Terrible pictures I know but there is still a great big lounge in the middle of the room, there are my shelves, they are 50cm high and a metre and a half long!! high enough for albums and paper holders! All that needs doing is the doors and they can be done once all the furniture is moved, and that is the window I am putting my desk next to.

We wont get too carried away putting things on the wall until the electrician comes and installs the air conditioner and the down lights!

for layouts, blog posts, emails.. you name it and I am bad at thinking up titles.

I love the page, hate the title and what I made the title out of, I know we are our own worst enemies when it comes to the assesment of our work but this really did go south after I stuck the title on. After doing one you truly love and are 100% happy with like 12 weeks then this that you had such high expectations of is a let down. I dropped the ball... lol ok over that now! Here is an insight into the daily battles Riley and I are having right now.

So one more coat on the shelves and a bit of cornice to paint and the'studio' is done! I can see me starting to move in Wednesday!

I really could have things like this on the wall. I love photoshop brushes, this one is called Fly trap from Flyguy Designs and this is Riley putting the 3rd coat of paint on the studio. We are all finished with the walls now, base coat is on the shelves and 2 coats 8 hours apart for those tomorrow, that just leaves the doors and the new bit of cornice over the new wall and then I'm moving in! Riley loved helping today kept showing me the painting he did. The colour looks a lot better than this but the light in there is awful, can't wait to get the down lights in!

I was ever this little!

Remembering those that served
thinking about what war does
sad about the loss it brings

Happy to be reconnecting with the neighbours,
catching up, borrowing tools, returning tools
spending time together as a family
visiting friends.

peace.

We start the cycle all over again, I'm back in the car, holidays are over. I've had plenty of sleep, watched 4 seasons of Stargate and got some layouts done and spent lots of time with my boys. I couldn't ask for more.
Directions for Today can be found @ Buzz and Bloom

my Today canvas is up in the Atelier at Buzz and Bloom - HERE the topic for this months assignment was a day in the life of a paper artist.

since I had a migraine!!

This is truly something to celebrate because except for when I was pregnant or breastfeeding I have had at least 1 a week since I was 24. For the last month I have been taking a large handful of pills which are all vitamins and it looks like it is working. A month ago I was taking 2 inderal a day to try and keep them at bay but it did nothing, I was having a headache every three days and sometimes a migraine was lasting 3 days, I was feeling a bit desperate, even the imigran I took for the headaches sent me to bed for 4 hours and when you have little ones you can't do that... I know from experience, one time I was so sick I had to go to bed, I forgot to check the back door was looked and I woke to 2 naked wet children and a running hose in the house and a lot of mud.

So lets see if I can get through a month with no migraine, it's looking good so far!

the smell of drying cat biscuits in the oven after your 3 year old has poured their water into the container was so awful we were retching but I wasn't throwing away $25 worth of cat food.

This child stretches me to the limit, he is an artist (our walls) a demolition specialist (anything not made of metal is fair game) a negotiator (anyone would give in to whatever he wanted just to stop the whining) thankfully he is also very funny and is having a wonderful time with his big brother. I think Riley would be happy if the whole family stayed home all the time.

I finished my canvas, I am so thrilled with it, will give you a look when it is loaded up to Buzz and Bloom, and talking of Buzz and Bloom wow we have some new chipboard on its way, I tell you it is awesome, sample layouts using the new chipboard will be going up on April 24th.

We are taking it pretty easy here, haven't been out of bed before 8am for a week now, I'm really enjoying it, the first coat of paint is done in the studio, we are going for bike rides and catching up with friends. What holidays are all about!

I realise many will be saying.. or what? these are my first poppet type thing, I have the family poppets sitting on my desk, they are a tiny bit scary.

This is all part of a double canvas for Buzz and Bloom, I will let you know when it goes up, it will come with full instructions and techniques.

I'm mostly spending my day checking my assets each time I get up to make sure whatever it is I have glued isn't stuck to my bum! I'm enjoying these projects, makes me have to think and learn and try new things. And plan, I sketched this out several times before I was happy, then after I had made my poppets I had to send Michael out for bigger canvas', I don't do small well at all.

So anyway I am having fun, off to see what is best to do colour washes on canvas before I sketch my design on.

for my gorgeous friend Justine Quinlivan!!! She has been selected for the xyron design team!!!

Just check out the layout she submitted, I can see why they chose her, just gorgeous.

A couple of months ago I got a peamail from a girl that runs a French forum called Scrap et Pipelettes, they had selected me to be their scraplift subject of the month. So they selected layouts from my twopeas gallery and scraplifted them, I really am very chuffed.. here are links to their scraplifts..

Album - scrapetpipelettes

the tigger - isa85
Scraplift ALLIPAT - martinelandes
Carte doux bisou - prune
Muriel.A
Késia
***Sev et Emily*** par sevol
Noël 2006 de Linette - scraplift Allipat
Assise parfaite ou une histoire de tabouret (par nAnnie)
Scraplift Allipat par Pyllou
Scraplift Allipat par bidi
Jeu des mots à la page - Xilbi
Morne à l'esu by cigogne

Well yesterday I had good Monday morning intentions, laundry, cleaning, but that changed just after midnight when my poor baby arrived, I could hear him before he got to the door, the first cool night and he had croup. It was so bad last night that he was vomiting in between coughing. It took half an hour to get him out of the bathroom, we lured him out with Stargate, so between then and I think about 3am we sat up with him until he stopped coughing and throwing up, we set the vapouriser up right away and set him up a bed on our floor and he eventually fell asleep, I lay there listening to him breathe until about 4am and then 6:30am came around way too soon.

layouts..

well I have made a nice dent in my photos, finished another two Sunday but all the inspiration I had over the weekend has been lost to the lack of sleep monster. Here is the last one I managed, I even got a bit of bling in there, which on a boy page is pretty hard!




Autism

So much is being said about autism right now, awareness is up but to me it is not all good news, I'm really hoping that the American led 'search for a cure' doesn't overshadow such things as the value of Early Intervention and direct much needed funds to something that wont help anyone. If you really want to donate look up your Australian state or territory Autism Association and donate something to them.

Every facet of my life and that of my family is touched by autism, we live with it daily but in no way would I change my child, he really does amaze me, he has started to learn how to adapt. It is like the paediatrician we initially saw said, autism is like a brick wall with some bricks missing and some bricks in the wrong place, the therapies we have done with Alec have rebuilt the wall and filled in the spaces with new bricks. It is a slow job and sometimes it seems you take four steps back for every two you take forward but when you start to see results everything you have done was worth it.

I had a few layouts to finish off that I started in Hyden, two had a bit of felt on them, then I wasn't happy with them then I realised felt is a really good distraction when your original inspiration seeps away. One thing I learnt, felt goes through the xyron ok, but doesn't come off the backing paper very well! Thanks Lis for the inspiration. The other page is my brother Andy when he was two, I am loving these American Crafts thicker stickers, I have almost used the whole pack this weekend.

Thursday was the last day of term for us, I am so looking forward to the break. As Alec is at Catholic School it wasn't surprising that they put on a Passion Play. The kids were just gorgeous and Alec has been singing the songs long since the assembly was over.

He remembered all the words and did all the right actions, I was very proud of him. This term he has made more advancements, his command of language and the social structure he has made for himself is working. At first glance you would never be able to tell he was autistic, it is only after you listen for a little that you can pick up on the way he puts phrases together from things he has heard others say, but you know this is a good thing, he is learning his shortcomings and finding ways around them.

I've revovered from the flu pretty quickly but I had 2 full days in bed, which was ok as I got to catch up on Stargate and Stargate Atlantis.

These are all layouts I have made using the principals I teach in my "lots of photos" class, I hated doing events, big gatherings, parties, I just couldn't get my head around making all the photos looking good together, I am a real signle photo scrapper at heart. Then I though about where I came from, what was my artistic background, so I applied the rules I knew about colour and design I had learnt from graphic and web design.. then all of a sudden they were easy!

You know what though, the biggest buzz I got from the weekend was helping the girls, picking papers, organising photos and matching colours.I love teaching, watch this space because as soon as the studio is finished I will be doing classes from home!

So this is my formula, works beautifully with 6x4 photos and some either cropped or printed to 2x3 and NO embellishment or you can embellish to your hearts content, I use the actual layout of the photos and the journaling as the embellishment, follow the rule of thirds, in this case 1/3 is always 'white' space or empty space, it helps frame the photos and isn't such a jumble that nothing stands out, select a focal picture, place it on the left page (depending on which way your subjects are facing.. don't forget that one!) and tell the story.. All four of these layouts follow the same rules!

because I'm sick

sick sick sick.. grumpy and sick

I'm working my way through season 7 of stargate as season 2 of stargate atlantis was out.
I think I put washing on this morning but I don't have the energy to get it out

So anyway have a good easter, we have a picnic on Friday, hopefully I will be better company by then!

Well here I am home again.

It was a great weekend. We had a leisurely drive to Hyden stopping for morning tea in York and taking advantage of being little people free we looked in all the gift shops before hitting the road again.

We arrived around 3:30 and started setting up, the afternoon was set up and then around 5pm we had a meet and greet which was fun. Next time I do this I am taking sticky labels I am so bad at names! The classes went off really well, it was a big room and for me it was very hands on giving advice and helping out, I really do like doing classes that way. The best thing was everyone finished their layouts from both classes and some even started more using those techniques.

Here are a few photos from our trip.. I must say a big sorry to Sharon and Lis, I was sick and miserable all the way home, I wasn't the best travelling companion.