Wednesday, August 30, 2006

So it looks like we had a compression issue!

with my tunes! Uhhh cause I love the track, but if you are interested in hearing more add Carbon Leaf into Google and check out some links there.

I did and found a pre release track from their new album being released soon. Very cool I tell ya! It's called Learn to Fly and its very very catchy. The track I had playing up here was called Life Less Ordinary and came off their Indian Summer album.

I have photos to share but will have to do that after I get back from playcentre duty. Better go get this day going. Will see ya later.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006



Quote – Angie Briggs for Scrap Artist (Chocolate Covered Elements)
Pattern Papers & Flowers – Michelle Coleman for Scrap Artist (Chelseys Dream kit)

At last I am getting a chance to scrap some of the photos from our Christmas photo shoot! Finally a chance to scrap and the inspiration to match!


Ahhh I have done it again, white backgrounded layout! Result? Doesn't show up well on blogger, drat!

Pattern Papers and Staples – kSharonk (blog freebie) (Pink Kisses Kit)
Circle Stitches – Karen Hunt (blog freebie) Sewing Box Circle stitches (baby girl pink and white)Font – Susie’s Hand
Sketch – Rachael Giallongo

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Busy beavers live here

Well it seems that way anyway! School for Anya, Kindy and Playcentre for Dannielle, Work for Chris and just general catching up with stuff for me with a bit of teaching thrown in for good measure! Have also been helping out at school and playcentre as well. And doesn't time just seem to fly right on by.

We have been having some amazing weather here, still frosty and chilly in the morning mostly but turning into the most beautiful warm and sunny days, enough to make you think that spring was almost here. Or is that because of all the lambs frolicking in the paddocks? And drive past a dairy farm now and you see calves by the dozens.

Happy to say I ran a well received beginners scrapbooking class Thursday night and even have some of the participants signing up for my next class on the 31st. "Off the page, think art" basically creating a piece of scrap art on a canvas to be hung on your walls. Its also a really fun way to learn new techniques and have your own piece of art work at the end of the session.

We are off to visit Jules and Ces this afternoon, we haven't had a chance to catch up with them in ages. Jules bought the girls in to Anya's birthday but since Ces had been working night shift the night before she stayed home to catch some uninterrupted sleep. So we are going over to visit with them this afternoon and have some dinner with them. I think I can whip up some cream puffs for dessert. And if you have ever had my cream puffs you will know I slave over them all day! yeah okay believe that and I have some land I can sell you right cheap!

We are going to have to go via town this time, we desperately need to get Anya some short sleeve shirts for school, when I went and got her uniform it was cold and chilly and in truth August is normally a bit cooler than it has been, but this year has been so much warmer that the poor wee girl has been roasting in her long sleeve skivvies. Sure she can take her sweatshirt off but she is still getting quite hot in her long sleeves. But she still needs her sweatshirt in the mornings when its chilly.

Monday, August 14, 2006


So here is the proud new little pony owner. A sight to behold, all of us sprawled out on our tummies on the back lawn!



Anya asked if she could take our photo, yeah okay says Mama just a little hesitantly since we are taking photos with Mama's new (expensive) camera. But I showed her how to have the neck strap over her just in case she dropped it. Gave her a few instructions about looking through the view finder then she took over! It was so funny to be on the otherside for a change! Here she is saying no move up closer and pretty smiles please. Too cute for words!



And here is Dannielle's photo, I kept her just a little closer since the camera is heavy and her little hands were struggling just a bit to hold it! Pretty good photo though!

The Ellesmere A & P show is coming up on the 14th of October and once again I am entering the photography and scrapbooking sections. Gonna get the girls to enter some photos as well, in the under 18 photography section.

This one's for Nana Bus



Anya's pretty pony. She bought it all by herself with her birthday money. She is a great model, just waits very patiently, Anya got a couple of shots off too, not only of pony but Mama and Dannielle aswell, when blogger co operates a little more I will add the rest later.

Friday, August 11, 2006

August 11, 2006 and day three

Day three and Anya was super excited to get to school again, though she did grab a good sleep in this morning and didn't get out of bed till 8. And she was just a tad disappointed that she couldn't wear her Leeston sweatshirt (it was drying on the rack) today. It will be good to have a couple of days break though, she is getting quite tired.

She was super excited yesterday afternoon to come home to packages (in the mail) for her to open. A beautiful cardigan from Nana Robbie, the cutest little outfit from Dan and Bron and a fantastic book from Aunty Sue and Uncle Clarrie. Thank you all so much for sending her such wonderful surprises.

She even got a surprise phone call. After 4 yesterday the phone goes and its Jules on the line, asking how her first day went. Lucy and Grace had wanted to talk to her and see how everything was going and whether she liked school or not. You don't know how much that meant to her, thank you so much.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

August 10, 2006 - Day two




Well Anya's enthusiasm for school is growing in leaps and bounds. She was up at 7 this morning, dressed in her uniform, had breakfast, brushed teeth and hair, shoes on, and lunch in her schoolbag by 8!

Who is this child? She looks like Anya, but boy is she showing her Mama up in the morning. Okay so the fact that her Mama doesn't do mornings well is a whole nother story!
Mind I have been very organised and had clothes ready and waiting for her, lunches made, drink bottle filled etc and all the night before!
Okay so you all know I don't do mornings! Let alone well enough to organise all that and still eat breakfast myself (yes I am finally eating something in the morning!) and have a shower and get out the door in time to get the very excited girl to school on time.

I helped out for the first time at school today, yep only day two and helping out already. One of the teachers I know commented about how good I was since its only day two for daughter and here is Mama helping out already! Okay so I must have volunteer (or idiot?!?!) tattooed on my forehead. Must be in neon too cause fringe or not it must be shining brightly through!

The photos above were taken yesterday its just that blogger didn't want to play ball and let me load all the photos I wanted to yesterday. Oh well never mind, its done now! The first one is Anya and her backpack walking down our path that runs alongside the house, and the second is her at the school gate. Have I told you how proud I am of my big school girl yet?

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Big school girl

August 9, 2006 Anya's very first day of school.

She would have had us out and at school at 8.20 if she had her way! It was soooo cute, she came up to me at 20 past 8 and said Mum is it time for school yet? Can we go now?

Went and got some photos of her instead. She was so excited and happy to show off her new school uniform! Wooohooo, that sure made it much easier on me!



How old are you now Anya? FIVE!


And at the back door in her new uniform, blue pants, red skivvie and red sweatshirt and or polar fleece. The sleeves on her sweatshirt are just a bit long! but the size down they were too short! so long has got to be better than too short don't you agree?


Anya's last day at kindy

I wanted to share some photos of Anya's last day at kindy on Monday.


Anya at mat time.


and in the special 5 year old birthday hat. Kids turning five and heading off to school get a big fuss made of them, they get to pick the songs for mat time, and get generally made a big fuss over! Anya needless to say loved it!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Snow photos part two


Nana's got a fine arm on her, Anya found out she can toss a snowball or two!


Nana and Big D, patiently waiting for Daddy to come back from this trip! (see below!)



See that clump of tussock in front of Chris and Anya well they went wayyyyyyy past that! I was starting to think they might just slip all the way to the bottom of the hill!


We all had a blast, ended up with wet clothes galore, sore sides from laughing so much and numb bottoms, though when the numb wore off they proved to be just a little bit on the sore side!

Birthday party and a visit to the snow.


Anya and her cake, with Lucy watching on. A marble cake with pink icing and decorated by all of us! Those poor candles sure struggled to stay upright, but they lasted just long enough to get lit and blown out again!

And no Anya hasn't got some dreaded disease, the weird greenish cast is seen on all the photos sadly!



Sunday (6th) we decided to take Nana to find some snow! Hee heee we all had a blast, its amazing how much fun three adults and two kids can have with a few plastic rubbish bags and a tarpaulin! And no Nana did not have Anya end up on her lap! Though for a few seconds it looked a good possibility!



Anya and Nana pelting each other in a snowball fight.

Okay Blogger is struggling will post this and try and get some more photos up in the next thread.

Friday, August 04, 2006

A quick layout



I whipped this up this afternoon, there is in fact a white border around the edge of the photo unfortunately you can't see it here! I can't quite believe it my girl is getting ready to go to school! Where did the time go??

Page Credits
Diamond Button and White flower - Melany Violette (at Simply Clean Digi Scraps)
Pink Ric-rac – Circus Kit , Syrin at Catscraps
5 – Alpha Xerox Copy by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative) recoloured
Aug 2006 – Memory Date Stamps by Miss Mint (Peppermint Creative) recoloured
Fonts – Susie’s Hand and Arial

Photograph by Chris Hellyar

Anya's last day at playcentre


Tuesday was Anya's last day at playcentre so we had a little party for her. Icecream cake, lollies, chippies, cheerios and the odd bikkie or two and we had happy kiddos! Took my camera down and got some photos, so thought you might like to check them out.







With Raylene (the playcenter supervisor) going through her book.

Nana Peacock is flying in this afternoon, the girls have been counting down the sleeps till Nana arrives. Still have bits to do before the party tommorrow but we are slowly getting there! Still got the cake to make and decorate yet.

Thursday, August 03, 2006


Chris H popped his silly photographers hat on Dannielles head while I was taking photos of her, she really wasn't at all sure about it as you can see. But doesn't she look just so cute?

And Anya so way done with the whole photo thing!

And last but by no means least in this post, Us. Not bad hey?

Images from Saturday (photo shoot)




I got called away to do something else, (I had been taking some photos of the girls) and asked Chris H to try and get a shot of Anya similar to another he had taken earlier in the day. The photos above are the end result! Isn't she just so beautiful?



And the photo above is one I got. Gotta love studio lights for that moody cut out all the other stuff and focus solely on the child look! Now how cute is my girl????



Also another of mine, who's a cheeky monkey then?

Okay so call me a very proud Mama!!!


Okay so I simply have to show you what my clever big girl did yesterday morning during her school visit!!! Colour me a very proud Mama!!! click on the picture and you can see it in all its glory!

The kids were given two photocopied sheets one with birds, a nest and some eggs on and the other with trees and a pond to colour in and cut out and stick together. Miss Tucker (Anya's teacher) also said that since the birds were really little that the kids could just cut a circle shape out around the birds etc! Notice Anya and her close to the line cuts, like just cutting them out roughly was gonna do for her? Nah not likely. Too much of a perfectionist! Either that or an engineer in the making!

Then the teacher would come round and ask them what they wanted to say about their pictures then would write a sentence for them. And then they would copy it off! The top line is the teachers writing and there underneath is my big girls writing. She copied it off so neatly and quickly the teacher was so impressed.





Wednesday, August 02, 2006

$200 and parcels

Okay so if you got past the slightly unusual title you can find out where my head was at!

$200 later I am feeling much better, got a chest infection early in July and have only just managed to struggle my way out of it! Add to it the girls with vomiting bugs and colds/coughs themselves and we have had a tough July! Definitely glad to see the back of July.

Though of course with July's demise it means August has arrived and with it the iminent departure of Anya to school. Had another school visit today, Anya loved it! Didn't want to come home to tell truth! Mama well she had a bit of a weepie moment! I guess you get that when all of a sudden you realise that your baby is about to start school!

And to quickly finish this off parcels have arrived from Nana Pea and Aunty Sonia, Mama intercepted them and they will be given to Anya on Tuesday.

But for now I am off on a rescue mission, to get Sister Dolly and Sarah Cat from school, Anya took them for "news" this morning and sadly we forgot them when we left.