I just don't do sketches but I loved the ones Donna put up as a challenge on her blog.

This was so cool and very me right now, definitely doing this again and the other one.
supplies- around the block love my school paper, MME wild berry mango tango, basic Grey rub ons, Heidi Swap journal blocks, Cloud Nine rain drops, Perfect day rub on - Pure Juice by memories complete (I'm sorry to say this is a nasty rub on, it is flaky and very dry but I lusted after them for ages, ones of those things, just use it!)

LOOK WHAT WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and yes I am yelling, talk about excited. Michael entered a competition in the Perth Now section of the Sunday Times, they called him yesterday with the news, we should have it bY Christmas

WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We have come such a long way with Thomas, he has been a companion in one form or another since Alec was 18 months old. Where there was one there was the other. Thomas has been Alec's friend, his shield against the world and the spark that ignited his imagination. Imaginative play was very slow coming, we basically had to teach Alec what it was, even then we were amazingly lucky as some autistic children struggle with it always. He played but in a rather robotic and repetitive manner. Now he makes up the most amazing adventures, and if he plays Thomas he adds in a tank , a soldier and whatever else takes his fancy.

We have an amazing amount of take along Thomas, they have been given as rewards, for comfort and as treats. I found him Brendam docks and bought it for him for Christmas. I was worried he was now getting a little past Thomas as he now loved Transformers, pirates and soldiers, he loves window shopping on the internet.. thankfully uncle Christmas is getting the transformers. This year they are getting one big pressie each from us and a few little things, like torches, we must have a dozen broken torches in this house but the boys love them, and glow sticks!

So anyway here is Alec and Thomas on his new play table, I figured if he was going to make me sit and watch I would take photos.

this was very very therapeutic. It took 2 trips to spotlight and 280 pins to complete.

In the beginning I just started with the cone, even covering all of it I wasn't happy so I pulled them all out and covered it with some dark green felt before I set off again.

I have 2 other sized cones, some really little ones about 8cm tall and another about 12cm tall and I want to do them in pearl buttons with gold pins, I think I am going to have to do another pin run. Now all the buttons are stuck on it is very heavy, I just have to think where it will fit with my Christmas decorations now.

I don't usually decorate until the week before Christmas, mainly because it is so dusty here and we have a big tree decorating evening once Penny (Michael's mum) arrives. I have 4 tubs of decorations stashed away here and there. I think it is my second favourite day because it means in just a few days time Santa will be here.

for Grandma, Santa, mum and dad... just trying to do instead of avoid.

Michael reminded me we only have 4 weeks until grandma penny arrives.. in that time this is my list of to do's

patch and paint, hallway, grandma's room, entry
clean outdoor setting
sort playroom (look at the photo below)
remove sandpit (done yesterday by Michael and Alec)
brick pave under new patio section (Michael and friends are doing this next week)
space bag everything I possibly can ( have space bags)
With the toy sorting, well it is long overdue, there are many things they don't play with anymore and Michael has made them a play table for the playroom so if it doesn't fit in the Ikea shelve tub things it is going! I delivered a big container and a big bag of mega blocks to pre primary this morning and I have sorted all the kitchen set and accompanying bits and packed up all the fisher price toys. This has been the first time Alec has allowed anything to be given away, I had asked about the kitchen before and he said no, but they have not touched it in months, except to pull it apart and launch commandos from stove top.

And this is the finished playroom..

I still have about a tub of I don't know what to do with these... type of toys, but this culling is an amazing start for me.. more commonly known as ..she who never throws anything out...ever

Dinner out with the girls Fridat night for Amanda's birthday, Evangeline's 4th Birthday party Saturday and Sunday shopping.. we are so deprived here we only get Sunday shopping leading up to Christmas and we took advantage of the first Sunday shopping day and hit K-mart and I did groceries while Michael and the boys watched Santa arrive then they went to the park.

Here is Riley having his first pony ride at Evangeline's birthday party, he had talked about it all week and made the most of it, he was right up there and waited patiently for his turn. Alec overdid it on red snakes and jelly babies and had a crash around 3:30 so we hit the road, it was a lovely afternoon sitting out under the trees.

So as I was composing this post in my head, Alec came in and I showed him my finished headless dolly.. I said look, mummy has something pink, just like girls.

no mummy you have pink already, you have pink pajamas and there is pink on your working scrapcooking shirt (Scrapbooking memories t-shirt) he was right, but they are the only pink things I own.

A few months ago I saw one of these done with the hair bands as a skirt (can't remember where I saw it now) and as we were leaving the chemist yesterday they had a big stand of hair stuff and there they were, so my dolly is finally dressed, and now she is off to my friend Amanda as a birthday present. I love the making process more than I loved the pink in the end :)

so brace yourself.

Sunday we went along to the Brighton Community day celebration. Alec and his pre primary class mates were performing, they were so cute. Before then Riley had a few rides and poor Alec got lost, one minute he was there then he was gone, by the time I caught sight of him again I could see the panic on his face, he turned to a man to tell him he was lost, he couldn't hear me calling his name, he clung to me for the next 5 minutes, I felt so awful.

It was so so hot, 37oC, too hot to be wandering around outside in the middle of the day but there we were. Riley looks terrified but he bounded off and said he loved, he wasn't scared at all (ok I'm not believing that one 100%) Alec had a go on the gladiator type blow up game where you hit each other with padded poles, he loved it, no photo though :(

you are so wrong!!!!

I joined face book today... this is a serious time waster, and I am only in the set up stage.. so if you are on face book drop me a line or write on my wall.. ok what is that???? LOL look for Alli Paterson

oh I love to measure! I was enjoying the free style look, ok so it isn't that free style but it was for me!! So back to my favourite.

This one of the studio was done by making a box in photoshop that measured 20cm x 24cm on my A4 sized landscape canvas. I then selected the photos and cropped them to size to fit in my box. I then printed them out like this and cut them up. I did the journaling on the computer and left room for a few bits of paper a la Ali Edwards. This one was just for fun, I loved seeing Riley's smiles. I took these with my phone camera. Thankfully he posed a lot because they don't do movement well but do great stills and have a good depth of field.
Tomorrow (Sunday) Michael is off to collect the fridge he won on ebay, the things you find on ebay hey.. then Alec is performing with the school at the Brighton Fair Day Celebration and ofcourse it is going to be 36oC isn't it, and they are on at 1pm.

We may be able to find someone to put the air conditioner in for 1/2 the price I was quoted last week, we shall have to have them come out, otherwise the air conditioner is going back!

And if you are in the Subiaco area tomorrow Sharon has a stall at the Subiaco Craft Fair from 9-5pm it is held at Mueller Park behind Subiaco oval

Well this is something new, I seriously like single page layouts but here I am doing multiple photo pages. I have heard rather nasty spiteful comments made about people that just do single photo pages, they don't consider it 'real' scrapping... please, give me a break, scrapbooking is whatever you make it. I see what I do evolve and change into something else all the time. if I want to screw up little bits of alfoil (aluminum foil) and stick it on my pages why should anyone care? it isn't going to impact on anyone else in the slightest. There are always those that feel the need to be mean, I've never quiet understood it but like anything with more than 3 people involved two are going to side against the remaining one.

I did think of starting a single photo page blog, but decided I could do without the grief, funny thing is I have had about 4 layouts requested for the multiple photo blog which was pretty cool, I felt like whispering... you know they are close to the only multiple photo pages I have done this year.. 4 out of 60 is a low percentage. And 60 is low for me for the year, I have to add thankfully to the end of that, now all the layouts are in albums my 4 and almost 6 year old have 14 albums, I thought I better slow down, can you see them in 20 years time moving house and getting a truck just for all of mums bloody albums LOL

Anyway, I love scrapping, what someone else thinks about what I produce at the end of the day holds no weight, and nor should it for you, do what you like, the only person that counts is you and if you got the story down and recorded the event then that is 99.9% of the job done.

Well last night I moved all the furniture in here and took everything off the wall so the air conditioner could be put up today. Once they arrived they all made those negative blokey noises and 10 minutes later I had a revised quote for close to $800 to install a $400 air conditioner. They said they would have to reschedule, well I talked to Michael and told him I would rather have a new BBQ or a screen door for the front door and a portable air conditioner type thing rather than spend that much money.

I put everything back!

after a bad night being awake between 2 and 4 tending to Alec or the %^*&$# cat I had a bad start to the day, Alec slept until 8am so we only just got to school as the bell went. Then home for an hour, I did some sorting and a bit of work on my canvas and then off to the doctor, by the time Riley and I had had lunch and wasted a bit of time it was time to collect Alec.

We stopped off at the pet shop and the ink shop, yay I can print photos again. Which is good because I got some cute ones of Riley yesterday at lunch and Kings park on my cell phone that I want to scrap.



Last night was great, I worked on my new bench (I know how sick are you of hearing me go on about it, I'm sorry I just love it to bits! it has made this room into a studio!! my studio) and then closed the door, everything still on the table gently drying... not draped over things on my kitchen bench.

So the air conditioner goes in tomorrow, scrapping in air condtitioned comfort, that will be pretty special I think!

ok well I see you have all been terribly underwhelmed by my efforts lately, I know you are all out there but instead of just walking by the window you could occasionally knock on the window and say hi! A girl could get a complex you know.

Yesterday morning I put the final coat on the workbench and last night after tea Michael and I put it together! I added some wheels and that has bought it up to an excellent height. The added bonus is there is good space all around it so we aren't at all cramped, everyone can pile in here at times as we have the computers in here, I have Riley playing Daniel Cook on ABC kids and Alec playing Mech Warrior, which he picked up in 2 days.this is the view from outside the door of the studio.
I replaced (ok Michael replaced) the wooden handle with this brass one, and I love the slatted storage underneath.
the bench is for stamping and painting, so I rearranged everything to be close by where I need it. This is perfect because the table I had does big groans when I do stamping on it.
Lissy gave me the big A and also the basket under the table, I love baskets and Lis was getting rid of them... thank you for feeding my obsession Lis.

8:16pm Sunday evening and the weekend is over far too quickly.

It was a busy but rewarding weekend. I sanded down the workbench and as of 20 minutes ago I have the first coat of stain/varnish applied and I love it, I selected a maple stain as it was the closest I could get to the Ikea expedit unit I have.

This afternoon I coerced Michael into helping me rearrange the studio to make way for the workbench, we put the expedit on its side and I had Michael put up the Ikea wire hanging thingy-ma-bob, he did try to flee when I said ...can you grab the drill honey... but he surrendered and came quietly in the end.
While Michael and I worked in the garage the kids had a ball playing out the front, they were transformers, I love watching them get so into their games.

So tomorrow I do the final coat on the workbench and by the time Michael gets home we should be able to put the wheels on it and put it together. Even though I haven't seen it put together it has a very country kitchen feel to it, now it will be my creative centre, I'm so looking forward to getting it in here and I a few canvas's planned already, it will be so much better than dragging everything out to the kitchen.

Here is proof of my washing pile.. this is all waiting to be folded... still
This is Gizmo.. he follows me everywhere, all I had to do was turn around to take this photo, he stalks me.. but is very cute
so that is me, we also had 2 kids parties, Michael and I did one each, a much more civilised way, 2 would have been just too much for me, grocery shopping and everyday life... as you saw that washing still hasn't been folded... there is always tomorrow.




Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Thanks for the link Lis I love them..

I am really!

beacause Lissy bought over my table.. we did an exchange.. coffee for the table, and I love it! I have started sanding it already and was absolutely thrilled to find out we had a power sander!

We did a last minute swing by Bunnings to pick up some more sandpaper and some stain/varnish combo. I'm planing on having the sanding finished by tomorrow and the first coat of varnish done.

For someone that has had camera's of one type or another for over 20 years I have been very slow embracing the manual settings of my camera this time around. I mean really 20 years ago my first canon camera was totally manual, I used filters and shot on black and white film, tragically I dropped the body and cracked the lens, from there I pretty much moved to point and shoot camera's. Fast forward to the digital age and our first digital was a canon IXUS, then we moved to a Canon Rebel XT, finally after having it for 2 years we are starting to play with settings and shooting in raw format and shooting in AV (aperture and shutter control) I'm liking raw format, yes they are huge, 12MB compared to the 3-4MB of a picture shot on the standard setting with large photos but so worth it when you come to editing. I was editing in digital photo professional that came with the canon software but I found it leached some of the colour from the jpeg compared to photoshop that had matched colour for the original and the processed image.

So look what I got last night!! I love iris's Michael took a walk to the flower markets in Leederville and then of course I had to photograph them.

The above shots were taken at night , the settings were for tungsten light at 1600 iso, the bottom one was taken this morning at 400 iso with a remote lite II sunpak flash and auto white balance.

The closeups from last night were great but the full shots when tweaked in photoshop had far too much grain due to the 1600 iso
So apart from that Lis is coming by today, I have grocery shopping to do.. groan moan, and washing to fold.. but when don't I have washing to fold!!

Have a good one.

Well feast your eyes on these... just sit and imagine a group of women sitting at their computers jumping up and down and clapping their hands like 3 year olds and that would be the reaction of the Buzz and Bloom design team when we saw the new chipboard books and index cards Helene and Devorah have created, if you would like to look at the whole range you can find the chipboard HERE
We don't do Halloween but would you look how cute this album is!!!!!!!!!! I'm think of begging some photos from friends from the US so I can do one!
In other news... the washing didn't get folded, I hate daylight saving! yesterday Alec woke at 7:50, 20 minutes before we had to be in the car so the morning was total chaos. Add to that they wont settle and fall asleep until 9pm.

I have now finished 33 cards!! woo hoooooooooo, I didn't get the boxes covered, might do that tonight. After school we are picking up Michael from Fiori, he is bagging the coffee for the school coffee drive, Michael's friend Indigo Mougin ran a second life auction over the weekend and raised close to $1000 for the Early Intervention centre.. how cool is that, people bought virtual art for their virtual homes and Lis is coming by this morning... and that is my day!