16 May 2015

Day in the life

Alphabet stamps from Kerri Bradford.
This year I decided to join in on Ali Edwards' Day In The Life  project. It's sometimes fun to stop and assess your day, especially when time flies by so fast normally. I took most of the photos with my phone with a just a few from the DSLR thrown in for good measure because a phone is easier than trying to lug a big camera around with me.  I settled on a minimalist approach using some 4x6 page protectors I had laying around, a hand made cover and Ali's AM/PM kit. I have only included a few pages because it is so simple and they are a pretty clear reflection on the rest of the album.


More stamps from Kerri Bradford



Ali's digital stamps





14 May 2015

Mothers day gifts

 Mothers day this year was awesome, I loved having most of the boys around, breakfast in bed, Seamo's coffee and the gorgeous gift I received from Paddy and Sophie (How could I not love a gift of succulents) Another gift that was a little belated was the shelf that Brendan and Joey put up for me. It has sat on the floor waiting for a second pair of hands to help me put it up for weeks but the day after mothers day the boys got into it and not only put it up but also decorated it too. I don't have words for how happy it makes me.

 The gorgeous brush script is from Polka dot creative and the vintage coffee sign is one I picked up off ebay. 
Succulents and seashells. 

11 May 2015

Around here

Ollie
 Brendan, Ollie and I did a quick race out to one of his clients farms and cut a ute load of wood. Ollie found the freedom highly exhilarating :-) and I enjoyed wandering around the paddocks until it was time to load the wood, thankfully we did manage to miss the worst of the rain that hit.
A couple of cute little toadstools nestled amongst the grass in the paddock

Waiting for Paddy's heat to start. 
Saturday morning we packed up early and headed down to Robe to watch Paddy in a body boarding comp. The original plan was to get back home and head out to the footy but with the weather so cold and wet and the kids all (but one) home we lit the fire and had a night in. 
Anatomy of a spin

Love this shot of Bren on the cliffs 

Family photo FitzGerald style.
 Mother's day family shot as only my boys can do it, ugly jumpers, ponchos and blankets. We were meant to head out to an op shop/mismatched bingo night at the footy club the night before so had a bit of stuff still lying around.  Jacko couldn't make it home so we used a painting Joe had done as a stand in. 
Homework time
Seamus is the only student still living at home, less than two years and secondary school will be all done and dusted and the older two boys will be finished at university. It will be strange after over 20 years of education. 

1 May 2015

Happy NSD

Firstly let me apologise for the quality of the following photos. I'm still coming to grips with the fact that one minute we are wallowing in bright sunshine and the next minute the light has dropped like a curtain. I did the after school pickup, some grocery shopping and basically wasted time until I realised that despite the fact that I had done lots in the crafty way today I had not recorded any of it so with dying daylight I raced outside, dropped the album on some bark chips and started photographing. Didn't have time to take the photos and cards out of the sleeves so some yucky reflections, wonky lines and strange colours but it is what it is. 
So back to NSD, l love the idea that there is a day dedicated to memory keeping, I don't scrapbook as such anymore but love the process of project life. Over the years I have tweaked my style here and there until I have come to something that I am comfortable with and can maintain, which to me is the most important thing. My PL style is quite linear (although that's hard to tell here with the wonky shots), with a few embellishments and quite a few more stamps. I've always loved stamping from the very first time I picked up a stamp and ink pad and realised that I could use these two tools to create so many different looks.  When Kellie Winnell of Kellie Stamps announced on facebook a few days ago that she would be doing a day of challenges and blog hop I was excited at the thought of joining in. Some of the challenges were to use stamps on photos-check, stamping with different coloured inks-check and creating journaling cards with stamps-check. I managed to get 5 1/2 pages done in one afternoon and would have loved to keep going but motherly duties called. 
All stamps used are by Kellie Winnell  Kelly Purkey and Ali Edwards with a bit of Studio Calico in for good measure.

 Anyone else annoyed at the 'we' being crooked like me??? I used an old set of wooden alphabet stamps and was silly enough to not get out my stamp positioner, maybe I have become too dependant on those lovely clear stamps., did I say I was linear ;-)
 A couple of really quick simple pages. I find with the method of PL I have adopted over time that the most time consuming part is choosing and printing photos. I am undecided about using the dymo printed 'except coffee' here so only lightly placed it with reposition-able glue and might stamp it with white ink with some small alphabet stamps.
 I seem to be sticking to a British drama theme lately.  Don't get me wrong I still love a little sci-fi and fantasy but a change is really nice.  I was a hopeless mess watching call the midwife as each time a baby was born, someone died or there was a wedding I cried, I almost dehydrated by the end of the second season, lol. (Yep, I've misspelled British on the card, shhh.)
 A tradition we generally celebrate as a family is the dawn service on ANZAC day, the last post never ceases to bring a tear to my eye. The journalling reads 'we grabbed a coffee at McDonald after the centenary dawn service, ever mindful that the men who fought for us then who would have never had such luxuries and how grateful we are for their sacrifice so we can enjoy the freedom and lifestyle we do today'. It is straight in real life, again, rushed photography.
 The last page still needs journaling, it will basically be about the cold wet day, friends turning up in our club jumpers still rugged up after the dawn service and how awesome it looked to see our boys all lined up heads down listening to the last post and national anthem before the game, I had an extra photo for the page so did a lift up flap.

 And also about how we don't like sitting in our cars to watch the game so end up battling the elements and our umbrellas like one of my friends did here. The whole thing ended up falling to pieces but we were laughing so much it didn't seem to matter.