A Pile of Washing!

I am usually very good at staying on top of the washing, because if I get behind in the washing that means I soon have a pile of folding and then a heap of ironing to do. But with our vow renewal, honeymoon, Easter and the school holidays I let it get the better of me. So today, while working my way through that pile in the photo I made the cards below. I love combining the mundane with the enjoyable!I made this card for my daughter's 21st next Monday. I used a new range of Bella that I found this morning at Photo Continental. I made 4 cards from 2 sheets of patterned paper, so that's not to bad. This is another Vow Renewal layout and the photos is when Ian was saying the vows he'd written to me. You probably can't tell in this photos that Annie and I were really crying. It was so beautiful. The paper is one of my favourites, Vita Bella, and underneath the photo is a pocket that I've put the vows we made to each other.
This is a family shot taken on the day. The paper is Yellow Bicycle that I've had in my stash for a while and I have so much I am going to do another page to go with this so it will be a double. Well all in all I fairly productive day, now I just have to fold that pile of clean clothes! Hope everyone's enjoying the school holidays!

Just Another Day

Today I made this card for my Dad who is flying for 4 hours to come to our vow renewal. It means a lot to me, especially knowing he hates flying and will have to fly for 8 hours within 4 days.
Got quite a few things done today from my 'long' list of jobs to be done before the weekend and cleaned the house clean and did 4 loads of washing. Not feeling well today, sore throat is back again and I've had a headache all day. But I still managed to be productive which makes me feel good. Of course all this was done while listening to Christine Feehan's Dark Prince, which is so good!!!!
The other card I made was just playing around, didn't turn out exactly as I planned but one for the stash.

PMS Day

Once a month (when we can get there) Sheree and I go to Nicki's PMS (play with my stuff) day. We get fed yummy food and we spend the day making cards. Now of course we can design our own stuff when we feel so inclined but Nicki has so many lovely cards to copy that I just make hers and everytime I go she has more!

World Card Making Day

This is how I spent my day! Making cards with my daughter and niece and some scrapbooking friends! Had a lovely day and was glad to get some cards made for up coming birthdays. Of course and a jump start on the Christmas cards.

Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch

I have wanted this punch since I saw it some weeks ago. I tried to get it a couple of times but failed. Finally got it today from spotlight so I made this little card so I could use it. The card is a scraplift from Nancy and her blog is Scrap This.

Goodbye Mrs Bichel

My son Mackenzie's Grade 4 teacher is leaving on Friday. We only found out last week and they have been told she is going on an overseas holiday. It was very sudden and my only hope is that she really is going on a holiday and that she's not sick. Kenzie cried because he will be away for her last day on Friday because he will be at Kylie's Wedding. The class is having a picnic on the oval and he thought he would miss all the fun. So I sent a letter along with him asking her if he could take cup cakes to school today because this is his last day with her. She said that would be great and so he proudly went off today with all his goodies. Whilst this was the last thing I needed to spend time on this week, it was really important to make him happy. I want him to know that he is not forgotten during this busy time for our family.

Sketches by Tamara Design Card Team

My 6 months on the design team at Sketches by Tamara has come to an end. These are my last two cards! I wasn't being morbid when I created them, it's just that life has taught me this past year that you have to be prepared and since I love giving hand made cards I will now have a couple of Sympathy cards (really hoping not to need them though).

I really like the time limit on this design team as I think it's easier not to have to make an indefinite commitment and it helps keep things fresh. I know that I like to see different scrapbookers on sites I visit. The same people month after month can become a little boring. Anyway, I just want to thank Tamara for the time I've had on the card design team, it has helped me get through the most difficult year of my life.

Wedding Card

I've now made three wedding cards! This one hasn't photographed very well because it's white but it looks beautiful in real life.

Kylie & Troy's Wedding Card

This is the first of a few wedding cards I will make for Kylie and Troy. I will make one for Annie and the boys to give them as well, then I'll pick my favourite and the others will get the left overs. Their colour theme for the wedding is black, red & white so I think I'll stick to the that for at least 2 of the cards. Still I'm glad it's another thing that I can tick off the list. Have yet to do the place cards and favour boxes!

Holidays

We've seen 2 movies so far this week and counting. Sunday we all went to see Hancock, which we all loved and then today it was Kung Fu Panda which Kenzie loved! Rory and I, not so much, in fact I could have easily fallen asleep. This is when I miss having little girls to take to see princess movies! We are hoping to see Get Smart later in the week with Ian and we have a bowling trip planned for sometime on the weekend. The girls and I are also hoping to see Mama Mia on the weekend. So busy, busy, hey, did I mention the car broke down when we got to the movies. I just rang the mechanic and he said it has something to do with the on board computer and shouldn't take long to fix. The boys and I caught a taxi home and will have the car taken to the mechanic when Ian gets home from work. What an eventful morning.

I finished the next two cards for Tamara's Card Design team so I might be able to start rearranging my scraproom later in the week. I'm really in the mood for scrapping but I really want to get my room done as well. If you could see it you'd know I can't do both. The card here is Sketch 52 that will go up on the site tonight. I made it for Sheree, her daughter would have been 18 today if she'd lived.

Stampin Up Card Day on Friday

Made this card at a Stampin Up card day www.scrapnstampwithnicki.com.au

Card Making Day

Yesterday I spent the day at Nicki's, the Stampin Up demonstrator making cards. We had a lovely time and I completed 5 cards and covered a notebook. Wow, Nicki has so much stuff and the most gorgeous scrap room I've ever seen. I could have easily spent the day looking at her stuff. Can't wait to go back next month and make some more cards with her fabulous stamps.

I have finished reading 3 books this week, which has been nice, 2 of them were fantastic books that I'd recommend to anyone. You can see my book reviews here. I know that I'll be getting a few more books tomorrow for mother's day so I had to reduce the size of the pile beside my bed.

Got a lot I want to get done this week. Want to tidy up my scraproom, again, then get packed for scrapbook camp that is in 2 weeks, Kristianne is coming to this one with me so I'm very excited but I also have to pack stuff for her as well. I want to get packed this week so that I can help BF pack the week after if she feels up to coming.

Another Great Book

Had to make my card this morning for the design team I'm on at Sketches by Tamara, go check out the blog when you have time. The sketches are great and very easy, this is the card I created for this weeks sketch.

Kristianne has been wanting to see 'Maid of Honour' at the movies since it came out, so we headed off to do that. It was a typical chick flick, not great but not terrible, just predictable. But Patrick Dempsey was in it, so you won't catch me complaining, he really is McDreamy! We then went to the bookstore, again (were there yesterday), the sales assistants in QBD know us really well and smile at us like old friends. Kristianne got the new Cecelia Ahern book, Thanks for the Memories. I grabbed this one first as she read the last one I bought first, so it was my turn. I started reading it this afternoon and I'm 1/3 of the way through it. Don't know if I'll be able to sleep until I finished it. It is a really good book and I love books you don't want to put down (except to blog and check emails).

PS I finished Sundays at Tiffany's last night, check out my review.

It's Friday

This is the card I made for my friend a couple of days ago when there was just nothing else I could do.
Today I am feeling better and I am coping again. It was a very strange experience, it really felt like it was happening to me, I kept telling myself I was being rediculous and that this wasn't happening to me, but I couldn't stop it. For 2 days all I could see and feel was my Dad's funeral and the shock and emotional pain of that first week. Today, I feel normal, I am of course, just as concerned for my friend and her family but it doesn't feel like it's happening to me all over again. I know that it is normal for grief to come up and grab you when you are least expecting it, my eldest daughter had exactly the same reaction. The grief is still so fresh and I understand that it will always come up in situations such as these but it is difficult when it is happening to someone you love so much.
I guess that the relief now is that I know I am strong enough to help her just as she helped me. I certainly feel qualified after having been through it so recently. Yesterday she rang and told me that it has been confirmed that her Mum has melanoma in her brain and both lungs. So this is going to be a long and difficult road ahead for them all over the next few months. There is very little one can do to help except be there! My love and prayers go out to them all!

Design Team

Making cards really has been like therapy for me the past couple of months. Of course, never has it been more prolific than this week while my daughter has been in New Zealand. So far, I have made 78 cards, which even I find astonishing. I think the reason why card making has been such good therapy is because it gives my mind something to focus on other than my grief. When the going gets tough, the tough make cards. It has been an easy distraction to my feelings. Sometimes the sadness gets the better of me, as it has the last couple of days and I haven't made any cards, but that's OK. Slowly I will start looking at them online or in magazines, then I'll think about which design I'd like to make, then I may go in and out of my scraproom a couple of times, then I'll tidy up my scraproom and then suddenly before I know it, I will have completed another set.

This week while searching online for yet more card designs/sketches I found Sketches by Tamara. There was a call for a design team just for cards. Why not I thought, I was in the middle of a card making frenzy, so what was one more? Well this morning I awoke to an email from Tamara saying 'I would love for you to join us' and my first card sketch, which immediately got my mind working on the papers and design and how can I make it different. So thank you Tamara I will be looking forward to getting my sketches to work on each week.

So what's your therapy? What do you do when you are feeling sad? What do you use to distract yourself from emotional pain? I confess that sometimes I eat, although I think that the card making is much more productive!

Baking Muffins

Baking Muffins is code for making cards which is code for avoiding my feelings. Is this a bad thing? Depends on what feelings I am avoiding. Right now I just avoiding feeling bad, feeling bad for my sister and what she and her family are going through while they care for my mum. I feel powerless and helpless and if I tell the whole truth I would rather just avoid it. If I don't avoid it I may just stay in bed and at the moment that is all I feel like doing. So here is one of the cards that I made last night. Naturally, thanks go to Nancy (whose blog details is in my links). I am off to bake more muffins!