Sometimes it's easy...

... to get caught up with what you're doing!

Although it's been almost a month since my last post I have by no means been sitting here doing nothing... in fact I have completed Miss Doodlebug's Quiet Book... and I'm THRILLED with how it turned out.

So far I've shared the Horse and Apple page HERE:

And who could forget the Umbrella page that caused me so many issues HERE:

So today I thought I'd share a few more of the internal pages of the book.  Each book has it's own special things for Miss Chloe to interact with so she will be learning while she's having fun... yeah I know... I'm such a teacher! LOL  I can't help it... it's just the way I think I guess :)

The next page I made was 'Ella the Elephant'. Ella takes the prize for the page which took me the longest to create.  Officially this page took 12 HOURS from start to finish... but there was a lunch break and two trips to the craft store for supplies within that time frame too!

There's lots of interactivity on this page:

• Ella's nose has elastic inside so it's super stretchy.
• The watermelon, carrot and apple go into Ella's mouth and can stay inside.
• Ella's ear has a 'squeaker' inside it.
• The zip allows the watermelon, carrot and apple to come out on their elastic cords.

Of course Miss Ella needed some adornments too so she's got a sparkly headdress as well as a jewel ankle bracelet.

My favourite part on this page was actually making the watermelon... totally LOVE how it turned out!

By comparison, the next two pages were pretty quick and easy... they almost sewed themselves together.

Doodlebug LOVES music... she's always dancing around and one of the first things she does when she comes to Nana's house is turn on the radio... she knows EXACTLY how to work the remote too!  Since she loves music so much it was a no-brainer to put something music related in her book and I found a cute pic for a guitar and turned it into a pattern.

Here's how it turned out:

Mikayla chose the huge beads for this guitar and they are so BEAUTIFUL.  They have a glossy finish but look almost metallic... very cool!  Originally I had hoped the interactivity would come from the beads going up and down the guitar string but they were so big there was no room for that so instead they simply spin around on the guitar thread.

My favourite part??  The sun in the corner... I love his super smiley face and it was the very first time I've ever been able to make French Knots work right!

Then I made a fun paint palette.  You might notice (and of course now that I've pointed it out you will definitely notice) that there is no orange snap on the orange paint... but not to worry because the orange snaps arrived a few days later and the orange matched PERFECTLY!

Of course this one is all about colour... and colour matching because each paint splodge has colour coded snaps on them.  There are also two colour coded beads on the ribbons so that Doodlebug can move them up and down the ribbons.

My favourite part... Miss Doodlebug uses the paint brush (which also snaps onto the palette) to 'dip' into the colours and then she pretends to be putting on eye shadow... it's super cute to watch!

I've been sharing each page as I finish it with Miss Doodlebug to see how she like them but she hasn't seen the finished book... that will have to wait for her birthday in late July.

So what do you think so far??

Some days are diamonds...

... and some days are stone.  Do you remember that John Denver song?  Today I'm going to share one of each.

I had a stone day a couple of weeks ago... I was working on a new page for Doodlebug's Quiet Book and everything I did turned out to be a mistake.  One day I'm going to listen to the little voice in my head when it says... today's not a day for sewing... but on this day I was DETERMINED that I was going to make a particular page... a colourful umbrella complete with raindrops on a rainy day background.

I'd seen a YouTube tutorial... complete with a template...  so I figured I couldn't get much wrong... that was my FIRST mistake folks!

So I got busy cutting felt and making the colourful umbrella... that part actually went really well.

The next step was to sew the umbrella top and handle onto the background page... yep that went smoothly too.

Then I had to make the 'strings' for the beads... and this is the part where things started to go horribly wrong.

My first attempt at this page... don't even ask! I sewed some elastic onto the background for the beads to go on... and when I tested the strings 7 out of 10 pulled right out!  So... I TRIED to shorten my stitch length which resulted in the machine having a MAJOR hissy fit!  The feed dogs disappeared under the presser plate and wouldn't come up... the machine would only sew up and down without moving backwards and forwards AND... the stitch length control moved around aimlessly and clearly wasn't connecting anymore!  End result... my machine is going in for a full service and I bought a simple sewing machine on sale for making my book pages.  As a side note... it turns out that you should get your sewing machine serviced every two years... I bought mine about 14 years ago and have NEVER had it serviced!

So... new machine set up and ready to sew... I decided that I was going to make the strings using silver elastic so there was a bit of sparkle on the page... so I bought 1 meter of silver elastic thinking this would be plenty.  BEFORE I lined the strings up on my page I CUT the elastic into 10 pieces... and then I laid them on my background... ummmm the strings were way too SHORT!

But I persevered... I was thinking "I can work around this"... so I went ahead and sewed the umbrella in place using invisible thread... urgg this stuff is FIDDLY!  Being a new machine I of course didn't know all it's settings and it wasn't until I was half way through that I thought... hmmm those zig zag stitches should be a little closer together... but it's okay... I can work around this!

I sewed on the raindrops... yep that worked totally fine... maybe things will be okay after all.  Ha ha ha... they should turn that into a TUI ad:

So...  I popped the beads onto the strings... just in case you didn't notice... there is ONE bead on the first string... TWO beads on the second string etc etc until you get to TEN beads on the last string.  And then I sewed down the ends... yep it's still looking way to short to me!

And then I tested the page and made a sudden realisation... elastic STRETCHES folks!  It REALLY stretches... as in it stretches out of shape!!!  I was heartbroken... I took a little video to show Mum what had happened because I just couldn't believe it... take a look at this:

It was at this point that I realised that NOTHING was going to make this page look right.  But I'd put so much time and effort into the page... and my umbrella was COOL... those colours really POP against the grey, watery background!

So... I did a quick internet search and found out Spotlight was open for another 30 minutes... Toby and I rushed down in the car and I was able to buy TWO meters of cord that would NOT stretch but would be perfect for the page.

Please indulge me while I share the re-making of this little 20 x 20 cm page of TORTURE!!  One thing that worked in my favour... since I'd already made the page before... I knew EXACTLY what I had to do for each step.

Step 1 and 2: Sew the umbrella top and handle onto the background and then attach the 10 cords and sew in place... see how LONG those cords are!!:

Step 3: Sew the umbrella in place and shorten the zig zag stitch so it's a bit closer together:

Step 4: Sew the raindrops in place:

Step 6: Take the beads off the previous page... put them on the cords and stitch them in place:

By this stage it was late... well after dinner... and I had school the next day... and to be honest I was DONE!  Part of it was that I didn't 100% love the puddles at the bottom of the page I was using as a tutorial... they just weren't what I was wanting... BUT I didn't actually know what I DID want... so best to stop... take a break and figure it out.

Two weeks passed and all of a sudden I knew EXACTLY how I was going to finish my page!  Best of all... it worked perfectly the FIRST time... so here's my finished Umbrella page:

Yay for perseverance!!!

Just before I go I wanted to share a little DIAMOND moment in my life.  Of course today is Mother's Day... and my girls decided they were coming home to make me brunch... Yay!  Krystal made me a beautiful card on behalf of both of them:

PLUS... they got together and bought me a Screenprinting workshop class for next weekend!!  So excited!!

 

And of course there was the actual brunch... complete with sparkling grape juice:

Before I go I thought I'd share this quick little video of Miss Doodlebug having a taste of sparkling grape juice... this beautiful girl melts my heart every time I see her: 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's out there...  I hope you had a wonderful day full of love and laughter xx

Can you say 'neigh'??

Like a lot of toddlers... my little Doodlebug LOVES animals!  She just loves it when Toby gets all excited when she arrives... although he still doesn't like her 'touching' him.  Remember when she was tiny and he used to watch over her??

Then one day little Doodlebug ROLLED OVER and touched Toby... you would have thought he'd been touched by a branding iron!  Honestly... this boy knows no bounds when it comes to making complaints.

The first time Doodlebug crawled Toby went totally mental... you could almost hear him saying... Mum she MOVED!!  And then she started to WALK... Oh Dear God!

Now Miss Doodlebug RUNS and Toby just doesn't know where to put himself out of her reach.  She always says 'Puppy... gentle'.... and then tries to grab him.  She also has started calling him 'Toby' which is very cute... but we need to work on what 'gentle' actually means.

It's much the same where she is living... there's a cat.  Doodlebug is very fond of the cat... she wants to PLAY with the cat... but the cat doesn't really want to play with HER!  Their current game involves being outside... the cat running away.... Doodlebug running after the cat calling 'meow meow'... the cat disappearing over the fence... Doodlebug crying... oh dear!

Doodlebug has a couple of puzzles at Nana's house which she loves and one of her favourites is the farm animal puzzle.  She can say 'cow' and 'moo'... she can say 'chicken' and flap her little arms like wings... she tries to say 'sheep' and 'goat'...

Fitzgerald Glade

..and she's almost got 'horse' worked out too.

Which brings me back to... can you say neigh??? 

I've been seeing lots of Quiet Books on the internet lately and I love how interactive they are.... SO... I've started making one for Doodlebug's 2nd birthday in July... YES time has flown and she's going to be TWO YEARS OLD in July!!  Unbelievable!

I started looking around the internet for some ideas of what Doodlebug might like and I came across this picture:

Picture found on Pinterest

 Oh YES!!  I loved it straight away... the design... the colours... it looked great.  And if I'm not mistaken I'm pretty sure that Patron PDF means there's a pattern... Yippee!! So I clicked on the link and it took me to an Etsy store that told me:

This item is unavailable.

But I WANT this item... what do you MEAN it's unavailable... I NEED it to make my Doodlebug a horse page.

Ok... think.... I MUST be able to work around this somehow.  I know... I'll print the picture out to the right size and TRACE it!  Yep it worked... for most of it at least.  The only part I really had issues with was the horses head but after a LOT of tweaking I had something that I was happy with.

Here's a photo of my finished page... like I said... Can you say neigh???

I bet you're scrolling up and down to see how my page resembles the one I copied LOL

I took LOTS of photos of the process... and then I thought... let me see if I can make a 'quick little video' so that you can see all the inter-activeness of the page. Ha Ha Ha... what a joke!  My quick little video did in fact take less then a minute to film... and then it's taken over 3 HOURS to make it look like something semi professional.  So here's my 'quick little video':

 Actually... I'm feeling ridiculously proud of my efforts... both the sewing and the video making :)

This Quiet Book stuff is a little like scrapbooking except using fabric and felt. The finished page is 20 x 20 cm so it's pretty close to an 8 x 8.

I'm 'sew' happy now!  Sorry... couldn't resist that one!

So what's been happening?

I thought it was time to do a bit of a catch up with you since I haven't been around for a while... although I have lots of plans to change that!!!  This is going to be a bit of a random update... I've got school/work stuff... family stuff... creative stuff... basically lots of stuff... and since it's all jumbled around I'll do it all in no particular order.

Since we last talked I've... gone to Invercargill.

Right now I'm sitting in my daughter's (Mikayla's) house in the deep South awaiting the arrival of my first grandbaby.  I flew down from Rotorua to Invercargill on Tuesday which was very exciting... and to be honest just a little bit nerve wracking since I haven't been on a plane in YEARS!

Bubs was due on Wednesday (12th July) but so far there is no baby!  Poor Mikayla is so over being pregnant... and I'm quietly wishing for bub's hasty arrival as I have to fly back to Rotorua on Thursday (20th July).  They say good things come to those who wait but Mikayla doesn't feel like waiting anymore and I'm firmly agreeing with her!

Since we last talked I've... made some cards.

So while we're on the subject of my wee grandbaby I thought I could share some of the things I've made for her.  First up are some Thank You cards that are technically for Mikayla and Chris to send out after baby is born.  I decided to make a set of 10 cards... the same but different... I started off by making one card to get the design idea and here's what I came up with:

That sweet little elephant is from My Favorite Things - Adorable Elephants stamp and die set... as is the wee flowers and butterfly.  I later added a balloon to the card but you'll see that in a moment.

Then I set up a production line of all the elements needed on the cards:

Here are the 10 cards all finished... there's four different elephants, three different balloons, three different butterflies and two different flowers in the stamp set... and I used them all!  No cards are exactly the same but they definitely make a nice set.

 On the inside of the cards I stamped a sentiment that I'm pretty sure will apply to the newest addition to our family: and though she be little she is fierce

I actually took lots of step by step photos while I was making these cards so don't be surprised if you see a blog post dedicated just to them in the near future :)

 Since we last talked I've... made some cot sheet sets.

Along with the cards I also promised Mikayla that I would make her some fitted and flat cot sheet sets... and since she lives in the deep South where it gets really cold I made them out of winceyette which is super snuggly and just seems to get better with washing.

I started with some super cute fabric:

Unfortunately the yellow fabric with pink dots turned out to be only 90cm (36 inches) wide so it wasn't wide enough for a sheet but I'm sure I will use it for something else.  

Choosing the fabric turned out to be the easy bit (although Michael might disagree with me!)  Once I had the fabric home it turned out that I couldn't sew it for a while due to my knee... more on that in a moment.  So instead of having the sheets made three weeks ahead of me leaving I was actually still sewing them the night before I left... but I DID get them done and the fitted sheets even have French seams... very classy!

Here are all three sets of sheets packed into the baby's suitcase ready to go to Invercargill... YES Krystal and I totally filled an entire suitcase with presents and clothes for our wee arrival (the one that hasn't actually arrived yet LOL)

Mikayla was pretty pleased with the sheets... she particularly liked the pink pandas and she's now made the cot with them and it looks so gorgeous:

Since we last talked I've... damaged/injured my knee!

In early June (10th) Michael, Krystal and I went to visit Mum in Tauranga.  She had Kody (my niece) staying and we were all just hanging out together having a good time.  I went down the hallway and was minding my own business (Mum might disagree with me!) when I turned to say something to Mum and I felt/heard a 'pop' in my knee... followed by instant agony!

I managed to get through lunch with my leg up on a chair but the pain was pretty intense.  Then we decided to go to KMart for a look around and Kody was thrilled to bits when we found a wheelchair for me to sit in.  She might only be 10 but she's a good little driver!

The pain wasn't really getting any less so we decided to head back home and on the way back it actually got worse so Michael and Krystal decided to take me straight to the hospital.  Several tests and x-rays later it turned out that I'd done some real damage to the ligaments in my knee and would have to be in a brace and use crutches... say what???

They told me that I would need to take the week off work... what???  I didn't have time for a week off work!!!  By the end of the first week I was still on crutches so another week off work was ordered by the doctor... and in fact I didn't make it back to school for the rest of the term (4 weeks off work!!) AND I still need to use the brace at night.

Since we last talked I've... joined Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life 2.0 class

Design Your Life 2.0, is Cathy's first ever live class on CZ Classes.  Here's what Cathy said about it: This four-week online workshop has one goal: to teach you the core principles of graphic design that you can apply to your scrapbook pages for more beautiful, timeless and well-designed results.

To be honest... I haven't made a scrapbook page in a LONG time!  What I do know is that I really like Cathy's style... and I like the way she teaches (I did her 30 Days of Thankful class last November)... and I already own lots of her digital templates... so I thought... Why not???  What have I got to loose?  Registration will close July 25th at midnight... so if you're keen there's still time to join in.  Check out this LINK for more info.

So far I've watched one of the Week 1 videos... and downloaded all the necessary files and I've already got an idea for a layout I'd like to make brewing in my mind :)

So there you have it... lots of snippets of info... I will definitely be back with another post very soon... and hopefully I'll be a Nan by then!  Thanks for stopping by xx

Project Life: Week 27 and some extras!

Hi everyone :)

This week marks the beginning of my second album for the year and of course I wanted a ‘title’ page for it.  I’m a big believer in having ‘an attitude of gratitude’ and I thought it might be a nice way to start my album so here’s my first page:

I have so many things that I’m grateful for but in all honesty the things I’d miss most in my life and the people who are close to me… my girls, my parents, my sisters, my friends and of course Toby (who thinks he is a ‘people’!)

It’s been a great week here and it was super easy to put together this weeks layout because I had so many photos to use:

Almost every day this week I’ve been working on my ‘secret’ project and I can now reveal that I have been making art journals!  I’ve had so much fun choosing fabrics and coordinating ribbons, doing all the sewing and actually using my iron!  I’ll share the actual art journals with you in this post as well :)

We’ve had a busy week at school and the kids were keen to share their math skills with Matua Aaron playing NIM… the kids haven’t actually worked out the foolproof strategy yet but they do have fun trying to work it out!

Here’s a close up of the beginning of the week: 

Our school kapahaka group were invited to perform down at the Rotorua library and all the kids in the group were keen to take part.  I managed to get a photo of my boys with their faces done but didn’t get one of them in their outfits.  Evelyn came to get her photo done and I actually managed to talk her into doing a pukana for me… her mother was very grateful and has asked for some photos :)

Toby on the other hand, did not have a good start to the week.  I’d just bought myself some new ‘home socks’ and wore the just once… the following night he greeted me with one of my socks in his mouth and half the soul missing… he really couldn’t figure out why I was not thrilled with his behaviour!

We also had an Australian band visit for a performance and the kids loved hearing all the movie tunes they played!

This week also marked the class ‘final’ for our cook off… and it was super serious!  There were four kids along with Matua Aaron in the final and they were all determined to win.  The good news is that we had HEAPS of pikelets to share!

Te Kaka won our class final and is now in the BIG final on Thursday next week.  We’ve organised for two tutors from the Chef training division of the polytech to come and be our guest judges and the kids are going to be making and decorating cupcakes… it’s a pretty big deal really!

Toby got himself into even more trouble on Thursday be borrowing/stealing an egg tray (luckily it had no eggs in it!) but he did manage to tear it up into really little pieces which he proceeded to put into his bed… boys will be boys I guess!

We had a hockey game for sports on Thursday afternoon and Matua Aaron was not against using his height to help him score goals when playing with the kids.  It was his last week and he’s done a great job!

Mr Pope (my former Principal) has been coming to school one afternoon a week and doing art classes with selected children and two of mine got into the art group.  They were pretty stoked when their painting were shown at the school assembly on Friday!

On Thursday night I got the last of the art journals sewn and then on Friday I went over to Mum’s and we had a button making and sewing session.  Thanks for all your help Mum!

On Saturday, Mum and I headed up to Auckland for a look at the SENZ expo and came away with a few goodies (as well as catching up with some new and old friends)… I’m looking forward to getting a chance to ‘play’ with some of my new purchases when I do my next art journal pages!

And now for the art journals themselves.  I’ve had a really good reaction from everyone who’s seen them and here they all are… 12 in total!

I’ve put them all up for sale on Trade Me so if you’d like to get one for yourself here’s the link to the AUCTIONS

So that’s been my week… now it’s time to go and get some more school reports done!

Have a good week everyone xx

Some days are just perfect :)

Today has been one of those perfect days! They say good things come in 3's so I think I've had more than my fair share today :)

Today started off with me getting a really wonderful email from one of my scrapping buddies Lee :) A few months ago we signed up to do a stamp swap but it didn't go quite according to plan. The idea was that you chose an unmounted stamp and created a card, ATC etc using that stamp... then you sent it to the next person on the list and they made something and sent it on until it eventually got back to its orginal owner. Lee sent her stamp to me but it didn't arrive :( After being missing for several weeks it finally turned up here and it's really cute:Lee created an ATC for me and I thought it was the perfect stamp for ATC's. Then I read Lee's note which said that she wanted to find another use for it so I got creating a came up with a tiny mini book which is just the perfect size for keeping postage stamps in! And here's the photos... unfortunately I took them at night so they don't look fantastic but you'll get the general idea: I sent off the mini book and Lee received and sent me an email to say that she really loves it, which is great! It's always so nice when you're making something and the recipient enjoys it :) I think I might just have to keep an eye out for that stamp myself LOL

Today has been all about 'girl time'! Mum came over today and we've had the best day together!! We've laughed, shopped, talked scrapbooking and just generally spent time together :) It's been a full on day and we've totally enjoyed ourselves! Mum arrived at 10am and didn't leave until after 7pm so we've definitely made up for lost time!! Thanks Mum for a really fantastic day!!

While Mum was here she showed me the photos from the walk she did for Breast Cancer. Mum and I did this walk together a couple of years ago and we were amazed at all the 'costumes' and I definitely remember her saying something about how she'd NEVER wear her bra on the outside of her clothes and she'd NEVER dress up in public like how other people were doing it... well here's proof that you should never say NEVER!!!

Hmmmm that wouldn't happen to be a bra on top of your shirt would it Mum??? LOL Mum works for New World and they got a whole heap of them together and wore their pink shirts and dressed up and here is my Mum proudly walking down the street in her pink leggings and dancing petticoat... and you don't think you're fooling anyone with that halo do you???Way to go Mum!!! So cool to see you having some fun!!

We also had Mikayla's birthday lunch today :) Since Mum was coming over today we decided to celebrate this weekend and Krystal actually catered the party for her sister... AWESOME work Krystal!!

Here's the cool feast Krystal prepared: chip & dip, cheese & crackers, purploes (first time we'd tried them and they're really really YUM!!!), asparagus rolls, fairy bread (Mikayla's only real request!!) and some very tasty ham & salad sandwiches:And here's Mikayla and her best friend Micaela! The only problem is when I call 'Mikayla' they both answer LOL

I had to put this photo in too (even though Mikayla isn't looking at the camera) because it shows her new watch that Grandma gave her for her birthday... the best part according to Mikayla is that the 'second hand' is a tiny blue butterfly that goes around... and try as she might she can't see HOW it goes around LOLThen it was time for the cake... the girls actually worked together on this! Mikayla made the top layer and Krystal made the bottom layer :) Great team work! Then it was iced and had a flake crushed up over it. Krystal made sure she had the 'artistic drips' over the side... she was very pleased with the result!And yes the sponge really was THAT yellow!!! I helped out a friend of mine recently with some online stuff and then she turned up here with a tray of free range eggs from her chickens... Thanks Jo!!! The kids were a bit worried that it wasn't going to work without shop bought eggs... but now they've decided that free range eggs are much 'happier' eggs LOLHappy Birthday Mikayla... so pleased you had a cool party :)

After lunch we went down to Spotlight for a 'look'... yeah right! We came away with some fantastic bargins... especially from the fabric department!!! Krystal has decided that she'd like to learn to sew and they had some great deals on flanellete so she's learning how to make pajama pants! So far she's cut out her pants:

And now she's using my sewing machine and learning how to zig zag the edges and sew a straight line... and she's doing an awesome job! So far she's got one leg all sewn together and she's starting on the second leg... unfortunately I think she wants to finish them tonight!!! It looks like I might be in for a long night!!!