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?