noteworthy

Every afternoon, the routine is the same. Walk in the door, wrangle with baby on hip as I try to make afternoon without her grabbing the food and/or knife, while chatting to the boys, and cajoling them into getting their chores done. Have you put your shoes away. Have you unpacked your lunch box. Is it in the drawer? Come on, bag away and wash your hands for afternoon tea. Do you have any notes for me?

 

That last one seems to bring forth a forest of paper every afternoon. Newsletters, book club forms, notes about plays and dressup days. A multitude of bits and pieces, all requiring my attention and likely return to school. They have been, until know, living on a corner of my kitchen bench, but at last, the mess was too much, and so I called the boys to me, raided the stationery and scrapping supplies, and we soon got to cutting and glueing. Some scrap book paper, an A4 envelope, and a pad of post-it notes, and I was feeling slightly more organised.

 

 

Somehow the week is getting away from me. Thursday today, and we are hanging out at home, taking it easy. Baby girl is a bit off, so we’ve been cuddling this morning, with a few stories thrown in. Baking a cake. Playing with the chicken. Picking fresh tomatoes from the garden. I’ve been rocking the glue gun for the finishing touches on a Humpty Dumpty costume. The afternoon is stretching out, to be filled with errands and tea parties and craft. A nap wouldn’t go astrat if I could swing it, but that’s looking less likely. Toilet training, housework, playing with my babies. The usual Thursday busies. Let’s do this!

 

all about the hair…

The studio was clean, and my mojo was itchy. I dropped a kiss on the soft damp head in my arms, and gently lowered my sleepy girl into her cot. I could hear Daddy getting the boys ready for bed, and snuck across the hall. The desk stretched before me, empty and full of possibility. I pulled out a photo, and out came my scrapping supplies. A trim, a snip, a squiggle. And then. No tape. I lay it to one side, and placed a blank piece over it to keep it safe. The photo, my blue eyed Bubba Boy at 8 months, had been teasing me for days. His floppy little fringe, swept to one side, taunting me, calling up memories of fluffy newborn hair, of growing curls, of a sweet little “front mullet” with hair to his eye at the front, and a tiny little fuzz patch at the back. My determination not to cut it, as I idly twirled it around my fingers. The realisation that it needed to be cut. My baby, growing up too quickly.

 

I was hit over the head with the Monday stick, but I’ve fought back and conquered the day. Three loads of washing. The folding pile half diminished. School drop off. Toilet-training. Work. A sick Bubba Boy and the decision to call it a movie day. And now the baby sleeps, Bubba Boy is ready for a play on the computer, so it’s Reading Eggs time for him. Sewing time for me. Peicework then fun stuff. A mug rug and some new fabric. A couple of patterns waiting in my inbox. Just a stolen moment, so I’m going to squeeze in as much as I can. Hello Monday, I’m fighting back. Bring it on!

scrapping

Hello, I’m LittleWhiteDove, and I’m a photo-a-holic. I own two digital SLR cameras, a film SLR, two digital compact cameras, a polaroid camera and a Holga. And don’t get me started on my lens collection. So when we were in Europe, needless to say I took stacks of photos. 1740, to be exact. And that’s deleting the dodgy ones as I went. I’m slowly getting them organised – my first packet of 250 is in the process of being scrapped into a mini-book as I find the time, stolen moments between feeding the baby, feeding the children, or cleaning up from feeding someone or other!

 

 

Miss Butterfly has only been catnapping the last couple of days, so my creative time is much more limited than I would like. I have lots I want to do, and not enough time. The tiny girl is one month today, and griwung rapidly. The time will come when I have all the time in the world to get crafty, but until then, I’m going with the flow and soaking up the squishy, soft, snuffly, baby snuggles.

Catching up, and falling behind…

Coming home from our recent trip, my mojo was on fire. With 1740 photos to sift through, I decided to leave the Europe mini-book project to one side for the moment and scrap some of the photos I had sitting in my to-do pile.

I’m still finding my scrapping groove, but three pages later, I’m starting to “feel the love” a bit more! I have big scrapping plans moving forward, including possibly moving away from the large 12×12 stuff expect for special layuts, and going to monthly 6×6 mini books… still not sure how the motivation will go with that though!

Sha wop bop a loo bop

the weekend’s here! I love weekends. Whilst no longer the pinnacle of sleeping-late-lazy-breakfast-reading-newspaper bliss it once was, there is nothing quite like waking to a small child beside the bed, flicking on the tv for some cartoons and all snuggling in for another half hour or so. I did attempt to hid under the covers once and pretend to be dead, or failing that, asleep, but that merely incited a rather boisterous game of peek-a-boo. So I’ve resigned myself to a fate of Mickey Mouse, Pooh Bear, preschooler cuddles and sloppy toddler kisses. Yeah. I know. Sucks to be me, huh? But hey, someone’s gotta do it!

 

So as I attempt to whip the house into some kind of order, in preparation for the onslaught to come (why is it that husbands seem to make as much, if not more, mess as the children?), I just wanted to pop in quickly and share a little birthday card I whipped up a couple of Saturday’s ago, after realising I’d procrastinated to the point of walking out the door *oops* and thus had around five minutes tops to come up with a card.

 

Another birthday this weekend means I’ll be raiding the offcuts box again, and I’ll be sure to show the results on Monday. One weekend, two birthday parties and the promise of a thunderstorm or three. It’s going to be interesting!

Been scrappin’

During a recent beach escape, on a warm afternoon, I left two gently snoring boys in the care of their daddy, and made my escape to a favourite little craft shop. I planned to be good, honestly I did, but somehow, I still managed to waltz out the door $75 lighter.

 

My illicit haul included some very yummy scrapping paper, so at the first opportunity, with both boys conveniently napping together, the washing pile growing larger, and the dust bunnies gathering to plot their takeover, I made myself a coffee, and shut myself in the studio.

 

Forty-five minutes and three pages later, I was renewed, refreshed, relaxed, and ready to knock the nearest dust bunny over the head. Amazing what a good creative burst can do for the soul.

 

Holiday mini scrapbook

Yep, I’m slack. But I have been working like crazy, and unfortunately, with the amount of work I’ve had, something had to give. And despite wishing the housework would disappear, it didn’t. Leaving my creating and blogging being the only area I could really afford to cut back on.

 

But, before the proverbial hit the fan, we went on holidays. To the beach. Headed north for the winter, to milder climes, hoping to defrost, just a little. The mornings were spent cruising the beach, building sandcastles, sampling the local cafes, playing games. The afternoons, with two little boys tucked up in their beds, I would grab my memory cards and hit the streets. A quick stop at the nearest printers, a quiet coffee while I waited, then back to the apartment, where’d I’d pass a lazy hour or so scrapping the previous 24 hours activities. All I had to do when I got home was to make a cover for the book, and all our holiday snaps were in an album, no fuss, no stress, no procrastinating!

 

My little 6x6inch book was bulging by the end of the week – 160photos, plus scrapped pages, index card with notes, brochures and souveniers – it’s very full!

 

I was chuffed to come across this gorgeous paper – to me it seemed to hum with the essence of a winter beach escape – the blue, teal and yellow sang of the beach, and yet with the brown, their muted tones whispered that it wasn’t quite swimming weather yet.

 

And a couple of layouts – luckily my simple style was easy to downsize to the half size pages, so I didn’t need to think too much, or spend a heap of time on each page.

 

Today is a bit of a catch-up day. Boring stuff, mainly. Plus some fun stuff. Making honey crackles. Enjoying the warm sunshine. Catching up with friends, and dear little babies. Dreaming big. Planning projects.  Nursing slepy babies and cuddling active toddlers. Eating jelly beans. Living, loving, laughing. Enjoying a beautiful Monday and cherising possibility. Happy Monday everyone!

Time out…

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you may have noticed I’ve been lacking in the sleep department somewhat this week, thanks to a small boy who is teething. Which has impacted on my time to craft/sew/blog/anything except care for children & attempt to keep my head above water in the housework department. But yesterday, I’d had enough, and when I finally convinced number 2 son to sleep, just for a bit, number one son & I hit the studio, and messed it up. A clean studio is just a waste!

 

So with the toddler beside me, counting out buttons & laying with a sock puppet, I grabbed out one of my fav Lime Tart kits & some pics, and got busy.

 

Today is a catch-up day as the small one seems to be a bit cheerier, and the toddler is happy just mooching around behind me. Housework to do, 500 loads of washing to try & get dry before tonight, snuggles with tired babes, books, buttons, puppets. And maybe sneaking some chocolate & craft time as both boys slumber peacefully. Here’s to a productive Friday – let’s do this!

Time flies…

…when you’re having fun! Friday has snuck up and caught me completely unawares this week. It only seems a day or two ago that I was pondering the potential of a new week, and here we are, week over, and with it, a chance to reflect on my plans, and a desire to do better next week. (Or maybe the one after… I am a terrible procrastinator!). My surprise at how quick this week has gone is nothing, though, compared to my shock when I looked at the calendar this morning, and realised it was the end of February! Two months down already – how did that happen?

 

To wrap up the week, I thought I might post a couple of cards I made yesterday. One is to go with the change mat I posted yesterday, and the other is for my SIL for her birthday (another post on that later).

 

I didn’t get a chance to cut that fabric, by the time I did some stuff that had to get done, ignored the housework for a bit and made these cards, the boys were awake, and wanting to play. Maybe today. They’ve both just gone down, so I plan to sample some new TimTam mint crush bikkies that somehow fell into my trolley at the supermarket this morning (I swear, a bogeyman follows me in the shops, and dumps all manner of yummy treats crap in my trolley. Like I would pick up a packet of decadent TimTams on my own accord. Really.) and then I might get stuck in. My desk is somewhat clean (I won’t go so far as to say I’ve cleaned the studio, more than I’ve pushed layers of leftover projects to one side to clear enough space to make The Cards), so I might do up a couple of recipes I need for a kitchen tea on the weekend, and then get cutting!

 

Which won’t get done while I’m sitting here, so let’s do this! Happy Friday everyone!

Where’s the daddy?

A common question, particularly in the late afternoons, is “Where’s the daddy?” (I’m not sure why, but whenever he asks for someone, it’s “where’s the …”)

 

So when the question was combined with a plaintive look out the window, I snapped some pics, which lead to this layout that I did last week.