Happy...

Is this the face of a happy boy? Last year's sports day 100m was such a let down - C broke down mid-sprint with a pulled muscle. His confidence was shattered.

I have spent the last couple of weeks reminding him to stretch before each practice session, and that winning isn't everything.

Yesterday...

seems that it is everything after all! Confidence restored and all is now well in his 11 year-old world.


P.S. Just a thought - “If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?” Vince Lombardi

Finally and at last...

A couple of projects that have been taking far too long are finally finished - the curly calendar and my renovated memo board. Neither very spectacular, but things that kept getting put off. (Don't you hate the way life keeps intruding into craft time?!)

The Calendar is from Kaisercraft, one of my favourite companies for their innovative, affordable project items and their fantastically philanthropic company ethic. (Check them out here if you're interested.)

I had to alter it a bit - the kit has just dates and months. My kids always want to know the day, so I used the month tiles as days, and added a flower with some interchangable (good ol' velcro) chipboard centres to be the months instead.

The memo board is an old one from our office that was no longer needed. Now, with a bit of pretty-ing, it is a menu board for my kitchen, with whiteboard space for our meals for the week and pinboard for those recipes not in a book (You know - downloaded/photocopied/written at someone's house/stolen from a magazine at the dentist!)

P.S. A quote in honour of Toni - "It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever - the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it." Vince Lombardi Well done for all your fundraising efforts!

Very Inspiring...

The Scapbook and Papercraft Convention was great! I did 4 classes over two days, shopped for supplies, watched lots of demos, checked out new products, caught up with friends, had a night away from the kids and didn't have to cook for 48 hours. What's not to love?! The classes I did were excellent, the most fun one being Ngaire Bartlam's "Art of the Home". She made sure everyone had a whale of a time while creating something completely different - more for the collage art value than the photos! Not sure how I will fit this bumpy creation into my album, but it can sit on the recipe book stand for now. The second class was with Teneale Williams - a gorgeous lunch box tin with 4 mini cards inside. We had the choice of 2 out of 5 double-sided papers for the body and lid of the tin and there were not two tins the same in the whole class! The colours are so pretty and girly (not me at all usually!) but I love how it turned out.

The mini album class with Zoe Pearn was full on! In two hours most of us got about two thirds of the way through the project. She was very inspiring though, with great original ideas and a huge stash of products to use (and bring home to finish with!) My last class was 'Better Photos' with Rachel Richter which was very informative. I have changed a few settings on my camera and the shots are already looking better. Lots more experimenting to do!

Haven't had much sleep but it was a blast and I am feeling very inspired. Might even finish something!

Still busy..

A very busy weekend just gone, but not full of anything fun :( Just cleaning and mega-tidying - my boys prefer to wade through their rooms rather than walk, so aim to keep the floor covered from wall to wall with toys, clothes and artworks (in their opinion!). Every few weeks I just can't stand it and spend an entire day finding the floors again. We also have visitors this week, and I will be away at the Scrapbook Convention for the coming weekend (yay!), so everything needed to be ship-shape to start the week. I thought I would post some pics of older projects instead of the current unfinished ones...

This is my craft room clock that I re-vamped late last year. It's much more antique-y than my usual style, but I was trying to use some stash items that had been gathering dust. I quite like the way it turned out.

This is a card I made for my sis and BIL last month, using leftovers from my curly calendar (as yet unfinished). And this is my beautiful new fabric from Ink & Spindle - just arrived last week. Some yummy creations planned for these. P.S. My thought for the week - "The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your pocket." Kin Hubbard ...especially during the GFC!