Lets Start Again.

 It sure has been a long time between posts, nearly 18 months!!!!
The last 18 months has seen us face lots of ups and a number of downs, one being quite major.  Over the last 8 months I have been fighting for my life. In August 2012 I was diagnosed with HER 2 Breast Cancer.  It has been a horrible 8 months and although I have some treatment still to go I am happy to say that as of the 1st of March 2013 I am FREE of BREAST CANCER!!!!! YIPEE!
 
To all the wonderful people who have been there for me both physically and emotionally, I am so grateful for what you have done and hope that I will be able to return the favour some time.

Anyway to everyone... Remember to enjoy the little things, they are the real gifts in life.

Gina XXX

MY DECEMBER DAILY!

Well here comes the silly, I mean busy season. The last week has been really busy for me....
Monday- I was the coffee lady/ helper for Sandra's class.
Wednesday- Tony and I went out for nibbles and drinks for the radio star club. It was a pirate theme and an extremely merry but late night for the both of us.

Thursday night- off to Scrapworkz for scrap night, my favourite night of the week.   

Friday- Phoenix attends her second morning of Reception transition at St Joseph's School. 

She is such a big girl and just loves school.

Saturday night- my three girls ALL performed in Odette's Dance School Concert.

Maddii!

Lavender!!!

and My Baby

Phoenix performing on the stage.

My cutie pie!!!!

Sunday- I celebrated my 42nd birthday. I was spoilt rotten. We  all had a great family day 4WDing in "Polly" our new Pajero. We went out to 7 mile beach in Coffin Bay National Park.

My girls and me.

I got some lovely gifts., I especially can't wait for this.....

A Pivi MP-300 portable printer. Ive been wanting one for a while now, and my darling husband said go for it.....so I did. Its going to be great for our trip/s to the Gold Coast and New York next year.

Anyway enough rambling....here is my first ever December Daily. I am really happy with it.

The frame on the front will have our family christmas card photo.

The 20 eleven badge I made using my Imaginisce brad maker and the embossed with powder.

A cute little gold bell, its so cute and jingles every time I move the book.

 I made this book from two sheets of chipboard, some large eyelets and binding tape and is all held together by three large rings. I am so happy with how it turned out as I have never seen a book cover like this or seen anything about one, it just came to me one night. I got the idea  when I saw Ali Edwards DD book from 2007? where she used a Donna Downey canvas album and recovered it with pretty material.

Cute little charms and jewels dangling from the side.

I have to say how easy this book was to make. It is really strong and holds quite a lot.

Hope you like it.

I be back on Wednesday to share the first couple of days of my December Daily, I have made between 2 to 3 pages for each day so I wont start till then.

Thanks for stopping by.

                        

HERE I GO AGAIN!!!!

Im so slack its been sooo long since I posted on my blog, I could give you a long list of excuses but really other things have been a priority and I've been trying to look after myself.
Since September I've had surgery on a ruptured disk in my back, this was elective surgery, sort of. I'm so lucky that I chose to have it as the doctor discovered that I had bits of bone and cartilage floating around in there. Im one lucky little duck that they hadn't caused permanent damage. After 8 days in Adelaide alone, except for the day and a half I had with the loveliest person in the world,  Leonie , I was very happy to be home. I spent the next 5 weeks TRYING not to do too much and be careful of my back.
Long story short I am feeling much better, really looking after my back, and touch wood, my back is doing really well.
During this time I did scrap but not new stuff, I completed ALL, yes I said ALL of my UFO. This was a pile of unfinished scrap pages over 40cm high, more than 50 pages. It took a while but it is so nice to see the pile gone and now living in new albums. I should say please be careful with your layouts, I usually finish one and just pile them up. As I was going through my pile to find UFO I noticed that some had become damaged due to my lack of care with them. Mental note: I would be horrified if I saw anyone else treat my pages that way, treat them with the love I had in my heart when I created them. Anyway sorry to ramble.
Today Im going to show you a page I created a couple of weeks ago, my first ever with a Studio Calico kit.
It was for a challenge over on their blog and came together so quickly. Hope you like it.

I'll be back tomorrow to share some pictures of the cover of my first ever December Daily project. 

till then.........

WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS!

Life has been a whirlwind since my last post!
Lots of Doctor and Physio appointments for my back and numb foot. With all these I have finally decided to go ahead with some back surgery. This has been a big decision for me as it means 8 days in Adelaide and then 4 to 6 weeks of no housework or lifting of any sort. With the closest family being in Newcastle, NSW, Tony and the kids are going to have to do everything. Not looking forward to it at all. At least I should have some time to scrap.
The end of August saw Leonie, Briget, Karen and myself fly off to Melbourne for three wonderful days.

"The 4 Olives"

Paperiffic was great as was the classes we did.  All four of us did some amazing classes with Nic Howard and really enjoyed them. They were very different from what I normally do on pages.  I now look at paper differently and not in a way I ever thought I would.

Nic Howard and me

Leaving for Paperiffic

 We also saw "Rock of Ages" the show at the Comedy Theatre and laughed all night.

Leonie and me at "Rock of Ages"

 We even stopped of at a bar for drink after, (we were the oldest ones there)lol!!!!

Cocktails and jazz hands!!

And the traditional Krispy Kreme donut, my biggest addiction. I wanted to bring home a couple of dozen but alas there was no room in my luggage. Anyone who has travelled with me knows that I make use of every extra kilo there is ..... even if those spare kilos are someone elses. lol!

Aaaaaaaagh!!!! KRISPY KREME!!!!

The whole weekend was a hoot but the best thing about it was the company. Thanks Olive 1,2 and 3.

Lavender turns "13"

Lavender turned 13 on the 21 August, but due to circumstance we only had her sleepover party last weekend.  Nine 13 and 14 year olds can be really loud, I mean REALLY LOUD!!!!!!  For Lavenders birthday I set up my camera on the tripod with the remote control. I made about thirty different props for them to play with.

The props!

                                                             Lets just say they had a ball.



       Yesterday we had Phoenix's 5th birthday party.

The invite, the first Ive ever made.

Number 5 for the door.

My handmade "5", just some cupcake patty pans and some buttons.

                       She invited 7 of her closest friends. I had a great time decorating for it

A banner saying "happy birthday Phoenix"

the table

Handmade tiered cake plates

Another two cake plates and some flags for the mini cupcakes.

Cake plate and yummy chewy choc chip cookies.

Yummy food!

                                                  The Birthday cake! My first with fondant.

My cutie pie blowing out her candles!!!

I even decorated the cups!! Call me crazy but they did look pretty.

Pinata!!! "Watch out Dad". Tony nearly had a few Funniest Home Video moments!!!!

Some bubble blowing fun!!!

Phoenix's birthday present was a trampoline, I can't believe how big it is!!! The kids had a ball just jumping around.

I love how these party bag turned out.

Each party bag/cone was filled with treats and then topped with shredded paper and two skewers sticking out, each with a butterfly and bird on them.

The beautiful birthday girl modelling the party bags.

Phoenix and her best friend in the world... Amy!!!!

I have had a busy time lately exercising my creative muscle for everyone else, and although I have enjoyed it and my kids have appreciated it,  I can't wait for next weekend. Mini retreat here I come.