't keep the link to the video.oops.
So here is my mini mini



I even put some felt on the spine, but you don't get a pic of that.



Yes you do found one.
It has little pockets for tags



See it's teeny tiny but it was fun even if it did nearly take me a year to make.
And here's one more



And another



I'm sitting here a little bit bored, don't feel like crafting(have been crafting all arvo) so I'm thinking I might do a couple of blog drafts as I have heaps to share so don't be shocked if there is another post tomorrow.

So until then
Au revoire
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bennett Springs Drive,Beechboro,Australia