my ramblings

National Trust, Science week and daffodils

While I was away recently, Phoebe and friends went to the National Trust office here in Sydney for the presentation morning for the National Trust Schools Competition.

They were thrilled to be placed second (and received a highly commended award) in the competition. This is what the judges said about their project: "A beautifully presented description of the Suspension Bridge. The three students have clearly and simply described the history, heritage and significance of the bridge in an engaging way."

The original post about the scrapbook can be found HERE. And the competition press release from the National Trust can be found HERE. I was so proud of them.

This week is Science week at the girls school. The senior kids were given a project to create a mobile from objects found around the home. Emily worked with two friends to create this:

Yep, the classic combination of coat hangers, vegetables and ribbon, all strung together to balance perfectly.

Then it started raining here this morning, and the mobile was meant to be water proof. Sooo, Emily decided to make the mobile an umbrella. (I'm not sure how much glad wrap we have left in the cupboard... note... add glad wrap to shopping list)

And while I was out this morning with the camera I took some photos of our daffodils. Three months back the girls and I planted our bulbs into some pots.

Well, here's what we've been enjoying over the last couple of weeks. They are so bright and happy.

That's about all for now! Thanks for visiting. Hope you're having a great day :-)

Cheers

Fiona x

a couple of scrapbooking projects

Thought I'd share a little project which will be making it's way to the Maya Road stand at CHA Summer very soon.

This is a Maya Road Secret Box and matching Secret Box Chipboard Book. The little book is very cute, only 3"x3" in size. I've used lots of Urban Lily products to decorate. The word "celebrate" on the outside of the box has Derivan KindyGlitz added for a bit of girly shimmer. This little book lists just a few of the many, many things I love about my gorgeous Emily.

Inside I've writting the "I love..." in journaling shapes stamped from the Maya Road Foundations Jouraling Clear Stamps.

The little book can then be stored inside the box.

 

I was also thrilled to have a couple of my layouts using Fontwerks Write Line papers appear over on the Aussie Scrap Source blog last week. I've shared my 'The Euphonium' layout previously, but here's a new one I completed using some Fontwerks papers.

The letters in the large title {WAIT} are covered Maya Road Philadelphia chipboard letters. And I'm pleased to report our bulbs which we planted in the above layout are now sprouting little green stalks. Bring on Spring!

Thanks for the well wishes for my mum who is in hospital, she is doing OK.

Hope you have a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

weekly catch up

Really quick catch up, here while I'm having a cuppa tea :-)) Life just seems to be really busy with the girls at moment and time is flying by. Here's a few random ramblings:

I'll start with something completely different. DH has joined the blog world, but it's not about scrapbooking... You can see it here: GROW YOUR EGG. Not sure I totally understand all he's chatting about, but I'm sure he really doesn't always understand what I'm saying when I speak in scrapbooking-talk!

I have no printer... still. It's been almost a week. I'm hoping to have it back tomorrow, I think the daily {harassing} phone calls to my printer doctor have helped, or maybe not! Apparently my printer needed a huge number of major parts replaced. The fabulous people at Epson have apparently agreed to replace all the parts for me, which is a huge relief!

Soooo, no printer.... no photos.... not much scrapbooking to share!

Thought I'd share one of my favourite photos from the past week or so. It captures a few of my favourite things... my family, a sunny autumn Sunday in Sydney, a great cup of coffee, some relaxing time together.

This photo was taken Sunday week ago when we went down to Chowder Bay (Clifton Gardens) on Sydney Harbour. We'd heard one of our favourite coffee places had opened up somewhere amongst the old military buildings. Well we found it. BACINO BAR (famous in my opinion for it's "hole in the wall" cafe at beautiful Dee Why beach) has a tiny little kiosk in an old bunker over looking Chowder Bay. And it also has a cafe just up the hill over looking Sydney Harbour. After our coffee we then walked the headland round to Balmoral Beach and back, just beautiful...

Emily cooked this last night:

Absolutely delicious. The girls decided to host a 'surprise' birthday party for their dad last night (he's birthday is actually end of this week). They cooked dinner, hamburgers for our main and Emily's berry bread and butter pudding for dessert. A little tip, Emily used Tip Top's Golden Crumpet bread in this pudding and it was sooo yummy! (Thanks Donna Hay for the recipe)

And although it is only the beginning of May, my front garden thinks its spring. I was surprised to find these little rays of sunshine on the weekend.

We are growing strawberries! Highly recommend these for the kids to grow, nothing much seems to kill them (not even too much love and attention), they just need a little sunshine, and the kids love picking them from the plant and eating them right away!!! {and I think they look really pretty growing in a pot}

I had a lovely couple of hours with Tamar and Ngaire down at the Rocks after KiwiScraps a week ago. We discovered the button shop, Buttons Buttons, which I had heard of, but had never visited. Gorgeous... if you like buttons, which I do, they have a fantastic selection of new and vintage buttons. Was nice to sit and chat over cake and coffee with these girls too.

Well that's about all. Come back over the next day or so, as I'll be hosting another RAK.

Don't forget about the Page Maps sketch challenge over at the Paper Salon blog. Some lovely entries being linked over there.

Have a great week.

Thanks for visiting!

Fiona x

sharing a bit of love today

***warning... this post contains lots of hearts, reds and pinks, proceed with care!***

Firstly.... HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Well, my valentine has made an early delivery this morning. Along with my morning cup of tea, I was given this beautiful bunch of roses. Aren't they gorgeous and they smell so sweet! What a perfect way to start the day.

A few of the projects I've been working on recently all seem to have one theme... love. So I thought I'd share a bit of these love-themed projects all in one big post today.

Here we go...

I'm loving the new Maya Road clear stamps. Below is a card I made using one of these new stamps, some MR chipboard and velvet ric rac. I promised myself that this year I would get back to sewing more on my projects. I used to sew a lot and, for no particular reason, I stopped. So this year I'm returning to my sewing, cause I always love the look of it and sometimes its the most effective way to attach something to a layout. This card marks my return to sewing!

Next love-themed project is a mini book about my loves, created using a Maya Road 6"x6" Heart Chipboard Binder book, Paper Salon papers and some MR chipboard shapes to decorate.

And a few of the inside pages:

Emily loves to take a little valentine's gifts for each of her friends at school. Last night we made these chipboard heart hangers. The hearts were covered with Paper Salon Smitten papers, then decorated with chipboard hearts and a letter to represent the initial of each friend. On the back she's written a message. We've stuck a chocolate on the back too.

About a year ago {not sure of the exact dates} I taught a couple of scrapbooking classes to forty lovely ladies at the Scrapalicious Tassie Retreat in Hobart. It was such a great weekend, Sarah and Mel were fantastic organizers and hosts of this event. Rachel Richter was there too and she is always fun to be with :-)

Thought I'd share the sample layout from one of the classes, since it is a love-themed layout and today is a day of love. A year after teaching this layout I'm still seeing lots of scrapbooking layouts with big hearts on them.

If you are still here and reading... well done! :-)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Thanks for visiting and have a fantastic day.

Fiona

x