I am closing this blog down...

Go here to find out the latest with me and mine *smile*
A little surprise awaits!

Oh and to be technically "correct" I am not really closing this blog down, I will keep it "open" for archival purposes... but from now on I am over here.

A new era begins...

Bx

3 more sleeps...

and we have a naming ceremony for this little one...
Right now:
Our little boy is sleeping peacefully.
Daddy is driving across the Hay Plains (be safe honey!!).
Big sister is at school.
Mummy is doing some laundry, finalising some packing, doing some creative 'stuff', listening to Ronan Keating (teeehhheee, I am SUCH a dag) and getting ready for a 4am wake up call. I wont be okay until I know Nath has arrived at his parents safe and well.

EDIT: Nath has arrived safely in the Adelaide Hills. Phew! Thank God!

Happy Hump Day loves...
Bx

Happy Tuesday...

Good Morning *smile*

AMAZING, I have managed to update Joshua's daily photos, HUGE achievement!

We have FOUR (4) more sleeps until Joshua's naming ceremony and it's a beautiful and busy time for us!

So here are a few pics of what we've been up to lately...
Mikaela has tickets to the High School Musical Ice Show (she is OBSESSED by them)...


Mikaela's birthday party:
And cake:

Mikaela's Dad got her these shoes ages ago, they are too small, but every horse riding lesson she SQUEEZES them on...

Kim is amazing with Mikaela's hair and I ***LOVE*** her to bits for it!
I had my pedicure before I collected Mikaela from school, then we went straight back to have nails all spruced up for her brother's special day:



Have a gorgeous day loves...
Bx

Quickly...

I will be posting tomorrow.
Update since the last post in brief is: Valentines was gorgeous, watched Casablanca for the first time {I know that is lame I've never seen it before LOL!}.

Mikaela had her 7th birthday on Saturday, she had an Indoor Rock Climbing party... twas a lot of fun for the kids and adults alike.

Today she had her usual weekly horse riding lesson. Then she and I went on a trail ride, lots of trotting and Mikaela was one happy little girl.

My gal pal Kim came over this afternoon with her two older boys. We watched a movie, I did some ironing, Kim did Mikaela's hair again... while our men were at the pub.
All in all a good weekend.
Bx

Hey Mikaela...

How many brothers and sisters do you want?
188 she responded as I took this photo.
Uhm, yeah, okay!
Cute as a button, here she is with the gorgeous 5week old babe, Brock.
Joshua was all but forgotten LOL!
LOVE THIS photo so much!

Hugs
Bx

The girl can ride...

Solo, which is SO VERY exciting for her. Mikaela has been having "Little League" riding lessons for a few years now, where we lead her {and the horse!}. Yesterday was her first "Junior" lesson where she rides all by herself. She was way overdue for solo riding, so she really loved it and did well. Here she is going for a trot. Mikaela always chooses the largest pony (not necessarily the fastest, though she is yet to believe me on that one) LOL !

A sneak peek of my creations for Maya Memories this month...

I am loving my MOZI mouse pad and "to-do today" pad all in one. Cute as. Well at least it makes me FEEL more organised.

Happy Monday peeps...
Bx

Unveiling…

Of this little side project I have been working on for some months.
“Oh Gosh Josh” is a photographic daily diary of our little boy since his birth day, today Joshua is 149 days old.
I have not loaded today’s photo yet, will do later *smile*
Unfortunately I have missed quite a few days here and there, but hey, thats kewl!
I love looking over the blog, it is just incredible how much babies grow and change in the first year... SUCH JOY !

Other JOY... I am still cleaning my studio space in between my real life :)!!

Happy Friday to you and yours...
Bx

Time to just BE....

First I have a LOT to clean, I am feeling all boxed in and my energy is blocked.
I realise this is part of my process... I have LOTs of new ideas and exciting things to share with regards to my artistic endeavours, but first I need to clean the "slate"... and spend a bit of time to just BE. {You ever feel that way?}

Going to get my hair done this afternoon... SOME SERIOUS grey going on right now LOL!
Love out
Bx

My BIG second grader...

I do NOT know how she is already in Second Grade, but she IS... a BIG 2nd grader.
The morning went well, she was a bit aprehensive last night, but today she was A-okay! A friend of hers was having a teary, so Mikaela was able to come to her rescue.

As I left her she had a huge grin on her face, ready and excited to start a new year.
I **LOVE** the first day of school.
Josh and I then went into Kingston, put in my memory stick to get a few photos developed. I bought some lingerie (oh-la-la), induldged in a coffee and couple of choccies. Josh slept on the couch after I fed him and I had a quiet moment or two to myself (MUCH needed)...

Now in my studio to get some work done.

I hope your day is a beautiful one.
Joy and love out...
Bx

This and that on a Thursday...

Notice, I got the day right this time, always a good start LOL!

Can I say NO WAY... I am in Creating Keepsakes, February 2008 issue, page 27 NO WAY, okay... its not really *ME* as such, but the advert for Exquisite Scrapping is in the magazine, and as I am a permanent design team member, one of my layouts is included.... whooo hoooo. Seriously excited. I didnt even know, I knew the same add was running in Scrapbooking Memories but not CK, Nath is the one to have seen the ad and pointed it out to me. I was feeding Josh and he came into talk to me, picked up my latest CK delivery and started flicking through, it just opened up at the ad... he was excited for me, too cute. OH and he saw a photo on the back with Ali and her Mikey ears, he was like "is that Ali?" oh YEAAAAAHHHHH he is IN the KNOW, cute as. Lus's hubs is like that too.... SO sweet!

I am going to be able to share a few published layouts VERY soon. I started to submit my layouts a few weeks after Joshua was born, in October 2007... since then I have had 9 pages requested for publication... it takes a while before those acceptances actually get out to the stands and over the next few months they'll be "out there". I am so excited, its great!! I fully encourage everyone to just give it a go! Oh and DO go take a look at Exquisite Scrapbooking site... we are running a competition for you to win a CRICUT MACHINE. How much JOY would it be to own one of those babies??? MUCH I am thinking! So go for it.

Another few things I am feeling joy about: My friend adorable Lusi recruited as a permanent member and a HUGE role at Scrapbooking Creations, go girl! She is so super talented and I am thrilled for her, ALI and her blog (I make no secret that Ali is my HERO... I **LOVE** her in a "I wanna be her when I grow up" kinda way. Tis serious love!) her Valentines mini album has won my heart !!!

I thought maybe I could do Joshua's naming ceremony books something like those... only I have 36 to do, not one! Ha! Fool... I'd love to be able to do that... but really sleep IS very important so they say!

So I am plodding along with ceremony booklets, doing the graphic design in InDesign and trying not to stress about it and all the other projects I have going on - I have about 12000 words to write for a few projects I have been working on, thankfully I am almost done on that, plus some. Also expecting two kits this week. So I am kinda busy busy bee like.

We are off to Sydney this weekend for four days to show Nena the sights, she is back from Adelaide tomorrow morning and we'll drive up then. Sure to be doing tonnes of fun stuff I'll share next week.

While in Sydney, I am getting my camera serviced too... no more blotches, SO happy about that! Only been almost 2 years since I bought "Ella"... so mayyyyybe time for a wee service!

I leave you with this pic of our boy... I cut off his "wings" (his God Mother kinda insisted :))... I think it makes him look like a little boy now :( GORGEOUS yes... but not so baby as before the trim.

Joy to you...
Bx

Book Share...

So I am up and planning my day while my family sleeps... looking forward to walking Mikaela to holiday program, where she will be off to Questacon today. Honestly, the main thing I am looking forward to RIGHT NOW is my coffee LOL...

Before I do, just quickly, thought I would share a book that I bought at the airport, or a couple rather, this past weekend...

My Body After Baby by Kellie Hush, I have enjoyed reading all the stories from 17+ women on how they felt about their bodies after childbirth. It is true that we have SO many books to arm us prior to birth, and not much for afterwards. I am reasonably happy with my body now (helps that Nath recently bought me a size 12 pair of JAG jeans THAT FIT ME nicely too... Oh the joy of that first pair of NON maternity jeans :)). I have NO intention on going on any crazy diet, that would be impossible for me, trust me!! Of paramount importance to me is that I am breastfeeding Joshua... 100% until 6months and probably 50-60% thereafter for another 6-12months, depending on what feels good for us.

I am however trying to budge off the last few kilos (mind you 10 of the excess were from BEFORE I even fell pregnant, which is the REAL issue)... so I am walking and trying to cut out my excessive sugar intake, I am limiting myself to one lindt chocolate a day. Another reason for this is that we would like to pregnant again in June, I dont want to enter another pregnancy already overweight... seeing the difference of being 10 kgs lighter with Mikaela was tremendous. ALSO really gets me thinking about my book idea of writing womens birthing stories...

The other is Raising Happy Girls... Mikaela is such a dear girl, she has such a loving nature, but there are things that trigger her and I need to understand how to manage and help her through these stages. Her social life is of prime importance... and her relationship with her natural father is also a big influence. We have {again} ceased contact with him, and she is all the better for it. Needless to say he has been given endless opportunity with Mikaela and we just want to protect her from any further abuse from those she is supposed to be able to trust the most.

Having said that... I could improve my skills on dealing with an [almost] 7 year old daughter myself!!

So there you go, two books I am reading right now! Oh and I MUST share this beautiful one that Kim bought for me at Christmas, I finished while on holidays... it touched my heart deeply, it is a beautiful book and poetically written:

Off to have my coffee and chat with my guy before our little'ns are up. My day will consist mainly of finishing up a major project, finalising some naming ceremony "stuff" and hanging out with our little dude.

Hugs
Bx

Happy Monday...

Last night I was in STITCHES... I went in to give my girl her last kiss good night before I hit the hay. When I put her to bed she had all her clothes laid out for the next day (A DAY AT THE POOL) ... jeans, swimmers and her new pink sparkly "high" heels. When I went to kiss her one last time... she had them ON - yep jeans and high heels, totally passed out and I could not stop laughing. The girl is a crack up!

So we spent our Australia Day long weekend in Adelaide with Nath's family. Kind of, there are just NOT enough hours in the day. We are ALWAYS run off our feet when we visit Adelaide trying to fit everyone in, this time even MORE so as we had lots of appointments for Joshies naming ceremony. I can breathe a deep sigh of relief because we are getting there... in just 4 weeks the day will be over in a flash :(

So we caught up with Tim, Heather and their two girls, Nath's GodFather Ross and his lovely wife Di... Tom (Joshie's GodFather) and his wifey Rach... and of course the GrandParents... Deda and Nanna Jean (who is SO SUPER fabulous with Mikaela)... we also met Temika, Tom's cutie patootie neice.

I will load some photos later... right now waiting for Nath and Mikaela to return from collecting out cat from the catery... then off to walk my girl to holiday programe (and a day at the pool).

EDIT: 1728hrs, spent a day hanging at the pool with Kimbo and her boys, Mikaela with her school holiday program. Was lovely, fresh and pretty cool. I also got a major part of a project done JOY JOY JOY !!!

Here are the photos as promised:
Nathan’s childhood “hood”… a walk into the centre of Mt Barker to get a kitchener bun… A MUST DO whenever we visit…

Getting a tour of GodFather Tom’s work place…

I could photograph Laura all day…

Tim and his girls…

These girls are so cute together, seriously CUTE!

The girls frolicking…

St Stephens where we are holding Joshua’s naming ceremony….

At Ross and Di’s…

Nathan’s God Father, Ross… does that make him Joshua’s Great God Father?? :)


I was super proud of Mikaela being able to do this, however I am embarrassed to admit I was kinda acting like a soccer mum, yelling instruction AT her… sheez how embarrassing!!! …




Temika, the sweetest girl ever…

The lads and their girls…

The Vavic’s so to speak… our little guy was sleeping :(


Love out...
Bx

A day in the life of...

the most gorgeous 4month old babe....
Huh, what, who, me?...

Believe it or not the stupid cat was actually purring, sheez!:

Having fun in his Chrissy gift from Auntie Cass and Uncle Matt:

ALL tuckered out:

And a quick share of a layout I did for Keep'n The Memories, I did eleven (11) layouts and a mini album, such a beautiful kit. Go check them out, great kits and a gallery full of heaps of inspiration. Helps too that Mikaela is such a cutie:

OKAY so 1month TODAY until Joshies naming ceremony, and you know what… aside from the finer details, I think I am pretty much done. It’s a BIG job.

This weekend we are off to Adelaide and have about 8 meetings in relation to the big day fast approaching. I **LOVE** that Nath is super organised like me, makes life easier, we make a beautiful team.

Life is so awesome right now. Seriously blissful. No jinx!

On other scrapping matters… Sine tells me we are on page 89 of the latest Scrapbooking Memories magazine (Vol.9, No. 9)…
I am eagerly awaiting my Maya Memories pack to get started on… my Sissey pack arrived with the yummiest stuff (as always) tho I am not sure when I will get to play.

AND the lovely DanQ sent me a package from her with the most adorable pics, and the cutest little things… I *LOVE* that super talented girl, she is fabo let me say!! Thanks Dan, you are darling heart xoxoxo!
Here is my fav-our-ite (ABSOLUTE). Mikaela, those eyes just totally hit me right in the spot. I was told today about her coming to the rescue of a child that hurt themselves at the pool (holiday program)... Yeah, I know, she is an empathetic soul, my girl:

Okely dokely…
Running out the door for pizza with the family.
ANNE MARIE - I HAVE NOT forgotten you love... I promise, soon I send you a ROCKIN' RAK oxoxoxo!

Joy to ya!
Bx

Monday morning...

1050am... I am in my studio, I walked Mikaela down to holiday program this morning (she was super excited)and I REALLY needed the 1hr brisk walk, Joshua is sleeping, I am listening to some tunes and getting some work finished for Keep'n The Memories...

Pot of Fenugreek tea brewing...

I am looking forward to Nath coming home for lunch and seeing what goodies have arrived in our PO BOX, DanQ tells me to expect something from her, HOW exciting. Maybe even my Sissey pack, that would be nice (and helpful)...

Yesterday I followed the MadeIt (Aussie version of Etsy) link from Dan's blog and found these gems:
Illustrations by My Charlie Girl are just stunning!!!
Ali J also has some gorgeous illustrations and jewellry... oiw!
KJS is clean, simple and really tasty illustrations.
Also loving Dudley Redhead and Yellow Monday.
SUCH talent and inspiration... go have a look-see, you will **LOVE**

Lus, thanks for the call last night, cutie pie pie!

Happy Monday loves...
Bx

Simple Joys of life...

These cute little cupcakes Nena, Mikaela and I made… Nath even helped with the icing… they were yummy!

My cuz Jan… she is so gorgeous, a breath of fresh air… and a soul sista too, I feel I have known her forever tho we only just met less than a month ago. We both feel the same, that the moment we met we felt an instant soul connection. I am blessed to have found her and I know our friendship will be long and rewarding, she is just wonderful!! I am looking forward to spending many hours with this woman. We just get each other.

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” Mother Teresa

Last night out for my lifer friend Jodies birthday (Happy Birthday Goddess)… we had a beautiful dinner and girly times.
Nath brought Joshie down for a feed half way through (my) night… he wasn’t even hungry, just wanted to play. About an hour later Nath is worried that Josh wont settle, I figure I will call it a night. When I reach the car Josh is already asleep!!!
Getting home early allowed me to start on a new creative endeavour, so its all good…
I am thinking of another blog for these pieces. I just need to make a few more.
Mikaela painting her mask this morning… I love how much joy $1.50 and some of my TIME can bring to her…

Doing some more on my latest project…

The cutest thing I have seen {today}…


Love out...
Bx