If you don’t know what I’m going on about I’m having a CT call… I haven’t had one in over two years… because they are HARD!! And this one is especially hard!!!!!!!
Why does everyone have to be such a good scrapper these days? Can you lower your standards and help me out here? (LOL – just kidding). So far, I have 45 “possibles”. And that’s as far as I can narrow it down. And, no, I don’t need another 45 members on my CT – LOL!
So, I need to procrastinate to stop me from going insane over the applications – yay!
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I haven’t shared any pages in a while, so I thought I’d get busy with my camera and actually take pictures of some of my recent projects…
This one is from an older BG line, Marrakech, which I bought ages ago to match these pictures… So, in fact I am almost 29 by the time I got around to it, but I still got the page done – LOL!
I found the Sassafras Lass Bungle Jungle line like an age after it came out… but I am smitten! I’ve done not one but TWO pages, and a mini book. And I could have done more, but I ran out of the papers – LOL! This is my pick for the ultimate boy line (probably even just generic children’s line)… Sorry, Lil Robots, you’ve been booted from my top spot
{Josh calls the zoo the “zoom” – I think it’s cute}
I have a million pre-made albums that I probably should use up, LOL, but none were the size I wanted so I destroyed a few notebooks for their back covers, cut them down to size, and made my own album for this one…
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And in other exciting news (ha!) I’ve discovered Versamark Ink and I’m in love. I had no idea… No longer will I have to buy inks just one shade darker than the paper I’m using. Nope, those days are OVER my friend! So, needless to say I’ve been procrastinating with stamping monotone images on pieces of scrap cardstock to see my brilliant new discovery in action.
You do know I’m blonde, don’t you??
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Okay, procrastination over… better go and bust this butt to get some work done! Yippee!
… and I felt like time had disappeared right before my very eyes! It does NOT feel like three years ago that I brought this little bundle home from hospital. {BTW – hasn’t he turned into a handsome young devil?}
This year we got Josh a REAL bike for his birthday… We thought it would be fun to start the day normally and give him his helmet to unwrap first. Sure the helmet was great fun, but he had absolutely no idea what was coming… priceless! I could tell he was thinking “hmmm, what is this thing for??”
And then we coaxed him outside with the promise of playing with the new helmet. {Oh what fun!! LOL!} So then he saw what the REAL surprise was:
And he took to it pretty quickly – he’s gonna be a pro in no time at all!
We had not one, but TWO birthday do’s for our little guy. The first was just a last minute family thing on his actual birthday… and an excuse for me to ruin a cake before the REAL party when people who actually cared what the cake looked like would be there. This is my first attempt. It’s meant to be a Toy Story themed cake, seeing as that’s his favourite thing at the moment…
Hmmm, not sure it came across that way, maybe more just a cloudy cake?? LOL!
Haha, lucky I had a trial run, huh?
He had a great day all in all… He got a bike, helmet, Toy Story movies, a Buzz Lightyear laptop toy, and even a real guitar…
{Which apparently is quite frightening}
The following weekend we had his proper birthday bash and we had most of the family, extended family, friends, everyone… I’m so glad birthdays only come round once a year! He had a great time running around with all the kids and being the centre of attention {for a change}!
And eating cake. Which didn’t turn out much better, even considering the practice run I had. Martha Stewart I am not! But at least it was a little more adventurous on the decorating.
… that My Mind’s Eye has just previewed my new release for CHA? For all my digi-scrapping peeps, this will be a little familiar…
… and for my paper-scrapping fans, it will be the cutest thing you’ve seen all year… Promise! There’s two collections – one for the boys and one for the girls. Each contains 9 papers, a die cut accessory sheet, a chipboard accessory sheet, brads… and a gorgeous set of playing cards! It’s full of super cute animals and is just plain FUN! (Click HERE to see the complete line.)
And if you head on over to the My Mind’s Eye Blog, they are giving away a complete set to one lucky reader! All you have to do is post a comment by July 13 to be in the running to win!
Thanks for letting me share… I’m so excited about this line – it’s my favourite yet!!
Now, enough business… what have I been up to you might ask?
Well, for the last few months I’ve been doing my head in designing us a new kitchen… on a really (and I mean REALLY) tight budget. We went back and forth on whether we’d do it or not, and finally decided that it’s something that will make our home so much more how we want it to be, so we bit the bullet and decided to go ahead with it! That was only a few weeks ago, and since then it’s been a whirlwind of activity around here knocking down walls and putting in our beautiful new kitchen. Everything happened so quickly, I still can’t believe we’re as far along as we are (and it’s all thanks to my favourite plumber in the world – more on him later – and our hot water system springing a leak at an opportune time for him to get us organised.)
It’s not finished yet – we’ll be without benchtops (and therefore appliances ) for the next couple of weeks while they get made, but so far it’s looking good! I’ve been taking photos as we go, so I’ll post the before and after soon! Well, as soon as it’s finished – LOL!
The pregnancy is going well… I’m 19 weeks along now! Already! I remember last time it seemed to take forever to get to this point (almost half way – yay!!), but this time it’s literally flying by. I’m sure before I know it, I’ll be holding this new babe in my arms and the pregnancy will be a distant memory – LOL! I will definitely have to take some bump photos… Problem is I’m afraid of shattering my camera if I take any photos – I am HUGE! And it’s not all baby either More like 30% baby, 70% food baby LOL!
I had my first antenatal appointment at the hospital on Monday night, and the midwife I met was lovely and put my mind at ease about everything. After my labour with Josh, and the nightmare that it was, I was really scared this time around about it all and how it would pan out. I mean, I might only have a couple of hours this time!! The experience I had at that hospital, and the horrible midwife that I was landed with, really scared me and is the reason it’s taken nearly three years to feel comfortable to have another one.
Originally, I considered a home birth because I couldn’t imagine having to go through that again… But Marty and my Doctor were totally against it, so it’s off to the hospital for me. BUT, the good news is I’ve put my name down to get into a program that allows you to have your own midwife (or her assistant) leading up to and attending the birth!! Seriously, I feel so relieved at the prospect of having a familiar face at the birth, and I’m HOPING that I get the lady that I met at the hospital. She was so nice, and I felt so comfortable with her that I’m sure she’d be a great midwife to have at your labour. I find out next week if I’m accepted into the program, so keep your fingers crossed for me!!
We go for the 19 week Morphology scan tomorrow, but we’re not going to find out what it is this time. Believe me, it’s soooo tempting (I think because I know we can find out if we want to)… but seeing as this is probably going to be our last little one, I want to have that surprise element at the end. It was lovely to find out with Josh, but it kind of made me sad that we didn’t have that surprise ending. Though, for him, we really needed to find out so we could get a bit prepared. This time round, we have enough baby stuff to last us a while whether it’s a boy or a girl! Although if it’s a girl, I’m sure I’ll be straight out to the shops from the hospital and buying up as much PINK stuff as I can – LOL!
In other exciting news (for me anyway LOL), I got a REALLY super exciting and freaking dream come true new contract recently!! I don’t know if I should say too much about it or who it’s for (I’m never sure that I’m allowed to LOL)… But, I am so super duper crazy excited about this. Seriously a dream come true for me… Let me just say you’ll be seeing a fair bit more product on the shelves from me in the coming months… or should I say on the bolt? Hint taken?
Okay, well the last few days of Zoe’s Kitchen Nightmares have drained me completely and I’m going to hit the sack! Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon with photos and stuff!
So I mentioned last week that there might have been something that has been keeping me “busy” the last couple of months, and finally I can share our happy news!
Yes, we are officially certifiable and are having another baby! I’m 13 weeks along now, so I’m out of the “danger zone” and I’ve been busting to tell…
We had our first ultrasound on Wednesday, and it brought back so many happy memories from last time… It truly is amazing to see your baby for the first time! It finally feels real to me, so that’s a good thing! And it was so cute, it looked like it was sleeping – it had it’s little hands covering it’s face… And then at the end it must have gotten disturbed and started kicking it’s little legs. So cute! The only thing was, that was when they took the next picture… before this, there were some really clear ones coming up where I could actually distinguish what was what… But not on this one – LOL!
The other good thing about being past that first trimester is I’m feeling sooo much better! I tell you, I was so sick in the beginning… I must have had it so easy with Josh! All day and all night… queasy, tired, the works. Well, not actually vomiting except for a couple of occasions (I’m not much of a vomiter LOL), but enough to make me feel utterly crap. But now it’s all good again!
Josh is SUPER excited about it all… He keeps telling people:
“Guess what happening kwismas night?”
{oh I HOPE it’s not Christmas night… or my birthday for that matter, I can think of much more fun things to be doing than being in labour}
(whispers) “A BABY!”
And every time he sees one of those gushy nappy ads with all the babies he gets all sweet and gooey himself. He does love himself a baby, that boy! And I’m happy to give him one
Oh, and I’m as big as a house ALREADY! The ladies at my scrapbooking classes keep telling me how much more pregnant I look each week, and I’m like… “Dudes! I’m only 13 weeks, I should NOT be showing yet!!”. But apparently I am. Maybe it has something to do with my crazy cravings for croissants and lollies… I’ve almost emptied a family sized bag of Party Mix lollies tonight. That was something I had easy last time around too… Ahhh, to be 20kg lighter before falling pregnant again – LOL!
Sometimes when I visit my regular blogs I get very upset when they’re not updated regularly… and then I think of my poor handful of blog readers and how they must fear for my safety on a regular basis, or just think I’m completely unreliable and just give up on visiting. I am still alive, but I am most definitely very unreliable.
I’ve had a few excuses though for my absence, one of which I will tell you about next week… holidays were had… and I’ve been working feverishly on a very exciting and CUTE MME line for CHA. More on that later I also have a case of blog-o-phobia… You know it’s like when you haven’t called someone for ages and it just gets harder and scarier the longer you leave it? Too much to catch up on in too little time… But never mind!
So I’ve had some big revelations over the last few months… If anyone has followed my very sporadic postings over the last few years, you’ll notice that a common thread is my struggle to balance my work and family life. This is something that has caused me many sleepless nights trying to strike that happy medium.
Anyways, a few months back I might have mentioned that I was making my way over to the States for CHA Winter (I know I haven’t blogged about this, but it’s sooo ancient history now LOL). Leading up to it, I was apprehensive about leaving my family for a week but it was an important thing for me to do for many reasons… For work, my career, facing fears about meeting complete strangers, etc. But mainly I was so excited about having a week where I was FREE from my normal existence… I wasn’t going to be on call 24/7 as a mother and a wife, I could sleep through the night without fear of being woken 5 times, no cleaning, hell I might even be able to let my hair down a bit and have some FUN! I was looking forward to a week where I could be whoever and whatever I wanted to be, whatever I wanted for people to see, and it was an exciting feeling.
You see, since having Josh I guess I feel in a lot of ways that I have lost my identity… I no longer feel confident in knowing who I am. I’m sure lots of Mums feel that way at some point or another, but I guess I had mourned my “before-child” life since the moment I had Josh and realised the responsibility that had landed on my doorstep. And the longer I wished for my old life to somehow come back to me, the more exciting it seemed to become… My pre-Josh existence had become in my mind the holy grail. I must get back to that at some point, I thought, and this was my chance.
So, I went to CHA, and it was great… I learnt a lot about my industry, I got to meet a lot of people that I would otherwise never have met. I made friends (and maybe even some enemies? LOL). I did get to have that freedom, the sleep on an incredibly comfortable Hilton bed and pillow (absolute BLISS by the way, do try it if you get the chance), the crazy nights and fun like I haven’t had in so many years.
But the most overwhelming thing was that above all, I missed my baby. I never thought I had it in me to yearn for somebody so much. I never knew that my heart could ache that badly for something. That the sound of my little boy singing songs about Thomas the Tank Engine to me on Skype would bring me to tears and drive me to drink myself into a stupor just so I wouldn’t have to sit in my hotel room and cry. Because that’s what I did when I wasn’t with people having fun. And it was no fun at all, let me tell you. I counted the minutes from when I landed at LAX to when I’d touch down at BNE. It was the longest week of my life.
In the last couple of hours on my flight home, I could barely contain myself from bursting into tears when a certain song would run through my head and I was reminded of how close I was to seeing my little boy and hubby again. When I looked out the window and saw the ever familiar brown gankiness of the Brisbane River and my home city, the place which I had previously thought was the most horrible and boring place on the face of the planet, one thing was certain. This is home. And there is simply no other place, time, era or age that I would rather be.
I was hoping to see their smiling faces as I walked through Customs at 7am on that Friday morning. My face was expectant and brimming with tears. I couldn’t wait for that happy (and overly dramatic) reunion to take place. And I hoped that my disappointment wouldn’t show too badly when there was nobody waiting there when I arrived.
So, I waited… and waited… I stood by the escalators from the carpark and watched the street below like a hawk with a racing heart and catching breath. And finally, there they were… My golden haired boy and my wonderful husband. I knelt down and watched as Joshy ran to me and I held him so tight, I cried and he looked at me so worried because he didn’t understand. If only he could understand that I was crying because I’d never felt so happy or so SURE of anything in my life.
For as much as I love my work and I’m lucky to have a job that I love… I have another more important job now and that is just being a mother and a wife. And a happy mother wife at that. So, lately I’ve just been taking more time to just soak it all in…
And the novelty of my revelation still hasn’t worn off after four months. I’m still surprised daily by the fierce love I feel for my boy, and the love that I know he has for me. I had always doubted my abilities as a mother and my “maternal instinct” and was always unsure of Josh’s bond with me. But I don’t anymore. It was a real wake up call for all of us I think… Josh has changed towards me and we are closer than ever. I get told “I luff you so much” at least 5 times a day, and get my fair share of cuddles. He used to be a Daddy’s boy, but now he’s swayed much more in my favour
So, I thought I’d share that… I know it seems really obvious, but sometimes I think we need something to happen in our lives to show us what is really important. Funny that it took a business trip for me to realise that work isn’t really the be all and end all that I thought it was. And pre-baby lives should sometimes be just that. In the past.
And, on that note, I will leave you with that song…
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There’s two collections – one for the boys and one for the girls. Each contains 9 papers, a die cut accessory sheet, a chipboard accessory sheet, brads… and a gorgeous set of playing cards! It’s full of super cute animals and is just plain FUN! (Click 
) for the next couple of weeks while they get made, but so far it’s looking good! I’ve been taking photos as we go, so I’ll post the before and after soon! Well, as soon as it’s finished – LOL! 
