end of the month:

Means.. Layout that I haven't submitted to challenge blogs are due. So without further ado:

Scrap The Girls:

To use the quote: 'Having a sister is like .."..You get the picture..It's on the layout!..I have this photo framed now.. I love it..I always wonder what it would be like to be them? Twins I mean?  All old stuff on this layout...

Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge:

Whe I read that you had to scrap your garden..I sighed..Bugger. We really don't have a garden and I don't have any desire to create one. I would really love the yard landscaped... I think my Mum thinks my green thumb might eventually show up when I'm fifty! Anyway I scrapped our lack of a garden instead. This is a photo of Grace weeding the sandpit!

I went with a big banner? Somehow it worked and I really like the result...

thoughts for you:

my.......

beautiful girls...

I never imagined my life as the mother to 4 beautiful girls.. I am sure alot of the time I am getting things wrong.. I try to keep it simple. I share my thoughts with you. I also ask you your thoughts on certain things.. I take you shopping and do girly things together. The little things...

In this way I hope that as you all grow into young ladies you might still want to do those things with me. Teenage years are approaching fast and I am not silly enough to realise you need your friends and secrets..and time spent without me..

 But hopefully by sharing and talking now - I can still have a voice in your world.. Hopefully you might still want to go shopping with me and hear my thoughts on your choices and stop for coffee and cake after.. That's all I require..Just time..A little bit now and then to observe and cuddle my growing girls - quite alot like right now really..

Love you to the moon and beyond...my 4...

Mama xx

She did this:

....All by herself. And you know I can't recreate the same look on her? And believe me I've tried! The softness of it is what my version is alway missing!

 She is 10 and just knows how her hair works I suppose. She does it herself everyday for school now. Very similar to this style. Although she is starting to branch out into loose pony tails  and pig tails too...

Another sign that she is growing up and away from me...

Sigh...

xx

Keeping my word:

Doubling up this post..This is a 'try this' challenge for Show Us Your Stuff and also it is a layout created with a photo I posted with journalling to scrap at a later date here.

This system is working well. I also have the 'Roar' layout completed with the journalling I did on a post a few weeks back..I have done that for a design team challenge though so I will post it at a later date. I am truly much better at journalling on the blog. I tend to really overlook the important things to say when I am busy be creative on a layout! Too many pretties to put on and no time to think about the meaning behind the photo..Typical me..In fact I was almost finished this layout before I remembered I needed to get on my blog and squish in some journalling - to busy up to my elbows in glue and what have you!

Over at Show Us your Stuff the challenge was to try a textured background use gesso etc. I have used patterned material, craft glue, glimmermist and white paint- with some splodges of yellow thrown in after for good measure..Apart for making the page buckle a little it seemed to work well enough? Mind you in my typical fashion - I have covered most of it up with other things!

I am super-chuffed with the finished product. Crafty, bright, bold and meaningful too!

xx

Making changes:

Big thanks to Cindy for helping me re-work my blog this afternoon. I am really happy with the pages across the top. You can now source any pricing structure for photos and contact me via this..

I have also set up an online gallery for clients and any future photoshoots will go there.. Phew..What a big week I have had.. Lots of tech updates for this little photographer who just likes to be:

Snap happy!

xx

Stuck May 15:

Here is my take on the sketch over at Stuck for the 15th May:

Some cute photos of Milly Moo Mah...Always be divinely cheeky and sweet for the camera these days..That's what the 'tweet tweet' is really all about.. I am not real sure if the title makes sense.. Well it does for me!
I initially thought this sketch was going to be difficult for my style. But I was really happy with the finished result..

Challenge your self and have a go....

8 kids, two cameras + 1 calendar and 1 canvas:

These were the results of  Cindy and my endeavours to capture all 8 gandchildren on canvas for my mum. As it turned out - the promise of Macca's when we were done - and both the boys having a wee nap before setting off - proved fruitful and we got all these and more! Mum got plenty of others in her calendar too!

The last one (minus the words in the top left corner) was the final canvas and having not seen it till she opened it on Mother's Day - I was doing a little happy dance as she  opened the bubblewrap!

So very pleased xx

Storytime:

My two littiles are really very lucky. They have a wide and varied selection when it come to choosing who does:

 Pictured with Jem on this night.

It is traditional that they both climb into Milla's bed and choose a book from Milla's shelf. Then whoever is lucky enough snuggles with them and reads. It is quite delightful when they choose one of their sisters over me or Rod. It gives us a little reprieve and energises us for a new story the next night. It continues to ehance the bond between the big and the small siblings and it encourages the type of behaviour I hope the big girls will have.Respect, love, gentleness and patience..

All aboard the story train!

xx

Seeing double:

Now I have done this before.. I created a layout for Kraft It Up and when I was done I realised I had NOT used Kraft as the background:

Anyhoo...Me being a dumbarse is of no real importance here.. I stopped whipping myself with a sharp stick and decided to scraplift myself to actually complete the challenge. I used the same Easter photo of the other twin and successfully scrapped Jemma and Grace and finished the challenge:

I just stuck to the same style - much like a sketch challenge really and changed up the colour scheme to suit Kraft and the photo..I have to say I was a bit over circles and my circle cutter by the end of the afternoon! But I was rally happy with both.. Almost identical layouts for almost identical twins!!

Grace is in the 'mistake' layout and Jemma in the challenge layout... The challenge was to interview someone about what Easter means to them. I interviewed both girls - obviously - and they initally found it challenging. I think they thought they had  to answer correctly and were afraid they answers they gave might have been wrong?  They were both saying nothing and looking at me for guidance With a little prompting they both gave very similar answers.. Must be a twin thing - or the fact that we traditinally do the same thing every Easter!

I liked adding their thoughts to a layout about them and Hallie even commented that she would have liked to have done it. So I think I will use this method to journal more often. Obviously I would have to write on the layout - the control freak in me - wouldn't allow for their writing to be on the page!

Scraplift yourself this weekend - and interview soemone it's fun and  it's easy! Thanks Kraft It Up!

xx

Chatty Cathy:

He is 21 months old and the words are flowing thick and fast these days..He will often parrot back what I say to him now..But here are someof the ones he uses on his own:

foopball: football..Pointing at the TV and when he plays with footy.
pawa: paradise (as in the Coldplay song)
pies: as in the Collingwood football club.. startin' em young- naturally...
more: as in food..Mostly his honey wheat breakfast cereal - which he has two bowls of..
gone
ruck: truck
mopobipe: motorbike
bus
car
ball
bubby
Mia: Milla
Memmy: Jemma
Drace: Grace
Haaie: Hallie
Wool: Wilson the dog.
Fower: Flower
uppie: up..Said loud and insistently especially in relation to the bar stools
du-own: down
Arry: Harry Potter ( thank to his big sisters)
tana: sultana which he traipes around the house leaving a trail like red riding hood..
nana: banana the fruit and said loudly when Banana's in Pyjama's comes on..
Mumbles: Grumbles
Gran: which I have technically NOT heard him say..But apparently he says it..
ta: rarely...rrrrrr
na-oh: no..Picked this one up this week...Wonderful..
eye
eyebow: eyebrow
uh-oh: learned from Willman Murphy..
uh-pull: apple. He goes to the fridge and helps himself..
boob-ee: thankfully he DOES NOT help himself! Still has two feeds though..
woof: dog
fupby: butterfly.My fault - because I say flutterby..
peese: please..Will use when tortured - oops prompted!
baybupon: bellybutton..Only Mummy can make sense of this one unless he is pointing at it..
irdy: bird
wongway: wrong way..Said repeatedly in the car if we don't go where he is expecting us too.
ug: snuggie..His special blanket.
raaaar: roar..as in a dinosaur..
stool: school
bye bye
ish: fish
hawo: hello
bumble: his three-wheeled bike that looks like a bumble bee
bipe: bike. He points them out and then says Daddy..
wheel
el-moh: elmo..Said because of this: "I'm Elmo and I know it" Checkit out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWF86D_UNxc

I can't remember anymore..But that enough really... I didn't really think he had that many in his vocabulary??

Where's my baby gone??

And if yi

xxx

Mother's Day in photos:

two for you:

Scrap The Boys:

The challenge: to scrap your boy wiht dirt on him..And to let you photo influence your design.. Hence the splodges of paint and sand coloured embellies and papers..

 I adore this photo.. Taken at Thompsons Beach at Easter time...

Bird Is The Word:

Coming back to scrapping Christmas photos again. I am nearly through them though..I love this bright bold Basic Grey background.. Sort or reminds me of a Christmas tree?
The challenge word was "See"... I am liking graphic lines right now? POutting them on most of my layouts...
I had a lovely Mother's Day..I will post some photos and tell you all about it tomorrow..
Hope you had a lovely one too

xx

A few challenges:

Bird Is the Word:

Smile was the word -  and doesn't she have the most beautiful one? When she's not pulling faces that is! I have gone into the trend of hexagons.. I tried making my own pink ones. But found I am spatially incompetent! So I settled for cutting out and sticking pink paper behind them! I then used the cut out shape.. I misted these and stuck them down elsewhere..

Show Us Your Stuff:

This was the inspiration photo:

He's climbing..There are balloons and if you look real close there is a bookshelf of kiddies books behind him..Perfection..



Sunburst:

Thanks to everyone who left such beautiful commenst on my life with 5 post.. Everyone of them made me smile and even more thankful than I already am to have my family.... and my friends online and off...


Thought I would share a couple of layouts that ended up following a sun burst type effect. I was originally doing them for a sketch challenge.. But they got so busy I scrapped (hehehehe) that idea and just thought I'd share them here. They are little bit different from my normal style.. But alot of fun to do working with angles instead of straight lines all the time:

I quite enjoy scraplifting myself.. So much so I have done it again with a challenge..I will post these another day....

I hope your day is as full of sunbursts as mine...

xxxx

In a paddock:

You meet sheep.. Even though for some reason to me, this is unexpected. The sheep are curious about you..But they stare ALOT..They freak me out..I'm glad the kids chased them. Plus it was really very humourous and made for some lovely shots of an already picture postcard family:

Thanks guys. This is the third time I have photographed you and it gets more fun everytime! Paddock - even with bold as brass sheep was an awesome location..I'm glad I was able to convince someone other than my own kids to go there..Mind you the sheep were curiously absent on our shoot day...

xx

Life with:

Who says you can't photograph five children all smiling??

I get asked how I manage my life with five kids alot.. When we take them all out as a family as we did last Friday night to the football..We are stopped and receive comments about how lovely they all are..How alike they all are..

But mostly comments run along these lines:

You have FIVE kids? (Incredulous looks are a must with this one)

You MUST be busy.. (ah duh..)

How do you cope? (Just like everyone else)

Your husband needs to find another hobby....(How rude..)

When are you having the next one? (????)

You don't look old enough to have five children? ( well shucks..But are you expected to be grey with THIS many?)

How do you manage to get out of the house? (I would go mad if I didn't)

I could never cope with five...(Well I do...Rasberry to you..)

You must be a supermum...(No just regular ..but busy..)

The poor little guy-being mothered by four sisters.. (really that's his big problem?)

Do you have triplets..( no but close I suppose..)

Are they all yours? (Ummm no.. two of them belong to that person behind me and I thought I would steal them and make my life that little bit more chaotic..)

Won't you be glad when all the baby days are over? ( no I'll be very sad..)

I was once referred to as 'The Little Old Woman Who Lived in The Shoe...." You know how the rest goes.. That haunts me still. The person saying it thought they were being humorous..

What is the stigma attached to having large families? Most people who make those comments make me feel like some kind of hippy made good? Their incredulous looks. As if I shouldn't be well dressed or fit..I should be crying into my cereal every morning..."Why me?".. Mostly I take the comments with good grace and even offer up that he was a 'surprise baby'..But it does hurt a little.. 

 Nobody has ever suggested I have remarried or have step-kids thank goodness..I think my kids all look alike enough to have been spared that..

I don't FEEL like I have too many kids? But then I do catch a glance of myself in a shop window marching along with two in a pram and three following and well - I suppose I look busy.

We don't all fit on one medicare card.. Milla and Rylan are on their own..

A family ticket to anything - doesn't come close to covering us..

Invite us all to a party you are having and we MAKE up the party by attending..

I buy meat and veg in BULK.

I can only just fit all of our names on a birthday card..

I have bags of clothes in various sizes in all manner of cupboards..

Our rumpus room is a three-girl bedroom.

If I don't wash clothersevery day it CONSUMES me...and I don't LIKE to wash clothes everyday..

There are toys in EVERY corner of our house - on a good day.

We have five bar stools..

I haven't slept through the night entirely in four years.. ( I did get some between kids 2/3 and 4)

On one hand I worry that having five has been selfish. My kids don't do extracuuricular activities.. They probably won't attend a private high school... They rarely get one-on-one time with either of us..I am quick to get flippant with them..I am very busy and this makes me impatient with them ALOT... Getting sick is horrendous..Aaarghh..It takes an age for them ALL to get and recover from gastro...The bigs had the better part of last week off from school as an example..

But on the other hand..They are so close. The big girls are so gentle and supportive of Milla and Rylan. I do actually get time to myself because they ALL play together with very little argument.. They dress and bath him for me..We do cheap family things..Ride our bikes..Play at the park.. TOGETHER.. He idolises his sisters. Watching him trail them around the house is pure delight..Jemma loves to read Milla a bedtime story now and then..Giving me some space to get other things done...Getting the theme here? 

I have had the pleasure of being pregnant four times.. I have breastfed them all and enjoyed babyhood five times over.. I am now doing the kinder thing all over and I am loving it.. I think I will be bereft when they are ALL school age.. I have been a mother to babies for ten  and half years.

Having new babies with older kids has also been pure delight for the bigger girls.. The excitment of all their firsts are tripled.. They have an appreciation of being a mother that I never had until I became one myself.. They can change nappies like a pro..They get him out of bed. Brush his teeth.. Help Milla LEARN to put her clothes on herself? How do they know to do that??  Milla is into Harry Potter..Ha..Runs around the house chanting 'spelliarmus' with a fake wand.. She sits and watches the movies with her sisters and cuddles into one of them in the scary parts.. Funny I would never have allowed the bigs to watch those movies at her age...

Really...For me... five is pure joy. I love every moment of the rollercoaster ride..Seeing how they are together is I think, my greatest gift. I could never have seen my future as the mother to five...But I can't imagine a day without any of them now...  I try everyday to kiss or cuddle each of them..to tell them that I love them or ask them about their day or listen to something inconsequential they have to say to me - that is of very high importance to them.. That in itself consumes ten minutes of my precious time  - LOL!

I truly don't see myself how strangers see me..  Crazy..Busy..Mad...Supermum..

They are my kids..Sure there are alot of them..But each of them is totally divine..

xx

Autumn lovliness take 2:

Thought I would post the shots I took after the family from the previous post left for their lunch and I let my kids loose from the car on the lovely Autumn leaves....

Hope you are somewhere enjoying Autumn too..
Hope it's not raining for you - like it is here...

xx

Catching the Autumn loveliness:

It was a bit breezy..But I was able to capture all branches of this extended family.. Some individual shots and some lovely candid moments too:

New babies, (Henreika she is beautiful) new engagements, grandkids, siblings, in-laws and grandparents we had it all on this crisp Autumn day...With this being a family of originally seven children..It gave me a small insight to the 'add-ons' we will eventually experience in our future..Son in lawa, boyfriends older grandchildren and then probably a second generation of newer ones... What a lot we hav to look forward to.. Right now I will content myself with the fact that my five played happily in the car while I took these shots!

xx