Preparing for Mothers Day

I'm really excited - my Mumsy is coming up to Newman this year for Mother's Day. It will be nice to have Mum here for Mother's Day and it will be lovely for her to see the girls. I think Mum is really looking forward to all the sports watching too - she will get to see two games of my netball, one game of Darryl's footy game in Veterans and Seekara's first ever soccer game next weekend. Not to mention watching me chase after Cheekah all day saying No Cheekah! which really is sport of its own!

In preparation for Mothers Day this year I decided to make both mothers of our family and my Nan a canvas tile with pictures of loved ones in the tiles. Here is what I came up with:

I have now started making one of for Seekara's little friends at kindy for his fourth birthday this weekend. Will be interesting to see how a boy tile canvas turns out.

I have been doing some layouts for our new released products this week. These layouts are using parts from Basic Grey's Lime Rickey range. Lime Rickey is just so bright and colourful and you will love the big googly eyed birds in the range too.

Can you guess who the Wally in my page is???? Picture taken at Hunter Valley April 2009.

Below is a picture of Maddy and Seekara at last years Newman High School Ball. The students walk into the Recreation Centre in their gorgeous attire in front of the public. It is really lovely to see what they are all wearing and a nice little outing in Newman. We have been lucky the past three years with having a niece in the ball each year. This year the youngest Castelli girl will be celebrating her year 12 ball. I cant wait to see her gorgeous dress on her. Next year certainly will not be as exciting without one of the girls in the ball parade. My sister and law has also been busy with organising the ball's theme and events. Dianne has been involved for quite a while in this and she really is a clever lady. You should see the way they transform a normal gymnasium into a ball wonderland to match each year's theme. It 's amazing. I cant wait to see the gym this year. This year's theme is PARIS!
This layout was used some embellishments from the Lime Rickey Range, Collections chipboard (I love the new little banners!); American Crafts rubons, German Scrap, Paper by K & Co and Cherry Arte; Flowers by Green Tara, Letters - Carolee's Creations, Basic Grey and American Crafts. Cherry Bling from Creative Imaginations.

Been busy creating...

I have had such a productive week! I have completed 14 layouts now bringing me only 11 months behind now :( hubby has been on nights this week so with the kids in bed I got lots done.

On top of this I have completed a mini canvas for my daughter's friend. It was actually Seekara's idea. She was watching me do my large tile canvas and asked if she could do one for her friend for her birthday - I thought it was a fabulous idea. Seekara helped with the painting, gluing, sanding and inking. See even four year olds can join in with projects like this!

I have now started some mini canvases for my Mumsy, Mother in law and Nansy. I am officially addicted to tiles! Hopefully I will have them ready to show by next week.

Here are a few of my fave projects completed for the week:

Gift for Seekara's friends birthday - using collections tiles, making memories paper, Kasier wood embellishment, Love Elsie buttons, K & Co embellishments and other bits and pieces. Broken jewellery and children's trinkets make great embellishments on these canvases. Even better - go through a man's shed - its amazing what bits and pieces you can find. Check out Tracy's blog - her hubby found some old cupboard handles whilst cleaning out the shed - perfect for a canvas!

My brother Kade and his beautiful wife Jacqui on their night - layout using K & Co papers & embellishments, Letters by Carolee's Creations and Basic Grey. The flower was made from ribbons and some spare material.
Seekara adores her Uncle Kade and Aunt Jacqui - papers and embellishments from Basic Grey Infuse Collection, Scissor Sisters paper, Bird and brackets from Collections, Hambly Screen Prints rubons.

Its not everyday a Newman kid gets to make a sandcastle on the beach - I think Seekara enjoyed it too :) hehe Papers by Creative Imaginations, Seven Gypsies, Collections & ProvoCraft. Letters from American Crafts. Castle and lettering from Cricut Storybook and Stretch Your Imagination.

Me - 7 months pregnant and proud. Basic Grey Granola Collection, Kaiser pearls and Fancy Pants stamps.

Thanks for looking!

Wilson Canvas

I finished my canvas tonight and was so excited that I wanted to share! I want to complete more now. It was so much fun! I cant wait to hang it up!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Hope you had a lovely long Easter weekend. We certainly did. Lots of photos for Cheekah's very first Easter - that girl loves chocolate. Here is a cute little pic of Cheekah devouring her choccie...

Rhonda and I returned from SIA a few weeks back and just starting to get back into the swing of things again. As well as staying in Sydney for SIA we holidayed in Sydney and Canberra for 9 days with Rhonda and Ken. Together the 4 of us saw heaps, including two tours. Darryl and I (pictured above) loved the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is only a smallish park but the animal keepers were very helpful and allowed you to touch most of the animals including a python, a tawny frog mouth and a koala. We loved it. The park was part of a tour to the Blue Mountains with Activity Tours Australia. We had a fantastic tour with guide Steve. Steve was so knowledgeable and really made this tour thoroughly enjoyable.

We were also very lucky to have our very own tour guides in Canberra (Paul and Robin Dearlove). Robin is a dear old friend of mine and lives in Canberra with her hubby Paul. They showed us so many things about Canberra. My highlight was the Parliament house tour - the tour guide was extremely full of knowledge and made the tour very interesting. Best of all - its free! The war museum was another personal favourite - this place is amazing. I thought Canberra was really nice. There is so much to do there and best of all most of it is free or a gold coin donation entry fee. We have to go back to see the rest at some stage because two days is just not enough!

Here are a few recent layouts... Enjoy

Using new Pink Paisley range

Using new Kaiser food range
Our kids class from Thrusday 16th April. The girls really loved this class and

did some gorgeous pages. The girls ages ranged from 6 - 13.

Tenaha :)

Off to Sydney!

Well I just had text message from Rhonda of the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Guess where she is? Darryl and I are off tomorrow also to join them... cant wait. We have a jam packed itinerary - on Sun we are doing the Hunter Valley; Mon Sydney Sightseeing; Tues and Wed is the Scrapbooking Industry Association trade show (so very excited!); Thurs is Blue Mountains, Fri is Harold Park (trotting track - of course Darryl's request) and the weekend at Canberra! Cant wait to see the war memorial and parliament house!

I put a few layouts together this week before I head off. Here they are:

Sketch 77 from Stuck Sketches - (see the link on my blog - Submissions).

Paper - Making Memories, K & Co & American Crafts; Embellishments - Basic Grey, Kaiser Craft, Green Tara; & Lettering - Carolees Creations, Making Memories and Collections. Other - Tim Holtz Distressed Ink - Black Soot.

Singing In the Rain: Paper - Basic Grey, Blue Eye Dezines, other; Embellishments - American Crafts, Kaiser Craft, K & CO,; & Lettering - Making Memories, Carolees Creations, Crate Paper. Other - White pen, water soluble crayons, cricut.

Xmas Morning 07: Paper - Basic Grey, Coredinations; Embellishments - Green Tara, Kaiser Craft, Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, German Scrap; & Lettering - Basic Grey, American Crafts.

Naughty Blogger

My goodness I am a naughty blogger. Cant believe how long it has been since my last entry. Sorry Raquel and Jan - I now have my act together.

What a crazy few months it has been. About a month ago we went to Perth for a few weeks to get some things done. Unfortunately it was not a fantastic trip - actually it never is to Perth when you live in the remote country. it is always full of running around doing all the jobs you cant do up here so by the time you return you are absolutely exhausted and saying "There's no place like home".

On the 21st Feb, my best friend Mel had her father pass away at 2am in the morning. Even though we were expecting it after his battle with cancer it does not make it any easier. Mel is an absolute trooper and always sees the positive side in life. She obviously was devastated, now being the remaining Ogg of her family, but knew that her father was now at peace with her mother. Mel you are a truly inspirational woman in the way you conduct yourself. On top of this she had her matron of honour pull out on her the day her father passed. This was totally undeserved by Mel who is the sweetest soul you could ever meet. Lets just say the young lady was certainly not welcome to any future events.

Once receiving the news we made our plans to go straight down to Perth as soon as we could to be with Mel. She had a busy week ahead of her with the funeral on the Thursday and getting married to her Brian on the Sunday. We wanted to be there to give her all the support we could. IT was certainly a busy week. But all went as well as it could and by the Sunday the rain had cleared up and it was a beautiful day. The now Mr & Mrs Feucs (as Mel's Dad would have said - rhymes with Pukes!) were married at the beautiful Black Swan Winery on the Sunday. It was such a beautiful wedding. So that Mel's parents were with her on the day, the three bridesmaids arranged a locket with photos of her Mum and Dad. She was very touched.

We had so much fun on the Sunday getting ready at the Chapple house. Marnie's Mum Sharon was Mel's Mum (Jill) closest friend so it seemed really appropriate. The makeup lady and hair stylist did such a fantastic job and I swear Mel was looking like the gorgeous Lara Bingle in her gown. I kept saying to her - "How the Bloody Hell Are ya!".

Here are a few pics of the day.

The beautiful MelBridal aprt and forever friends - Marnie, Mel, Robin and myself

The week and a bit after the wedding we then had Seekara's operation on her right ear in a second attempt to fix a hole that remains in her ear after a grommet had fallen out. They conducted a skin graft by taking cartridge from behind the ear lobe and placing it in the whole in the ear drum. Hopefully this will take this time round and Seekara's hearing may return to normal. Seekara was so good fasting all day. The operation was originally planned for 1pm but she didn't get into the operating theatre until 4pm. Trust me - its a miracle that she didn't eat all that day. Our girl has hollow legs. So far all seems well and we just have our fingers crossed that it works.

Whilst waiting in Perth I completed a few pages . Here is some of the latest.

Using the Marakeech Range.

Below was an off the page workshop we recently completed using the Kaiser paper range and Cricut Vinyl. We made the bookshelf look antique.

Cards completed as part of a class recently. There was a few fun techniques involved in this one including using alcohol inks, scratching and scouring!

Rhonda and I are off to Sydney next week with our partners. So exciting. We are going to the Scrapbooking Industry Association trade fair. Will keep you posted....

Keep smiling

Tenaha ;)

Proud to be Australian

Well the last few weeks has been on a bit of a sad note. It certainly has made our family feel grateful for what we do have, especially each other. Two immediate family members of mine have recently lost jobs thanks to the low nickel price and economic downturn. Both of these people are skilled and trained people so it makes us all a little scared that the economy is having this impact. But with all of this, it is nothing compared to the fact that even though we are a little scared for the family, we all realise after the awful bush fires that at least we all still have each other and we still have a house over our heads.

This feeling of just being grateful for having each other has been strengthened by a recent fatality of a lifetime friend of both of my brothers. This happened all in the same time as the announcement of the awful fires in Victoria. It is very sad how quickly life can be taken away from us and certainly makes us appreciate our own health and life.

My heart goes out to all of those people that have been affected by the bush fires in Victoria and the floods in Queensland, NSW and now WA. Although I have felt very sad watching these events it has also made me feel extremely proud to be Australian to see the bravery and courage of the people affected and the heroic efforts of police, ambulance officers, firefighters, volunteers and ordinary citizens alike, to put their lives on the line to help each other. When things get tough in Australia, our strong Aussie battler spirit certainly shines through.

Here is a recent layout I have completed. I found a picture of my husband and I in 2005 and it reminded me of how I feel so treasured to have such a wonderful husband. I have added the words of our wedding song "All My Life" by KC and JoJo to the page because depicts how I feel about Darryl. I used the Bittersweet range from basic grey and Hambly Screen Prints on this page. I also used my Cricut for the trees (My Community) which made it lots of fun.