Some things you see and you just know it wont last, so you grab your camera.

The last few days the boys have been playing schools. They are both teachers getting classes ready for the students, we think this is Alec's way of preparing himself for school next week. He saw a little Simpson's school set with a pencil, rubber, ruler, sharpener and pencil case and told me he needed it for his homework, then at Officeworks yesterday Riley saw a Surf's up one and he needed it too.

So here they sit planning classes, Alec using the ruler, Riley doing 'writing' discussing activities together. At the top of Riley's list for activities is water play and lunch, that is so Riley.

These gorgeous stamps arrived on my front door step today all the way from Japan. I bought them on etsy from good-ness. I can't wait to play!

in 9 days Alec starts grade one. A bit exciting and a bit scary. Now we start to learn how to read and write, there will be new people, a new teacher, a new classroom. We have a social story book for him that I am going to print out today for him so we can start looking at it.

I am prepared for some unrest but I really think he will be just fine. Our pre-preparation has been constant so he knows what to expect, it doesn't always mean the way it happens is the way he has it planned out, that is when we have trouble, Alec is a huge forward planner.

Thankfully shoe shopping was easier than I thought it would be, every time I have told him we need to buy school shoes he has told me he doesn't need any so he wont be coming...

ok I am green with envy, it isn't going to stop me getting one of these though - Celebrate Everyday Life 8x8 Shutterfly book

If there was something I had that someone wanted I would sell it for 1/5th of the talent this girl has.

And yes I know I was going fill you in on our holiday but life got in the way, washing, grocery shopping, always the hi-light of my year with the boys. This is the last week of the holiday so I am trying to get the most out of it for all of us (translates to 7 more sleep ins for me) and today we joyously have to go and sit at the car yard for an hour and 1/2 while they service our car, goody goody

As for the holiday, well it was great, here is a link to all the photos on flickr - Our Busso adventure

These are the camp grounds we stayed at.


I am currently trying to work out the best way to get a selection of photos for my holiday album, so far I haven't got past wanting them all in there so I'm having trouble with design and execution, in the meantime I am doing each days journaling so I don't forget too much.

We set off from Perth at 9:30am and after a few stops we arrived a little after 2pm, the boys were so excited but this didn't stop them asking... "are we there yet???" 40 or so times each. The camp site was a perfect setting, the boys loved the playground and they had plenty of kids to play with, they had so much fun it was hard to get them to bed each night before 10pm, they played and played and played.


1. on the road, 2. the beach!, 3. calm, 4. clams, 5. water babies, 6. having a soak, 7. just glorious, 8. look I'm swimming, 9. jadye and Sam, 10. Riley, 11. Riley, 12. beached, 13. totally gorgeous, 14. our cabin, 15. a playground mum!, 16. camp grounds

away!

We packed the car and took the family 290km down the coast the Busselton.. blow by blow account to come over the next week. Here are the boys playing in the grape vines at Stella Ridge

I have started to print out my blog posts and this is in the first one I had emailed to myself (I don't know what to do about the previous 4 years worth of posts!) , I just love this and feel very moved when ever I read it. I think when I found it I was wrestling with what my place and purpose was... now a year on I know in the last year I did things that made a difference to others and that makes me feel good, I'm a quiet achiever.

This year I am volunteering some of my time to talk to parents of newly diagnosed autistic children, something I am obviously passionate about, if I can make it easier for just one person it will be worth it.

The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It's overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.

it was a bit sad, we took grandma to the airport yesterday so she could fly home. We had a lovely Christmas and it means so much to Alec and Riley to have her here.

It was just revolting at the airport though, while it was 38 outside I am sure it was 40+ inside and 98% humidity, add to that Penny and Michael had a 45 minute wait to check in the bags and get through security. I took the boys upstarts for some lunch and to watch the planes.

so I had a free afternoon :) and this is the steps I took to do Donna Downey's latest sketch. This is the finished page, Donna had much cooler stamps than I do.. sniff sniff. I did use a bit of my grungeboard but I very cowardly just painted it, I didn't have any white crackle paint or I would have used that.


So cup of tea in hand I select paper and embellishments, usually I change these several times but today I only changed the cardstock colour. After I cut the photos I lay them out to see how it will all look.

After I have laid out the photos I can see how much craft I need, mark off an extra bit for the tape and cut it. Tape it down and then measure off 30cm and trim it.











So once all the photos are down then I have used my note pad punch around the sides and some distress ink to rough it up a bit, then comes my little bit of journaling and adding a bit of ink to the grungeboard flourish.

Materials:

bazzill cardstock
grungeboard flourish
ranger distress ink walnut stain
autumn leaves rub ons (it went on like butter! gorgeous)
notepad punch stampin up
white paint

all pretty straight forward, a blatant copy of Donna's but I love it, it was quick and easy and I was able to use lots of photos. You also get to see things I would usually avoid putting together let alone have anyone see and that would be

Alli+pool+photo

I hope you feel honoured (and weren't too frightened)

truthful by fancy pants.. the reverse side is butt ugly LOL I picked it up at Scraptivate!

I think I might start doing a product list for posted layouts

I love them!

I've started the new year by blog lifting... this idea from CathyZ, this is my top 25 from my iTunes music library

What was your #1? and your #13?

My #1 has been listened to 450 times!!!!!!!!