Black is the theme this weekend

Okay so since it was Friday the 13th-black Friday there were a couple of challenges that were themed black. First one was over at Stampin Scrap and it was to use black cardstock as your background....since I have sadly run out of black cardstock I did a black canvas instead....so this is what I came up with. I really love these photos of Liam although I look at it and think his face looks so naked without his glasses...but these photos were taken at kindy about 4 motnhs before he got glasses. I will do a canvas for Steven too during the week.

This layout was for over at The Sketch Book, that challenge was to use black and white and one colour. Since I didn't have a black and white photos(although come to think bout it the photos above are black and white arent they...LOL oh well never mind)so i did this layout for Tanya using a photo of Cody for her....yes I know boring more swirls.

BOM layout

Here is my first layout out of the four for the month of June over at The Sketch Book. The journalling is hiding under the photo for this one....and again more cutting out of swirls/flowers.

Todays layout

Here is to days layout which is a scraplift of a layout that I got from a website some time ago.


Also something that is quite exciting for me this week I handed in a application to kindy for an untrained reliever teacher, after the head teacher asked if I would be interested in this. First it has been so long since I have been out there working and doing this and then at some stage doing ESW work too with kindy is great as they are in school hours and holidays are the same and I just love the kindy environment. So it was exciting for me, nothing may come of it but we will see what happens.

Also I would like to say thank you Hannah for pointing me in the right direction for bloglines..........why have I waited this long to get that sorted, what a BIG time saver bloglines are, so thank you now I have more time for scrapbooking,LOL

I'm so Proud of you

Todays creation is a layout of Liam when he got up infront of the school and did his poem. The circle is a CD that has got a video clip of him both at home and at school doing his poem, the I covered it with some paper and added my journalling onto that. I dont know if you can tell from the photo but he was so nervous but did really well. He was upset that he didnt get a placing but I told him that in my eyes he came first. And for Liam this was such a big thing for him to do, 6months ago he would never have got up there infront of everyone and Im so proud of him for doing that and giving it ago.

Celebrity Challenge No.1-Jennifer McGuire

Okay here is my take on the 1st celebrity challenge by Jennifer McGuire over at The Sketch Book. I turned this into a double layout and love how it has come together. After doing that last layout with the vine I cut out I'm now loving the affect of cutting vines/swirls out of paper(thanks Janine aka mummymoo for that as my latest addiction,LOL). Now when i go to buy paper I look for anything with a swirl that i might be able to cut out so look out for more swirls to come. Also look this is another layout and no chipboard, more stickers for the title

Creative Friday

Okay have been catching up on a few layouts that have been started and sitting waiting for me to finish off. So today was the day, I have a few challenges for a couple of website that are coming up but I wanted to finish this small pile off first. At the moment I LOVE chipboard and most pages that I do have a chipboard something on it, usually title or arrow,lol. But the possum eyes layout has no chipboard and I really like it. I went back to using some creative memories stickers that I have had for some time now and I think they look great...so this might be a start of a sticker addiction, but I wont hold my breath, LOL.

Good-bye 20's, hello 30's

I did sit down at the computer last night to post about turning 30 but I was so tired so went to bed instead, so this birthday post is a day late but better late than never. I had a really good day that start with us nearly being late for school, be a first time that the boys slept in for awhile so that was nice but then it was a mad rush to get organised and up to school. Arriving at school Liam thought he would announce to both his class and Stevens class that 'MY MUM IS 30 TODAY'....did you get that loud and clear lol. Steven didn't want to go to school cause he was worried that he was going to miss out on birthday cake and my party. So I think I manage to explain to him that when you get older you don't always have a party and cake.
Got some lovely goodies in the post, these lovely Autumn Leaves swirl stamps from my best friend up in Auckland, cant wait to have a play with them.

Some of you know that I have a bit of an arrow addiction, so you can imagine how happy I was to have received these from mum, Maya Road 72 arrow set.

These goodies are from Tanya plus she gave me some money to go towards the grungeboard alphabet that I got from SE the other day.

It was the boys night to go to their dads for a few hours so he took them shopping to get me something and came back with this lovely Delicious cupcakes set. Which had a book of lots of yummy cupcakes, some printed cupcake cases, 2 icing nozzles and piping bag and 5 icing stencils...very cool. And it all came in a very nice box which I'm going to scrapbook into a gift box or something. Steven also picked out a special gift for me, a word search book (that he hasn't yet got) and a pack of coloured paper that he has been asking for for some time now...so I opened it and then he asked if he could use it,LOL. Very sweet of him and its the thought that counts ah.....

And look at this young man....Master Cody bear now nearly 6months old and growing so fast.

So thank you everyone for you birthday wishes and goodies that I have received both yesterday and today.

Liam did really well with his poem yesterday and I was so proud of him getting up on stage infront of everyone.

YAY FOR LIAM

Look at what was in Liams Kiwipack when we got home from school.....YAY for Liam and hopefully he wont get to nervous or shy when he has to get up infront of the whole school tomorrow to say it. Im so proud of him.

PS. Thank you for that information Trace, it makes sense but I still think lines would be good idea,LOL. I was told by Liams teacher he had last term that he didnt have a very strong pencil grip when it came to colouring in and that he took along time to colour in very little, are there any exercises that he can do to strengthen his grip or just practise writing and colouring? Until he started school he would use both hands we it was hard to focus on using the srtonger hand and even now he using his right hand for the odd thing but 95% of the time he uses left hand

Long weekend catch up

Well as much as I enjoyed the long weekend and having sleep in I'm happy to have school back again today. Had Steven and his battle ship addiction for most of the weekend, making computer ship/war noises. Stevens homework at the moment every day is to write 4-5 sentences about what he did after school or in the weekend. So out of the whole weekend guess what he wrote about..........YIP battle ships and computer games. Its such a annoying addiction, most of his addictions I can handle but this one is driving me insane.

It seems that Stevens addiction is Liam's addiction too, and here is Liam's weekend story about the computer. I do love his picture and how neat and re able his writing is. I don't know why but at school their writing books have no lines and his, well not just his but most of the kids have big messy writing.


Anyway on a happier note I got some lovely mail today. This is my last ever order from Scrapbook Essential, very exciting when I saw that yellow van come down my driveway and came to the door with a brown pizza box.....so here it is my last order and the goodies that were inside(some have been removed so that Miss Tanya Watson doesn't pop over to my blog and see her present before she gets it,LOL). A big thank you to Meg for all the wonderful goodies you have supplies me with and your wonderful website which will be missed alot. The website with all the challenges has made me a better scrapbooker and I have grown and more willing to try new scrapbooking ideas....and the addiction grows,LOL.


And to end the post another picture of my sleeping baby boy. I just cant get enough photos of my boys sleeping they look so peaceful, ready to start a new day.

Check out the toy collection...these are his four bedtime toys that have to go to bed with him every night...he has hippo who was his eye patch buddy, rabbit who he got for Easter, giraffe who I got him when he was a baby and last is yellow lion who he hasn't named yet but he had a rattle in him so when Liam and his 4 friends come into my room at night I hear him coming now,LOL

Wednesday catch up

Not alot has been happening around here. I thought I would share some photos of the boys and their cousin Jacqueline from the other weekend of what they did while I was out shopping. They had a very busy day with a big walk on the farm(and throught that jungle as Liam calls it). Then they found another slide which the kids really enjoyed. I wasnt at all surprised when I saw the photo of Steven on grandads back because he was tired(he had been up since 3am that morning). Then it was off to the shearing shed where they jumped into the container of wool(and on the way home they were so gross and smelly)but they had lots of fun. Then it was off to the beach where they went crab hunting and long jump over the small stream.
Through the jungle

King of the hill

Tired Steven(poor grandad having to carry that big lump)

Wool fun

Crab hunting

Long jump


Well Steven is going to have a very long day at school today after a very short sleep last night not going to sleep till 11ish last night, then he was awake again at 3am. I dont knwo why or what makes him have so much energy so early in the morning. He had a friend over after school yesterday and they palyed really well which was good as I was a bit worried. They play a board game and then the friend wanted to go and do something else but Steven wanted to play the game over and over and over...but on the bright side he played the game with the games rules and not his rules. So I dont know if he was just over excited from that or he was just ahving one of his nights where he thought 4 hours sleep was enough for him. For me thought I need alot more sleep so I had a nap this morning after dropping the boys at home. I let Stevens teacher know that he may be a bit tired and/or grumpy today and told her what he was up to last night, so it will be interesting to see how his day went. I did think about keeping him at home to catch up on sleep but then Im sure we would have more sleepless night so he can get off school. So it was off to school for him, fingers crossed he will sleep well tonight.

Friday night challenge time again

At school at the moment the boys have to remeber a nursery rhyme to say in front of their class and then the best 3 from each class gets up infront of the school to say it. This is a video of Liam doing his rhyme.


Here is my Friday night challenge for over at SE( Im waiting for my next set of chipboard letters to arrive to put the 'e' on little and pirates to finsih the page of so you just have to imagine they are there)

And Stevens school swimming day photos that I have finally got around to scrapbooking

Just a couple of layouts

A double layout but still simple but I do love it. I got the latest Creating Keepsakes magazine the other day and there are 30 sketches in it, some that I see we have already done over at SE for challenges but I thought this one was really nice and like how it looks.

After looking at what great layouts the Design Team from SE came up with from this months kit I just had to scraplift this layout that Janine W(aka mummy moo) did, I loved how she had cut the vine out.

Any ideas on a title or nice verse to go with this would be great as I nothing has come to mind for me

Parent/Teacher Interviews

What lovely darlings I seem to have...well one stubborn darling and one know it all darling. The teachers have very positive comments about both the boys which was great to hear(not that I was concern there would be negative comments). Stevens teacher asked if I was happy for any unfinished school work to be taken home to finish to which I said yes that was fine as Steven sat next to me shaking his head....LOL, nice try Steven. He is how ever completing more of his work when asked to do something, now we just need to work on him collecting all his belongings at the end of the day. As for Liam is looks like he will be moving up a class in the next few weeks. He is doing really well in all subjects. Listens to instructions given to him is keen to gives answers to group talks. He has pretty much come out of his shell of the shy boy he was at kindy which is so great to see. So we are to continue reading, spelling every night with both boys and also do some practise of handwriting and formation of letters.

On Saturday I went out to do some shopping with mum and Tanya. I love spotlight so many great off the page things to do. I might have to go back again and get a few more things to make up as gifts for xmas and birthdays. Anyway a couple of photos of the goodies mum got me for my birthday........THANKS MUM.

Friday Night Challenge

Okay here is my Friday night challenge, this weeks recipe for the challenge was
Numbers-the date at the bottom of the arrow
Polka dots-using bubble wrap I inked it first and then pushed the arrow and journalling piece of paper onto it, leaving a bubble like patter(well I thought so)
Ribbon-on tag

Well as alot of you already know Meg owner of Scrapbooking Essentials is closing shop at the end of this month. I have only been apart of the website for 5 months, but in that time I have made lots of new friends. The challenges from SE have given me so much inspiration to scrapbook out of my comfort zone. It was a shock when i read that Meg is closing shop, but I can totally understand her reasoning for doing so and kids are little for such a short time and she needs to make the most of that time with them. Shame she is so far away, I would have put my hand up to help her out with whatever to keep things going so that she could have the time to be with her kids without having to close shop.

On a happier note I'm so proud of Steven and all his extra effort he has been putting in this month. Friday at school assembly he got a certificate for 'Improved effort in Room 6 and completing his school work and homework. High 5 Steven.' The high 5 is something Stevens teacher start with him for when he did great work which he just loves and its great motivation for him so I had a little giggle when i saw she had written it on his certificate. Liam says that a funny think to write on a certificate,LOL. So here is photo of Steven and his certificate and pen that he got, I asked him to smile and this is his smile,LOL.

Another layout

Okay I'm back into scrapbooking now and have found my motivation.....I think I really just needed a break from scrapbooking and from blogging, but now my motivation is back. I did this layout last night, I'm not sure that I'm 100% happy with it but it's done now. The basic layout idea is a scraplift from a layout I liked in the latest Scrapbook Memories magazine. I do love these colours together and the stickers are from Megs over at Scrapbook Essentials but I got them of her via trade me. Thanks Trace for the stickers which I have used for the title(I knew I would find a use for them they are such a lovely colour).


Some great news....Steven is like a changed boy at school this term. His teacher was telling me he is doing all his work that hes being asked to do and that when he is writing his stories if he gets stuck on a word then he will take his book to her and ask for help. She is trying to encourage him to give it a go himself and then she will help once hes finished but Steven hates to get things wrong, but hes doing his work so that's a HUGE step forwards. He has moved up a spelling list too which is great it has really given him a boost in his confidence. He is still some what stubborn when it suits him. Last night was one of those stubborn moments and he had a reader book home last night which had a few stories in it but his teacher told me which one she wanted him to read. When we got home Steven wanted to use the computer and I told him no computer or games from my room till you read this book to me. Well I was not expecting to hear what came out of his mouth, he turned around to me and said 'fine then I will use the computer at dad's house!!'. Well I didn't know what to reply to that with. I asked him again if he wanted to read his book to me but he didn't, so when Kevin got here to pick them up I told him that Steven was not to use the computer until he had read his book. As you can imagine Steven was not impressed with this as I'm sure he thought he had got out of reading his book. But he did read his book with Kevin and then got to use the computer. I'm keen to see what happens next Wednesday with homework, if he will just get it done or if he will play games again with me again and try and get away with not getting it done. Anyway I give Steven points for trying to get out of doing his homework, LOL.

Its been awhile since my last post

Okay I know it has been while since I have been in here to update my blog, but hey I'm here now. Well the week seems so long and with having little sleep it doesn't help. Liam has a new soft toy (which he is sleeping with in the following photo) and it has a small rattle bell thing in it. I don't know what it is with him but this week he has been sleeping on the floor and then its only a matter of seconds after I turn all the lights out and get into bed myself that I hear this little rattle coming and climbing into my bed, little rascal.

One of my layouts I did that had to be scrapbook related for a challenge over at SE the other weekend

My layout for the latest fortnightly challenge sketch over at SE

Hope everyone had a great mothers day...here is our mothers day pizza that the boys help me make.

Here is my first of four layouts for SE book of me challenges for this month. I really liked how this one turned out, now I have to find motivation to get the next 3finished.

Catch up

For those who asked yes I did catch the mouse, within 20 minutes of setting the trap for it with a little midnight snack it was caught. Your FIL Hannah is right and I use peanut butter on the mouse traps all the time, they do seem to love it and its alot easier to get on than cheese, I buy peanut butter just for the mice,LOL.

It has been a busy weekend over at Scrapbook Essentials with celebrating National Scrapbooking Day, which was yesterday. So there have been a few challenges and and games going on over there.
Here are my layouts for the challenges that I have done so far
First challenge was to create a mothers day card or a gift for a female friend....but I will have to show this after mothers day as mum pops in here from time to time.
Third challenge was to do a layout using 75% of one manufacturer. I was going to use basic grey but then change to craftworks, so here is my layout.


And the Friday night challenge was to use whatever was on your scrapbooking desk, bummer I had just cleared mine earlier that day, so I just had my pens and rubons on the desk so this is my layout, another one for my wedding album.


Also I wanted to say thank you to everyone for the comments on Liams eyes. I read him all the positive comments andhe was so happy to hear and see his name,LOL

There is a mouse in the house

If there is one thing I cant stand its insects followed closely by mice. Went to bed about 10.30 and finished of my book, and then looked at the time and it was well after midnight thought i best get some sleep only to hear something making a noise in my bedroom. So i turned on the light and sat up in bed to see if i could see anything only to be greeted with a mouse on top of the TV eeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww. So I have now put the mouse trap with a little midnight snack for it in my room but couldn't sleep in there knowing it was there somewhere so here I am,LOL.

Bits and pieces update

This is a layout I did last night. Photos are Steven and I think it was not long after he started school so it would have been the beginning of 2006. He was so excited and keen to have aride on the horse and waited in line for about 10minutes but then when it was his turn he changed his mind and was not keen at all but I got him on the horse anyway because he may have changed his mind once he was up there but as you can see from the photos he didn't,LOL.

Well the cold winter days are on their way and we have had the fire on. Last night after bath time Liam said to me that he wants to sit by the fire so he could be nice and toasty, who needs a cat to hog the fire place,LOL.

I'm not the person who can sit and read a book cover to cover but I have enjoyed this book for the last few days. A friend like Henry - this is the inspiring account of a family's struggle to break into their son's autistic world-and how a dog made the real difference. I'm over half way through the book now and it truely is amazing how this dog Henry changed their son Dale.
One part of the story which had me in tears (having been there with Steven and hearing these words for the first time)was when the mother was saying goodnight to Dale:
As I opened the bedroom door wider, Dale repeated softly,'Mummy, Dale loves his dog.'
'Yes, that's good', I replied, still trying to leave. Then I stopped dead in my tracks as his next words hit me.
'And Dale loves his mummy.'
Just five little words, yet I was numb, paralysed with shock. Then somehow my brain started to function again, although my heart was pounding - I desperately didn't want to get this wrong. I turned round and knelt down beside Dale's bed, where I gave him a cautious and gentle hug, telling him,'Mummy loves you, too. And Daddy loves you. Goodnight, Dale.'
His sweet, small voice replied,'And Dale loves Daddy.' I kissed him on the head, quietly left the room and wept copious, silent tears.

From memory Dale was about 7 when he told his mum that he loved her, such a long wait to hear words that we all often hear alot sooner than that. I cant remember when Steven first said he loved me but when he said it for the first time I felt just as Dales mum did. These days I'm only allowed to tell Steven that I love him when its bed time and I'm saying good night, if i tell him during the day he tells me not to say that and gets very upset. And its just part of his autism and that need for routine I guess. Some things are easy to slowly change but some things hes set in his way and there is no way he will allow them to change, but I'm so very grateful that I have Steven and I do realise things could have been worse. I remember my gran always saying to me that there is someone worse of than yourself, so when you are at your lowest remember someone is dealing with alot more than yourself. And while I'm sure this is very true, it didn't really help to fix what I was dealing with when I was at my lowest. But now I just think when we are in a bad patch that it can only get better ah?