December Scrapping

Poor dusty blog! Life has been actioned packed of late, just like yours I'm sure! I didn't manage a lot of scrappy time before Christmas but I did get to enjoy a 12 hour crop on 1 December. Here's some of the LOs I completed.

For SFS's December challenges:

And for Scrapbooking Top 50:

Now that I'm on holidays and my Christmas visitors have been and gone I've had more time to scrap - oh how I'd missed it! - but I'll share those LOs another day. Have a Happy New Year! See you in 2013 :)

The countdown is on!

Zoe informed me this morning that are 11 sleeps until she leaves for France and that she has a mere six days left of high school. So much excitement, so much to look forward to! I'm still wrapping my head around it all...

I was lucky enough to have a week in Bali with one of my sister's last week - it was magical :) But the week since I've been back has flown by, We've had lots of fun things happening including celebrating mine and Rob's19th wedding anniversary.

Sadly the combination of my brother's wedding, my little holiday and other social events meant that I missed a couple of the challenges in Top 50's Amazing Race but here's my entry for Africa.

The criteria:
1. Fabric
2. Happy photo 
3. Song Lyrics for title or subtitle

I used pucker up and blow from the Pinocchio song Give a Little Whistle. The photo is of Zoe and her friends playing miniature plastic recorders - they were very happy and I was very glad when they disappeared up the street!

Oh and in exciting news my LO won the French leg of the race and I got a fab prize pack from Sonia at Forever Always.

I'm off to a 12 hour crop tomorrow so I'm hoping to get a few of the new month's challenges done.

Take care and thanks for popping by :)

A new look

Woo hoo! How cool does my blog look? Pretty fab right?

My gorgeous and creative friend Marcia offered to give my blog a makeover. And a makeover she delivered! I answered a brief questionnaire and voila my new look appeared - talk about clever (and oh so insightful and creative!).

I haven't been scrapping much of late - too much other stuff going on - *yawn* but I did make this card the other night when I really wanted to create something but just couldn't bring myself to pull all my supplies out.

As  you can see I'm still coming to grips with my new watermark (created by Marcia of course) I'm sure with further practise I'll get it right, but right now fading the background without making the words disappear is beyond me...

Race Update

Top 50's Amazing Race is continuing apace. Here's a little race rundown.

Detour 2 - Following your trip to Antarctica, you travel to a mystery foreign country and you don't know the language! Scrap a layout or a 3 card set with a foreign word in the title or subtitle to get you back in the race.

I chose to use a couple of photos from my Hong Kong trip and used Pang Uk as the title. When translated from Chinese it literally means shack house but is also used to describe these stilt houses which are found in the fishing village of Tai O.

As well as some old paper scraps and embellies from my stash, I used some handmade goodies from The Greatest View, D-lish Scraps and A Lil Somethin. 

After successfully negotiating the detour I headed to Canada for Stop 4. The criteria:  Include a Large photo (bigger than 4x6), Use Leaves on your LO and, Incorporate movement down the page.

My photo was a 6x8 that I cropped slightly, I added a Little Bit of fANTsy leaf and for the downward movement I used the paper strips, arrows and strips of washi as well as the texture paste spots. The orange flower is one of Lime Tree Creations latest releases.

Stop 5 took us to Europe and I landed in France.
The criteria:
1. Love themed layout to represent the city of love!2. At least one heart to represent the romantics at heart who flock to Paris3. At least one charm to aid of all the charming features of France

To meet the criteria I used the Macca's tagline for this LO of Zoe in her Macca's uniform, she loves her new job (or the cash it provides!), I added two Charm's Creations hearts and two flower charms from the race kit. I also added some other handmade products from Lovely Bugs Bits and Bobs, Rainbow Splendour, Lil Red Rocket and A Lil Somethin.

The white cardstock is embossed but it doesn't show up, so here's a close up :)

Next up is a roadblock but I'm yet to negotiate that.

Thanks for stopping by :)

A couple of October challenges

Last month I managed to blog about my Pumpkin Patch challenge entry but somehow forgot to link to their blog - epic fail! Let's see if I can get it all together this month...

So, here's the LO, I used a Purple Pumpkin button and a doily. The cork bird is from Apple Tree Lane Designs. I also used some really old paper from my stash, they're still some of my favourite designs and colours.

Zoe is becoming such a good driver. A couple of weeks ago she drove Angus and I over to Granma's house. Some highway cruising, followed by a series of tricky roundabouts, traffic lights and crazy old ladies doing u-turns in the turning lane. She aced it.

While we were visiting, Zoe snapped these photos of Mum and I while Mum was getting a couple of pointers about using her iPod (not that she really needs any, she's got it all going on ;-)). I created this LO for the Scrap the Girls recipe challenge - flowers, two different alphas, more than one photo and staples. I also added a super-cool polkadot bottle top from D-lish Scraps, a cute little Greatest View chervon bag and a Lil Somethin' pin. I really wish I could remember where I got the resin flowers - any ideas?

Zoe and I are off to Sydney tomorrow for her French trip information session, not long until she jets off! Whatever you're up to have fun :)

Under where?

When I was 14 my friend had a slumber party (yes back before we called them sleep-overs) and her parents arranged to hire a VCR from the chemist (no one owned these new-fangled devices as yet) and were given a list of videos to choose from. We were so excited! We poured over the list for days and eventually chose Blue Lagoon and Puberty Blues.

At the party we spent ages pressing the rewind, play, pause buttons to see if we could catch a glimpse of  Christopher's Atkins penis - we couldn't! Oh how we giggled! I have a feeling both movies were fairly unsuitable for an innocent group of girls but it was harmless fun (luckily my friend's parents had no idea what the movies were about). The other thing I remember from that day is being enchanted by the lacy knickers the girls in Puberty Blues wore. So much nicer that my plain cotton ones. I was determined to get myself a pair.

Five years later, while at Uni in Sydney I got a job in the lingerie department of Myers. Dream job and so began my lifetime obsession with beautiful underwear...

Years later I was reading a crime novel and the coroner was doing an autopsy. He began by listing all of the dead woman's clothing for the record. It included faded and mismatched beige bra and panties. As an underwear lover this statement horrified me. Not that I expect to meet a horrible end but if I do at least the police report won't be disparaging about my underwear! Even my everyday beige is part of a matching set!

Zoe and I went shopping last week. We were on a quest for sandals to match her formal dress, jeans  and you guessed it - underwear. The outing went like a dream, the first pair of sandals she tried were perfect, add to those a pair of half-price ballet flats. On to the jeans and the first two pairs were perfect and part of one of those save 25% deals. We were on a roll!

Now what you should know about my daughter is that in chest size takes after me - poor kid. We are not busty women. So, even though she's 16 and taller than most of the boys, the little tankini tops have served her well. But there comes a point when (even if it's only as a matter of status) you need a real bra. So off we went to Bras and Things for her to be fitted. We discussed that it might/would be embarrassing and she was cool with that.

Anyway, long story short, she was fitted and is now fit to be part of a police report ;-) Gosh you can get gorgeous underwear for teens and no, there is not a piece of lace to be seen, it's all funky patterned cotton. And she loves it. How do I know? Her friends came round to view the new purchases as soon as we got home!

Shopped out, we retired to a cafe for refreshments. And I took a photo to immortalise the day (of course) and scrapped it for Charm's colour challenge over at SFS - red, pink, yellow and white.

I used a Charm's heavenly heart and the fab yellow heart is from Apple Tree Lane Designs. It's funny because I was really happy with how this LO turned out but when I photographed and added it to the SFS gallery it suddenly seemed very flat and dull. Maybe I need to buy some more underwear to cheer myself up?

It takes time

Because yesterday was Friday I had some time to myself, oh how I love Fridays! As usual my week had been a little crazy and I felt like we had crashed straight into Friday, desperately screeching and skidding to stop in time, lest it flew straight by. So, it was serendipitous to discover that Marcia and her scrappy buddies were blog hopping to a time theme.

I loved reading all their different takes on the theme. I truly believe that if you live a busy life, organisation is the key to making time to do the things you love. There is an old adage that says 'if you want a job done ask a busy person to do it". The more time we have the more we waste. Time is a precious resource, I don't want to look back on my life and think it was a life wasted.

So, just to give you a peek into my life I thought I'd share the events of the last couple of days with you. I'm not suggesting my life is any busier or more important than yours, just thought you might be interested :)

Thursday

6.40am Usual breakfast routine, signing notes, reminding Angus to give the dog a chicken wing, confirming with Zoe the arrangements for her band concert. Being reminded that Rob will be working until around 9pm. Rushing around picking up random objects because the cleaner is coming...

7.30am Arrive at work - beaver away.

Lunchtime - go to the gym, catch up with a girlfriend. Back to the office, more beavering. Ring to check on Mum and get into a protracted conversation about greenhouses and the weather - neither of which I am interested in at this time! Promise to visit over the weekend...

4.50pm Arrive home. Greet dog, cat, kids, check that the cleaner has done a good job, confirm we are leaving again in 20 minutes, check cat and dog have been fed/walked/loved. Take a sneaky look at facebook and discover possibly slanderous post about my place of work. Take screen shots, make phone calls, send email. Time to go again, realise we have nothing for dinner.

5.20pm Drop Zoe at school for band concert, take Angus to cafe to wait for concert to start.

6.05pm Get stuck in traffic and arrive 5 minutes after the concert has started (argh!).

7pm Take children to get fish and chips. Go home, sit down and hear all about the Zoe's day (Angus and I covered his while waiting for the concert). Clean up and do three loads of washing while watching the One Direction special with kids. Fall down the stairs and bruise both elbows. Ouch! Convince children to go to bed. Call my sister.

9pm Sit on the lounge with Rob for an hour. Pay some bills. Record pedometer steps for Steptember, go to bed.

Friday

6.50am Rob has already left for the day. Have leisurely breakfast, check facebook  (only good stuff this time!). Discover exciting news about Zoe's French host family, engage kids in real conversation! Wave goodbye to them, have a coffee.

9am Head to the hairdresser. Read my book! Discuss Zoe's hair and make up for her formal, book appointment. Wonder just how expensive her one night will be...

11.15am Home again, coffee, blog hopping, scrapping. Lunch. Fold some washing, walk the dog, call another sister. Plan dinner ;)

3pm Collect kids from school, in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. Head to shops - chemist (Angus and Rob have a cold), gift shop (present required for Zoe's friend), bakery (for kids' afternoon tea). Drive across town in crazy weather to drop kids at swimming squad.

4.15pm Go out for afternoon tea with Rob (remind myself what he looks like!).

5.15pm Collect kids, drive back across town in crazy Floriade traffic, take work call (damnit, don't they know it's my day off and the start of a long weekend?). Home again, make dinner, convince kids to walk dog in the rain!

7.15pm Zoe leaves for youth group, I fall asleep on the lounge. Wake up and do some scrapping.

9.30pm Rob collects Zoe, they have a tiff on the way home and both flounce off to bed cranky. I continue scrapping (there is no other solution!).

10.30pm Record pedometer steps and go to bed.

And that is my crazy life, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are usually pretty much like Thursday but without the luxury of seeing a girlfriend. And now you know why I love Fridays between the hours of 8.50am and 2.50pm. Or maybe you read that and thought - wow - she has no idea about what busy looks like!

Anyway, here's the LO I did during those luxurious quiet hours on Friday. It's a just because LO, without a scrap of patterned paper. I wanted to use my newest My Vintage Blossoms, and the red and teal was perfect against the black. It's been awhile since I've used a black base, not sure why as I love how it makes the colours in the embellies so much more vibrant. But I'm always disappointed with the way it photographs. Imagine the black is more dense and the colours brighter.

And some close ups :)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by :)

Purple Pumpkin

Last night I was in a scrappy mood so I had a little play with the Purple Pumpkin sketch challenge. It called for layers of patterned paper and it felt like ages since I'd done a LO using any pp. I rifled through my random pieces of paper for a patterned base and then flicked through my scraps folder for some other bits and strips.

Years ago, when I first discovered Kim Archer, one of the things she did regularly on her LOs was to use a strip of paper that had a shape punched out of it. I still love that look and revisited it on my LO. I also added a bit of printed transparency (so last year lol). I was undecided about what the title should be and what alphas to use and then I dug these ones out. They came in a kit long ago and I have no idea who made them but they worked! To finish things off, and because it was Purple Pumpkin challenge after all, I added an extra-large tree button and that gorgeous silk flower (which I got in the vintage lucky dip). Then because it still needed just a little more I added some barb wire chippy (a packet of which I discovered, unopened, languishing in my stash) and stitched on a button. Stitching, that's something else I haven't done in a while. Love how it makes the button look complete :)

Have a fabulous long weekend and if you're into that sort of thing, may the best team win!

Antarctica

The latest stop in Top 50's Amazing Race is Antarctica. The criteria is:

1. white space
2. cool colour scheme

3. texture - be it texture paste, crackle medium, scrunched pp etc

Here's my LO. I had a lot of fun with this one, love using texture paste and masks! I also enjoyed rifling through my stash of handmade goodies to find ones in just the right icy colours.

Here are a few close ups. First up is a cluster including a fAnsty pin (A Little Bit of fAnsty is the sponsor of this leg of the race), a Purple Pumpkin button, a Lil Somethin doily and mannequin and two D-lish Scraps resin flowers.

 Next we have a Charms Creation page runner.

And the third cluster features a Charms Creation lovely lollypop and another D-lish Scraps resin flower.

Hope you're having a wonderful Sunday :)

You've got mail.

Last week I received an email entitled "Woohoo I've got an iPad". It was from my 77 year old mother :) It made me laugh because I knew she had serious iPad envy after playing with mine and her friend's. She had mentioned she would like to get one but first she had a couple of things to be getting on with - like a trip to China, England, France, Switzerland, Belgium and back to China and the rather inconvenient surgery for her cataract!

My Mum is pretty cool. She's not letting things slow her down. Rob dotes on her and the kids adore her and I admire her style! With the help of my father, she gave me and my siblings what others describe as a utopian childhood. We were well loved, well fed and well clothed. Sure there were things that I would've  liked them to have done differently but what child doesn't say that about their parents' methods?

Thinking back now things were pretty tough for my Mum, Dad had no idea about money so, she took sole responsibility for running the finances for a family of eight on a single income - creative accounting was often necessary! Two stand-out memories are: trying on a pair of skin-tight acid wash jeans that were ludicrously expensive and my mother announcing that they looked fantastic and I must have them; the other, in sharp contrast, is her saying how she longed for the day that when a bill arrived she could just pay it without having to wait for pay day.

My memories are not of fights and angry silences, they're of robust discussions and laughter and of a woman balancing my needs and desires (and that of my siblings) and doing it well. Mind you I have never understood why I would 'thank her later' for not allowing me to hang out at the Hume Cafe with my friends after school... my sisters still don't get that piece of parenting logic either.

My comfortable and cosseted childhood meant that I grew up expecting to offer my children the same thing. My life is very different to Mum's, I've always worked outside the home and that has meant my children have had different experiences. My parenting style is somewhat the same but also very different. But I think Rob and I have been mostly successful in building a modern utopia for our kids, they appear to be happy and well balanced. They were telling me, only yesterday, that they'd had to fill out a survey for RU OK Day and that neither of them had known what to put for the question about problems at home because they didn't have any. That made me smile.

So, why the reflection? I've recently been exposed to a woman who spends far too much time interfering in her daughter's life - she stalks her on facebook and then challenges her daughter about the posts, refuses to let her to go to sleep overs and has considered forcing her daughter to study German when she would prefer to choose dance. The girl is 14, Year 9 is but a moment in a whole life of experiences and surely if now isn't the time for dancing then when is? A little piece of my heart breaks for that child whenever I hear of her mother's latest antic. Helicopter parenting damages both parent and child.

Love your children the best way you know how, don't be afraid to say no but don't make it your default response. Say yes, it feels good and it's often the right answer. Let your kids take risks, be there to pick up the pieces. Don't feel you have to parent in the same way your parents did (good, bad or indifferent), chart your own course and create the life that suits you and your family.

When my kids ask if they can hang out with their friends at the various and malls and shopping centres, I say yes, even though my immediate reaction is a big loud NO, I figure that until they do something disgraceful or dangerous I have no basis for objection (the echo of my mother's voice in my head is not reason enough). Rob disagrees but because he never wants to hear the lament of the Hume Cafe again, he lets me have my way and I love him for that!

I know that I'm lucky to have happy, well adjusted, malleable kids but I'm also lucky to have a mum that, to this day, is someone I enjoy hanging out with. Even if she claims she has no idea why she refused to let me go to the Hume Cafe...

So, here's a LO celebrating my life and my kids (and Sparky) too. A photo taken by Rob on my Birthday. The LO is for Leah's wp word challenge - cuddles!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.

Off and racing

Scrapbooking Top 50's Amazing Race kicked off last week and it's been fast and furious since then. 

Stop 1 saw us scrapping Australia.

The criteria:
1. Use Aussie slang on your layout 
2. Include an Aussie image or an Aussie animal 
3. Use a border punch or scallops - to represent the large iconic structures 

Here's what I came up with, the title is Gone Walkabout. I used the Ah Scrap Aussie bottletop from my race kit and added a new MVB flag and ring as well as a little red Purple Pumpkin flower.

Then it was time for a quick detour! Using this criteria - before embarking on your first international flight, you need to make a detour to the post office to send a letter to your loved ones. It is a really windy day, and while trying to post your letter, it has blown out of your hand!  Scrap a layout or 3 card set with either a postage stamp, envelope or some hidden journalling to get your letter sent to your loved ones and get you back in the race.

I used all three criteria and even included a photo of Angus posting postcards whilst on our NZ holiday, at the beginning of the year. I've used some Rainbow Splendour felt chevrons and teeny Purple Pumpkin spotty button.

Stop 2 saw us jetting off to Asia and I touched down in Russia. After having a look around Red Square I focussed on the criteria:

1. A large title on the page
2. Use something long and horizontal on the page. Eg ribbon, paper strips, washi tape, twine etc 
3. Use something you would find in a garden or park

I love this photo of the kids and their NZ cousins - typical poses from all four. Zoe, oblivious to the world, Angus smiling straight at the camera, Finn, refusing to conform and Meg, styling a fake five year old smile while looking away! I used some Purple Pumpkin twine and one of their awesome new tree buttons and a fabbo Charm's page runner.

I've a had a truly horrendous week so it was nice to kick back and scrap. I've been turning the events of the week over in head trying to see if I can turn them into an amusing blog post but you know what, not even I can laugh at myself this time. *sigh* here's hoping for a better week this time around.

I really hope you are all ok :)

Creating for Charm

Back in July I was lucky enough to win a guest designer spot with Charm's Creations. I had a lovely time spending my voucher and creating these LOs using a couple of my favourite Charm's Creations.

My beautiful Sparky boy - the most spoilt and indulged member of the family!

A LO from Relay for Life. Me, my walking buddy and the girls from Zoe's team (the boys were obviously out of the track when these pics were taken).

Not sure they were ever featured on Charm's blog but I had fun creating them :)

Are you a master dabbler?

(if you're only interested in my scrappy shares scroll down a bit :-0).

The master dabbler is another theory we examined as part of the 7 Types of Busy Seminar. The theory as presented to the group is that when examining how people react to a task you will find that they fall broadly into two categories - a dabbler or a master.

The theory states that when you take on a new challenge you experience a period of rapid improvement but then as you become more proficient your achievement levels out and eventually plateaus. It is at this point that the differences in character emerge. If you're a dabbler you'll become bored of this level of consistency, abandon the task and move on to something new. The masters among us, will continue to pursue the task until their skill level begins to climb once more. There will be many plateaus along their journey but they will preserve and eventually make it to the top of the field in that chosen task. Imagine a staircase, that's how a Master's journey looks. The dabbler has jumped off the stairs after taking the first step!

But this theory troubled me and others in the group. Is it always wrong to be a dabbler? A good example is those of us who have tried many crafts. Did we really fail? Did we abandon our pursuit because we couldn't improve our skill level or were we just distracted by some thing bright and shiny and new?

And most importantly why do we have to press ourselves to become the best? If this is a hobby we enjoy then surely achieving at the dabbler status is mastery in itself. At this point the presenter offered us a third category, the obsessive. This is the person who refuses to believe they can't progress to a higher level and continues to do the same thing over and over, achieving the same result and never progressing to the level of master. Again this personality type raised questions among the group. No one wants to be an obsessive but some people are neither dabblers or masters.

I've been turning this theory over in head since the seminar and decided to do some more research on it. I'm glad I did. I discovered that there is a completely different school of thought out there about the third personality type. It's called the achiever, who like the obsessive pushes on out of stubborn determination, or love of the task, not necessarily with a clear plan but, who through sheer hard work slowly improves and continues on an upward journey of achievement.

I think many of fall into the category of achiever. It has a nice feel to it. Everyone loves the sense of achievement that comes from doing the best you can regardless of whether you are a master or not.

For me this is particularly true of my scrapbooking. Scrapping is something I love. I recognise that there are many truly talented scrappers out there whose artistry I can never hope to surpass but this knowledge doesn't cause me to down tools and move on to something new. I watch and learn from these clever women and apply my knowledge so that steadily over time I too achieve results.

I think the achiever personality type also supports my thoughts on winning and losing (as I talked about in my last post). Being an achiever is about being a winner - doing the best you can and being happy with the results.

I'm sure that there are other parts of life where I am more a dabbler (gardening and cooking) and still others where I take on the mindset of a master (professionally and perhaps towards health and fitness). I hope though, that, I never become an obsessive, I think that would be a very unhappy mindset don't you?

I was very interested to read your comments on my last post - thanks for taking the time to provide such considered responses, it was great to hear other points of view :) I'm looking to your thoughts on master dabblers too.

After I wrote my previous post I sat down to scrap and thoughts of how we approach life and the lessons we teach our children were still present in my head. I created this LO for the Top 50 quote challenge: "if life is a song, then love is the music". I paraphrased it slightly and used it as my journalling, I hope that my daughter will always remember to dance her way through life because then she really will win!

I also had a play with the Purple Pumpkin recipe challenge. I used a photo that shouts fun and reckless abandon - something we all need to practise regularly. The recipe called for paint, a button, doily, twine, misting ink, fussy cutting and two types of alphas. I was thrown for a moment as I'm not much of a fussy cutter but then that star caught my eye and I cut it out quick smart. I thought I was all finished and then realised I only had one type of alpha (the stamped word) so I added a little extra to my title and that was that :)

Thanks for stopping by, before you go, may I trouble you for a little advice? Should I demarcate my blog posts - have one for my social commentary and another for my scrappy shares? Or is it ok to combine the two, knowing that some people will skim over the stuff they're not interested in?

What's wrong with wanting to win?

I witnessed an interesting phenomenon this week.

On Saturday Angus' rugby team took to the pitch in a tightly contested game to secure a place in the grand final. Sadly Angus' team was not victorious and my boy was devastated. This photo says it all really.

As the captain, Angus felt responsible for the way his team played and this game marked the first time ever that he wouldn't play in a grand final. Tough times for a boy who takes sport very seriously.

But what really surprised me was people's reaction to the news of the loss. So many people said 'oh it's good to lose', 'a valuable lesson', 'best that he gets used to that feeling now', 'it's not good to win all the time' etc. But why? I didn't ever say that Angus was a bad loser or that he expected an easy win, or he didn't offer 110 percent? So, why is it a good thing that he lost?

If my daughter got less than 95 percent for an assessment piece would people utter the same pop psychology? No, I don't think so. She wants to be a vet and needs a near perfect year 12 score to achieve this goal. People seem to understand her need to excel academically.

But we all have our strengths and passions. We want to excel at those things, we want to win. And that is a good thing. Without drive and ambition we would be a very mediocre society.

I challenged many of the people who made these statements with the line 'but why is winning bad, I like to win, don't you?' and the reactions were astounding. The words they heard was that I was a sore loser, that I was sending a bad message to my children. How wrong could they be?

My message is simple, losing is part of life but we don't need to pretend to like the way it feels. Strive to win, to do your best, to give it your all. Learn from your losses, dust yourself off and start again, do it differently next time but whatever you do, don't let that loss dull your passion.

I'm very proud of my children and they way they approach their life goals. Irrespective of what those aspirations are, the message is the same 'be and do the best you can'. I strive to live by that same motto, to provide the best example I can, to live a happy and positive life - to be a winner.

And since I'm their biggest fan, it's no surprise that both challenges I completed at Wicked this month are of my kids :)

I'd be interested to hear what you think? Am I setting my kids up for failure? Or do you think it was my use of the word 'win' that caused such a negative reaction?

Have you joined the amazing race?

What's that you ask? Well, Scrapbooking Top 50 is running an amazing race - scrapbooking style. The fun starts on 1 September so there's still time to get your entry in.

I was also really lucky to win my race kit (in a random draw) and it's chock full of handmade goodies. Here it is - how good does it look?!

 I'm ready to race! Hope you can join me, see you at the finish line :)

7 types of busy

Over the last three weeks I've been attending a seminar series entitled 7 types of busy - it's all about the difference between being 'busy' and leading a 'full life'. It's been really interesting and useful and as a result, I've already made changes in the way I think about things and then do them. 

Today's seminar focussed on procrastination and interestingly, I discovered that I'm not much of a procrastinator after all! The presenter spoke about the lengths we go to just to avoid doing a disliked task or to deals we all do with ourselves just to get a task done and I was one of the few people in the room who couldn't relate. If I don't want to do something I simply don't. If I need to do something I just do it. Apparently this makes me a rebel, something my colleagues found very amusing but not surprising ;-)

One of the key tools to combat procrastination is to change the way you visualise an activity. I found this fascinating. Apparently it's really common to view things in a negative way, for example, when people think about exercising they mentally list all of the things they have to do before they can begin - find their gear, get changed, lock the house, go out in the cold/heat etc. And the sheer weight of this mental list is enough to stop them from beginning. This is not a concept I completely understand. But then I enjoy exercise and when I think about it, I'm keen to get going and do.  

So, it seems suitable then that my LO for Scrap the Girls is one of me just back from a run :) I love a good segue, don't you?!

Sure, the themes the seminar explores aren't rocket science but I've learnt things about myself and other people and it's been fun. If you'd like to read more about the 7 types of busy you can download a free eBook from Work Life Bliss. Check it out!

Oh, and just to reassure you, I have plenty of other bad habits even if procrastination isn't one of them :)

A couple of challenges

This one is for the colour challenge at SFS and also Charm's Creations - teal, brown and cream + a Charm's Creation. I used a cream fab flower. I also added a Lil Red Rocket flower and button and an Apple Tree Lane Designs cork heart.

This one was for the SUYS July Challenge - I used a Charms Creation lollipop and an Apple Tree Lane Designs flower.  How crazy is my cat? She is actually just yawning :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Easy as 123...

Today, I learnt there is a fine line between tying the string on your running tights tight enough to keep them in place and loose enough so that circulation is not interrupted...

Yesterday, I went to the CAPA 12 hour crop, it was awesome and I completed seven LOs. Here's the one I did for the 123 challenge. The word MY, the colour PURPLE and CHEVRONS.

Unfortunately it was a tad windy when I was photographing my LOs and the pile blew all over the garden, this one ended up face down in the dirt but since it was about to rain again I gathered them up and photographed them anyway. Angus examined them all and assured me that I could pretend it was the look I was going for. Hehee, he really does have the gift of the gab :)

On my way to the crop day I stopped off at the Lime Tart Open Day and had a little shop. Oh my, such gorgeousness. The kit I used to create my LO was but one of my purchases.

The kids have another week of school holidays so I've got the next couple of days off - nice! Have a fabulous week :)

Friday quickie

Vicki decided to post a little mojo booster over at Top 50 yesterday, to create a LO in 30 minutes. I created mine in 33 minutes - not bad ;) It's for Deb's SFS sketch challenge plus a Charm's Creation (or two actually). I painted the little Charm's clay button with glimmer mist.

Thanks for popping in :)

Top 50's June challenges

Over the course of a rainy Sunday afternoon I completed all three of this month's challenges at Top 50. It was only when I sat back to look over them that I realised they were all pink! How did that happen?

This one is for Vicki's style challenge - grunge. I love a bit of pink grunge and so does Angus :) I used Charm's May Sketch at SFS to create this LO. I loved her sketch but just didn't get time to play with it. That said, I created this LO solely for the Top 50 challenge. BUT thanks for the inspiration Charmane, I really enjoyed using your sketch!

Here are some close ups of my texture paste splats, a Charms Creation and super-sized eyelets.

This one is for Ant's sketch challenge. 

I used some cool felt goodies that I bought at the last Top 50 Crafters Market - made by Aga (of scrAp this). I've also been joining the monthly swaps and that cute little bunting was in April's bundle of swap goodies - it was made by Melinda.

And this one is for Sarah's twine challenge - you had to use twine in a different way (so not just stapling it on where it falls).

There's still a whole week left for you to play along with these challenges so why not visit the forum?