Going with the flow



I have this sticky note stuck to my computer to remind me to stop fighting life. I must admit it's been both a struggle and a battle at times over the last eight weeks. There's certainly a lot going on in this life. My mother would most probably offer her pearl of wisdom - you're trying to do to much!

It's true I am trying to accomplish a lot, work is at a peak at the moment with the programme I am writing needing to be ready by the end of August. My thesis is hotting up with my supervisor actually expecting me to write it *lol*, there's the time commitment with Bailey's speech pathology as well as the daily life of looking after twin 6-year old boys (I wish I had half their energy!) and spending quality time with Andrew . . .  and oh yeah I'd like to create something sometime!

With that in mind I've been re-assessing the way I do things. If this is how my life is there seems little point wingeing about it. So I've been thinking about single-tasking. I've always been a multi-tasker but lately my brain is suggesting that needs to stop. I've been trying to take in a process soooooo much information lately that my head's felt like it's been about to explode. Seriously I've been waiting for the 'This brain will self-destruct in five minutes' and then splat brain mush on the computer screen. Ewwww.

I found this blog when researching single-tasking and I must say just doing one thing at a time seems to have it's benefits, stress-relieve just one of them. So far this week it's been an up and down try, I think I've been multi-tasking for so long it's going to take some time to unlearn it. But I like the idea of being truly present in whatever I'm doing, be it family, art, work or study, to be present and attentive in the moment is a treasure so I'm going to focus on that.

Til next time. I hope you are having a great day.

Stress Relief

It's been a stressful couple of days culminating in back to school mayhem this morning. Bailey is currently doing an intensive program to help his language disorder and this is 2 hours a day for 8 weeks. The logistics of not being able to be in the same place at once gets to me sometimes. So does the enormity of the challenges that Bailey faces in the future and the flow on effects to our family. Some days are harder than others and today was one of the hard ones!

I haven't actually drawn anything in ages. But I found this image in my Oprah magazine that spoke to me. I like the essence of freedom in standing next to a fountain drinking in the water and not worrying about getting wet. Drawing feels good to me and makes me happy. In fact I often wonder why I don't draw more often since it makes me so happy. I look at my images and think they look okay (am I allowed to say that?) of course my skills could always been improved. I'd like to be able to translate some of my pencil drawings into fully fledged artwork, but often I just can't decide on a medium! But then again maybe that's just an excuse to protect me against failure!

I'm trying to work out how I can make a living from being creative and I'm planning on doing an ecourse by one of my favourite mixed media artists Kelly Rae Roberts.  I'm hoping that this course will focus my attention on what it is that I actually want to achieve. While I'm not strictly goal oriented, I do like to have a vision of where I'm heading so that I can work toward achieving it. Lately I've been feeling that I'm treading water in quicksand so anything that can help with clarity is a goer.

I hope your day has been restful.

Karen

Nature's Delight

A quick post today. Last Friday we had a stormy day and Bailey was hiding under the couch (he's not a fan of rain, or dark clouds) he kept looking out the back windows and was super excited to see this rainbow. When we wento out to the backyard to take a photo I realised that there were actually two rainbows, one almost gone and one brand new. Rainbow's to me are nature's special gift. I hope you enjoy and should be back soon with some cards.

Father's Day

Hello, today I thought I'd share with you the frame I did for Andrew for his Father's Day present. I've use Boho Backgrounds stamp to stamp the small stars and then used a scrapbooking kit for the rest.

Bailey and Nathan also did their own cards for Father's Day at kinder, and here they are:

This one is Bailiey's card.

This one is Nathan's card.

I haven't actually done much cardmaking recently, I've been focusing on de-cluttering, which I never seem to win with, and spending money on more stuff! I also recently started an online course with Kal Barteski on nurturing creativity, and I'll share some stuff I do with that course as well.

Not lost, just busy . . .

I honestly haven't had time to think since about Monday. Work has invaded my life in a big way, it's an urgent job so hopefully that won't always be the case. It's been a bit of a struggle balancing everything that I need to to and want to do, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

Here are some cards I made last week.

Supplies: Stampin' Up - Paper: Choc Chip, Really Rust, Urban Garden.

Stamp Sets: Boho Backgrounds, Enjoy Every Moment, Inks: Really Rust, Old Olive.

Brad - Making Memories, Bling - Kazzaz, Ribbon - Sullivans Bow & Tie.

Supplies: Stampin up: Paper - Night of Navy, Stamp Sets: Pun Fun, Enjoy Every Moment,

Inks: Versamark, Clear Embossing Powder, Pastels. Glitter - Kindyglitz

Work has slowed for a day while my storyboard is examined. Today it's still been busy, I've been into Fitzroy to buy some paper supplies for an upcoming workshop - always fun. Tonight I have my first Stampin' Up workshop, which will hopefully go as planned. We are making Post-It note holders.

My Dad is here this afternoon making some shelves for our very small European laundry (i.e. cupboard!!). Space is of a premium in out tiny abode and these shelves are going to hopefully free up some badly needed space in our tiny kitchen. Bailey and Nathan are having so much fun 'helping'. Each has a hammer and is banging happily away on a scrap piece of wood - they are in Bob the Builder heaven. I'm not too sure about Dad though.

Hope you are all having an excellent day.

Digi-scrapping

Since the start of 09 I've been downloading some freebie digital scrapbooking kits so that I could have a play with digital scrapbooking. This page is the first of my plan to document Bailey and Nathan's 10 week journey from hospital to home. I've used most of the papers and embellishments for the Echo's of Asia kit downloaded from Jessica Sprague's website [she is one cool digital scrapbooker!]

My plan is to do one page each for Bailey and Nathan, but I'm trying to work out now how to duplicate this as a right-hand album page. I think it's a matter of hiding some of the images and then playing around with them until it mirrors this page. I did try the obvious flip horizontal but that achieved nothing!

Overall I'm happy with the result. My first try was very boxy and I wanted to try and do the type of layout that I haven't done before. I can always add or delete elements as I wish.

Onto more mundane matters, my knee operation has been postponed a week - apparently the receptionist booking it forgot the Dr was still on holidays - my sister thinks that perhaps he extended his stay once the weather started to improve! Whatever the reason it's another week of sleeping on the couch, which at the moment is the only place where I can get some sort of sleep - otherwise it's a lot of pain and very little sleep, which makes for a very cranky Mummy the next day!!

Now, if a three-year-old calls you fat what do you say?

2009 is moving too fast!

I can't believe that it's already close to the middle of January - where does the time go and why does it only drag when I am doing something I don't want to do? This is my first blog for 09 and it's a recap of Christmas morning mayhem and laughter with the boys opening their presents.


The next recap are two canvasses I did for my goddaughter Taylah and her sister Casey. My girlfrient Michelle said they needed new name plaques for their doors and this is the result. I decided to construct the canvasses like I would a card and using the favourite colours of each girs this is what I came up with. Judging by the screams I heard when they opened their pressies I think they liked them!

I'm still not sure about the whole canvas thing. So far this year I have focussed on scrapbooking and have had lots of fun downloading stuff from Creating Keepsakes and Jessica Sprague to use with digital scrapbooking. One of the [many] projects I'm working on at the moment is a mini-album of Bailey and Nathan's first 10 weeks, which was spent in the special care nurseries of the Mercy hospital (6 weeks) and Mitcham hospital (4 weeks).

This was a very full on time for Andrew and I - new parents, teeny weeny babies, watching them in the humidicribs all hooked up to a myriad of machines. I want the album to be fairly simple focussing on pictures rather than words. While the mini-album will be paper I plan to do all the pages digitally and print them out and store them in 6 x 6 pockets. I've almost finished the template I'll be using, I just wanted to let it sit for a few days to see if it needed tweaking. I'll be using the American Crafts album and designing the cover myself, so when that's done I post it as well.

Until then I'm enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet while Andrew takes Bailey and Nathan to the ice-cream shop - gotta love slow summer evenings!!

Getting ready for Christmas

Christmas cards are fun for calligraphers. Every year in my calligraphy class we try to come up with a new and innovative card. This year I'd seen a Rudolph stamp and thought I would try and draw it, which worked and the rest of the card just evolved (such is the creative process. It's printed on tracing paper (or as the scrapbooking industry insists on calling it - vellum!) I hope all who received one enjoyed it, because it was fun to make.

This is to appease certain people (Margaret) who think I don't put enough photos on my blog. Admitedly I take lots, so it's not like I don't have plenty to choose from. This one was taken about 6 weeks ago at playgroup. Unfortunately I must have had a very senior moment and haven't downloaded the files from my camera to my computer. Luckily, I had printed some and was able to scan this in. We even got this printed on a 12x12 canvas, which looks excellent.

I think that I am almost ready for Christmas, all presents have been bought, Christmas cards sent, almost finished making Christmas tags and some of the pressies have been wrapped. I haven't made any gourmet goodies this year. I really want to try turkish delight, but I've been really unsuccessful in finding rosewater (any ideas?)

Well, it's time for the Amazing Race finale and for me to sit down with some chocky and a milor and relax. Will hopefully be able to post some pics from the Wiggles concert last Sunday, which was loads of fun! Enjoy your weekend.

Movember Update

This is Andrew attempt (some may say sad attempt) at growing a Mo for Movemeber. I must admit I'm glad that it has been shaved off, not very nice in the kissing stakes and I think it does nothing for his face. Still a good effort and he has raised over $500 for Prostate Cancer research and that can only be a good thing.

Been meaning to post for a while, but to be honest I'm so tired by the time Bailey and Nathan go to bed that I fall asleep in the chair in front of the TV. Blogging during the day is difficult because they are firmly attached to me.

Now I know that someone must read this blog besides me and my family because I have a growing number of dots on my clustermaps. Please someone leave me a comment so I know where you are from and what you do and so that I can check out your blog.

Must go, munchkins are back from the park and peace has ended!!

Tarra Bulga National Park

Over Cup Weekend we visited Andrew's sister Fiona and her family, who live in Yarram. This is always lots of fun as Bailey and Nathan love to run around with their cousins and Jess the dog!! The dirt mound is also another favourite hideout.

While we were there this time we visited the Tarra Bulga National Park, which is temperate rain forest about 15 minutes from where Fiona and Trevor live. These are some of the random shots I took on our walk to the waterfall - which because of the drought is much more like a trickle!

Andrew is doing Movember this month, which means he is growing a moustache. Movember helps to raise money for Prostate cancer research and if you would like to donate. Andrew had started when I took these picks but it's a bit difficult to find any real undergrowth under his nose! I promise to post a recent look at this Mo but he's away for a couple of days so you'll have to wait!

We've had some momentous changes since I last blogged (yes, I know I've been a bit slack!). Bailey is now toilet trained, he still needs help going to the toilet, but generally remembers to tell me when he needs to go, we've only had a few accidents. Nathan is not really showing any signs of being ready, but often he has been a little behind Bailey in some of his milestones so we'll get there eventually. He certainly wants to sit on the toilet, but as yet nothing is happening!! It's funny that once you become a parent all decorum about bodily functions seems to be removed as we happily talk with other parents about wees and poos!

We had a great weekend this weekend. I spent some time on Saturday afternoon with a friend Lisa scrapbooking, which was a real treat. Andrew wasn't playing tennis so I really too advantage of that! Yesterday we finally sold some of Bailey and Nathan's baby stuff (car seats, rockers), which really frees up some room in our tiny but messy front room. Sunday afternoon we had tea at Lisa's place and Bailey and Nathan played so very well with her sons Cooper and Baxter it was nice to be able to relax and watch and not worry about who was going to get hurt!

Today Bailey and Nathan are in occasional care until 3pm. I'm trying to take advantage of this time to finally clear the mess in this room I'm sitting in. I've been trying all year!!! But I can see the floor for the first time in ages so that's a bonus. Tomorrow I'm finishing off my Christmas card design in calligraphy and having some x-rays done on my knees, which at this point appear to be cactus!

What's that smell?

Had to quickly share this story while Bailey and Nathan are safely eating brekkie and watching Shaun the Sheep.

Last night we put the boys to bed as normal, Nathan fell asleep almost immediately, Bailey however, having had a catnap at around 5pm decided not to go to sleep. That's okay, Andrew was on duty and just kept putting him into bed. Around 9pm when all was quiet I said to Andrew - Can you smell something? So we decided to check to make sure that Bailey hadn't got into anything . . . . yes . . . you guessed it . . . this is a real toddler/preschooler moment!

Bailey had found the Curash Nappy Rash cream, which is like thick zinc cream. Now not only had he decided to smear it all over his bed and the spare bed, he had also decided to completely cover a few toys, to try to feed Nathan some while he was sleeping . . . oh and to eat some himself! Andrew and I went into complete recovery mode, we rang Nurse-on-call who then passed us onto Poison's Australia, who advised us that this stuff was non-toxic and the worst case scenario was some diahorrea. So we cleaned out Bailey's mouth, cleaned his teeth, gave him lots of water to drink stripped the beds, washed the sheets, chucked the toys, tried to explain to Bailey why it's important not to eat things that are in strange tubes . . . and all the while Nathan kept sleeping.

I'm sure that this won't be the first time the boys eat something they are not supposed to, but hopefully it will all turn out okay like last night.

Next post will be some photos of Andrew's 40th, just need to find the time to post them!!!