My first ever challenge - Whimsical Wednesday's "Sense of Humour"

Hey everyone


I hope you're well and happy, and that life is treating you wonderfully!

You know what?  I'm so LUCKY!  Yep, I am!  I was born into a wonderful family with three siblings whom I love and my parents are awesome.  Now I have a family of "my own", five gorgeous kids and my real, honest-to-God soulmate to spend the rest of my life with.

I'm lucky in so many other ways too.  I live in Australia - so so so lucky for that!  Yet, I have been fortunate enough to visit other countries such as Indonesia and pass on some love... Whether it be gifts and time for the kids at the orphanage, or some money towards two Indonesian boys' education, I know my family and I have made a difference! How lucky is that?

Ok, so you may have realised by now - I love talking.  I talk a LOT!  So yes, I know I'm dribbling but I guess coz it's my blog, I'm allowed to, hehe.  We are one very busy family.  Not more busy than you and your family necessarily - it's not a competition by any means - but we are exceptionally busy.  EVERY SINGLE DAY.  We have the five kids schooling to run around for, we have sport, singing lessons, piano lessons, the kids' work commitments, OUR work commitments, playdates, sleepovers, birthday parties, family dinners, the occasional Church visit and lots of other things too...

My house is noisy too!  Noisy is the understatement of the year!  But you know one sound I hear every single day year in and year out?  Laughter!! We are one happy family and I love love love it!  How lucky are we that we laugh each and every day in our home, where we are safe, comfortable and loved like crazy.

Ok Shan, stop rambling and get to the point.  The point is I finished a double LO on the weekend that is PERFECT for my first ever challenge!! Whimsical Wednesday showcases wonderful scrapbooking talent the first Wednesday of every month and this week, their challenge is "Sense of humour"...

I went outside with my family and we were all playing a game of basketball.  I decided it would be a good time to grab my camera (read: iPhone) and take some happy snaps of the people I love most in the world.  Well, we were laughing for hours after this.  We all share a good sense of humour, we are able to laugh at ourselves but we definitely can also laugh at each other!!

Check it out:

I really do believe the saying "A family that plays together, stays together".  Which in our case, we'll be together for eternity, because we sure spend a lot of time playing and having fun.


I didn't take my cricut along to retreat so I have no wonderful hand-made embellishments to show, but I did use my new gorgeous "glitter silk" cardstock - look at the gorgeous sparkles in the black cardstock.  A little bit went a loooonnnggg way when I ran it through my Cuttlebug for the title...  I fell back in love with my Xyron too, I hadn't used it for ages, but it was so handy for the small letters.  Check out the brand new Candi too!  The little dots that are "legless brads" are so cool.  I won some from Chloe's blog, but then bought a heap more too!  (Gotta have one in every colour!)  I also used my brand new Tim Holtz Distressed inks, sponging here and there!

This was SUCH a cool day!  Totally unplanned, EVERYBODY in a wonderful mood and so so so so much fun!  The neighbour even popped his head over the fence to see what the fuss was about, haha!  Too funny!

They couldn't stop laughing long enough
 to actually stay on!

I can still hear them laughing out loud!

All composure was well and truly gone!

Jump on while you can!

Not thinking about Uni or exams at the moment! 

Hysterical!

The pyramid crashes again!

The final product - 

a double LO that makes me laugh!

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time, I'll be creating memories - one moment at a time!


Shannen

So often we're caught up in the hurrying around.  School,
singing, school, basketball, etc.  This is now a beautiful
memory, a moment in time!

Retreat!

My everything!

There's lots of excitement in my house at the moment!! Mum's off on a scrapbooking retreat this weekend, which means the kids are all going to be the stars of some new layouts.  Mum's excited and so are they!!  Good times!


Creating memories, one moment at a time.


Shannen

Michelle's Blog Candy

Hi all

I really should be scrapping and not surfing for new cool blogs, but I am! I just found a great one called Scrappin' for Kenzie and Michelle has invited us to be her new followers!  Once she reaches 100 followers, she is going to give away HUGE blog candy!!! Head over and check it out! As I said to her - one scrapper's trash is another scrapper's treasure!!  

Only six more sleeps until I head off on a Scrapbooking Retreat, so I have LOTS of organising to do this week of my craft space and for my scrapping hours that will be mine, all mine!! Yay!!!

Creating memories, one moment at a time.

Shannen

Raina's Favo(u)rite Crafty Things

Hi all

Just came across a pretty cool blog - Raina's Favorite Crafty Things.  She is having a Blog Giveaway called The Heat Is On.  Head over there for your chance to win!!

I just did.  And the best part is you get to choose from two very cool cricut cartridges!

Hope you're all madly scrappin' away.  Basketball consumes our weekends, one more game to go which is tomorrow.  I love that my kids love the sport that I love so much!! Bad grammar, but so true!!

Creating memories, one moment at a time.

Shannen

Why do we scrapbook?

Hi all

To preserve our history?  To tell our story?  To share our children's lives with them and with others?  For a creative outlet?  We scrapbook for many reasons.  One of my favourite things to do as a family is get out all of the scrapbooks and share what I have created with the kids.  They are the focus of the majority of the pages, and they love being the stars.  We tell and re-tell stories, over and over again.  We say "Remember when...?" and "That was so good..." and "That photo is beautiful..."!  It's always a nice activity in my house and we all love it.

One sound that we never fail to hear during these times is laughter!  We all inevitably end up laughing.  Even though our albums have people in Heaven and people we've lost along the way, there is always laughter.  

I don't have any form of OCD... Even the mildest form.  I am messy and my albums are not fully organised and they're not even chronologically organised.  But my kids don't mind.  They just dig them all out and off they go.

Two photos placed next to each other 
gives the effect of the rollercoaster's height!

I was going through some of my supplies tonight, beginning to think about getting organised for an upcoming scrapbooking retreat.  I pulled out these pages and laughed out loud!  They're not scrapbooking masterpieces, in fact I was trying to get lots of photos down, and quick!  I do like them though, because they make me remember!

We were in Bali recently on a family holiday with three of our children and my parents.  This particular day was spent at Bali Safari and Marine Park and we headed toward the rollercoaster.  All three girls were ready to jump on when they called me to jump on too! Who am I to disappoint my girls?  I jumped on and off we went.

I glimmermisted a chipboard
sign to tell where we were.

The part that made me laugh out loud was the memory. The memory of my newly ten year old, absolutely terrified, turned to me and said "Mummy-I-know-I'm-not-allowed-to-say-this-and-I'm-really-trying-to-stop-myself-but-I-don't-think-I-can-manage-ssshhh******tttttt!!!!!!"  Now, I would NEVER condone swearing from children and nor would I necessarily tell this story to many people.

The look of sheer terror on her face, her conscience battling with her inability to stop herself and the fact she actually did it!   I know I risk upsetting some of my followers (please don't be upset, I don't intentionally mean to offend you) but this is WHY this hobby appeals to us!  Can you tell she swore by looking at the photos?  No! Did I include it in my journalling? No, I would hate to offend members of my family - in this generation or future generations...  But, I have the memory and when I tell the stories of these pages, I include it.

Have I heard her swear again since this day?  Nope!  She even sincerely apologised for it when we got down off the ride (before the three of them jumped back on for another turn!).  Not fancy scrapbooking, but worthy of inclusion in my life story.  And my blog!

Creating memories, one moment at a time.

Shannen

Lots of photos, but I can feel being there!

Oh, and here's Milly.  She gave up waiting for my lap to be free
tonight - I was too busy blogging! She's in front of a nice warm heater.
Love that dog!

Craft Party @ my house!

Some of the kids' creations.

Hey there...

For those of you who don't know, I'm a chalkie!  Yep... a teacher and I LOVE my job.  Only thing is, lately, I didn't feel like I love my job.  Was it the beautiful and curious 3 and 4 year olds I spent my days with?  Nope!  Of course not, they're the best part of my job.  Was it the laborious paperwork, the kind that people who are not teachers may not be able to imagine?  Nope!  It was other things... Politics... Judgement... Lack of christian action and pastoral care that we proclaim to hold strong, yet the administration don't pass on to staff...

Anyway!  I'm 35.  I believe we should seek inner happiness during our life.  If we are not happy, we should investigate why and change things to chase that dream.  And, lucky for me I am in a position where if I'm not happy, I can change things - ie, my job!  So, after lots of support from my husband and a long time to follow through with my decision, I left my job in April.  I thought relief teaching would come thick and fast, the money would be similar, the stress would be non-existant and all would be good.  Only thing is weeks passed and no relief happened... One week, two, three, on to five, six seven...  Always having worked in a private system of schooling, I was not yet registered to work in government schools.  I enquired about becoming registered and it's a long process but I'm on my way!

I did get a call in my ninth week "off" and went into a Pre-Primary class.  Filled with nerves, and a damaged self-esteem I headed off and within five minutes I was "home".  I am supposed to be a teacher.  I told my Year One teacher (when I was six) that I wanted to become a teacher and followed my dream right through school.  I always felt lucky - and still do I guess - that I was so sure of what I wanted to do.  Called back to that wonderful classroom for another day in the same week confirmed my belief - I needed to leave the school, not the profession.

Anyway, of course - after finally getting some work, school holidays follow!  But I'm a teacher!  I can be a teacher anywhere, not just at school... Even in my own house, right?  I threw it out on facebook - who wants to drop their kids off for four hours?  $20 (WHAT a bargain!!!!) and I'll craft with them all day long.  Not really sure of how I'd go, I was overwhelmed when I had SO much interest.  20 children were quickly "enrolled" in my lil project.  And today was the second day this week I had my sessions in my home!  What a success!!! Had so much fun, (wasn't in it for the profit, luckily!!) My own daughters had a ball, crafting away amongst their friends - some new and some old.  I earned a tiny bit of money and I'm HAPPY!!! 

And that's what life is about!  Thanks for reading!

Creating memories, one moment at a time.

Shannen

Blog Hop

Hi everyone!


As you know by now, I'm loving this blogging life.  New vocab - blog hops, blinkies, link ups, followers, etc.  New ideas, new challenges and new things to do.  And best of all, new friends!!  


I've been busy with other things this week too, namely surgery in hospital to have my gallbladder out.  I'm home now and was silly enough to move some furniture today (in my newly allocated scrapping space) and overdid it big time...  I'm feeling rather sorry for myself now.


I'm REALLY looking forward to Whimsical Wednesday's Blog Hop tomorrow morning.  I'm not really sure how it works or what will happen, but I am absolutely hanging out to see it and be part of it.  


Oh, and guess what?  Positive thinking really does work! I decided (tongue in cheek) that I'd win two prizes this week and my lovely 'agent' Chloe called me yesterday to let me know of my second prize for the week.  I won two packs of Candi (if you haven't seen this yet, check it out - it's awesome!) and then I won a Cricut cartridge too.  Still waiting for my package from Oh My Crafts, so all in all - I'm looking forward to checking the mailbox this week!!


I promise to stop talking soon and add some pages/ideas/new products, etc.  


A huge life event happened in my family on Tuesday, but I'm not to share it yet!  When I can though, it will be with lots of photos, happiness and joy!


I hope you're all well and if you're lucky enough to be starting school holidays like we are, treasure the moments with your children.  They are too quickly gone!


Creating memories, one moment at a time!
Shannen

Cindy's Birthday

Hi there


I hope you had a great weekend!  I did, full of basketball (as usual) and a lovely friend's 40th Birthday party!


I just became a follower of a blog by a lady called Cindy.  Love all that I've seen so far, and it's her birthday!  Head over to her blog at Creating with the heart to wish her a happy birthday AND have the chance to win some awesome blog candy.  Who knows?  My luck may just rub off on you!! 


I'll have some new pages up this week looking forward to hearing what you think.


Creating memories, one moment at a time!


Shannen xx

Blogging Fun!

I am having so much fun, I think about my blog all day long! I challenged myself to add a layout before the end of June, and being naturally competitive - I don't like failing challenges!! Ha ha.

Oh, and speaking of challenges, I won one today!! I submitted an entry to the Oh My Crafts Travelling (with one L in American English) Contest and won!!!!  I can't wait for my package to arrive... I will take a photo and post pics on my blog as soon as it does.  A special thanks to Chloe and Carlene for their wonderful Facebook page - Daisy Challenge, which is where I saw the challenge in the first place!! I am so inspired at the moment, all is good.

Luckily, I didn't challenge myself to actually scrap something (phew) but had a little dig through a couple of recent pages and I thought I'd add them.  The photography isn't wonderful but I used my phone again and the lighting wasn't so good - but you know what?  It's ok.  I try not to sweat the small stuff!  My girls will get a kick out of being on Mum's blog!! 

And that makes me happy!


So here are some recent pages, photos all taken in our January family holiday to Bali... 


Oh, and I met my challenge! How cool is that?!


Creating memories, one moment at a time!


Shan

Cheating!

Ok, ok! I'm cheating, I'll admit it.  I set a challenge to post a scrapbooking layout before the end of June.  But you see, the problem is I own an iPhone... "How's that a problem?", I hear you ask.  Well, besides the fact that I put my new iPhone into the washing machine and killed it, then took over my husband's new iPhone and have started calling it mine - I haven't actually used my camera since I bought my phone!! (And don't worry - new phone for my darling hubby is taken care of)


So... I have all these cool photos on my phone, but not on my computer, and no actual hard copies to scrap!!  So... with the help of my beautiful (and very patient) friend Chloe from Chloe and her clip on koalas I have been learning the business of blogging.  She taught me to link (I wonder if it worked!) AND how to add photos to my blog postings...  


Oh, that's right, that's what I'm doing!! Getting back to my first photos for my blog.  Well, I really think it should be illegal for someone like me to own a cricut.  There was a fine layer of dust on my cricut box last night when I pulled it out to make some "guest book cards" for my sis-in-law's baby shower, which I co-organised and hosted today.  I took photos (with my phone - gasp!) and think I've just added them to my computer.


No more talking! (I heard that sigh of relief!) On with it, here's what I did with my cricut, three of my daughters and my Mum last night.  They were well received and we had a ball.  My dining table is still covered with all sorts of Cricut paraphernalia and lots of scrap paper too!  All made with the Create a Critter cartridge.


So, I cheated - it's not a layout, but it's crafting - and that's what I was desperate to find time to do!  And look at me now, I'm a blogger.  Who knows?  I might even try a challenge next!


Thanks for stopping by!

Shannen

First ever blog!

How exciting!  I have just started this blog as a method of sharing my love of scrapbooking, my love of my family and my love of life!! I have made it a challenge for myself to post a scrapbook page of mine before the end of June...  Hey, I'm a total newbie so baby steps, ok?  


I'm looking forward to doing this, just for fun!  Have a great day!  Oh, and come back - it'd be real nice to meet some new people!