{it happened}

Finally. More to follow soon.


Xxx

{Capture Life}

This is what we as scrapbookers do.

We try and capture all those memories, stories and events in a photograph, so we can preserve it down in our albums. TBH I think this is pretty cool. I recently took one of my albums into work as a couple of the girls I work with wanted to see what my scrapbooking actually was. Everyone who looked it at it said 'Maxwell will be so lucky to look back on these things when he's older' I really do hope so! But I just like to know that I am putting down our story somewhere. Even if in years to come he looks at them and thinks 'what a waste of time!' you never know, his kids or grandkids or great grandkids might find them and think 'WOW' this is our family history, right there.

I wanted to put down a few of my thoughts about this onto a layout. About how I love recording and capturing life thru a lens. I used some photographs my rather talented friends took of me and or out camera on our recent weekend away (Laura, Sj, Shimelle, Rachel, Natalie, Katy, Katherine, Chloe & Sally)

The style is a bit different from my usual, but I am OK with that. (I think this in itself is progress on part!)

Journalling reads:

What I love about my ability to record out daily memories on camera is that this is so important for us to tell our story, to look back at our pictures and see how our lives have changed. Watch our child grow. I am filled with great happiness when I look at our photos. A picture is definitely worth a thousand words.

Hope you capture a memory or two today!

xx

{Summer Days}

OK, so our summer has been a little washed out!! But I have been able to get a few good 'Summer photos' this year (in between all the rain)

I created this layout a little different than my usual approach. As in I selected my photos, then found the embellishments I wanted to use - before I even though about cardstock, patterned paper or letter stickers. I am pleased with the results.

Rather than make the journalling for this layout actually specific to the event in which the photos were taken, I used the 'summer' photos as a starting point to list some summer memories so far from 2011.

Journalling reads:

A few Summer 2011 memories so far: playing in the paddling pool in grandma's garden, watching you waddle around the garden in just a nappy, BBQ at grandmas and you drinking from a glass like a big boy, Sitting on the balcony in the sunshine in your toy story chair, learning to eat an ice lolly and loving it, BBQ @ Katies house, you walking round eating a strawberry as big as your hand, going for a walk in with you trike at the park, spending time chilling indoors when the weather was not nice, playing in your sandpit at nannies, playing with the rocks at nannies.

Have fun whatever you doing xx

{10 things on the 10th}

....about our wedding.


Our wedding is in 10 days. The 20/08/2011.

Our wedding is 4 days before my birthday, and 17 days after our 10 year anniversary of being together.

Our wedding has four colours, instead of the more typical 1 or 2 colours. Mainly because I couldn't decide. And partly because we love all things bright.

Our wedding is taking place in a registry office. A small service.

Our wedding reception is taking place at a local football club. This is a lot bigger celebration.

Our wedding will not be having a sit down dinner. Instead we opted for a BBQ.

Our wedding will be having a cake table. Surprisingly enough, I will not be baking any myself.

Our wedding will be having a bouncy castle and garden games. Pray for good weather!!

Our wedding will have 3 bridesmaids, 3 best men, a page boy and a flower girl.

Our wedding is getting really close now. To must learn to relax.

So there you go.

{My Greatest Adventure}

In doing the Explore class with Shimelle, I have found some amazing inspiration to create pages that were not just linked to actual event. But are more about what I think or feel in that particular moment. I am really enjoying this approach to my pages at the moment.

I created this page in response to thinking about adventure.

As I wrote on my twitter: I am not adventurous. I haven't travelled the world. I haven't climbed a mountain. I am the opposite of adventurous. Unless you count....planning a wedding in under a year, dropping 2 dress sizes, being a mum and working as adventurous.

The thinking about that concept and the creation of an explore pinboard via pinterest with a rather lovely lady I have 'met' recently Jenna, led me to create this layout (totally inspired by this postcard)....

The journalling reads:

I have never climbed a mountain or travelled far & wide but I did make the decision to be a mum. I was blessed with Maxwell. You teach me thins everyday. You make me laugh, cry and even scream sometimes. But you make me feel loved. I'm sure life with you will never be boring.

{In Our Home}

Me & K have lived in our current flat since late 2009. We moved when I was pregnant (blessing as I was unable to lift any of the boxes!!) Gradually things have been looking more and more like our home, with out stamp on it.

Buying bigger pieces of furniture to display our photos and things on, buying a bigger computer table to create more work space, changing the 'spare' room from that to Maxwell's room, and recently over the past couple of weeks making changes to our Sofa (which was smaller as from our old flat) and a new bed, as the old one broke.

However there is one part of home I love the most. The wall above the sofa - which I call the 'photo wall' even though we do have photos in other rooms of the house. The photo on this layout was taken with the first frame up which holds 17 photos. I put this together when I was on maternity leaver. It is all pictures of mine and K first 7 years of our relationship (with a couple of our baby pics thrown in for good measure!) Since this first frame the wall has grown in size.

It now has 10 frames in different sizes, a couple of E monograms, M's fathers day card and a stone from his first trip to the beach.The photo's range from a couple of bump shots we had done, to M's first photo which was taken on the iPhone and uploaded to facebook a few hours after he was born (this is still one of my fave early photos of him), to a few photos from the early part of his life, a family portrait taken on the beach, a photo from his christening and a picture of me and K at Laura's wedding. It also holds a little frame I made. it all makes me happy

The journalling on the layout reads:-

our home may be rented. It may not have much colour on the walls. It may not be all pretty. It may not be co-ordinated and is always full of clutter, toys and STUFF. But there is one area I love. The wall above the sofa. Our 'Photo Wall' Where I can add pictures. You can see our family grown and change as more frames are added. I love having these photos on show. It is now a lot large than this picture, with a few added embellishments. This large frame has photos from our first 7 years together. Before becoming parents to M. These photos are important to our story.

{2 Brides to Be 2011}

I have this friend..


We met each other when we were 11 at Girls Brigade.


We grew up together.

And weirdly our other halves grew up together too.

And this year both us celebrated our 10 year anniversaries.

And we are both getting married this year.

This photo was taken at my friends Hen in March, she and her hubby tied the knot in April. Both me and K (and M) were were part of the wedding party. And surprisingly enough they are both part of ours. Strange the way things turn out huh?





This layout is mainly using Studio Calico Kit (a few months back) and I adopted the #failsafescrapbookinstandby to kick start this page.

Choose 3 patterned papers (if you get a kit use any 3 out of that OR pick 3).
Cut them into blocks. (This layout I did 2 x chunky rectangles & 1 taller thinner rectangle)
Stick them on a some cardstock.

Base done, also you have made the leap and actually cut into that pretty paper! Now layer until your hearts content.

The journalling on this layout reads:

Me and Helen have been friends for Years. And who would of thought all these years later we would both be getting married within months of each other. Bridesmaids for each other. It has been great to share this experience with each other. 2011 will be an epic year.

{A Week in my life...}

Well I had all good intentions of doing this, and I started well. But this same week, I had major wedding stress, crazy busy everything else going on. This it kinda got forgotten. BUT I am not upset or annoyed about it, I will try and do it again in a few weeks time. Properly applying myself to the task. In the meantime...

Here are some of the photos I did manage to get...

{Explore}

I have for the past couple of week been taking part in Shimelle latest classe, Explore. I am loving the change and the guidance to actually stop and think about my creativity, how I create things and how I look at things.

Here are a few pics of the 'playbook' which I have created in the class. Really loving the freedom of it - and out of this I have ideas for several full scale pages for my album.

Enjoy your evenings x

{Nope....}

You are not imagining things.

Yes, this is me writing an actual blog post. (Sorry it has been a whole month!!)

Life has been so busy of late.

Firstly, I am getting married in 17 days!! Can't belive how quickly the days have passed. So as you would expect things are pretty busy busy busy at the moment. with last minute planning. This weekend is my hen - and I am very excitied (if a little nervous)

Secondly, My scrapping mojo took a major dive after the scrapfactor competition. It took a while for me to get back into the swing of things. I have been taking part in Shimelle lastest Explore class. Which has really kickstarted things again for me creativlty. I have done a couple of layouts from the class which I will post later this week.

And now.....

A little bullet point list (ready to go onto a layout!) I did a similar layout about this time last year.

Things I am loving right now, August 2011

• That this month I am getting married. I am very excited, nervous, worried all at the same time about this!!


• Experimenting with different baking reciepes. I am more confident to find a reciepe and try tweak it here and there. Baking actually makes me happy (sad i know!)


• That our house is turning more and more into a home. This past week we have got a new sofa, a new bed and chucked a load of rubbish!


• My gradual weight loss. This isn't something I have blogged about, but around this time last year I started slimming world. Since then I have lost about 3 stone. I am very happy with the figure I now have. And I am very proud of the progress I have made for me.


• That My little man, is growing up so well. His cleverness amazes me.


• That I am more relaxed about my scrapping style. More happy to experiment. More happy to make mistakes


• That I finally got to see Wicked at the theatre. I have had the soundtrack for YEARS!! and finally saw it in actual real life


• Browsing Pinterest makes me happy, I love looking at pretty pictures. Even if I might never create all those things I see!!


• That I have some lovely friends and family around me.


• That after 10 years together I am still so happy to be with my Big Fella, and being his wife :- icing on the cake.

Back soon with pictures...Promise.

• Lx