the midnight scrapper

christmas is coming and the crafting goes into high gear...

With less than a month to Christmas, and a very real desire to not pull an all-nighter on the 23rd of December LOL, I have got my crafty act together and begun the projects I hope to work on over the month.

First up is the advent calander for the boys...which is the same one I used last year but all the little boxes are filled and ready to go. I wish these really hot days would hold off as I am trying not to end up with little boxes of melted chocolate. Not all the boxes have chocolate in them, but a good many do - though I will say that this would in no way hinder the eating of the chocolate by either of my boys!

Next crafting cab off the rank is a little project I do for my Mum & Dad each year. This year I made a Christmas Memories journal with 31 days of prompts in a jar. The plan is that each day my Mum will take a prompt and write down her memeory. Just a few minutes each day for a whole month of memories about Christmases past & present.

The album was $7.00 from Target, the jar $3.00 from Woolworths and then I just worked from my stash. I did it in a day and I know my Mum will love filling it in (Dad will be excited as well, but he will do a good job of hiding it. OK that's what Iam going to tell myself!)

Next up...get my December Daily album together and start taking pictures come December 1.

Then it's straight onto the Christmas cards...I do believe that all the bribes in the world will not get Oscar to participate this year, and I can understand that. sigh.

I also need to catch up this weeks journalling for my Project 365.  

So it's back to the craft table for me and more "Little House on the Praire" DVD's (no judgements people LOL)  
  

december daily 2008 is done, bring on 2009...

I began to panic that I could actually begin this years album before I had finished last years. As slack as I can be, this just did not sit well.

I attended my annual Craft Weekend last week - 3 days of scrapping, good food,lots of laughs, and time catching up with friends - and had this project with me and the determination to just GET IT DONE! (yes I am yelling, December is almost upon us people)

And finish it I did. Yay me (yes I realise that congratulating myself on doing something that I should have finished about 11 months ago is a little sad, but humour me).

And now, here it is...

whew...if you have made it this far, well done. Now I'm off to start 2009's album, let's hope I can show you the results before Easter!
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

birthday celebrations and vampires...

Oscar turned 17 this week and it was an extremely low key celebration. Oscar had decided that he didn't want a party or sleepover and he had also decided to forgo a birthday gift so I could put the moneytowards his Christmas present.

He just doesn't know what that present is LOL so there is that level of worry that he may not have made the right choice. As if!

We had a chilli con carne dinner with Nana & Da, chocolate muffins for dessert (menu chosen by Oscar) and then Byron and I had to skip out because we had another engagement...

 

 Yes, we had tickets for the midnight screening (and tickets to see Twilight as they were screening it first at 9.30pm).

There was screaming.

There was swooning.

There was rapt silence.

There was more screaming.

Not saying that was me;  just a general impression of the "vibe" in the cinema. Ha!

Got home at 3.00am, happy and tired.

Happy Birthday Oscar & Team Edward Forever.

I am probably the last person to discover...

wordle

Of course I have seen examples out there in blog land but I had never stopped to try it out for myself.

Today, all that changed and I am now a wordle makin fool!

This one is already hanging on the wall in  Byron's room - kept the colours neutral because the boys have a few doona covers so we didn't want to be locked into a colour scheme. Just love that this simple artwork sums up Byron's world right now!

Byron and I also decided that this would be the perfect Christmas present for him to give to the family. He is now hard at work on a list of words for each family member and we will print up the results and put them into cheap simple frames.

Byron thinks that the chocolate teaspoons he made last year will be more popular, but I think the family will get a kick out of seeing the words he comes up with for each creation.

family stories...

I'm a little late, now there's a suprise, but not to late to let you know that this months gallery is up at write.click.scrapbook.

Here's my contribution; the story of the matching dresses. Sooooooooooo 60's!

Just in case you can't quite make out all the details, let me help you out...

There are many more of these stunning little outfits from my childhood, and my mother, to this day, is unrepentant, we looked so cute!

And just incase you're not sure...I'm the "older sister" with the freaky too short fringe :)

Now stop laughing and head on over to write.click.scrapbook.
  

you can go over to have a look, but DO NOT get wet...

Yeah right!

 

Sydney Olympic Park and the "can't-stay-away" water features LOL

we got our spooky on...

First up, Byron's spooky party. After a week of very unpredictable weather we had a great day with sunshine and no rain.

Dinner was served first as we waited for the darkness to decend (damn that day light savings that we love every other day LOL) and the tension began to build.

This year Byron and a mate had been building a very elaborate back story about a mad man that lived in the bush and liked to hunt people down with his nail gun (I know, I know. I have boys). They were all set to stage a "Halloween 24" re-enactment when the dark, the scary noises from the bush, and  the hyper craziness bought on by the sugar rush earlier saw them all freak out and head back to the "safety" of the house. Ha!

Screams, dirt, fear, food and laughter...Goody Spooky Times indeed!

A few other photos from the night...

(the cupcakes turned out a treat - so that recipe goes into the folder to keep!

So while all this was happening, Oscar had his own Halloween party to attend. He informed me that he wanted to go as Dexter.

We bought the cheapest shirt they had at Lowes that looked like the one on the DVD cover ($12.00) and we found a (plastic) knife for $5.00 and I fished out my Making Memories red paint, mixed it with a little water and went to town.

A pair of disposable gloves and a quick mock up of an ID badge and we were good to go...

October 31st was done in [spooky] style!