Project Life Catch Up

I've had kind of a crazy day and a crazy weekend, we spent the weekend sailing and it really wasn't a great place to craft even though I took a few crafty options with me. Oh well I will be back into it very soon because I am dying ;-) Too much boy stuff and not enough crafting!!

So I am way behind on my project life pages, I finished my last few pages back in early October. Hopefully I can get some photos printed off soon and finish up last years album! 

It was the week of Luke's birthday so I just went for it with pictures of him.

His birthday happened to be the week after a seizure so in a way it felt super fitting to be celebrating him and his birthday. Thank goodness we haven't had another since then but when it happens it really does make you feel thankful for every small detail and every loving person around us and reminds you to live in the moment!

So that is a little catch up of some of the last pages I managed to do last year. I've got some lovely crafty things lined up so I am hoping to get stuck into them so I can share them here really soon!

A Catch Up

This is kind of a crazy post, but I felt like there was so much that I hadn't shared from all of my Christmas making. I don't want to be harping about Christmas but there were a few lovely things that were made and I felt like I should share them here.

 First up I hand made some bonbons, well sort of my silhouette and Wilna Furstenbergs class here did help me. They were truly lovely to make and really felt like something pretty and useful to make for the Christmas table, it really took me right back to the reason I make things, the heart of it. It just makes my soul happy.

 These little houses were also from the class but also something that is right up my ally I just had to make them, they were probably the fastest houses I have made, because I didn't add tabs I just went straight for it with the hot glue gun, they were such fun. They ended up going on our Christmas table with each persons name on it and they were lovely with the bonbons.

I will probably be making some version of these for Valentines day or Easter soon :)

 Snail Mail was also made, I had a lot of fun making this one. It included a decoration to help decorate the tree, tags to help with gift wrapping and a little note book that I made to help organize yourself at Christmas, just a nice spot to write down any ideas for Christmas.

 Lastly there were lots of Santa Soaps and Gingerbread men Soaps made, lots were gifted and some were sold.They also ended up being a lot of fun, I didn't go crazy making them this year so that's a bonus.

Id love to be able to tell you that this is the last of the christmassy stuff but I have been finishing up a December daily album too and I think it would also be lovely to share it here when I am finally done :-)
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She Scraps

I finally had a chance to scrap these photos I took last November. They are selfies from the night my hubby and I went to his work Christmas show. How could I not scrap these polka dots- my favorite!

 The top one much more neutral but how could I resist using pink on one of the pages, umm I went for it !I also managed to pop on the gold sparkly feather that I made last year, it had been floating around and I'm glad that I finally used it.

 I think I am finally deciding to scrap with white card-stock more/most of the time. I always love it when I do and I think this might help me with one of my goals for this year which is to scrap more like me and not worry about what everyone else is doing. It seems to make sense to simplify scrapping this way and just make my life easier with one less choice to make.

Of course I had to scrap this one of my happy little guy, he is just so much fun!

There is a lot of Heidi Swapp and Dear Lizzy on these pages and other bits and bobs from around the place.

So much fun getting some srapping done but I really need to finish up my 2014 stuff and get started on 2015 scrapboking ;-)

Mamie Made: Starry Garland Mobile

I just realized that I never popped in to share what I ended up making with my starry garland from this post. December got just so busy and there were a few things I made that I didn't end up sharing here. I made a mobile with the starry garland that hung over our dining room table for Christmas time.

 It was really simple to make (my favorite) and is just two hoops covered in tulle, the wrapped in tinsel and then each strand of stars was either tied on or stapled to the tulle. I then cut some pretty reindeer with my silhouette and hot glued them on.

I had transformed it since last Easter when I had it up with punched butterflies that had been hand sewn, it took me a whole weekend of sitting sewing those butterflies, and while it was pretty it was super prone to getting tangled up if you moved it anywhere.

So the blue version of the mobile is still up and it was used for Blake's birthday. I simply took the tinsel off and the reindeer and added a little crepe paper and  hung it a little lower to the table.

I am thinking of transforming it again for Valentines Day and then again for Easter, but I'm not sure what I would like to hang from it this Easter. 

On My Table

 I've set up a little table in the space in my front bay window in our bedroom. And I've been really enjoying it, its a sweet spot to sit and write and look out onto our front yard and neighboring paddocks. and as a bonus its a nice little spot to have a little break from my boys these holidays.

So I picked some flowers from my back garden and put them in a vase and they have been on my table ever since. Along with some sparkling water, tea of course and some pens and stickers.

I love making life a little more pretty, the colours of the flowers are just so beautiful and vibrant.

So whats on your table today?

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Oh Nine!

My little guy turned nine today and I'm kinda sad about it. I feel like he is growing up so fast and I just want time to slow down!!

He is such an awesome little guy, he is cheeky and curious always asking questions. He loves Lego, minecraft, sailing and fishing. I love his amazing smile and how he sings with me in the car.

Happy birthday my gorgeous big boy. I love you so much!

Cookies

I thought I would share with you a recipe today. Its not my original recipe, I found it somewhere in the land of the internet but since its one works for my gluten/lactose and fructose free little guy I thought it would be nice to share here. They are really simple to make and yummy too.

 We use coconut sugar (aka palm sugar) in them and oil which makes them sugar and dairy free too. Coconut sugar can be found in the supermarkets now and isn't super expensive, it does happen to be a fructose- if that doesn't sit well with you go ahead and use any sweetener you like. And of course if your not dairy free then you can use butter.

I have added chocolate chips to them this time but other times I have added dried fruit and nuts and they have been just as tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups of Almond Meal
1/2 tsp of baking baking powder
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of coconut sugar
1/4 cup of oil or butter
1 egg
1 tsp of vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry and mix until well combined. place tablespoon sized balls of the mixture on a baking tray and press a little to flatten. Bake for about 10 minutes on 180c.

My Planner

I just purchased this Kikki.K planner after much searching around and finding nothing that was cute and practical, I ordered this one online and it finally arrived and after  a crazy run home in the rain with the box under my arm trying to protect it from getting wet it made it into my home.

 Anyway I had been wanting a place to put all the things that I usually write down on scrap pieces of paper I end up with piles of paper around the place and never able to find the one list that I need. So I wasn't really wanting a calender style folder and I also wanted it to be small enough that I could take it with me in the car, we spend a lot of time in the car waiting and travelling to and from school during the year.

 I wanted a place where I could: track my goals, put weekly menu plans and shopping lists, keep a weekly cleaning plan, Christmas and birthday panning and also write ideas for blog posts. Usually all of these things are done on random bits of paper.

 So far I have managed to add a section for menu planning and have printed out some menu plans that I created, they're not perfect yet but they will do for now. I've got a few other things that I would like to print off like a shopping list and I would love some way to track my goals, to see that I am making progress (or not lol).

 I've still got a  little to do to sort out all of the things I want to keep here and I am working out weather to keep the dividers and pages that are in here and just adjust them or to make new dividers and new pages that are more suitable.

I've added some kaiser kraft stickers into the pocket and some project life cards for now. I'm sure that I am going to make lots of adjustments to make the planner work for me but other than that I am super happy with this gold planner and I'm super excited to start filling it up.

180 Ornaments

So this week I've been working on making some little house ornaments for my Christmas tree. And can I tell you that I am loving these, they are pretty cute!

 I've made eight so far and I am just mixing up colours and having fun with them. They are pretty small though which would be great for a small tree but since mine is large I think its time that I made some larger ones to go with these. When I drew up the pattern I had a little scalloped edge under the roof  that I couldn't fit on these small ones but if I make some larger ones I should be able to fit it on.

I think I might make a few in some different colours simply because I think these little houses would look cute on gifts. I've also made some white and pink stockings, so I now have eight stockings and eight houses.

That takes my total to 16, two off of what I need to make this month.

Which leaves me with 164 to go!

Mamie Made: Crotchet Hearts

I've been crocheting up a little pile of little hearts. I'm not exactly sure what I am going to use them for yet, but they are so quick to whip up and I really haven't had anything to do while watching a bit of tv lately so this has been a fun little project.

 Obviously I could use them for some decorating this valentines day , I thought a little garland could be cute. Or since they are (mostly) pink I could add them to my 180 ornaments and hang them on the Christmas tree.

 

I've been making them with a 3.5mm hook but I did start out using a 6.5mm hook, they were bigger but more holey, so I'm going with the smaller ones for now but I may end up with some of both sizes.

If you'd like the pattern you can find it here. They are super quick and simple and fun to make.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

My One Little Word for 2015

My One Little Word  has found me this year, I could feel it creeping up on me towards the end of 2014. There were some moments that stood out to me and the only way that I could define them was: Magical.

So my word for 2015 is Magical

Magical

- relating to using or resembling magic

-beautiful or delightful in a way that is removed from everyday life.

I especially love that second meaning, beautiful or delightful in a way that is removed from everyday life. Isn't it just so easy to get stuck in our lives, to get in a rut, to not live in the present I think its so easy to get into a pattern where we don't see the magic in our lives at all.

I've thought about this word a lot and I have two different ways that I would like it to be a part of my life this year. The first is what I would call Magically Peaceful, these are the moments that are right there in front of us there to see at any moment but sometimes more moving that others. Simple things like the sun setting in a brilliant sky, rain falling on a summers  day, a bird sitting on my windowsill or golden fields of wheat blowing in the warm breeze.

I want to be more aware of these moments, more open to them, more willing to stop and see them because they are right here and so easy to miss.

The other way Id like to include it in my life this year is Making Magical. For me this is all about consciously going to a little effort to create our own magical moments.

When I look back on 2014 the most magical moment was most definitely my birthday.It was totally created by myself  and Paul, it was so so much fun!! It did take a little effort but it was worth it and it will probably live to be my favorite memory of last year. I want to create more of this type of magical moments in my life and I would love to create some of this type of magical moment in others lives too, though I am not sure how I am going to do that. Any ideas?

So do you have one little word this year? What is it?

Also I am having super trouble working out my sidebar
 So I thought Id let you know that you can find me here on facebook now ;-)

On My Table Tuesday/Around My Home

There have been lots of lovely things around my home the past few days while I have been shifting out all of the Christmas things and cleaning up spaces and adding things back in, creating new little spaces. There was a lot of furniture moved around for Christmas so now that things are being moved back its been nice to reassess spaces and decide if they are working or not and there has been a little clearing out to make some space.

There have been some lovely summer moments.

 There was a trip to T2 to use a gift voucher I received for my birthday, my very first T2 purchase and it wont be my last. If only there was one closer, this particular store was over an hour away :-(

 My Lovely Hubby has been cooking up some yummy breakfasts too. 

 Whats on your Table this Tuesday?

180 ornaments

I have began one of the bigger goals for the year, to create 180 handmade ornaments for my Christmas tree this year. While I am super motivated I think its a great time to start. I hope that I make it to 180 well I am going to give it a go!

 So I am making all the ornaments with pink because I want them to go on my 'pink tree' which is actually a white tree that will have pink ornaments on it. This last cChristmasI had pink and gold ornaments on it but since I am thinking of making as many of the ornaments as I can out of felt I think that gold might be a super hard colour to find in felt so I may end up choosing another colour to go with the pink- may be an aqua or a greeny aqua colour that would go with my bedroom too.

So I thought I should show you what my 'pink tree' looked like so here it is! It was super hard to photograph I had it up on a little table and right in the window so that it could be seen from the road in the bay window of our bedroom. Also don't mind my unfinished curtains, I really need to get around to finishing them off.

 It was so lovely at night lying in bed looking at the twinkling lights and looking at the pretty ornaments. The lovely Dee (the old fat hen) sent me those large gold baubles with our names written on them- they will be treasured for years to come :-) Next Christmas the gold ornaments will go on my traditional tree.

I hope I haven't bothered you with my Christmas talk, its going to be going on throughout the year, sorry!! LOL

175 to go!

Sunday Scraps

I've been playing with paper, just because I feel like it. I am totally loving the pink and gold colour combination at the moment, I had pink and gold one one of my Christmas trees this year and I really loved it, it was ohh so pretty.

Thus page has lots of embellishments from one of the Heidi Swapp project life kits (you can pick them up at spotlight), the background paper is a Dear Lizzy Serendipity and there are a couple of embellishments from that range too.

 I cant help it I so much love scrapping girly photos, if only I had girls sigh....

I did love having my two little nieces over for Christmas this year. I always forget what its like to have girls here until they are here. My boys are getting more and more boyish as they get older and there are more and more boy activities going on here all the time.

Paul bought me a flutterbly ( a flying fairy) toy for fun for Christmas and the girls had a lovely time playing with it, so much fun.

 I love to use things that I have around the place on my scrap pages, this one has tissue paper, paper straws, some note paper and a rectangular doily that I had around. Also some more Serendipity and  some embellishments from the Heidi Swapp Project Life glitter kit.

Its nice to be finally getting back into making something after the business of Christmas, I love the quietness of this time of year. Love that there are so many possibilities for creating.

January Dreams

I don't know what happens to me over December, things get crazy and I tend to fall off the planet.

We had a lovely Christmas and we even dressed up as Santa, Mrs Clause and two little elves, it added a lot of extra fun to Christmas :-)

Anyway I do love new beginnings and I always love January. Its such a lovely time to think about all the amazing things you want to do in the year, so much possibility when every thing feels easy. Its a time to dream big.

I have a few big goals I would like to reach this year:

Save a substantial sum of money so that we can build an outdoor area (deck etc)

Walk 5 Days a week.

Blog more!!

Scrap More my style, not get so caught up in what everyone else is doing.

Keep on top of my laundry (ahhh I hate laundry!) 

Get more wicking beds going in the garden.

Create a handmade Christmas Tree.

I think my biggest crafty one is I would like to have a handmade Christmas tree. I've always dreamed of having a Christmas tree covered in handmade ornaments so yesterday when I took the tree down I counted how many ornaments were on it  a large grand total of 180 ornaments! I would love to have them all made out of felt but I think that might be unrealistic.

So I am hoping to make 18 ornaments a month for 10 months. That would mean that I would  have them all done by November, plenty of time, hopefully ;-)

Have you been dreaming up some lovely things for this year?