24 HR CROP!

It's Monday...which means that our 24hr crop for a cure is over! We started at 6pm on Friday night and finished at 6pm on Saturday night. I think there was about 26 ladies in attendance. So the shop was pretty chockers...Remembering the amount of stuff scrappers bring for a crop, you can imagine how much they brought to last 24hrs!

I was lucky enough to sit with the lovely Tracey and her cardmaking friend Julie - who kindly shared her huge bag of lollies with us across the 24hrs! Pizza for tea that night and one layout completed for me. 'Enjoy' worked out really well and I love the finished layout. It has gone straight to the top of my faves list!

I kept pushing through til about 2.30am...By that time my creativity was a wee bit sapped! I snuck out to the car in the rain, locked myself inside and snuggled under my doona for little nap. It was surprisingly cozy! The lovely ladies woke me at 7.00am by rocking the car side to side and yelling 'wake up' over and over!!!

Anyways after a fortifying serve of bacon and eggs I scrapped my way through the day. The little sleep really helped. The ladies who toughed it out and never slept were certainly looking a little worse for wear by Sat afternoon! Glazed eyes, spilled coffee etc.....

I completed 4 layouts and I am happy with all of them. I never rushed any and spent a lot of time on the details...which sometimes I forget to do!
Jo made a beautiful canvas, Tracey made 4 sweet jewellery boxes for her daughters, Julie made over 20 cards, Glenda altered a lunch pail, Bernie completed a Kim Archer challenge, Leanne scrapped her puppy, Julie Q made mini books for her kids, Jenny attempted to scraplift me (I think??), Stacey made a frame dedicated to her baby, Brooke made a multitude of stunning cards from scraps, Marilyn scrapped her grandson's birth photos, Sarah and PAm were right behind me and I have no idea what they did?? Hmmmm...layouts of their little boy though I am sure.....


That's about all I can remember..Well done ladies....We raised over $3000! Big thanks to Jenny, Stacey and Monicque for the mammoth task of organising the event and for bringing us snacks and copious amounts of coffee and food!

Long post...Bye for now!

Celeste xx

CELEBRATING MULTIPLE BIRTH WEEK!

Having twins is one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences of my life!
I have just hosted and organised 2 prenatal sessions for parents expecting multiples...It all went very well and although I think we scared them - we started to weave the web of specialness that surrounds parents and families of twins and multiples!

To me having or being twins means -

-You get to share clothes from the earliest age!
-Seeing them turn to the sound of each other when they were weeks old was amazing.
-Sharing starts early...Yeah!
-Comforting each other comes naturally...
-Seperation causes anxiety and even a little fear...
-Matching piggies is the cutest!'
-Playing, playing, playing...
-Never fitting into supermarket register aisles.
-Explaining their birth story all the time!
-You meet great people in the MBA..
-You have two bday cakes!
-They learn from each other..
-Twice the 'I love Yous..'
-Swapping shoes
-Being stopped in the street alot!
-Parents are always tired, but happy!

Some say 'double trouble'.....I say 'twice the love..'

PAYBACKS A BITCH...

Well it seems motherhood has slapped me in the face for my melancholy mood! Ever since my last post two out of three of my daughters have been puking! Today is the first spew free day. Although Hallie did go to school rather pale... I have been in total 'mother mode', washing, soothing, washing, cajoling, washing some more.. and not getting a whole lot of sleep either!

I have decided to take a different tack with them. If I feel I want to yell, I pause take a breath and don't do it. They have been all calmer - mind you they have been unwell...hmmmmmmm...The lovely ladies at my playgroup tell me they have all taken the same pact and consequently broken it...Well I am going to try. I have Hallie's approval and she too is going to take a breath before letting rip...WE are both going to remind each other of our goal... Rod tell me I am mental - she is 5...She'll forget the pact quicker than me! But, it can't hurt to try. It's better than us yelling our way through their childhood...

So although it probably oly last until I am pre-menstrual....We'll give it a go...

Chao

Celeste xx

MOTHER MEANDERINGS......

She was only at home with us for 45min before going to school. She is only 5. She is only in prep. But with that one cold stare she ruined my day, broke a little piece of my heart and has made me question my parenting techniques.. Who knew such a little person could wield such power? And probably unknowingly too...

She has never stared quite so coldly at me before and whislt I held my ground at the time, since she left for school I have been miserable and fighting back tears.

Nobody tells you, not even your parents, who have obviuosly faced the exact same dilema, what it is like to raise your chidren. When you are pregnant, everyone gushes and tells you how lovely it will be.. When you have a toddler, you might be a little smug...The disciplining seems relatively easy. Hallie never did anything remotely terrible and I thought I was doing a fabuluous job as a mother. Probably why I got pregnant again when she was just one!

But they go past the toddler stage...They get older and the disciplining goes on and on and on and on....This morning my life seems to be stretching before me in an endless tirade of it. It gets harder all the time.I say 'NO' constantly and their responses to this vary from door slamming to finger pointing to crying etc etc...Sometimes I literally cringe inside when I know I have to say that word.. My daughters rarely do what they asked the first time and whilst they obviously do NOT enjoy us raising our voices...we seem to have to...Just to get them to do what they are asked...This of course results in them screaming stamping, huffing and puffing and this morning from Hallie:

"The Death Stare.."

So as I write this I am imagining years and years of this behaviour and wondering if I am up to the challenge?? The stare at breakfast this morning, I realise is a new and 'improved' way for Hallie to effect me...and it scared me the most of any stunt she has pulled in response to being told off. It was like a veil had been pulled down and behind it she was mentally hating me...So I stared back. She went off to school quiet and withdrawn.

What if this is the moment she remembers????
My biggest fear is not being close to my children.....


Sidenote: As I type this my twin girls are playing happily behind me and I haven't had to tell them 'no' at all this morning!!

NO GREEN THUMB!

I'm not quite sure what possessed us...BUt we decided to plant our little strip of garden this weekend. With no idea of what we required other than - 'easy maintinence' we set off to the nursery. One hour of procrastinating and whinging children later, we had purchased $100 worth of plants!

One enire afternoon later we had them planted! Who knew a few little plants in a tiny strip of garden could be such hard work! I paused, admiring our efforts and then looked around at our remaining barren landscape that we call home; and slumped onto the concrete in an exhausted heap!!

Ah well, at least the postie will be mildly impressed!

Celeste xx

and when the dust settled....

It's funny. LSBS held it's month;y cybercrop this weekend and I was just uploading and complaining thatI didn't get much done...But then I uploaded and realised that I had actually completed three layouts!! Here I was thinkin''d been slack! The crop on Fri night was great! Mum came and we scrapped together which was nice. We both got two layouts finished.. I did the photos of Hallie and Maggie - but not the others I had stated I was going to do - changed my mind. I found some great PP that went with the set of shots of HAllie and Ainsley in the bath. I think it came out great! The other layout is a bit busy for me - but I am so picky. I am just happy that i got it done. I will not change it...I will not....

The red one is my desgn team challenge for the LSBS cybercrop. We had to create a layout using our stass and stamping. It's a wee bit funky for me. But it's growing on me. I was actually happy to use my A Leaves stamps coz I haven't used them that much! I also liked scrapping Gracie girl in action!

So there's my scrapping updated. Not bad considering we put in a little garden bed this weekend too...But more on that in my next post!

Cheers!

CROPS GALORE!

A busy scrapping night ahead for me! Eureka Paper Mill and Craft arer holding their first evening crop for the year and I am so excited to catch up with everybody... But The Little Scrapbook Shop is also holding their regular monthly cybercrop this weekend beginning this evening.. Always good fun...But i always struggle to keep up with all the chatter... But I do hope that I might get one challenge done over the weekend. The photos I have posted are the ones I am considering scrapping tonight at the crop...So best go and pack - minimally - with these photos in mind.

Will upload any finished layouts before the end of the weekend. Am off to pack!

A few layouts

Here are the layouts I created for Ballarat Image Supplies. I have used the Bohemia xmas range. Both are on display at the shop for my upcoming classes....I can't get over how grown up Gracie looks poolside and darling Hallie wearing her dorky Christmas hat all through lunch and after! What a sweetie!

Classes: Uses for ribbon on layouts next Tues....Should be good and perhasp a kids class this Sat and a even a birthday party coming up at the shop - that will be a first!!!

Let's see - it also appears that yes I did miss out on a cover at SM....Sob, sob.......Krys did offer me chocky online as a consolation though!
Ah well I'll just keep scrapping...Who knows where else it will lead...

Lost netball tonight, school interviews tomorrow - can you believe I'm nervous!! LOL! Her teacher called her 'sweetheart' tonight and that was nice. To me it means she cares enough already to give her a pet name...I like that...

On an unrelated topic - we have been test driving new cars for the last few days...Weare tossing up between a Mazda 3 and a Ford Focus...It is so lovely drving in a brand new car - and one that isn't a 'family wagon'. Mind you we are keeping the 'family wagon'.. So then we will have the bigger and the smaller car...

Cheers!

Celeste xx

PHOTO TROUBLE

Blogger is not letting me upload tonight..Bummer. I have two layouts to share...
We had a lovely party at Sue's house. The girls ran around with the other kids like crazy people until it got dark..Gotta love Summer for that..Then went inside and get this - discoed in the lounge to 80's music! They truly had no idea what they were danceing/wrestling too! Sooo. cute. Pam played games with them - where they all sat around in a circle...It was jsut too cute!

I hope that maybe Hallie at 5, might have some recollections of these kind of evenings when she is older. I realise my kids have a lot less freedom than perhaps I might have at the same age, but seeeing them have so much fun - drawing on a big sheet of butcher paper with coloured chalk, chasing Jensen around the yard because he had taken off with another thong,pointing out the long red steaks across the sky at dusk, sausage and sauce smeared on their Summer clothes...All of these little things that happened to my kids reminds me of parties we went to with my parents friends.

Although they didn't sleep at this one they have in the past and it was always one of my sweetest memories, snuggling under someone elses doona whispering with my friends when I should have been sleeping and hearing my parents laughing and having a good time in the other room...

Farewell Summer....

Cheers

Celeste xx

QUICKIE POST

My life in a nutshell for two days:

netball
playgroup
swimming lessons
kinder
school
visiting papa
school
scrapbooking classes
car repairs
groceries
housework
multiple birth ASS antenatal night organisation
sausage sizzle org
MBA State Agm org
kinder family fun night

And not necessarily in that order.... Crazy busy and it will continue over into the weekend....Ho hum....Wonder if I'll get any scrapping done..

FK and SM have been fighting over my LO's of late..SM missed out on this last one but scooped the previous 2...Then I get a mysterious email from SM saying that they were disappointed as they had soemthing special plannned for this most recent one..

Yikes! Could I have missed out on a cover???
It's amazing where you mind goes.....LOL

Night night

Celeste xx