Monday, January 30, 2006
Kindy!
OMG it is really happening, Friday my baby has his first day of kindy. Being the organised soul I am I have only just ordered his name tags, they are so cute, I chose a frog icon and I did the whole deal, shoe dots (we have lost 2 pairs at daycare in the last year!) iron on clothes labels, drink bottle labels and a school bad tag! He will be so excited when he sees them. He can't wait to go to kindy.

And a big welcome to Lisa Pate, Lisa has just joined the blog world so go on over and say hi

I got something back in the mail today!!! you can't see it yet it will be in an upcoming edition of SM but here is a sneak peek, try and guess what it is!

Saturday, January 28, 2006
Sleep over!
Well I am back from my sleepover! It was so nice just scrapping and talking every now and then, it was just Jodi and I and we scrapped until 1am after having yummy take out from Kulcha.. a Chiwanese restaurant LOL that is what my mum calls them, they do everything, chinese, japanese, vietnamese and thai.. just divine food.

So anyway here ate 2 of my creations, there was no way I could wait for those flourishes so being a dab hand with photoshop I made my own!! still have journaling to ad

The next one is of Riley making us coffee with the coffee maker in his toy kitchen, he even makes the noises that daddy's big machine makes.

Well I am going back to bed, I have picked up whatever Riley had Friday, all he did was lay on his bob lounge with a blankie over him and watch star wars, I now know just how he feels except we are watching..wait for it.. ELMO!! oh well..





Thursday, January 26, 2006
My scrap space!
Lee Woodside and Julie Love have asked for a peek into our scrap spaces so here is my very mess space, my excuse is that I am on a creative streak, the only time it is tidy is when I can't see the mat from the piles of paper on top of it!

So sit back and enjoy the many views of my scrap space!






Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Shop stuff
I am liking this, go in get given products go home make things..

today when I was in the shop (scrapbooking to di for, Mumford Place Balcatta! LOL) a delivery arrived and I beat Lissy to the Basic Grey undressed chipboard hardware! Lissy's 1/2 is in a baggy and if she is naughty I will have to tax hers. Anyway this is what I did this afternoon..

bazzill (ofcourse!)
Melissa Francis paper
BG chipboard
Heidi plastic letters
wholly cow boy rub ons!
junkitz button

this is the journaling -

Even though it had been a warm day you wanted to have your turn at dress ups too, We had bought out the wading pool so you and Alec could splash around, Alec went and found his ladybird raincoat and pooh bear welly boots and you thought this was something you weren't going to miss out on.

You ran up and down the back yard yelling and laughing asking for the hood up and then walking into things all the time. Once the two of you had finished with the pretend rain and puddles you both played Buzz Lightyear and went to infinity and beyond, unfortunately the wading pool didn't survive, you used it as a launch pad while i was inside making afternoon tea!

click on the image to see a bigger version!

Thank you
For all the nice things you said girls, it is amazing what you gain by taking up a new hobby. I remember the first crop I made myself go to, I just wanted to pack up and run home I felt so out of my depth. I went back again though and from that forced participation I am where I am today with so many friends, at no time in my life have I had so many friends, I feel very lucky.. and talking about friends :)

Monday I did canvas's with Jodi, Nic one of my other scrapping buddies had a birthday yesterday so we went out to dinner.. yummee kins!! A Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai restaurant, and get this, $7.90 each!! and we ate well, it was loud and the service was non existent but the food and company was great.. Then on Friday I am going to a sleep-over!! Jodi, Nic and hopefully Lissy and I are scrapping..woohoo we haven't done a scrap night since September.

Mistra.. Yes any hints on scanning my slides and negatives would be much appreciated..

Justine.. Email me so we can talk about the fair! I'm so glad you are doing it too, they told me they were asking you but I haven't heard any more..

have a good one girls! I'm off to finish my class notes and samples
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Inner peace
we didn't start the weekend with any I can assure you, we just had tons of self doubt and loathing...

why can't I do it like the other girls do it.. why can't I do trends and products? am I really just a fake and everything has been a big fluke, because how can such rigidity be artistic?

Then I realised.. I do me, I am simple and relatively unadorned, if I did anything else or forced what I do I would be being untrue to myself and whatever else I wanted out of this craft after a record of our lives would be seriously devalued. I still want to be like the other big girls but I need to accept that this is me, back to the whole 'love yourself for what you are' thing.

So here is my simple scrapbooking. (click on the images for a bigger view)



Closed

Open
Friday, January 20, 2006
Thomas
Here is a quick one I did tonight

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Alec's obsessive behaviour can really be seen when he plays with trains, he knows the island of Sodor inside out, knows the name of every train, truck, bit of track you name it he knows it. He loves to line them up next to each other or in a line on the track and we were able to catch all his Thomas' in a row the other day. He plays with them all but only happy Thomas has a place in his pocket.

For this week Thomas has been usurped by Arthur, as Arthur has been missing for 4 months now, we knew he was in the front garden, but not where, Alec was often seen poking under bushes with a torch in his hand mumbling 'poor art-ur he missing in da garden' well Tuesday night Michael looked down and there he was, filthy dirty but intact, he hasn't left Alec's side since.

Speech was good yesterday, he did so well, I had to tell on him to Chris because he wont do his homework sheets with me, he does them the way he wants and then yells when i try to say otherwise, this makes it really hard as we need to do them every day!

He is so excited about kindy now too, only 2 more weeks to go.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Is it Thursday already??
I had a great day yesterday, I went and had my eyes tested and picked some really funky glasses, I'm hoping for no buyers remorse 3 days after I pick them up. Then I went off to my friend Jodi's with Gloria Jean coffee's in hand, yum they survived the journey, we caught up and did some photo stuff, slowly but surely I'm teaching Jodi photoshop, she wont know herself when she gets her new computer next week!!

Then I shot off to the scrap store and dropped off my Christmas sample pages and was able to pick Michael up at 4 at the academy and we went and had a coffee before we picked the boys up from daycare. No scrapping done all day but I really had a nice time, it felt weird being out of the house for so long which was a bit weird, I think I need to get out more but I do love being at home.

This morning I'm writing up my class descriptions and doing some speech homework with Alec... Who has speech this afternoon, tsk tsk tsk bad mummy! We have done some during the week but none of his sheets. No plans for the weekend yet, going to clean tomorrow so I can have atleast a whole scrap day over the weekend, I still need to tackle my Christmas day photos!

have a good one!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The weekend
My house is clean, it is nice.. Saturday morning I did the playroom/lounge and scrubbed all the marks off the carpet, I think they all appeared after our Christmas party. I used the wet spots on the carpet as an excuse to keep the boys off until it dried so it stayed clean for more than 10 minutes. Poor Michael came home from the dentist minus two teeth so I took the kids off to a birthday party. Alec had great time with his playgroup buddies and Riley ate and played. Alec never eats at parties, not even his own. After canvassing the girls I am going to go with a Hungry Jacks party for Alec this year. Due to space restrictions in our backyard I had leave some people off Riley's party list, so if I have it at HJ's I can invite everyone I want and I wont have to clean up. It still feels like cheating but there is no way I can fit 20 children and their mums in my backyard.

Sunday I did more cleaning, it felt like that would be the sum total of my weekends accomplishments but I did get some scrapping in. I did these card samples for the shop as I also put my hand up for a card making class, I like the green 'memories' one the best and Lissy likes the big flower 'bon voyage' one. I also took the Basic Grey notch tool out for a test run and my efforts wont be going straight to the pool room I assure you, a little more practice and I will be able to demonstrate it without feeling like a total clutz.

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we are off to Gloria Jeans for coffee this morning..Have a good day!

Oh I almost forgot.. I had a wonderful dream this morning, I was at CHA Las Vegas and I had Heidi Swapp and Ali Edwards as my guides!! then I woke up and found myself still in down town Butler but that was ok because I woke to my gorgeous Alec smiling at me

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Saturday, January 14, 2006
"The '4' Tag!"
Thank you to the lovely talented Chris Millar for tagging me and if anyone bumps into the 4 I have tagged could you let them know!!
4 jobs you've done:

1. chef
2. baker
3. web designer (so much better than being a chef)
4. scrapbook class giver (can't really call that work can you!)

4 Movies you could watch over and over (and do)

Srar Wars III
Star Wars IV
Srar Wars V
Shrek again Shrek again Shrek again says Riley :)

4 Places you have lived

1. Perth
2. Margaret River
3. Tallebudgerra (Gold Coast)
4. Airlie beach (Whitsundays)

4 TV shows you LOVE to watch:

CSI
CSI Miami
MASH (apart from the chicken episode)
Law and Order

4 Places you have been on Vacation:

America
Bali
Long Island (Whitsunday's)
Melbourne

4 websites you visit daily:

Scrapboxx
2peas
scrap blogs
something Thomas related

4 of your favorite foods:

bread
chicken
cherries
those evil arnotts jacks potato chips, the lightly salted ones

4 places you would rather be right now:

bed, but we are going to a 4 yo's birthday party (it was fun)
a scrapbook store
getting a back massage
scrapping with friends

4 bloggers you are tagging:

Mishell Lancett
Dauphney Matthews
Lee Woodside
Trish Reed
Friday, January 13, 2006
Ouch!
I don't think it is meant to stick out like that -

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Many years ago I chipped the bone in my little finger, well yesterday it was a bit blustery and as I was putting Alec in the car and the door closed rather quicly and finger and handle collided with a big crunch. Not happy Jan, I don't do pain well and lugging around an 18kg toddler and changing nappies with your elbow is no fun. ok I will stop now or you will never be able to stop me whining :) Alec keeps wanting to look at it and Riley says, mummy, car, owwie, I didn't even say a bad word which is good because the two parrots would be repeating that for sure.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Stranger in the house
I just watched a documentry on SBS about autism, my heart goes out to these families, I don't know if I would be coping as well if one day Alec had changed, withdrawing from us. You see looking back now I could tell you that Alec was autistic from 6 weeks. We never had anything to compare him too and thought we had a normal baby on our hands. We didn't realise we were the ones that should have been creating the routines instead of Alec. From 6 weeks he ate and slept at the same times every day. I just thought I was amazingly lucky.

When we started the diagnostic process they suggested we look at video and see what autistic type traits we could see, there were so many. Until Alec started speech therapy in July last year at 3 1/2 no one could understand him, he didn't point or indicate what he wanted he had a series of different pitched shrieks. Now after 6 month of speech you wouldn't know he is the same boy. Tomorrow I am going to organise some occupational therapy, I'm hoping we will be granted some type of funding this year as speech and OT will come to about $8000, none of it covered by medicare.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Autism
reared its head again yesterday. Isn't it funny I see it that way, I know it is always there but the episodes Alec has bring it home again. Since we suspected Aspergers and then found it was Autism we have changed a lot of the way we do things, we have not tried to change Alec.

Through speech therapy we are teaching him but I have decided we wont supress anything. We are looking at some different therapies, some I don't like and wont be doing. I have thought about it long and hard and I will do private therapy and we will just interview them first and if we don't like one we will keep going until we find another.

Some therapies are very confronting and they restrain the child well I will let you know right here and now no one is restraining my child, nor will I do drug therapies, I don't believe autism is curable, it isn't a disease it is a condition that is with you from birth, but like I said, this is what I beleieve to be true. I don't want what is Alec replaced by what someone thinks Alec should be to fit into our society. I see my job as being Alec's guide, his advocate and his buffer when he needs it. So far we have managed day care with no problems because he loves routine and his kindy teacher is great, we met her last year and she asked all the right questions and can't wait to have Alec this year.

It isn't easy, Alec is different, reasoning is pointless and when he has a meltdown it has to run its course. Yesterday we were all ready to go and visit our old playgroup when I answered the phone. I shouldn't have done that, because Alec wanted to get on the chair and answer it, I didn't know. My friend even called back for him to answer but it was too late, so for the next 45 minutes he screamed and cried, I'm sure he wasn't sure why but he couldn't stop, the frustration of not being able to communicate what you want and what is wrong must be so hard for him, I know I find it heart breaking. We went from room to room until finally he ended up in my room on the floor, suddenly there was silence..

"oh, look mummy, here is happy thomas what was lost, can we go for coffee now?"

and it was over. I know why it happened, Riley wasn't home with us yesterday he went to my mum and dads for the day, Alec wasn't happy when we dropped them at the train station either. After his big meltdown the day was fine, he wanted to be very close the rest of the day which I didn't mind, I love when he wants to hold my hand.

here is something I read today, the links were on Ali Edwards blog, her little boy Simon who is 4 weeks older than Alec is also autistic.

Experiencing the mysterious - Sharon Sonneff

And this is very true, I found these three on gettingthewordout.org

Frustration – The inability to verbally communicate
thoughts causes major frustrations for parents, the child, and the
caretakers.

Feelings –
The inability to identify and the incapacity to
express feelings, leads to frustration.

Flow –
An autism diagnosis forever alters the flow of the
entire family. The life you thought your child would lead will
never be lived.

The creativity killer..
What's yours? Mine is house cleaning. I can honestly say I loathe nothing more than I loathe cleaning. Which is a big problem because I also hate mess. If I had more cupboard space/was organised/cleaned every day/wasn't lazy it wouldn't be a problem.

I'm out of sorts today, I think my blood sugar levels are fluctuating, I always forget to eat when I clean and my levels always drop. I must go and have my blood tests done, I would have liked to have lost more weight but that is the story of my life, I have my last results so I will be able to see how I am going, my Dr is great I feel I am able to ask for copies of results, as anyone is but he just makes it easy. Diabetes sucks, I need to cut out my lets pretend days where I tell myself chocolate is a staple and its very own food group. I was doing so well until we had to get Alec's diagnosis then I couldn't cope with that stress and diabetes well now that is over I'm having trouble getting back on the wagon.

I need a cleaner.
Monday, January 09, 2006
weekends work.
Saturday morning in the blistering heat, ok so it was only 35 but that is the hottest it has been here since march! My gorgeous friend Lissy and I went off to see the ladies at Scrapbooking To Di For and I'm going to be doing some sample pages for them and some classes.. yippee, I love teaching it has been so long.. and you must click on the link for Lissy's name as she has done a stunning layout with some Wild Asparagus for the shop, so elegant, I just love it.

So here is what I have done for the shop, I also did some mag work but you will have to wait for that I'm afraid..

Wild Apsaragus and Basic Grey undressed monograms
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Designs Galore
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What to do with leftovers
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Saturday, January 07, 2006
My babysitters...
did a wonderful job! I think they really enjoyed having the boys last night. They took them out to a noodle house for dinner and even managed he get Riley to wear shoes and walk. So well done Mutts and Kim!! Riley even at 2 thinks we are here to "uddle uddle" him, which means carry his heavy butt around. I mean when he stands in front of you with his arms raised twiddling his fingers what do you do? walk around him? I don't advise trying it unless you want to lose your hearing temporarily.

We went to Kings Park to the outdoor cinema, we saw the Wedding Crashers, I wasn't overly taken by the film when I heard that was what was on but if you ask everyone I laughed so so much, it was slightly crass but just too funny. I would have loved to have gone on for coffee with the others but I was pretty sure Alec wouldn't have gone to sleep and I was right plus by the time we picked them up and made our way home it was after 11:30.

After what seemed like endless preparation to even get there, by the time the sun was setting I had relaxed and had a nice night.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Having fun being masterful..
I am still on such a high from being chosen as one of the SM Masters, the fact that they now call me and ask ME!!! to do things blows me away, I mean I have been rejected by so many design teams I have just stopped applying yet I can still be a master!! They even have my accent on the promotions page, I tell you until I made that I had never made an accent in my life and had to ask what one was!

I wish I could share the things I have been doing, but watch out for Volume 12 No 6 as the first of the Masters Gallery Challenges will start showing up, and then in May I will be doing the Quilt and Craft fair here in Perth, thankfully these things are organised months in advance, I need to start thinking of demo projects now.
my colour profile
I saw this on Chris Millar's blog, who saw it on Tracy's blog, it is a colour profiler done by Taubmans 603010 range, it is very nicely done, I still look at everything as a web designer, I wish I had kept it up, maybe once Riley starts kindy I can reignite my carreer again. I may start looking for some freelance work at the end of this year, which will mean a fair bit of catch up reading and lost of test sites, just as well I find it so much fun!

anyway here is my colour profile, go and have a look even if it is just to play with their nice little profiler.

Ruby Star

Inspired by the reds in our world...
chillies, blood red and red hot,
exotic aromas that arouse the senses,
sumptuous cut velvets, silky taffetas,
jewel like mosaics, strawberries and pink champagne,
forbidden fruits lead us to temptation,
ambient fragrances & scented candles...
a celebration of life
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Oh yes!
I like this one... finally basic grey is working for me.

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Why Why WHy

did I go and write on this layout????? I am so going to have to get rid of it now.

My handwriting is truely awful, with one well meaning idea I have put a dampener on my whole scrapping day! Awfully dramatic aren't I, I was doing so well too. It felt finished last night at Danelle's when I put that flourish on it, I figured I should stop admiring them (them being my pack of Hedi Swapp Diamond Drama) and actually use them. Oh well of to attack the page and replace that mess!!

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psst.... I cut another bit and printed the journaling and covered it, I just used hermafix so if in the future I change my mind it is retievable

Wednesday, January 04, 2006
photograph
it is so unfair, after 10 years I can't get it through my head my brother is gone. In a totally unrelated incident last week they were playing the memorial concert they did for George Harrison, Ringo Star sang the sone Photograph and it sent a chill down my spine, they didn't play the whole thing so I tracked it down and just played it, and burst into tears. Mum and dad are collecting things and we will start on an album, I can see a lot more crying as I do it, I don't think grief subsides i think it just gets things draped over it and every now and then the layers fall away and it hits you full in the face again and you realise something precious was stolen from you

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Photograph

Everytime I see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go
But all I've got is a photograph,
And I realize you're not coming back anymore

I thought I'd make it,
The day you went away
But I can't take it,
Til you come home again to stay
I can't get used to living here,
While my heart is broke, my tears, I cry in vain
I want you here to have and hold,
As the years go by and we grow old and grey
Now you're expecting me to live without you
But that's not something that I'm looking forward to

Everytime I see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go
But all I've got is a photograph,
And I realize you're not coming back anymore
Everytime I see your face,
It reminds me of the places we used to go


~Ringo Starr ~
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
christmas photos take 5
it looks like Michael and I are incapable of taking a decent christmas tree photo, I just took another 40 and while the closeups are really good the whole tree thing just isn't working for me, the only way it will look any good is if we dismantle it and drag it outside. it is such a shame because it looks fantastic, it just doesn't photograph well.

I really wanted to do a Chrissy tree layout, maybe it will have to be a taking down the tree layout this year.


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