Things I'm Loving

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life, there is always something you can be thankful for no matter how simple it is. 

I am LOVING that I have finally finished the playroom!! Riley and Abbey LIVE in this room now. Their toys aren't in my living room anymore!! I can sit on my couch and read quietly or listen to the radio in peace while the kids play with the lego or "cook" in their kitchen or watch TV. It is FANTASTIC!!! Plus it is such a fantastic place to hang out together as a family to play games, watch a movie or whatever. 

My Aunt is moving house and getting rid of quite a bit of stuff.  She asked me if I wanted this massive notice board. I thought about where I would put it before I said yes, which is pretty impressive for me! Usually I would have just said yes! I thought it would fit perfectly on the wall in the hallway between the kids bedrooms. Mum and I had seen some awesome NZ themed fabric in Spotlight the day before so I knew exactly what I was going to cover it with. I think it looks so good in the hallway! I might need to change the colour of the washi-ed light switch cover to match though!

I am LOVING that my builder came and did this to my bathroom today!!! Sooo excited to be getting a new bathroom!!!!

While at the Warehouse this week the kids and I fell in love with these adorable Christmas Cat costumes. I didn't think the cats were going to be overly impressed with me dressing them up but I couldn't resist buying them.

Comet was surprisingly co-operative, Phoebe and Twinkles not so much!! But nawwww how cute is my little kitty!!

Speaking of costumes .....

Today is Halloween!!
Although Halloween isn't really a New Zealand tradition we have always celebrated it with the kids. Since they are 1/2 American I like to give them a taste of that side of their heritage. We don't trick or treat but we do have a Halloween party. This year due to camps and other such things our Halloween Party is going to be a week later than usual. But that doesn't stop us from decorating the house up!! I love having American family who send AMAZING care packages with the most amazing Halloween decorations! This witch is my favourite!! Thanks Mom!!!

Head on Over to Catalina's Cottage and share what you are loving this week!

Getting on & Off Horses ...

the last 4 months of my life have been the worst I have EVER experienced. I lost my husband, my ENTIRE life changed. We moved house, cities, schools. I have to go to bed alone every night and wake up alone every morning. Jason was my rock and he was my comfort in times of sorrow and to have him not here when I am the sadest I have ever been is hard, very hard. In all honesty I wish I could stay in bed forever, never get up and just sleep the rest of my life away but I have this one thing that keeps me getting up every morning and that's my two adorable Children. There are days I sure wish they weren't here, days I just want them to go away so I can give in to my grief and curl up in a ball, but there are also the days where I am so incredibly glad they are here and I can't get enough of them. Crafting has not been a priority to me but I have done some. I have bursts of enthusiasim and go crazy like when I totally revamped my craft space into and orange and white theme. but then, like this week, I can't even be enthused to write a word let alone do a LO!
But as they say once you fall off you need to get back on that horse so I am trying. I have arranged a Beginners Scrapbookers Class at the local Community College here which will be run in November, I have submitted a few more LOs to the Up2Scrap magazine and I have started my Wedding album. I am slowly trying to get back on that horse but it's going to be a long and slow process, this is not something I can just get over and move on from, this is something that will live with me forever. I love him so much and miss him just as much.

Here are a few of the LO's I have done over the last couple months .....


This was the first LO I did after Jason's death, I felt the need to scrap this, and I will be doing a whole album of photos from the funeral, since the media was involved I have alot, I think it will help me heal and will also be a great resource for my kids as they get older. You can read the journalling HERE


After Jason died I emailed a couple of Professional photographers which we had photos taken asking if it was possible to get more copies, I was totally intending to purchase these copies. Positve/Negative Photography had done Family photos through my work for us for the last 3 years in a row and I was completely blown away when they sent me a dic free of charge of the last 3 years of Pics, I cannot thank them enough! These are some of the pics that were on the disc. Not my favourite LO. This was the first time I've ever used mesh as an embelishment.


These pictures were taken Halloween 2009, they are some of my favourite of Jason & Abbey. The pic of Jase looking at the camera and smiling was the one we cropped and released to the media. I hope that through my scrapbooking I can let my children know how much their Daddy loved them.

Sorry about the awful photos of some of these LOs, the lighting in my new house is simply AWFUL!!!


One of My new Favourite paper lines Kasier Craft Hey Birdy Collection and of course my favourite girl!!!


November 08 - July 09 Jase was away in America, while he was away I decided when we were together as a family again we needed more photos of US as a family as well as US as a couple, so one day I decided to do a little photo shoot, Jase held the camera (cause his arm was longer) and we took a few pics of just the two of us. I am so very very thankful for these photos.


This LO was for a Fiskateers Challenge ... guessed what the challenge was???? ORANGE of course!!


Some more of the 'Photo Shoot' Pics ... This was a little mini challenge from Danice & Nic if i remember rightly the requirements were:
*something metal
*staples
*a colour in the title
*ribbon
*Stamp
*2 patterned papers


Another mini challenge from friends Janine & Ruth, and I hope they have done theirs!!
*Scallops
*bookpage
*ricrac
*staples
*2 photos
*aqua/teal colour


Again not one of my favourites .. I really struggle with boy LOs ... Tips PLEASE!!!
But useing my new Little Yellow Bicycle Generation Z kits kindly sent to me from Kelly-Jo over at Fiskateers


Another Little Yellow Bicycle Fresh Print Clothesline kit .. I LOVE scrapping girl LOs!!! Too easy!

That isn't everything as I have submitted quite a few of my pages so can't show you ... I have more stuff to update but will leave it here for today! getting back onto that horse slowly!

TGIF

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY! >>> That means not having to walk Riley to daycare tomorrow morning ... not having to walk and get him in the mid-day heat and that is awesome!! Sadly hubby is working this weekend so no big weekend plans.

I am however looking forward to catching up on my shows with My Sky tonight ... my most favourite being Ace Of Cakes have you seen this show? I LOVE IT!
I have two dreams, they could possibly both happen but they involve having money ...
Dream #1 ... owning my own Scrapbooking Shop
Dream #2 ... running a party planner business

I want to learn how to make amazing cakes like they do at Charm City Cakes. That would ROCK!

Speaking of Parties and Cakes ... Riley will be 5 next month! OMG I know! Where have the last 5 years gone?? When Riley was in my tum tum Jase and I talked about birthdays and how we were going to be horribly mean and not throw a party for our children every year, only the special ones so 1-5-10-13-16-21. Which means this is Rileys first Birthday party since his 1st (hehe) I LOVE hosting parties and I try go all out (those who have been to our Annual Halloween Parties know what I'm talking about look HERE HERE HERE and HERE) Riley has chosen a Robot theme .. I am excited! Its a challenge but gonna be OH So FUN! I have been madly researching EVERYTHING Robot Party related!
So watch this space for LOTS of roboty goodness coming soon!!!

Stuff ...

As promised here are a few pics of Scrapping and crafting I have worked on ... Oh and not to forget my new CRAFT ROOM!!!







These are three canvases, a clock for my Craft Room and a Halloween House

My Favourite LOs lately ....







I have also decided to be brave and submit a couple LOs to Up2Scrap again so fingers crossed there

And here is my very well used Craft Room ...

It's Halloween Time!!!!!!

I know it is a teeny bit early but it's my FAVOURITE time of year so I get excited early!!!
Every year we throw our kids a Halloween party and I have already been making invites and goody bags for this ... however due to the fact my hubby may be getting a new job out of town we might be moving before Halloween so sadly our Halloween party may have to be cancelled this year. I am very sad about this but I know the reason why is a good one.
So to all those Halloween Junkies out there HAPPY HALLOWEEN PREPERATIONS!!!

It worked!!!!!!!!!!

Moving my scrapping stuff into the living room is the best idea I EVER had!! I have sat down this evening and whilst watching a DVD with my darling husband have completed TWO layouts!! Since my ink hasn't arrived yet (please let it come tomorrow) Nic suggested doing the LO's and add the pics later so that is what I have done!! On one anyway!! I'm quite impressed with my efforts tonight!! Especially since I haven't done much in a while!! See all it takes is a warm room and good company :)

I LOVE Halloween

And I also LOVE the Fiskateers!! Today I recieved THREE!!! Halloween Packages :) From Kate, Debby and Karen!! Oh such wonderful goodies!!!



I can't wait to get stuck into some Halloween Layouts!! And send off some thankyou's to these wonderful ladies too :)

Getting the groove slowly

I haven't had much luck with scrapping of late, had a HUGE scrappers block period, and the whole smashing clock incident wasn't very good!! But At least I am creating again. I have been trying to spend more "quality" time together as a family on the weekends, as we seem to have become a family of couch potatoes!! Today we spent the day at the Auckland Museum and feeding pigens at the Domain after our picnic lunch, it was a fantastic day :) And I have also been trying to spend more quality time with Jason, as I'm usually in the garage in the evenings scrapping, so I need to find time where I just scrap now!! Things are a changing in the Palmer household!! I'm not really sure how some women do everything, they craft, are wonderful parents, amazing wifes, their house is ALWAYS immaculate. I can do maybe 1 really well 1 pretty well and the others half-assed!! But anyway I digress away from the layout I did this weekend it was while doing this layout I got frustrated with the lack of Halloween scrapbooking stuff in NZ. Halloween has always been a big favourite of mine, and my friends and I Have been having Halloween paties for a long time. So of course marrying an American gives me an excuse to throw a big Halloween bash every year for the kids. So we will end up with a Halloween layout for each kid every year. So I NEED Halloween scrapping stuff!! And this is where I say "I LOVE THE FISKATEERS" I asked and 11 wonderful Halloween packages should be making their way to me!! I am sooo excited!! But I'm not a beggar and I don't expect something for nothing so there will be 11 NZ goody bags winding their way back to these generous ladies!! I am soo looking forward to making some awesome Halloween pages for the kids :)