Too quick

These last few weeks have gone way too quickly!! It feels as if my mum and brother only arrived the other day but they have already left again! They have gone to Sydney for a few days before heading back to Holland. It was lovely to have them here. I suppose my mum has made up for the times she can't be with her grandkids. She has been playing with them heaps and they loved it of course! So now we are going back to our normal day to day life.

My gorgeous Ruby turned 4 last week! We had a party the weekend before her birthday so that megan, Drew and Melissa could come over as well. It had been a long time since all the kids were together! It was a lovely day. There were about 35 people in total at our place, the party started at 12 and the last people left just after 5.

We were so lucky that a friend of mine, Anita, painted all the kids their faces. She did such a fantastic job!! Here's the brithday girls in her butterfly glory :)


When my mum and brother were here I had plenty of opportunities to take some pictures. I made a LO about my bro for the CIS sketch blog. I used the little scrappers pack for it that is available in the shop, the lovely Liz gave one to every sketch DT member!!


This is the LO for this weeks sketch. If you take part in the sketch blog monthly competition you have the chance of becoming a guestdesigner for a month!!

At CIS we're having a cinema competition. The first week the genre was comedy. I choose the title "the burbs". Lucy is doing these fake burbs lately. I think she got it from the tot from the fairies.. Anyway here is a LO with Lucy doing her burbs and Ruby not being too impressed :)



Last week the genre was romance. I picked the title the sweetest thing. I had these pics for quite some time now so it was about time I did something with them. I suppose the love affair with chocolate starts here LOL


I started on the scraploot DT competition but pulled out as it was just too busy with my mum and brother being here and having enough time to do all the challenges. This is the card I made for the first and only challenge that I took part in. I am very happy with the card though.


Something I am so excited about is the fact that I am in the top ten of Mystical scrapbooks DT Masters competition! Woohoo!! Here are some of my entries.
The first one was to scrap an 8.5 x 11 LO, monochromatic. I love the little jeans pocket with flowers.

This LO had to be based on journalling... I couldn't get any more journalling on this LO if I wanted to.. I doodled on this LO with a versamark pen and heat embossed it. Never used then pen before bit really love it!This one was for last week. We had to use a size that is so different from the "standard" size and scrap about our scrap journey towards the DT. I was a bit nervous about doing this one but am very happy with how it turned out.

The last one was the hardest (for me anyway) as it had to be typically your style. I do like to vary my style and like to try new things so I really had to think about this one. But I suppose I do love scallops, doodling and funky colours so this is what I came up with. Thank you all so much for your votes!! I am busy working on this weeks challenge. Organising a CC, Theme, challenges and example LO's, fun!!

Suppose this is it for now. I'll try to update a bit sooner instead of having a LO overload.

Very mystical...

Very mystical indeed... been busy with the Mystical Scrapbooks Design Team masters. We're in week 2 now. This week we had to do a "tutorial" with a technique. Have a look at mine:)

http://www.mysticalscrapbooks.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=2433&p=36498#p36498

The first week we had to create a LO using a sketch from Susan, create a sketch and make a LO using that sketch.

This is the LO I created with Susan's sketch. It's Ruby when she was a little one..

This is the sketch I created

Blogger doesn't let me add the LO I did for that sketch.. it turns it for some reason .. will add that later. You can see it at the mystical gallery if you are really desperate LOL

http://www.mysticalscrapbooks.com.au/photos/showgallery.php?cat=578&page=2

my nickname there is rubylulu...

For this weeks LO I had to use my flowers, so here is the LO

The shadows are too harsh.. suppose I didn't take the pic at the right time..

The LO's I did for the mystical CC last weekend are also not coming up the right way around so I'll add them in later as well...

At mystical I was also challenged to do a predominantly red LO, with no flowers and a handmade transparency. Well no flowers automatically leads to a "chris" LO.. The transparency is the stop sign on his hand.

I made this LO about Lucrecia and Ruby. In November they had such a gorgeous coversation together and I still hadn't scrapped it. Funny thing is that Lucrecia and I scrapped it almost at the same time, love what she did as well.

This LO was for the sketch challenge at the CC at Forever and Always, just love this cutie pic of Chris and Lucy.

For the sketch blog I created my very first digital LO. I just wanted to have a go at it.. it was fun but I do prefer my paper and glue. I do although really like hybrid.. but have to learn more about that!!

This is the LO for the sketchblog from this week.

With pictures of Chris and my mum. Speaking of them. They, my mum and my brother, arrived last week on Wednesday night. I mangaged to stay awake LOL and picked them up at 11.30.

It was so lovely to see them again. I had forgotten how tall my brother is!!

We have been taking it easy with doing some shopping and going for some nice walks. My mum, Jeroen (my brother) and Chris have gone to Kiama for a week. Looks like they are having a great time!! Wish we could have gone too but with Allan his leg in plaster it wouldn't be very handy.

Tonight the CC at CIS starts.. hope to see many of you there :)

Happy scrapping!!

Forever and Always...

Just a quick update..
First of all.. big hugs to my friend Lucrecia who brought over this gorgeous dinner on Thursday night!! You are such a lovely dear friend, love you girl!!

I have been participating in the Forever and Always Cybercrop and I'm loving it. Lovely girls and great challenges!! The first LO I did ( on Friday night) was challenge 2. The criteria was to think of a box of chocolates.. (not that hard lol) so a white, brown or black background, clean lines with lots of squares and bling (the shiny wrappers). I don't do too many clean lines and squares so this was a nice challenge for me... This is what I did.

Then last night (Saturday) I participated in the "recipe for scrapping" challenge. Sonia gave us the ingredients and the recipe on how to do the LO, but no pictures so it was sometimes a bit of a guess what she menat.. which was good. So I ended up with this LO (I added a few personal touches like every one else did).

While I was scrapping I also had a lovely online chat to my friend Liz. Always nice to catch up!

Last night Allan's friend Darrin came over with his girls for dinner (and the footy) and I made this maroccan chicken dish from Stephanie Aleanders "the cooks companion" cookbook. It was just delicious!! I borrowed the book from the library but am very tempted to buy it somewhere. It's such a big book with loads of recipes, very good!!

I might look for some recipes with zucchini as my little gardener harvested this big zucchini :)

I often have a look where the people come from that read my blog and am so happy to see that they come from literally all over the world!! I would love you all to say hello!! :)

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy scrapping!

Scarlet Lime Kits

I just couldn't believe these hackers last week and into this week. These hackers that target scrapbooking sites... Really, don't they have anything better to do with their time.. they should try scrapbooking LOL.
The weekend before last (when Allan ruptured his achilles) I spent a little bit of time at this new wonderful site that I discovered called "Mystical Scrapbooks". They had a CC on and I love a challenge but I managed to do only the one LO. It was a sketch challenge. Lucky me as the girls voted my LO as the winner for the sketch challenge!! Yay :)



It was a shame though that those hackers kept disturbing the site and deleting threads in the forum, stuffing up the gallery etc. Very annoying. They also payed some visits to Crafting in Style, did the same things overthere!! Luckily the server handled it really well and,fingers crossed, they won't bother again!!
Ally has ordered Scarlet Lime kits and I was lucky enough to order one of them. Ally ordered 10 and they are all sold out. I can't wait for it to arrive!! If you are interested in them as well please let Ally know as she is thinking of making it a subscription kit. Have a look in the forum and sign up!!

The new sketch will be up in the forum today. It was a sketch by Liz, a lovely sketch. Here is my LO for the sketch.
It has a picture of 2 Rubies on it. Ash and Tracy's little girl is called Ruby as well and our Ruby thinks it's pretty cool!!
I hadn't showed you the LO for the sketch challenge for last week. It's a sketch made by Ally. The LO is about Ruby and Harper at the blowhole in Kiama.


I haven't even showed the LO for the monthly sketch challenge!! If you haven't done so already please have a go and win that gorgeous BG stamp set. The prizes are so good all the time!! Shame I can't enter. This LO is Lucy having fun in the garden.


And a bit of detail...

A LO for the Crafting in Style CC that was on last weekend. I used some piccies that my mum emailed me. She just loooooves walking and walks about 3 times a week. Not strolls but 25 Km walks with those sticks (don't know if you've ever seen them but they seem pretty popular in Holland, maybe other countries as well but I haven't seen anyone with them here as yet). On one of her walks nature had a very icy look to it. I loved these pictures so decided to use that for a LO. Something different.

Last but not least. A LO for Aussie scrapjack. It's a jack of a LO from Nic Howard. Just love what she does!! It's Lucy at "The Boot" where she was having so much fun playing with friends!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the LO's. I'd better do something fun with the kiddies today as I had to work 2 days in a row.

Happy scrapping!!

The Boot 2008

Saturday we went to the annual "The Boot". It's about an hour drive from Canberra to the property of Allan's Niece her family. I always enjoy going there so much. This year it was going to be my job to organise the games for the kids so we had all the eggs boiled, sacks out, stockings ready etc for the games. But they didn't happen.... and this is why....

The main focus of "The Boot" is the cricket game. Jol has a team and his friend Matt has a team. Allan has been playing in Jol's team and this year his friend darrin played as well. Allan was openings batman together with Darrin and they did great! Darrin got out after a little while but Allan stayed the full 30 runs (the max. that you can get in this game). He was all happy as you can imagine. I was so pleased for him!! After morning tea he was one of the umpires.

When their team had finished playing we had lunch and after lunch it was Mat's team to bat. Allan was fielding and after a little while, I was just going to do the games with the kids, I heard someone calling.. man down... I was sure it wouldn't be Allan.. but when I looked I realised it was him...

He was in quite a bit of pain and we carried him to the sideline. He and Matt said they heard a snapping sound, like a whip... not good!!

So after some cooling and a bandage we drove back to the city. Normally Allan always wants to drive on the highways and dirt roads but today he had to surrender to my driving skills LOL. He was quite surprised that it wasn't that bad after all..

Anyway we went to the ER and stayed there for 6 (!) hours with the girls. After he was seen and put in plaster we went home again. The doctor was quite sure it was his achiles. So the next day we had an appointment in another hospital, waited another 4 hours (with the girls again!!) and then he was admitted. 2 Hours later he was in the operating room!! I was quite shocked how quick that was organised!!

So now he's still in hospital and I'll have to go and pick him up in half an hour. He's still in quite a lot of pain, the poor darling. As you can imagine I didn't get any scrapping done..

I did however take a pic of Al after his fall... people laughed when I did... can't miss that photo opportunity hey!!

So here are the pics of the day. Allan playing and being happy.. and later on in pain. And the girls having a ball!!

Hope you all had a better ending to your weekend than we had!!

Happy scrapping

Earth Hour

Tonight is earth hour. As the girls will be in bed then (it's at 8 pm) I'll play some games by candlelight with Chris then. Should be fun!! Allan and his mates will be at the Raiders vs Dragons game where they will dim the lights for an hour. Bet that will be pretty special!!
Have a look here to join in Earth Hour.

Before and after earth hour I'll be chatting and scrapping with the girls at CIS, hope you'll be there too!!

Last weekend the kids had an egg hunt. I had bought some eggs and a bunny each but then we won a raffle (more eggs) and Drew and Megan gave the kids eggs and bunnies as well... so we (they) ended up with loads of chocolates!! Not that they complained though. They loooved it!! Lucy started to eat the eggs as soon as she found one. She was so excited to find the eggs. Ruby was running around trying to find them all and was just loving the whole hunt. Chris controlled (LOL) himself and only "found" a few for the girls sake. He still loves the hunt too though!

Here's the kiddies during their hunt..




I suppose this pic shows why I don't scrap as many pics of Chris as I do of the girls.. but then again I guess that most teenagers are not that willing to pose for all the paparazzi mums out there :)


This is my LO for the CIS sketch blog this week. It's about my mum with Lucy when she was only a few days old. It won't be long and my mum and brother Jeroen will be over here. They will be here for the month of May. We're all looking forward to see them again. Especially the girls can't wait to see their Oma again and to go to the park with her, draw, paint and read stories with her. They are missing out on their oma the rest of the year so I bet they are going to make up for the times they miss out on her. That my brother is coming over will be a lovely bonus for them.
Lucy has never met her Uncle and Ruby was only a baby the last time she saw him. They are going to have so much fun!!


Next weekend will be going to "the Boot". It's an annual cricket event at Allan's niece her hubby's families farm in the bush. We've been there 3 times before and love going there. This year Darrin, Michelle and their kids will be there as well. So much looking forward to it!! Woohoo

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy scrapping.

Wedding etc.

Had a busy but fun weekend(s). First last weekend I went to a hensnight. My first ever and of course.. I forgot my camera. Didn't matter. We had a fun relaxing night. First some dinner at the light house and then bowling. I am so bad at bowling, really rerally bad.. might need the ramps. But I had fun though.

This weekend we had to go to the wedding. We took the kids with us to the ceremony and our friends looked after them at night.

We had a great time. We had a really lovely group of people at our table so had lots of fun chatting and catching up with people.

On Sunday Lucrecia and went to a scrap day at CSIRO organised by Memory bugs where I finally met the beautiful Bek Vavic!! She is so lovely!! I was very happy to meet her. I did feel a bit worse for wear after the wedding but it still was a good day!

I even did 3 simple LO's. I just finished them this morning.

Ok here we go.. LO share :)

The first one is for Aussie scrapjack. A lift from Suz Doyle








This one is a LO created with a sketch from Ali Edwards at Mojo


This one is a sketch by a Dutch lady named Corinne. It's for the pencillines site. There's a bit of a story with this one. About 2 weeks ago I went to the movies with Chris to see "Meet the Spartans" (terrible movie BTW.. well I didn't like it..) and as soon as we got home we went to the clubn to have dinner with friends and their kids. We got there and I thought Ruby did look a bit funny but didn't think much of it until I noticed that her hair was shorter on one side. I had a good look and she chopped long lengths of her hair on both sides of her head!! I was a bit sad about it as she had such gorgeous hair!! She must have cut ii when Allan was talking to a friend on the phone. She cut a little bit of Lucy's too but we didn't realise that until they both had a "real" haircut. So the pink LO is of Ruby before she had her haircut (hairdressers haircut I mean *LOL*) And the next one is of Lucy after her haircut. The LO from Lucy is also done for Pencillines. This one was a sketch by the lovely Jolene.

This one is for the 1,2,3 challenge. Love this piccie of Ruby with her undie on her head :)

The last one for today is for the CIS Sketch blog for this Thursday.

Hope you all are having a go at the sketch competition!!

Happy scrapping!