Flashback Friday

I have decided that from now on I am going to do a Flashback Friday on my blog ... Showing some cool stuff from back in the "good ol' days" Might be a YouTube clip, a photo who knows ....

Today I am going to share a photo and a song .. well it's kinda a song!



Who is this Handsome young man??? Ohhhh that's right my husband!! I'm sitting here watching the best of Glee and realising how different school is here in NZ to America. I believe this was Jason's Year Book photo 1996? I love the idea of the year book, something that never happened at my High School. I am lucky enough to have a couple of Jason's year books, but not only that but he has the coolest High School ring, and a cup with ALL the names of the Graduating class of 1996. Makes me wish that there was more cool stuff like that associated with High School here. Times may have changed and more cool stuff may be coming out, it has been a wee while since I was at High School. But knowing how different things are between the two countries makes me appreciate all that Jason gave up to be here with me in NZ. Thanks babe xxx



Who remembers this?? I had forgotten about this until my friend on FaceBook posted it and oh my I used to like it back then, but now I LOVE it more!! It has a whole different meaning!! It is bloody brilliant!

So I hope you enjoyed my little bit of a flashback for Friday ..oh and I guess I should say Happy New Year! See you in the next one!

The Year that was ....

I totally stole this idea off Kristy over at PaisleyJade .. sure hope she doesn't mind!!!

What a year it was .. definitely the worst I've ever had to deal with but here it is in a Nut Shell anyway .....

JANUARY
We finally got the Internet baaaacccckkkkk after living in Pukekohe for 2 months! Oh my would you imagine how much more stuff gets done without the Internet to distract!! I did A LOT of crafting while we were Internet free and even got to set up my very own Craft Room for the first time!! and did so much Stuff I was a real Busy Beaver and had two LOs put on the shortlist for NZ's only Scrapbooking Magazine Up2Scrap and was involved in Fiskateers Online Crop. My good friend Jennie gave me my Scrap heap Plaque which still proudly hangs in my Craft Area!



FEBRUARY
We got used to living on a one wage fortnightly pay basis and loved our WooHoo Wednesday pay day! I got back involved with the TM Scrappers Challenges. I made more promises to blog everyday hehehe and Made Thankful Thursday all about my beloved Husband Jason. I also branched out a bit in my scrapbooking by using fabric. Jason and I Introduced Red the Crab into our lives. Jason celebrated his 33rd and Last ever Birthday, we spent a fun filled Sunday at Parakai Springs Pools and I make the best Titans Helmet Birthday cake ever! (well the best one I've ever done hehe) I made Valentines Day into a Happy Valentine's Week by doing lots of Valentines crafts with the kids. My favourite was the cool Valentines photo shoot I did with the kids. We had a Happy Valentines Day baking lots of surprises for Jason when he got home from work. I also managed to get some crafting done in there! Abbey discovered little girls stuff I had a WooHoo Wednesday securing my first Scrapbook tutors job at Absolutely Crafty. There were a few TGIF's and we started planning Riley's Robot 5th Birthday Party. We had a Fun Filled Family Saturday at the Pukekohe AMP Show, and had fun catching spider webs. Abbey received more injuries



MARCH
We had a BIG Weekend as a family riding trains and visiting gardens. Abbey got all girly and cute under the trampoline I did Alot of Scrapbooking in March here, here, and here , Riley Turned 5 and started school and we had a Robot Birthday blast! oh and I tutored my first scrapbooking class



APRIL
I got too busy to blog preparing for all my class stuff. Shared with everyone my story of the beginning of my scrapbooking hobby and I started back at work semi part time




MAY
I found out I was going to be published, got mad busy with work and sickness and tutoring and then my life was turned Upside Down by the sudden and shattering death of my husband Jason. I found out the true reason why we scrap and my life kinda went very numb for a while. We had a funeral, cremation and I sent my husband back to America with his family.



JUNE
To be perfectly honest I do not remember June, I know I had a Birthday and went out to Uncle Freds for my birthday dinner, apart from that the month is blank.



JULY
We moved to Whangarei. Abbey celebrated her 3rd Birthday, became a big girl by giving up her Binkies, and started afternoon Kindy. Riley started at his new school Kamo Primary.



AUGUST
Another month I sleep walked through. Jason was laid to rest in the Grafton National Cemetary in West Virginia USA. He was given a Full Marine burial, I regret not being there for it.

SEPTEMBER
I woke up slightly. Got back on the Horse and started Crafting again and started to begin my mission of documenting the love we have for Jason. I made my first Snapfish Book. Riley had his first school cross-country, disco and dress-up day. They had the Prison Sentencing for the man who killed my husband, which I attended.



OCTOBER
I shared with the world my obsession with the colour orange and started orangefying my world. We had our first Halloween without Jason.



NOVEMBER
Art Nights with Ruth and Janine really got going. I won stuff, had a very crazy emotion week with my friend Jennie visiting, having my First wedding anniversary without Jason fall a day before the 6 month anniversary of his death, as well as getting two LOs accepted for publication in the new NZ Scrapping Magazine NZ Paper Chasers, and also became a Crafty Tart. We also went to my beautiful cousin Sherri's Wedding.



DECEMBER
December started out tragically for NZ with the Pike River Miners tragedy coming to a close as such. It was full of Christmas crafting here, here, here, here and here. We had the first Christmas without Jason and December in general was very hard for me emotionally.



So goodbye 2010 and Hello 2011

Sketches and Adorable Kids

I think my kids are adorable, it's only natural! But I have taken some pretty cute photos of them over the last week. Janine set a sketch Challenge from a Sketch she found on PageMaps for Ruth and me for Art Night ... well Art night came and went and I did nothing much other than print a photo hehe but today I got stuck in and did TWO LOs from the sketch! I impress even myself sometimes hehehe

Here is the Sketch



Here is LO #1 Abbey - taken on Boxing Day after a lovely soak under the new Octopus Sprinkler!



Kaisercraft Hey Birdie range used .. Thanks Becky for cutting out my birdies and punching out my butterflies! She used my new Stampin' Up Butterfly punch! I also used my new Heidi Swapp word stamp which I got from Crafty Tart, definately going back for more of those!

LO # 2 Sketch rotated onto it's side - Riley also Boxing Day after soaking in the water!



Heidi Grace Cheerful Bee papers and another new Heidi Swapp stamp from Crafty Tart

So now I'm off to work on another sketch I just found which looks kinda cool, 3 LOs in one day!

Silly Season is over ..... Mostly!

Well Christmas is over for another year. Ordinarily I would keep the tree and decorations up until after New Years Day but this year hasn't been an ordinary one and the tree, decorations and everything are already gone, life is humdruming along as normal as can be expected again.
We spent Christmas Day out on my brother David's farm. The kids had a blast and I was happy to sit back and watch everyone doing the Christmas thing. Here are a few of my favourite photos of Christmas Day ..






I didn't take so many photos this year, but since Jason's death I haven't taken half as many photos as I used to over the year anyway.
December has been VERY difficult for me, and as resilient as my kids are they have noticed too.
Abbey a couple of days ago .."Mummy you always cry when you want our daddy to be here you always cry"
Broke my heart hearing her say that. But in a few days it will be a new year. I'm not saying anything about the new year going to be better and a new start etc etc because it is still going to be hard, and harder and there are many things regarding Jason that we still need to process through, more firsts as well as legal things regarding the nature of his death, but all I can say is it can't get any worse, and every day I am still here with our Beautiful Children is a good one.

So on New years Eve I will be raising my glass in honor of My sweet husbands memory, and not on moving forward, but in remembering, holding onto what we had and with that moving one foot infront of the other every day.

So until then Have a Safe and Happy New Year surrounded by the people you love!

Awesome Giveaway!!!

Check out this AMAZING Giveaway over at Yours Artfully Gotta Love ol' Tim Holtz!!!

Time to Relax

I have been so busy with Christmas stuff I have barely had time to breathe!! I hosted an Online Crop at Crafty Tart's Facebook Page last weekend, as well as making Christmas Decorations and Gifts, It was the last week at School and Kindy so there have been Parties and Concerts to go to and general other everyday things to do!!

It has been raining on and off for about a week, the last couple of days has been constant rain, as much as we need it here in Northland the novelty of it is wearing a bit thin, especially with 2 littlies stuck inside ALL day!! The kids have had a couple of naked runs in the rain and today we are eating chips, popcorn etc and having a movie Day ... tomorrow ... Who Knows??? TV2 has an Excellent line up of Movies today! Gotta love holiday movies on TV!
Our First movie of the day was Gremlins! Such an old classic!

This is followed by Gremlins 2

and then we have a TV break then Charlottes Web

Scared Shrekless

and The Santa Clause 3!

I think after such a lazy day today I best scedule a bit more activity for tomorrow!!

Christmas is fast approaching ...

I am surrounded by Christmas paper, smells, lists, food, and projects, this is normally one of my most favourite times of the year. On the outside I am smiling and doing loads of Christmas crafts and activities with my kids, on the inside I am screaming, crying, and rocking in the corner. It's so much harder than I imagined it to be. Jason is CONSTANTLY in my thoughts, and just thinking about how he isn't going to be here for Christmas makes me cry. I'm crying writing this post. I think back to last Christmas and we were so excited because all the things Jason had sent over from his time in America were going to be able to be wrapped and given to the kids finally. We had bought the kids a trampoline and we had loads of laughs (and a bit of swearing!) putting it together on Christmas Eve. This year I bought Riley a new bike which his Uncle is going to put together for him, not his Dad. Sigh ... I can pretend to be happy for only so long but in all honesty I am wishing Christmas could be cancelled this year, I'd like to sleep through December and most of January. Sadly that can't happen so instead I listen to sad Christmas songs and think of how much I wish my husband was here to help celebrate Christmas with us.

Kids Christmas Crafts

The kids and I had sooo much fun making a Handprint Christmas Wreath for Grandma yesterday! Was sooo much fun!

Here's what we did ...

Step #1
Make LOTS of hand prints! We used a lovely dark green colour



Step #2
While the paint was drying the kids punched out lots of different shapes with Christmas paper, we used a Star, a scalloped heart and a scalloped circle.




Step #3
Cut out all the hands



Step #4
From thick cardboard cut out a ring ... I used a dinner plate as a template



Step #5
Stick all the hands to the ring, I used double sided tape, making sure the fingers overlap the hands, then attach the punched shapes



And then it's all done!!

Mini Christmas Album - Tutorial of sorts!!

Well Finally after much procrastinating and avoiding I finished my mini Christmas album!! And I am actually really happy with it!!



and this is how I made it ....

First I got the Bo Bunny BELIEVE Album from Crafty Tart (and it was and still is on special!!) And I also bought my papers from Crafty Tart. They are Echo Park's 'Everybody Loves Christmas' range which I just LOVED! (also all on special!!)
So first thing I did was decide which papers I wanted to use, because the papers are all double sided it made it sooo much easier to use less and have more patterns! And the cool thing I discovered as I was making this album was the longest letter E was a perfect fit across a 12"x12" paper! Brilliant!

STEP #1
Trace your letter shapes. I traced the opposite side of the album onto the back of the paper I wanted, clear as mud?? I do it this way because I'm lazy and don't like erasing pencil lines!!



Don't forget to trace your little holes!!



STEP #2
Then you cut out your shapes.
Pretty easy so far right!



STEP #3
Cut out your holes, I used my Crop-a-Dile, but you can use a hole punch or a craft knife or a fork even!!



STEP #4
Glue your paper to the chipboard. I glued the back of the paper with Modge Podge and then carefully flattened it out on the chipboard, using a ice block stick I flattened all the bubbles and creases and made it all flat and nice!



STEP #5
Trim the excess paper. There always seems to be some! I used my Fiskars Fingertip Craft knife



STEP #6
Sand all the edges. This makes the edges smooth and also takes off any more excess paper that the knife couldn't get. I used some emery boards for this, but you can get lots of different things to do this, sandpaper, file ... there is a really cool Tim Holtz Sanding Block too!



STEP #7
Ink all your edges. I used a cotton bud for all the fiddly in between bits the ink pad wouldn't reach.



Step #8
Embellish!!! This is the fun bit!! I used Stickers and papers from the same Echo Park Range, as well as a few Kaiser Christmas Rubons, one of my new Heidi Swapp word Stamps and the odd ribbon, button and other random embellishment!
Put it all together with Binding Rings and tie some fibres/ribbon onto the rings and you are done!!

Christmas Procrastination

It's 3 weeks until Christmas I have LOADS of gifts to make, crafts to do, things to organise and what do I do? Do I knock off several of the things on my TO DO List? No I do not I add two new things ... and spend the WHOLE day working on them and this I call Christmas Procrastination ... I did say earlier in my Domestic Goddess post that I was easily distracted right!!??
Well I had this idea of making Christmas T-Shirts for the kids last week. Yesterday I picked up a couple of red $4.99 T-Shirts from T'n'T and I thought I'd get some of that printable iron on transfer stuff. Well that was until I saw a T-Shirt my mate Hilary made for her son, that changed my mind and I decided to make the shirt decorations myself .....




Thanks Hilary for the inspiration!!! I like the Gingerbread Man one best, the kids both love them so that's the main thing! I have also decided when I have time (or want to procrastinate from what I SHOULD be doing) I might try doing some more plain T-Shirts the kids have in a less Christmasey theme, was thinking robots, monsters, fairies & Birds ... we will see how we go!!

Now back to work on the things I have on my list!!!