Cooper is 7!

Remember a year ago I did this post with a year to year look at my boy growing up. Well somehow another year has gone by! I don't know where it went, honestly....

Here is Cooper today, 7 years old and so grown up (and yes, for the smart asses, Cooper FINALLY has NEW Dragons pjs this year!!).


And our traditional b'day morning photo (which involves me setting the timer while the camera sits on the steps, and me then running back across the room like a crazy person to get in position before the timer ends!!).


At seven Cooper's world involves the following...

- plays rugby league & rugby union
- loves nerf guns, ds & wii
- is great at reading & writing and progressing in leaps & bounds at school
- loves watching movies (but rarely actually sits & watches the whole thing)
- reads Beast Quest novels for fun
- looks after his sisters (most of the time)
- sets the table every night
- big enough now to not have to have a car seat!
- watches football CONSTANTLY - replays from games 20 years ago to last weekend, all day, from sun up to sun down
- his best friends are still Clay & Jonty from preschool, but his best friends at school are Aiden, Sam & Bailey
- writes all the time, fills up exercise books with stories, or copies from other books, just loves to write
- he is BOSSY! too used to being the halfback in footy and telling everyone what to do all the time
- catch phrase at the moment is 'are you kidding me'
- kicks drop goals over the big posts at rugby training
- has a little issue with lying, but we think we've sorted that ;)

My man in the making, love you dude. And yep, I was the girl he chose to kiss when he touched the bottom while cutting his cake. xx

Purple Pumpking Blog Hop Winner!

Our winner has now been announced over at the Purple Pumpkin Blog! Check out the post here to see if its you!!

I am so excited to also announce a winner here on my blog, who has won a surprise mixed button pack from Purple Pumpkin!

My winner is...


Congratulations Martine! Please contact Sam from Purple Pumpkin on purplepumpkincrafts@hotmail.com to claim your prize.

Thanks for playing along with our first Purple Pumpkin Blog Hop, it was so great to read all your wonderful & encouraging comments. xx

Lesson from your Big Brother...

Talk about cracking me & Dan up tonight...omg, this little girl of ours is a character!!!

As you might've seen on my Facebook photos in time gone by, Cooper has a special way of holding onto his stickers when he is playing with a sticker book, so he doesn't lose them. It looks like this...


At bedtime, the kids all choose a book or two to read for 10 minutes before bed. We went in to turn lights off and this is what we found when we checked in on Bronte...


Who says you don't learn anything from big brothers, eh?!

Blind Scrap with Me?

I hosted a blind scrap session last night over in the Scrapbook Savvy forum as part of our Cybercrop weekend.

If you haven't blind scrapped before - basically you get a list of 'ingredients' for your page and step by step instructions on how to put your layout together. The catch? You can't see the end result and how the page is 'meant' to turn out so everyone's turns out that little bit different in the end. So much fun!

If you'd like to join in, head over to the forum now and check out the instructions here. Load your page into the gallery on Wednesday (not before, so everyone has the chance to do it 'blind') but before midnight Thursday to win yourself some Savvy spending money.

And just cause I can, here's a sneak peek of my page using the new She's Savvy Kit which is still available in the store (but there are only three left so be quick!)...


Hope to see you in the forum!!

Purple Pumpkin Blog Hop!

Welcome to my blog if you're here for the Purple Pumpkin Blog Hop and my apologies for the lateness of my post! I hope you all had a fun time hopping around the blogs last night and checking out all the gorgeous work with our new Clay Buttons.

I was out with my hubby for the night at his Mines Rescue dinner, where his team once again took out the local competition for the third year in a row. So proud of him!!

Anyhoo, back to the topic at hand...here is my layout using some of the clay buttons sent to me by Sam - this layout is also for Renee's Music Clip Challenge over in the Savvy Forum.

Oh What A Night!


A closeup of a gorgeous red & white clay button and awesome new felt flower...


And closeup of a red & white spotty button as well as a beautiful red doily...


And the questionnaire - hope you learn something new about me!!!

When did you start scrapbooking?
I attended my first Creative Memories party in 2001 but didn't really get into scrapping until after Cooper was born in 2004.

What is your favourite tool?
Border punches without a doubt

When and where do you create?
Usually at the dining room table. I do have my own scrap room but it is downstairs, and I like to create while still being a part of my family

What inspires your creations?
My babies, its all for them and I scrap so they can know all their stories in the future

What is your Favourite Purple Pumpkin Embellie?
Buttons for sure, and such a variety available means there is always one that is perfect for my page!

What is your favourite technique?
Doodling, most of my pages have a doodled border somewhere

What are your top 3 favourite manufacturers?
Crate Paper, October Afternoon & Prima

What is your favourite snack food when scrapping?
Lollies!!

What do you listen to when you are scrapping?
Usually have the music channel on or if the boys are watching footy I'll have iTunes on my computer playing a random mix

What scrapping product couldn't you live without?
Alpha stickers...

What is your favourite colour?
Pink!

What is your favourite food?
Cheese...mmmm....

What's the last book you read?
Um...in the middle of RUN! by Dean Karnazes at the moment...very interesting read.

What are your favourite tv shows?
Everybody Loves Raymond, How I Met Your Mother, Sex & The City and Friends

What is your favourite movie?
The Notebook *sob sob*

What is your favourite song right now?
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye

If you could go on a holiday to anywhere right now, where would it be?
I would love to the kids to Disneyland - a dream my hubby & I WILL do sometime in the future

Name something (not a person) that you can't live without.
Coffee!

What do you love to do when you're not scrapping?
Spend time with my gorgeous family

Tell us something that not many people know about you!
I am a worrier. BIG TIME. I worry about everything and everyone and want to solve the problems of everyone around me.

Thanks for visiting! Head back to the Purple Pumpkin Blog to comment on our blog hope. xx

Purple Pumpkin Blog Hop

If you're here for the Purple Pumpkin Blog Hop...welcome!!!! I will be back soon with my questionnaire but be sure to leave me a comment to win an awesome Purple Pumpkin prize!!!!!

Stuck Birthday Blog Hop!!

If you have arrived here because you are hopping along with the Stuck?! Sketches blog hop, welcome! One lucky winner from those hopping will receive a We’re Savvy kit from Scrapbook Savvy! Who wouldn’t want to win this gorgeous kit?



For your chance to win, leave a comment and collect the words from each blog on the hop. The words are just a list, they do not form a sentence, so no being tricky and skipping any of the blogs. Once you have finished, email the list of words to stucksketches@optusnet.com.au along with your name and location by midnight Sunday August 28th.

If you've just discovered the hop, you can get started HERE.

And, here is the full list just in case you get lost...

Celeste
Chantelle
Charmane
Felicity
Helen
Linda
Melinda
Raquel
Sarah <<< you are here
Tara
Tess

So, your next stop on the hop is Tara!

Don't forget to write down your word, before you go – ENJOY

Two sketches from Stuck!

Only a week of August left, seriously! Where is the time going...the end of August means my little boy turns seven...I can.not.believe.it. :(

On a good note though, this means you still have a WHOLE WEEK to submit your layouts over at Stuck for your chance to win some awesome prizes. And we're having some fun later in the week with some blog hopping as well, so stay tuned for news on that!

Here's the latest two sketches from Stuck, the first being our 15th August sketch that looks like this...


And my take, of me & my girls at the SFS Retreat last October using the gorgeous Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe range from Scrapbooking Delights.


And then we have the second Bonus Sketch for our Birthday month...


And my take, of Cooper and his Poppy on Christmas Day, using more goodies from Scrapbooking Delights - the Bella! Paper Boy range which I just LOVE!


Load yours to the Stuck blog before the end of August for your chance to win!

Savvy Sketch!

Yep you read it right...I've actually done the sketch over at Scrapbook Savvy this month! Anyone would think I owned that store... ;p

Here's the sketch by Anthea based on a gorgeous layout by the lovely Anne, thanks Anne for the inspiration you put in the Savvy Gallery.



And my take of my funny middle girl eating broccoli in the middle of the supermarket! (and yes, this page is now journalled, I have no idea why it wasn't when I photographed it!)


Make sure you get your sketch layout in by the end of the month for your chance to win some Savvy spending money, gotta be in it to win it!!!

Savvy Crop Days...

As much as they were good fun and all, I have to honestly say that I don't really miss them? Is that awful?

I do miss getting together with my girls every week...but thats about all I miss (except the income, of course!).

I don't miss the commitment, the pressure, the stress, the cancellations, the full days of my kids missing out on me.

Here's a layout I did of one of the fun crop days we did have at the start of my Savvy life, a Biggest Morning Tea crop.



I have so much more fun these days cropping at Scrapbooking Delights...not working, just scrapping and being out of my own environment makes a huge difference to my productivity. So happy that my local scrap shop still holds regular crop days and nights each week. Its so important that we support this as without our local scrap shop, our area would be buggered for scrapping inspiration, products & classes.

Speaking of which, I had an awesome time at an all day crop just today...managing FOUR layouts in the five hours I was there! Told you my productivity was good at Delights! Thanks again San for having me...always a good day spent with you. xx

You Make Me Happy

A just because layout from Mojo...



Journalling reads: Home is wherever you are. You are my life, my world...and I couldn't go on without you. Everything is better when we are together.

Nothing Beats...

...scrapping with my besties! Have loved spending Tuesdays of late scrapping with Linda & Leesh...wish our worlds would stop mixing it up on us though, this week was the last one for awhile now that Linda will be working on Tuesdays again...sigh. :(

I managed two pages - one I had started the other night but didn't finish.

Bronte The Cute Dinosaur - my little baby girl, seems so long ago now, pretending to be Dorothy and looking very cute whilst doing so! Used the Bella Avalon range on this one from Scrapbooking Delights.


Closeup...


Cheeky Little Girl - this one is totally & utterly scraplifted from the current Scrapbook Trends magazine. With an hour to go I needed to get another page done, so flipped through the mag until I found one I liked....and copied it! Yep I admit it, sometimes I don't think for myself but hey I got a page done for Georgia's album and that is what is important to me. And I won't lie about it, pretending its my own work...cause thats just wrong!


Closeup...


Thanks for visiting me today, leave me a comment so I can come and visit you. xx

Bella Paper Doll!

God I love this range! Have completely killed the papers that I bought from my friend San at Scrapbooking Delights. Have already shown you a couple of pages with it, but here are another couple of things...

Happy Day Card for one of Bronte's little friends...


And 'My Mum' which is the first drawing of me that came home from Bronte's preschool...


God love her!


Make sure you get into Scrapbooking Delights to get some for yourself...if there are any left!!

New friends = Inspiration!!

As you can imagine, with nearly 90 women at Camp Mojo I managed to make LOTS of new friends and with that comes new and exciting ideas & inspiration!

One of the major standouts to me was Lisa Pate. I have never met Lisa before, haven't seen her work, haven't heard her name. But OMG, when I saw her work on the challenge tables I was totally & utterly in love with her style. So much so, that I stole one of her ideas for the following layout.

Slurpees - using an awesome method of rolling papers and using them as your a background.


And a closeup...did I say this was one of my fave layouts of the mojo weekend?!


Thanks Lisa for inspiring me, can't wait to see you again soon!

Stuck Bonus Sketch #1

A sketch every single week of August to celebrate our birthday at Stuck! Hope you have time to play along with all of this extra inspiration this month!

Here is our first bonus sketch...


And my take...


Don't forget to upload yours over at the blog for your chance to win!

Stuck Sketches has a New Look!!!

A VERY exciting month at Stuck!? with a new Creative Team about to be announced, a brand new look on the blog and EXTRA sketches to celebrate our birthday month! So happy to be a part of it!!

Our first out of FOUR AWESOME SKETCHES this month is this one, designed by Lou...


And my page, another for the 52 weeks album....so happy to be getting through these!


Stay tuned for more awesome-ness from Stuck this month, its all happening!

(oh, and don't forget to upload your take over at the blog for your chance to win!)

August Sketch @ Purple Pumpkin

1st of the month means lots of new challenges in the online world! I have lots to share with you but first up is a page I finished JUST last night that took me two days to complete....god knows why, think I must've used all my mojo last weekend or something?! ;)

The sketch at Purple Pumpkin this month was designed by the lovely Melinda and looks like this...


And my page for my 52 weeks albums of Kellie & I at Long Point Retreat, using the gorgeous OA Five & Dime range.


Make sure you head over and join us at Purple Pumpkin, and upload your layout by the end of the month for your chance to win some awesome prizes!