3 October 2018

Shaking the dust off

Thought it was about time I started using this old blog again in hope that it inspires me to reconnect with my crafty adventures. With a lot of my IG and FB friends not being crafty folk I don’t like to put too much in there in terms of craftiness so this blog it is, even if I’m the only one who ever looks at it anymore (although every now and then the kids have a quick peek and giggle. Hi boys)
Sharing a Travellers notebook page from this challenge http://twwangkamiy.blogspot.com/2018/09/love-to-scrap-on-travelers-notebook.html?m=1
Photo is from a quick IPhone photo shoot done in the back yard last month. Autumnal colours in spring, why not?


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.

16 April 2015

Snippets of Autumn's project life album and my cozy craft room.

Last month I because totally fed up with my tiny craft room always being a mess and dumping ground for everyone's crap. Being a small room there is no room for anything extra so when things came in here it was usually on the floor. I grabbed some new cube shelving from Bunnings, desk and drawers from Kmart and a slab of melamine from our local hard wear store for a new work top (this sits on top of a chest of cheap drawers proving that a room reno does not have to be expensive) For well under $200 and a whole lot of elbow grease I now have a room that I am fairly happy with, can walk around with out tripping over and most of my most used tools etc are right at my finger tips. I hauled two huge bags of rubbish out, a large basket of stamps and paper to go to the old folks home for their craft sessions and those items that I really couldn't part with but are not used on  a regular basis went into a cupboard in the back room.

 The view walking in.
 This is probably the most accurate depiction of the wall colour, it was my youngest sons room prior to him moving into one of his older brother's rooms when he moved out. 
 Yep, I'm a stamp addict :-)



 Where i love to be
Love having little things like this gorgeous clock a friend made me for my birthday last year out on display. these are the things that mean a lot to me.

 I love this quote on my wall, an everyday reminder that our lives should be filled with some sort of creative endeavour, whether it be with your hands or mind, in a craft room or garden with a pair of scissors, a camera or a pen, where ever, when ever or whatever.
This year I decided to change project life up a little bit. Each year I start off strong but always seem to fade out a bit over winter when I am busy with football committee commitments and photos for the club. This year I have decided to do seasonal albums and so far not only am I loving it but also mostly keeping up. Mainly because with the pressure of weekly pages not there I can record as much or as little as I like, only the big events or the every day moments if I get the time. Each season so far has been different, Summer was a 6x8 hand made mini, the current 
Autumn one 6 x 12. I must say that I really love the 6x12 size as it gives me room to do a full 12x12 spread over two pages if I have a large story to tell or simply one page if not. The concept of changing format each season is good for me as I tend to get bored with one style only.