Spice Up your life!

I started this LO for the last Craft Tart Challenge, but it wasn't feeling very distressed. I painted the Union Jack onto a piece of paper then put vellum in front of it cos it was to bright & I felt the photo didn't stand out enough. I did play with the photo a bit, the old fashioned way with scissors not photoshop! I gave my arm a bit of lipo-suction & cut Melissa out & lowered her a bit (she was a full head higher than everyone else & was making the page unbalanced). hehe!!!
I must say I am enjoying the sudden influx of Michael Jackson songs on the radio, I had forgotten half of them. He sure was amazing.

Hockey Practice

Dad came to Daniel's hockey practice last night He was amazed at how many kids turn up each week (full team). Unfortunately Coach has a bit of a cold & wasn't feeling 100% so he roped some of the parents in to help. Next thing Dad knew he was playing hockey with 7 excited kids! This is a smig of video from the hockey bull rush they played at the end of the practice, adults against kids!

Michael Jackson died......

I understand this is sad news for his family & the music community, but if you don't know him personally I don't understand the strong reactions. Nicola's dance school has cancelled lessons tonight & a whole lot of other Jackson inspired dances. Is this not an over-reaction? Maybe I am just too cynical? I mean he was good & I loved his music but the fact that he has died will not be changing MY life, I do wonder what is gonna happen to his kids? Another fight coming up I recon.

Woohoo! (doing the happy dance)

I came third overall in the Crafty Tart competition!!! I am soooooooooo excited. I have never even got points in one of these before!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy (& week 6)

Well where do I start? At the beginning I guess.

Nicola was not well last weekend, high temperatures, cough, etc. So she ended up staying home on Monday with Scott. She went back to school on Tuesday, but was not good again on Wednesday so I took the day off & we watched Grey's Anatomy all day. Then we had her final dance lesson before her exam on Friday. I had to wake her up & drag her out of bed to go to it, but thought that at least if she watched it would be better than nothing. Apparently this was not the case. I was told that if she didn't dance on Wed she couldn't sit the exam on Friday! I mean she has been to EVERY practise until then but now the teacher was telling me she might not get her medal on Friday in the exam I was told she couldn't fail. She is only 5 for goodness sake!!!!!!! I was a little annoyed at this, they also taught them something new! I was a bit stressed at what this was gonna do to Nicola, & ended up crying myself to sleep (she, of course, knew none of this). Anyway......... I took her to the exam on Friday (so annoying had to take the afternoon off work & take her out of school). I had to give her full make-up & backcomb her hair, neither of which she liked, but it was 'required'. We had to be there about an hour before she went on. The dance went as well as expected, the 3 girls got stage fright. But they all got their medals at the end! yay!!! I think I am gonna pull her out of dance, she only does it cos her best friends does & it was soooo stressful for me! We will see............

The final week for the Crafty Tart challenge was distressing. Once again not something I am big on. I love sanding, but that's about all. I know my LO isn't very distressed, but figured there were gonna be some amazing ones this week as so many people love distressing. I did sand both the photo & the paper. I made the paper out of ripped pieces left over from another LO (this is my 4th LO using this paper - Sandylion) I wet, crumpled & ripped the vellum, I also dropped dim magic onto it to look like water drops. The title is my fave tho. I used Acrylic Raw Sand to give it texture then inked it gold & edges brown. Then dipped bottom part in real sand. I think it looks cool. In the top left corner are 3 mirrored mosaic tiles that I have never got around to using in my mosaics. Not a very distressed LO tho.

Today was Hockey for Daniel. I quiet enjoy watching him play hockey, far more relaxing than dancing. His team won 13 - nil !!!!! Daniel was awarded player of the day!!! He got into the action even tho he didn't actually score any goals, he did set some up for the other players. He played a very good game! Proud mummy, daddy & little sis!

the other 1 for week 5.....

This is the other Lo I was working on for week 5. I just wasn't 'feeling' it, but Nicola & I finished this afternoon. It's ok, wanted this moment documented but the colours in the pics came out weird cos they were taken In the dark! Nicola & I love our morning snuggles, but I am worried she will grow out of it one day :-( I hand cut the stars (I don't know why I didn't use the cricut) & kindy glitz then dimensional magic them. They are hung from moon & eyelet border with wire threaded with beads. I made the star shaker box, but I put to much glitter in it & sealed it so well it would break if i tried to take any out, lol. The Moon was printed on the paper, so I cut it out, mounted it on chipboard, kindy glitz & dimensional magic it.

Week 5 - Handmade embellishments.

Ummm......most of my embellishments are handmade! Like the paper scrolls & the flowers on last weeks , etc. I find it hard to use some of the bought ones, they are sooo pretty or expensive they just end up sitting in my drawers! So I did this LO quickly between challenges. The paper matches the pics so well (I think) & enhances the quite boring photos. When the new challenge came out I thought I would have to do a whole new LO cos I thought that 1 was finished, but I added some extra embellishments to it instead. I think the rusted grommets & copper wire fit in well. I do like how thiese chellenges are stretching me, I would have called this LO finished with out the wire thingys, but they are cool. I am definately being inspired to do some different stuff. I did however start another LO too, but it just isn't working.Onto far more exciting news.... my brother & his wife had their second baby on Thursday night (on her birthday!) A baby girl called Lucy Anne Dixon weighing 7 pounds & 6 ounces. Mother & baby doing well. Nicola & I are excited to have another girl in the family.

Week 4 - non square Lo's

This week the challenge was to do a 'not square' page. Scott (my humble assistant) chose the oval from the selection of shapes I gave him. I decided to do the pic of Nicola with her vaccination plasters & new earrings. I Photoshopped the pic to have a black & white blurred background as it was very busy. The paper was actually black & white too, but i inked it pink to match Nicola's clothes. I also picked the hibiscus flower from her shorts for the flowers embellishments. But the thing I was most excited about on this LO was the coloured journalling on the black background. Can anyone guess how I did it?Love those clear micro beads!

Well guess what? I came second!!!!! Now I am second overall with 2 weeks to go. The leader is waaayyyy ahead so it will be a fight between me & third place (only 1 point between us atm). So now the pressure is on for this week!!!!!

Onto other news...... Daniel won his hockey game again on Saturday. So far they are 1st equal in the overall Juniors competition for Auckland (south of bridge) They haven't lost a game yet, only 1 draw.

Nicola was complaining about itchy bites all over her body on Thurs night so I stripped her off & it looked like chicken pox to me. Daniel has been vaccinated against it, but they wouldn't give Nicolas hers at the same time as her pre-school shots. So I put her in the bath with Tea-tree oil & covered her in anti-histamine cream. I took her to the Dr at lunch on Fri but they had scabbed over already. So we aren't sure if it was chicken-pox or not, but we kept her home all weekend & Scott took her back to the Dr today & we still don't know We can get her blood tests to check, but I dunno.

Just call me "Your Royal Pinkness"

Do you like my new profile pic? I decided to get PINK highlights in my hair. I think they are cool, so do the kids. Scott thinks I am trying to look like my favourite singer, P!NK. Now I feel like I need to go to a party, but mum is really sick, so no babysitters :-( By the way, Nicola took the pic of me!

This week of Crafty Tart competition was paper scrolls. Didn't really like this challenge as I don't really 'get' paper scrolls. So I tried to make them do something, rather than just be there. I love blogging, the journalling for this LO is just a copy of earlier blog posts! I did love the way the dimensional magic reacted with the handmade paper for the 'baubles'.

Waaaaayyyyyy back when I went to the NZScrapbooking Mega Crop I started on a page to submit for publishing in Up2Scrap magazine. I finally got it finished & have been accepted for publishing!!! Posted it this morning, I can't show you it but it will be in the July/Aug Issue. Daniel is very excited about having a pic of him in a magazine.

Nicola's party went well & already feel like a lifetime ago. She is onto her second week of school already! She loves it & always gives me her newsletters & does her homework as soon as she gets home. There is a pic of her on her first day on Scott's blog.

We have decided to take Daniel off of the ADD meds as the neither the teacher or us noticed any difference & he was getting headaches. Also the more people I talk to say it is just a boy thing. We will have to see. He is still doing really well with his hockey.

Cousin Peter had his party on Monday (Queens birthday). We gave him all of Daniel's Thomas stuff. All three kids (and the 2 daddys) played with it for hours, it was so cute.

I'm sure I have forgotten something........