My Play Ground

How time flies!

I'm not sure why it still surprises me how quickly time flies.  I grew up with mum telling me each year seems to go by quicker and quicker.  I now know what she meant.  This year is just disappearing before my eyes, weeks go by and I have to stop and think what have I done with my time, surely it can't nearly be August.

We have had our fair share of common colds and bugs this winter and I have just recovered from the worst Flu I think I've ever had.  The doctors didn't test but said it was possibly swine flu, now I know why everyone is complaining about it.  It came on so quickly and within hours I was in bed and couldn't move.  Luckily I have a great supportive family and my husband was Mr Mum for a few days and let me rest.  Luckier still the rest of the family have avoided it, so far.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

My big boy Thomas is celebrating his 100 days of school today.  It got me thinking how quickly he is growing up and how much he is learning and changing.  This is Tom this morning.  They had to wear something that represented 100 and Thomas wanted to decorate a T-Shirt which we did at 8pm last night and have 100 on his face.  Also check out the back of his hair.  These were all Tom's ideas and I helped with putting it together.  It is really hard as a parent not to step in and do the work for them and I'm really trying to encourage Tom to make decisions for himself and just give a little guidence.  I think he looked great this morning and was very proud walking him into School.

 

 

The first 100 days of school has gone by so quickly, I still remember that excited anxious feeling when we were walking him into class that very first day.  I miss having my big boy around and often find myself thinking about him and wondering what he is doing now.  He may be growing up and becoming less dependant on me, but he is never far from my thoughts and is always in my heart.

May the next 100 days of school be as good as the first.

Until next time,

Erica xxx

A quick post

Just a quick post to share with you a layout I just completed of my clever boy Will.  I have CASEd this LO from somewhere out there in internet land but can't remember where.  I saved it into a file of LO's I like and came across it the other day and decided to give it a go.  I just loved the stitched border and stars on the original and I have made some changes of my own.  All the stitching is done by hand after piercing the holes first.  It was quiet nice to sit and watch TV while doing some stitching.

 

I have lots more LO's and projects to share with you over the next few days.  Thomas is heading off to his Grandads for a few nights so hopefully I'll find some more time for blogging.  I've enjoyed having him around these holidays and realised how much he is growing up now that he is a big school kid.  But I will also enjoy some time to myself again while he has a holiday at Grandads. 

Hope all you Mums out there are enjoying the holidays.

Bye for now,

Erica  xoxo

Sprung!

I decided to make a chicken pie for dinner tonight and after making the filling I was letting it cool down before putting it into the base to put in oven.  While the filling was cooling I decided to surf for awhile until I realised Will, now 2, was very quiet.  Upon investigation I found Will in the Kitchen 1) eating the grated cheese that was to go in the pie and 2) putting the cheese in the mixture.  He is just too cheeky at the moment and he knew he was sprung.  I just had to get the camera out to take a few photos before removing him from the kitchen and locking the gate. Note to self: lock kitchen gate more often.

 

  

I just had to put this last shot in.  I asked Will to smile and this is what I got.

 

As you can also see I cook the way I scrap.  MESSY.  Oh well it's the end result that counts.  The pie is now in the oven, fingers crossed it works as it was a bit of an experiment. 

Hope you are all well and happy.

With Love

akv Erica vka

 

I think I'm going to cry

What is it they say about the best made plans?  After confirming the details of our girls day out to Paperific with Anita, my eldest son Thomas developed a sore throat and a temperature last night.  After a restless night sleeping in bed with me he woke up the same.  While he wasn't overly unwell I couldn't send him to school, my mum is still overseas so she couldn't have him and I didn't think it fair to drag him around Paperific.  So I had to ring and cancel our day out and I have spent the day at home with a semi sick child.  Luckily he's happy watching movies, drawing and using the computer and I have been able to sit and scrap. 

After spending 4 days on the last page, I decided to go for a couple of quick and easy pages.  Neither one took very long and I'm happy with the outcome.  This first LO is based on a sketch and LO of Makeesha Byl's which I saw ages ago on her blog. 

 

And my second LO is of my nephew Jasper with Thomas taken last year at easter.  They are so different to look at and in personality but are really good buddies.

 

Hope you are all having a lovely Friday.  We are fortunate down here in Melbourne to be seeing a bit of sunshine, yippee.  And to everyone who got to Paperific hope you're having a great time.

With Love

akv Erica vka

It's taken awaile

My kitchen table has been covered in paper and photos all week just to get this one page done.  I started on Monday after selecting the photos and having a plan in my head of the layout I wanted.  It seemed really easy but when I came to putting it all together it just wasn't working.  So everyday I have fiddled and played trying to get it "just right".  I really wanted to use the colours from Will's top of brown and pale blue, but the bright yellow of the cake and the bright orange from our friend Corey's top kept clashing. 

So after eating dinner on our laps all week I really needed to finish the LO today.  Not sure if I'm happy with it but I think I've spent to much time looking at it.  Might put it away and see how I feel in a few weeks.  My husband will also be glad to have the kitchen table back.  I'm not one of those fortunate scrappers that has a scrap room.  I have to make do with the kitchen table and pack up after each session.  Although that is not really a bad thing because I'm also not the neatest scrapper and this way I'm forced to keep it clean and pack up after each session.

I have included journaling under one of the small photos held down by the paperclip.  I often get to the end of a LO and realise I haven't left room for journaling, probably because I've never been comfortable with my writing.  English, spelling and grammar have never been my strong point.  Hiding it under a lift up photo is my way of including the story without sharing it with the world.

After just celebrating Will's 2nd Birthday I realised how much he has grown up in the last year.  Although he still loves "Raffee" his giraffe soft toy as much today as he did when he was 1.  Some things never change.

I'm really looking forward to a day out tomorrow with my dear friend Anitato Paperific.  We very rarely get time together without the kids these days so it will be nice to have a girlie day out together.

Hope everyone has had a good week, see you soon,

akv Erica vka

Another page and a card

I have just had a lovely 3 day weekend with my family mostly celebrating Will's 2nd Birthday.  After our celebrations on Friday night we spent Saturday catching up on chores.  On Sunday we had a lovely day at the Melbourne Zoo with Grandma, Uncle Boz and Keanii.  Then on Monday my sister and her family came over for lunch.  Last night I finally got to sit down and finish this page that I started last weekend.  I have used the new Stampin' Up! DS paper Urban Garden which I absolutely LOVE while Baja Breeze and Kiwi Kiss have to be my favourite In Colour combination at the moment.  These photos were taken at our annual easter camping trip to Mount Beauty last year.  Will was only 10 months old but had such a ball playing and digging in the dirt with the older boys.  Check out how dirty his suit is. 

 

I also wanted to share with you one of the cards Will got for his Birthday from his Aunty Anita. Wills favourite toy is a Giraffe given to him by Anita and her family when he was born, in fact he wont sleep or go anywhere without it, which makes this card so appropriate.

 

For more of Anita's work check out her blog here, she is so amazingly talented.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks to everyone who has left comments since my return to blog land.  It's so nice to feel supported and know people are actually looking at my stuff.

Take care,

akv Erica vka

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

Yesterday we celebrated my baby boys 2nd Birthday.  WOW how time flies. Will has been my baby for so long and now he is suddenly turning into a little boy, as well as a little monster.  He has suddenly found his voice and is talking non stop, and of course he repeats everything his big brother has to say and do.  He definately has a mind of his own and knows exactly what he wants.  Although at 5am this morning when he woke up screaming I only wish he would use some of his new words to tell me what he wanted.  He screamed for more than 1/2 an hour and definately wanted something but couldn't tell us what.  People don't believe me when I say he can scream because most of the time he's very cute and very charming.

Last night we celebrated his birthday with a few family and friends.  He loved opening all the presents and was delighted with his new football from the "Meades".  Everyone was amazed with his ball skills which include throwing, catching, handballing and a pretty mean drop kick.  He loved his new ball so much it even went to bed with him. 

Here are a few photos of the night including his cake which I had alot of fun decorating.

Unwrapping presents

 

Party Food with Thomas, Jayden and Corey

 

The birthday cake

  

My Family

 

Thankyou to my dear friend Anita who took this photo, we very rarely get a photo of the 4 of us together.  It's time like this that I realise how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family and some really special friends to help us celebrate these important events in our lives.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  We are looking forward to 3 wonderful days together.  Darren has been working 6 days a week for so long now, that 3 days feels like heaven to us.

See you soon,

akv Erica vka

Mama's Bangle

As I mentioned in my last post about my Mum and Dad being on a big OS trip.  They have now been gone 2 weeks with another 6 weeks to go.  Currently they are on their way back to London after spending a week in Scotland.  How exciting, it brings back memories of the trip Darren and I did in 1999.  Scotland was one of our favourite places and someday I hope to go back and show the boys how great it is.

This page of Will and Mama tells the story of mum’s bangle.  All 4 grandkids have played and sucked and chewed her bangle during their difficult teething months.  They have all loved it and have all left tiny teeth indentations on it as a lasting reminder of the love they have for their “mama”.  Imagine the germs all 4 kids have shared!

 

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon

akv Erica vka

 

 

A New Post.........at last!

Well, it’s been a long time between posts and for a long time I wasn’t sure whether I would ever post again.  Every day I scroll through so many blogs that inspire and amaze me but something always stops me from posting.  I have never been confident at writing and I’m always so critical of my work that I wait for the perfect piece to display.  But a lot has changed in my life over the past few months.  I stopped and reassessed my life and realised just how stressed and unhappy I was becoming.  So slowly I am making changes and my inspiration and desire to create is coming back.

 

Today I would like to share a page I made on the weekend of my mum and dad at Thomas’ kinder last year on grandparents day.  I am currently working on an album for 2008 and with my parents away on a big OS trip these photos inspired my to scrap.  My kids absolutely adore their Mama and Papa who play a huge role in our lives, so we are missing them heaps.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you soon with some more pages I did on the weekend.

 

Cheers

 

akv Erica vka

 

 

Pretty in Pink

My very dear and clever friend Anita designed and made a mini pocket album like this one below. And because she is so generous she allowed me to copy it.  Anita's original album measured 3 X 3 inches,  but I decided to make it slightly bigger and try 4 X 4 inches.  I thought this would be a nice gift for someone special by putting photos, quotes or messages on the 5 different pull out tabs.  It would also be perfect to list all the special things you love about someone or somethingin your life.  Another idea was to turn it into a gift certificate album by creating personalised certificates such as "take you out for lunch" or "buy you a bunch of flowers" to give to someone special, of course you then have to remember to follow through with all these promises. 

Pocket Album front

Pocket Album open

Pocket Album with tab pulled out

Thank you for looking and if you want to see more of Anita's amazing work check out her blog here

Cheers,

Erica