New scrapbook page

Pretty cream lace and tiny ribbon rosettes...

Love these little coathanger paperclips, next to ribbon and fabric, and a little orange butterfly...

Journalling in blue gel pen over glimmer mist...

Tasmin was only nine or ten weeks old in this photo.

I love being able to grab an "old" photo from my stash and scrap it. There's hundereds more of those, sigh!

Monday - A busy week

MONDAY
Angie settles in really well at the new Early Learning Centre. We've noticed he's talking more since he started there.

The Weekend
Ian and I got away for a proper rest sans children on Saturday night to West Lakes Resort, an awesome venue for a getaway, and generously subsidised by Carer Support. I don't know that we could afford a carer for the children on our budget!

It was really restful...despite the orange bedspread ;@)

FRIDAY - Central Markets
It was fun to have lunch Asian-style at the city markets and buy fresh meat and fruit and veg - we only venture there once a year cos the crowds and noise are a bit much for us quiet types!!

THURSDAY - at last a sunny day

WEDNESDAY - the day has arrived
We hadn't expected to start Angus on the intensive ABA therapy until the end of the year but we were contacted when another family cancelled. We haven't met the program's founder, Dr Robyn Young, but she has an amazing reputation in the field of autism and early detection. Participating in the Flinders program, rather than privately, saves us precious dollars for Angus's future therapies.

TUESDAY
The house was clean and tidy by the time I picked up Angus from his ELC today...it's incredible to actually have time in the week to be able to do this now with both children at childcare on Tuesdays. Angus had a go on Tasmin's trikey, still clutching his precious trains in his left hand.

MONDAY
A chance to sit at the computer and catch up on my photo projects.

The Weekend
It was brilliant to take the children to the Railway Musuem on Saturday for a special Thomas the Tank day - happily it was sunny after many rainy days. Angus was so excited to see Thomas up close that he jumped and pointed repeatedly.

Sunday was one of those days where we didn't make it out of our pyjamas. Tasmin amused us with this funny line: "I am a robot" and stayed in character - as a robot - most of the day.

Friday - sconeage

Well it's no secret we like our winter treats round here. Now I know it's only little ol' Adelaide but by crikey it's been cold lately, around 11-14 degrees tops. Brrrrr! Some contingency measures have been required...

We've discovered these lovely white chocolate and berry scones at Bakers Delight. Manda and Delilah joined us in the afternoon and these were perfect.

Wednesday and Thursday - the very exciting news story

THURSDAY - SOME VERY VERY EXCITING NEWS!!

I received an email from Scrapbooking Memories magazine that a page I'd submitted was being accepted for publication.

Woopee!

This exciting news cancelled out the yuckiness of the day before, but here's what happened...

WEDNESDAY
It was difficult and tedious having to take Tasmin to yet another appointment today (an O.T.). This one did not have a very good "bedside manner" and lacked tact and sensitivity so I was a bit stressed for the rest of the day. And yet it was surprising to hear another professional remark on Tasmin's intelligence. He said she had the desk-top skills of a 5-and-a-half year old and was more than ready for school! My investigations into her challenging behaviours seem to be pointing to somewhere else entirely - not what I thought (ie. some sort of disorder). Maybe she does just need a lot of extra stimulation to keep her interested and learning?

The OT did agree though, that at her age she should be able to create her own play for at least 10 minutes (instead of hanging off me all day and following me around and talking non-stop!).

Tuesday - first babycino

She didn't care for it actually, but it looked so cute. Think I'll order one for myself next time!

Monday - ipad2 and bubble beard girl

We picked up our new iPad2 today, after deciding it would be a good purchase to help Angus learn with the many autism apps around.

It turns out we all love it - I have easy access to the internet now and Tasmin likes playing different learning games on it. I'm expecting this will be a good behaviour management tool for her too. Bonus!

Ah yes the old bubble beard in the bath trick!

Scrapbook page -

Love my birdie punch

Can you believe that cute fabric was upcycled from the calico that came with a Legacy Christmas pud, LOL!

Watercolours, doodling, hearts. Love!

Ahh this little boy. I love him so.

Scrapbooking layout - yes Iggle Piggle in a shoe train!

I had such fun with this recent page I made - some lifted stickers from Tasmin's collection, glitter paper, printed calico, gingham and blue spotted fabric, fabulous Kraft cardstock...

inking the photo edges, glimmer misting a chipboard flourish, embossing my title in crazy green using an embossing pen to trace the letters...

journalling in white gel pen...

It was very exciting to discover Angus putting Iggle Piggle in his shoe, and choofing him along like a train.

GO ANGUS GO!

Winner of the Scrap Happy Valley giveaway!!

Congratulations Felicity - I'm sending this modest little pack of scrappy bits n pieces your way! Can you send me your email addy?

And a big thanks to you all for visiting and leaving such lovely comments :-)

Sunday - lazy sunday afternoon

Saturday - it's-not-a-birthday-party birthday party

Ian and I were ridiculously exhausted by Saturday, the day of Tassie's birthday - also our wedding anniversary! Luckily I had bought a fairy cake I'd seen when doing the weekly shopping and that was about it. We still had a few balloons blown up from her baby cousin Delilah's first birthday, and with the arrival of her aunty, uncle and baby cousin, and Gandy, Tassie was pretty happy!

She loved her cake, and blowing out the four candles (it only looks like three in the pic!). She received some foam stickers (yes, I have my eye on them already!) and some cute French-girl clothing from Pumkin Patch, courtesy of Gandy. She looked really sweet in her new little outfit.

She'd already received some other presents too from the Poolers in Melbourne, and her Nan and Pa the previous weekend. We gave her a little cash register complete with shopping basket and groceries later on.

Not bad for a birthday party that wasn't a birthday party!

Friday - You said 50 cupcakes???

Yes, that's right - 50 cupcakes. And I still made it to bed before 11pm last night, and delivered these babies to Tasmin's childcare so all the kindy kids and carers could celebrate her 4th birthday in cupcake style!

Thursday - I choose purple!



Henri Matisse, "Woman in a Purple Coat," 1937.

I dropped a reluctant Tas at kindy, raced to the shops, found the perfect purple winter coat on special - then got another in a different colour - and still made it back in time.

Art journalling: we all have to start somewhere!

Wednesday - dark and rainy winter day

Journalling reads: This morning it was quite dark at 8am and very rainy - so we brought your mini tramp outside.
I was really chuffed about getting Tas to childcare at 7.45 this morning, which left Angus and I plenty of time together for play and speech, before OT, and I even played with my new art journal a bit.

Tuesday - new autism ELC

Angus really liked his new Early Learning Centre at Prospect today. I left him at 9am to get to my Monash program with Disability SA, picked up some great tips for behaviour management (which I'll share in another post) and made it back at 1pm to collect him. Angus was climbing into a little wheelbarrow when I returned for him, and he was so pleased to see me he lost his balance and bopped his head on the fence. It all worked out ok though! He starts next Monday and will attend for two days a week for now. He will do intensive therapy including Occupational Therapy, speech, social skills, gross and fine motor play and general cognitive skills. Lots of driving there and back for me. But it's SO GOOD to be on the right track with therapy now.

Merry Monday scrapbooking giveaway

Freebie! RAK! Freebie! Freebie! RAK! Freebie! Freebie! RAK! Freebie!

Welcome to Merry Monday! Today I want to share some scrappy love, since I'm a bit excited about being on the Kraft It Up Creative Team. To celebrate making my first scrapbook page for Kraft It Up's July challenge, I am giving away this cute random packet of goodies, all pinched from my scrap stash, to one lucky scrappy reader.
It contains:
1 x recycled kraft paper envelope
3 x 2crafty chipboard clouds
1 x Kaisercraft pack of rhinestones bling, new and unopened!
3 x Imaginarium chipboard butterflies
1 x 6cm by 106cm strip blue gingham fabric
1 x 6cm by 13cm strip of pink and blue quilting fabric

You have until Sunday midnight (Adelaide) Central Standard Time to become a follower and leave me a comment and I'll pick a random winner. Good luck! Open to Australian residents only (free postage to anywhere in Australia).

This is an ad-free site - these are just products I really like to use.

Weekend

It was baby Delilah's first birthday - we had a little party on Saturday and this is what I made - simple applique on some little long sleeved t-shirts from K-Mart:

I set up a pass-the-parcel game for Tasmin and Angus and they "won" little electric toothbrushes, in the hope they will be more interested in teeth brushing!

SUNDAY
Ian and I popped out for two hours in the morning for a brunch date - we had a lovely babysitter from the children's childcare centre mind the children. It was wonderful - we'll definitely do this again.

Nan and Pa dropped by to give Tas an early birthday present before they leave for their Sydney holiday. Tas received a new top and tights, several books, one including a CD and a little bear. Tas was very pleased with her presents and wanted Nan to read to her.

Ian and his Dad catching up on the news of the day!

Friday - July challange at Kraft It Up

Texture paste makes a fluffy looking cloud...

Fabric scraps, Darkroom Door Sweet Treats cupcake and word strips, Imaginarium butterfly with kindy glitz, pink gingham paper...

Layers of gesso and Glimmer Mist on kraft cardstock, with pretty pink flocked ribbon, and the journalling...

Here is the image to use as inspiration for this month's challenge at Kraft It Up:

and here's my page:

Visit Kraft It Up and play along. There's a chance to win prizes!

Thursday - a special place for me

Today I had the great excitement of finding myself on the awesome Kraft It Up website. This is my first time in a Creative Team and I'm so happy cos I LUURRRVVE creating with kraft paper. Happy days!