Instagram love....

 

Zach's choice in china town

Coffee.......

Light up world industries and batman hi tops, my son has wicked taste in shoes.

How I love this city

My newest fur baby 

The craft fairy left an awful mess

Prime sleeping time brain....sleeping time

Haven't made a batch of these in a while

Wahhhh

Pugs on merry go rounds and in tea cups...shut up and take my money!

Crafting to post....

I have actual scrapbooking to post, that's right I scrapbooked.
To be fair I have had  these layouts sitting on my desk since September of last year, but I finally got my act together and I finally got some crafting done.

I am finally getting the hang of these boy layouts, I have always found it far more easier to scrap with pinks but these days I am enjoying the blues and greens and cheeky dirty faces in photos.  These layouts are a good combination as usual of new and older stuff, nothing  majorly old in these but just a mixed lot of stuff from my stash.

American Crafts goodies picked up on sake from Spotlight this week.  This is the last purchase like this in a long time for me, I am now on a spending freeze of sorts with only consumables and products for project life and my Wedding album allowed to be purchased.  I have enough stuff for me to comfortably craft from my stash for a while so I am being responsible with my cash and trying to make more things than I buy.

Purrty fabrics.  I am no sewer by any stretch of the imagination, my mum was an amazing seamstress and I have two friends who make the most amazing things but me......not so much and to be honest I don't really enjoy sewing all that much.  I do however hate paying huge amounts of money for things that I could easily and quite comfortably make myself and when I manage to get awesome fabric really cheap who am I to refuse.  I am really lucky to have a fabric clearance store around the corner from me and I am currently in the process of drawing up plans for some small sewing projects so who am I to refuse such pretty patterns ;)

Long overdue post

So this is rather overdue....
This is actually my second blogger account over the years, my first called some kinda craziness was a fairly apt title for that time in my life way back in 2007.  A few years later I decided to call it a day and move on from blogging as one I just didn't seem to have the time and secondly there was nothing crazy about my life anymore, no more high heels and big night out but rather early nights in pyjamas and crying babies, yes it was a different kind of crazy but it just wasn't the right fit for me anymore. 

After a long break I decided to start another blog, I am a crafter and I wanted the focus to be mainly scrapbooking and cards but as my kids get older, life gets busier and my spare time is becoming more and more precious keeping this blog as a craft only affair has become the impossible task.  I have not crafted nor created anything much in last six months, I hate to say it but I have been shopping more for supplies than actually using them.

I do enjoy blogging I used to keep many a journal back in the day so I have decided that I will keep plugging away at this blog but instead of just leaving as a long neglected place where I post sporadically I will start making more regular contributions on everything and anhthing, especially helped by the fact that blogger has finally put out an iphone app that I can actually use.

To more blogging....

The good, the bad and the meh!

So I am pretty big on e-bay, I have bought some fairly monumental fails from there but I have managed to snag some pretty awesome goodies here and there over the years.  Recently I found a seller who sold mainly paper and I have been stalking her sales for a few months.  I decided to finally cave and purchase a mix lot of paper that they had, what happened next was a case of the good, the bad and the meh.

The Good.
I really am happy with this lot of paper, like really happy.  What I love about them most of all is that besides that scenic route paper with the pretty polka dots I would never have bought these papers and I actually really love them, winning.

 Brands included in this lot are Teresa Collins, Pink Paislee, Scenic Route and Paper Chic

The Bad.
I am not a paper snob by any means and I am very comfortable using a ten year old paper, something from a stack or a big box store brand but I am also 100% aware that this hobby is something of a personal nature and that the paper that I like is not necessarily something that the person next to me will like and that is where buying a "lucky dip" of paper can be a problem.
Plain and simple I just did not like these papers.  Wrong patterns, colours, designs and most of these were old like really old, Past the use by date for me.

Brands included CherryArte, Pink Paislee, Adorne it, Heidi Grace, Paper Chic

The Meh.
These are neither good nor bad, they are just meh for me, I have plans for all of them including cards, possible invitations and cutting up, like I said its all about personal preference but these are neither here nor there for me.

Brands included Adorne it, Paper Chic, CherryArte and Teresa Collins for Coredinations.

Would I buy paper like this again?

No.

The seller was top notch, the idea great, the shipping time and condition perfect and the price was really reasonable at about 60c a sheet but....
I am likely only going to use about 8-9 sheets out of 20 and some of these papers are seriously old, that Heidi Grace yellow and orange number is dated from 2004.
It was a good and bad experience a 50% success rate but I think in the future I will not buy paper sight unseen and just hand pick my pretties.

What I have been Instagraming....

 

 

Just a peeek into my little life over the last couple of months.

 

Catch up....

So......

It has been a really loooong time since I last posted, way to go on the keeping up with this blogging thing huh.  This year has been crazy, seriously crazy busy with  lots of big changes and a huge amount of emotional stress.  Anyways onto the very long overdue catch up.

 

The first huge and obvious thing was my beautiful Teela going off for her first day of Prep.  It really was not a sad day but a happy one, she was so ready for it and all the ups and downs that being at school bring.  She is doing amazing and her teacher is not only great but has nothing but praise for my little one, it has really been a huge positive in her life.

The terror also started with his first day of Kindy.  Zach just like his sister was so ready for this and it has really brought him out of his shell.  He is in the same room and with the same teachers that Teela had last year and I think that has really helped my socially awkward little dude.

 

 

New Car......A new car.  So not on the plans but after the third incident with the commodore in less then three months it was time to say goodbye to old faith full and hello to something a little more fuel friendly and reliable.

Say what.....another different car. After months and months and months of Jasons baby being for sale we had actually come to realise that it was not going anywhere, but after a week of emails and phone calls from someone the car was gone and we decided to buy a much more family friendly car that we could at least all fit into.

A few trips here and there to the beach before it get too cold, I do miss living so close to the beach but we are only a 45 minute drive away so we do try and go up as much as we can.

A little spot of Easter camping in what is possibly the most beautiful and intriguing places I have ever been.

And then there is all the trips to the supermarket, all the work, social occasions, cleaning, washing, driving, errands, playing, tidying mowing, household shenanigans and the general busy that surrounds this crazy family of four.

A week via Instagram...

My car broke down on my first child free day in over two years, it was time for a serious coffee while I waited for it to be fixed. 

Waiting Patiently.....It has been a whole year since I last smelled the glorious flowers on this tree.

In full bloom....They never fail to impress me, so beautiful and so so delicate but only here for such a short time.

My Husband cooked me dinosaurs for dinner....

He is scared not of monsters or the boogeyman, but of the humble toothbrush.... 

Foodgasm, pork belly taco and fish taco from Workshop Co, amazeballs....

Gazing up....The ceiling at Fort

Park Life.... A spontaneous trip to the bookshop and then the park for the afternoon, keeps both mummy and Zach happy.

 

 

Blast from the past, product edition....

One of the topics that seems to regularly comes up on two peas is that of old stash, using it, purging it, what you consider old, how to incorporate old and new....the list goes on.

I have been scrapbooking for ten years now and I guess that you could say that I have slowly been accumulating a small stash.   I do not care if a product is old, or discontinued, the manufacturer is no longer around or heaven forbid not trendy anymore, if I like it and still have a use for it I will use it.

Some things however just do not have a place in my scrappy life anymore like eyelets, paper piecings, fibers and stencil letters from those orange fiskars templates, urgh just not for me so if it has gone past its use by date I will donate I am not one of these people holding onto the dinkiest of supplies.

So all of this leads me to these two layouts, proudly made using new and OLD product.

 

 How I love this photo.  My son has always been the most difficult in terms of tantrums out of my two children and  "the Zachy meltdown" as my daughter refers to his outbursts is a really common sight in our household.

 

Okay so onto the old stuff, I finally used the very last piece (no I should say scrap) of this blue and white damask print from Jenni Bowlin, I want to say that it is from her first release but I can't remember but what I do know is that I bought it in 2007 or 2008, boy I loved that paper and I am sad that its now officially all gone.
 

 

See lovely, isn't it. 

Most of the paper under/behind the photo is old, like 2003 old maybe even older.  It is all from a KI memories stack and as much as I do love some of these simple graphic patterns the paper is horrible, its is cheap and thin but I can't for the life of me throw it out because I love the retro prints, like I really love these prints and there is just nothing like them out there anymore.

 

I love the way that this layout turned out.
All of the paper on this layout is old which only makes me love it even more.  The S.E.I pattern paper is fairly ancient and the coloured paper is just that, paper not cardstock.  These are relics from the early days of scrapbooking when big box stores used to sell 100 packs of thin and crappy paper with terrible colour quality and fastness but it matched perfectly and I refuse to throw out paper that is a nice colour.

 

Again I love this layout.  The colours are me, I was able to use old products from my stash that I love as much today as the day that I bought them and I got to record a really special memory to me.

 

Comings and goings....

I can't believe that we are already halfway through the month, where does all the time go?

 New Years, spent at my best friends place enjoying drinking games, Connect Four, BBQ's, swims in the pool and just a lot of sitting around doing nothing with a drink in hand. 

 A day trip back to my beautiful Coolum Beach with a swim at Stumers, seriously could not have picked a more perfect day, bliss.

Followed by a quick trip to the Ginger Factory for a ride on the train and an ice cream.  We used to live in Yandina and although I had been to the Ginger Factory grounds a few times I had never been on that train, was nice to cross that off my things to do list.  

 Guzman Y Gomez with our friend, only our favourite place to eat in the Valley with a frozen Margarita no less and followed with a peanut butter ice cream.......woah there awesome.

A trip into the Brisbane Museum to see the dinosaurs. 

 And then a trip to Sushi Train for lunch, only my kids ultimate place to eat with the ultimate food you could ask for even more so than McDonalds....something is wrong with those awesome kidlets of mine

 

A trip to Spotlight.  It has been a while since I have treated myself to some crafty supplies, actually I was at Trade Secret looking for clothes but somehow I ended up in Spotlight with no clothes but a bag of craft goodies.  I am feeling 100% guilt free with this lot as the Franchville washi tapes and glitter dots were 50% off, the Christmas ribbon was 30c a roll and although full price for the Thickers I used the $10 off voucher from the Spotlight magazine so I actually got them for FREE, man I love that deal. 

Time flies when your having fun.....

Wow, well it has been a while, a loooong while in actual fact.

My last post here was in September.....September!  That is a mental long time to not have posted here. 
We have had a pretty hectic schedule the last couple of months, quite a few trips back home, a visitor from New Zealand and quite a bit of tiki touring around this beautiful part of Queensland, Kindy and the whole breakup at the end of the year, friends opening up cafes yes multiple friends opening up different cafes, parties, countless trips to the supermarket, a camping trip, my sisters 18th birthday, and then we have Christmas the holiday break and the upcoming New Years.

We have also endured some interesting and trying moments in the last few months of the year.  TWO pairs of broken eye glasses yep even my spare pair broke thank goodness for superglue and electrical tape SIGH, a broken car TWICE, a HUGE bill that was most unexpected, a dying computer, a broken washing machine which meant lots of hand washing and trips to the laundromat and then there was my miss T's feet....weeks of leg casting, an operation to both feet, a wheelchair and then the whole experience of  learning to walk all over again, it was sobering and sad and frustrating and hard but at the end of the day she is back on her two feet and I am so proud of my strong little trooper.

My creativity has taken a huge backseat over the last few months.  I have made a few cards which I forgot to photograph, I made some customised towels for two little twin princesses a whole tonnage of birthday cakes and an almost no sew Christmas outfit for my kiddos but apart from that anything crafty has just been a no go, I even put my foot down and refused point blank to do any Christmas cooking which is something that I ALWAYS do. Speaking of cooking I have been baking again for work which has been fun but I am getting the itch for and would rather be back in my cave and getting my craft on.

Here is hoping that the New Year brings some better luck our way and waaaay more creativity.