Challenge #7 L.O's are up!

Guys...each week you never cease to amaze me with your creativity & interpretation. I LOVE the fun mix of L.O submitted this week. The colours are fresh & details carefully planned. I know I speak for everyone who has had the privilege of seeing them.....in saying GREAT JOB everyone!!

Misty

Marilyn

Michelle

Jacki

Shaina

Stefanie

Martha

Guys thanks so much for taking the time to do the sketch this week. I have been so busy that I just haven't had time to finish mine. When I do, I will add it to this post. The RAK winner will be posted tomorrow before we leave on our weekend away.
Have a super day.
KJ
XXXXXX

Hello!

Just a quick pop in to say HI! I have been so busy since Sunday that there has just been no time to blog. I have had a scrapping marathon, with all the deadlines being for today & tomorrow, I have been heads down in my paper, ink & glue. I did it though, I finished & sent off everything, eight 12x12 L.O's in 2.5 days....that has got to be my all time best achievement yet. I am so relieved it is all done & dusted tho', because now we can go away for the weekend & I can relax.
We are heading to a fishing camp near Bonnivale, which is just short 3 hours away (nice & close). The accommodation is right on the waters edge....& the dams are heavily stocked with fish...so I can lie in bed & chuck a line into the water from out of the window & be guaranteed to catch a large mouthed bass with hardly any effort at all.......my type of relaxation.
Where the kids will be at this point in my fishing fantasy, I have no idea....preferably in life jackets FAR away from the large fish I'll be landing. Oh....Pops.....! (my Mom isn't coming with us, she is still in Port Elizabeth, with my terminally ill Aunt :o( We will miss her not being with us, but we understand her needing to be with Aunty Col.

On a more cheerful note, my August Cocoa Daisy kit came....it is so beautiful! Have a squizz .....Aren't the colours amazing! This is the reason I have been MIA the last little while.

Well guys I am bushed. So I am going to have a LARGE cup of vanilla coffee, curl up on the couch with my delish bloke for a bit & then hit the sack.
Have a great day...or nite for those on my side of the equator.
XXX

Almost!

On Friday we did something we have never really done before with Max. We went to friends for an 'official big peoples dinner'. We did honestly....! Admittedly, I was hugely skeptical that it would work because Max would be with us and he'd be alone to entertain himself because their two children sleep out every Friday with relatives (couldn't imagine what that must be like :o) So I started preparing him mentally for the change in routine from lunch time.....that we were going out & he'd have to go to sleep in Daniels bed whilst we have dinner. He was bathed and encased in winter woollies, all necessary bedding & sleep friends. Everything was going right according to plan.
We arrived at Nikki & Adies place to the aroma of baked lamb & fine fare...& still at this stage I more than optimistic that it might just work. Max's normal bed time is a 1/4 to 7, now that he has given up sleeping in the arvi's (much to the Mama's dismay), so I assumed he would go right on to sleep as soon as we got there.
HA! fat chance.....another of our friends was there too with his little boy Zack (6 & 1/2). I saw our night of relaxed adult conversation slipping away before my eyes. Max now re-energized by his little friend proceeded to dominate the airways....he jabbered nonstop through hors d'oeuvre & right through dinner. It wasn't until they put Shrek 2 on that things got quiet.
All in all we got about 1 hour of 'big people' conversation about life, our relationship with God & rising food & fuel costs...you know the stuff we ought to talk about. I thoroughly enjoyed every rationed minute of it whilst savoring baked lamb in a salt bread crust, steamed veg, herbed potatoes & mini seeded bread loaves....all made & prepared by Adie (a man of many talents). Over vanilla coffee the movie finished.....it was now 21:57 & Max was still wired. He was getting more super charged by the second, meant it was our signal to exit...fast before a wave of mass destruction hit their designer home .
So we downed our coffees, packed up our charge & left. Full of fabulous hospitality & fed up of listening to the motor mouth in the back. We couldn't get home fast enough.... shimmied him into bed & caught the late night re run of some James Bond movie from yesteryear. Eye opening stuff I tell you....I had no recollection that 007 was such a man-slut! (excuse my language...but there is just no other name for him :o)

So I am almost convinced that there might just be life after kids after all. Hahahaha! (my hubbies mantra...'we'll do it all again when Max is 15') I don't think he's quite there yet & needs more convincing. I am prepared to give it a whorl tho'....hey maybe I'll change my stasis of cynical parent yet.

To change the subject a bit....I just had to share with you, this scrappy love I received in the mail from my sweet, honey of a friend, Paula. It is the most beautiful die cut 6x12 mini album for Max & Cass, I have ever seen. I can't wait to get started on it. Thanks my friend...you are a 'STAR'!!


Well that's the end of my riveting post...I hope you are all relaxed & comfy somewhere, enjoying this amazing Sunday.
XXX

#6 RAK winner's' are...

Yesterday arvi Maxi & his sweet little friend Hanna, decided they both wanted to choose a name from the hat, so this week we have two RAK winners. Whiskers the kitty was nominated as

"the 'holder of the slips of paper' so you can put it on your blog, Mama"

Well done guys....as soon as I get a gap I'll be sending you a 'little' something in the mail to say thanks for playing along. Email me your details, OK!

Challenge #7 is going to be a sketch this week....I considered PS-ing my own & then in a moment of realization thought, WHY? when we have our talented Ms Fleck...just up our cyber street. So I selected one of her page maps from a couple of months ago, for us to use. There is no theme other than....using the sketch. I can't wait to see what you all come up with.

The deadline for your submissions is the 30th July because we are away for that weekend.
I will hopefully get to blog again a bit later.
~KJ!
XXX

L.O's from challenge #6

This week has a whole bunch of fantastic L.O's to showcase. Girls, your work is creative & diverse...thanks so much for sharing your ideas with us.

Stef

Joscie

Paula

Shaina

KJ~this is mine!

Jacki

Brit

Marilyn

Alison

I hope you all enjoyed the challenge....I must say I was stumped myself when faced with the multi photo option, then I realised the blocks could also be uses as a background....hence I used the Heidi Swapp journal block stickers as a base for my photo. I am inspired by you double L.O girls to try my hand a double sometime too. It is a great way to scrap with a TON of photo's.

I will post the RAK winner & next weeks challenge, a little bit later.
Have a super day!
~KJ
XXX

Late!

I'm late with posting the L.O's for challenge no #6, I know! Sorry guys but my life has been a bit hectic over the last week with my family being here, so I haven't had any time for scrapping....I'll do it tomorrow, OK!
Thanks for understanding, you're the best!
~KJ
XXX

P.S My quote of the day~ Life according to Max.
Mama, I love buildings & I love art; they are so beautiful to look at!
(this was said whilst we were driving past some lovely period buildings in Muizenberg)
4 yrs & appreciating architecture...I wonder what lies in store for us?

Weekend pics!

Hiya everyone! This is a quick photo update of what we have been up to over the last couple of days, as you can clearly see; having our family around has been an absolute blast. We had an incredibly busy weekend before my Mum jetted of to Port Elizabeth to visit with her very ill sister and we really made the most of everyone being together.
SATURDAY~
My Mum...not your traditional Granny type....funky hair do, Gucci specs, designer jeans & a fiend on the trampoline. Max was in kiddie heaven.
My Pops got to fish again at a private dam near Stellenbosch....he caught a couple of huge, sweaty, bass(not that we doubted for a second that he wouldn't). His face is a picture of fisherman bliss, is it not????
Max.....went mud paddling with a border collie called Ruby....soon after this he stripped down to his skin....what is it about kids not feeling the cold, together with large quantities of mud??
Moi...caught on camera wielding a rod....caught nothing but a wet bum from the bank...but see the worry in my eye. I was fishing & that's all that mattered.
My brother Brian & Max shooting the breeze & swapping guy stories.
SUNDAY~

Mum left early for PE & Pops was with Brian, so we headed to Muizenberg beach with the kids. It was a perfect winters day....sunshine & not a breath of wind.

Tersh & the kiddlets looking adorable.

Cass posing in her new Hanna Montana kit all the way from the High Street in Southampton. She was in tween heaven & insisted on a full on photo shoot.

Another Watson family shot...Max only barely tolerates the camera, 1 second later he was off the wall & off down the beach hurling abuse at the Mamarazzi.

It is amazing to capture candid shots like this one that so clearly remind me of what the day was about. Everyone thinking their own thoughts, enjoying the sunshine & fresh air.
A family enjoying together time.

.

Cass & I horsing around.

Cas being a sweet nine year old, with her beautiful smile.

Maxi being the cutest mini heart breaker I know. I look at this picture & can imagine him at 15. Oh my cat....he is growing up so fast.
Well lovelies that is it.....I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my weekend.
Have a lovely day.
XXX

They've arrived.

This was the sunrise when we got to the airport this AM....a real Moses moment. From the cranes you can see just how much work is being done on our Cape Town airport, getting ready for the 2010 soccer world cup. Once we got to the correct terminal, we were greeted by TV camera's, African musicians & 100's of people.....Manchester United was on the same flight. What are the chances????

This is my brother & his lovely wife.

Reunion....happy faces all around.

Loads of luggage, all squashed into the boot of my car...if you were a fly on the roof of the car, you could have heard the whoops of joy from Max, welcoming his Grams & Pops 'home'.

Well guys nothing particularly riveting to report but cool just the same.
Family time ROCKS!!
XXX

They're almost here.

My folks arrive tomorrow AM...really early...which is going to be tough for the night-owl Watson's. The alarm clocks are set, the house spotless....their room ready. We are all set for their 3 week visit...YAY!
They left SA to go back to the UK 13 months ago....so it is going to be wonderful to have them under our roof again. Max is SO excited...he spent half an hour before bedtime telling us how fast he was going to have his sleep & then wake up.....'Just like this Mama' & he closes his eyes, then whips them open 2 seconds later. He has a special relationship with his grandparents, even tho' they live continents away; thanks to the joy of skype technology. So it is going to be wonderful for them to spend some quality time with him.

Other than this exciting event, my life hasn't been very breathtakingly riveting lately. I am happy to report that I have scrapping tho'. I had a bit of a break last week to recover from the high speed scrapping I did to get my Cocoa Daisy DT stuff out and so it has been great to get back behind my scrapping table & focus on some page calls for CK. I had a blast doing them because most of the photo's I used were from our Canadian trip over December. Looking back at them made me realise just how much we LOVED it over there...*sigh* hopefully one of these days we will be able to call it home.

There is one little highlight I wanted to share with you, which came in the form of an unexpected email the other day. A mag, I have been fortunate to have been published in before, wants to publish one of my Fall L.O's for their September mag.....OMGoodness! I am so excited!! I can't say much more than that, as you know, but I will tell all a little closer to the time, OK!

Well guys thats all for now, please bear with me over the next couple of days...I will try & blog hopefully not too erratically, with juicy updates.
Gotta hit the sack early tonight...so nite-nite.
XXXXA parting pic....I vacuumed my car today & took Maxi's car chair out to do a thorough job...this is what I found behind it. About 1kg of old peanuts & raisins, pretzels & a large amount of indecipherable unknowns. Scary I tell you, scary!!!

This week...

the RAK winner is.....
**Well done** and it was your first L.O submitted for the challenges. Mail me your address when you get a gap sweetie, so I can send you a little thank-you 'something' in the post.

o----------------------------------------------o

As promised challenge #6 is as follows:

A multi photo L.O as seen in Simple Scrapbook mag...May issue (I think). They have used the grid method & kept the photo's or embellishment blocks all the same size. One designer interpreted the idea into circles which is great too. See how the designer of the 2nd L.O has cleverly cut her background paper into the block grid, keeping the design in the right sequence. I also like how the 3rd L.O has stitching criss crossed to create it's blocks.

So this is what we need to try & include:

• A minimum of 9 blocks....photo's or otherwise is fine. The more blocks you use the more challenging the L.O.... did you notice that the 3rd L.O idea has x25 :o/
  
• At least x2 different printed papers + whatever plain card stock you need.
  
• At least 4 stickers (alphas don't count :o)
  
• Stitching....either machine, hand, stamp or rub-on is fine.
• Use your handwriting somewhere.
  

The deadline for the L.O's is the 22nd July.
Have a great day!!
XXX

Challenge #5 L.O's!

Hiya girls!! I know I was slow putting the L.O's up today....but I was waiting for a few ladies to send me theirs....school holidays are keeping everyone really busy at the moment.
The couple of entries submitted for this weeks challenge are top notch!

Take a look:

Don't you just love how Michelle used a photo within a photo to create interest? And see her arrow??? The flowers & heart on the right...cool hey!This delightful L.O was created by Misty...the arrows work so well here, drawing attention to the photograph & title. If you look carefully, you can see that she has effectively stamped & blended inks for her 'A' & journal tag. For more details on how to do it, pop over to her blog, it's worth a visit.

This great monotone L.O was sent in by Sophia...I see all the challenge elements here. Fab job :o)

Shaina's page is so interesting...see how she combined the frame together with the arrow??Stefanie's fantastic L.O has such cute arrow stamps all over it. I love how they compliment the journaling about her FIL's bad sense of direction. I see the frame too :o)

This is mine....everything as stipulated, although I didn't feel like B&W photo's...& at the last minute the journal block got chopped up.

Thanks for playing along everyone....I'll post the next challenge either later or in the morning.
Hugs!!
Kim XXX