Some 12x12 love

Hi all! I thought it was about time that I shared some 12 x12 love on  my pages. I have been very busy creating but this has resulted in no time left to blog it! M

My lovely scrappy friend, Suz Mannecke, sent me a scrummy box of scrappy goodies a few weeks ago with strict instructions to use it up and share the creations! The box had some much stuff it was impossible not to be inspired! 

I had a few photos laying around from J's 5th birthday and the blues and greens in them co-ordinated perfectly with some papers I had (Studio Calico I believe?) Suz had included a 12x12 sheet of Echo Park (?) stickers which just co-ordinated perfectly including a fab bunting strip that was perfect to hang off of some bakers twine inbetween two brads.

 

Not to miss out the girl child, I also scrapped a few recent pics of her as she started preschool. Boy does she look so grown up! I can't believe she'll be three next month! Again, I used some letter sticker, borders and paper from 'Suz's stash' but added some old Studio Calico 'Elemantary' papers as well as digging out my sewing machine to add some detail. Ta da!

12x12 love. Done.

Today

Today we met friends at the Park for a walk (or run) and play. I just love this city park and this time of year. I took the camera as I was hoping for some good Autumn shots whilst the daylight was ok. I did play with the camera settings a bit incl. some time in manual mode with varying amounts of success. Unfortunately, some of the better shots were close ups of my friends little boy so I can't share those here but hopefully she'll love them.

 There was a fair bit of tree climbing....

 and of course, whatever one can do, so can the other!

 My boy. So handsome. I love him so much!

 Her. Beautiful. Its so rare to get a good shot of her as she moves so much!! I'm thinking they might make good shots for the grandparents gifts at Christmas!

Then, the rain came down and spoilt our fun. The cafe was closed so no hot chocolate (boo hiss!) and we all went home slightly colder and wetter than we arrived. I think I might revisit the park at the weekend and see if I can improve on these shots and maybe try some new ideas too. If you have any links to similar shots for my inspiration then please comment and link me up!

Around Here & Project LIfe

Around here... We've been enjoying the final few days together when school isn't an issue and we can just play and relax. We've been reflecting on how life might change when you start school and how this makes me feel both happy and sad.

Around here.. We've noticed how quiet the house is when you guys aren't here and how strange that feels. I think it might take some getting used to.

Around here... We've been busy preparing for school, making sure uniform is ready; lunches are made and bags are packed. We've been talking lots about what to expect and who will be doing what. Organisation has been a huge factor in this week.

Around here...We've been taking our first days at school. Admittedly, just half days to start with but school nonetheless. You've loved it and have so far (re)learnt the phonics for S, A and T. We've had lots of singing the Jolly Phonics songs and asking questions. Curoisity is good, Jack. You need to foster that enthusiasm for learning.

Around here: We've had lots of telephone calls to Daddy. To wish you good luck. To see how you're doing. It's been good to be in touch.

Around here: Whatever one is doing, the other is not far behind copying. We'd hate you to feel left out!

Around here: We've been pottering in the garden, doing the autumn tidy up and being amazed by how much is in bloom or is blooming twice. I cut the roses back after they finished flowering in July and now they're at it again!

 

Around here: We've been projecting lifeing. We've been documenting the ups and downs of trying to juggle family and work commitments and how grateful we are for good friends who help us out when we need it. We've been grateful for long distance friends sending extremely kind gifts and reigniting my 12x12 mojo:

 Documenting a colour copy of the first piece of work Jack did for school as an insert page along with another random drawing on the reverse:

Lots of journalling to document my feelings alongside an insert with pictures of J doing his school prep and his school tray:



Challenge: The double LO!

Last week I blogged a series of layouts that I'd quickly made using a prompt and sketch from a UKscrappers challenge and said that my first attempt was actually a double LO but I hadn't yet finished the journalling....
Well, here is the final LO!
(apologies for poor quality images. The light here is so poor.)

These were all instagram photos that I took with my iphone on Christmas Day, when Emma was busy looking after her new baby. The journalling was typed using a typewriter font that I downloaded from the internet and tells the story of how caring and attentive she was towards her new dolly.

She walks!

On the anniversary of her 13months, she's taken 10-12 steps towards a tub of raisins. That's my girl! I reckon she'd have ran today had I produced chocolate! ;-)

Emma's dedication and a new milestone

Yesterday was Emma's dedication service and we had an absolutely lovely day. The weather was fab; the food was good (I was nervous that we hadn't done enough but it turned out to be just right although I'm going to ignore the two boxes of Jacket potatoes on our doorway!); it was great to see all our friends and family and generally, everything went extremely well. My brother even dressed up for a change! (When he was Jack's godfather he dressed in jeans and a hoodie!) lol.

It was the ministers first time of doing a Dedication and I thought he did really well. :) In our Baptist Church we believe that faith is a personal journey and decision therefore rather than Christening the children, we do a service of Thanksgiving for them, promise to raise them in a Christian family but ultimately the decision of whether they become a Christian or not will be down to them. If when they're older they decide they want to, then they can be baptised.

This was Ray, the Pastor, doing the service with Emma's godparents looking on:
The 'official' cake:

My attempt at a cake using an adapted Nigella recipe (there's a domestic Goddess inside me desperate to get out! I actually think mine is tastier too if I'm honest. lol. ):

Kev, Emma and I with the Godparents (and week old Robin!)

My beautiful girl:

Us:

Emma in the christening gown and shawl that both myself and my brother were Christened in:

All smiles:

I love those last 2 shots as I have identical photos of myself at the same age in the same dress and pose so I can't wait to scrap the comparison.

As an extra bonus this weekend, Emma learnt to roll (15 weeks exactly) so my life is going to get my interestng from now on. I'd left her on the playmat and Kev went into her as she was crying. 'Did you leave her on her front?' he asked. 'Er? No,' I replied. My little girl is growing up. :)

Sarahs Cards Layout Challenge- December

So there are challenges and there are challenges! I usually find using a layout easy and it's a good way to get my mojo in gear and at least get myself started with scrapping so I've been enjoying doing the Sarahs cards challenges. Anyway, this month the layout was this one and boy, have I found it hard!

I think my problem is that I try to overthink things and when I look at what others have done, I always then think mine isn't as good and get a bit disheartened. I know I need to lighten up a bit (ok, a lot!) and that is one of my resolutions for this year. I can't be a perfect mum, wife, scrapbooker etc and sometimes I need to give myself a break and accept that I've done my best given the time I have.

Anyway, miserable bit aside, I've been thinking about and playing with ideas for this LO for days to the point where it's driven me crazy! I knew the photos I wanted to use but they were portrait instead of landscape so I had to rotate the sketch. I then played with the elements until they were in a fashion that I liked. It really got to the point where I knew the deadline was coming and I just needed to get my butt in gear and get things stuck down etc and see what happened. As it was, Emma was a fab girl this afternoon and settled almost straight away in her basket, Jack was happy enough as always in front of a Postman Pat DVD so I quickly put this LO together using stash from the December kit and I'm actually quite pleased with it. As a bonus, I'm pleased to be playing in pink for a change! What do you think?

As a bonus for reading all that, here's a photo of my little girl taken last night. Cute huh?

A new arrival!

I haven't updated my blog for a while with very good reason- my beautiful daughter Emma arrived on the 5th December. She's fabulous and I wouldn't be without her for the world. You'll have to excuse me if my posts become rather baby focussed from now on!

Jack is brilliant with her and we really couldn't ask for him to have been any better. He loves to hold her ("Take Emma?"), kiss and cuddle her and talks to her, telling her that he's the "big brubber" and "we look after you". So, so cute!

I'm loving having a newborn around the house again and am trying really hard to relish every minute. She's a month old and is developing her own personality and routines etc. She feeds really well including only the odd feed at night (obviously likes her sleep like her mum!) and has just given us the first odd smile. Once she's smiling regularly I'll try to capture it on the camera to share! She also is a bit of a water baby and loves having a splash in the bath (the warmer the better- another similarity to me!)

Anyway, given that I have 'limited time' now, lol, I haven't done much crafting although I've still been finding smaller projects to help me scratch that crafting itch. I loved the papers in the Dec Sarahs cards kit and was inspired by the DT booklet to make the kids some Christmas door hangers:

I've also been using up some stash by making some cards using inspiration from UKS.



I also made this LO using up an old kit:

Will upload some other LO's from my Dec kit when I get chance! Not a bad amount of crafting when you have a toddler and a 4 week old!

TFL