The hills, the vines and white fluffy lambies ...

Lovin this life closer to the wide open spaces. Yesterday Josh and I decided to go for a short drive. We had only driven for about 10 minutes and we were among the rolling greenery of the Yarra Valley with the undulating countryside, the acres of vines, heaps of baby lambs and the fruit stalls on the side of the road. It was so relaxing. When we popped into a shop at Healesville to get Josh a drink, he says to the shopkeeper ' Gee it's lovely driving in the country - which cracked everyone up - he's such a wise old soul.

The strangest thing has happened since we moved out here. I really really really feel like gardening. Yesterday I created a patch for a veggie garden and integrated my zillions of potted plants into the garden landscape. Today the boys and I headed off to Bunnings and got some flower and veggie seedlings. Can't wait to go the markets and pick up some more this weekend. I even wandered into a newsagent last week came out with gardening magazines instead of scrapping magazines - OMG!

Life is good. Happy days my lovelies.

Claire and Co

I'm sitting .....

as in no longer standing as in out. But ..... what an absolute blast I had. It was so much fun and different and challenging and has really increased my confidence as a scrapper. I was so chuffed to stay standing as long as I did. those effer chicks rock. Given they posted another dare which has to be done by midnight Saturday, I am a tad relieved even! That would have so been pushing it. I intend to make a couple of changes to that last layout to make it even more my style and then mount in ion a canvas in my scrap room. It represents so much to me - my resilience, my gratitude for IVF, my love for my children and taking risks (as in the dares). Plus I love the colours, LOL.

Ooohhhh Josh had his lay day at creche today - it felt kind of sad. We went with him to take pressies and balloons and treats for the kids. Got some good pictures to. Other than that I had an afternoon snooze and then a long chat to brother and my girlfriend Cath on the phone tonight which was all very relaxing.

Time for bed, night lovelies, have a great weekend and thanks for your encouragement in the comp. next time you have to join in, not just cheer me on!

Claire

OMG .....

Have you seen the amazing layouts for round 3 on 2Peas - these woman are sooooo creative (one person used rolled up paper, another stamped her boobs!). As much as I love my layout I think we can safely say I won't be needing to stay up late next Wednesday night. Imagine what they will come up with next week - I am thinking there must be going to be a doodling challenge in there somewhere, so maybe that will be the next challenge (if it is I DEF hope I am out, LOL. I am not a doodler .....). I am going to look at every single layout as I always wanted to get more ideas to use circles in my layouts, and these women are so inspirational!

Later dudes, house is a mess and tea is still a distant thought :)

Here tis .....

Cut this one a bit short - soooo tired last night so had to do most of it today. Still put my heart and soul into it though :)  Scanner cut bits of the circle off but sure you get the idea.

The middle picture is the photo of the embryo transferred that resulted Samuel. Journalling reads "I will never forget the rush of emotions I felt when the embryologist showed us the photo of the embryo that was about to be transferred for my IVF cycle. I just had this overwhelming sense of love and calm and a deep feeling this cycle would work out (and it did!)"  I just happened to have the angel photo of Samuel from pics Jodii Geddes took last year at Rach's when Samuel was 5 months (thanks Jodii!).

Be back later - Paul has been doing heaps with the kids while I got this finished, so it's my shift while he has some time out!

LOL at the gazillion page wiews on my blog! Nice to feel loved :)

Claire

Never judge a paper by it's thumbnail ....

Jen and Rach will have a giggle at this - all last week I was saying I didn't think the new Basic Grey LilyKate paper range was me, then yesterday I went to my monthly Sensational Sunday crop at Scraptacular (missed you Brooke!) and I was wowed! It's so much more vibrant and colorful in real life and I love it! I also got some of the yummy Romani range as well (I knew I loved that) but I had fun playing with LilyKate for these two layouts. First here's me at my 10th birthday party. We lived on a farm this was my pony Bambi. Gotta love the outfits we are all wearing!

And this one is a cute pic of bubs taken by Rach - he looks so much like me in this picture. He was 14 months when this was taken. There are ghost daisy's on left - not sure if these can be seen.

I also managed to do a couple more layouts for my holiday album - I am so pleased I have taken the time to do this. It has pictures of all my Perth family and pages about all the fun stuff we did and the lovely beaches. Josh loves looking through the album and talking about our holiday. This one is the beautiful Busselton jetty at sunset. While we were there, there was a professional sandcastle builder (cool job!) on holidays from Europe, hence the amazing sandcastle. These new Basic Grey Urban Border rub 0ons are GORGEOUS!

Finally this one is various pictures taken as we were driving up the east side of the Eyre Peninsula. This is probably one of my favourite holiday moments. I was driving, everyone else was asleep, there were hardly any cars on the road and there was lots of amazing things to see. The picture top left is actually the lights of the iron ore mine against the dark hill - it looked amazing, but may not show up well online! Driving holidays are my favourite type of holidays (yes even with two little fellows!). Not happy with the blue flower on this layout, but I really needed to cover a mistake!

We are settling in slowly - still boxes to unpack, but Paul is on leave this week still so we should get it done this week. I also have some scrapping projects to get done, and am working Wednesday and Saturday too. I also need to get my week 3 Effer Dare Last Scrapper Standing layout done. Still grinning wildly that I am still standing (with 88 others!) out of the original 450 entrants. This week it's all circles - mmmm could be tricky!

I can definitely feel the slower pace of life here, which anyone who knows me will know I LOVE! Even though we are quite close to Maroondah Highway, we only have neighbours on one side (who are an elderly couple and their son and seem lovely thank goodness!) and the Warburton Trail behind us. The house is a bit elevated and the house across the road has this amazing huge three tier water fountain. Beyond that I can see trees and at night the lights on the hill in the distance. I think I will be happy here :) I am cutting back my work drastically in favour of being a stay at home Mum (and scrapper!) - will take a few months to wind down but am planning of only working a few sessions a month from late this year, and only other stuff if it can e done from home. The pace of the last 18 months has taken it's toll on my health and weight and sanity and I want to get that back on track. OK, so I want more time to scrap too! Can't wait to be able to go to the fortnightly Kimmy and Kerry crop at Scraptacular!

Back to the boxes, happy Mondays lovelies!

Claire